Europe 2006

August 4...

We all woke up at 3:50am, but forced ourselves to stay in bed until 7:00. Mmmm, that was a fun few hours. But all was worth it when we viewed the mini-buffet put out by our hotel, the Hotel Stazione. When they told me breakfast was included, I assumed it would be bread and coffee, as usual. But there was meat, cheese, a wide selection of pastries, juice, water, cereal, milk, and any sort of coffee. Wonderful.

We decided to walk the 1-2k to the Duomo, the third largest Church in Europe, and on the way, we came across a public garden called the Gardini Pubblici di Porta Venezia, which is a huge park with a large stream, children's playground, food stands, etc. We hung around there for awhile, enjoying the various types of aquatic life (including large and colourful fish), then continued our walk to the Duomo, cutting through the fashion district. Oh, the fashionable people. The men with their deep tans, perfect hair, and expensive suits... the women with their deep tans, perfect hair, and expensive suits. Everyone with the requisite sunglasses, cigarette, and cell phone. Their shoes alone probably cost more than I make..well... ever. There I am in jeans and a tshirt, looking as if I have just stayed up for the last 24 of 30 hours, goggling around with a camera and a guidebook. Oh well. Neat to see the Armani, Prada, and other stores, though.

Finally made it to the Duomo, which is breathtaking. It sits in a huge piazza (square), which is of course filled with the requisite billion tourists and equal number of pigeons. The Duomo itself has 3200 statues along the outside, flying buttresses, and of course beautiful carvings in wood and stone, and gorgeous stained glass in the interior. It took 500 years to build, from 1386 to the 19th century. Got a glimpse of San Carlo in his glass tomb... wearing a mask, thankfully (S. Carlo, not me).

The walk back to the hotel from the Duomo was filled with one landmark after another; turn to your left you see La Scala, turn to your right you see the statue of Leonardo in the Piazza del Scala. As one leaves the Piazza del Duomo there's a huge archway, which leads to the most amazing glass and gold pedestrian walkway, which is filled with art and intensely expensive shops. In mosaics on the floor is a bull, which apparently everyone spins around on, placing their heel in a very private area on the bull, and doing a 360... to bring luck (not to the bull, apparently). Where his manhood once was, is a perfectly round hole.

We ate lunch at an inexpensive self-serve cafeteria called Brek's, which had all the local specialities. We took our leftover bread from lunch and went back to the public garden, and fed the ducks, pigeons, and geese. Adam was in heaven. Hard to stay awake at that point, but we did force ourselves into consciousness long enough to eat our favourite European food, Turkish donairs while watching the multi-ethnic kids skateboard outside the Central Station. We dragged ourselves back to the hotel and crashed hard at about 10:00, but not before playing a rousing game of Farkle, which Ben won.

Tomorrow we're off to the Sforzesco Castle, which is down the Via Dante from the Duomo. More later!