Saturday - 11 February 2006

Armani, Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana, Prada, Zara....

MILAN!

I went to Milan this past weekend. I thought it’d be a good trip to get out of the way while the weather is warming up. It ended up being me and three girls from school…that was a mistake (I’ll explain later). One of my friends was supposed to go, but he felt sick Saturday morning (I called bullshit, but later found out that he was actually sick). I met the girls at the train station and we got on an 8:28 AM train to Milan. The ride was smooth and it was nice to see northern Italy. I used the bathroom on the train and I was shocked to see that the toilet was just a hole that led straight down to outside. Three hours later we arrived in Milano.

Milan is Italy’s most industrial, populous, and prosperous city. It serves as the capital of commerce, finance, fashion and media. And, it’s also the most expensive city in Italy.

I’ve mastered the NYC subway system so I had confidence that I could handle this one. Go figure, the hardest part was buying the tickets. The rail system is very clean and there were big screen TV’s on the tracks. Overhead monitors told you how long until the next train arrived.

Our first stop was the cathedral. It is the 2nd largest church in the world. It has a capacity of 40,000 people and is decorated with 135 marble spires and 2,245 marble statues. Nearly every inch of the exterior surface contains marble that was dragged from mountains near Lake Maggiore. It’s also one of the most Gothic structures ever created.

When you enter the cathedral, it feels like you are stepping into another world. It is very dark, the ceilings are extremely high, and you are overcome with a sense of dominance and power. Pictures are allowed, but you cannot use a flash. Unfortunately, most of my pictures came out blurry, but I did get a few good videos.

We were in there for all of 10 minutes and I could sense the girls were bored already (I knew it’d be a long day after that). We paid a few euros and went up on the roof. Here, you can really see the detail and precision of the marble statues and spirals, not to mention the incredible view.

Afterward, we went to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. This is a late 19th century glass topped tunnel which is one of the world’s earliest shopping malls. There were a lot of small restaurants and designer stores inside. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and went back outside to walk down a few streets.

Now comes the part that I hadn’t been waiting for…shopping. We were in Milan so I guess it’s natural to shop around a little. I followed the girls into the first store. It was a cheap looking store called Urban Style. The first thing I saw was a belt for 50 Euro. I was in there for a good five minutes.

Next, the girls went into another store and I told them that I’d wait outside this time. I wanted to do some people watching and I saw a whole bunch of characters while I was in Milan. I was really just looking for some models, but in between, I noticed that every person had their own style. You can’t tell what's in and what's out. There are no trends in Milan. However, I did see a bunch of guys with mullets.

Ok, I must have been standing out there for 45 minutes and still no sign of the girls. It was another couple of minutes before one of them came out and she didn’t even buy anything! I already had enough of this shopping crap..I wanted to explore the rest of the city. They finally came out and I told them that we should start walking toward the church that houses The Last Supper. Unfortunately, we found out that you need a reservation to see the painting so that ruined our plans.

BUT, you don’t need a reservation to SHOP!

And at this point we were in the center of the fashion district..Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, Prada, etc. Ok, I needed a way to escape. So, I asked them if they wanted to go see the financial district (I knew that they’d say no, lol). I was free at last! I saw the many of the major banks and passed the stock exchange.

Next, I was supposed to meet up with the girls at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e Tecnica, but they didn’t make it because they were busy buying wine for the train ride home. The museum was amazing. It houses exhibits based on technical drawings by Leonardo da Vinci. Basically, there are a collection of models based on his inventive sketches. English descriptions interpreted Leonardo’s ideas behind the inventions. Most of his inventions were never developed, but they were so ahead of his time.

The day went very fast and I felt like I didn’t get to see everything, but I plan on coming back for an AC Milan game in a few months. After all was said and done, I learned a few good lessons about traveling with girls. To sum it up: they enjoy eating, shopping, and complaining. The night finished off nicely..we finished two bottles of wine on the 9 PM train back to Florence.