Tuesday February 23, 2011
Day 5
Our morning started off early at 6:20 in order to provide enough time to catch the tram to the train station in time for our departure of our train to Milan. Despite missing our stop on the tram and having to walk back, we made it to the train station with plenty of time. Upon checking the arrivals and departures board however, I became confused because it appeared that the train to Ventimilia was leaving early, as in three minutes. A little panicked I asked an employee what was going on and all I gathered was that the train was leaving in three minutes, at which point I began to run to the platform followed by my friend. When I got there the doors were just about to close and I didn’t know what to do if my friends did not catch up in time. Luckily following a few excruciatingly stressful moments, we all managed to get on the train before the doors closed, at which point I began to realize that there had to be an explanation for why the train departed so early and why there were not available seats on board. This led to my revelation that this in fact was not our train, but an earlier train to the same destination. Needless to say, my mantra after that point was “I’m an idiot.” One friend suggested “learning experiences” in lieu of this degrading statement. I decided the best was to combine the two into, “Learning experiences a.k.a. I’m an Idiot.
Despite the stress of this early morning confusion, the earlier train was beneficial for us because upon arriving at Ventimilia we had plenty of time to validate our tickets, get hot chocolate and find where our train to Milan was departing from. When the train did arrive, I was excited to see that it was a traditional train with compartments seating 6 people each, reminding me quite a lot of the Hogwarts Express. At one point there was even a food trolley, and we all made comment about how we wanted chocolate frogs and Berrty Bots Every Flavor Beans. This was by far the most exciting aspect of what was a difficult ride. A combination of the fact that the chairs were uncomfortable and forced me to hunch over and that there was not air circulation exacerbated my congestion and made it difficult to breath easily. Then half way through the ride an elderly Italian woman joined our cabin who after settling commenced to sign along to the music she was listening to, but not in a cute way but rather in an incoherent mumbling of off key notes and words I could not understand because I do not know any Italian. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when we pulled into the train station in Milan.
Considering the events of the day, our arrival and check in to the hotel went surprisingly well and we were able to rest up before venturing out to explore another new city. After we all regained some energy, we went in search of some much needed food, maps, and metro passes and then proceed to go to the most touristy place in Milan including: the Duomo, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a gelateria, the Sforza Castle, and the tourism office. After a day of traveling and exploring we were all exhausted so we made our way back to our hotel, picking up some pizzas on the way. While eating our pizzas in the hotel room, we discussed how we had arrived in Milan cold, hungry, and tired and how we didn’t know whether or not we liked the city yet. I think it was combination of traveler’s anxiety coupled with the fact that we had difficulty communicating in Italian. Despite these feelings however, we were excited for the next day because we had planned to take a train up to the picturesque Lake Como (See Next Post for Details).
Thursday February 24, 2011
Day 7
The last day of our vacation, we woke up really early to try to get tickets to see Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, however none were available (you have to book online months in advance or get lucky if someone fails to show up), so we wandered around the city instead, visiting a couple churches, Museums, and shops. The most amusing of these was the Science and Technology Museum which had exhibitions on telecommunications, astronomy, Da Vinci’s inventions, the construction of the Duomo di Milano, trains, boats, planes, and even a submarine. Another interesting experience was our quest to find an art museum, which resulted in us going to the Pinacoteca Brera instead of the Pinocoteca Ambrosiana, and then struggling to backtrack to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana only to find that it was 10 Euros to visit and deciding that we really weren’t that interested in the art there. After this we were all really tired even though it was only 1:00 in the afternoon. Nevertheless we went back to the hotel and lounged around, talked, packed our suitcases, and napped. For dinner we went to yet another Italian restaurant for our last vacation meal together and it was delicious.
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