Train to Milano...

Playlist
Various Composers – Adagio Collection
Giuliani – Complete Guitar Concertos
Laura Pausini – Escucha

Rather aptly for today, we left the house for Milan at 9:11 right after breakfast, for which I’d initially gone to the Veleso shop at 8:20 but it didn’t open till 9 and so I’d had to drive over to Zelbio...

We were down the mountain and in Como by 9:50, where we parked up for the whole day near the funicular for just day 4 Euros and, at the train station we bought two returns to Milan for just 7 Euros each...

I fell asleep on the train...

At 11:15 we arrived in Milan and walked down to Cathedral Square from the station. The front of the Cathedral is currently under some very tasteful wraps...

We went inside (after I’d had to remove my hat – as if any supreme being would be worried about an overweight Scotsman’s headgear)...

Boxes were everywhere asking for cash but surely the Roman Catholic Church has plenty of its own – I know, I’ve been to the Vatican...

One man was praying while clutching a very large Ferrari carrier bag stuffed with Ferrari stuff...
Still, it must be nice to go to a place like this and think there’s something special or magical about it. To me? Nice building, nice paintings, nice statues, nice windows etc etc but ludicrous to believe in a God...

That part of the outside which remains uncovered (most of the building apart from the lower part of the façade) is stunning – it’s recently been renovated and the stonework is all white in the bright sun...



We then went into the Victor Emmanuel mall – just how does Louis Vouton get away with selling the same old design year in year out??

There were people spinning round on a mosaic Bull’s balls for luck – traditions eh?

Out the other side of the mall we found La Scala opera house - tonight it’s Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus”....

There’s a nice statue of Leonardo da Vinci opposite the theatre...

We started to look for somewhere to lunch and found ourselves in Via Napoli, which has a big FNAC book/cd/electrical type store...

We chose the Belvedere Pizzeria – a lovely little restaurant frequented in the main by Italian office workers on their lunch hours...

We had two tasty pizzas accompanied by white wine and sparkling water...

After 90 minutes we were back out and over to FNAC where I had a good browse despite Anne’s obvious boredom...

I bought a 2CD set of Mauro Giuliani’s Complete Guitar Concertos – he was Europe’s most famous guitarist around the late 1700’s/early 1800’s don't you know...

And Laura Pausini’s last album - the Spanish version though – makes no odds to me, as I know neither that, nor Italian, well enough to know what on earth she’s singing about...

She’s a huge star in Europe and South America and amongst the Spanish speaking population in the USA but virtually unheard of in the UK...

We walked back to the Cathedral and, rather impressively, chose to walk up to its roof rather than take the lift – around 250 steps!!



We were knackered...but the views were spectacular as was the detail of all the stone figures populating the roof of this huge Church...



After taking numerous pics we made our way back down the stairs and had a well deserved soft drink each, which we consumed whilst walking back in the direction of the station...

We walked up to the Sforzesco Castle...



...and through its courtyards but Anne wasn’t up for visiting any more museums and stuff so we came out the other side and walked back to the station where we were just in time for the next train to Como...

On the train, I viewed all the photos so far (450 plus three short films) and before I knew it we were back in Como, picking up the car and driving to a supermarket for more provisons – pasta, sauce, tomatoes, mozzarella and white wine...

We made the journey home in just under 40 minutes – our position up the mountain really meant that to get to either Como one way or Bellagio the other, it was like driving to Glasgow from Edinburgh – but on a much more dangerous road than the M8 of course - fewer miles, more thrills...

We enjoyed Mr Giuliani’s compositions as we drove and, back home Anne read while I did the dishes and then Anne prepared dinner while I wrote up the diary - and we listened to Laura Pausini..

After dinner, we were going to watch “Finding Nemo” but there was no DVD in the box so, instead, we ended up watching a film called “The Opportunists” starring Christopher Walken – it took us a while to work out how to watch it in English rather than Italian...

An enjoyable wee film which didn’t really go anywhere but passed the time..

A good but tiring day....

Highlight of the Day : A trip to Milan