In Which I am one step closer to being friends with Kate Middleton

I just got back from Milan yesterday.  I do not recommend it.  It is boring.  How can Italy possibly be boring you say?  Because Milan has one tourist attraction.  The Duomo.  Granted, Il Duomo is magnificent, and you can go up on the roof, which is cool.  Apart from that and the shopping center right next to it, there is really nothing there.  Oh yeah, unless you want to pay 40 euros to see Da Vinci's last supper.  I did not.

The trip started out with a little hiccup.  My friend, Jacqui, and I paid 9.50 euros to take the train to the airport at six in the morning.  Three stops later, our train broke down.  Thinking we would be late for our flight, we shelled out 40 euros to take a cab to the airport.  Once there and through security (my makeup turned out not to be a bomb, thanks for checking) we saw that our flight had been delayed for two hours.  Essentially, we had no reason to get up at 5:30 in the morning nor to pay for a cab.  Great.

Once we got to Milan, it was an hour long bus ride to the central station, then another hour on the metro/tram to get to our hotel. Oh yeah, it was half raining/half snowing.  Again, great.  But our hotel was really nice, and the tram line it was on took us directly into the center of town.  The Italian people are extremely nice as well.  This was our experience in London.  Paris still takes the cake for meanest city in the world.  Whenever we needed directions or a dinner recommendation, everyone was quick to help us as much as they could.

Like I said, the Duomo is pretty much the only thing in Milan.  But it was just stunning.  We walked around on the inside for a while before climbing the 250 stairs to the roof.  You can walk around on top, getting views of the entire city.  It was really cool, and definitely worth the trip.  That was definitely my favorite part of the weekend.

Il Duomo

Rooftop Party!

Americans Against European PDA, get a room

Next to the Duomo is an enormous department store called Rhinascente, basically Milan's answer to Harrod's.  This is where Kate Middleton comes in, I found her Issa engagement announcement dress!  It's a beautiful blue wrap dress by Issa.  I was sorely tempted to buy it, but I figured the powers that be (hi Mom and Dad!) might be a little disapproving of that decision.  Still, tempting.

Pleaseeeeeeeee???

I can't write a blog about Italy without mentioning the food.  Yes, it lives up to the legend.  Pizza, ravioli, and tiramisu were my foods of choice, and I was not disappointed.  So good.

It also happened to be fashion week while we were there.  Good thing I only packed a backpack so I had one pair of pants and two shirts with me.  We were definitely not part of the glitterati this time around, but it was fun to see the wacky things people put on their bodies.  It's just hilarious.  Heel-less high heels, rainbow hair, and fur coats seem to be big this season.  Take note everyone.  And P.S, someday I will be one of them, so you can all start sucking up to me now because I won't be bringing everyone with me.

On Sunday, it was snowing even harder than on Saturday, so we decided to call it a day early and head to the airport.  The guy at the kiosk was nice enough to change our tickets for free to a flight for two hours earlier.  Thank goodness he did, since the weather delays caused our early flight to take off two hours late.  Essentially, we sat in the airport for six hours.  I spent good money on a bad book.  It also turned out to be book 2 of a series, so now I'm in the frustrating position of wanting to know the ending but not wanting to put forth the effort.  Icing on the cake.

All in all, I liked Italy, though I wish we had gone somewhere different.  The luxury of not caring where we went as long as it was not expensive came back to bite us in the butt this time, but spring break is next week so we'll see what happens on my next adventure.

Ciao!