Today, Allison and I checked out of Hotel Brivio and went to Central Station for breakfast and to catch our train to Rome. The train ride was four and a half hours long. We were happy to find that our hostel was a short walk from the train station. Our hostel, Freedom Traveller, was more like Stayokay in Amsterdam...a hostel filled with young people, and flyers and posters suggesting what to do in Rome. The rooms were pretty gross and small, though. We ...

Today, we woke up and bought metro tickets for the day at the tobacco shop next to our hotel, and then we went to Central station to get some breakfast. We started to walk to an outdoor market, but it was raining and the area was pretty dodgy looking, so we turned around. We then went to the Galleria d'Arte Moderna (modern art museum) only to find that it was closed for construction. Across the street is the Giardini Pubblici, Milan's second largest park. ...

Today, St. Valentino, was our first day in Italy. After a short plane ride over Belgium, Germany, and the Austrian Alps (beautiful!) Allison and I landed in Milan. We stayed at a budget hotel (there are no hostels in Milan) called Hotel Brivio. Our "hotel" was really a hallway of four rooms with a bathroom at the end and an office. Our room was like a dorm room with two beds and big cabinets. It reeked of cigarettes, but was pretty clean otherwise and had a ...