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Day 3. Milan
Friday morning, my parents and I got up bright and early to head to the airport to catch our flight to Milan. We settled into the airport and our flight just fine; it took about 2 hours to get to Italy. One of the families that were sitting in front of us had a little boy that was around 2 years old. He spent a good portion of our trip playing peek-a-boo with us, and as we were getting off our flight, we got talking to the family. Although the mom spoke little English, I took over the rest of the conversation in Spanish. She is from southern Spain and her husband actually grew up in Badajoz, which is about an hour from Caceres. We parted our ways after getting off the airplane, but enjoyed the conversation and connection we made on the flight.
After taking the bus from the airport to the main station in Milan, we quickly found our hotel Michelangelo that was conveniently located near the station. We got unpacked in the hotel and went to grab a bite to eat. It was our first taste of Italian food so we all ordered pizzas. Our waiter told us they were more personal sized, but we could have easily split them into thirds. It was a good lunch, and afterwards, we went to look for the shopping district of Milan. We had heard that there were two main strips, one with more mid ranged items, and one with more expensive stores. We opted for the more realistic shopping and headed for Curso Buenos Aires. Although my dad didn't last too long on our shopping excursion, my mom and I enjoyed the afternoon rummaging through stores. We got back to the hotel later that afternoon and hung out for a bit before going to check out the train situation at the station. Since none of us had taken a train before, we went to scope out the layout at the main station. The station there in Milan was huge and had really cool architecture. It had an older roman feel to it and was really neat to walk around in. After feeling a little more confident about our train situation, we stopped for some wine at an outdoor restaurant. We sat for a few hours enjoying the night and the wine and then retired our evening back at our hotel.
Day 4-Milan-Florence.
After playing Yahtzee well into the night, we finally got to bed to get ready for our big day in Milan. We had to get up early since our reservations for the morning began at 9:30. We got ready and went down for a nice breakfast at our hotel. I haven't been able to have a good hot breakfast in awhile, so the bacon and eggs was very much appreciated. After finishing up, we hopped on to the metro to the other side of town in order to go see Leonardo Divinci's Last Supper. We had been anticipating this part of the trip since Madrid, so we were very excited when the time finally came. The actual painting is located in an old church called Santa Maria Della Grazzie. During WW2, this church was severely damaged by the bombings, but the room containing the last supper remained standing even after the final blasts. Although there have been many touch-ups made on the original painting, its intensity can still be felt. We were guided by an Italian woman who helped walk us through every detail of the painting. You are only allowed to enter the room with groups of around 15, so it nice to be able to experience the painting in a more intimate setting. I had never really thought about the small details of this painting, but as she pointed things out, I began to realize how much time and thought was really put into this picture. The painting itself takes up an entire wall, I would say somewhere around the dimensions of 20 x 30ft. It is enormous in size, but still contains many fine details. Our guide pointed out certain uses of color, the expressions on each persons face, the way their hands were placed, who they were looking at and the type of food and dishes that were present on the table. Although I sometimes wonder if over time we have started to simply place certain meanings behind what Divinci painted, but I do believe there was a lot of symbolism behind this work. All in all, it was well worth seeing and something I will remember for a very long time.
We were taken out of the church after viewing the painting, and we scooted back to our hotel to pack up and head to Florence. It was our first time taking the trains so we wanted to make sure to be there early just to see how it all works. Once we got there and figured it all out, I was happily surprised by how easy and convenient the trains can be. Compared with taking flights, the trains are a breeze. Although at times they are more expensive, you make up the cost in not taking a bus to an airport, or a taxi, along with not having to be there two hours in advance. The train down to Florence was pretty easy and we were there within 2 hours. We got into a taxi at the station and arrived at Hotel Lucchesi within minutes. My mom was a little scared by the style of driving they do around Europe, but it was a quick and entertaining ride to the say the least. It's amazing how many cars, people, bikes and mopeds they can fit in one little street without any sort of problems. I know now that I would never be able to drive those streets alone. After we got settled into our hotel, we grabbed a quick bite at a nice little cafe near our hotel. We enjoyed some good mini pizzas and sandwiches along with a cold beer and enjoyed the small street area that we were in. After lunch, we fallowed the river down to a bridge that is covered with jewelry, leather, and random goods stores. This is the main part of Florence and was conveniently close to our hotel so we decided to stroll around for a while to see what they offered. The jewelry and leather stores were endless; as Florence is well known for fine leather goods and endless amounts of jewelry. I wasn't necessarily looking for something, but when I happened upon a nice tan lambskin bag, I decided it could be a good investment. After thinking on it for a few hours, I came back to the original store that I had looked at and bought the bag. The lady there was very nice and gave me a ¨student discount¨on top of the already discounted bag. My dad was also lucky enough, and after he had been searching for years for a good ¨man bag¨ he happened upon a very nice leather briefcase that he bought for himself. After shopping, we came back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. I was lucky enough to have some references from a friend of a friend who was studying in Florence as to good places to eat, so we fallowed her suggestion and went to look for place she had told us. My mom, feeling fairly confident in holding the map and leading us to ¨where we needed to go¨ conveniently forgot the name of the restaurant itself. We had the street name, but no restaurant name. After walking into one as a desperate attempt to see if they had our reservation, we walked down the street until it ended and finally happened upon our restaurant. The place ended up being worth the hunt and we all thoroughly enjoyed our meal. There was a pasta sampler that we all got where they bring out 5 small portions of a type of pasta that is continually a surprise. You do not know what is coming up next, but they explain it to you once you get it. It was a lot of fun and a good first taste of Florence. After dinner, we stopped at a gelato shop and my mom and I found a perfect combination of cream and strawberry flavored gelato that tasted just like strawberry shortcake. We walked back to our hotel with full stomachs and played some more yahtzee before bed as well as sampled some of the Lemoncello we had bought earlier that afternoon. Not surprisingly of course, I won the game of yahtzee, and afterwards we went to bed.
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