Thoughts on Milan
I don't promise posts every day or even any other day of the trip, but since I have a quiet moment, and my wife is writing in her diary, I thought I would post a few thoughts.
- Milan is way underrated as a tourist spot, at least for a day or two. It has the reputation of being a cold industrial town, and much of it may be that way, but the center of the city is quite nice to visit. It was a legitimate rival to Florence and Venice in the Italian Renaissance. Lots of good shopping, some good tourist sites, and the streets, particularly at night, are great to walk around. The weather is wonderful, which helps.
- Single impression I will hold from Milan: Very attractive women dressed to the nines in chic outfits wearing 5-inch heels -- all while riding a bicycle. They are all over the place. And as for the overall rating for the lady-watching, I don't think any spot will surpass Buenos Aires in my book (with Beverly Hills probably as a #2) but Milan very much held its own in that department.
- Stayed at the Park Hyatt on points (thank God because it is really expensive). This is one great hotel, in a fabulous location with the best service I have ever received.
- If you are coming to Milan, fly into Linate rather than Malpensa if you can -- the difference in time to the center of town is about an hour.
- Milan is a great place to start your trip in norther Italy. One can fly here from about any where in the world and they have fast, cheap trains that go everywhere in Italy.
- Speaking of trains, don't ever, ever buy a Eurail pass for Italy. I bought one out of habit (the Swiss pass is awesome) and because last time I drove in Italy my car was hit 3 times in 1 week. But train travel in Italy is so cheap that the pass is not worth it, and almost every good train requires a reservation (and reservation fee) which defeats the "just walk on the train" advantage of the pass. Also, as an American, the Trenitalia web site is endlessly frustrating, and won't accept most American credit cards, so the only way you can reserve a train in advance (which you must do) is to trudge to a travel agency or train station in Italy. You can do it from a few US web sites but they add on huge fees.
- The Cathedral (Duomo) in Milan was right next to our hotel and is the 3rd or 4th largest in Europe. I found it kind of unexceptional, except for its size (and perhaps the beautifully sculpted front doors). The interior highlight is probably the large stained glass windows (OK and the body of the saint lying in a room whose design looks like it was pulled right out of the haunted mansion ride at Disneyworld was interesting too). However, there is one other thing unique about the Duomo that was fun -- you can go up and walk on the roof. Not just go up in a tower, but walk all over the roof and in between the flying buttresses. Great view and enjoyable
- The Sforza Castle, for all its history, is about the bleakest and most overtly military building I have ever seen produced by the Italian Renaissance. But probably appropriate for their history, given that the Sforza's were top generals to the Milanese Dukes before they took over the succession, and Milan was really home for the Renaissance era defense industry.
- The Galleria Vittoria Emanuele is is a great Victorian-style glassed arcade near the Duomo. The structure is cool but unfortunately there is not really anything inside to do it justice.
- Took a lot of 3-shot photo series with a bracketing of low to high exposures so I could play with some new High Dynamic Range imaging software. This kind of scene above, with lots of texture in the buildings that gets washed out by the sunlight from the glass dome, hopefully will work well. I will report on results.
- On to Florence today, where we have a beautiful deck overlooking the Arno and Ponte Veccio and views from the rooftop restaurant all around Florence. At least if the goofball in the black shirt would stop jumping in front of the camera.
