I Think We've Reached a Dead End. Pun Intended?

After saying goodbye to all the lovely SMC chicks staying only for the semester, my friend Katie and I grabbed the bus into the Dublin airport where we spent the night trying (unsuccessfully) to sleep as we waited for our 6:30 am flight. At times like these, I wish that public transport started earlier in the day.

We made it to Milan without any other difficulties, but getting to our hostel was another story.  Public transport failed us once again.  The bus and metro workers were striking, or as one Italian man informed me in broken English, "There is a manifestation."  I think he meant demonstration, but we got the gist.  Somehow we scrounged up a map and navigated our way to the hostel (which was luckily less than a half hour's walk from the train station).  After checking in we learned a little bit more about how Italians strike.  Apparently, workers inform everyone weeks beforehand when they'll be striking and they don't even strike for the entire day.  By late afternoon the metro was up and running again.  I'm not sure how effective a strike that was, but I certainly wasn't going to complain since we would have had to walk close to an hour to get to the center of Milan and see the sights.  I must say that once we were finally able to get down to the metro, I was pretty impressed with it.  The larger metro stations were brightly lit, clean, and had elaborate displays.  One in particular had several almost full-sized rooms behind glass to show off the interior decorating.


We emerged from the metro and were immediately struck by the awesome beauty of the Duomo.  I never would have imagined that such a large building could be so intricate.  Every inch of the Duomo had white marble carvings or statues.  However, the inside was surprisingly gray.  There were giant paintings hanging below the arches lining the way to the altar and beautiful little chapels tucked into the sides.  On our last day in Milan, we went back to the Duomo for mass.  It was entirely in Italian, so we had ample time to admire our surroundings again.

After touring the Duomo, Katie and I stepped outside and saw that night was coming on fast.  We did the most logical thing we could do in a situation like this: we followed the twinkle lights.  I must say that Italy does not mess around when it comes to Christmas.  Twinkle lights were everywhere!  They came down like rain on the side of one building and shone out from the giant Christmas tree in the piazza.  They also crisscrossed above our heads as we walked down the streets radiating from the Duomo.  Katie and I wandered through the different streets simply window shopping.  Milan is a fashion center and every way we turned our heads we were struck by the sight of some gorgeous dress that promised to cost more than our entire trip.  We also walked through the
                                                                                    Galleria Vittorio Emanuel II which is like a fancy strip
                                                                                    mall with a glass roof hanging over it.

The next day, Katie and I simply wandered.  We passed through the Sforza Castle and walked around the park behind it.  Heading down another street we passed several churches and saw a war memorial.  We also stumbled upon a market that was more our price range than the stylish shops we saw the night before, but it was too hectic with Christmas shoppers so we didn't stay long.  For lunch, we camped out in a small park next to one of the basilicas and watched as a group of boys started a game of soccer.  We also treated ourselves to gelato.  It was just as good in Milan as it was in Rome!

 My absolute favorite place in Milan was the Cimitero Monumentale.  It has a huge entry building but just behind is a cemetery that must contain thousands of headstones and mausoleums.  The mausoleums looked like miniature palaces or cathedrals and the headstones were often statues or stone tombs.  There were quite a few visitors and I noticed that very few graves were without flowers. The place was kind of a maze with all it's streets of graves, and we had some difficulty finding our way out.  Upon discovering our way blocked once again by a wall, I told Katie, "I think we've reached a dead end."  She immediately replied, "Pun intended?"  Haha!






After seeing the cemetery, we checked out the football stadium of San Siro because Katie is a huge fan.  We also got to see the racetrack on the way.  The wall surrounding the racetrack is entirely covered in graffiti.  Each section is like a small mural often with caricatures of popular football stars.  Running around the track were a few horses pulling small two-wheeled carts carrying their jockeys.  It looked like a bit of a crowd was gathering to watch the race and maybe place a few bets.

Besides mass at the Duomo, the stadium was our last adventure in Milan.  The next day we caught an early train to Florence!