One Night Stand - Milan
Ok pple, apologies for the long delay. we've both been real busy. but now, back to our Italy story.
we had planned to go down to napoli (aka naples) from florence on dec 30, just in time (on new year's eve) to catch napoli's supposedly famous countdown event with fireworks and wild partying and all. but we met with train ticketing problems again: back frm sienna slightly before 11pm on dec 29, we didnt get to the front of the line by the time the clock strikes 11 sharp. while others went to use ticketing machines placed all around, we couldnt use them with our rail passes. up early the next morn (ok, not so early), we find that tickets ran out. to add salt to the wound, when we called our reserved hostel in napoli as a courtesy to inform them that we'll arrive late, the irritating british-sounding woman actually dared to be demanding and supremely rude to me. result? we had a bad impression of napoli (which didnt have a good reputation to begin with) and skipped it altogether.
it was because of this scheduling change that we managed to squeeze in time for Pisa on dec 30, before rushing over to Milano aka Milan, the (expensive) City of Fashion, for a forgettable one-night stand.
Lonely Planet has this to say about Milano:
The hard-working Milanese run their busy metropolis with efficiency and aplomb. Milano is the country's economic engine room, home to Italy's stock market and business centres. This stylish city is also the world's design capital and rivals Paris as a leading fashion centre.
Milan is all about worldly pleasures. Shopping is of almost religious significance. Theatre and cinema flourish in this fashionable milieu, as does a hopping club scene and a slew of tempting restaurants. Apart from a few gems, the city is not renowned for its looks; it's the lifestyle that counts.
Its unfortunate that we didnt have time to do any high street shopping which some friends recommended vehemently. (and im so glad that it didnt happen, or ill have to sell away all my earthly belongings by now. :p)
Its a pity that the DuomoMilano was under major renovations, which spoilt the view from the outside. and as we were each lugging around our huge backpacks, we didnt think we'll get past the security checkpoints at the entrance. well, not that there was much to see inside anyway.
Milano has so much more tall modern buildings than any other city we've been in in Italy. but it still retains an exotic taste of buildings where it has kept them.
This is a modern commercial shopping mall, but it looks so cool! open air high ceiling sheltered pedestrain forums for meetings and discussions, and now, shopping!
im still wondering if we did justice to milano by roaming for only a few hours. there didnt seem to be much to see anyway. and we also gave milano's accademia a miss, ie no mike's Last Supper for us. but we did have a real nice chinese dinner though. havent tasted such great food in a long time... =) and made darling happy too!
we had planned to go down to napoli (aka naples) from florence on dec 30, just in time (on new year's eve) to catch napoli's supposedly famous countdown event with fireworks and wild partying and all. but we met with train ticketing problems again: back frm sienna slightly before 11pm on dec 29, we didnt get to the front of the line by the time the clock strikes 11 sharp. while others went to use ticketing machines placed all around, we couldnt use them with our rail passes. up early the next morn (ok, not so early), we find that tickets ran out. to add salt to the wound, when we called our reserved hostel in napoli as a courtesy to inform them that we'll arrive late, the irritating british-sounding woman actually dared to be demanding and supremely rude to me. result? we had a bad impression of napoli (which didnt have a good reputation to begin with) and skipped it altogether.
it was because of this scheduling change that we managed to squeeze in time for Pisa on dec 30, before rushing over to Milano aka Milan, the (expensive) City of Fashion, for a forgettable one-night stand.
Lonely Planet has this to say about Milano:
The hard-working Milanese run their busy metropolis with efficiency and aplomb. Milano is the country's economic engine room, home to Italy's stock market and business centres. This stylish city is also the world's design capital and rivals Paris as a leading fashion centre.
Milan is all about worldly pleasures. Shopping is of almost religious significance. Theatre and cinema flourish in this fashionable milieu, as does a hopping club scene and a slew of tempting restaurants. Apart from a few gems, the city is not renowned for its looks; it's the lifestyle that counts.
Its unfortunate that we didnt have time to do any high street shopping which some friends recommended vehemently. (and im so glad that it didnt happen, or ill have to sell away all my earthly belongings by now. :p)
Its a pity that the DuomoMilano was under major renovations, which spoilt the view from the outside. and as we were each lugging around our huge backpacks, we didnt think we'll get past the security checkpoints at the entrance. well, not that there was much to see inside anyway.
Milano has so much more tall modern buildings than any other city we've been in in Italy. but it still retains an exotic taste of buildings where it has kept them.
This is a modern commercial shopping mall, but it looks so cool! open air high ceiling sheltered pedestrain forums for meetings and discussions, and now, shopping!
im still wondering if we did justice to milano by roaming for only a few hours. there didnt seem to be much to see anyway. and we also gave milano's accademia a miss, ie no mike's Last Supper for us. but we did have a real nice chinese dinner though. havent tasted such great food in a long time... =) and made darling happy too!
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