journal journeys iii

Room 516, Hotel Meliá Milano, Milan

We had planned to get up early and make the most of our one and only day in Milan, but somehow the alarm didn't ring and we only woke up at 10 a.m.!

We were actually too late for breakfast but managed some drinks, pastries, cornflakes and yoghurt.

Then we finally found city maps at the reception counter, and left for the nearest Metro station.

Thanks to our lack of knowledge in Italian, getting tickets turned into another annoyingly troublesome episode.

We eventually got our tickets, though, and took the train to the Duomo station, where we emerged to find the large pink-marble Duomo di Milano (commonly just called the "Duomo" - even though it only means "cathedral") towering over us, with its single gold statue gleaming on the highest spire.

Spread out in front of the Duomo (also the second-largest cathedral in Italy) was a large square with statues and pigeons - seems like a requisite in every European city.

Our first stop was just off the square - the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, with its high glass dome providing much natural light to the storefronts below. Storefronts, I may add, of high-end brands like Gucci and Prada.

The grand Prada shop happened to be our first destination, to get a bag requested by my sister. Thanks to her very unclear description, a lot of time was wasted asking the salesperson to bring out different models and colours, then taking pictures of the bags and sending them to my sister's phone.

And she decided not to get it in the end!

We stomped (okay, I stomped) over to the Gucci store after that and managed to get the Gucci wallet she had requested as an alternative (thankfully I had the model number).

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring all the streets leading from the square, which contained a mix of high-end and mid-priced shops, as well as banks and cafes.

One particular street led us all the way to Castello Sforzesco, a 15th century castle complex that used to be the residence of the dukes of Milan.

Although there were a few museums inside, we just wandered in briefly, lingering a while at the park on the other side, then left.

It was not until we had almost reached the Duomo again when we realised that one of Milan's four main sights, the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (the others being the Duomo, Castello Sforzesco, and the San Siro) - where the original Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is painted on a wall - was within walking distance of the castle, but in the other direction.

We were too lazy to go back, and whiled the rest of the time away until we ran out of shops to browse. Then we returned to the square and discovered that though restorations works were being done on the facade of the Duomo, visitors were still allowed to enter it.

So we strolled in and found the interior as dark on the inside as it was light on the outside. The only sources of light came from the various small lamps suspended overhead, as well as the many stained glass windows - as usual, depicting individual saints and scenes from the Bible. The images were all richly coloured and had a sort of holographic effect; after staring at them for a while, they seemed to become more 3D-like.

Or maybe it was just my imagination.

The numerous "Silence" signs in the cathedral meant that there was a heavy silence inside, interrupted only by the occasional shuffling of feet and camera sounds.

Then we were back out on the square, where the sounds of traffic and flapping pigeon wings once again surrounded us.

We finally settled for dinner at a restaurant in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, where I had spaghetti aglio olio.

After that, the sky was darkening so we headed underground to take a train back to the hotel.

posted by ¤jazzika¤ @ 11:00 PM