Our Second Big Adventure...Milan Italy!!

An oxymoron??  Our second adventure in our three month adventure??  For those of you just joining our broadcast, Emme and I set out early to add some side trips to our European experience.  About a month ago, she and I spent a weekend in Bern Switzerland, the capitol of Switzerland.  It proved to be a wonderful experience for both of us, especially since we were forced to rely on each other in this large city...instead of throwing the weight of survival onto Kris' back.  We managed transportation, navigating a large city, ordering food, finding our hotel, etc. all by ourselves. We both felt a sense of accomplishment on the train ride home.  For our second trip, we chose Milan Italy.  In a sense, "we passed the 7th grade and went straight to high school".  Milan might be one of the more fascinating cities I have ever been in.  The city has a population of about 1.5 million.  It is the second largest city in Italy, behind only Rome.

While Milan may lack the historical significance of its older sister in Rome, it makes up for it plenty in glamour, glitz and opulence.  It touts itself as the 'fashion capital' of the world.  Every street...all mostly in the cobbled form... is lined with stores displaying all the latest trends.  I should know...I got drug through just about all them by my 13 year old shopping machine.  

This photo of Emme was taken at the Gallerie Vittorio Emanuale II.  This is not your average Colorado Springs strip mall containing a check-cashing business, a medical marijuana store, and a tattoo parlor.  GVE II contains stores like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Dolce & Gabana.  A pair of boots in one of the windows was 8,000.00 Euro.  I was afraid to breath on the window.  This 'mall' could have been an embassy, palace or theater.  Instead it sold clothes and had a food court.  Go figure.  

Milan does have some historically significant buildings/structures scattered around its main old town center.  There is a  semi-famous, sort of big, and rather ostentatious church.  Apparently, it served some purpose to some Catholics at some point in history.  Big woop.  This church is called Del Duomo di Milano.  In all seriousness, it might have been the most aw-inspiring church I have ever been in.  It was easily has big as two football fields.  Stained glass filled the back walls, marble lined the floored and detailed and intricate paintings hung from the ceilings.  One could play a half court basketball game on one of these things...though the Catholic church might not like that. 

There were other places...La Scala, The Last Supper painting, the Castello Sforzesco and the Arco della Pace.  All
were beautiful in their scale and it was fun to think of what these structures may have experienced and saw during their lifetime...world wars, kings and queens, artists, inventors and visionaries, violence and death.  It is still difficult for me to comprehend the age of these buildings and structures especially when you understand that in the great scheme of things, the United States is a rather young country...just a pup...compared to most European nations.

 My very own fashion model...

The Arco della Pace...The Arch of Peace

The city of Milan is not an easy city to navigate.  It seems like streets were stopped and started whimsically...a new family builds a house next door...lets rename the street after them.  Milan is not laid out in the easy grid system.  It looks more like a plate of spaghetti.  Emme and I took a chance on riding the subway...and that might have been the best decision we made all weekend.  For 9.00 Euro total we were able to take an unlimited amount of rides wherever and whenever we wanted.  The subways were crammed full of all kinds of people...again...another cool experience for us.  The word we had heard was that parts of Milan can be fairly sketchy and that pic-pockets run amok like bed bugs in hotel bed.  We found neither to be true.  And though I clutched my back pack like I was holding a new born, the people of Milan were nice, very patient and spoke fairly good English.  

It was a great weekend of travel for us.  Emme got to shop and I got to check out the sights and sounds of a large European city.  Our goal is to travel to Prague in November.  Every trip we have taken seems to be building towards that end.  Emme and I are communicating better with each...she can tell me what she needs and what she wants...and I am working on the same.  And probably the coolest part of spending the weekend with her....every once in a while she'd reach out and hold my hand...just like when she was younger.  

I have much more to catch you up on.  My goal is to get another blog post out tomorrow.