We flew from Frankfurt into Milan's Linate regional airport. It is small, but much closer to town and we figured that it would be faster to get into the city. It is always a challenge to get the bike boxes from the airport to town. There is no Metro that runs from Linate, so a taxi would be the best bet. But most taxi drivers ran away when they saw our boxes. Most of them say "no, no, it is not normal." I suppose so.
So we connected with a guy who said that he had a grande-sized van. He did have a big van, but his price was grande, too. We negotiated a bit, and Lorie really laid on the guilt thing and worked the guy over, but he wouldn't budge. So we paid his ransom and loaded up.
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| Held hostage by a guy with a big van for our big boxes |
Oh, he was a nice enough guy and he knew a quick way into the city so it wasn't so bad. But I did have to show him how to take the head rests out of the seats so that he could rest the box on top of them. No discount though!
We are staying at a B n B in the center of town. It fronts onto a big street with street cars and lots of traffic and we were a bit worried that it might be pretty noisy. But the B n B has a big central courtyard and once we entered from the street the noises disappeared and we were overwhelmed with the sweet smell of jasmine that is growing everywhere. Nice. Just mid afternoon, we decided that the best way to head off the tiredness that was overtaking us was to busy ourselves with putting the bike together. It was a snap:
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| Putting the beast together on our veranda |
I guess that many years of doing this make the job easier. In no time, the task was done so we headed to the market to get something to eat and to wander around the neighborhood. Milan is a big, cosmopolitan and commercial center. There are more people here than in Camp Sherman. Did you know that? We wandered for a while, forcing ourselves to stay awake until at least 2000, but at 2001 we were out.
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| Very interesting apartment building |
The weather is very nice and the next morning the second B part of "B n B" proved to be very nice. More Germanic than Italian -- meats, bread, cheeses and coffee. Over breakfast we met our fellow guests, a couple from Toronto and a couple who now live in Brisbane but say that they are New Zealanders despite where they live. Very nice folks who gave advice on things to see, what to avoid.
We have the day off so did more exploration, this time with a 2 day metro pass. We hit some of the big tourist sites -- the Duomo and the Galleria
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| The Duomo. It is very crowded with tourists but an amazing church. We did pay the modest charge to look in side and it is pretty amazing if you don't think about it too much. |
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| The Galleria, just katty corner to the Duomo. |
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| An intricate cast doorway to the church |
Both Lorie and I had read about the Navigli neighborhood in Milan -- the canal district. We mentioned it to our fellow B n B guests but they said to avoid it. That sounded like good advice so we headed straight to it. We haven't seen much of Milan, but the Navigli is the highlight so far. A bit gritty but a ton of character.
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| They have gondolas in Milan and the canals were designed by Leo da Vinci. |
There are tons of small restaurants and we found a place that had great boards, so we put life on hold while we chowed
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| Lunch. Dinner. For the next few days... |
Like most big urban centers, Milan has a very efficient metro system. After our significant lunch/dinner we rode the subway back to our B n B. We are going to find a negroni to cap the evening off then catch up on some more sleep. Tomorrow we are meeting some friends who we have not yet met (thank you Maret) -- they live in Abbiategrasso just outside of Milan and tomorrow they will show us some of there favorite things.
A great start.
Ciao.
