Milan

It was mid-afternoon in Milan, and the sun was trying its best to break through the clouds. The wall of humidity that hit me as I exited the station was thick and sticky. I immediately had flashbacks of summers of my youth in San Antonio. Being in the desert had afforded me an escape from the humid belly of Texas. Here in Milan, it was soggy walking.

The first site to see was the famous Duomo. This behemoth of a cathedral lies a distance away from the train station, and a bus may have been a better choice. It really is a marvelous thing to see. There were aggressive black vendors in the area, constantly trying to sell these cloth bracelets. I ignored these people the best I could, and eventually I felt safe to say “no” firmly, and walk away. Here are some pics:

And here is a random, giant needle and thread, to signify that Milan is one of the fashion capitals of the world. I believe I've taken a picture next to a similar one in New York City:

I tried walking around the city a little more, but it proved most uncomfortable. I ducked into a market to purchase provisions. The food in Italy was cheap, and plentiful. I even bought a humongous chiabatta bread, as I will show later. I found a really, really small car:


I had thought a side attraction would be Da Vinci’s Museum. This guy was so far ahead of his time in developing inventions of the modern era. Unfortunately, after wandering around to find it for almost an hour, I found that it happened to be closed on Monday. In Italy, they like to take Mondays off of work. In theory, I completely agree with this concept, as Mondays happen to be my most hated day of the week. However, on this particular instance, I was bummed because I wanted to see Da Vinci’s radical shit! I took note of this, and gave Italy a point for hating Mondays as much as I do. Viva Italia!

The train ride out of Milan was smooth going. I ate the said-ciabatta bread seen here:


The ride into Switzerland was beyond belief. I was able to capture some of the beauty in some video here:


After a few twists and turns and out the end of the tunnel we emerged into the station at Lugano.