MOST OF US NEED THE EGGS: SYDNEY TO MILAN

Thursday, September 27, 2012

SYDNEY TO MILAN

So, we left Newcastle via The Shitkansen and one of it's most notorious stations - Cardiff...the one of 50 million stairs...so my dodgy right shoulder was pretty effed before we left. And the dragging all my bloody luggage from Woolli Station to airport hotel pretty much did me in...I thought I had culled my luggage to minimal...still heavy to lug!

However we had a good stay at the airport, and excellent meal in their restaurant and up at 6am to catch our 10.10am flight to Hong Kong which went without issue. Hong Kong airport was very hot and HUGE! Took us ages to find somewhere decent to eat, we were almost at meltdown stage by this point, well me literally!

7 hours is a long time for a stopover, but we survived, and were met by 11 of the others traveling for the wedding so this made time move a little faster. Then we had an overnight 13 hour flight into Milan. Long, boring flight.

None of this is terribly awful, just traveling, but as I said before as much as I love to travel, I'm not a great traveller!

So, we arrived in Milan, overcast and about 17 degrees, had a bit of a mix up with the hotel everyone was staying in, so we are all spread over 2 hotels instead of 1. We are further out of Milan than expected, but it is a brand new hotel and gorgeous!

So after showering off 2 days of traveling, we headed into Milan, more tired than excited...but it didn't take long to get into things. We turned down this street and got our first sight of The Duomo...WOW!!!

We were meeting Mum and Dad, who had secured a fab spot on a roadside Pizzeria looking directly at The Duomo!! We took their spot and had amazing Pizza, perfecto!

Mum and Dad at the Pizzeria

View of Duomo from The Pizzeria

Duomo

Then we wandered around the piazza, so much amazing architecture, I was in heaven. Gelato for afternoon tea...absolutely. Also wandered through Galleria Vittorio Manuele, amazing shopping area in old buildings, but covered over by glass. This led to a smaller Piazza or square near La Scala.

Inside the Galleria, amazing old buildings that are

now shops and enclosed in glass.

Outside La Scala, no that is not me!

By this point we were pretty exhausted, so we tramed it back to Mum and Dads Hotel for a drink and more tales of their wonderful Abu Dhabi experiences.

We had a lovely baked veal meal back at the hotel and crashed that night.

Liza in our lobby!!!

After oversleeping, we made our way to breakfast and worked out it was a bit difficult to get to Monza (our plan for that morning) plus it looked like rain, so we made our way to collect Mum and Dad and headed back into Milan and have a better look. We scored the same table at the Pizzeria from yesterday and had another fabulous pizza lunch and soaked up those views again. Then the rain hit and hard, so we had to look at the shops. Things are reasonable in terms of clothes etc despite the exchange rate.

When the rain settled we headed to the Duomo to tour inside, totally free and totally remarkable. I am not religious but you do not have to be to to appreciate such beauty and magnificance. The Stained glass windows and paintings and icons were remarkable.

Inside The Duomo, photos do not do it justice!

Then we headed back to the Galleria, we went through their Prada shop - wow, just wow...if only to have money, but the shop itself was a deco masterpiece. Then we headed into this amazing antique shop where Mum bought herself an amazing fake pearl and diamante bracelet - just gorgeous!
We headed back to Mum and Dads hotel to shower and have drinks in the bar before heading out for our wedding party dinner.

Twisties are called Fonzies in Italy....heeeeyyyyyy!!!

We all met up at Carne e Dintorni, owned by friends of Daniel's Mum's cousin. What a night of food and drinks!! They turned it on for us, with plates of all sorts of Anti Pasto, delicious. Then plates of all tpes of woodfired cooked meats, potatoes and salads. Followed by 3 types of desserts - Creme Brulee, Crepes, and a platter of cream type desserts and dipping biscuits. Plenty of red wine, bottled water, limoncello and ouzo plus coffees etc. €35 - brilliant!!!!