Freezing in Fashionable Milan

We left for RyanAir’s airport outside of Milan from Hahn the night of the 27th. After waiting for more than an hour on the ground due to the freezing snow rain outdoors, we finally took off and landed in Bergamo an hour later. We were forced to take a taxi to our hostel because of the late hour; we were finally checked in and ready to find our room by one in the morning. Though we had to make our beds (bunk beds with twin mattresses) in the dark and share a room with six others, the hostel was decently clean and comfortable. It didn’t really matter much, because the next morning we woke early and ate breakfast before leaving immediately to find the train station. From Bergamo we traveled by train to Milan and found our next hotel in that city by two pm the afternoon of the 28th. The hotel had a nice location in the city; however, our room smelled strongly of stale cigarette smoke and it never felt warm enough to be cozy. We found the weather to be miserable because of the 0-5 degree C temperatures in addition to the heavy humidity and fog. Our first stop in Milan was the gothic church Duomo. It is large and intimidating and perfectly European. We walked in and around and were even gifted by “lucky” string bracelets that were tied around our wrists without warning while the creator asked for a “donation” for his efforts. That afternoon we wandered around the square and nearby outdoor mall area, stopping to check out a computer-geek store and for lunch at McDonalds with at least two hundred other frantic tourists. We only wanted a warm place to sit and eat, as did those two hundred others. The other days we spent in the castle museums, ten in all with themes such as “Portrait Museum” and “Egyptian Museum.” Perhaps most famous works we saw was Michelangelo’s Pietra and Da Vinci’s murals decorating the ceilings of several castle rooms. Otherwise, we enjoyed tasty Italian pasta and pizza meals and struggled to stay warm. Because of an deep chest cough and sore throat, I picked out a black wool scarf at a fashionable shop; really I just disappointed the worker who was trying to sell me something really special in his estimation – a cashmere scarf for a mere 90 euros. I was happy with my wool scarf. Matt enjoyed the TV in our hotel room; it turns out American movies are just as fun in Italian as they are in English. In the end, we were happy to get on the train the morning of the 31 as we traveled on to Venice.