Milano

Hello all. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I have some real catching up to do! 

Milan is only about three hours from our house so we decided to drive there on the autostrada.The drive was easy but the city was wild! I don't know what exactly we were expecting, but it wasn't a huge metropolis with oodles of tall buildings (Can I call them sky scrapers? I don't even know what qualifies as an official sky scraper these days).

Upon our arrival we headed right out to the Leonardo DaVinci Science Museum. To our surprise, even though it seemed like our apartment was close to the city center, it still would have been at least a half our walk to the museum. We had already purchased the Milano Card which gives you unlimited access to the subway, buses, and discounts to certain museums so we got to bypass the ticket counter and be right on our was.

Look at my little world traveler riding the subway LIKE A BOSS. He took right to it, who knew?

One great thing about the subway is you can get anywhere in the city quickly and efficiently. It's relatively clean and safe. The downside for us was having to carry HB in the stroller up and down 2-3 flights of stairs each time we used it.

The science museum had lots of good trip adviser reviews for little kids which is one of the reasons we chose to go there. While it did thoroughly entertain the big kid, HB was bored to tears, literally. The museum boasts many large scale wooden models of many of DaVinci's inventions and while fascinating, all HB did was want to play with/destroy the models. The museum was laid out very weird and was hard to navigate; I wouldn't recommend it unless you have some very science-y pre-teens or husbands ;)

Our second bust was trying to see the Last Supper. Apparently you have to book tickets 2-3 MONTHS in advance because all of the tour companies buy them up. And since we only planned our trip five days out we were SOL. We went to the church, Santa Maria delle Grazie just to see if we could get in to no avail. Here is a pic of the church anyways. You'd never guess looking at it that it was home to the most famous Renaissance painting in the world.

Oh yes, and in some pics you will see Flat Kiara, a version of Flat Stanley we took around for my niece.

Just in case you don't remember what the work looks like, here is a replica from the science museum:

Our second day we headed down to the main square where the Milan Duomo is located in the exact city center. All of the streets radiate out from it. The duomo might be one of the most impressive and ostentatious buildings I've ever seen. The photo quality is poor but if you look closely you can count more than 40 statues on the front alone! The carvings are absolutely amazing and continue around the entire building. It is the fifth largest cathedral in the world and took almost 600 years to complete.

To the left of the duomo is Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the world’s very first shopping malls, built in 1865.

If you look closely in the photo you'll notice a few African men. They were spread out amongst the square and were giving out embroidered bracelets and bird seed. For free. What nice people, right? Not so much. One of the men with the bracelets approached us and grabbed Zack's left wrist in what I thought was a pretty obvious attempt to check out his watch. I totally freaked out and started yelling at him and pulled Zack away. Zack was embarrassed but we made it away with all of our valuables. After that we stood back and watched the ones with the bird seed. They usually approached people with children or groups of women. They would take the hand of a person, but bird seed in it, then as 10-15 hungry birds would descend on the person, they would make their move or at least we think they did. We never actually saw them take anything but I'm pretty sure they did.

The moral of the story, don't ever let any of those people near you! Why would a grown man be giving away free bird seed? Think about it.

One benefit of the crazy dudes was that HB had a blast chasing pigeons that were attracted to all the bird seed.

After we made our way over to the museum to the right of the duomo where the Klimt exhibit, one of the same men approached me in line. While he passed by me quickly, he lingered at the people directly behind me and I could see him eying my engagement ring. Normally I don't wear it when we go out in touristy spots but this time I forgot. I stared him down pretty fierce and he eventually walked away.

All stress forgotten we were the third people in line to see Klimt!!! And true to form, HB went into full HB mode as soon as we walked inside. And OF COURSE, they wouldn't even let him drink his milk inside so Zack took him outside while I looked around. The exhibit was not his most famous gold paintings but earlier and later works. If I loved him before, I am head over heels now. Some of his portraits look like photographs. Truly amazing. I didn't even try to sneak a photo, those people were on us like white on rice!

After Klimt we strolled through the mall where we bought Zack and HB matching bow ties and me a scarf. Now we're all fancy and shit. What! What!

On the second floor of the mall I spotted this. Milano Jews. Horray!

Headed out the far end of the mall we heard a flute playing. "A flute? That's out of place for Italy" we said, but when we finally discovered the source, we really had no idea. It was THIS GUY. I don't even have anything witty to say. But seriously, WTF?!

The arch to the right in this photo is the mall and not pictured behind me is the big effing deal opera house. It wasn't much to look at so we didn't take a photo. And opera sucks so that's all I have to say about that.

For lunch we ate at a cafe close to the opera house where HB had another full meltdown. I love when we are able to class up a joint.

Later, after HB's nap we went to the Castello Sforzesco. It was built in the 15th century by Milanese royalty. The grounds were free to walk through and they were absolutely gorgeous.

Here is my sad attempt at photography with a crappy camera in the court yard. Someone really needs to get me a new one (hint hint)!

I'm hesitant to post the picture of this, but there were tons of couples all over the grass. They were making out, spooning, and one couple was laying with the man on top! I guess Italians really are all about the amore and PDA.

The castle has nine museums, I think. We went back and forth on whether or not to go in one, when we finally made the decision to go in the ancient history one it was 4pm and FREE 99! We saw a nice collection of Celtic and Roman stonework, some Renaissance religious art, of course, and then the entire history of Italian weaponry and body armor from the Medieval period to the early 1900s. The last thing you see before leaving is an unfinished Michelangelo sculpture of Mary holding the adult Jesus. Of course, no pictures allowed, but it was pretty neat to see a piece in progress.

Did I mention the kid went full HB the entire afternoon at the castle? It was awesome. Thank goodness for big courtyards.

For dinner we had an awesome meal at Noblesse Oblige. While it looks like a small meal in the photo it was absolutely AMAZING. I highly recommend :)

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Our final morning in Milan we went to the famous Brera Picture Gallery. We paid extra for reserved tickets but on a Sunday morning didn't need them as we were the first in the door and no one else was around. The gallery was ginormous and filled strictly with religious art. I'm going to be honest, after the first 10 rooms it was all a blur. One thing I do remember is what Zack called the "vampire room." All of the paintings looked like dead people and one person even had blood dripping from her neck. Creepy!

We walked a bit through the Brera shopping district on the way to and from the gallery. I'm glad it was Sunday and all the shops were closed because I couldn't have afforded even a scarf from one of those places. And in all honesty, Milan's shopping scene was entirely overwhelming for me. Even in the neighborhood where the apartment was, Corso Buenos Aires, where there were many mainstream retail shops I still felt overwhelmed. I hear there are some god outlet malls outside the city. Maybe we will try those sometime instead.