1. I got off work early and headed to Schiphol via train only to realize that the flight had been delayed 30 minutes. I was really excited about the trip, so it was really hard for me to sit still for the delay. If you know me, that's rare. I'm great at sitting still.
2. Took off on EasyJet. See previous post for a review of the airline. All in all, you get what you pay for.
3. Flight was uneventful. Landed at MXP Terminal 2, which is not a sophisticated airport terminal to land at. It reminded me a lot of the terminal in Nairobi, but slightly cleaner. It was difficult to navigate, but I found the airport bus that took me 15 minutes to Terminal 1, which was much nicer and had a train station below. Terminal 2 must be for EasyJet suckers like me.
4. I took the train then from MXP to Cardona train station in the heart of Milan. Rick Steves was a life savor here. He pretty much hit it dead on about the trains and when they come, where they go to, what to watch out for, etc. The train took about 40 minutes - MXP is not even close to Milan. Saved a lot of money taking a train versus cab, but the bus would have been cheaper. I thought the train was a more fun and safer option.
5. At Cardona, I bought a Metro ticket and jumped on the Metro to the Duomo. Milan has a really good Metro system that is essentially 4 colors. 2 of the colors at Cardona went to Duomo, so I picked one, found the right direction and got on the subway.
6. At this point, I have no clear understanding of what it means to truly be in Italy because I've spent the first almost 1.5 hours either on a bus, train or subway, none of which had much of a view. This is what I saw when I surfaced from the Metro (no kidding, right away):
This is the exact moment when I thought "Holy Cathedral, Batman, we are in Italy!". What a site.
7. Immediately after exiting the Metro, I found my former coworkers from Houston right at the edge of the cathedral having a beer at a cafe. I met up with them and enjoyed the view, the beer (Heiniken! I went to Italy to have a Dutch beer.), and the conversation. Great times. I took some more pictures of the cathedral, the Duomo:
More information, including a review of RS in the day 2/3 post for the Duomo and the Galleria pictured above.
8. After the beer, we headed to the hotel so that I could check in and get freshened up for dinner. Here is the view from my hotel room:
As you can see, I can see the Duomo from my room on the balcony. I got a great deal on this room and I'm not quite sure how I did it. We stayed at the NH President in Milan, which is a pretty good hotel, but very much a business hotel as opposed to a tourist hotel. Great room size, good amenities, etc. I booked through their website about 3 weeks before. My room was about 1/3 of the cost of the other people staying there with me. Maybe I got lucky...no idea what it was, but it was worth what I paid for it. I think there's a definite art to getting a good deal on a hotel room, but a bit of luck never hurts too.
9. We went to dinner with some Italians one of my coworkers knew from his secondment in Milan. They took us to a nice place not far from the hotel. That night, I had the Parma ham and melon for the Antipasta and my second course was a traditional Milanese steak (well, technically breaded veal with tomatoes on top), followed by a chocolate tort cake that was incredible. Wine was great too. All in all, I would say this was my second favorite meal of the trip. I loved it - it was probably a combination of going almost a full month on Dutch food (my cooking) and not eating most of the day that day, but I can not say enough good things about this meal. I'm hungry just writing this.
10. We went back to the hotel and enjoyed some lively conversation with some more beer -stayed up way too late, but totally worth it. Great to see those guys.
Ok, Day 2/3 to come.
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