milan!

i was thinking of making my first trip out of the country a visit to my long-lost beer-brewing cousins in belgium, but the train planning proved too difficult for this novice, so i opted for the easy direct line to milan instead. even though the day involved waking up at 5 and getting home at midnight, i had an incredible time!

i emerged from the subway stop in one of the main plazas at the same time as a loud american guy. as soon as he came out onto the square, he started shouting, "oh my goodness, LOOK at this place!" and generally being loud and flailing his arms. i was embarrassed for him, but inside i was screaming the same thing. wow!

il duomo is the most intricate cathedral i've seen -- i guess that's what they mean by gothic. it was a little much for me, but the scale of it is amazing. i walked through the glass-roofed galleria, passed by the la scala opera house, then a stroll through the ritzy fashion district. i thought i wasn't a museum type of tourist, but i must be changing. (g, will you ever travel with me again?) i spent a couple hours at the pinacoteca di brera and emerged with a few favorites from the afternoon. then i walked over to the castello sforzesco and the big park behind it. then on to the church where leonardo's "last supper" is housed. apparently you have to reserve way in advance to get in to see it, so i just looked around the church proper and snapped a picture of the entrance to the last supper area. after that, i had just enough time to get slightly lost on the way back to the train station and hopped on the last train to zurich. whew!

overall, the city is grungier than zurich. people kept telling me before i came here that switzerland is so clean, but since it's all i've known so far, clean is normal to me. italy? not so clean. i took my bathroom break at the four seasons hotel while i was hanging with the fashionistas -- that was clean!

language-wise, even though i had my canzoni going full-time on the ipod to get my brain in gear for italian, i didn't have a chance to drop any lines like "the gently blowing breeze is changing my destiny tonight." i did manage to successfully order a couple gelati though.

it was so much fun!