Milan

I've saved blogging Milan for quite some time largely because I'm not sure I loved it. This is probably the wrong thing to say but it turns out that when you travel there are places that speak to your soul and places that don't. I should make the disclaimer that the weather was less than ideal and we dodged the rain for much of our stay. I should also note that staying in Bergamo put a damper on how much we did, when we arrived and left town and how much relaxation we could get. So perhaps the smarter thing to say would be that we didn't get the best first impression of Milan but that's entirely not its fault. Ducking Furniture Convention people. 

With really only 1.5 days factoring in a tour of the San Siro and commuting time, we opted for the big hitters of this city of 1.4 million (or 8.2 million factoring in Greater Milan). First stop, the Duomo. As is with every Italian city, large and small, Milan's cathedral is a buzz of tourists, local and otherwise. It only took a cool six centuries to complete and is Italy's largest cathedral (St Peter's Basilica is technically in Vatican City and NOT in Italy). The Duomo has survived Napoleon and WWII, making it a significant backdrop to some crazy moments in history. 

A short walk away, Sforza Castle is similarly impressive. Built by Francesco Sforza, the Duke of Milan, in the 15th century it's a testament to what can be built with cheap labour.  It's been renovated across the centuries and today is home to several museums and art collections. 

From there, we wandered the shopping streets of the world's centre of fashion, noting that the Milanese love their dogs just as much as they love their fashion. Around the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Italy's oldest active shopping mall, shops and antiquity stand side by side and my little American brain continued to grapple with the fact that most of what I was looking at was 300+ years older than the founding of my home country. 

So as I come to my conclusions on our short time in Milan, it's become clear that I'll need to go back. This is hardly a fair representation of Italy's second most populous city, a stronghold of industry, education and the country's thriving youth population. We need to get back--to go to Navigli, to soak up summer sunshine, to see the best of what Milan has to offer.