From high up in the mountains to Milan is not far.Take a tip from me – if you go to Milan by car be sure to book a hotel which is not in the city centre because parking can cost more than the hotel. It is much more convenient to make use of public transport than to pay the earth for a hotel (room priced per square meter, I am sure) plus parking and then have to take the Metro to get to Downtown anyway. We walked and walked and walked. Do not believe the hotel advertisements –‘within walking distance’ - ! ‘Walking distance’ can mean long walk!
Of course most people visit Milan to go and look at Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper, but as I understood, it is not so easy to get tickets (usually sold out long before. The Duomo is something else. I can not use appropriate words to describe this beautiful church because there is no way I can do it justice. Inside and out.
The greatest disappointment for opera lovers like me who always wanted to see this building, must be La Scala. The outside of the building that is. We never got to see the inside. It (as far as looks go) cannot be compared to the Vienna State Opera or the Opera House in Paris. But just some history – the original theatre was destroyed by fire in 1776 and in 1943 during WWII again seriously damaged by bombing. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1946.
And Oh! To have been there when Arturo Toscanini and Renate Tibaldi performed at the opening concert! This is the stuff that dreams are made of.
The 152 km of historic shipping canals and waterways which Leonardo helped to oversee are falling apart now and experts are fighting to save one of Italy’s lesser-known treasures. (You have to mention Leonardo’s name because da Vinci means from Vinci).
Milan is of course the fashion capital of Europe (also where the money in Italy is), and all the great names (Gucci, Armani, Versace….to name only a few of the greats) we see on the catwalk have exclusive boutiques in the large cities of Italy…but you pay exclusive prices for the ware they offer. But yes, the clothes are exquisite! If you want to know, black, black, black, always black with a fashion color – presently dark plum. I love. And if you are young enough and have fairly good legs , you wear black or dark colored tights with boots and a very short tight skirt which actually looks chic and a black jacket (but of course). An Italian woman is not dressed if she is not wearing a jacket. The jersey, hat, scarf or blouse may be purple / plum. The women probably have much better & more expensive clothes than we have but much, much less (And this is what I should aim for in future). If you have a good outfit you can wear it almost everyday.
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