Milan

Ok, I have to appologize for the delay in updates. It's really hard to get time on the computers here and even harder to go through the process of updating the blog because of the time I have to spend uploading and editing pictures to post. That said this should be a decently long update because I'm in the mood to post and I've finished editing something on the order of 100 pictures. So...

Friday, April 1st. I was heading down to the train to head to Switzerland via Milano with Dave, and it turned out that Jim, Bess, and Kate had decided to take the same train as us to get to Florence, and after that Jim and Bess were going on to Milan by Eurostar while Dave, Kate and I were taking the IC train.

Its 6:50 AM. Our train leaves at 6:55. The rest of the group is using EURail passes (which means no tickets) but I am not, so I run in to grab a ticket. The process of buying the ticket it pretty easy, but the train office worker decides he is in no hurry whatsoever and wants to count my change very carefully. He asks if I have a 10 cent piece so I can get an even euro back. The train has arrived. I tell the train conducter to hurry, he slides me my ticket saying "Aspetta! Il tren sta prima, non e in partenza per quattro minuti! (Wait! The train is early, it won't leave for 4 minutes!)... The train is about to leave, I dash outside leaving 14.90 with the train conductor who still can't seem to hurry. I jump across the tracks (that's illegal) and run as fast as I can toward the train. Jim yells "Andrew the train!" The train doors which slam in my face and refuse to be pried open. The train pulls away. The group I'm travelling with waves goodbye. I am not going to get to Switzerland.

I run back in to the train station exasperated. I don't know any italian cusswords, so I say in my most stern voice...

"Ora ho perso il treno! Nesecito stare in Milano prima che dodeci ed non posso ora perche i miei tren da Firenze a Milano sta partenzando prima che la prossima tren a Firenze arrivara qui!" (This is somewhat broken italian, it would sound like: Now I am missed the train! I need to be in Milan before noon and I can't now because my train from Florence to Milan is leave before the next train to Florence arrvies here!)

The train conductor appologizes profusely, gives me a free ticket to Arezzo and tells me I can catch the IC Roma-Milano in Arezzo in about 45 minutes. It will arrive in Milano at 12:05. Ok, fine I say. I'll get to Milan, and that should put me there in time to catch my international train. Only problem is that Dave is holding our seat reservations for the CISAlpino. So I can't ride the international train if I don't find Dave in Milan.

I get to Arezzo and begin examining the train schedules. Dave and I had bought our Firenze-Milano tickets the same time we bought our Swiss tickets, in Venezia at Spring Break (which feels like a year ago now). I was trying to remember what time the Firenze-Milano train left from Firenze... it was somewhere around 8:30. As I'm reading the schedule in Arezzo it says the IC Roma-Milano will arrive in Firenze at 8:22 or so. That's curious. A lot of IC trains run the north route, but they are spaced apart so that more people can use them. It doesn't do a lot of good to send two trains on identical routes only a few minutes apart unless the route is so packed you have no choice... I'm starting to realize that I'm about to get on the train I was trying to catch in Firenze... only I'm catching it in Arezzo. About 45 minutes later I pulled in to Firenze Santa Maria Novella on the train that Dave was waiting for and gladly rejoined my travel group. "Guys you're late! I've been waiting on this train for like 45 minutes!"

So we made it to Milan and I had to go get a refund for the Florence to Milan ticket that Dave had with him. When that was taken care of we had two hours to kill roughly before our train arrived, so we walked around Milan and then briefly took the metro, which I quite liked. I'll let the photos tell the rest of that story.

Our view out the front of Milano Centrale


Milano Centrale


The main boulevard in Milan which runs from the train station to the Centro


Milan had a cool mix of new and old, similar to what I found in Vienna


Quaint little street cars

The American Embassy in the left side of the picture


A cool residential area near the Centro

Back at Milano Centrale


Yum


No way I was going to miss THIS train

So after farting around in Milano for a bit we decided it was time to catch our train. I have to say I quite liked Milano, the Italian there is extraordinarily well enunciated and easy to understand, and the city was very clean and had a lot of modern architecture mixed in along with the older stuff. Stazione Milano Centrale was the nicest I've seen in Italy as well, very very cool place, and the TRL show broadcasting live in front was nice too. I didn't make it all the way to the Duomo, which is too bad really, but I think it would be pretty cool to go back. That will for sure be one of my stops on one of my return trips to Europe that I intend to make in a couple years. Anyhow, we caught the CISAlpino without a problem, which brings us to the Swiss portion of my story. Onward!