We spent our last two days of our trip in Milan, partially because it had the best options for flights back to Seattle, but we also wanted to see the major modern Italian city that is Milan. My Aunt and Uncle lived in Milan for seven years, and I was excited to explore and send back photos! After spending over a week in Florence, Milan felt infinitely more modern. In addition, not everyone was wearing Gucci or Prada, as I half expected.

Day One

We left our AirBnB in Florence at 8:45 for our 10AM train, stopping at Biote along the way for cappucini and panini. We got to the train and applauded our marked bag schlepping improvement over the weeks.

Without a hitch, we got on our train and were in Milan an hour and fourty five minutes later.

We checked into our AirBnB, and had lunch on the brain. From lunch, we'd walk down to the Piazza Di Duomo and explore the enomous cathedral.

We went to a place called Panzarroti, which boasted delecacies of the same name. They were sort of like calzones, except the bread was baked or deep fried first, and then all the insides were added. Claire got a delicious prociutto and vegitables panzarroti. I decided to try something new, and got a burratta and raw horse meat panzarroti. Now, I enjoy most food, and love trying new things, but 'raw horse sandwich' is officially off my list of foods I'd ever order again. I quickly removed most of the horse and enjoyed the rest of my meal.

From there, we walked the quick walk to the Duomo. On our way, we stopped to admire a guitarist playing the guitar parts from famous classic rock songs, and absolutely nailing them. We enjoyed The Wall by Pink Floyd and Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits before moving on.

The Duomo

We get to Duomo, and it is breathtaking. It's the 4th largest cathedral in the world, right after the Catedral in Sevilla, and boy is it enormous. It's also the first Gothic style church we've seen in Italy, specifically flamboyant gothic, making reference to the flame-like characteristics of its pires.

The plaza itself was mobbed with tourists, and folks handing out bird seed to attract pigeons. We did not care to hang out with the birds, but these folks sure did.

We oggled at the statues high up on the building before buying tickets to go inside. We bought a combined ticket which would allow us into the Duomo, as well up to the top.

The inside of the Duomo was stunning. The Duomo in Milan has the most stain glass of any church, and the church was flooded with colorful natural light. At this stage of our trip in Europe I was pretty tired of seeing churches, but this one kept my attention.

We left the Duomo and it was time to climb! But first, a bathroom break. There was a bathroom next to the Duomo that charged a euro entrance fee. I was in a state of "worth it", so I tried making change of my two euro coin - and so the saga began.

From there I witnessed a woman fall and hurt herself. I ran go get help, but had to speak with multiple Duomo employees and go to different buildings to get my message across. However long later, I was able to make change and pay the euro to use the bathroom.

From there, it was time to climb the Duomo.

We climbed up the steps and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the plaza, as well as closer looks at the stunning spires of the cathedral. From around back we were able to get views of the more modern parts of the city as well.

After the Duomo, we checked out the Galleria Vitorio Emanuelle II, which is the oldest shopping mall in existence. It opened in the 1850s and has been serving its original purpose since, housing fancy restuarants, the birth-bar of Campari, and high end Italian clothing stores.

After a quick jaunt through the mall, we stopped for cocktails at the birthplace of Campari! Claire got a Campari Spritz and I got one of their signature cocktails, Campari and dry vermouth.

By that time it was around 6pm, and we walked back to the airBnB to get ready for dinner. We'd be going to Da Martino, a traditional Milanese restaurant known for their cotoletta - a thinly pounded fried pork dish. Food traditionally from Milan don't include pastas, but instead rice and grain based dishes.

We got to Da Martino at 7:50pm. As we didn't have a reservation, we were told we could dine if we promised to be out by 9pm. We both ordered the cotoletta nearly hte minute we sat down, and we had our food by 8:00pm.

The meal seemed to get better as it went on, with the wonderfully seasoned tomatoes balancing out the semi-bland pork.

We were out well before 9PM, walked through bustling China Town to get back and capped the night off with gelato near the AirBnB.

#Day 2 Claire really wanted to see Da Vinci's The Last Supper. The problem is, when tickets to view the painting, they're all immediately bought up by tour companies and resold. Therefore, to see the Last Supper, Claire signed us up for a three hour tour, starting at the Duomo and ended at the Last Supper. Our tour guide was charming and informative, and but it would have been cool if we could have just seen the painting without shell out for the full tour.

As mentioned, we started the tour at the Duomo once again. It was a pleasure to go back inside, as our guide Maria shared additional insight that we didn't get from the Rick Steves guidebook writeup. We learned that there are only a few original stain glass panels from the 1500s remaining at the church, because when Nepoleon crowned himself King of Milan in the 1800s, the cannons they set off the celebrate outside created shockwaves that blew out all of the windows.

After the Duomo, we reentered the mall where there was a commercial shoot going on.

From there we passed La Scala Opera House. My Aunt and Uncle played in the La Scala orchestra from 1974 through 1981, so it was quite meaningful to see the place. The building itself was rather unassuming from the outside, but we'd be back to tour the insdie later on.

From there we walked around Milano, hearing about its history before we came to the castle.

From within the castle, we heard the lengthy history of Milan Dukedom, and the power struggles that lead to the construction of the castle.

From there, it was on to the moment we've all been waiting for - the Last Supper.

The Last Supper

We arrived at the church and were distributed our tickets. Our tickets were only valid for a 15 minute period, after which we'd be ushered out. The Last Supper is painted on the wall of this church. The work is breathetaking, though good to note that due to the methods used, a variety of environmental factors, and intentional damage, very little of the original painting remains today despite numerous restoration attempts, the last being completed in 1999.

The Last Super tells the story of the Passover Seder held the night before Judas betrays Jesus, and was significantly larger than we'd expected. The figures in the painting are three times the size of normal people, but through perspective work, Jesus and the rest of the Supper guests appear to be in the room with you.

Once our 15 minutes were up, we high-tailed it over to La Scala Opera House to see the museum and take a picture of the inside.

##Inside La Scala

My Aunt and Uncle played in the La Scala orchestra in the 70s, so it felt familiar touring the opera house. Once we photosgraphed the theater itself, we quickly toured the museum before going back to the mall and finding a very late lunch.

Prada

We returned to the mall and went to the Prada store. We walked around and gawked at how dumb-expensive the clothing was. There was actually a jacket on sale that was very similar to the jacket I was currently wearing. #HighFashion

From there we got a quick lunch and walked back to our AirBnB. We admired the beautiful dogs in Sampione Park, grabbed some gelato and got to packing.

We'd originally planned a grand last supper (of the trip), but decided for the sake of having to wake up super early for our flight the next day, we went back to... wait for it... Cien Montaditos! There are three in Milan, and one was within walking distance. It was a beautifully familiar way to end our trip, and a fun experience to try the Italy-specific little sandwiches.

Leaving Europe

We woke up at 4:30AM the next day to get to the airport. From there we flew from Milano to JFK and then JFK to Seattle.