Reaching into Milan!
We arrived in Milan when it was a little past over dawn. We changed into new clothes and headed to the train ticket counter to purchase our local train tickets; Milano Centrale (pronounced as Chentrale) to Lanza. We got the map and figured out how to get to Lanza. We had to take a couple of different train routes to get there. It took nearly 30 minutes from airport to get to the city. The sight outside the train was a bit different from the US's. Orderly lined up brick houses, tiled roofs, different flora, etc. The trees in Italy appeared in faded green as compared to the trees in the US that are always in lush green. I found more similarities between India and Italy - The brick houses, vegetation, people speaking a different language, Whatsapp using people (I learnt that people in India, Mexico, Brazil and Italy majorly use whatsapp for messaging) and many more. We were altogether in a different country; not India, not USA but Italy, which didn't feel different to us. We were playing pranks, clicking pictures, singing songs while were in the train, and people showed a friendly smile to us.
We changed a couple of more trains and finally arrived in Lanza. The weather was pleasant, around 75 F) and pulling three suitcases, two kids and a stroller didn't seem to be a task at all. But shortly after we got down at Lanza, we walked to the airbnb place where we planned our stay for the next two nights. We went round and round but couldn't find the place for a long time. All new people around. Vespas buzzing around, tourists walking with maps and hats, and we were pulling our suitcases round and round the block. One brown guy stopped by and asked, "Lanka?". I didn't understand what he asked, then realized that he meant whether I am from Srilanka. Later, after a few days of being in Italy, I realized that Srilankans and Bangladeshis contribute majorly to the brown crowd in Italy.
Finally, we reached our airbnb abode. Shailesh called up Marcia (the owner of the place who also lived in the same complex). The front gate/door was a huge wooden gate that reminded me of the temple gates in southern India. The wooden gate had a small window that can open for people on both sides to face each other and converse. After confirming that it's us, Marcia opened another gate within that huge gate that can let a 5-feet tall person to pass through it. She got a few papers signed off of us, and let us on our own with a few suggestions to visit and look for. She was super helpful. The airbnb place was a long, stretched apartment with three rooms. You enter into the house through its kitchen, which is a small place with a stove, sink, refrigerator and a dining place with 4 chairs; very compact but not cramped for all that it contained. Past the kitchen was small living room with a sofa cum bed (we bought the same from Ikea for our living room later). The linens were clean and crisp. Additionally, they were white in color with floral embroidery. Loved the cushions and pillow covers with frills. There were loads of clean and crisp linens stored in the storage space of the sofa. Past the living room was a small passage with heater/radiator and a window above that. I opened that to breathe the fresh gush of wind. The window opened into the porch of the building (middle part) that had apartments like ours on all sides. This reminded me of the village side houses in southern india. On the right side of the passage was a compact bathroom with a sink, a toilet, a bidet and a stall shower. I have heard of bidets before but that was the first time I ever saw it. As usual, I had many questions regarding its functionality and the practical difficulties of moving the"just-done bowel/butt" from the toilet to the bidet, safely!! Well, we figured it out in our private encounter with it. Past the passage was a bedroom with a queen size bed (again white, clean and crisp linens), a full length mounted mirror, a table with chair and a nice bedside lamp. I loved the contemporary styled apartment. We were super tired and hungry. Ate the methi parathas that we got and went to sleep (!!!!!). We woke up a couple of hours later (around 2 pm), bathed and left out for visiting places. First we went to the galleria and the Duomo cathedral in the old city of Milan. Having a 4 year old and a 7 year old along comes with lots of breaks, change and delay in plans. But that was expected! The 4-year old would want to go for poo poo when we were deeply engrossed in the paintings of the ceilings. We went on top of the cathedral, and she climbed over the walls around. She would run around the slopy roof like a tiny lamb. She wanted murukku to eat while we were listening to the guide about the cathedral's history, and finally she wanted to go again to the bathroom for pee pee. Kudos to us! We clicked a few good pictures, enlightened ourselves with the history of the duomo and came out to eat ice cream. She poured the ice cream over her dress and wanted to go to the bathroom for the third time after visiting the duomo. The bathrooms are not free to access. You need coins/quarters to access them. We had euros but didn't have coins, so had to wait until Shailesh got the change from a few vendors. These were the initial difficulties that interspersed our joyous sight seeing sessions on our first day in Italy.
The duomo is made of white italian marble from the Tuscany mountains. I read that the dolomite mountains have huge marble quarries from where all those proud italian marbles were exported. Coming to the duomo, pigeons are the permanent residents of these buildings (they are fine living on the buildings!!). Shivank fed the pigeons on his palms. He was quite excited. They fed the pigeons corn and murukku. We walked back to our abode, and stopped at a few places that had palaces, fountains and more history to each of these. We had pizza for dinner and went to sleep.
The next morning we bought some bread, milk and eggs. We ate bread omlette and banana and milk for breakfast. The breads were salty, a bit firm and small compared to the sugary, enlarged ones from the US. I absolutely loved the taste of plain, white breads in Italy. As we walked out of the building, we saw fruit sellers who sold locally grown fruits. Since it was beginning of spring, they had more berries. Picked a few for the day and walked ahead. As I walked, I was not able to stop myself from noticing every small thing around me. There were not that many super markets such as whole foods/giant/trader joe's/walmart/harris teeter/kroger/publix, etc. People bought groceries, fruits and vegetables from local vendors, bakeries and petty stores. There were many cloth boutiques and shoe stalls. Boutiques are rare in the US. People mostly buy from massive stores that has everything at one place. And, yes, there were to Costcos and sams clubs, where you can buy groceries, meat, jewelry, clothes, boots and many more unrelated goods at one place. I loved the way it was in Italy. My type.
We first went to the Arturo Toscinani's museum; teatro alla scalla. We went around to see the traditional and rare musical instruments that were used before. All of them were beautifully preserved with its history and details written alongside them. We also had a peek into the main auditorium where a bunch of musicians were rehearsing for an upcoming symphony show. The Alla Scalla was huge in itself with all collections of Arturo Toscinani's work. What a honor to the wonderful musician! Visiting the place for half a day is not justifiable. Musicians can spend a week or month here, researching about AT's work.
We then had lunch and headed to the famous garden in the middle of the old city of Milan. It had a fort, many more historical structures, podiums and art structures. We went by each one of them, and reading them carefully wherever we could. Kids played around while we were deeply engrossed into the history. Since it was spring, there were many wild flowers in the garden, and Shrika was making a bouquet out of them. Shivank was chasing the pigeons and stopped by intermittently to hear about the history of the place. The now garden was once holding prisoners who came under captivation. The garden's fort was a post-renaissance structure. As dusk approached, we came out of the garden/fort and visited another palace that had beautiful fountains around. We were hanging around that place until 9 pm as it was very close to our place. We went back to sleep after eating some pizza and spaghetti.
We only visited the old city of Milan and the historical structures around it. We heard that the new city of Milan is an opposite of the old city. The new city had malls, world famous brands (of course, it is Milan, the fashion city) and young crowd with
The next day again started with the bread omlette, milk and fruits, and we were travelling towards Venezia, a dream destination for many!
We changed a couple of more trains and finally arrived in Lanza. The weather was pleasant, around 75 F) and pulling three suitcases, two kids and a stroller didn't seem to be a task at all. But shortly after we got down at Lanza, we walked to the airbnb place where we planned our stay for the next two nights. We went round and round but couldn't find the place for a long time. All new people around. Vespas buzzing around, tourists walking with maps and hats, and we were pulling our suitcases round and round the block. One brown guy stopped by and asked, "Lanka?". I didn't understand what he asked, then realized that he meant whether I am from Srilanka. Later, after a few days of being in Italy, I realized that Srilankans and Bangladeshis contribute majorly to the brown crowd in Italy.
Finally, we reached our airbnb abode. Shailesh called up Marcia (the owner of the place who also lived in the same complex). The front gate/door was a huge wooden gate that reminded me of the temple gates in southern India. The wooden gate had a small window that can open for people on both sides to face each other and converse. After confirming that it's us, Marcia opened another gate within that huge gate that can let a 5-feet tall person to pass through it. She got a few papers signed off of us, and let us on our own with a few suggestions to visit and look for. She was super helpful. The airbnb place was a long, stretched apartment with three rooms. You enter into the house through its kitchen, which is a small place with a stove, sink, refrigerator and a dining place with 4 chairs; very compact but not cramped for all that it contained. Past the kitchen was small living room with a sofa cum bed (we bought the same from Ikea for our living room later). The linens were clean and crisp. Additionally, they were white in color with floral embroidery. Loved the cushions and pillow covers with frills. There were loads of clean and crisp linens stored in the storage space of the sofa. Past the living room was a small passage with heater/radiator and a window above that. I opened that to breathe the fresh gush of wind. The window opened into the porch of the building (middle part) that had apartments like ours on all sides. This reminded me of the village side houses in southern india. On the right side of the passage was a compact bathroom with a sink, a toilet, a bidet and a stall shower. I have heard of bidets before but that was the first time I ever saw it. As usual, I had many questions regarding its functionality and the practical difficulties of moving the"just-done bowel/butt" from the toilet to the bidet, safely!! Well, we figured it out in our private encounter with it. Past the passage was a bedroom with a queen size bed (again white, clean and crisp linens), a full length mounted mirror, a table with chair and a nice bedside lamp. I loved the contemporary styled apartment. We were super tired and hungry. Ate the methi parathas that we got and went to sleep (!!!!!). We woke up a couple of hours later (around 2 pm), bathed and left out for visiting places. First we went to the galleria and the Duomo cathedral in the old city of Milan. Having a 4 year old and a 7 year old along comes with lots of breaks, change and delay in plans. But that was expected! The 4-year old would want to go for poo poo when we were deeply engrossed in the paintings of the ceilings. We went on top of the cathedral, and she climbed over the walls around. She would run around the slopy roof like a tiny lamb. She wanted murukku to eat while we were listening to the guide about the cathedral's history, and finally she wanted to go again to the bathroom for pee pee. Kudos to us! We clicked a few good pictures, enlightened ourselves with the history of the duomo and came out to eat ice cream. She poured the ice cream over her dress and wanted to go to the bathroom for the third time after visiting the duomo. The bathrooms are not free to access. You need coins/quarters to access them. We had euros but didn't have coins, so had to wait until Shailesh got the change from a few vendors. These were the initial difficulties that interspersed our joyous sight seeing sessions on our first day in Italy.
The duomo is made of white italian marble from the Tuscany mountains. I read that the dolomite mountains have huge marble quarries from where all those proud italian marbles were exported. Coming to the duomo, pigeons are the permanent residents of these buildings (they are fine living on the buildings!!). Shivank fed the pigeons on his palms. He was quite excited. They fed the pigeons corn and murukku. We walked back to our abode, and stopped at a few places that had palaces, fountains and more history to each of these. We had pizza for dinner and went to sleep.
The next morning we bought some bread, milk and eggs. We ate bread omlette and banana and milk for breakfast. The breads were salty, a bit firm and small compared to the sugary, enlarged ones from the US. I absolutely loved the taste of plain, white breads in Italy. As we walked out of the building, we saw fruit sellers who sold locally grown fruits. Since it was beginning of spring, they had more berries. Picked a few for the day and walked ahead. As I walked, I was not able to stop myself from noticing every small thing around me. There were not that many super markets such as whole foods/giant/trader joe's/walmart/harris teeter/kroger/publix, etc. People bought groceries, fruits and vegetables from local vendors, bakeries and petty stores. There were many cloth boutiques and shoe stalls. Boutiques are rare in the US. People mostly buy from massive stores that has everything at one place. And, yes, there were to Costcos and sams clubs, where you can buy groceries, meat, jewelry, clothes, boots and many more unrelated goods at one place. I loved the way it was in Italy. My type.
We first went to the Arturo Toscinani's museum; teatro alla scalla. We went around to see the traditional and rare musical instruments that were used before. All of them were beautifully preserved with its history and details written alongside them. We also had a peek into the main auditorium where a bunch of musicians were rehearsing for an upcoming symphony show. The Alla Scalla was huge in itself with all collections of Arturo Toscinani's work. What a honor to the wonderful musician! Visiting the place for half a day is not justifiable. Musicians can spend a week or month here, researching about AT's work.
We then had lunch and headed to the famous garden in the middle of the old city of Milan. It had a fort, many more historical structures, podiums and art structures. We went by each one of them, and reading them carefully wherever we could. Kids played around while we were deeply engrossed into the history. Since it was spring, there were many wild flowers in the garden, and Shrika was making a bouquet out of them. Shivank was chasing the pigeons and stopped by intermittently to hear about the history of the place. The now garden was once holding prisoners who came under captivation. The garden's fort was a post-renaissance structure. As dusk approached, we came out of the garden/fort and visited another palace that had beautiful fountains around. We were hanging around that place until 9 pm as it was very close to our place. We went back to sleep after eating some pizza and spaghetti.
We only visited the old city of Milan and the historical structures around it. We heard that the new city of Milan is an opposite of the old city. The new city had malls, world famous brands (of course, it is Milan, the fashion city) and young crowd with
The next day again started with the bread omlette, milk and fruits, and we were travelling towards Venezia, a dream destination for many!
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