Neon tennis shoes

Sitting a square waiting to go into our evening show...At least 5 Asian (I think Chinese) tour groups passed through the square (no non-Asian groups at all - Milan is must less touristy than Venice or Rome.  The menus we have seen so far have all been in Italian only).  What do you spot in common about two of these groups?  (My observation:  neon tennis shoes.)  I'll have to check out other groups to see if this is a common trend in these groups...

Train - Venice to Milan

We got to ride another 'bullet train' on our trip to Milan.

Its kind of funny, but when we crossed the bridge on the lagoon to the mainland and I saw a lot of trees, I realized I hadn't seen many trees at all in Venice.  There was a park area on one side of the main island and Lido and Burano both had trees, but the central part of the city was all stone walks and buildings with lots of flower boxes.  Perhaps the damage that tree roots would cause to drain pipes, water lines, electrical lines and pier supports is a big risk, so trees are rare.

Milan train station.

Ugly side of Milan

Milan is not a beautiful city although there are beautiful parts to it.  I try to temper my response to things by saying..."what an interesting building"  but David's response was on the mark yesterday..."What an ugly building". 

I would not want to live on the corners in the upper part of this building!

Another ugly part of Milan is the graffiti.  Its everywhere.  I don't understand why.  Why don't owners clean it up?  Why do people put it on buildings, tram signs, park benches, everywhere in the first place?

Castles, museums and street fairs

The group went to the Sforzesco Castle for the afternoon.  It was a hot day.  The museums of the castle were free for the afternoon, so we wandered from gallery to gallery.  Interesting collections.  The largest I saw was musical instruments.  We even caught a wind ensemble (flutes of some kind) practicing in one of the galleries (wonderful resonate acoustics)!

Delaney and I saw the Egyptian collection, including two real mummified bodies.  The signage was pretty good, describing in detail the mummification process.  Fascinating.

We relaxed on the lawn near the fountain and people watched for a while waiting for the group to reassemble.

They had a street fair going on by the castle, lots of yummy food and some fun crafts.  Delaney and I discovered this cool purse made from two long zippers....you can actually unzip the entire purse (see below)

Had lunch in a small local place I spotted...a Crepeteria.  I was glad not to have pasta or pizza as my options today.  I'm not quite sure how all the restaurants stay in business with such similar menus.  On first brush, Wichita seems to have more diverse ethnic food than what we've seen here.

Spinich crepe with cheese!

Duomo Cathedral Milan

Our first sight of Milan beyond the train station and the metro station was the Duomo, seems appropriate. The night shot is not great because of the lighting, but you get a sense of the size of the building.  It has a seating capacity of 40,000 (3rd largest cathedral in the world).

We took the roof tour.  You can climb all over the roof and see the statues and a great view of the city.

The day was clear and beautiful.  Last time David and I were here it was foggy and you couldn't see two blocks away.

You can see the old, the new (modern skyscrapers) and the mountains in the distance.

They are in the process of a multiyear restoration effort to clean and repair the stone.  You can see from the picture above this one where they are actually replacing some of the stone work that has been damaged.  And in this picture you can see the damage the acid rain has done to the stonework.  About half the roof is covered with scaffolding to clean the very top points now.

Lots of scaffolding on the roof of the Duomo.

There were men in military uniforms patrolling the entrance and the interior.  Kind of weird.  I've never seen this level of security at any other church, except possibly the vatican, but they did not patrol inside St. Peter's bascilica.

The wall on the right is stone, the wall on the left is a giant picture of the building attached to scaffolding.  I have to say that the giant LED billboard attached to the scaffolding seemed slightly sacreligous to me.

Panoramic of the interior.  This is standing in the center, you get a sense of the massive size.

Can you spot what someone accidentally left behind on the alter?

They were preparing for a big concert in the square.  It looked kind of strange to have the beautiful cathedral and a modern rock concern stage in the same space.

La Scala Opera House

Our group had a tour of La Scala opera house in Milan today.  It was amazing!  La Scala was closed down from 2002-2004 for complete renovation.  The audience hall was basically restored and brought up to fire code, but with much of the traditional construction and design remaining.  All new fabric was used to cover the walls and seats (fireproof damask).  It took 3 kms of fabric to cover everything!  The entire backstage area was redone to make it a modern stage allowing them to perform 250 instead of 150 shows every year.

Delaney and I and 4 other members of the group got tickets for the ballet performance in the evening.  Delaney and I got ours in advance and had a box of our own.  The group got Gallery tickets in the top level for standing only.

Bryan, Brittany, Casey, Delaney and Steffin

Our group in the royal box with the stage behind us.  It could seat about 30 people.  They don't sell tickets to it.  The                        only way you can sit there is to be an invited guest (it wasn't clear who got to do the inviting).

This is the panoramic view from the box where Delaney and I sat.

Lego model of the opera house in the museum.  There are six rows of box balcony seating with six seats in each box.

Actual opera house looking toward the royal box

There is a huge chandelier on the ceiling with over 300 bulbs.  We discovered during the performance that it was hiding several laser lights as well : )

The ceiling appears to be carved in relief, but it is actually a very well done painting.  It is smooth cedar (?) wood, the best for accoustics.  The opera singers never need amplification to be heard.

Inside view of a box.  The front row has seats with backs, the 2nd and 3rd rows have stools with the 3rd row stools being taller.  

When operas are performed, each seat (and box) has a digital reader that shows the lyrics as they are being sung in the language of your choice.  (As our guide told us, 'Even Italians can't understand Italian when it is sung in the opera').

This is one of two foyers where guests can stretch during intermission.  The building is designed so that people in different rows cannot mingle.  There is a separate entrance for those seated above the 3rd row balcony with a separate foyer.  (Since we had open seats in our box, I wanted to invite our group members to come join us, but there was no way for that to happen).

Our tour included a backstage view.  In the completely rebuilt backstage area, they had space to hold three different sets simultaneously.  They could practice for an opera from 2:00 -4:00, then reset the stage for the ballet in the evening (which they were doing the day we visited).  The area above the stage is 10 stories high with pullies to take up sets.  Likewise there is a huge space underneath (in the picture) with over 150 motors to move and reset the stage in minutes.  The theatre employs 900 people, with approx 30 per performance working backstage.

Our guide said that the Milanese are ambivalent about the new backstage changes (visible on the exterior), but my American attitude is that anything that increases functionality without significant unslightliness is probably a good thing.  (The exterior changes are really not noticable at all).  You can see the dome on top and to the right a white cube that are the new additions to the building.

The show we saw was the Pink Floyd Ballet - yes, all done to the music of Pink Floyd!  It was amazing.  I guess I would describe is as rythmic and mechanical with graceful poses, impressive strength moves and great group sychronization.  All the men had white tights and bare chests.  The women were in full white body suits.  The lighting was pretty simple with orange and white lights with occasional smoke and purple laser lights. 

Transit strike and theft

Milan really put me to the test upon our arrival.

We got into the central train station and I was planning to take the metro line one stop and then transfer to a 'suburban rail line'.  This would put us a block's walk from the hotel.  I had not been on a suburban rail line before, so I was curious how it would differ from the metro itself.  I never got the chance to find out.  

One of our group members overheard an announcement in the train station that a train workers' strike was scheduled to start at 4:00 pm (it was 2;30 at that time).  We hustled to get moving.  We got to the metro and our next stop, but discovered that all of the suburban train departures were already cancelled.  Plan B, take the metro to the center city and ride the city tram to our hotel (we were planning to do this in reverse once we got to the hotel anyway).  Fortunately I had my tram maps with me, but the challenge is always figuring out which corner to stand on to pick up the right tram in the right direction.  With only one block's error, I got us to the tram stop and managed to get us off just a few blocks from the hotel.  Mission accomplished.

To make all of this slightly more stressful, I was the victim of a theft in the metro station.  I went to buy the group metro passes and a teen started trying to help me with the machine. I knew she was bad news and kept trying to push her away, but she was persistent.  The usual deal is for her to ask for your change from the machine when you finish your transaction.  I was alert, but not alert enough.  I put in my euro notes and she distracted me while pushing the "cancel transaction" button.  When my money came back out of the machine, her friend grabbed the notes and disappeared before I even saw what happenned.  I was so angry. Welcome to a new city!

Our hotel in Milan

Our hotel is on a small side street with all other residential buildings.  There is no sign out front that says "Hotel Rosso Vino".  The only place it reads is on the push button for the gate.  Glad I had the actual street address in my notes or we would have looked for it for a long time!

One room was on the top floor with a great view out the window of the street. (And a skylight in the bathroom)

David immediately found the very nice back patio.

Blogging and leading a group

I've found that leading a group uses very different observational skills than I usually employ when I travel and blog.  I'm focused on directional signage, timetables, maps and head counting instead of the other observations of daily life that I tend to focus on when I'm traveling without so many other people.  I'm more caught up in taking the tourist photos and less observant about the people around me.  I've tried to shift focus a bit in Milan...These are from the walk David and I took looking for dinner our first night in the city.

I loved this "dog parking" hook outside the grocery store.  The store was actually all frozen dinners.  It would have been interesting to look around a bit, but we were starving and didn't have an oven to cook them in.

This is a Smart car, but a different model than I've seen around Wichita.  Seems perhaps a little more useful because it has some truck space.

We passed 3 different curbside gas stations in the residential neighborhood around us.  They just have a pull in area along side the street with the pumps. (It seems notable that there is not a 'Quik Trip' shop at these filling stations, only gas.)

This is a car dealership.  There were about five cars parked inside the showroom windows.  Look at this and then think about our acre-wide car lots at home with hundreds of cars!

This man was sitting on the corner caning a chair seat.  Made me think of my neighbor who wants her chairs repaired...Milan might be too far to go.

These hollyhocks were taller than David and growing in planters all up the street around the corner from our hotel.  Beautiful!

Kind of looks like a fun ride, although David spotted a Ferrari out for spin later...

Bikes and beaches

Today our family decided to rent bikes and explore Lido island.  The rental place had a great map so we headed to the local cemetery first, then to a small church, then along the beach road.  After an hour we decided to trade in our double bike for all singles.  We rode about 4 miles down the coast of the island and saw one of the special olympic venues (equestrian).  Part of the route had a special designated bike lane with a curb dividing it from traffic.  Much better than the part that had tree roots pushing up the pavement and making a very bumpy ride!

Our double bike - geared well to make it up and over canal bridges, but on the flat I found that my legs were pedaling very fast and not getting us very far.

Delaney nearly ran this nice man over as she got used to her new bike.  He offered to help her adjust it to fit better (and save other innocent pedestrians no doubt) : )

Our lunch break spot.  You can see the navigation poles along the shoreline. 

The water was very still this morning.

We looked below us and could see the bottom, maybe 3 feet deep along the wall, AND we could see lots of crabs (about palm sized).  This guy is white and just above David's foot in the picture.

Apparently there was a nude section of the beach farther up the shore.  I'm glad I did not walk quite that far.  The group noticed that no matter how old or young you are, women only wear bikinis.

David and Delaney taking their first swim for the summer in the Adriatic Sea.  (Ocean side off Lido island).

I asked the bike rental guy if the large sea walls that they are constructing to keep the high flooding tides out of the city in the winter have been completed. (There are 3 narrow inlets into the Venetian lagoon that they are working to close off with sea gates). He said 'no money, two or three more years.'  He then showed us where the tides come up to in his shop and said they flow even in the center of the city because they rise through the storm drains (noticable holes in the stone side walks throughout the city).  He said some were worried that without the influx and outflow of the tide, the lagoon and city will start smelling more.  It will be interesting to see how well the final project works.