Grand Brun Milan

... statues. I mean, it was just a sea of statues! The wall that surrounded the entire property as actually a hallway where less rich people were "buried" in drawers (still made of marble), and it was this wall/hallway that we had walked up on to see the rest of the cemetary. I must say, I think that was my favorite part about Milan. It was quiet, beautiful, in a sad way, and so unique. As we walked out, back to the train station, I ...

... people per session – complete opposite to Mona Lisa. After that I went to Castello Sforzesco, which is remnant Castle from the days of Italian royalty. Not as well maintained as London or Paris castles, but more authentic looking and aged. Bit of wandering about before checking out of hotel and walking to the Milan Railway Station (a really nice building actually) to set off for the canals of Venice.

PS – happy bday cuz Sarah...

... and Thursdays...Frustrating. I did get to see one gallery which was on the expensive side which all Italian museums and galleries tend to be. At first it didn't look too good but it got good by the end. The famous painting there was Raphael's Virgin Wedding. It was ok but I thought there were better works there. He was only 21 when he painted it and he was probably great for his ...

... of Milan, but I have to get some kind of points for spending almost 6 hours in or around a church!

So. The vegetarian place. I had read about in Rick Steve's book (by the way, turns out his name only has one "e" not 2 like I've been spelling it. And when I say turns out, I mean I finally actually looked at the cover of the book). It's a vegetarian restaurant. I know! A vegetarian restaurant in Italy, how could I not go? So I went. It was packed but I got what I believe is ...

Hi Everyone!

Our last day in Milan was bittersweet. It had been a fabulous week…but exhausting. We had two appointments before we headed back to Florence. We first went to Touch Neozone and then Cloud 9. Both are trade shows. Both were very interesting. Again ...

... After spending as much time as possible without going stir crazy, I headed off to the airport. It was another long day of travel and waiting. I initially thought I'd have to go to the central station in Milan, but didn't. There was a metro stop I went to that had an "express" train to the airport, so after 1 metro stop, I got off and walked up to the train station, only to have to wait for the train to leave. When ...

... and will try and get more sleep so I can kick this bronchitis in the rear end. Venice was beautiful and strange...just surreal honestly. It's like you're on a movie set. The streets a really narrow and the bridges over the canals, miniature. We went to the island of Murano (which is a vaporetto ride away) and checked out a free glass blowing demonstration (a Venetian specialty) and ...

... in at a time, for 15 minutes.  It was really kind of breathtaking to see it in person. If you stand at the far end of the room, the perspective lines from the partial frescoes on the side walls combined with the angles in the architecture, make the image extend back into the wall. The perspective lines in the painting match these almost exactly. Then to the Castello Sforzesco Museum, which had all kinds of fascinating stuff ...

... as old and very very old places are constantly under repair and restoration. The scaffolding in the station blocked some of the grand feeling yet it still was an imposing structure. We went to our assigned track -- binario in Italian or Bin for short on the display boards -- and waited until it was confirmed that we had the right train. As we experienced last year it is not a good idea to board a train until the final ...

... check them out, it took us ages and cost us lots of money! Rob also spent ages putting captions on the last lot of photo's if you would like to revisit them. Our plans for the next part of the trip are to head back to the UK, to visit places we missed on the first trip through, like Wales, Brighton and Bath. Then from there we will amazingly only have about 2 months left on our trip, so in that time we will hopefully wisit the following cities back in Europe : Rome ...