Starhotels Grand Milan Saronno

... 8230;&#8217;we are doing what right now!?!?&#8217; Or was it to give my mind a break from the all<br>encompassing view. I cannot do it justice. <br>If I hadn&#8217;t felt so rushed to make it to my next destination I would have considered staying longer. As I meet some amazing people. Sitting in our apartment at night, three Aussies, one American, a German fellow, and I, the token Canadian doing the round robin of sharing our stories while nursing a bottle ...

... is that? I'm naming my next dog that, no offense to him, he's a great guy, but I think as an American I could get away with naming a dog that, but not a child) had to work, so they dropped Meghan and I off at a little town called Orta on their way to work. Orta is on Orta Lake, a tiny lake in comparison to the others (Luisa didn't even know it existed), and is also freakin adorable. We got there early-ish, and as we were walking to the center I decided I needed to ...

... waited for the other two, John showed up, then Meghan. We walked out, intending on going to the city center but we were so absorbed in catching up on our lives that I don't have any idea if we started in the right direction. I would like to point out at this time that the city center is not very near the train station, most people take a subway. I'm glad we walked, we saw many interesting buildings, but at about this time I realized that ...

... Festival was set up outside the rear walls of the castle all of that week).<br><br><br><br><br>Wonderfully simple sidewalk lunch of crepes, and fresh fruit containers, not to mention the obligatory gelato!<br><br><br><br><br>Back to hotel by 2.30pm, with just enough time for a quick rum, before being collected (this time!) and whisked to the airport for our first main port of call....Palermo, Sicily!

... service company......and we waited....and waited....and called after-hours local numbers to no avail.....until after over an hour, we decided to take the much cheaper shuttle bus service to our hotel, where we arrived, completely exhausted around midnight! Collapsed for about 6 hours sleep in a horizontal position for the first time in ages!

After Istanbul and Rome... even Venice looked dull .. so what do you say about Milan! <br><br>Though we did go to see the famous Leonardo Da Vince's Last Supper. For the nerds likes me, let me tell you that the painting is not on a canvas but on the wall of the church (don't remember the name of the church) ... the experience was Wow... it almost felt that you were having dinner with Jesus and his group .. its costs about 25Euro per person ...

... Most of the passengers on our train car were Americans. Milano has a beautiful Duomo (church) and lots and lots of very expensive shops. Unfortunately the Duomo is under reconstruction, so photos will not show its real beauty. We took one of those hop on hop off bus tours around the city. The first time we stayed on the whole ...

... city of Lugano looked Italian, the people looked stylishly Italian, and, even with the low rain clouds closing in fast, Italy was plainly in view just across the other side of the lake. Lugano seemed nothing like the French side of Switzerland I lived in, nor the German side I visited semi-regularly.<br> <br>But, looking harder, the streets were free of potholes, the lakeside was completely free of rubbish and there was a general feeling of ...

So, it's Saturday, and Nicole, Caitie, and Emily arrived in Rome today!! Yeah!!! That means four days 'til they visit me!! I have so much planned, hopefully we'll have time for it all. I want to make them dinner on Wednesday, and then maybe go up to the Duomo. Then Thursday, I want to take them to apperitivo and dinner. And Friday, we're hopefully going to Lake Como, then to dinner. Saturday was also the big night for Carnivale (it's like Mardi Gras). Everyone ...

... sprinted through the station, down the stairs, and to the bin where the conductor was blowing the whistle for the train to leave. We jumped on and the train pulled away no more than ten seconds later. We arrived at the Milan station in the morning and caught the 10:30am Eurostar train back to Florence. By the time we got to our apartment we had been traveling for the past twenty five hours.