Milan and the REM concert and Torino
Trip Start
Apr 26, 2008
1
17
28
Trip End
Ongoing
After returning from Croatia I spent oe day again in Rimini before heading off on the train with my Italian teacher Alessia to Milan to see the REM concert. We had a great evening and after waiting three hours in the queue out the front we were rewarded with access to the mosh pit just 5 metres from the stage! I can tell you the lead singer Michael Stipe is a fantastic performer and it was great dancing around and singing with Alessia and the rest of the crowd to songs I knew and also the newer ones that I'm not so familiar with. While I was there in Milan I also met Alessia's friend Francesco and we spent much time chatting and eating ad well generally having a good time! When Alessia had to leave to return to work (at the Italian school that I've finished), Francesco was kind enough to take me round to some of the key sights in Milan like the Duomo and it's amazing roof and to eat a custard filled donut from one of the most prestigious bakeries in Milan (we got take away because you have to pay an arm and a leg to sit in these places!). I then met up with Gianluca's good friend Salvatore and his girlfriend Gabriella and stayed the night with them. What a fantastic place they have! We had dinner together and got to know each other quite well - I kept saying thankyou to them and after about the third time Salvatore was like "I don't want to hear you say thankyou again!" - in Italy I think it's almost an insult to say thankyou too much because it is meant to be a pleasure to do things for other people and therefore doesn't require a thankyou. It was quite funny, so everytime I felt a "thankyou" coming up I would muffle it with a laugh half way through which must have seemed a bit strange. Anyway after a stay with some great people in a not so beautiful city (Milan is quite ugly) I caught the train to Torino to meet Gianluca's friend Maurizio and stayed with him for a few nights. Unfortunately he had to work while I was there but I got to do some sightseeing like seeing the Royal Palace, a medieval mock-up village, a few fountains, an egypt museum and a movie museum which was just amazing and had a glass lift inside it which went to a high scenic outlook.
