Italy (Day 2) - Milan

After a night stay at Star Hotel Business Palace, we checked out the hotel and took a quick shot at the reception where the room key were kept in a neatly manner, really impressed me. Probably it’s common in Italy which I never seen before in those countries I have visited. I really need to get my head out of the cave, haha. We were there in April and it's the best time to visit Italy due to the cooling weather. Personally I do not like to travel during summer time as I sweat easily especially in tropical country unless I have no choice.


Once we boarded the bus, we hit to our first destination, Gothic Duomo which is a cathedral church of Milan. It took almost 500 years to complete and the 4th largest church in the world.




The side view of the cathedral


Checkout the details of windows from the exterior. Sigh the two unknown tourists on the lower left spoilt the scenery.


The interior of the cathedral includes huge number of monuments and artworks; and also huge pillars. My friend told me, we are not allowed to snap any photo inside this cathedral, but no one seems to stop me. So I happily snapping, but without flash.






The roof is open to tourists for a fee but I’m not aware of this. There are many close-up views of some spectacular sculptures.

The cathedral is located at the famous square called Piazza del Duomo in the city of Milan. The square takes its name from the Gothic Duomo.




Is Babybel cheese from Italy? The brand doesn’t sound Italian. We got few samples and had it while waiting for our lunch time in another 2 hours time.


From far at the square, we could see the famous icon Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. This is essentially a roofed-over shopping arcade. It was built between 1865 and 1877 and named after the first king of Italy.




The street inside the Galleria is covered over by an arching glass and cast iron roof, a popular design for nineteenth-century arcades.





The central octagonal space is topped with a glass dome. It’s just impressive.


A sculpture in the middle of the Galleria


The four-story arcade includes elegant shops selling most things from haute couture to books, as well as restaurants, cafés and bars. The Galleria is the site for many luxury goods' shops, like Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton. If you can't afford to buy anything here, at least have a quick coffee standing at one of the bars to experience a little bit of Milan. My wife keep hovering the LV shop like a spy satellites, luckily she did not get anything though she keeps bugging me. I told myself, be firm, be firm…haha.


One of the souvenir stalls at the Galleria. I did not get anything here, as I believe the price here will be expensive.


Since we have nothing to buy or I should say, I can’t afford to buy anything, we exited to the other side of the Galleria for some photo snapping session.


In Milan, we must dressed in style e.g. Tom Cruise Top Gun sunglasses, Italian leather jacket and etc, just like me, haha.


In front of the La Scala Opera building which is a world renowned opera house and ballet theatres in Milan. In fact I’m not aware where the La Scala Opera was till I saw the website when I wrote this post, so sad.



Photos were taken on few of the streets surrounding the square.




Yeah, yeah…show off time…in fact she bought on behalf of her friend, haha. It’s alright, let her experience the moment holding a Gucci bag.


A scooter with a shelter.


I personally did not like the idea of letting the baby playing with the pigeons, no one knows if the pigeons were free of diseases. At that time, SARS Flu was at the stage to be declared pandemic.


Before leaving for lunch, I took a quick shot with the local policemen. Damn, even the policemen looked so stylo, I guess they were wearing Giorgio Armani blazer, Gucci sunglasses, LV boot and Aprilia superbike.


We had lunch at Ristorante Pizzeria


Appetizer and mineral water


Spaghetti and main course (I’m not sure what is it, but it tasted nice)



After lunch, we have to endure an almost 4 hours bus ride to Venice. During the journey, our tour guide cracked some jokes, some enjoying the scenery, dozed off with heavy snores and some showing off their stuffs they bought at the Galleria. As for my wife, she will always sleep on the journey. Luckily no saliva drooling, else it will be on this post.


Before reaching Venice, we stopped at the leather shop (forgotten the name of the shop and town). It’s sold mainly all off season design leather jacket, shoe, wallet and etc. Only a few bought as souvenirs to friends and relatives. Then we continued our journey to the Chinese restaurant for dinner. As an adventurer traveler, I prefer to taste the local foods rather than some home country foods, unless the foods taste horrible. After dinner, we check-in into the Crowne Plaza Venice East - Quarto D'Altino hotel.




It’s time to refresh ourselves and hit the bed. Tomorrow will be another long day to go at Venice.