Italy! Milano Centrale

We took three trains to get to our first destination: Neuchatel to Bern (about 30 minutes, CHF 9 per person), Bern to Milan (about 3.5 hours, CHF 38 pp), Milan to Reggio Emilia (about 2 hours, EUR 11.50 pp). Milan's central train station is large (24 platforms), bright, and a bit chaotic.

Anniversary fashion

To celebrate our first wedding anniversary, we purchased a pale lavender dress shirt with a violet tie for Zak
and a pair of sage-colored leather gloves with smart wrist buckles for me.

Inter Milan

On Sunday evening, we watched a soccer match between Inter Milan and Palermo. You can just barely make out some smoke over the upper tier seats on the left side of the photo, where the super fans were gathered. They chanted, sang, and waved enormous flags during the entire match. The smoke in this instance was in celebration of Inter Milan's first goal of the game by Giampaolo Pazzini.

Basilica of Saint Ambrose

The plaza in front of the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio has been constructed out of previous incarnations of the building. Ambrose was the bishop of Milan in the late 4th century.

La Scala

We were lucky to get tickets to the ballet on Saturday evening at La Scala. Photographs were forbidden, so I
took this quick snap and put my camera away before many people had arrived. The theater at our level was only
four rows deep, and though we had to stand to see the entire stage, I thought we got great seats. On the bill: Balanchine's Jewels (short video).

What I found most interesting about this theater was that there were separate entrances for different classes
of tickets. The wealthy people who could afford €115 ($165) tickets for floor seats entered by the front door.
Those of us with cheaper tickets entered by a side door and used a completely separate staircase.

Cioccolata calda

Our morning hot chocolate from a different shop. The chocolate was so thick, it was like drinking rich, 

hot chocolate pudding. Yum.

Coffee shops

We got hot chocolate every morning from local coffee shops, which were uniformly elegant places. Getting

your drink, however, was chaotic. Shops charge one euro extra for seating, so most customers stand in the area 

just in front of the counter to consume their morning beverage and pastry. (I was at the edge of the crowd 

photographing the rear of the shop.)

Risotto milanese and pasta with pesto

Food in restaurants is most likely to be served in this way: one item per course, rather than American-style

with two or three items on the same plate. The pasta and risotto were served before our salads.

Duomo (part 2) – an Italian bride

As we were descending, a large wedding party was climbing to the highest part of the roof.

Duomo (part 1)

On Saturday, we visited the Duomo, Milan's gleaming white, gargantuan cathedral. The interior is dark and filled

with art, tombs, and tourists. This is a view of the lower part of the roof, which you reach after paying five euros
to climb ten flights of stairs.

Milan week: the Naviglio Grande

After a 2.5 hour journey through two long tunnels under the Alps and alongside Lake Maggiore, we arrived

in Milan. We walked from our hotel on the Via Giorgio Washington south to the Naviglio Grande to find

dinner. Afterwards we strolled up the popular canal before finding a gelato shop and heading to bed.