| Glenn's Journal for Friday, 3/29/02 We slept in until 8:00 a.m., showered, and decided what we should do on our first "real" day in Milan. We had to do breakfast first so we stopped into Il Baretto's for our first croissant of our trip. The croissant was good, with apple inside, and to drink, red orange juice. Yes, I said "red" orange juice. Is this a conflict in colors??? It tasted a little like grapefruit juice but overall was just fine. We decided to stop into the U.S. Consulate to let them know we would be in the country for a few months. They could not help us unless we had a very specific itinerary of where we could be found at any time. We do not, as our trip has been planned as a very flexible one. We do not know where we will be tomorrow, much less the whole trip. Our next stop was to Duomo Il Milano. We walked by the Piazza Scala while enjoying the view of the Museo Teatrale alla Scala (Theater). The architecture here is amazing!! We then walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuale (picture forthcoming). Out the other end of the galeria is the Duomo. What an amazing site to see. The cathedral is the world's third largest church and a breathtaking example of Gothic architecture. The church is 600 years old with a gold plated statue of the Virgin Mary on the top. We spent some time admiring the work, including a walk through the church. We had lunch at Angolo Del Panino. We had panino's (sandwiches) and bottled water for lunch while sitting out at a park near the Duomo. I call this a park loosely since it was only a 10x10 piece of grass. (What do you expect in a big city!!!) We then searched unsuccessfully for the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum. We will find it tomorrow. From here we decided to head back using the subway. Another first for our trip. The only trouble we had was understanding the signs enough to buy our own tickets. With no luck, we finally asked for help. Once we had our tickets the rest of the subway ride was uneventful. We stopped into the cybercafe to update our web-site and send a few e-mails back home to let family and friends know that we had made it safely. They also sent warnings of terrorist plots for Easter Sunday and to be safe. |
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| The Smart Car, a very wise choice in the city of bruised bumpers! |