My tickets listed my itinerary as DFW-ORD-MXP, MXP-ORD-DFW. It theory it sounds relatively simple. In reality, it was a grand total of 36 hours on a plane, train, cable car, or bus during the span of a 4-day trip (only 3 of which were spent on the ground in Italy!)

Compared to my trip to Belgium last month with Ann, this trip to Italy was vastly different. The entire cadence, the randomly patterned elements of this, my first ever solo trip, was nothing like the measured compromise, the blended amalgamation of traveling with another person. Without outside input, my adventures mirrored only the desires of my own soul and required an intense effort on my part to seek beyond my own limited comfort level.

Solitary travel, I found was much more mentally and physically exhausting than I had anticipated. The ever present alertness for danger, the consant struggle to comprehend the language and the culture, to map out and plan without the aid of a different perspective (how am I supposed to know that the map is upside down?!), and the inability to move without the presence of your packages and/or bags at all times, all serves to surreptitiously sap the unwary traveler of much needed energies, encroaching so subtly as to become apparent only with the nearing of true exhaustion and the straining of effort to cope.

Travel Logistics

My tickets listed my itinerary as…
3/15 DFW-ORD-MXP
3/19 MXP-ORD-DFW

In theory it sounds relatively simply and straightforward. In reality, it was…
2.5 hrs DFW-ORD by plane
9.0 hrs ORD-MXP by plane
1.5 hrs MXP airport-Milan by bus
3.5 hrs Milan-Florence by train
1.5 hrs Florence-Pisa by train
1.5 hrs Pisa-Florence by train
3.5 hrs Florence-Milan by train
0.5 hrs Milan Train Sta-Hotel by tram
1.0 hrs Milan-MXP airport by train
9.5 hrs MXP-ORD by plane
2.0 hrs ORD-DFW by plane

For a grand total of 36 hours on either a plane, train, tram or bus during the span of my 4-day trip (only 3 of which were spent on the ground in Italy)!

Florence

The cultural and historical impact of Florence is overwhelming. Close up, however, the city is one of Italy's most atmospheric and pleasant, retaining a strong resemblance to the small late-medieval centre that contributed so much to the cultural and political development of Europe.

The remarkable Duomo, with its pink, white and green marble façade and characteristic dome, dominates the city's skyline. The building took almost two centuries to build and is the fourth-largest cathedral in the world. This impressive sight was the view from the window and balcony of my hotel room.

The museums, such as the Uffizi Gallery, filled with majestic masterpieces and the churches, which fill one with awe, sit amidst an almost overwhelming array of fashion stores offering everything from Guess to Gucci, from Levi to Louis Vuitton. Add to that up to 2000 tourist buses arriving daily in the peak season, and the hustle and bustle of this city is tangible, almost staggering at times.

My favorite place was the Museum of the History of Science, which sits on a side street behind the famed Uffizi Gallery. The Museum holds about 5000 original pieces that are divided in two groups - the collection of machines and scientific instruments and the collection of instruments and objects for teaching and experimentation. The works that merit particular attention by the visitor are without a doubt many: the instruments from Germany, brought to Italy by Mattias Medici; the instruments in gold from Thobias Volckmer; one of the first mechanical calculators; the objective lens framed in ivory from which Galileo Galilei observed the four satellites of Jupiter, the famous Medicean planets, the imperfections of the lunar surface and the phases of Venus, the precious sphere constructed by Antonio Santocchi delle Pomarance, and many other important and curious instruments like the hand that writes and the clock perpetually in motion.

Pisa

The major attractions of this sleepy little town sit in the Piazza del Duomo, also known as the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of miracles), which is a grassy expanse enclosing the leaning tower, duomo, bapistry, and Camposanto.

Seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and its surrounding stonewashed buildings, alone was worth the price of the trip. Even though it was not built to be one of the wonders of the world, it is an absolutely amazing sight!

Although I spent only a total of 2 hours in Pisa, I found it the prettiest city of those I visited. It was open and airy and the people there were actually nice. And, I had the best pizza I've ever eaten at a small fast food stand in the lobby of the Pisa train station.

Milan

When planning my trip, I had expected great things of Milan since it is the richest city in Italy. My disappointment was palpable. Milan is a hub of European industry and it holds the lead in volume of commercial activity. The appearance and impression is that of a large, drab, overly populated, old industrial city. The city seemed to be suspended under a gloomy covering, a murky pall. I hated Milan.

The conductor on the cable car that I took from the train station to the hotel was incredibly uncaring and rude, flat out refusing to acknowledge my proper station though I had ahnded him the paper with the stop name on it, letting me get off one stop too soon at a stop of a similar name. In essence, leaving me to walk more than 3 miles through a neighborhood just this side of a ghetto alone with my lugguage and bags! The one bright spot is that I ended up walking past both an exquisitely beautiful huge cemetery/mausoleum (roughly 4 city blocks square) and an unusual old convent and boarding school, while I walkede purposefully (to confuse would be thieves and attackers) through this part of town. I hated Milan.

Added to my initial unfavorable impression of the city, my 4-star hotel, where marble and luxury were both in abundance, sat on an anonymous looking side street doors away from a male dominated standing room only betting parlor, and the corner used by a young, italian version of the Hell's Angels. Mine was a Sunday stay, and since my luxury hotel had no restaurant of it's own and all the local restaurants in this neighborhood were not open on a Sunday, I was forced by hunger to walk brave the dangers to get to the closest hole-in-the-wall stand-up bar to get a sandwich for dinner ... the best salami and cheese sandwich I've ever had! I still hated Milan though.