Milan, Venice

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29. Milan, Venice

This time the train was an hour late, arriving in Milan around 10:00, apparently because some people onboard had no passports. Spain and Italy aren't part of Schengen, I guess. They keep your passport overnight on the train, which is a little worrying but at least I did get it back. The train station is a massive Mussolini-era fascist design. A quick few subway stops away, I got out at the central square and visited the spectacular cathedral. It's fun to walk around the roof amidst the spires. The weather was clear enough to make out the Alps in the distance.

Next I walked through the impressive glass-roofed Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II to see the (less impressive) exterior of La Scala, the most famous opera house. Luini nearby, recommended by everyone, has fantastic panzerotti, sort of a mini-calzone. I went early, around 11:30, for the main course, and a few hours later really wanted to return for a dessert version. But by this time, the line was enormous. I headed southwest to the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which contains Leonardo's Last Supper. I arrived about an hour early for my reservation, so I took a quick look at the science museum nearby. This contains a number of wooden models of da Vinci's creations, and lots of other science exhibits. It's fairly amazing that the Last Supper is there at all — two walls of the church were destroyed during the war, and the work was open to the elements for a few years. It is very faded but impressive. I suppose I'm probably the only person here who hasn't read the silly Dan Brown book which is everywhere, taking people in with its Priory of Sion hoax.

I had hoped to meet another cyclist friend from the Tibet trip who lives here in Milan, but he was in London on a business trip. When I planned my schedule, I hadn't expected to see him at all, because my first e-mail attempt bounced back. But that was only a temporary problem; if I'd known he would be here, I would have certainly tried to stay for a night in one of his two houses! (He's in a position of some power in the trading wing of an Italian bank.)

Around 15:00, I returned to the train station for the Eurostar to Venice. I would have liked to have seen Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera, but I didn't leave enough time. In fact, I did leave enough time — because this train was almost two hours late! Apparently the police occasionally just stop trains and inspect them very thoroughly, leading to these kinds of delays. Given Berlusconi's support for Bush, I suppose it's surprising their hasn't been a major act of terrorism around here as in Spain. On the train I talked to an interesting IT security worker commuting between Milan and Venice. The trip was around three hours, with some lovely hillside castles and towns along the way.

The main way of getting around Venice is by vaporetto, a water taxi along the Grand Canal. This is pretty horrible, because it's much too crowded. They really should run more of them, or make them bigger. Maps of Venice are pretty hard to read, but fortunately my hotel (the Bernardi Semenzato) was not far from the Ca d'Oro vaporetto stop. Unfortunately, the hotel unscrupulously over-booked itself, and so they made me walk almost all the way back to the train station to stay at a dingier place, in the basement. Still, I was only paying €35, which seemed like a steal given the crowds and the fact that I was as close as I was to the heart of Venice. You may want to avoid this hotel if you're a single woman; I talked to someone who said she received some rather unwelcome attention from the staff. The culture is so different here — I don't expect you'd get very far with a sexual harassment suit in Italy!

I rode the vaporetto over to Piazza San Marco, arriving around 23:00. The first time you see the place, it really does seem stunningly romantic. Actually, this is one of the reasons why I still hadn't toured the Continent this way, even though I was already 32. Normally, I enjoy traveling alone — more freedom, and many people probably wouldn't want to keep up with my frenetic sightseeing. But with places like Venice, I sort of wanted to save the trip until I had a partner to enjoy it with. I finally realized I was just getting too old, and I had to go anyway. The orchestras of the two main cafés (with astonishingly high prices for a drink, and I resisted the temptation to sit down) on the square were still dueling with beautiful operatic music in the vast open space, with the giant Campanile and gorgeous ornate Basilica San Marco and Palazzo Ducale at the eastern end. I understood how the Campanile of Berkeley got it's name; it really is strikingly similar to the one here.

Jonathan's Travel Blog :: Europe

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29. Milan, Venice

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