ARRIVEDERCI VENEZIA.......CIAO MILANO

Sigh.......

Our last morning before catching the 12.20 train back to Milano. We're all packed so we decide to get lost one more time walking back to Piazza San Marco posing as an inland sea. Our target is the 99 metre high red brick St. Mark's Campanile, aka the Bell Tower, that dominates the skyline around the piazza.

St. Mark's Campanile

Please don't ring!

It dates back to 1514 and there are over 180 steps to the bellfry; I'm keen to walk up but bow to family pressure and we catch the lift! It costs 8 euro each (no kids discount) but it's a million dollar view that takes in the whole of Venice, the islands and the mainland in the distance. With the 5 gigantic bells hovering over us and the hour approaching, we make our exit just in time (Travel Tip: It's probably not a great idea to be up in te bellfry when the clock reaches the hour, unless you're the subject of a rock opera by The Who!). We navigate (literally) our way back to the apartment, get our bags, bid Carlo, Vanda and Pluto the wonder dog farewell, and head to catch the vaporetta back up the Grand Canal one last time on it's way to the railway station. It's very chilly, so I'm the only one on deck taking in the majestic vistas one last unforgettable time (other than an unruly and loud family of Australians nearby - they are so damned loud Australian tourists!). Thank goodness for digital cameras; I'd already be up for a fortune in film and developing costs otherwise.



The basilica domes

Piazza San Marco from on high

Basilica della Salute from the Campanile..

...From the water

A slight list?

Cruising the Grand Canal

As we cross the causeway heading for Milano and we look back at the island city receding into the horizon, I am amazed that a city that is sinking, dilapidated and decaying can possess such an irrestistible aura of beauty and romance that not even Paris can match (this is the view of the author and not necessarily the rest of the LegsyBoy touring party!).

Milano Centrale and it's pouring with rain. We've again ignored the omnipresent women begging on the train, but encounter a far more unsavoury first up experience in the fashion capital. Trying to buy our metro tickets from the automatic machine becomes an ordeal as we are accosted by street beggars, brazen enough to tray and stand between me and the keypad whilst I'm trying to complete a transaction, their friends standing close by, laughing. I've been alerted that Milan is a pickpocket's paradise and hereby confess that Don LegsyBoy lost his rag and delivered a 'go away' in the age old Australian vernacular (same number of words)! It didn't work.....I appreciate the dire economic circumstances that so many people are experiencing, but it beggars belief (no pun intended) that the authorities do little to dissuade it happening; it's not just Milan (although it is as bad as I've seen), it's prevalent everywhere.

Milan - The Duomo

Mercanti Caffe

Buzzy enjoyed his frappe!

That's what I call a profiterole!

Vittorio Emanuele II

Anyway, we exit the metro at our stop - Duomo - and there it is in all its majesty, the third largest cathedral in Catholic christendom; even los ninos are awe struck by it's sheer magnificence, Liam's first utterance being "whoa!". More on the Duomo later. Our apartment is 500 metres away, huge, and the top of the catherdral can be seen from the kids' bedroom. We meet Illiana the Romanian concierge who gives us all a hug and gushes over los ninos (it's all right for her, she hasn't spent 4 solid days with them!). It's late afternoon, and so we take a stroll and check out Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the oldest shopping mall in Italy (probably the world), with it's magnificent glass ceiling and dome. It's full of luxury stores and las chicas are agog at the fashions on display; Buzz and I are ambivalent.
Time for refreshments and we head to Piazza Dei Mercanti, a covered courtyard that supposedly has 'whispering walls'. We stand in opposite corners and do what the guide books say, but hear ZIPPO. I can't help notice there's quite a few people sitting around sniggering and I figure it's another set up for gullible tourists (i.e. us). Never mind, we duck into Cafe Mercanti for frappe, caffe, and a serve of profiteroles. The cafe is lovely and the caffe is of a quality for me to state it's easily the best I've had in Italy, in fact make that Europe. Dulcinea goes one better and, not usually one for overstating things, opines that it is the BEST COFFEE SHE'S EVER HAD - ANYWHERE (needless to say, she has yet to taste my special brew from my new Breville dual boiler espresso machine)! And of course, you know where this is heading - if you want quality then you have to pay for it, and so it's yet another 9 euro coffee; the thing is, as a one-off we'd do it again. The cafe owner was overjoyed at our assessment of his coffee and insisted we place a comment on Tripadviser to that effect; he seemed less enthused about the mention of the cost though!


Now THAT is art!

Risotto Milanese

On our way back to our home base for a night of games (can't remember who won), we pop in to a bistro for dinner and try the local specialty - Risotto Milanese (not pasta! Milan is surrounded by rice fields), which is effectively a simple dish of parmesan and saffron rice; nice but not a gastronomic delicacy. Time for an early night. Tomorrow is a big day.