A Photoblog of Italy: Part 1 - Milan

This past summer I was fortunate enough to travel to Italy - a huge check off the travel bucket list. I'm finally going through all the photos to create an album, and along the way I thought I'd share some of the highlights.

My husband and I spent two weeks hopping around a bit, part with his family (his parents and one of his sisters and her husband) and part alone, which was a perfect mix. What made it extra special was sharing this experience with his mom, as she emigrated from Italy to America when she was a young teenager. 

Much of her identity is rooted in her Italian heritage, so it was a treat to hear her speak in her native language and watch her revel her in her culture, which has continued to permeate so many aspects of her “American” life, even decades later. Not to mention she was immensely helpful when it came to handling awkward situations (e.g., accidentally pulling the emergency brakes on a train - we’ll get to that on another post) and navigating the roads of Tuscany in our rental car.

Our itinerary was as follows:

• Milan for an afternoon - unexpected, as explained below
• Cinque Terre for two nights
• Tuscany for four nights: this included trips to San Gimignano and Siena

Here is when the family splits up: his parents departed at this point to travel north and we didn’t meet up with them again. His sister and her husband travelled to Rome for one night and met back up with us in the Amalfi Coast, although they stayed in Priano. More to come on what our initial vision was for our Amalfi portion of the trip vs the reality, but luckily we did meet up once or twice while we were down there.

• Florence for one night 
• Positano for six nights 

So for this first entry I’ll share our mini jaunt to Milan. The plan was to fly into Milan and go directly to Cinque Terre. However, his parents took a different flight and it was delayed about three hours. Instead of sitting in the Milan airport, we (my husband, his sister and husband) decided to turn this delay into a positive thing, so we lugged our bags into Milan to see what we could with no plan in mind.

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Within walking distance from the train station, we first stopped at Piazza Santa Maria delle Grazie with high hopes to score last minute tickets to see Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper in the adjoining convent.

Unfortunately the next open appointment to see The Last Supper wasn't until much later that afternoon, so instead we went inside Santa Maria delle Grazie for a few moments and then headed onward. First for a quick espresso stop, and then to the duomo.

The first of many duomos to come, the Duomo di Milano was quite impressive in scale, beauty, and crowds. We thought about going in, but then looked at the line and heard our grumbling stomachs telling us it was time to eat. Not really a hard choice...we listened to our stomachs and sat for lunch.

After a delightful lunch of risotto, pizza, and prosciutto and melon, we walked through the gorgeous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It seemed too beautiful to house stores and restaurants.

Finally we walked through Piazza della Scala which is bordered by the Palazzo Marino (below) and the famous Teatro alla Scalla opera house. 

Then we cabbed it over to an agreed meeting spot, we I got some gelato (ordering on my own, and apologizing for not having enough cash at first, in my very newly learned Italian, I might add!) and met up with my in-laws to head over to Cinque Terre - the next installmen.