Train ticket to Milan

The itinerary for last weekend: Milan and Venice.

Two cities I have never been to. My first trip while abroad, so much to learn and so much to see!

Before coming to Rome, I was told to plan a trip to Milan and Venice together, a day in each is enough. One day seemed like a week in each city. So thank you for the advice, the three days spent traveling to see these two magnificent cities was time very well spent.

Accompanying me on this first journey out of Rome was a group of six to meet up with more. Grace, Jori, Rachael, Lucas and Todd were my fellow travelers, and we managed to figure out how this whole train, cab, metro, hostel thing all works. Man, did we learn a lot, just from one trip, imagine how big of an expert I will be by the time I return home to MN, piece of cake right?

Well anyway, the trip begins: 6:23 train to MIlan. 6 hrs to go.
Lets say we did not allot enough time to arrive to the train station, so we ending up running, half asleep with our carry ons, and we made it by a second before the train left. FUN. THRILLING. we started off the trip with a bang. The train, yes 6 hours, went by a lot quicker and we arrived in Milan at 1:30.

Milan is a lot different from Rome. Everything is more commercialized and modern. And their metro is underground and very efficient. The vibe of the city is less hectic and more calm. And Milan lacks the ancient and historical architecture you can find on every corner in Rome. We found our hotel, hotel sabatino, thank you hostelworld.com. The five of us decided to just take a map and head out after setting our bags down in our rooms. We walked down the main drag, Buenos Aires, where all of the shops and stores are located. You know Milan is the fashion capital?? Well it certainly lives up to it. After walking around, we found the Duomo. The Duomo is in a huge square in the middle of Milan, filled with pigeons. I am traumatized by pigeons now, as men stand outside with seed (for free surprising to feed the birds). No I do not want to feed the birds! But they thought it would be funny to sprinkle seed on me, sending several pigeons my way, one to land on my head. THANK YOU MILAN. Anyway, inside the Duomo was an enormous sight to see, and a gorgeous church to walk into. After the Duomo came the Galleria, a huge glass shopping center. Very pretty. You can crane your neck to see the glass ceilings and arched doorways. On the floor of the Galleria there is a bull within the mosaic, and it is good luck to place your heel on the balls of the bull and spin. So we each took our turn twirling in Milan, on the balls of the famous bull. Later, the good luck brought us to meeting up with a friend Nicolo, who is a native of Milan and graciously invited the five us to have pre-dinner drinks with his father at the Four Seasons. Ummm, thank you Nicolo, and YES!
Let me tell you, this Four Seasons was the most chic and beautiful hotel I have ever stepped foot into. The garden was dripping with twinkle lights and filled with manicured trees. As the temperature was very chilly, it began to snow in this garden and it was almost surreal. We headed into the bar to lounge and sip our fancy martinis and drinks, and gracefully eat the scrumptious appetizers served to us. It was a grand time. The most memorable part of Milan, hands down. The bar was warmly lit, the couches and seating area was comfortable and we all felt very lucky to be in the hands of the four season of Milan. We headed back in the wet raining snow to our hotel to meet up with the rest of our group for dinner. After not the best dinner we've yet to have in Italy, we didn't stay out too late to be prepared for our second early train to Venice!