italy

Exploring Milan

Having Mum with me in Milan is kind of cool...we haven't really been on a mother-daughter holiday for the longest time.

After moving twice into three hotels, we have settled into a kind of serviced apartment. Small kitchenette with a small living room. The whole room would probably fit into our living room at home, but well, we'll make do.

Mum's been to Italy before - back in the 60s, when she was studying in England (she still claims that she's not the fortunate few!). But she did a whistle-stop in Milan and spent more time in Rome and Venice (I think?)...or was it Florence? Anyway, it was good though coz then she could explore Milan with me.

We visited the Duomo, which I eventually found out is kind of a generic name for any city's central cathedral. It's the only Duomo in Italy that doesn't have a domed roof though, and very gothic in architecture. Very different from other Duomos, which are more Renaissance. This is all from reading forums and travel sites and books of course. If I said it in my own words, it'll be more like, "The Milan Duomo has got sharp pointy bits while the other Duomos have got dome roofs and different designs"!!! I think the descriptions that have been used were 'lacy carvings' for the Milan Duomo. Would never have entered my mind to use the word 'lacy' to describe something that's carved out of marble!

We also went round to see the 'few' attractions that Milan has to offer - a couple more churches and a castle. Italy doesn't have a very long or prolific history of royalty. There's only been ONE king of Italy - King Vittorio II. Don't ask me how he can be 'II', if there wasn't ever a 'I'! But anyway, this is the Castello in Milan. This is me standing inside the walls of the castle, in the main courtyard. It got me thinking of all the 'princesses' of the past that used to run around the top of the castle walls (where it looks like windows).

Also made a day trip to Lake Como - no point for Mum being in Milan for so long without making a side trip. So we booked ourselves on a bus tour one Saturday. Como's only an hour's bus ride outside of Milan. It's a really lovely lakeside town, and looks like everything you would imagine parts of Europe to be. As part of the tour, we also got a ferry/boat trip round the Lake itself, and the guide pointed out famous and infamous villas. There's one that Mussolini and his mistress committed suicide in...okay, that's the only one that I remembered. AND George Clooney hadn't bought his bloody villa at Como yet, so it wasn't pointed out in the tour.

We were then given a tour around Como and then a bit of time for us to wander about on our own. Lots of quaint little shops, selling tourist stuff and knick-knacks. It was very tempting to buy bottles and bottles of olive oil with different type of fruit or vegetables in it, but there's only so much olive oil you ever need in a lifetime right.

Mum also got a free trip to Rome, which is kind of cool. The agency was putting together an event in Rome, and I was supposed to be there to meet the Clients and have a look at the event. Luca (my boss) was really nice about it and said that the company would pay for my mum's train ticket. So both of us went down earlier by train, and we even got a NICE hotel in Rome that's more American in standard. It's about 30 mins out of the city, but it was worth it. Very nice and roomy, and looks fairly new. The hotel provided a shuttle in and out of the city regularly throughout the day, so when I was at meetings, Mum caught the shuttle to explore Rome on her own. She went back to the Trevi Fountain, where she went about 30 years ago and threw a coin in and made the 'standard' wish to return. Well, guess what, it did come true for Mum! It took a long time for the wish to come true, but it did! I thought that was really cool that she managed to go back to there.

It was a great time for me and Mum just to spend with each other. Don't remember how long it's been since we've had the opportunity to just be 'mother and daughter' - and this holiday really gave us that opportunity.

posted by feddupfish @ 5:44 PM