Milan & Alitalia

Alitalia!Milan was really nice. After our arrival at Malpensa airport I quickly realized that I misjudged the temperatures. There was quite a lot of snow lying around and clearly my expectation that it would be warmer in Milan compared to Holland was wrong.

In addition to being the fashion capital of the world it seems that Milan is also the worlds most maintained city. All the mayor sites were being renovated and everything was covered by scaffolding. As a result there was very little to see. The cold and frequent rain also did not add to a very nice holiday feeling.

Luckily the pizzas, cappuccino, tiramisu and other Italian treats compensated for the weather. Because of the total lack of people understanding or speaking English you really get a feeling of being in a strange country. Some pictures of Milan.

The only thing that really gave a negative touch to this holiday was the travel back home. It is always sad when a holiday reached its ending, but this time it was worse. First I checked myself in way ahead of time at the business class desk of Alitalia :-p. Then the waiting started, and I waited and waited… until well past the scheduled take off time. When finally the boarding of the plane commenced my seat had also been given to someone else! On top of the seat problems the luggage of two other passengers was lost and then my new seat could be moved backwards, but it was a one way more. Putting the back straight was not an option. Argh.

Eventually I arrived at Schiphol. A lot of rain greeted me to my normal life.

Milan

Italy!First we thought about Venice, then we changed to Rome and finally we decided on Milan as the city to spend for a nice weekend in Italy. I have to admit that I don’t know very much about this city. Only that it is a city famous for fashion and its fashion shows.

It gets even worse… on the website promoting Milan the city is roasted in the first paragraph. “The city of Milan does not calls to mind images of a city flooded by sunshine where people spend their time on white marble squares and cozy back alleys. The idea that Milan does not offer these things is correct.” and “You will not find people having lunch for hour but simple business.” An interesting way of promoting a city.

I really know very little about Italy. I know it is a catholic country and the people like to eat pizza and pasta and they enjoy nice cappuccinos, espressos, tiramisu cakes and of course the Italian ice cream. For sure it will be a nice weekend and visiting a new country for the first time is always worthwhile. :-)