Have Arrived

I have arrived in Milan. Am currently sitting in the tiny lobby of my hotel writing on a slightly foreign keyboard (all the letters are in the right place, but everything else is different). The airport is a good 50 minutes from downtown Milan by either bus or train. So I did not arrive until after dark. Luckily, the area around the train station where my hotel is is not too sketchy (i can not find the apostrophy button, so no contractions for me).

I did some sightseeing today, but since my cold has not abated and I still sound a little like Kathleen Turner, I decided to sleep the afternoon. I will see La Scala tomorrow morning before I head out to Ravenna. I did get a chance to see the duomo (which is pretty incredible from the outside and the stained glass on the inside is gorgeous) and Sforza castle, which is a brick monstrosity that housed the Sforza family, who ruled Milan like the Medicis did Florence) and is quite ugly. I decided to skip the museum for a nap. They do have a wonderful city park where I saw someone getting married in a very puffy pink dress. It was very peaceful. And of course I did some window shopping (and am proud of the fact that I have yet to purchase anything). Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Timberland...all within a couple city blocks. I have happily yet to find a Starbucks...I have a feeling there coffee would not compete.

Tomorrow I head for Ravenna and start my class on Monday. No pictures to upload yet, as this machine does not have any USB ports visible. Hopefully in Ravenna, as I have a fun picture of a mosaic bull (torino) whose bad luck it is to have people spin on his testicles for good luck.

Ciao