While on the train last night, we made friends with some of the Italians sitting around us. One of them, Roberta, agreed to make a video with Tabitha:
Our overnight at the hotel was fine. The hotel was within walking distance to the train station, which always makes it easy when arriving at night. Our first actual day in Milan started off fine. The weather was warm, but a bit cloudy. Our hotel, while very close to the train station, was decently far away from the city center. So, we set out to walk towards the biggest park in the city, followed by the biggest church in the city, and finally exploring some of the shopping stores that Milan is known for.
It took us a while before we reached any sort of civilization, which surprised us. We realized it was a Saturday, but we didn't even see a place to buy a beverage until we approached the Park. We think we may have wandered through the “Chinatown” section of Milan, which is where we ultimately ended up stopping to get a drink. From there, we entered the Park, first stopping at the Arena – a grand ring shape structure with a large arch at the entrance (which was unfortunately closed off). At this point, Erin decided to turn on her phone to see if the person we were renting the apartment from for the next two nights (Fabio) had responded to her e-mail inquiring about checking in. Fabio had replied, with bad news. He said he would only be able to meet us between 2pm and 7pm, which was bad for us because our train didn't arrive in Venice until 8:30pm. Erin became concerned and e-mailed him back asking if there was any chance we could meet up later, and that if we could not, we would probably need to cancel the reservation. While this stressed Erin out a bit, James wasn't too concerned because he knew we could try using the internet later to find a place to stay if things didn't work out.
After the initial e-mail, we decided to continue on our journey until we heard back from Fabio. We traveled around the park to see the Arco Della Pace. The Arc was quite large, and ornate. We walked around it for a bit, took some pictures, and continued on our journey.
 |
| Tabitha in front of the Arca Della Place. |
 |
| Close-up on the interior of the Arca Della Place. |
The next stop was the Triennale, which was a museum in the park. Along the way from the Triennale to the Castello Sforzesco, we noticed a group of people dressed up in historical period costumes. We thought maybe they were performing in the park for money or something. However, a few minutes later we saw many more people dressed the same way. It was about that time we realized we had walked into a renaissance festival. We sat for a few minutes to watch the parade of people in costume, and then headed towards the castle. The castle was extremely large – it was a bit plan compared to some of the others we have seen – but the size of it was part of its charm.
 |
| One view of Milan's Castle. |
 |
| Milan's Castle from the inner courtyard. |
 |
| A strong tower from one side of Milan's Castle. |
From the castle, we entered Piazza Castello, and headed toward the Duomo. The Duomo is the world's largest Gothic cathedral, and it was every bit as impressive as it sounds. They started building the cathedral in 1386, and didn't finish until about 600 years later!
When we finished our time at the Duomo, Erin still hadn't heard back from Fabio. She became even more worried, and asked James if we could try to find somewhere with free wireless so we could begin looking online for somewhere else to stay for the night. As we wandered through the Golden Quad (the high-end shopping district), Erin got an e-mail back from Fabio saying that he would be able to meet us at 8:30pm after all. This was a huge relief for both of us.
 |
| The view of the Duomo as we approached. |
 |
| The magnificent Duomo - standing high above the courtyard square. |
While wandering through the shopping areas, we stumbled across two very long lines for a very small fast food place. We were intrigued by the lines. We asked someone nearby if they knew what the lines were for, and they told us the people were in line for the food and that it was very good. So, we decided to wait out the line and try the mystery food. We googled the name of the place on Erin's phone while we were in line, so we could learn more about it. We learned that the food (the panzerotti) was a local favorite. The panzerotti was similar to a calzone in that it was dough filled with sauce and cheese, however, the dough was more like a pastry, and the panzerotti was deep-fried like a doughnut, instead of baked in an oven. (Sounds incredibly healthy doesn't it?). The food was worth the wait and we sampled a few different varieties before moving on for the day and beginning our decent back to the hotel.
 |
| A shopping mall near the Duomo, absolutely filled with people. |
 |
| The Panzerotti people - once we were much further in line. |
 |
| A Panzerotti in full "eating" mode. |
James had been feeling a bit sick in the morning when he woke up, and as the afternoon progressed, he started to feel even worse. Once we returned to the hotel, we gathered our luggage and headed back to the train station. We still had two more train tickets to purchase to complete our European tour, so we hopped in line to purchase them. The line was ridiculously long, but luckily we chatted with a couple from Australia, which helped pass the time. The couple were on their honeymoon and they were taking 6 weeks to travel through America, Europe, and Malaysia before heading back home. (What a fantastic honeymoon!). We finally purchased our train tickets, and headed to the platform for our train.
Because James didn't bring any of his sinus medications with him, Erin went to the pharmacy and did her best to purchase some medicine for him. The pharmacies in Europe are different from those in America – all of the medicines are behind the counter, including things like aspirin or ibprofen. This makes it a bit more difficult to compare medicine ingredients, doses, and cost. That being said, Erin was happy she was able to get something for James at a reasonable price.
Once our purchases were made, we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head off to our next location in Italy. On the way, Tabitha tried to make a break for it on her tailor-made ride:
 |
| Tabitha finally found her Tiger-mobile. |
