Yes, those are Nike Air Max Classics in the color of the A-team van. Best shoes ever. After having calmed down le brother because we were about to take off and he was pooping his pants, we actually did take off and then landed at Linate Airport 2 hours later. Once getting off the plane we found out that our bags were still in Amsterdam. We weren’t the only ones, they’d forgotten 2 containers with luggage, and a group of 20 people joined a queue of people all having the same problem. I soon found out why I dislike other tourists so much. You see, the whole purpose of reporting your lost luggage is to actually report your lost luggage. Not ask for train directions, schedules, where to shave your dog, where to find out where the nearest toilets are and the lot. This slowed down the process a lot. And then there’s the conversations you’re overhearing from people who are already ready to sue the ****ing shit out of the airline company if their bag is really lost. My brother saw my frustration grow, much to his amusement though. Once it was our turn it took us roughly 5 minutes to get our bags reported, and with the promise that our bags would be delivered to our hotel the next morning at roughly 10 we took off and headed to the train station heading to the center of Milan and then a connecting subway to our hotel.

Our hotel wasn’t too far from the center, pretty much like anything else in Milan isn’t located too far from the center. 3 stops from the center of the city and you’re pretty much on the outskirts of town. It takes you at least 15 when it comes to Paris. But we knew Milan isn’t Paris, so off we went. The brother had bought a book about Milan and insisted we took off right away, no time for relaxing as we’d already lost 3 hours at the airport after the entire luggage fiasco. So, off we went into the city, to our first stop;

Castello Sforzesco, a castle build in the 14th century, destroyed several times, partially restored and then renovated to its current state in the early 19th century. It now houses several museums which I did not bother to visit. It’s quite clear as to what parts were rebuild, and what parts were still original, or just older than most of the building. As you can see on the photo, the tower in the corner has a completely different color from the square tower in the middle.




(picture taken by Thunderstrucker)
After we left Milan, we went for a stroll through Parco Sempione which was a lot nicer than I expected. As can be seen on the pictures the weather was really nice, and we eventually wound up at the Arco della Pace, an arch build under order by Napoleon, which used to be the main entrance for Milan. It’s hard to imagine nowadays, but this is where people coming from Paris, used to enter Milan.



(picture taken by Thunderstrucker because I actually had my finger on the lens)
We left the park, headed east for a stroll through Milan, passed the Arena Civica which sadly wasn’t as impressive as I hoped it’d be (it’s a 200 year old arena), and headed for a walk through Milan with no real purpose but to see a bit of the city not part of the usual tourist attractions. We went for a bite to eat (Pizza obviously) and then headed back to our hotel as we’d planned quite a lot for the next day. Our bags had still not arrived, so we decided to watch a bit of a movie on le brother’s iPad, and after 5 minutes I decided to call it a night because, you know, a bed is made for sleeping, and sleep I did.

The next morning my brother decided his bladder needed emptying at 5, and there’s no way this man is capable of doing something without waking me up so obviously I woke up as well. Thank you very much. I went back to bed, only to find out he’d wake me up yet again at 7:30 to make the obligatory phone calls about our luggage. Yeah **** that shit I’m sleepy I thought, I put in my headphones, some Clapton (I think) and went back to sleep. Once I finally woke up (an hour later grmbl) because WE HAD SO MUCH TO DO GODDAMMIT GET OUTTA BED I went for a shower, put fresh clothes on…oh wait, I didn’t have any of that, and went for breakfast. YOU GOTTA EAT WELL THIS’LL BE A LONG DAY. Grmbl alright, alright. I had a proper breakfast but no appetite, and we headed to the subway, to get out at Duome, which was, you won’t believe it, located right in front of this:


Duomo di Milano

A really nice little church. Went inside and all of that, and it was quite beautiful really



My brother insisted on climbing the thing as well, for whatever reason he seems to think that you get A BEAUTIFUL VIEW ON EVERYTHING as long as you’re on top, but it’d turn out to be worth it. I’d read great things aboot it so decided it was probably worth it. And it was, so many details you got to see rather up close, it’s no wonder it took them 600 years to build this thing.



It’s no wonder this is the main attraction of Milan, and it’d turn out to be pretty much the only attraction of Milan. The Piazza del Duomo is really the only really, really nice place in Milan. Anything located outside of it is pretty much not interesting apart from several cathedrals located near the suburbs. After the Duomo di Milano we headed to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, probably one of the few shopping malls in the world actually worth visiting (the other one being the West Edmonton Mall with a rollercoaster in it that I never got to ride because I had to go to see a Bon Jovi show there ffs yada yada). This was actually more the building that mattered, not the shops.