In the morning we packed up our bags and took a train for 45 minutes from Como to Milan. We wanted to have one day in Milan before flying out to Paris. We arrived around 2 pm and found our hotel, a little dinky place that unfortunately did not have a map of the city, so we decided to wing it and make our way to the Cathedral and what we hoped would be the center of town.
The Cathedral was beautiful, one of the largest in Italy and a great example of Gothic architecture. An organ recital was in progress as we walked in, and we were able to sit and listen to the organist for a while. It is a fantastic experience to hear such beautiful music in such a setting. but my favorite part was watching a young boy, fifteen or so, play the organ there. He played a number of pieces, but the best one was one by Enrico Morricone from the soundtrack of “The Mission”. It’s a wonderful piece, at the same time very modern and very fitting for the space.
After the Cathedral, we wandered the city for a bit until we found ourselves in a crowd of people and paparazzi. It was then that we realized that Fashion Week is beginning in Milan tomorrow, and we were in the middle of the group of people exiting from the Alberta Ferretti runway show.
Milan is not only fashion, though. A few blocks later we encountered several large black men wearing suits, sunglasses, and passes for something. They all went into a building with a sign proclaiming a conference for treating Hepatitis C.
As we rounded a corner, we ran into Guido Montaldo, an industrial economics student who had just moved to Milan from a small town outside of Rome. He was looking for the Duomo, as he had just arrived a few days ago. We helped him find it, and then he agreed to show us a few more highlights of Milan (and get a gelato!) before all of us headed home.
First, we walked through the Galleria (a large mall) where we stopped to see the preparation of the stage for the Dolce and Gabbana fashion show. In addition to Fashion Week starting, a conference on Digital Media and a music festival were both just ending. We caught the tail end of a digital media exhibition before getting down to the serious business of finding some ice cream.
Guido walked us to the Castello Sforzesco, which was unfortunately closing when we arrived. Still, it was great to make a new friend. We enjoyed learning more about why the south of Italy is so poor, the role of Mafia in politics, Berlesconi’s mysterious popularity. (None of the native Italians seem to like him, and the guides constantly made fun of him, but he’s been re-elected three times. Perhaps the fact that he virtually controls all media here has something to do with it.)
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We found our way back to the Duomo and said goodbye to Guido, who was going home via the Metro while we were riding the street car. (Ciao, Guido! Multo Grazie!) No dinner for us, we were too tired and called it an early night. We will be up in the morning to check out a fashion show or two before heading to the airport to fly to Paris.
