Milan

So we spent almost a full week in Milan, which is an amazing city but doesn't quite have the look and the charm of Verona. A lot of the city was destroyed in WWII and had to be rebuilt so it has a more modern look to it, which is slightly less interesting to me. Still, there were a ton of cool churches that we checked out and the hostel we stayed in was amazing. We shared a room for the whole week with 3 girls from Normandy, which was great because we got a chance to practice our French! We went out with them on New Years Eve and celebrated with about a million other people in the huge square in front of the huge Duomo Church.

The churches in Milan freaked me out a bit because they were all about putting the bodies of old priests/saints/etc in these glass coffins so they could be on display for hundreds of years. If you look closely you can see how the head and feet of this one is all brown and gross.

Inside of one of many of Milan's churches.

This is the Duomo, it's huge! And wait until you see the view from the top...

Milan is of course also known for shopping - this is the roof of the inside of the biggest shopping center.

One of the medieval city gates - a few of them are still standing in random parts of the city, they're hidden between the more modern buildings. 

The profanity on this sign confused us. Were they trying to be funny, or did they just not understand how the f-word works?

View of the Duomo during the day.

Milan's castle, the Sforzesco Castle! Built in the 15th century.

The inside of the castle is a museum, so it had all sorts of cool stuff. 

I always like the old armor and weapons, I think they're really cool.

There were also a bunch of these stone carvings, showing battles and famous events. I don't understand how anyone could have the patience to carve all those tiny figures, it's hard to tell but the entire thing is completely 3D.

I loved this hat because it looks like the one John Smith wears in the movie Pocahontas!

A collection of fancy swords.

I loved this part - it's a full-sized suit of armor sitting on a horse!

Pistol collection!

More guns!

View of the courtyard.

There was also a furniture collection in the museum - this tabletop was my favorite, absolutely gorgeous.

This is an astrolabe! It was made in Italy in the first half of the 16th century.

This is a lute! I thought it was super cool because look at the part on the right - it's made from a turtle shell!!

This is a hunting horn from the 16th century. I want one!

Kevin and I were entertained by some of the artwork - it looks like the girl on the right is freaking out. 

This is a knife set from the 15th century. 

Chain mail, seen from the side. 

Another view of the castle.

Milan's famous soccer stadium.

Outside of the stadium there was a huge, long wall completely covered in graffiti. 

Milan's central train station.

Window of a church with a Star of David.

A random arch in the city.

Milan's grocery store had this intense meat collection in it, the Italian's don't mess around.

Just like in Paris, Milan has its own car sharing system! Look how tiny they are.

Since we were there right after christmas, Milan had so many bakeries with these giant Santa cakes. I thought they were so cool, I want one!

For lunch one day we of course got some pizza, it was excellent. We were laughing because the place advertised as being "probably the best pizza in Milan." What a claim to fame. 

We were also laughing about this sign at the bottom of the Duomo, the English translations are so weak. We spent the rest of the trip blaming THE SLIPPERIES every time one of us tripped, and we decided someone should hire us to correctly translate their signs.

Check out all these views from the top of the Duomo! You could see forever, and we were there right at sunset so the light was amazing.

This statue of St. Francis of Assisi was right outside our hostel.

This is the Arco della Pace, Milan's version of the Arc de Triomphe.

We happened to stumble upon this one day - it's the remains of the old Imperial Palace from around the 4th century.

I realized afterwards that I should've taken more photos of the window displays to show Emma. This one was my favorite, if you look closely you can see that those are all shoes! They were neatly arranged on this spinning rack. 

So those are all the pics I have from Milan! It wasn't as charming as Verona, but it was still amazing. And the food in Italy is so great, we had pasta, pizza, cannolis, and tons of gelato. I didn't buy that many gifts in Milan, but wait until you see everything from Istanbul...