On our last morning in Milan we awoke to even more snow. Thick coatings everwhere!
A different type of winter magic to St Petersburg.
Once again we trudged along in the crunchy and even thicker snow to see the Last Supper fresco. We had booked well in advance, as one must, to see this particular work of art, and the viewing was very controlled. Our group stood silently in awe, gazing at this famous work, painstakingly restored, along with a nearby fresco from the same era, by Olivetti. Well worth the visit.
On the way back to the hotel to await the taxi to take us to the station - too far away to walk trundling our suitcases, I espied a couple of dresses - on sale, of course, in a shop window. ¨Wait here¨I said to Chris. ¨I will not be long.¨
In I went and said to the shop attendant. ¨I want to try on these two dresses and I am in a hurry.¨
¨Let me take your coat¨ he said.¨
Acutally I have three¨I replied.
Önly three? He demures....
A few minutes later Chris and I are back to the hotel, yes, with a dress, and waiting for a taxi to take us along the very snowy streets to the station for our new adventure in Venice. We had originally planned to drive there with friends, via a business call by Chris at Frienze, but this was now not possible because of the snow.
Milano looed even more spectaular today. The traffic, both moving and stationery, had about half a metre of snow on top, the telegraph and tram wires were lined with snow, the large Christmas tree and the statue in the square looked even more dramatic, and the Duomo, with the extra coating of snow all its whitte and gold parapets, looked like a huge fancy Christening cake.
When we finally shused our way to the Milano railway station, the train timetables had been turned topsy turvy by the snowfalls. Some trains to Venice had been cancelled, and ours was delayed by an hour. The Milano Railway station is probably the worst station to stand in in the very cold. There is no shelter, no bars, or shops to pop in to to keep warm. There are only 2 - 3 stand up cafes where you can purchase a roll and a hot drink. These were kept very busy by people, like us, buying food to warm up!
At last, our train was ready and we were off!! And in good time, too, as we found out in the following days, as Milano got colder and whiter. The snow covered ground, as we travelled east towards Venicia, gradually changed from white christmas card scenery to fields and villages lightly covered with snow. Maybe we will have a white holiday in Venice!!
We arrived late in the afternoon at the Venicia Station. This station is like most other European ones - all from the same drawing board, most likely, and Venice is the the end of this particular line.
So it is a great pleasure and change to step out and gaze onto the Grand Canal with some of Venices. beautiful old buildings behind. And the sound of absense motor traffic! Apart frome th quiet purring of canal ferry traffic, of course.
Chris found, on the interet, a lovely hotel just around from the Venice Railway station, and it was very easy to find. In the past, we have stayed in the middle of the city, however the numbering of the buildings of the narrow streets can be rather confusing to new visitors to Venice.
To be continued.....
Showing posts with label Milano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Milano. Show all posts
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
No queues anywhere in Milan on this winter day except....
On our first morning morning in Milano we woke up to very unusual quiet noise outside.
No footprints of people trotting to work, no noisy traffic queueing, even though we were not on a main street.
Then we looked out of the window.
A winter scene awaited us. Huge soft billowy snow flakes! Falling swirling, softly down. It had obviously been snowing for a while, as everything had about 6 inches, or a palm span, of snow - trees, parked cars fences, footpaths, motor cycles - wait til you see the pics when I work out how to load them! What was most amusing that nobody pushed the snow off their vehicles before driving off! So all moving traffic had a thick layer of snow of top - like a layer of icing.
After breakfast Chris and I set off walking in the snow to our arranged time to view the famous Last Supper fresco which we anticipated was about half an hours walk away.
What fun it was, walking in the crunchy snow! I have not done so for years!! We soon found out that it is best to walk where someone else has been so that we do not walk into pot holes, and that the salt which is liberally scattered everwhere quickly turns the snow to much wet slush in the gutters and to ice on the roads where no ice has been scattered.
To our surprise, we were a day early for our booking!! So back to trudging along the Milano city pavements in the snow - fun..... Then we discovered a very interesting art exhibition by a renowned Italian Artist Sifano (pardon spelling - will change it in due course) of his work from the 1960´s to 1990s. Some of it was nostalgic because during this time the role and acceptance of modern art, along with protests etc in the sixties and seventies was rather contraversal. I am sure that there is a website somewhere.
For much of the day we wandered around the city square, visited the Duomo, which looks very clean having had the outsides restored to their marble coloured glory, but the inside was still dark, and visited Chris´favourite department store Rinascente (pardon spelling). We found out that many of these particular stores have, when they can, roof top cafes often out in the open. This one looked straight out to the Duomo at roof height - an excellent way to view the beautifully carved roof top. I went up to the roof on an earlier visit to Milan about 8 years ago a stunning and peaceful place to rest and reflect, especailly, as at that time, there were thousands of visitors down below! There was a much smaller crowd there today - another reason for travelling to Europe in winter!! Oh and did I mention the Milano sales? And the people travel to Milano to go shopping at the winter sales?? Wait for my next blog......
No footprints of people trotting to work, no noisy traffic queueing, even though we were not on a main street.
Then we looked out of the window.
A winter scene awaited us. Huge soft billowy snow flakes! Falling swirling, softly down. It had obviously been snowing for a while, as everything had about 6 inches, or a palm span, of snow - trees, parked cars fences, footpaths, motor cycles - wait til you see the pics when I work out how to load them! What was most amusing that nobody pushed the snow off their vehicles before driving off! So all moving traffic had a thick layer of snow of top - like a layer of icing.
After breakfast Chris and I set off walking in the snow to our arranged time to view the famous Last Supper fresco which we anticipated was about half an hours walk away.
What fun it was, walking in the crunchy snow! I have not done so for years!! We soon found out that it is best to walk where someone else has been so that we do not walk into pot holes, and that the salt which is liberally scattered everwhere quickly turns the snow to much wet slush in the gutters and to ice on the roads where no ice has been scattered.
To our surprise, we were a day early for our booking!! So back to trudging along the Milano city pavements in the snow - fun..... Then we discovered a very interesting art exhibition by a renowned Italian Artist Sifano (pardon spelling - will change it in due course) of his work from the 1960´s to 1990s. Some of it was nostalgic because during this time the role and acceptance of modern art, along with protests etc in the sixties and seventies was rather contraversal. I am sure that there is a website somewhere.
For much of the day we wandered around the city square, visited the Duomo, which looks very clean having had the outsides restored to their marble coloured glory, but the inside was still dark, and visited Chris´favourite department store Rinascente (pardon spelling). We found out that many of these particular stores have, when they can, roof top cafes often out in the open. This one looked straight out to the Duomo at roof height - an excellent way to view the beautifully carved roof top. I went up to the roof on an earlier visit to Milan about 8 years ago a stunning and peaceful place to rest and reflect, especailly, as at that time, there were thousands of visitors down below! There was a much smaller crowd there today - another reason for travelling to Europe in winter!! Oh and did I mention the Milano sales? And the people travel to Milano to go shopping at the winter sales?? Wait for my next blog......
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
No crowds or Queues in our Winter Holiday in Milan, Italy
We travelled to Milan, Italy, by plane over the snowy Swiss Alps, descended through a low bank of cloud, and landed in cold foggy and frosty like conditions at Milano Airport.
Our Milano Friends met us, we dropped off our cases at the hotel and went for a walk along the canal. So cold!! I was so pleased I had 3 coats!! It was freezing!!
The canal area was a place of contrasts. One small section had been closed off and filled in. Around here it was dirty, littered with dog poo and cigarette butts, and had graffitti everywhere. Just across the narrow road, and around the corner, where the canals were filled with water and were used, were shops and cafes, and some hardy people with market stalls.
This area had always been the working part of Milano, warehouses and homes. We were shown a trough of water, which apparantly was used for domestic washing. Today the warehouses and homes are very expensive apartments and restaurants with one or two shops thrown in. However the outsides, as required by regulations look exactly as they did many years ago.
Apparently this canal area is extremely busy in the summer - everyone in Milano comes here, to dine but not today in the very cold. In fact, when we came by the next evening to eat, we had lots of choices from many nearly empty restaurants.
At the end of our brisk cold walk on this our first day in Milan we retired to the car, to inspect some interesting buildings our friend discovered elsewhere in the city.
it is so easy travelling to Europe in winter - you can go anywhere and there are no crowds and queues!
But wait - read more in my next blog about queues.....
Our Milano Friends met us, we dropped off our cases at the hotel and went for a walk along the canal. So cold!! I was so pleased I had 3 coats!! It was freezing!!
The canal area was a place of contrasts. One small section had been closed off and filled in. Around here it was dirty, littered with dog poo and cigarette butts, and had graffitti everywhere. Just across the narrow road, and around the corner, where the canals were filled with water and were used, were shops and cafes, and some hardy people with market stalls.
This area had always been the working part of Milano, warehouses and homes. We were shown a trough of water, which apparantly was used for domestic washing. Today the warehouses and homes are very expensive apartments and restaurants with one or two shops thrown in. However the outsides, as required by regulations look exactly as they did many years ago.
Apparently this canal area is extremely busy in the summer - everyone in Milano comes here, to dine but not today in the very cold. In fact, when we came by the next evening to eat, we had lots of choices from many nearly empty restaurants.
At the end of our brisk cold walk on this our first day in Milan we retired to the car, to inspect some interesting buildings our friend discovered elsewhere in the city.
it is so easy travelling to Europe in winter - you can go anywhere and there are no crowds and queues!
But wait - read more in my next blog about queues.....
Travelling in winter from London to Milan
We flew from London to travel to Milan Italy (and left the last of my cold behind, thank goodness!!!) and had spectacular view over London city before flying into clouds.
Then we flew over the Swiss Alps. What a spectacular view!! There were narrow blue lakes following the contour of the land, snow covered mountain ranges which looked as if they had been combed, sharp snow covered peaks, some of which seemed to have large footprints on them, and snow covered towns nestled in white valleys. As we descended into the Po Valley we flew closer to the alps, as close as we sometimes fly to the Remarkables Mountain Range, in Queenstown, New Zealand.
Then we flew lower into the Po Valley, over many snow covered villages and fields - uh oh -
what is that up ahead? A very large and low bank of thick cloud was smearing its way towards us. We knew the clouds were low because there were several tall chimneys belching out snow through the top of the clouds.
We few into the clouds, and according to the captain, had 20 minutes before landing! It seemed to take a very long time to fly, around and around, just above the clouds. Round and Round. Was the pilot looking for Milan? How would he know when and where to land? After a very long time we slowly descended into this mass of grey cotton wool. It took 20 seconds, because I counted, to go through the clouds, which were as it turned out, at ground level.
Welcome to Milano Italy! And to our next adventure....
Then we flew over the Swiss Alps. What a spectacular view!! There were narrow blue lakes following the contour of the land, snow covered mountain ranges which looked as if they had been combed, sharp snow covered peaks, some of which seemed to have large footprints on them, and snow covered towns nestled in white valleys. As we descended into the Po Valley we flew closer to the alps, as close as we sometimes fly to the Remarkables Mountain Range, in Queenstown, New Zealand.
Then we flew lower into the Po Valley, over many snow covered villages and fields - uh oh -
what is that up ahead? A very large and low bank of thick cloud was smearing its way towards us. We knew the clouds were low because there were several tall chimneys belching out snow through the top of the clouds.
We few into the clouds, and according to the captain, had 20 minutes before landing! It seemed to take a very long time to fly, around and around, just above the clouds. Round and Round. Was the pilot looking for Milan? How would he know when and where to land? After a very long time we slowly descended into this mass of grey cotton wool. It took 20 seconds, because I counted, to go through the clouds, which were as it turned out, at ground level.
Welcome to Milano Italy! And to our next adventure....
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