First Day in Italy!
Trip Start
May 12, 2011
1
2
10
Trip End
May 22, 2011
Where I stayed
What I did
Travel day, primarily
Milan, Lombardy, Italy
Friday, May 13, 2011
The flight from Madrid to Milan was super short. My friend, Jen, was already in Milan having flown on a separate flight from Boston. Unfortunately, I couldn't leave the baggage claim area to go meet her in the terminal - I wouldn't be able to get back in to get my suitcase when it came on the later flight. So I spent my first couple hours in Italy at the baggage terminal in the Milan Airport, surely annoying the man at the luggage help counter asking him a ton of questions in a combination of the little bit of Italian I tought myself, Spanish, and English. It worked out OK, though, as I was able to meet up with Bob McGee and the rest of the group who were flying in on a different flight from Boston. I met Bob and explained to him my situation,and we decided the best plan was for me to wait for my bag and take a bus into Milan's center on my own, then a taxi to the hotel. My bag did come in on the next flight, the little Italian man was getting off his shift, so he walked me to the ticket station to get a ticket for the bus and then to the bus.
So after all of that, I finally met up with Jen and the rest of the crew at our hotel, Watt Tredici (http://www.venere.com/hotels/milan/watttredici-hotel/). This hotel was probably my sole complaint about the trip. The hotel itself was awesome, very modern, but its location was less than stellar. It was pretty far outside the center of Milan, so it took forever via public transit to get around, or a fairly expensive taxi ride. Additionally, there wasn't a whole lot of action going on around the hotel. That aside, I was happy to be there and united with Jen. I rested for a little bit and got ready for our first Italian dinner. The group went together at 6:45pm to a restaurant down the street called La Legna. Jen and I shared a carafe of white wine, and I had risotto, salad, and steak. It was probably my least favorite meal of the trip, but I wasn't too worried about it because I knew there was a lot more to come. After dinner, the younger ones of us in the group walked around for a bit and ended up at a bar across the street from our hotel called "Taverna Octopus" for a drink. The bar actually looked pretty American and I had a citrus rum cooler and then we called it an early night.
