Milan

From Cinque Terre we got the busabout bus to Nice, France. We only stayed here one night so much to report. We got dinner at a Chinese restaurant (very authentic French food i know) and took advantage of finally having internet access after having been without it for about a week. We stayed in our first dorm room of the trip so far. Really not much else to tell you, we didn't arrive until about 6pm and then left again at 8am the following morning. Although on the drive into Nice we drove past Monaco and our guide told us a bit about the place, for instance you need one million dollars just to apply to live there! Madonna was turned down, apparently she doesn't have the right life style to live in Monaco. But Bonno has a house here (which we could just see from the highway) and Elton John has a place here too. The Monte Carlo Casino (of which we saw only the roof from the highway) has a 25 euro bet minimum to play roulette so i don't think we will be doing any gambling there!! The town has no taxes and all their money comes from tourism and the casino.
The following day we got on the bus headed for Milan, there was only about 12 or so of us which was a nice change from the usual 50 or so people we usually travel with. It mean everyone got a seat to themselves. The drive to Milan was relatively non eventful. we didn't stay at the pick up point so had to make our own way to our hostel. luckily one of the guides was traveling with us because he was flying to Greece so he showed us which train to catch and helped us work our where we needed to get off. it turned out to be really easy with one of the metro stops been right near our hostel.
We spent our first afternoon exploring the streets close to our hostel, Ewen got some new shorts and i discovered strawberry icey drinks, possibly the most delicious drink ever to be invented!
The first night we got pizzas for dinner at a restaurant, the pizzas turned out to be massive! the biggest ones we have had yet! The part that i couldn't eat because i was full was nearly as big as my head!!!


Our room in Milan was similar to a sauna, it was much hotter in there than it was outside so we tried to avoid staying in the too long at all times! when we did have to be in there i had cold showers about every 2 hours which helped. why they couldn't just put a fan in there i don't know!!!!
The following day we planned to get the metro into central Milan to check out the Duomo (the cathedral) but when we got to the metro station it was all caged up, after buying a map we started walking into the town which turned out to be only a 30 minute walk which was a good way to see a bit more of Milan anyway. We walked along the metro line and found out that all of the stops were caged up and there was a strike. Italians sure do love to strike about different things! the museums were all closed today as well due to the strike.
We got to the Duomo and unluckily for me it was the only church we have been to so far that didn't offer material to cover yourselves up so they wouldn't let me in (i was wearing shorts). Ewen went in to take some photos while i waited outside with all the other girls in shorts. after about 10 minutes i decided this was ridiculous and was about to approach one of the woman selling scarves when they all ran away. it seemed they had heard sirens and thought he police were coming. after a few minutes they came back and i got myself a scarf to tie around my waist and was let in yay! the cathedral was incredible, full of art work and gargoyles and statues.
The cathedral took 650 years to build and they certainly did a fantastic job, after exploring the inside we climbed to the top of the cathedral (well as high up as they allow you go to anyway, i think normally you would be able to climb higher but they were doing some maintenance to the top tower) and took in the views of Milan. Apparently on a clear day you can see right to Switzerland but it mus not have been cleat enough on the day we went up.
We spent the rest of the day exploring the side streets of Milan. We window shopped mostly due to the ridiculous prices!!

The next day we set off for Switzerland