We were staying in the Ibis Milano Ca Granda, a 15 minute tram ride from the Stazione di Milano Centrale depending on the traffic. The hotel was ok but a bit quirky in an Italian manner, for instance Pauline asked if she could borrow an iron, as she wanted to iron some clothes to wear to her conference. The receptionist replied that they did not have an iron, as the hotel was not finished yet! We  thought this was a bit odd. Luckily the adjoining hotel was owned by the same group of companies and we managed to borrow an iron from them.

While Pauline was at her conference, I concentrated on fixing my neck, and just pottered round our local area. One day, I was at a local laundromat doing our washing. The owner took it upon himself to teach me italian while I was waiting, starting with the alphabet and how to pronounce the vowels and syllables, then progressing to numbers and words. Eventually an english speaking lady came in, and she explained to me that the owner would talk the hind leg off a donkey, and my best strategy was to pretend not to understand a word of italian and ignore him. However I thought he was quite nice and enjoyed the lesson.

At night we would catch the tram or bus into the Stazione Centrale, and explore a little. We found various restaurants to try, including an excellent chinese buffet restaurant about 5 minutes walk from the station. On the last day in Milan Pauline’s conference was over so we had time to explore a bit more. The Piazza Duomo is spectacular, there was some sort of fashion event happening there at nights so they had a stage with bands doing sound checks, and a giant screen. The Duomo itself is the fourth largest church in the world. It took five centuries to complete, starting in 1386. It certainly is a most impressive structure.  On the north side of the square is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a beautiful covered double arcade full of elegant shops, named after the first king of united Italy.  Not far from the Piazza we discovered my favourite part of Milan which was the Ferrari shop! Here, you could buy a complete used Formula 1 Ferrari engine for your coffee table, for a mere €48000. Also, various items of clothing, ferrari sunglasses, luggage, models, and other engine parts. It was a fantastic place.

The city is rather busy, the traffic is appalling, and it was time to head to Pontedera. Here’s some photos.