Places to Go (Vacation) - MILAN (Days 6 & 7) - Dragging Our Kids Through Europe, Part V

More vacation stories . . .

We had planned on staying in Venice one night (because lodging there is SO EXPENSIVE) and two full days, but when we arrived at the train station to store our bags the luggage check was full. And the train station was crazy crowded. So my mother hen instinct kicked into full gear and I told Dan we NEEDED to catch the next train to Milan. We're still pretty sad about missing out on the Guggenheim.






In Milan, we finally started to adjust to carrying all of our possessions on our backs . . .




We stayed close to the train station (you can see the rental listing here), which was a quick subway ride from central downtown. We planned on exploring the neighborhood more, but the apartment was big and air-conditioned. Plus, it felt nice to have a whole day of lazy. So Dan grocery shopped and made a big dinner while I chilled with the kids.









The next morning we caught the subway to Milan's central square and huge church. As in HUGE CHURCH. The views were phenomenal, but the temps were unbearable. (And, in case you're wondering, T basically wore the same shirt for most of our vacation, I'm not even sure he went through all the five outfits I packed him.)



P and F heard that Milan was the fashion capital of the world, so of course we needed some retail therapy. Huge sales at Zara and Benetton kept both girls super happy.






In the afternoon, we took a super crowded 3.5 hour bus/walking tour of the city. Yes, you read that right, 3.5 hours. The kids (much to my surprise) handled it super well (the tour guide even gave them a shout out for good behavior), but I found Milan to be a somewhat dull city (sorry Milan).

We toured the famous opera house, which would have been all sorts of awesome if I knew ANYTHING about opera. The inside of Milan's huge cathedral was pretty impressive at first, but even that became sort of lackluster after enough time had passed. T fell asleep on the bus (I could make a whole photo series of all the random places in Europe T slept).



Finally we arrived at the Last Supper, the tour's highlight (and really the only reason we took the tour, as tickets are hard to procure on one's own). We couldn't take photos inside, as everything is hyper controlled (groups cannot exceed 15 people and can only stay for 15 minutes each), but the painting really was all sorts of awesome, especially if you've ever read The Da Vinci Code.




By the time we made our way back to our apartment, everyone was tired and hot, so we opted for another lazy night at home (I know we seem like the lamest tourists ever, but I promise in other cities we actually partied like rock stars, well, aging rock stars with kids, but you get my drift). This actually ended up being one of our best nights in Europe, the slow internet forced us all to interact with each other - so I taught F backgammon while P and T battled like gladiators on the couch. Then Dan beat P in chess while F and I postagrammed. And we all fell asleep to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on the ipad for a family movie (we chose that movie because it takes place in Venice).

HAPPY WEDNESDAY EVERYONE!! In the next few weeks I'll post some pics from Lake Como and Rome, as well as some DC-related posts. Hope you're all having a great summer!