Laura's Lovely Log

milan (with lots o' pics!)

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. I feel much much better. I just love Italy. Honestly, sometimes I wonder what it would take to live there. Here's the story:

Wednesday:
Went to the office, picked up stuff and my colleague, taxi to train to plane to taxi to hotel. Off to conference for set up. After all that's all out of the way, off to dinner at yummy yummy restaurant. Did the traditional 3 courses plus sides and desert thing. Man, there is just no better country to eat in. Period. Took a picture of a silly shop on the way home:


Thursday:
oh boy - Italian library conference. Couldn't talk, couldn't eavesdrop. If I'd been there on my own it would have been torture. Still some fun was had and it was successful. Went out for drinks with happy hour, which in Milan means a free food buffet. Even the crappy cafeteria and bar food was MILES better than anything I've eaten in ages. Poor friend/colleague missed her flight and we met up with her for drinks but stopped for dinner on the way:



And what do you do when you need cigarettes but the shop's closed? No worries: you buy them through the security gate:


Friday:
More conference fun but did have a lovely lunch with the aforementioned stranded colleague. Breakdown then hotel to change then out for drinks and dinner and more drinks. Seriously pigging out by this point. Have to consider how to lose the extra weight. BTW, here's a pic of the central train station, which was right by our hotel:


Saturday:
The fun begins. Got up (a little later than planned), went to city center to have brunch and go shopping. Went to Zara, bought a gorgeous skirt and two tops. Said goodbye to remaining colleague. Walked around square, went to famous mall:



(look, Momma! Athena shopping! oh poo. you can't see her owl.)

Time to go to the Duomo (cathedral). Oh, yeah, as usual, I get to see Europe under scaffolding:


But that doesn't detract from the absolute highlight of the trip. It's beautiful inside and I lit my candle, but it doesn't compare to how wonderful the roof was.


I sat up there for a long time and made a new friend (Alan). We went to a museum together. Pinacoteca Brera - eh, ok. Went there to see Caravaggio, but ironically I'd already seen the painting in London with Jerrod a few weeks ago and it's still on display here. Did see Francesco's Il Bacio, which was lovely, and the fascinating Cristo morto nel sepolcro e tre dolenti (The Lamentation over the Dead Christ) by Mantegna Andrea, which I'd never seen before. Then we went to dinner (happy hour at a different pub) and he dropped me off at my hotel before going out with friends. This was a very good plan because I needed to pack and sleep, but even more importantly, I needed to watch Body Bags in Italian (apparently). No, it doesn't get any better in Italian, but it does get a hell of a lot funnier.

Sunday:
Well, the day got off to a crappy start. I checked out and got money but didn't make it to the church on time, so I didn't get to see the Last Supper even though I had a reservation. I nearly cried. Actually, I did cry. But then I wandered the streets of Milan and ran into a fascinating antiques sale, which I would have missed if I'd been there later, and had the breakfast I'd skipped. Then I went to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, which was absolutely divine. I was, like, the second person to get there and had the whole museum to myself for most of the time. The Caravaggio and da Vincis were nice but Raphael's sketch for the School of Athens took my breath away. There was also the most wonderful statue that I'm desperately trying to find online to figure out who it's from. I made another new friend as a curator took a shine to me. He pointed out a painting done by a 19-year old girl I would have otherwise missed and encouraged me to touch a statue of a tigress and her cubs. Of course, I had to put up with him being a slimey git but whatever. Left and wandered back to the square. More shopping (7 more tops from Zara and some things from H&M including another great skirt) and lunch and daydreaming about not leaving.

But I did and now I'm in London and can't concentrate on work. Oh well. I've got more pictures if you want them. Just ask. And I've got other random stuff I could post about, but instead I'll leave you with a picture of the lion I liked and pretend like I really care about anything other than daydreaming.

posted by Laura @ 9:34 AM