Milano

I accompanied a friend from work to Milan the other day. In addition to being just plain fun, it was also kind of cheering in the I'm-a-retarded-foreigner department. When you've been here a while, you kind of stop being able to use the "I've only been here three months" excuse to cut yourself a break when you do something stupid, so you might beat up on yourself rather a lot. On this particular Saturday, though, I was able to impart all sorts of useful wisdom to my less-experienced friend (who has, in fact, only been here a couple of months, and therefore can still use that excuse): that the smaller rete regionale machines in the train station won't give you a ticket to Milan; that you shouldn't get off at Milano Rogoredo or Milano Lambrate but wait for Milano Centrale, how to buy a ticket for the metro, how to use said metro once you've got a ticket, where to get off to see the Duomo (although, being that the station is called 'Duomo', I feel like that's more or less obvious if you think about it for a minute), and other things like that.

Also, there are things in Italy that are really fun to show someone for the first time. The Duomo in Milan is one of them. I very clearly remember turning the corner into the piazza my first time in Milan (having hiked the seventy billion kilometers from the train station because I was scared of the metro at that point), and I was all sweaty and tired, but then there it was and it was amazing. It's one of those "Oh! Oh! Oh my god!"-type moments.

We take photos of various things, make a pilgrimmage to the big store of the Local Fashion Thing where we teach (it looks nice - must remember to compliment whichever of our students is in charge of the window displays), and eat some gelato while staring dazedly at the Duomo. It is a beautiful spring day.

On our way back up the Via Emilia, the Mille Miglia cars whiz past us, honking and sputtering, and the people lined up on the sidewalk cheer. There's a band playing in the piazza. They've put the yellow chairs back out by the fountains, which means reading in the sun to the sound of water splashing (yay!). Later, we have a spritz in the shadow of our Duomo while a warm breeze floats around.

Summer is back!