Milano is industrial but has it's charms. Bring money.

Driving from Turino to Milano is a charm with such  perfect highways. I would gladly pay a 12 euro toll in Montreal to have roads in such good condition. But I feel we are doomed to bad services in Montreal by the poor moral code of our politicians and construction trades.

The only problem with a 130 kph speed limit is that you can see the fuel gauge needle move towards empty; so we drop back to 120 till we can't stand having cars whizzing past us so fast!

The hotel fire instructions are
the best I have ever seen.

The Naviglio Grande Hotel is great value providing more than I expected.

Duomo in Milan is like a cake with too much frosting.

The Duomo is a sight, of course, so intricate and in great condition with endless restoration; the Piazza is huge and full of people. I love it!

The sun is blazing
but the advertising
is up to the task almost
outshining the sun.

I didn't go inside, not for the 12 euro ticket but because I have seen far too many churches for a lifetime.

The La Scala theatre shop left me with sticker shock with canvas bags at 38 euro (plain logo). When you start looking for value and end up at the fridge magnet section, you know you are in sticker shock!

The La Scala museum was a pleasure, since they provide access to some balcony seats to view the concert hall while the stage hands are at work. The balcony is tiny, barely holding two seats wide, the other four ottomans (no backs) sit behind them, bus style. The rest of the museum displayed artifacts, costumes, scores, posters, busts covering 250 years of theatre. I liked it.

As we left, a ticket scalper announced his wares in near perfect American English. It was quite impressive to hear.

We checked out the covered street nearby, the steel arches are so far above the beautiful marble floor, I couldn't find enough eyes to look at it all.

This cute cartoon caught our
attention at Papà Francesco's.

Eventually we made our way to a fun restaurant Papà Francesco where I relaxed for a few hours with terrific food and very pleasant waiters.  Milano is not Torino however as prices are substantially higher.

The subway system is just like Montreal's but on steel rails (read noisy). However it has full time 3G in the cars. That is a blessing as I was able to answer my email underground. Take a hint Montreal Metro.

The subway is great, the tickets are sold at newsstands, this is not great, I had to walk several blocks to buy a ticket as they were all closed at lunch. Eventually I found them on sale at an Internet/telephone shop. My trusty Google translate app worked perfectly (but painfully slowly) to sort out the ticket purchase.

Tip if you use the Naviglio Grande hotel: Use the 321 bus which is a short ride to the end of the red line subway, then on to Duomo station; this is the better line the alternative is the 325 bus to the green line which is slow, long and rough.

The large fortress is impressive.

Bosque Vertical attemps to build
a forest on a skyscraper.

This chocolate fountain runs
70 tonnes through per hour! 

At first, I didn't think it was real.