May the Bosch's be with you: Day 2 Milan/Venice

Our second day in Milan we headed over to the Duomo Cathedral. We took our first subway train to get there. Thankfully it was pretty easy for Chris to navigate. I on the other hand didn’t like the subway because it’s very crowded and hot. Once we got out of the subway station you walked up the stairs and there was the Duomo. It is the 4th largest cathedral in the world and it’s the largest in Italy. I really enjoyed the Duomo because it wasn’t crowded so you were able to walk around and enjoy the beauty of the cathedral. After we walked around the cathedral we took an elevator up to scale the roof of the Duomo. It was wonderful being able to look out at the views of Milan and enjoy the scenery. There was a rooftop restaurant that had someone playing the saxophone which made it even more enjoyable. The only bad part was that they were renovating the very top of the Duomo. But thankfully we were able to see the majority of it. After we finished scaling the Duomo we walked around the very expensive shopping district. It was neat being able to see the beautifully decorated windows and most of the people in the shops were very friendly. The only place that wasn’t friendly was the Burberry store. They wouldn’t let us in because they were cleaning the window. My favorite store was the Jimmy Choo store. I of course had to buy a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes!! The only thing Chris wouldn’t let me buy was a pair of high heels since I’m so hard on my heels. I also bought a Louis Vuitton wallet. I had fallen in love with a limited edition mint green bag but I just couldn’t make myself buy it! Our overall impression of Milan was that we loved it. The people were friendly and the city was very easy to navigate. We’d love to go back one day and visit the Last Supper. That was the only thing that we didn’t get to do.

I loved the Gothic architecture of the Duomo.

Even upscale shops have mice! :)

I could have spent hours in there trying on shoes!!!

We took the subway back to our hotel and then headed to the train station to take our next train to Venice. We sat in first class this time and the only bad thing was that Chris and I weren’t able to sit next to each other. Three hours later we arrived in Venice. I instantly feel in love with the city. We exited the train station and you walk out and see the Grand Canal. I was looking for the water taxi that would take us to Saint Mark’s Square. But there were a ton of people walking around and we were tired. Someone wearing a blue official vest asked if we needed a taxi. We said that we did and where we needed to go. Chris asked how much the guy would charge us to take us there and he picked up our bags and we got into a rather scary looking speed boat. He took us down canals that we probably shouldn’t have gone down but we pulled up to a dock 20 minutes later. He picked up our bags and we walked 5 minutes to our hotel room. We stayed in the Hotel Dianna and it wasn’t as nice as the first hotel but a bed is a bed. After we got all settled in we headed out to see Venice at night.

The Grand Canal

I loved all of the smaller canals.

Venice is magical at night. Everyone leaves and there aren’t that many people who stay on the main island. Thankfully our hotel was located right off Saint Mark’s Square. We decided to eat at Caffe Florian in Saint Marc’s Square. It was highly recommended by travel expert Rick Steve which meant that it was pretty pricey! But we soon learned that everything in Venice was very expensive because everything has to be boated in. A normal bottle of water costs thirteen dollars!! But we knew that going in so we tried not on to dwell on it. Caffe Florian had a band playing in the square so we decided to eat outside and people watch. After dinner we wandered around Venice. If you get lost in Venice just follow one of the signs for either Saint Mark’s or the Rialto Bridge. We ended up going to the Rialto Bridge and watching all the boats and people riding in their private gondola rides.