Erin: Day 16: Milan, Italy

I loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove Milan.

It wouldn’t be my favorite city on the planet (that I’ve been to anyway) but it certainly was a great experience thus far!  We landed in Milan late last night (around 7pm) and tried to grab a map from the Information Desk but guess what?  The information desk had no information.  So, yeah, that part wasn’t THAT helpful…  However, after asking the police where the street our hotel was located was, we found out that it was literally RIGHT in front of the train station…  WOOHOO!

So, a short five minute walk later, we were standing in front of the palace, I mean hotel, and we were both thinking, “Woohoo!  We scored on this one!”  For those of you who are thinking that I must just be super wealthy to afford all of these four and five star hotels, I’m sorry… I’m not.  I do however have a very good website called Priceline.com that I’ve been using for every single hotel on this trip.  Now, you can go to Priceline.com and just type in any city and it’ll give you a list of hotels at regular price but you DO NOT want to do that.  Instead, click on Name Your Own Price.  So… you enter in the price YOU want to pay, the hotel star level you want and the area and click “Name That Price” and it’ll see if any hotel is willing to accept it.

We’ve had a few cities that wouldn’t accept our offer (it was too low) but I’ve found on average that you can get most hotels that are four and five stars between $80 - 120 American.  Not bad for living it up across Europe!  For two people at any hostel, you’ll pay anywhere from 25 - 50 Euros per person which totals anywhere from 50 - 100 Euros which is $75 - 150 Canadian.  So, it all works out for me!

We got up to our room, unpacked a bit and then headed to the grocery store to pick up some food rather than buy the REALLY expensive room service (it’s insane here…)  We got back, unloaded it into the mini bar and made some sandwiches and had olive crackers.  Yum!  The rest of the night was work, chatting with home and then… sleep!

We woke up late… Around 12:30pm (yes, seriously) and then we showered and headed out to the shopping area of Milan.

Outside of our hotel, there was actually a flea market taking place so we wandered around the flea market checking out the wares.  It was cool - this flea market was like most of our antique shops back home… The stuff was GORGEOUS!

The flea market with our hotel Le Meridien in the background.

Before heading to shop, we passed by a Gelateria and of course… I could not help myself from going in.  SERIOUSLY FOLKS… What I am going to do when I go home?  Ice cream in Canada (or North America) just does not compare with this stuff.  I’m going to have to find a gelato exporter from Italy so I can have it in Canada.

Most stores were closed due to it being Sunday but that didn’t stop us :)  We wandered around and went into some of the open stores and browsed.  I found this one store that I liked and after seeing a top that caught my eye, I had to go in and try it on.  A few minutes later and I was one bag and one shirt heavier.

The bag I bought in Milan, Italy - real leather!

The shirt I bought in Milan, Italy - after wearing nothing but black for 3 weeks - this shirt is a pleasant splash of color!  I love vibrant and loud shirts

While wandering through the streets, we happened across the Piazza and Church that Milan is known for.  It’s a huge gothic-inspired Church with tons of spires and on the spires are little statues of people.  Semi-scary really!

The gothic-inspired Church in Milan, Italy

Cotton candy made the afternoon even better!

Virgin Records had a big stage-like thing setup and a mock up of the Beatles album cover where they are crossing Abbey Road in London, England.  Well…  me and my cotton candy (so delicious) could not resist standing in line for a photo.  We couldn’t fit all of us in (there was a stupid metro entrance in the way) but here’s me with one of the Beatles.

Erin standing in line with The Beatles.

We then entered into the most famous shopping stretch in Milan.  It’s got a domed roof and it’s absolutely breathtaking!

Milan’s famous enclosed shopping area.

The dome of Milan’s most famous shopping area.

We then stopped at the Gucci cafe for some cappucinos and cake…  So delicious!  By this point, we were truly loving the fashion-focused Milan.

Erin & Trina at the Gucci cafe in Milan, Italy.

Now we’re back at the hotel and I’m settling in for some work.  I want to get everything caught up before our 9 hour train ride to Paris tomorrow.  Can’t believe I go home in 2.5 days!!

Technorati Tags: Milan, Italy, The Traveling VA, Erin Blaskie, Trina Lamarche, Gucci, Gucci cafe, Duomo, virtual assistant, virtual assistance, Paris, France, train, flea market