(Wednesday)
We woke up and did some shopping, and walking. On recommendation we took the vaporretto (water metro) from San Marco square all the way up the grand canal. The views were nice...when we were able to see them in between people's shoulders, the boat was packed. We didn't even sit. We did think it was funny to see our host drive by on his little boat.
Our train left in the afternoon and a few hours later we arrived in Milan Central. We checked our bags at a luggage storage and popped on the metro for the quick trip to see the most famous site - the massive Duomo. As soon as we entered the metro station we saw a few individuals walking around up to people using the machines, presumably to distract, although posing to help. It was very uncomfortable. Two people came up on either side of us touching our machine, telling us we needed to use a different denomination, grabbing our tickets to hand them to us. We clutched our bags tight and had to fend them off. It was a terrible feeling. If we hadn't invested in storing our luggage already we probably would have just left.
The Duomo and surrounding square was impressive and beautiful. But sad to say, we were over Milan. When we stopped to eat, a waiter showed us his menu outside as we approached and when we said okay he started leading us down the street to the next restaurant. A waiter from the close restaurant called after us to look at his menu and stay. How cutthroat! Milan is not for us. I guess this helps us be ready for the comforts of our home. Maybe another sign that we're ready is that we stopped to get a milkshake at the McDonald's in the train station. ;). After much navigation and with lots of relief we found the bus to the airport, where we'll take a shuttle to our hotel and rest up for our long journey home, tomorrow morning. We've got a few euros left and they're tagged for our last wine and gelato.