Milan, Prego and Destra

Milan was certainly not our favorite city. I know we didn't see everything, but that is just  the problem: we were trying to "see" and didn't have time to fully experience the city. Neither of us really enjoy just seeing. Not to mention that our first day was spent recovering from jet lag. Also, Milan is one of the world's fashion capitals; we came to Italy to farm, so we weren't exactly rocking it when it came to our outfits.

We did get a chance to visit the Duomo, the fourth largest church in Europe and home of one of the nails from the Crucifixion. Of course, Michelle and I only read about the nail brought to Milan by Constantine's mom St. Helen in Rick Steve's guidebook. It's not like there are labels on these things. I think seeing relics in Italy might be a little like finding water fountains in Rome: they're all over the place but never publicized.

The view from the top of the Duomo is lovely, and you can definitely see all of Milan. You can't see 360 degrees at once, however, so you have to make your way around the top and look through the spires. I especially enjoyed visiting the baptistery, which is where St. Ambrose baptized St. Augustine at the end of the 4th century. There was literally no one else touring that basement area, but there were some construction guys working. If I had thought about it while I was there, it could have been kind of creepy, especially considering the tombs sitting around from their excavation that had taken place in the 1940s.

View from the top of the Duomo

We experienced the typical tourist trap, during which people tie yarn around your wrist while you're saying, "I'm not going to give you money for that," and they respond that it's "waka waka." Then when you sing, "this time for Africa," (which I did) they tell you that you look like Shakira and demand one euro for Africa, which I gave them out of some weird sense of guilt.

People-watching is underrated in this city, and that was our most common activity. We saw some models in front of a fountain and their photographer setting up near La Strata Opera House. We noticed a lot of people running near Sforza Castle around 4pm, which might be what business people do during their long siesta break in the middle of the day, or perhaps those people just had the day off. We saw a man playing a concert piano in the middle of Piazza Duomo. We saw an unusual amount of men wearing flowered shirts, not Hawaiian-style, but large prints on the front or small prints covering the shirt. This must be one of the newest fads for European men.

Piano Player

The most useful part of Milan, I think, was definitely the two important words we learned: prego and destra. As far as definitions go, prego means "you're welcome," but we found that prego means much more than that. "Your turn." "I can help you." "Please, go ahead." "You're fine; just go for it." "You're welcome to that." "Seriously, go ahead!" All of these phrases fall under the simple word "prego." So when, for example, you're on the Milanese subway, and some man asks you if he can sit down there, you can just go with "Prego!" What I said was, "Yeah, sure, go for it!" Thankfully, I also motioned with my hand and smiled, or he probably wouldn't have understood.

Destra means "right," as in the direction opposite to left. I can't tell you how many places are destra. The hostel was two destras, no matter who we asked along the subway exit; the Tim store was one destra; and the free bathroom in the train station was destra, destra, (hand motion for straight), and due, due, quattro, quattro per "code" (2244 was the code to enter this free bathroom. I guess if you hadn't bought lunch, they wouldn't have told you the code. That's how free it was.) If it's not destra, it's left. That's what I know.

Not that you're asking for my recommendation, but if you like fashion, money, spending, banking, material goods, and fast Italian food (The slow-paced Italian meal definitely didn't take place during lunch in Milan, but perhaps it did for families at dinner time.), then I would recommend this city to you. Otherwise, I really think you could skip it and still be fulfilled in life.

Michelle on the roof of the Duomo
(conveniently wearing a men's a-la-mode shirt)