Millin' around in the city

We took a trip into Milan, or, as they call it here, Milano (not to be confused with the cookie; believe it or not, the city streets are not paved with deliciousness, as we would find out).

We took the train into the city. Despite being in a small town, we are just around the corner from the rail station, which has been an excellent gateway into the broader Italian countryside.

After exiting the train station, we almost immediately bought some graniti. I got mint again; this one was a slightly less radioactive shade of green. I must say that I'm sort of becoming addicted.I immediately enacted a one granite a day rule to prevent myself from slurping down several as the day progressed.

Beverages in hand, we entered the Castello Sforzesco. The castle was controlled for several years by Napoleon after he captured Milano in 1796. The castle was used as barracks and for other purposes, and Napoleon ordered the outer walls torn down.

We strolled around the castle for awhile before heading to the Duomo. (The pictures on the website look surprisingly similar to some that I took. I'm not always creative with the camera, I guess.)
The Duomo is a large cathedral in the Gothic style dedicated to the worship of this guy named Jesus. Perhaps you've heard of him; he now has a website.The church also featured the crypt of a deceased cardinal. His casket is glass, so you can see his decayed body.We exited the church and went in search of food. We wanted pizza. Rowan balked a little bit at the price of pizza at the nice restaurants in the area, and everything is generally more expensive in Milano.

So we ended up eating at a place that is a sister restaurant of the Italian fast-food pizza joint Spizzico. We were both very disappointed by the food, and spent the rest of the day lamenting how disappointed we were.

We wandered around town before ending up at a large and amazing semi-indoor shopping plaza.Amidst the fancy restaurants and the stores selling Louis Vuitton bags and Armani suits was the fanciest McDonald's I have ever seen.
We considered continuing our day of substandard eating by ordering McFlurries. We actually entered the restaurant, but we didn't buy anything.

We should have.

We left the plaza and plunked ourselves down at a very nice looking restaurant that had dishes of very nice looking gelato. But we didn't order gelato. Rowan ordered a frappe, basically a milkshake. But it seemed a little heavy on the milk, a little light on the shake. I ordered a frulatte, basically a smoothie, but this one was also a little heavy on the latte, a little light on the fru.

Now completely discombobulated by our inability to search out good food, we started imagining things, such as the streets being filled by giant letters of the alphabet.Seeking some respite from big-city life and the heat and humidity that had hung over the day, we walked to the train station and then headed home.

There, the food is always good. We were soon greeted by a big steamy bowl of delicious risotto. Buonissimo!

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To see more photos from the day, visit this webpage: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=52867&l=2f8d6&id=547792060