milano.

Internet is very pricey in Italy, so this will be brief. We are actually in Florence right now where the internet is cheaper than the previous cities, but still a far cry from what we were paying before in Spain & Portugal.

We took a 15€ 2 hour flight from Barcelona to Milan, but of course with great deals come great sacrifices. Such as: the airfare doesn't include your baggage charges, so there is an additional cost for that. Also, you are only allowed to bring 15kg on the flight... which is... nothing really... just a few socks and t shirts. When we flew from Toronto to Europe, we had a baggage restriction of 22kg, and we have only accumulated things since then. Anyway, we had to shed the extra weight in order to save ourselves from paying the outrageous penalty costs for going over. (Also we decided to use the tactic of wearing EVERY heavy piece of clothing we owned on to the plane. I literally wore 8 layers on my tops piece. I was sweating profusely and couldn't really move my arms. I felt like a little kid dressed up in a snowsuit ready to go outside and play, but constricted by the tightness of the layers.)
Plus, of course the flight wasn't from Barcelona centre. Although it was advertised as Barcelona, it actually left from Girona. So we had to take an hour long bus to Girona to catch the flight. Although our flight left at 6:45am, we had to catch the bus at 3:40am. So, we didn't really sleep that night.

But it was all worth it once we arrived in beautiful Italy, which for anyone who is wondering, is as magical as it you would think. It's strange but I felt comforted to see similar gypsies to what I saw in Spain when we arrived at the train station in Milan. When I heard the annoying noises of the little horse toys they try to sell, I saw that European gypsies are all the same, wherever you go. We decided to take a three hour nap once we arrived at our hostel, but it easily turned into a 6 hour nap (seeing as we really didn't sleep the night before), and it would have extended had we not forced ourselves to get up and go outside. Milan is a pretty cool city, like all other major Italian cities it is full of magnificent and glorious architecture, because they could never settle for less.

During our stay the real highlight for us was the food. And can you blame us? The portion sizes are insane, and the food is really all it's cracked up to be. I am slowly becoming a pasta, pizza, and gelato connoisseur. The prices, in comparison to what we experience in Spain & Portugal, are vastly inexpensive, and the food is much better.

Aside from indulging in all of these treats, we did some shopping, as Milan is a fashion capital and for good reason. There seemed to be models everywhere. Also, I hadn't mentioned this but throughout our stay in Spain people would constantly stare at Michael. All over the place. And sometimes they would even take pictures of him, we noticed. One time he went into a pizza place alone, and later told me that everyone working in the back was talking about him and peeking out to look at him, and at one point about six workers were all staring at him. He didn't have anything on his face, we confirmed. After a bunch of incidents happened (namely the picture taking) we started to wonder if he looks like someone famous here... like a football star or movie star. Because really, we generally blend in well in these countries. We don't look much different from everyone else. Anyway, this whole thing has continued during our time in Italy, and he grabbed the attention of many people in Milan. So.... if anyone has any ideas. Please, enlighten me.

We only stayed 3 nights in Milan, but by the time we left, we felt we really covered most of the city, and were ready to leave. There are some beautiful gardens and things like that but it felt like we were just getting warmed up for Venice, Florence and Rome. Which will come soon...