Day31

Day 31; Friday 30thth April.

In need of action and adventure were on a mid morning train into Milano. Train travel is cheap in Italy and it’s just not worth the hassle of driving and parking in the big cities.
Now Italian ladies like to travel in style on the train. Curled up in the one seat they have paid for with a book or magazine. The seat beside them is taken up with the handbag, the one opposite with the coat and the one beside that with the shopping bags. The four seats opposite the aisle have the suitcases shoved in so at eight seats per person the trains fill up very quickly and they are happily oblivious to anyone having to stand for the journey.
The Stazione Centrale is truly monumental, gleaming white and built on the orders of Mussolini. A stunner and when we’ve finished gawping realised we were up to our necks in a throng of humanity.

I so needed a city. We take the metro. Like me, its easy and cheap (Andy is still Sir Limpsalot) and we head for Cartier to get my blessed battery replace.
A buzzer admits us to the shop where the charming lady behind the counter greets us like old friends.
The replacement will take a few minutes so were served hot coffee and chilled water while we discuss all the places she thinks we should see in Italy. 30 minuets later and we want to take her with us and I think she would have come. But when discussing our travels to date, (the mountains, Venice, the Lakes) we failed to mention we were in a caravan so she clearly had the impression we were international playboys. Declined any sort of payment for the repair (in Bond street they charge £80 for a new battery) we were sent on our way, delighted and refreshed.
Is this what its like for rich people all the time?
A divine plate of late lunch (and cheap) in a café round the corner and were off to the Duomo where nothing quite prepares you for the scale of the place, its incredibly elaborate and HUGHE.
Unfortunately manned by guards shooing away perfectly respectable girls with bare shoulders and short skirts.
Do they honestly think an omnipotent deity is going to be remotely offended by what people are wearing or are their brains as small as their *****?

Across from the Duomo is the
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, surely the most elegant shopping arcade in the world.
In Prada(beautifull shop) its full on fifties, patterns, summer frocks and everything, available from any vintage shop a fraction of the price.
Flying Visit to La Scala, no tickets for Lulu (the opera) that night and a rather austere façade.

Train home, Job Done, Great Day.