Ringing the changes

We ended 2017 and started 2018 in Milan this year. Andy and I decided that we were spending Christmas and New Year adventuring in Lombardy... and yes there were many, many adventures.

We set off on the 23rd December, ready to travel into the unknown, as this part of Italy is unchartered territory for us.

 We arrived at our hotel after an exhausting day but were delighted with the hotel, its position and its closeness to train station, metro and trams.

Day 1  Eileen and Duomo

The biggest challenge we thought was to cope with me hobbling around with my walking stick. Not so... the walking was challenging but the metro, the trains and the trams were what made me raise my game. The walking, I seemed to take in my stride.

As it was a must to visit the famous Milan cathedral, day one saw us enjoying blue skies and the milling crowds in the square in front of the cathedral that took nearly 600 years to build!


Milan is a beautiful city, especially when there are festivities every day and fabulous meals and wine to enjoy. Every meal added to our adventures. We even enjoyed the intermittent power cut at our restaurant on New Year's Eve.

Eileen's New Year Dinner

Andy at Mamma Rosa's

The weather was variable. We got soaked in some very heavy rain but weren't too keen on photographing the grey and damp times. As you can see from our wine glasses, we were exploring glass half full adventures... and keeping smiling...

We intended to use Milan as a base and take the train to various destinations but ended up only taking one journey... destination Verona, a very popular and fascinating town. Not sure how much Shakespeare knew about Italian towns or he might have mentioned the hilly, cobbled streets and the massive Roman amphitheatre! when telling the tale of star crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet

Modern  architecture

Milan is working towards a greener environment. A far cry from its recent industrial focus. There are car sharing incentives and "no car" days as well as planting trees wherever they can!

We explored much of the city although a return visit to take in more of the museums is a must. Leonardo da Vinci's experiential museum was a mega three hour delight exploring what a human mind can envisage. His connection with Milan is so much more than the famous painting of The Last Supper, which is on the to do list next time...

First visit, get orientated... second visit, who knows?

New Year's Day

 Milan on New Year's eve was awash with street parties and fireworks seemingly on every corner and come the 1st January you would have thought that the party animals would be sleeping in. No... in fact they were queueing up to enter their cathedral to celebrate a new year.

Our adventure was thrilling, even in some ways life changing however it was good to get home and enjoy the sunset over the River Clyde...

Tanti auguri....