Day #8 - A high class arrival in Milan!

OK, so moving right along - on our final morning in Venice, we didn't leave for Milan until 11:17, it was a nice unstressful morning of getting ready and checking out. Our train didn't have reservations, so we could sit anywhere we wanted, which was nice. We ate our packed lunches on the train - proscuitto and mozzarella sandwiches as usual - and got into Milan around 2:30. Our hotel was a bit outside of central Milan, but no worries - Milan has an awesome Metro system, which we definitely made the most of while we were there. Our hotel was super nice, and even had a TV again - yay for more Italian MTV!

Anyway...so once we had thrown our stuff in the room, we headed out again for central Milan. Everything in Milan is pretty much centered around the Duomo (cathedral) area, which makes sightseeing easy. There is the Duomo, the huge public square in front of it, and the Galleria Victorio Emmanuele across the street, with super classy shopping. And, of course, there were tons of pigeons everywhere, except here in Milan, they have street sellers trying to sell you birdseed out of their pockets, kind of like drug pushers. Creepy. But, despite that, we both decided that we really like Milan - it felt a lot like London in how big-city, industrialized, and fashion-conscious it was, and was totally night-and-day from other Italian cities like Rome or Venice, which are more laid-back and disorganized.

So - our goal for the day, was to head to La Scala opera house to see about getting tickets for that night's closing night performance of the ballet. We had heard that they give out cheap gallery tickets on the day of every performance, and luckily, we got there right as they were doing just that. It was pretty much a mob scene though, with everyone speaking Italian, so it took awhile before we figured out what they were doing. We ended up getting tickets #116 and 117 out of 140, so we barely made it! An hour later, we had to come back and pick up and pay for the actual tickets - which were amazingly only 10 euro. We ate a quick pasta dinner at a nearby self-service cafeteria place, as well as the best tiramisu ever! Then, it was back to La Scala for the show at 8:00!

So...how to describe La Scala...it was pretty much amazing. :) One of the largest and most elegant theaters in Europe, the La Scala has 6 levels of box seats arranged in a semicircle around the stage. The whole theater is decked out in fancy red velvet and gold, and has a massive chandelier in the middle of the ceiling. Our seats were WAY up in the 6th-level gallery, pretty much directly over the left side of the stage. We had to lean over the railing a bit to see, but for 10 euros, it was worth it. :) The ballet itself - "La Dame aux Camelias" - was incredible!! Packed house, full orchestra with a score by Chopin, and world-class ballet dancers in the most intricate costumes you've ever seen. We didn't quite understand the "plot" of the ballet - something about two lovers whose family keeps them apart - but the two lead dancers were amazing...I think the applause went on for like 20 minutes at the end! This night was one of my favorite moments from the trip thus far...and definitely one I know I'll never forget. :)

Debra