After my extraordinary week at the Skoll World Forum (I will eventually catch up and blog about that too), Lee met me at the London, Heathrow airport. We spent most of Saturday there, waiting for our flight to Milano.  We (and our bags) arrived into Linate around 8:30pm and from there we took a bus to downtown Milano.  We scored with our hotel.  We stayed at the Hotel Brunelleschi, which was no more than a five minute walk to the Duomo.  Since we had very limited time in Milano, it was the perfect location for us.  We checked in and then left again to get something to eat and see the Duomo by night.

It had been nearly 20 years since I had visited the duomo, and the only time I had been was during the day.  Seeing it at night was incredible.  The stained glass was all lit up and by midnight, there weren't many people around to crowd the plaza.  We meandered through the galleria, had a bite to eat (Lee experienced his first real pizza) and soaked up the duomo.  I was surprised how long we lasted given how exhausted we were.  It was one of our most favorite nights and highlights of the trip.

On Sunday we stopped in during mass and then made our way to the top of the duomo.  The climb up affords great views and fun angles of the church and all of its ornate decorations.  We had a beautiful day and were impressed at the magnitude and detail of the church.  Unfortunately, the main spires, golden statue and cupola of the duomo were under construction and covered in scaffolding - also limiting the rooftop access. But we still loved it - we can't think of anything else quite like it.

Before returning to our hotel to pack up and catch the train to Venice, we walked to the Castello and had our first gelato of the trip!  I'm incredibly picky about my gelaterias.  Not just any will do.  But, we found a great one for Lee's first gelato.  He's sold and determined to figure out how to make it!  We might need to figure out how to get shipments of panna in from Italy.....

The only pictures we've got through so far are of our 24 hours in Milano.  If you're interested in seeing them, go to the gallery.    Password is the same.   Hopefully pictures and more blogs of the rest of the trip will follow shortly....