On Roman gods and Cathedrals

Italy.

Just the sound of the word makes me smile. Last November I visited Venice, Florence and Rome with my family, so this trip I decided to give the northwest coast and Milan a shot. (Sicily, don't you worry, I'm coming someday!)

Three trains from Nice (trains in the south of France are notoriously terrible but I had a cute Parisian adventurer named Roman to help me through) carrying my gigantic stack of luggage, and I finally arrived in Varazze, a smaller town on the coast about halfway between Nice, France and Genova, Italy. It was cute and comfortable but didn't hold a candle to Nice. I did, however, meet a young man who looked like a cross between a San Clemente surfer and a mythological Roman god, who apologized for not being able to get off work to take me to dinner but kindly pointed me towards a restaurant (called Perche No - "Why Not" in English, "Porque No" in Spanish, "Pourquoi Pas" in French...by this point my brain was thinking in four different languages which can be very confusing) where I had the most delicious muscles of my life in a seafood pasta. Fantastic.

All of the stuff I lugged around Europe...pictured in an Italian train station, probably Ventimiglia.

Varazze.

The next day, I took yet another train to Milan. There I dropped my luggage at the station and headed into the city for three hours. For basically two seconds in Milan I covered most of the bases: the Milan Cathedral, check, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, check, gelato, check, piles of leather golves, check, shopping, check, el Teatro de la Scala, check, drinking wine in a piazza, check. Done. Not a bad way to wait for a bus to the airport.

Milan Cathedral. Not exactly subtle, but very photogenic. (Metro stop is Il Duomo. Three stops from the train station)

Stained glass inside the Milan Cathedral.

Famous statue in the piazza. Note the Ray Ban sign in the background? Bienvenuto Milano.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Statue of Leonardo de Vinci by the Teatro de la Scala.

I finally survived the airport bus (crazy Chinese tourist who hit me in the face with a curtain rod included), the Milan airport, a 15 hour overnight stay in Heathrow, and a 12 hour flight home to LAX where my wonderful friend Stephen picked me up and bought me a hamburger. SO good to be home.

My original camp in the Heathrow airport. That's before they kicked me and six other nomads out of the cafe and we had to seek refuge downstairs...oh and I'm pretty sure all the outlets in the airport shut off at midnight just to spite us.

On the plus side, I've discovered the secret to preventing jet lag. Stay up for 48 hours while traveling and then crash at 10pm local time. My body snapped right back on schedule :) - turned out to be really convenient as I had three LCS Designs meetings the next day!