Milan

What was instantly more noticable about Milan was the pride taken and thus effort in making the city look good. Perhaps this was due to my eyes last seeing Italy in the dirty museum of Florence.

I might seem as though i'm being harsh but what it noticable in Germany and other successful countries is the ethos that although one must continue to acknowledge and learn from the past, the present needs to be lived to continue to create valuable history for the future. This sliding timeline means each day new things need to be created and lived. I guess at some point the world is only so big and you can't keep creating without losing some history. Now i'm getting a little philosophical. However my point is that to keep feeding its people a government must move forward and the different feelings between Florence and Milan helped me appreciate this. Although I haven't crunched the numbers on the Italian economy, I do know they have relied on 'old' industries such as motor car manufacturing and real estate only to be left behind to thus have to rely on their country to be popular as a museum to survive. These are rash generalisations because Italians are at the forefront of design however they perhaps need to use this creativity for other industries.

Milan isn't a tourist focus but has some great sights. The Duomo di Milanl is one of the biggest in Italy and watches over a massive Piazza del Milano and the spectacular Galleria Vittorio Imanuele II. It was seriously hot in Milan but I decided it was appropriate to dress a little more suitably for Milan and wore pants and nice shirt. As a result I didn't feel too bad to drop into all the shops that make Milan famous. I pretended to buy many things from D&G, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Georgio Armani etc. I thought that RM Williams also had a shop there and searched because my boots desperately need some polish! The book shops were actually my favourite. The old bookshops that line the footpaths were stacked with what seemed to be an endless number of great look books. Pity I can't speak Italian...

I was staying in a great little 1 star hotel near to the Centrale station which worked really well and was cheaper and better than all the Youth Hostel I had been staying at. Hotel Arno I think it was called.

On Wednesday (4th August) I took the train to Como for a day of walking Lake Como. After abolishing the idea of catching a ferry around as it was going to cost 40E I decided to wander up the western bank..and kept walking! It was a gorgeous day walking along what is an absolute wonderful lake. The buildings, the boats, the back drop and the water all combine to create a truly amazing place. All I could think all day was that I will need to get my act together a buy a villa and a beautiful mahogany boat! I walked up to Urio and then caught a ferry back (only 3E - eg not Tourist prices!).