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After our enjoyable time in Zurich with our friends it was time to continue with our adventures in Europe.
Our next destination was Milan our stop over before travelling onto Venice.
Leaving Zurich you could see the melting snow from the Alps forming cascades of water down the heavily treed mountains and into the rivers.
I was intrigued with the tunnels that we drove through, not knowing that this was only one of a great many more to come on our journey.
Milan is the second most populous city in Italy and the capital of Lombardy. The city has a population of about 1.3 million, with its urban area being the 5th largest in the EU with an estimated population of about 5,248,000.
It is the main industrial, commercial and financial centre of Italy. It houses Italy’s main stock exchange and the headquarters of the largest national banks and companies. It is also a major world fashion and design capital.
One of the landmarks is the Milan Cathedral, the fifth largest in the world. With the many important museums, theatres and landmarks including the Santa Maria delle Grazie decorated with Leonardo da Vinci paintings, Milan attracts more than two million visitors each year.
We experienced our first real traffic congestion coming into Milan and trying to find our hotel. Once we had the car parked in The Crowne Plaza Milan City where we were staying we left it there. We decided to use public transport to go sightseeing and shopping which was much easier than driving and probably safer. The underground train stations were only a few meters away from the hotel making for easy access.
Walking around the shops was great until I saw some Birkenstock sandals in a shop window. I wear them non-stop even through winter, and absolutely love them. I had to go and check out the range of footwear to see if they had different styles to those at home.
I ended up buying a pair in a style that I have worn before as they were really great, but I also tried on some designs in Scholl.We have Scholl at home but not like these designs, I decided to purchase a lovely comfortable suede pair. My husband was also convinced by the very helpful sales team to try on some leather sandals, something he didn’t own. He purchased two pairs as he also found them really comfortable and cool, in fact he wore them for most of the holiday.
As we were driving to Venice the next day, we headed back for an early dinner and a good nights sleep. We decided to take a couple of shots from our balcony showing the mixture of architecture and age in the buildings around us.
After a lovely breakfast we packed the car and began the next leg of our journey. It was a very eventful start to our trip when a very large car transporter truck managed to sideswipe the rental car whilst we were stationery at traffic lights.
Being unable to get out of the car we followed the truck as best we could. After a period of time he pulled over and we parked behind. My husband got out to talk to the driver but as he approached the drivers door the truck took off, this time we didn’t follow. We had taken down the details from the number plate, time etc. and would wait until we could get to a police station. All I can say is thank goodness for taking out travel insurance prior to leaving home.
Thankfully the rest of our drive to Venice was uneventful.
I will continue with more of our trip shortly.
