MILANO AND THE BIG 4

Mahlon and I just spent 2 days, Dex-free, in Milan. I planned a trip as a surprise for his birthday. We spent two nights in Milan with tickets to the Big 4 Tour, including Metallica! I got the biggest kick out of all the Metallica dudes walking around. We started seeing them in Catania. There were 3 flights to Milan that morning and all 3 flights had long-haired dudes with Metallica shirts on waiting to board. And the closer we got to the venue that night, the more we were surrounded by Metallica dudes.

We arrived Wednesday morning and had to figure out how to get to our hotel using the railway system (I'm way too cheap to pay €85 for a cab ride.) We had to take 3 different trains and it took almost 3 hours to get there, but we saved €55 doing that. So yay! Guess who else was on the trains? Metallica dudes!
Mahlon couldn't wait to get to the venue! He was SO excited. We ran immediately after check-in to fetch our tickets. It was such a hot sunny day and in the asphalt lot here we were boiling. But there were lots of tents around with seats and cold water, gelato and other cold stuff to cool us off a bit.
We got Big 4 t-shirts. I tried mine on right away.
All the bands who played were good, but by the end of the night I remembered why I loved Metallica in the first place. Simply stated: they rule.
That was our view of the band on the big screen. Here's what we really saw:

...but who cares. It was awesome.

So here's what I learned at the Big 4:

- Italians have obviously never seen "PCU." They are all that guy.

- At metal shows in Italy there is only one beer choice, but there is a fine selection of wines.

- Metallica dudes in Italy look just like American Metallica dudes, only some of them carry Prada satchels.

- A guy in the front was holding a sign up that said "James, please give me your guitar" to which James (Metallica's singer) said, "Get your own. You've got to work hard for it, it feels better." So I can only assume Metallica are republicans.

- Metallica is old as dirt, but they are better than ever.

After a full day in the scorching hot sun, flying and riding trains all over creation and the loudest bands on Earth, we crawled back to the hotel and collapsed.

The next morning we got up bright and early and hauled our hineys into the city to make our reservations for DaVinci's "The Last Supper" or in Italian "Cenacolo." It's inside the S. Maria delle Grazie church. We didn't exactly know how to get there, just the metro stop it was closest to, but I figured since it was such an important, famous work of art that everyone would know where it was. I was wrong! No matter, we made it just in time.
This tiny yellow church is where the painting is.
There are only 25 people allowed in to see the painting at a time and you can only stay 15 minutes. It's a fresco, and started to deteriorate just 4 years after he painted it. So they're careful not to let too much humidity in the room to destroy it. Before we entered we had to stand in a de-humidification chamber.

No photos were allowed. I didn't take this, I googled it. What I never knew is that this is a massive painting on the side of a wall. That arch that's where Jesus' feet should be is a door. It's huge! It was really cool to see.
After that we headed to the Duomo. Milan has the coolest Duomo cathedral I've ever seen! It's completely gothic and is all pointy with crazy gargoyles everywhere. So cool. We had lunch and then came back to check out the church. Guess what else we saw in the duomo? Metallica dudes!

The inside of the church is massive and was made to seat 40,000 people (the entire population of Milan at the time). It's full of paintings and statues and bodies of deceased cardinals on display. There's also a nail that was supposed to be used on the cross, you know, THE cross. But you can't see it, it's waaaaaaay up high where no one can get to it. Weird. But anyway, the best part is that you can climb to the top of the cathedral for €6 (or pay an extra €2 per person and use the elevator...forget that!) So we climbed 53,093,284,619,277 steps to get to the top. All I can say is my biscuits were burnin' after that climb.

But the view was worth it. How cool is that?


Here's a view of the Duomo from the top.
And this is the Victor Emmanuel Galleria. That's where we went next.
This galleria is full of high dollar stores...all the brand names are there. But I wasn't interested in THAT part of it...
The tradition is that if you step on this mosaic bull's, ahem, privates, it brings you good luck. You get even more luck if you spin. Poor bull. There was a line of people waiting to crush the bull's you-know-whats. I did it too!
We were already pooped by 5 so we headed back to the hotel to rest. This is where we stayed. A nap is exactly what I needed.
Our hotel was in the same suburb of Milan that the concert was in. It was such a pretty little town. We went for a walk and found the duomo.
Then we found a nice little place to have dinner. There was a mirror over the table. Can you see us?
After dinner and a nice gelato in the duomo, we went back to the hotel and crashed. We had a reeeeeeally early flight home this morning and wanted to get some rest. I couldn't wait to get back to my little guy! We could see our house flying in to Catania!
Great trip and Mahlon was so happy! Birthday success! Now Mahlon is totally stressed about what to do for MY birthday!