Ciao, Italia

We ended up staying in Milan for three days and we liked it more than we had expected. We did see a few excessively lipsticked women in full-length furs walking tiny dogs, but it was a bit more down to earth than we anticipated, despite it being the "fashion capital of the world" (obviously not a draw for us). One of the last images I have is of a small, well-dressed woman in a long white coat manhandling a Vespa around cars at high speed on wet cobblestones.

Milan, like most European cities, has great transit - intercity rail, commuter rail, light rail, bubway, big articulated buses, tiny circulator buses. I love spending a week in Europe and being able to never sit in a car once, even a taxi. However, there are still plenty of private cars. Parking has to be a bit creative at times, given the centuries-old street widths. But we did see a lot of parking restrictions in both Milan and Rome, which helps cut down on congestion.

While Ashifa was being further enlightened at the Dalai Lama, I decided to check out more of Milan and ended up at the Duomo, the third largest Catholic cathedral in the world - after St Peters in Rome (more on that later) and the one in Seville, Spain. It seems all of my overseas travels have been in very Catholic places, so I've been in my share of giant cathedrals. Regardless of your religion, they all leave you with a feeling of awe and peace. They just have a certain weight and atmosphere. The Duomo is also the only place I've been that has a no balloons rule. :)

We were orginally planning to go to Venice and/or Florence after Milan, but decided at the last minute to go to Rome instead. We spent two days there and did a pretty good job of packing in a lot of sights and relaxing a bit too. We stayed at great B&B really close to the train station (which is great when you have a backpack and it's raining). The owner of the hotel was incredibly sweet and helpful. In fact, we met a lot of incredibly nice people in Rome - three different people gave us their cell phone numbers in case we needed help (this is not as creepy as it sounds!). We're not in a downloading-friendly spot right now, but we'll add some pictures later.

We did the usual tourist circle in Rome - Colosseum, Forum, Vatican. The Roman ruins were great, but not quite what I expected. I always imagine the Colosseum on some dusty outcropping overlooking the city, but you basically walk right up to it on the sidewalk in the middle of a neighbourhood. We spent a bit of time at the Vatican. St Peters is indeed huge. Incredible and full of amazing artwork to look at. But so big, it almost doesn't have the same power as places like the Duomo. In fact it's so spacious, Ashifa may have expressed it best when she said it felt a bit like a mall. Lightning did not strike, so I guess it's okay to say that.

So, after a very quick tour of Italy, we've moved on and we've made it to Delhi. Italy was great but we're happy to be somewhere cheaper. A Coke now costs me about 40 cents, not 3 Euros ($4.50) - and if you know me, you know this is important. Our first night in Delhi, we had dinner at a very nice Indo-Chinese place and paid less for entree, bread, beer, and chai for two than we did for a single entree in Italy. I was also ready for some meat other than ham. :) Oh well, that could be my last pork for 5 weeks.

Ashifa, however, will miss the coffee. She may have become an espresso convert over the last week. Espresso seems to be like a drug in Italy. You walk into a bar, order it at the bar, drink it there in a sip or two, and leave.

More from India soon!

Jen