Milano

The stylish capital of the world. Off course I was really looking forward into this one, since you land feet in its magnificent train station, you know style is a really serious thing here…Milano Centrale is the largest railway in Europe by volume, it is constantly compared to Grand Central in New York. The high ceilings all covered by marble and also the round shaped roofs are something deserved to appreciate.

We visited designer stores at the fashion district and why not? We did some shopping at Quadrilatero de la Moda , we got the most cutest outfits for baby Aytana 🙂 . We pass by as well around the beautifully designed Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which is the oldest active shopping mall in Italy, named after the first king of the kingdom of Italy. Built by architect Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1877 it is just a piece of art, judge yourself!

Right next to this beautiful mall is the magnificent Duomo Di Milano, which is a massive cathedral with a lot of art work, it is the largest church in Italy (not counting St Peter’s Basilica which is really Vatican City) The entire cathedral was dedicated to the nativity of St Mary. For instance, the impressive bronze doors represents the major joys and sorrows in the life of virgin Mary. The Cathedral took over 6 centuries to complete and has the most statues and gargoyles than any other building in the world.

Venice

Venice, try not to lose there… between those fabulous passages, little stores and just people all over the place you can easily spend sometime figuring out how to move around the city. There has 118 islands separated by 150 canals. No cars! so you move around with your beautiful legs and orientation or just take a boat ride or one of the famous “Gondolas”. We took the train from Milan to Venice with is about 2 hours 30 min. Venice Santa Lucia Train station is right by the entrance of the islands.

Venice is know for its glass and lace, as you walk around you will find infinite little stores with all kind of souvenirs made from those two. Today, you can visit the Murano island, where all glass artisans live and give life to all beautiful glass pieces, now you know why is called Murano glass. Also, known for the Venice festival you can get a beautiful handmade Venice Carnaval mask, truth about those is they were used in the 13th century during parties to mixed lower with upper class people which will allow people to hide their identities while doing illicit activities like gambling, sexual affairs or plots.

We strolled the city passing by the well known Rialto Bridge, located at Gran Canal (City’s Boulevard) is the oldest of the only 4 bridges in the city. Designed by Antonio du Ponte, it is famous to be an important architecture accomplishment for Venice during the last of the 16th Century Renaissance times. Going more deep into the city we found Piazza San Marcos. The piazza is the lower point in the city and frequently gets flooded, it is surrounded other interesting buildings: Saint Marks Basilica, the Bell Tower, Doge’s Palace and Torre dell’ Orologio all of them worth to check it out.

Off course we didn’t missed the traditional gondolas we hired a local guide that give us really interesting information about the city. She said people is usually afraid of the water in the city and pay overpriced bottled water while apparently Venice’s water comes mainland from an area close to the alps, so there is plenty fountains dedicated to drink and you can safely use your own bottle and refill as much you need. Venice was once the wealthiest city in Europe, not because they wanted but because they needed to survive as a city, they thrive at trading, ship-building and businesses in general. More cool facts she told us: The first Casino ever built was on Venice, Marco Polo was a Venetian, most of the city was built on logs drilled in the ground as foundation, yet today most of it still in those 1000 year logs as foundation. Sadly, Venice is sinking at a rate of 1-2mm per year (some locations vary).

Last days in Venice were really tiring for me, it was an intense trip for a six month pregnant woman but we made it! after 3 days here we just took another train back to Rome (about 4h High Speed Trains) and flight home the very next day in the morning. Thank you Italy you were wonderful! There are still more places I need to go. I’m sure I’ll see you again.