churches

We have only been inside a few of the churches here in Milan. The Duomo being the biggest, most prominent, and grandiose of them all. A true staple in Milanese history and geography, the whole city encompasses it. It is impressive in it's immense size and ornate detail that covers every inch internally and externally. You also can experience it's wonderful views of the whole city, only if you can mange to walk up about 215 feet to the top. I'm hoping we will be able to see more of the smaller, more quaint churches around the city. However they all seem to be closed most of the time. I know what your thinking; why don't you go to one on Sunday morning when there open? Well... I will, hopefully... someday.

DAY 3 / Nice, France

Went to the open air markets early the third day, tables were full of local produce- we bought olives, white truffle oil, tandoori spice, balinese pepper, provence herbs, clementines leaves still attached, post cards, books, & soap all with loose change we’d accumulated.

On are way back to our hotels we stopped and watched the most peculiar thing. Don’t really know how to explain it- so here it goes - they were a bunch of kids dancing in the streets - seriously, no music, and no drugs just dancing. I thought to myself this must have been what the audition line for footloose must have looked liked. We were both mesmerized by this odd activity and ended up staying there way longer then expected. We video taped some of it, but don't know how to load it yet.

Here's a youtube link if you want to check out what it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4fHnJ1W1nE

just imagine bunch of kids everywhere dancing like this, with no music.

DAY 2 / Nice, France

On our second day in Nice we decided to take advantage of the 70 degree weather and headed to the beach. We brought with us some club baguettes and delicious fruit. We couldn't believe how clear and blue the waters was, however it was way to cold to go into. The rest of the day was spent lazily wandering around the pier and shopping area.

DAY 1 / Nice, France

Left for Nice at 7:10am from Milan Central, the train would run south into Genova then west along the coast into Nice going through French Rivera towns and rocky hills along the way taking around 4.5hrs. It was hard to sleep on the train you couldn’t help but look out at the sun on the Mediterranean.

The food in Nice was of an interesting eclectic mix, having the second largest population in France and a wide influx of tourist it was out to please all. We tried to stick to the mother-land-foods- crepes, porchetta, pissadaire, nicoise salads, beignets, mussels and fritts etc. All the food was great with the exception of the porchetta(stuffed suckling pig) I knew it to be how do you say? Back-woodsy/medieval/country/ “rustic”, but still wasn’t prepared for the coarse black pepper, juniper, garlic clove, hard dry liver, cubed fat back stuffing it was killer.