On Saturday, Matt was really tired from the flight, but was able to arrive at 9:30 to wake Karyn up. We ordered a delicious breakfast in the room for the bargain price of 50 euro ($68). Afterwards, we visited the Duomo. Construction began in 1386 and there is a sarcofogus from 1050 inside. It smells as such. Matt tripped over a prayer bench. There was a common theme to our visit - food. After the Duomo, we stopped at a Mozzerala Bar for lunch called "Obika." It was deliciosa!
With full stomachs, we headed back to the hotel for a siesta. The Principe Di Savoia is an amazing hotel. The lobby and most of the hotel is covered in gold leaf. Here is what Karyn's room looks like:
When we got back to the room on Saturday afternoon, there was a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, a bouquet of flowers and some snacks waiting for us! Turns out that Matt's boss, Neil, sent this to us. Who knew he was such a hopeless romantic?
After a quick nap (Karyn worked), we went to a museum and then went back to the room to drink our champagne and get ready for dinner at Bice. Not that eating was the focus of our trip, but Matt had a salad, Veal Scallopine, and Tiramasu. Karyn had a tropical salad (hearts of palm, artichokes, and shaved parmesan cheese), papardelle covered in cheese and a piece of apple pie. Oh yeah, and a bottle of wine.
On Sunday, we decided to forego the $70 room service and venture out for breakfast. We walked around the Montenapoleone area where there is a lot of high end shopping. It was Sunday so all of the stores were closed, but we window-shopped and it was nice because the streets weren't packed with people. We had breakfast and then walked through an old flea market in the Brera on the way to the Pinacoteca di Brera. Besides the Mantegna and other renaissance art, the best part of the Brera picture gallery is the building. It is in an old Milanese palace, complete with Roman-era statues and a huge door to an open courtyard. The worst part was that we got a bad audio tour, and we got the audio tour for two rather than two audio tours. We later discovered that this meant we needed to stay tethered to each other to listen, which was pretty funny to see. After the Pinacoteca, we went to a Leonardo Da Vinci museum. When we first got there, we went to the lower floor, which had contained the history of metallargy in the genre of an Italian child's 6th grade science project. It was really lame so we tried to get our money back, but no one spoke english (editor's note: how convenient). So, we went back in and looked at the second floor. We discovered our folly as the second floor was really where the museum started (editor's note: I guess they really didn't speak english).On Sunday night we went out dinner with Karyn's coworkers at a place called Digiacomo. The owner, Giacamo, is a little old man who comes by your table and cooks these delicious pieces of pizza that they give you as a free appetizer. We discovered that his daughter, who runs the restaurant, is a real bitch. She yelled at our waiter for serving us dessert and blocking her way with the dessert cart.
On Monday, while Karyn went to an appointment with Gucci, Matt hung out at the really nice pool (indoor infinity), worked out, sat in the jacuzzi and got a massage (the Italians do massage a bit differently - think hot oil and uncomfortable exposed flesh). After Karyn was done, we went back to the Duomo square for lunch at Biffe (yellow risotto, bruschetta). We had dinner at Il Ilio, a great little place that we were glad to have discovered. They bring you a plate of fried potatoes and potato chips to your table as if the 4 courses are not enough to eat. Matt had Penne Arrabiata and Veal Milanese (delicious!). Karyn had a tropical salad and eggplant rigatoni.
On Tuesday, we had to get up early to catch our flight home. There was a chill in the air and a bit of rain and fog. We were not in any rush to get to the airport (turns out the counters weren't even open when we arrived...got to love those unionized Italians!), but our former formula 1 driver hit speeds above 180km/h (112 mph) despite the fog and rain. When we tried to tell him to slow down, he turned his head, swerved into nearby traffic, and while waving his hands said, "I'm sorry, I don't speak English." Editor's note: I think he was lying.
