Milan-Singapore Trip

I had a conference trip to Milan this July and luckily the sun was out from 6 in the morning to 10 at night, which meant I could attend most of the talks from 10am to 5pm and still have enough time to go around. Here's a brief travelogue of my trip...

First things first, DO NOT get money converted at travelex Sydney - A**h****. They charge a big commission and give you a poor exchange rate. get it converted from singapore airport - zero commission and much better rate; or any global bank such as HSBC. also, in general, get it converted at destination airport rather than from where you leave.

I was staying in Hotel Atahotel FieraMilano (translated to "Fair market of Milan") next to Domodossola station, just one stop away from the city's central station of Cadorna (from where you also get the train to the airport). There were two problems with the hotel - costly internet and unfriendly staff (not explicitly rude, but kind of inhospitable); but if you are on your vacation and don't want to check the mail, and also don't give two dimes over the hotel staff, it's a good hotel to stay at, since it's reasonably priced (around 110AUD at current exchange rate for a double room), and is very close to central station.


As you walk out of the Cadorna station, you can see the dome of a castle nearby which is Castello Sforzesco. This was my favorite place on day one of the trip and remained that way at the end of it. The sheer enormity, design from a defensive perspective and solid construction is breath-taking. I especially loved the side towards built with huge cubical black stone that gave it strength. The strategic look-out points gave an early warning of potential attacks to the army. The central courtyard is huge! Perhaps it's the same as the combined area of two soccer fields.

Just outside you've got a newly constructed fountain area where you can cool down in summer as temperature there was 35 degree Celsius, a nice change from Sydney's winter. But sometimes it was too hot and the fountain in front of the castle and numerous taps around the city were always appreciated.

The best way to explore the city is by bus and trams. The tram was my preference between the two and you can take unlimited rides each day for a price of 3 euros (around 5 auds). This is much better than a daytripper in sydney. In fact, it's cheaper than a single one-way ticket from my place to the city in sydney! Unfortunately, this did not include the outer suburbs tickets which was 1.55 euro, still cheap from Australian perspective. The trains come every 3 mins during peak hours and 15 minutes during off peak hour. From my hotel to Cadorna, to Famgosta, to Assgao where the conference was held, it took me 40 minutes (including the two change overs) so I would say the transportation is very well connected. The food in Milan is awesome! The conference lunches were really nice with beautiful desserts.

From Cadorna, you can go to Duomo station which is the shopping center and also the location of "Duomo" cathedral itself. From the inside, it's pretty much like any other cathedral with glass paintings and other stuff, but from the outside it's spectacular with numerous "spikes" that are in fact 10-feet high statues of relevant people from history including kings, saints, priests, Jesus, and also Napolean Bonaparte, who ordered the completion of the Duomo around 1805. He was later crowned the King of Italy at Duomo. The art-work and attention to details on each pillar is unbelievable. Duomo also shows that say what you may, symmetry rules when it comes to architecture.



Next to Duomo is Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle II - an eye-popping shopping center with a dazzling mosaic floor and statue engravings on the walls. And again, it is symmetric with four lanes going out of the shopping center. The aerial view will do better justice than my description. P.S. I hate the McD's there since it kind of diminishes the beauty of the place :(

Gunjan's brother, Mohit joined me on the fourth day of trip and we had a real good time watching "It's always sunny in philadelphia" in the morning at the hotel (the things you do when in Milan!) . We went to the castle once more and then to Sansiro stadium - the home of A C and Inter Milan. Visiting their gallery was a wonderful experience but the ground was disappointingly covered since U2 had a concert the night before. We took the tram around the city and headed off to Galleria where we bought ferrari stuff for Mohit and Gunjan.

From Milan, I headed off for Singapore and watched "Sunshine cleaning" in the flight, which I thought, was an excellent movie. Of course, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are both easy on the eye but for me the actor who plays their dad and the guy at the sanitation shop stole the show.

Kavita and Rahul generously hosted me in Singapore and they had a lovely house in Hougong. Singapore was still hot and humid with intermittent rains. Shopping is always the central attraction in Singapore in the absence (or lack) of waterfalls, treks, hills, castles, or cultural heritage. Unfortunately, the shopping center containing the shop I most wanted to visit was demolished and I dragged KR to a dozen shops making them walk a cumulative 16 kms in the process - apologies :(

We headed back home to prepare palak paneer and iranian zaafran rice for dinner, which was a success, if I may say so myself :p It was also really nice of Rahul to get me the Henry Jersey from Pattaya/Phuket while they were in Thailand in Dec 2007/ Jan 2008. I love it :)

From Singapore it was back to Sydney and it was pretty normal... except that I had a window sit with two "big" people next to me so I had to hold back on the coke :(

Grazie,
Gaurav