Bongiorno Milano!

We are in Milan! Monday night, we took the train from Rotterdam to Utrecht, and after a short stroll through Utrecht we boarded the City Night Line which took us through Germany and Switzerland into Milan. Some of us got more sleep than others during this part of the trip (read: Renske was passed out most of the time while Nicholas actually watched the Alps race by) and by the time we arrived at Milano Central Station at about 8:00 am, we were both incredibly excited and quite exhausted.

We sampled quite a bit of the outskirts of Milan (not completely intentionally) before we found the city's downtown area and a suprisingly nice hostel. Then the wandering began ("Hey look, big tower, let's go there!). High point among the many Basilicha's and Palazzo's was the Duomo de Milano: Cattedrale di Santa Maria Nascente. It's huge. It's shiny. And it has lots of spikes and statues. We were impressed. And so we wandered on, had a lovely dinner of something advertised as tortellini but which turned out to be ravioli after all and decided on a grand finale of the day with some gelato. They have lots of gelato here, as well as really wonderful cappucino's, and crepes with Nutella.

Now it's time for Renske to challenge Nicholas to an epic game of Yahtzee, and then sleep. We'll get up early tomorrow to catch our train to Rome.

We love and miss you all!

Ciao! Renske and Nicholas.