The following evening, we started reading about Venice and how to reach there and finally our plan was ready. We booked return flight to Milan and decided to take the train to go from Milan to Venice.
On friday evening, directly from office, we left for Milan and by late evening we reached the Malpensa airport. It was really huge and looked much bigger than the Frankfurt airport also. From there, we took the airport bus to reach Milan. Milan had really old architecture and the metro systems also looked really old.
From the city centre, we had to change two trains to reach our hotel - The Hotel Edy. We also explored the city centre and its magnificient railway station which stood like a ancient monument. Reaching our hotel was quite difficult for us and finally we spotted it somewhere around mid night.
The next day early morning we had to head to Venice. So we requested the hotel receptionist to give us a wakeup call at 5.00 AM. She kept her promise and was just very punctual. We packed some bread and jam for breakfast and then headed for the Milan Centralle to catch the train to Venice. The Journey from Milan to Venice was very mesmering one. We could see the Alps overlooking us, the same Alps where we had been some few weeks ago for trekking. But now they looked really magnificient and yet very beautiful. The crowd in the train was also very interesting, right from college going friends to some romancing old couples.
After a wonderful 2 hours journey through TrinItalia, we were about to reach Venice or "Venezia". To reach the canal city of Venice, we had to cover a 20 minute odd drive over a bridge and the road to Venice was also running parallel to it. Alreday we could see some houses in water as we had seen in that movie. It was an amazing view outside from the train window.
Finally my feet touched the sands of Venice and it was like a dream come true to visit this romatic place togather with my sweetheart :)
We bought a Venice map and started with our romantic exploration.
Just as we stepped out of the railway station, there stood the famous Grand Canal" and the "Rialto Bridge" crossing the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal housed the famous Gondolas, also the water taxis, ambulance and also police cab. It felt like a differnet world altogather...or I can say a dream world.
There were houses surrounded by water all around and they had this little parking space under water to park their personal boats, which also had a gate to keep their so called water garage locked. We walked further to see the "Doge's Palace"and the criss cross bridges. Finally we dumped the map in the bag and started walking aimlesslessly along the romatintic canal. On the way we captured the pictures of churches, pizzerias, stalls selling masks, bridges, gondolas on our camera as well is our eyes.
Finally it was lunch time and we enjoyed Italian pizza followed by hot coffee. It is a tradition in Italy to have coffee after a meal.
After lunch, we explored the place still further and it looked like we were entering deeper and deeper into the town. We passed by large number of bridges and saw many other interesting monuments on the way.
Finally in the evening, capturing all these memories in our heart, we started our way back to Milan by train. Our hearts were just not ready to leave this place. On the way back, while crossing the same old long bridge to reach outside this town, we were trying to recollect the wonderful time spent here.
We reached Milan quite late in the night but still with full of energy. After taking the metro, We went to see the highest cathedral in the world. WOW, it was really magnificent and looked really beautiful in moonlight. To our surprise, the place was fully crowded. The was a huge mall just sitting adjacent to this cathedral but it looked tiny in front of it. We had some Italian pasta and then finally decided to head back to our hotel.
The next day, we woke up early morning and visited the "Santa Maria delle Grazie" museam which also houses the famous painting "The Last Supper" by Lernardo da Vinci. After having a quick breakfast at our hotel, we checkedout from the hotel to explore the city further but this time, loaded with bags.
Next destination was "Porta Sempione" the city gate of Milan. At the entrance, there were two military guys statued to welcome the tourists. The huge fountain gave us some relief from the scorching heat. We played around the water for some time, clicking snaps here and there. There was this huge fort like structure, which looked really ancient. Some creppers had coverred this fort completely and so it looked green. There was also lunch available inside the premices. We had a good Italian lunch here with Pizza, varities of pasta, some bread and juice. The area around this place was full of greenary. There was a small fish pond surrounded by some rare species of birds. Finally we saw the Gate.
In the evening, we saw some floats on the road which was very similar to the Carnival floats held in Goa. Later we went to see the malls and fashion streets in Milan. It was a wonderful evening. Finally we left for Malpensa airport to board the flight back to Nurnberg.
Overall, it was a wonderful and romatic trip - to the Canal city of Venice and also Fashion city of Milan. The memories of this trip are still alive in our hearts... even after four long years.
