Wandering with Beth

I didn't really have any set plans for today in Milan, besides that I finally wanted to get atop the roof of Duomo di Milano. In the morning, I met one of my many new roommates, Beth. She is a teaching assistant who was originally from England, but was currently living in Switzerland and had taken a weekend to travel down to Milan. We ate breakfast together and she decided to visit Il Duomo too, so we headed out in that direction.

It was 7 euros to climb by stairs to the top of the cathedral and 12 euros to take the elevator (lift, as the English would call it). We took the stairs, which were cramped with teeny tiny windows. The climb wasn't as long as I expected - about 919 steps and it only took around 5 minutes. The view from the top was absolutely amazing.

 Every single statue or surface was incredibly intricate and detailed. 

 The city of Milan!

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but parts of the roof were very steep. It was also about a million degrees. 

 The sky was very blue that day too :)

Beth! 

Afterwards, we walked to find lunch since neither of us had eaten a big breakfast. We found a place near where my first tour had started (it had been recommended by my tour guide). 

We couldn't decide whether we should have pasta or pizza, so we each ordered a pasta (I had gnocchi) and then a pizza to split. The food was AMAZING and I was incredibly full by the end. 

Since I had no plans, I wandered around the streets with Beth for most of the day and pointed out the things that I knew about. We walked down one street that had LITERALLY every designer that I have ever heard of plus more. We started to head back and when we passed the castle, we heard a lot of cheering and yelling. We walked over a few blocks and saw an Egyptian protest. Their signs said "Morsi è il nostro presidente" or "Morsi is our president." We guessed that they were protesting the army that had overthrown Morsi and the interim president. Many of the signs were really graphic, but there were children everywhere. It was a pretty peaceful protest, besides all of the impassioned yelling, but we still kept our distance and didn't stay long. 

When we finally made it back I had basically lost my voice. I had apertivo in the hostel, then hung out with Grig and a few of the people he had met at the new hostel he was staying at (Ostello Bello was full). We went to Navigli to hang out, but I left early since my voice was still gone. Grig and I got majorly lost on the way back, but we eventually made it back to the hostel.