Milan

I went to Milan for a nice 4 day city visit, the weather was so-so, sometimes rain, sometimes nice and warm. I visited with a work friend and we made a tour around the castle and into a few of the museums that were there. Surrounding all the tourist places were men trying to force bracelets on all the tourists. I guess they had more or less given up on selling things. Here they were putting them on people even as they tried to walk away. The scam is to find someone and say they give you the bracelet even for free, then they tie it on. You can't untie it easily and then they chase you begging for money. This happened to me once, but with a flower and at least that you can set down and walk away.

Anyway, we got rush tickets to the Opera, but should have confirmed that you could see the stage! It was Wagner - Siegfried, and lasted 4.5 hours (plus breaks) so pretty soon we could move up to the front of the balcony as the audience in the nosebleed seats were dropping like flies. The opera house was really nice, and they had small screens in front of each chair where you could select the language for your subtitles. However, in the second act the machines didn't work for a good 20 minutes.

I've been on top of the Duomo (Cathedral) before, but the pictures you can take from up there are just so nice!

In Milan there was also a lot of shopping and a few more art galleries and a nice 1930's big villa (art deco).

We were also there to watch the gay pride parade (which was not very big actually). They had a few floats and a few stages on the street at the end with lots of music.