Milan

And so we said goodbye to Venice and headed to Milan. We took a fairly fast train that for about 15 minutes got up to speeds equivalent to Japan's bullet trains. Not bad then, we were really zipping along.

The view from the train windows was mostly of northern Italian farmland:

We could have been back in New Zealand if you ignored the obvious urban development and industry that goes with having a population 12 times larger. Something that surprised me was the number of rugby fields they had, I'd estimate that rugby occupies third place in northern Italy, behind the number one sport soccer (association football), and handball.

It didn't take long at these high speeds to arrive at Milan's train station, Milano Centrale:

Our hotel was only a short walk away. Of course my wife, forever gifted in walking in the opposite direction, attempted to get us off course. For once I resisted and got us to our hotel in a matter of minutes. But that was after we got a pic of the giant apple obliterating the nice view of the façade of the rather attractive station, and we later found out this apple was not advertising the American company (we think):

Then after checking in, we did some walking around and grabbed some lunch which turned out to be the nicest meal of the trip:

Later that evening we had a quick and cheap meal. The Italians appear to have only classic Coke and they drink it a lot. They have other nice drinks too, how Italians are not obese and appear in good shape is still a mystery:

Breakfast the next day:

And then shopping

But everything was way too expensive. The Adidas shop was three times the price for the same items selling in New Zealand or Japan, so we waited until we got to Japan before buying clothing.

We saw the obligatory cathedral:

Had some lunch while shopping in Milan:

Next stop Parma to see the Zebre play the Cheetahs from South Africa in the Pro14:

Verdict on Milan: Nice place, thought I'd like it more than I actually did. It's clearly a place for commerce and industry, has everything, the type of place you'd live rather than choose to visit.