Milan

The lift

A last scan of the room at half nine, down to reception to pay the city tax, then turn left — and into the lift.

I was not walking four flights of stairs again.

The Roman heat met me at the door, the way it has every day. But it wasn’t unpleasant any more, just hot. I think I’m becoming local: the heat isn’t a talking point now, not even to myself.

Four and a half hours north

A brisk walk back along the route I’d arrived by, and then the waiting. Fully caffeinated, breakfast and a few biscuits inside me — that would see me through to Milan.

The train was due out around twenty-five to eleven, with the platform announced twenty minutes before. So the rucksack came off and I stood near the departure board, watching for it.

It’s a long run — four and a half hours. The timings on that service had been stretched a few weeks earlier, which cost me a little time in Milan. But I had a single seat on the left-hand side, and, as usual, it was comfortable, cool and quiet. If you can stretch to first class on these long legs, do.

The landscape on the way was something else. Vista after vista through Tuscany and then out across the Po valley, and I could see exactly why painters came here to capture it.

Next time, I think, I’ll walk Tuscany instead of watching it go past. But that’s another adventure.

Milano Centrale

Just after three, Milano Centrale. Inside, it’s another big Italian station, though with plenty of room for everyone to move.

Outside is a different matter. The façade is carved stone from end to end — two hundred metres of it — with winged horses on top, eagles, lions’ heads and great carved masks. It opened in 1931, and it still feels like a building trying very hard to impress you. It works.

And at the corner, as I walked towards the hotel, a vast stone face with water pouring from its mouth into a pool below. It’s one of two fountains at either end of the façade, built with the station. If Milan wanted to set the tone, that’s how: massive architecture, and buildings to stop you in your tracks.

The Duomo and the Galleria

I’m a veteran of the underground by now. Rome cured me of any idea that gangs of pickpockets would strip me of my gear the moment I stepped on a train. The walk to the Piazza del Duomo was over forty minutes; the yellow line was twelve. Easy choice.

And even after Rome, the number of people there amazed me. All of them come for the cathedral, and for the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II beside it.

The Galleria is two great arcades of glass and iron, crossing under a glass dome, with shops and restaurants down every side. It was built in the 1860s and 70s, and it still looks like the grandest shopping centre ever imagined. The floors are mosaic, and the city crests are worked into the stone where the arcades meet, among them Turin’s bull. The shops are very expensive, and the restaurants look priced to match.

I did the tourist thing: photos of the Duomo and the statues in the piazza, then through the Galleria to the small square on the far side, the Piazza della Scala, where Leonardo da Vinci stands on a plinth looking out over the square, towards the opera house.

Back through the Galleria, still looking down at that floor, and along the Via Dante to the statue of Garibaldi at the end. Somewhere along there I remembered I’d never had lunch. A gelato fixed that. A reward, I decided, for all the walking.

Looking back on it

By five I was back by the Galleria and properly hungry. At Motta, a beer and ossobuco with saffron risotto — veal shin, slow-cooked, with the city’s own golden rice. The best thing I’ve eaten in days. I sat there a long time.

Then the metro, and back at the hotel by half six. I was tired, but more in the head than the legs this time. I hadn’t walked as much as on other days. It’s more that I know the journey is winding down, and with nothing planned, all I wanted was my room and some quiet.

Tomorrow is another journey. Another country I’ve never been to, and another blank slate. Let’s see what happens.

Conditions — hot, but no longer worth mentioning. Plans for Milan: none. Plans for Zurich: also none.