A 4am wake up call and a 6:15am morning flight later I am typing from Milan where I will be doing scooter work for the next few days. I obviously can’t share the details of my top secret assignment, top notch agency stuff you’ve only read in Tom Clancy novels, but I can show you a bit of Milan!

The construction of the Milan Cathedral began in 1386 and took over six centuries to build with an official completion date of 1965. It is the biggest cathedral in Italy and fourth biggest in the world. The awe inspiring building is huge on photos but really takes your breath away in person. The 12 euros they charge to take an elevator to the top, eh, not so much. We had pizza, beer, and real Italian coffee for less than that. But as I’m reading up on the subject on the official Wikipedia page for the cathedral I can see that Mark Twain would strongly disagree with me. So maybe the roof is worth the money after all…

Inside there’s a lot to see as well, just as long as you don’t interrupt the on going daily mass. I was surprised to see an official mass taking place while tourists were wondering the halls. I remember being to at least one cathedral where the doors were closed while a mass took place.

From the cathedral we walked down the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II built between 1865 and 1877. Elegant shops, restaurants, and of course McDonalds continue the tradition of THE gallery being the meeting place in Milan.

From there we wondered about the city thinking just how many scooters here need to be traded in for electric. There are thousands of scooters in Milan, and they’re literally everywhere. And motorcycles, too. Milan has major reasons for that: beautiful weather and shitty traffic jams along with no parking space what so ever within the city.

The little space that is left is best occupied by small cars. Mini Cooper anyone? Old or new?

Speaking of old, I found this pretty cool looking illegally parked Jag collecting traffic tickets.

We ended our day with a walk through the Sforza Castle built in 1450. The fortification has had a major role in Milan’s history and between 15th and 16th century it was one of the largest citadels in Europe. The castle has since been heavily damaged mostly by the allied WWII bombardment in 1943.