Saturday, June 10th

I get up early in the morning to go Saint Ambrogio Church and do some other sightseeing. I take the Metro close to the area but I forgot my map so I�m not sure once I get out of the Metro where to go. I find the church after about 10 minutes. The courtyard of the church has some interesting columns. There are a number of nuns walking around. I�m wearing my detachable shorts/pants so I put back on the lower portion of the pants so I can enter the church. There are some people in the church, it�s just before 8 o�clock. I get a picture of a crypt with the remains of Saint Ambrogio, Gervasio and Protasio. A number of people are praying in the crypt. After the crypt the church seems to be getting busier so I walk outside. It looks like there might be a funeral taking place at the church. There�s a sign along with some flowers outside now so I figure I might want to leave.

Without my map I get lost again. I get on a tram but realize I�m going back to the Navglio area we were at yesterday when I go by the roman columns. But that�s were I want to go so I hop off the tram. There�s a statue of emperor Constantine outside the church of San Lorenzo. I go into the San Lorenzo church to take a look. It�s one of the few round churches.

I head back to the Duomo. I stop at the tourism office in order to pick up a map. I plan on going to the Duomo for the audio tour but I get there in time for mass. The mass was performed by the Cardinal of Milan. The service is Orders Presbiterali, which is a service to ordain either deacons, or priests. The church is packed but I get to a side area. Everyone is taking pictures so I take out the telephoto lens to see if I can get a picture of the Cardinal. The mass is over an hour. I shake hands with an old priest and many others during the service. The mass is in Italian so I don�t know what they are saying. Communion takes a long time even with many priests going to different parts of the church. Everyone claps at the end of mass and the procession of priests, bishops and others leave out the front of the church. I go out the front and there are a number of what seem like relatives cheering on the people that were given the religious orders.

I�m off to do other sightseeing at this point. I�ve had enough of the church so I end up not doing the audio tour. I start walking around and end up going up Via Naploeanta street which is the high fashion street. Top designers of the world such as Prada, Guicci, Armani, Versace, etc all have stores on the street. There are a lot of people shopping. Milan seems to be a huge shopping city. Many of the streets around the Duomo are filled with all kinds of stores, not just the big names. Everyday so far there seems to be large number of people just shopping. Most of the people are speaking Italian so it�s probably similar to people who go to New York or Chicago to do their shopping.

I find another church San Fedele, which is very pretty inside. There are about 6 or 7 people inside. I see an organist go up to play the organ. There are two microphones setup in the front on both sides of the church. There are 3 people on each side. They take turns saying a prayer and then a priest sings a few hymns while the organist plays. I sit down to take a rest and just listen for a while.

I start walking back up towards the hotel to see if Jim and Earl are still alive after the previous night. I walk through a big park. If you go through a park. In the US there always seems to be joggers around, not so in Milan. There are some kids getting some sun. There�s a horse drawn carriage and a mini-pony ride for kids in the park. I�m trying to find some bocce ball players but no luck. I saw it on the TV last time in Europe and was hoping to watch a game since it seems to be a big game here.

Jim and Earl are still sleeping when I get back due to their hangovers. I get them started so they don�t waste the whole day away. While they get moving I take a nap for an hour.

We go back to the Duomo area to have lunch on top of a department store right next to the Duomo. If the Duomo wasn�t under constant construction it would be really nice to look over at the Church. We get some ham and cheese sandwiches. Earl gets the hostess and waiter to tell us where to go at night to hang out with locals as opposed to a touristy area. The club they tell us about is called the Billy Club and is outside the main part of the city.

I tell Earl and Jim where the high fashion area is and they go take a look while I look to try and find a place to watch the soccer matches. I want to watch the Argentina vs Ivory Coast match today because we are going to see the Ivory Coast on Friday. I have no luck at any of the cafes and I can�t find any type of bar to speak of. After meeting back up we take the Metro back to the hotel. Jim and I go off to find a place to watch the soccer while Earl goes back to rest some more.

Jim and I have some time so we go to the Absolut Ice Bar, which is encased ice. It�s a cab ride away and I only know the plaza where it�s located. Once we are at the plaza the cabbie seems annoyed that we don�t know the exact address but we just get out and walk around for a second before we see the bar. It�s tough to pick out because it looks like the bar is constructed differently in order to keep the ice frozen.

When you walk in you go into a regular bar at first. You pay 20 Francs and for that you get a lined parka and gloves to wear and a drink inside the ice bar. You need the parka and gloves because the bar temperature is kept at �5 degrees Celsius. There are two doors you go though in order to keep the heat from getting into the ice bar. When you get in you realize you are surrounded by ice. The floor isn�t ice but the walls, bar, tables, chairs and everything else is ice. The room isn�t that big but could probably hold about 40 people comfortably. It�s pretty chilly. I read that most people only stay in there around 20-30 minutes. A couple of seats have bearskin rugs on them to make them easier to sit on.

The ice is crystal clear. We read on the wall that the ice is actually from Finland where the Absolut vodka comes from. The ice is taken from a river in Finland where the water is so clear the ice ends up being clear. Some of the tables and the bar have designs inside the ice so they must do something to the ice before putting them in the bar.

There are two other people in the bar plus the bartender. The bartender has a Russian looking fur hat and a good warm outfit on to keep him warm. We give the bartender our ticket and he asks what drinks we want. There is a list of about 10 fruity-based vodka drinks. The glasses are also made of ice. The glasses are a block of ice with a cylinder carved out of the middle of the block. The bartender does take his gloves off to handle the tickets and pour the drinks.

We realize that this is a time you need your girlfriend or wife around because they would have a purse to keep a camera. Jim doesn�t carry his around and mine are too big to lug around when you go out for the evening. Two other people have come into the bar and they use their camera phone to have the bartender take their pictures. If the bartender spoke English I would tell him to have the bar setup a photo service for people entering the bar. Take peoples pictures like they do at amusement parks and sell them the photo outside.

We buy another drink, which is 10 Francs since the soccer game doesn�t start for a while. There are some video monitors imbedded in the wall. You can see yourself on TV and they show a recording of some time when there are a lot of people in the bar, which looks like fun. All in all it was a good experience to see the Ice Bar.

We find a place for some food and a chance to watch the soccer match across the street from the bar. The meat and cheese plate appetizer is really good. The prosciutto that you find in Europe is very good. After the match, which the Ivory Coast lost, we head back to the hotel to pick up Earl.

Back to Via Brera for some dinner. Earl liked his lasagna from the first night so we go back to that restaurant. The setup is the same as the previous night, gypsies, vendors selling knockoffs, and many people walking around. I get the swordfish cutlet tonight, which is very good. We are old pros with the burro (i.e. butter) now so we get that right away for Earl to have on his bread.

After dinner we are going to the club that was recommended by the hostess earlier in the day. It takes a bit to communicate to the cab driver where we want to go. It takes about 10-15 minutes to get over to the club. We walk up to the entrance and the bouncer asks if we are on the list. Of course we aren�t but we find out that it�s ok because he tells us �Tonight is gay night�. It doesn�t take much for us to turn around and find another cab. No offense to the gays but they aren�t the locals that we were trying to hang out with. We go back to the Corso Como area we were at the previous night since we know there are other bars to check out.

We walk around the Corso Como area and check out the different bars and clubs from outside. We decide to try the club Casablanca. There�s a line and it looks like you are only getting into the place if you have a women to bring in with you. We get towards the front and Earl does a good job of talking to the bouncer and getting us into the club. The place is both indoors and outdoors. Indoors is where most people are dancing outside has more lounge furniture and is more open to move around. The cover gets us a drink which seems to be common in Milan. We meet a Brit who�s there with his model daughter and her friends. We talk to them a little bit but they move off shortly afterwards. Of course the three of us have to analyze if she was model worthy after they leave.

Jim has a phone because of work so he lets me make a call home. It�s 3am for us but should be around 9pm in Ohio so I call Dawn. I talk to Ted a little bit but he�s probably it�s tough to hear so I just tell him I�m having a good time. We stay until about 4am and head back, we need to be up and ready to catch our train to Luzern at 1pm.

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