Milan

We are only able to do a text entry right now, but will post some photos once we get to France next week.
We spent 2 1/2 days in Milan, the shortest stay of anywhere on our trip. We came here because it was close to the Cinque Terre, and we were able to fly direct from Athens. What a great surprise Milan was for us! We really didn't know what to expect and only bothered to copy a few pages from our travel book.
Milan is a fairly modern city and has wide, tree-lined boulevards, a little reminiscent of Rue St. Germaine in Paris. There is a great deal of (we think) art nouveau architecture, with large haute relief stone carvings on many buildings. The train station (commissioned by Mussolini!) is very impressive.
The city is quite clean and, no surprise, the people are beautiful. This is the fashion capital of Italy, and it really shows.
The only thing in Milan that we were anticipating was the Duomo, and it is truly an amazing site. Unlike many other churches in other European cities, the Duomo can't be seen from everywhere. It is surrounded by buildings that are just about as tall as the roof-top, although the spire stands at least another story taller. We climbed to the top of the Duomo in very little time, as there are very few crowds. Milan is big with German and French tourists, but we heard very little English.
We walked everywhere in the city that we could, including the Sforza Castle, partially demolished by Napoleon, but now reconstructed, the Galleria, with incredibly posh shops and coffee houses and the Monumental Cemetary.
For all that, Milan is most memorable to us for being the place where we have had the second greatest meal in all of our European travels (Sostanza in Florence is still number one). We had dinner on Saturday night at an Argentine-Milanese steakhouse called Carne E Dinarto. We had the filet mignon for two, cooked to perfection! Never before have we had meat like this. It was so tender that it could literally be cut with a fork (Jim tried and succeeded).
It was a short visit, but a very tasty one!