2014-day 4 (Milan to Stuttgart)

HUGE walking day today - saw some incredible things and finished off by flying over the Alps to Germany.

After booking out of the Genius hotel we headed to the centre of Milan and checked out the oldest shopping mall in the world - an amazing building housing such retailers as Prada, YSL, LV. At 10.30 we met nearby to start the city walking tour (NOT free) which took  us back into the mall then to the Duomo - one of the most amazing buildings in the world - built entirely of marbel inside and out. Huge stained glass windows add to the beauty of the  all-marbel interior - absolutely stunning.

Past La Scala and then on to the castle on which the Kremlin was based. Last visit was to  see Leonardo Da Vinci's "The last Supper" - an amazing  work painted on the entire end wall of what was a monastry's refectory so what you see in reproducions does just not prepare you for the reality. Also stunning!!

After a "recovery" lunch we headed back to La Scala to tour the interior - absolutely beautiful recently rebuilt following a fire. Interesting museum with exhibits such as List's piano.

Back to collect our luggage from the hotel, then to the train station to catch the Milpensa Express out to the airport. Small concern when the electricity cut out at departure time and we were about 20 mins late getting away. This added too the delays/bad orgaisation at Malpensa Airport meant we had a short wait for the flight to Suttgart.

Flew with "German Wings" which was fine but quite hilarious - the  pre-flight safety briefing by the hostesses was so typically "Germanic" it would have warranted a Monty Python sketch. Typically German though, we landed on time at 9.20 and then just had a two minute walk  to the hotel. Reason this log is a day late  is that the hotel wanted 15 Euro for wi-fi just for one night - even the receptionist was embarrased!

Crashed after huge day!

Trivia: Prada paid circa 4 million Eros rent for the annual lease in the Milan mall

Cap report: still in tact!

Cheers all