We arrived in Milan at 1 PM and made our way to the hotel. It took about 15 minutes walking to arrive and we found ourselves at Hotel Paradiso. We checked in, dropped our bags, got a free map and inquired about the location of a super market.

After following the directions given to us by the receptionist, we found no supermarket and no water . We then walked to the downtown area of Milan. After walking through two large parks (full of homeless people), we found a shoe store. I had needed new walking shoes for some time and have walked through the last 5 cities in flip flops. My shoes had worn a hole in the bottom, exposing my food to the ground and causing them to blister badly. We found some 16 euro tennis shoes and went to the tourist information center to inquire what we should do. The woman circled some important sites and we began walking.

 First, we made our way to the Duomo. It was a large cathedral. Unfortunately, we could not go in, because we were wearing shorts. It was a super hot day, so we did not regret wearing our shorts. Then we proceeded to walk to an open grocery store. We had asked at the tourist information center, and they assured us this option was open. We bought a couple large waters, a juice, and some snacks then continued on our way.

While walking, we came across a pizza restaurant and had a pizza margherita and a salad. Then we walked through much of the old town. On all of our ventures, I think that we returned to the Duomo like 4 times.

After we explored the old town (by about 7 PM), Dilyara wanted to do some shopping around. We went in a number of stores (she shopped while I played Sudoku), we grabbed a subway back to our hotel. We arrived to the hotel around 8 PM to plan for our next few days and finish catching up on the blog!

Tomorrow we will be visiting La Spezia, then going to Pisa. We are planning to stay the night in Pisa, then go to Florence. We will see if all goes according to plan.