In the Old Country, but the New part

Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa

I landed in Milan, got some Euros, and quickly boarded the bus into the central part of the city. My adventure begins and with the exception of my blog, I will forgo all English to ensure a proper learning experience. So, I just start talking to everybody; like the bus drivers. My TIM phone doesn’t seem to want to connect to the network; somehow the SIM card is being rejected by the network. I’ll have to deal with that tomorrow since I have no idea where the TIM store (Centro TIM) is at the airport. If I recall correctly, they are located somewhere in the departures section. Regardless, it’s quite late in the afternoon and they have likely all gone home by now.
Milan is exactly how I remembered it. I passed through customs without a problem (as usual there was no one there). The one time that there was (this is my seventh or eighth trip) I am sure that the only reason that the guard stopped me was to practice English. When you look like me, most people assume that I don’t speak Italian. I’m usually just a tad bit taller (really not that much) than a typical Japanese tourist and I have tanned skin but not too dark. I’m usually mistaken for a Central or South American especially when they see my Spanish surname. I still get that “weirded” out look when I speak Italian.
After passing through customs, there were at least three (by my very quick count and there could have been more) extremely tall women, very well dressed, strikingly fetching. They were surely models either living or visiting for work in Milan. (I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone when I say that Milan is the fashion capital of Europe.) They were also likely waiting for their other model friends usually to the delight of myself, all the other lucky dudes at the airport, and the female Japanese tourists. There just wasn’t enough paparazzi to think they were waiting for their footballers. I used to run into the models all the time as my favorite route used to be Paris to Milan (Paris being another fashion capital). This trip might have changed my favorite route to Zurich to Milan but I don’t know if I can give up the great food on Air France.
I checked into Hotel Berna (marked on the map above), a fairly fancy hotel (Four Stars) near the central station (Centrale F.S.). Of course, Giacomo, the person that checked me in wanted to speak in English and no doubt because I flashed the American passport, my confirmation clearly printed in English, and that whole strange looking face thing again. I did my best English language impression with him and retrieved my key. I came back downstairs later to buy internet access and spoke Italian to his colleague. Surprised looks again from both of them especially Giacomo. The hotel was an amazing value (amazing what Google finds) but it was also a reminder that four stars in America is very different from four stars in Europe.