This morning we got up at the ungodly hour of 6:00, jumped into our clothes, drove to our local train station, caught a 7 a.m. into the city and the central train station, where we boarded an intercity high speed for Milan.  We had an appointment at 9:30 at the U.S. Consulate to renew Grace's passport.  We took a cab from the station to the consulate and arrived with a 1/2 hour to spare that we definitely ended up needing.   There was a big long line of people waiting to get inside for appointments.  As very few were Americans, (mostly Africans and South Americans), I assume they were hoping for visas.  There was one poor guy from the U.S. who had had all of his documents stolen and had been going back and forth for 3 days trying to get everything straightened out.  He was dressed like a French hippie artist with scarves and sandals with socks, an orange jacket, red pants and various layers underneath.  He was of course wearing a beret.  I say poor guy because he fell asleep in the waiting room, sitting up on a hard backed chair with a pile of papers and folders 12 inches thick on his lap.  We kept expecting him to fall over.  The consulate does not allow cell phones or any sort of digital, battery or electric equipment in the building so we had to put our phones and even car keys (they have a battery run alarm system remote), in tiny little lockers at the entrance.  Unfortunately they don't allow any bags bigger than a wallet either.  I, of course, had a big purse.  They told me that there were two places where I could store it.  One was a bar next door, but they asked an exorbitant price, and the other was a Mailboxes Etc. "around the corner", that charged less than half.  So I left GP and Grace waiting in line and skipped around the corner only to find that it was three big city blocks away.  I found this out after running up and down the first block like an idiot till I finally asked a guy in a coffee shop.  Ten minutes later I returned to the consulate all sweaty and out of breath only to get "the look" from my dear family for taking so long.  I made them walk all the way back with me to see how far it was once we had finished.  Once past security and inside all went smoothly and we had some time to spare so we walked back to the station to see a bit of the city.

Porta Garibaldi with skyscraper

that same skyscraper up close and personal

Milan is Italy's biggest city with about 6 million people.  Milan is followed by Rome, then Naples and finally Torino.  Where Torino feels like a big town with all of it's old, low buildings and narrow roads, Milan definitely feels like a metropolis.  It has skyscrapers and gobs of highways and big boulevards.  It is the commercial hub of Italy with the fashion industry, banking and economic market all based there.  There are a few worthwhile things to see.  The famous "Duomo", a huge Gothic cathedral, (one of the world's largest), the fashion district where all the women are extremely tall and make me feel like a troll, and few other places.  But overall I don't like it.  It's always gray, it's rather ugly, and it's doesn't seem to have any character.  Walking back to the station we passed one of the original "gates" into the city, called Porta Garibaldi.  Walking between there and the station is a large area of all new, still unoccupied, and uber-modern buildings that will be offices, apartments and shopping.  It is pretty cool in a very sterile way.  xxoo me