This year we decided to do backpacker to Italy and our plan was 5 cities that we want to explore around. Our route started at Milan, Venice, Rome, Pisa and Florence. We explored almost everything around each city for the most part that popular places.
I would like to write all cities we visited in one article but it might be very very long. So, I separated the article in each city we visited instead. I hope you enjoy reading it.
Our flight landed in Milan Airport and Milan was our first city for us to explore. We stayed at the hotel in the suburb area and it was a bit farther from the city and the price actually cheaper from the hotel that located right in the city. The good thing about staying in the suburb area, we were be able to meet with local Milano and they are actually nicer than we thought. However, it might be hard for communication with local Milano due to in the suburb area, they can speak English very minimal unlike downtown Milan area that most people can understand English a lot better because there are many tourists there nowadays.
Milan city is busy with tourism and main business city in Italy. There are many brand name products were originally invented here. At the same time, this city has a long history of good and bad thing await for you to go visit and explore around. There are, also, many guide tour companies for us to choose from. We could go explore places ourselves but that will not cover any histories; how the story start, when it happen and how it end or it is still continuing.
Teatro alla Scala 
Piazza del Duomo 
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II 
Sforza Castle 
The Last Supper 
Santa Maria delle Grazie 
Porta Sempione
First place we visit was at “Duomo di Milano” or Milan Cathedral. This Cathedral took nearly six centuries to finish and it is the largest church in Italy. Right next to the Cathedral, there is “Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II”. It is Italy’s oldest active shopping mall and a major landmark of Milan. Across the street of the shopping mall, we stoped by Teatro alla Scala or Opera House. This Opera house limit how many guests can visit each time due to the building is old and might not be able to hold many guest at the same time. However, the theater at the Scala is sill active and one open for events time after time during the year but the tickets start at around $1200 per ticket. Inside the theater looks very beautiful with Italian art and gold as you seen in some Roman movies. In the surround area, we walked for around 5 minutes, we visited Sforza Castle. It was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the remnants of a 14th-century fortification. After visited all around inside castle area, we walked straight through the back, we visited public park area behind the castle called Parco Sempione, is a large city park in Milan. We saw lot of Milano sit and chilling around the area. There are food and drink trucks surround the area that we took some rest here with tasting Gelato after a long walked in the morning. We walked through all the way straight the park, we saw “Porta Sempione”, is a city gate of Milan.
At Duomo di Milano 
Inside Duomo di Milano 
Sforza Castle 
Inside Sforza Castle Area 
Inside Sforza Castle 
Inside Sforza Castle Area 
The Last Supper 
Parco Sempione 
Ice Cream Tasting 
You have to be an expert to park a car in Italy, 
Most people use small for easy parking 
Vespa is famous motorcycle in Italy 
You can rent a bike to tour around town as well, get some exercise!
The building surround with giant architectures and very attractive Italian art in each era, make me feel like a tiny ant walked around the city!
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II 
This symbol on the floor at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, they believe that if you put your foot in that hold and turn around all in one time, it will bring lucky to your life.
After we took a break for our lunch at the park for an hour, we continued to tour around Milan at “The Last Supper”, is a late 15th-century mural painting by Italian artist; Leonardo da Vinci, by the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. This place we got in with the group tour and they limit people to visit The Last Supper painting room due to temperature of many visitors might damage the painting and there is condition with no flash when taking pictures of the painting. After that we visited churches around the city and they all have histories in each era.
Naviglio Grande 
The next day we took a tour to Lombardy, it was a bit far from the Milan city to the northern. We took subway to get there and it took us around 15 – 20 minutes. We walked around the city, tried some food and snack around town. Along the way we walked and stopped by “Naviglio Grande”, it is a canal in Lombardy joining Ticino river near Tornavento to the Porta Ticinese dock, also known as the Darsena, in Milan. On both sides of this canal have many restaurants and bars you can choose to try some food there while walking around town.
Transportation
Transportation around Milan city is very convenient by subway. We do not need to rent a car and we can get any where by subway and train with no problem while we were there. Every subway station was always right there where the place we want to visit around the city. The ticket machine, you can either use Euro cash or credit card. When we went to the big train station, they will have full service of ticket booth and information center that can help you and some station they have immigration to check with your visa who travel between European countries.
To use credit card make sure you set your credit card to use international to avoid over charge of money exchange fee.
Where to eat
We can find food anywhere around town. There are many restaurants and bars located in every corner. The price is different depend on what type of food you choose to try. The price starts from $5 to $50, some of the restaurants might over charge if it located right in the city.
I suggest to walk a bit further to find a decent price to full your stomach.
Drinking coffee after each meal is common in Italy 
Tiramisu is my favorite Italian dessert 
Canoli is one of well known snack in Italy 
Gelato is also popular ice cream in Italy as well. 
We stayed in Milan for 4 nights due to we got jet leg from the flight with time zone different and we got some rest before we started the tour around town. It was actually not that bad we got recover from jet leg really quick within a day and we felt fresh to start take a tour around town faster than we thought.
Our next destination was Venice and we took bullet train approximately 2 hours and a half to get there from Milan train Station. So we checked out at the hotel a bit early in the morning to take subway to the main train station between the city. The train station here is really big and always crowded with lots of passengers all day long.
Will be continue for “3 Days Trip in Venice”
