This post picks up where Trip Recap 04: Lucca. left off, so be sure to read that first.
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To reach Milan we left Lucca and went back to Florence to catch our train. We arrived into Milan's main train station around 8:30 in the evening. What a beautiful station! We had a long walk to our hotel, Hotel San Tomaso, and it was still hot and humid out. It's always a relief to take off the backpacks!
As you can see, our room was small and bare bones, but it did have a private bath! The location of this place was actually in the Chinatown section of Milan, something we didn't know until we got there. Here's a view out of our balcony...
Of course just as we were about to turn in for the night Inter Milan had won the Serie A title and the resulting horn honking by every car in Milan lasted well into the night/morning!
Milan is your typical big city and I don't think we would have visited here if the Giro d'Italia wasn't coming through. That being said, we did have some time on the following morning to explore a bit of the city before the race actually started. We walked down to see Milan's Duomo, which is an amazing gothic catherdral, and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle.
Okay...so that's enough for the site seeing stuff, now the real reason we came to town, stage 9 of the 100th Giro d'Italia . The race started around 1pm and it was a 10 lap circut around the city. Turns out the stage was quite contraversial. The riders were upset with the route and the condition of the roads. They had to cross over trolley tracks and dodge spectators all over the course. They decided to not actually race the stage and just take it as more of a leisurely stroll through town. Fine by me, cause it meant that for the 10 times they went around we got to see them a bit more slowly. Before the race we walked around a bit and ended up hanging out near the Team Astana bus [Team Astana is the old Discovery Team]. Of course Mr. Lance was the last one off the team bus, but we did get to say hello and Kel even gave him a pat on the back as he rolled out. I ran ahead for some shots! Other guys we got to see up close were former rider and now coach Viatcheslav Ekimov or "Eki" as they call him, Yaraslov Popovich, Chris Horner, and team director Johan Bruynell.
So, how about those close-up action shots of the race?
Up next is Trip Recap 06: Cinque Terre.
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