The flight from Lamezia to Rome was delayed but we made it. Same story from Rome to Milan. It wasn't looking good for my hope of getting stuck here again! We had a three-hour stopover in Milan, and so five of us caught the thirty-minute bus into the city for an hour of running around and seeing as much as we could!

I'd only heard good things about Milan and straight away it was living up to its reputation - the place is beautiful! When we were right in the city I could see something off in the distance that I've wanted to visit for ages - the Duomo di Milano!

It was 35 degrees and not a cloud in the sky - my perfect weather! The shot on the right is a fan with little water jets attached so it blows a mist of water to cool the cafe patrons - great idea (and it works good too!).

After a quick wander in the general direction we eventually found it - the mighty Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral), the second-largest gothic cathedral in the world!

The Duomo overlooks a massive square with several shopping arcades coming off it, but I had no time to shop (which sucks as Milan is reputed as being the shopping capital of Italy).

At this point the five of us split up and went our separate ways which suited me just fine as I was about to do another New York and there was no way they'd keep up hehe. For the next 45 minutes I ran everywhere, heading down any road that looked as though it had something interesting down it (which most of them did) and taking a ton of photos! In the 35-degree heat I was sweating like a nun in a cucumber patch, but it was unreal to be there and I was loving it :)

In Munich there are several colourfully-painted lions throughout the city (a tribute to Munich's founder). Well in Milan, at least for now, it's cows, and they're are everywhere! Some info about them here.

This one doubled as a milk stop hehe.

And I think this one was dead (or drunk).

After a lot of running I came across the Castello Sforzesco (Sforza Castle). Construction began in the 14th century, and it now houses an art gallery. It must be a good spot for a bit of romance too - spot the chick giving her man's arse a good groping on the right hehe.

I stuck my head in this to cool off.

There you are girls, welcome to Italy!

And there you are boys, welcome to Italy! (Blonde Kiwis are a novelty around here ;)

At this point I was at least a few kilometres away from where I had to catch the bus back to the airport, and it was so hard to turn and head back!

I was almost praying to get back into the airport and see a big fat "Cancelled" next to my flight to Heathrow, but it wasn't to be. Milan is an awesome place from what little I saw of it today, so I'll definitely be back.

We made it back to Heathrow and I just managed to catch the last flight to Edinburgh. This is the view from 35,000 feet at 10:30pm - gotta love the length of the summer days this far north (too bad there's no real summer sun to speak of though).

After an incredible weekend it was depressing stuff to be walking back to work in dirty old Glasgow the next day. The only thing that cheers me up on these sorts of mornings is seeing the road cones on top of the statue I walk past every day in the middle of town hahaha - even the horse had one today!