Italian Job. “The Job”

Cheapsket alert as usual.

To get a cheap flight ticket, one has to succumb to multiple stopover flights. With average tix fee of RM 2.7k per pax, who are we to complain. 

Since the stopover was long, we could even drop off in Dubai and enjoy a night out. And so we did.

Dubai logistics finalised with some chatgpt research and some advise from Eti.

To make it even sweeter, after much contemplation whether to rent car, to take the train, or to overnight in the city, we got complimentary hotel room near dubai hotel.

While winning in some angle, you lost at some other. The taxi to the city for a meager distance, costed quite a bunch. Shouldn’t be too surprise considering that it’s Dubai. 

So we had few mandatory visits. The Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Mall, some Souq and Jumeirah Beach. But it would be some distance to get there. And the taxi fare would be a killer. So we decided to skip, and enjoy our good rest in the nice hotel instead. But I think we had quite decent time in Dubai. I’m no big fan of shopping malls and shopping anyhow. The hotel stay seems to be a nice addition to our trip as well especially when we managed to have a good decent breakfast.

Nothing significant while in the flight to Rome. Upon reaching, temperature was just night. We headed to the prayer room with all our luggages. I may have had my wudhu while in the air. But the rest, they had to use any drinking water that we had for wudhu. Lucky it wasn’t too cold outside. The surau itself was quite big. An airport staff was trying to perform his prayer as well. So one of our main anxiety; prayer; was covered. 

Apparently we still had to buy our train ticket to get to Italia’s main train station. Had to spent some amount of time there. While waiting, we looked around to get some cash, since we need to settle the taxes for our homestay in cash. Yup, we went to Italy totally cashless. We transferred our money into WISE, looked for ATM’s that can be withdrawn from Wise without any transaction fee. Used the opportunity to roam around Rome for a little bit. We finally managed to depart Rome to Milan right before dusk. The journey took us around 4 hours or so. Upon reaching, we were greeted by the chillier gush of Milan’s night air. As usual, I was trembling. Couldn’t even think straight and had to take out thicker down jacket to help overcome the chills. 

There was a slight walk to where we stay. I like the classic buildings, where it seems flat from the outside, but the entrance are all facing inwards. The buildings were low rise and lift was so small. We had to make few trips up to carry our luggage. Once we reach our abode, we fell in love at first sight. The house was very nice and decent. Well equipped, with few Smegs appliances as well. Rooms and beds were enough for us. There was even dryer, which le hubs was more excited of.  There was enough open space to put our bags as well. We had quick dinner, then of course, went for a quick visit outside, in the chilly Milan. 

1st order of the day the next day was none other than, a quick run. Me and hubs both headed out together. Which was very unusual. I took the navigation of course and we made our way all the way to the designer’s street of Via Montenapoleone (I didn’t know this was the area back then. I just knew that I had to find where Goyard is located). It was raining. All the way until the time when we headed out for our day tour as well.

Not sure what was the thought process then but me, Aita and Lope walked our way towards Goyard. Queued for a bit and not long after, the rest arrived. Proceeded to buy the 2 important things needed; my St Louis and Laila’s shoulder strap. Spent quite some time day, since I was contemplating which color to get. There was never the question of which size to take. I had difficulty to even push my arm through. The sales assistant did say that the PM version is the more popular one, but never actually opposed the idea of GM as a better option for me. Sometime, and as advised by my dear son, I opted for the designer green, and never regretted it since. The only regret now is that, I didn’t manage to grab the green Ralph Lauren’s cap to go with it, since it’s already out of season now. 

Headed out together Milan Duomo/ Galleria Vittorio area once done. Lope had few of his wishlist to visit. While on the way there, I was greeted by a shout not too far. Ermie and fam was also in the area. What a freaky coincidence. Yes, both of us should know that we would be in Milan at that time. But she stayed way too far in lake como and the idea was to possibly meet near there. Instead of Milan, and at Milan Duomo no less. When Allah wills, there’s always way. We walked around quite a bit, then things started to get a bit chaotic; everyone was cold and hungry. And the rain was not helping as well. It only got worse. What was supposed to be a mild weather, turned out to be full winter.

We had our lunch at xx Pizza. It was so good, I can still vividly remember it now. Not sure cause we were too hungry, or it was actually really good. We continued on to Sfozesco Castle, Sempione Park, passed by Arco della Pacce then off to San Siro. All these while in the rain and in the cold. We had to make an unnecessary stop into Decathlon to get some warmth. We went to San Siro stadium via tram and the tram had to be some wooden one with lots of air and gaps coming in. Didn’t help to make it any warmer at all.

Unlike Emirates Stadium, San Siro was totally inaccessible. The closest we got to the field, or anything that looks like a football stadium was the AC/Inter Mila shop. Even the shop was shared. One side for Inter the other for AC. Those paying for the stadium tour would be able to go through what was inside. The greens were having some sort of rehabilitation/spa. We managed to peak a bit through the glass window, but nothing more. 

Heading back to our homestay was next to torture. It was cold. We were circling around the stadium to find the tram but to no avail. Either the tram suddenly has done operating for the day, or we had the location wrong. Had no choice but to look for train station, which was far away. Back home the best food in the rainy day was of course maggie mee. After a while, we went back out with a half hearted mood by the 2 teens. Not sure what was it that pissed them off. And that was it from day 1. The day after would be our road trip. And we hoped for a better Milano tomorrow.