Milan, one of the fashion capitals of the world. I expected to see a lot of well-dressed people on the streets, shops selling the latest fashions and 50,000 people running the Stramilano, with some running the competitive international half marathon. Not quite expected were crowds everywhere and police at street corners (more about that later). Debi and I took the train from La Spezia to Milano on Saturday morning, joined by Kimberly who decided to run the 10K with us. After checking into our really nice (but affordable) hotel, we walked the 300 m to the Duomo (Cathedral) to pick up our race pack. The process was surprisingly efficient: we showed receipts from our online registration and were given a bag with a T-shirt, a running bib and other stuff. Took maybe 10 minutes max, then on to lunch. A colleague, Nicky, told me about a cafeteria on top of a building with a nice view of the Duomo across. 
After searching for some time, we found the food court which was on the 7th floor of a big department store, La Rinacentre. It was really crowded but we heard the sushi bar with plates on a conveyor belt calling out to us. Cosmopolitan Milan is one of the few places in Italy where one can find authentic sushi, Thai, India, Mexican ... what I call ethnic food. This was it for Kimberly who has been craving sushi for a whole year, we sat at the sushi bar and started stuffing ourselves, while keeping an eye on the color coded plates to make sure that we did not end up with a 100 euro lunch. After that satisfying meal (and no, we did not empty our purses at this meal), we took a look around the upscale store. Hey, we're in Milan, just have to look at clothes and cosmetics, and ogle at the beautiful people. We wanted to tour the La Scala Opera House but unfortunately the Museum staff that run the tour were on strike. So we decided to go back to the hotel to rest, before our planned “Milano aperitivi experience” at one of bars described by the Frugal Traveler at http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/in-milan-the-best-meal-deal-in-italy/?partner=rss&emc=rss. The Trattoria Bar Toscana was a 10-min walk from our hotel, but as we get closer to Corso di Porta Ticinese we started seeing a very different fashion culture, a lot of metal, leather and tattoos.
The entrance of the bar itself was quite unpretentious, we thought we had the wrong place but inside, especially the courtyard-like bar area was quite spacious although it filled up quickly. The three of us enjoyed our happy hours, 6 euro a drink (we had only 2 rounds, yes, truly) accompanied by free food. We lost count of the number of times we went up to the bar to get samples of new dishes that came out of the kitchen (focaccia, salads, cold meats, hot pasta, meatballs, torta, risotto di fungi which was extremely good, etc). What saved us from making total pigs of ourselves was the big lunch we had only a few hours earlier. Luckily the next day’s run was only a 10K, not a marathon or I would probably see a repeat of the Rome experience!Race day was cool and cloudy. We were taken by the festive sight in front of the Duomo, red balloons everywhere. A volunteer gave each of us a balloon and happily took a photo for us.
The crowd got larger and larger, there were families with small children, some in strollers, people in wheelchairs, people with dogs on leashes, and dogs in slings (we asked permission to take this cute family picture, both dogs, Yoda and Napoleon, were registered participants and wore running bibs). The race started at 9:00 with the release of balloons, and off we went. It was packed the entire course, I’ve never seen anything like this. Runners had to go around walkers, a number of people were on skates and even bicycles; it was rather scary and one has to be really careful, I saw at least 3 people fall. Kimberly who is a fast runner, took off way ahead of us and finished 50 minutes later. I surprised myself with a PB of 1:08, had not expected to do as well as the Hague race since this is my first long distance after Rome. Debi, who had been ill the past week and did not get any training in, finished in 1:16. We all had a medal but the finish area was chaotic. People were jostling for drinks and freebies; Kimberly disappeared inside a crowd at the Easyjet tent, she actually come out alive with free T-shirts. 
Then it was a mad dash back to the hotel to take a shower and make the noon check out time. We left our bags at the hotel and went out for lunch, ending up at one of the touristy places on the main pedestrian mall. We were talked into trying the house aperitivo which was very good, but the waiter failed to tell us (because we failed to ask) what each glass cost. When the bill came, this was the meal that came very close to breaking our purses. Ah well, lesson learned – but the long lunch was very good, especially after a good race. We tried to tour the La Scala again. This time the staff were back at work but technicians were testing the lighting: we can only visit the exhibits but will not see much of the Theatre. We decided that we will have to come back to La Scala to see a show or an opera next time, and went shopping (or window shopping) again. 
As we got near the Duomo, there was a big crowd of people with flags and signs: it appears that a political demonstration was getting ready to start. There were police everywhere, including some carrying riot gear. It was rather disconcerting. To top it all, it started to rain, so we decided to get back to the hotel to pick up our bags. We found the main roads blocked off by police, and had to take the side streets, the road outside our hotel was also blocked by police vans (photo above). The desk clerk told us that the nearby metro was closed, so we walked to the other end of the road and took a taxi for the train station. We made it back to La Spezia without incident--what an experience. I don't know if I'll ever do the Stramilano again, but it was definitely a memorable event.
