Itali-Mex Experience

Ok so I went to the "Cantina Mariachi" restaurant today. It was ummm........REALLY BAD! I guess that is what I get for trying Mexican food in Italy! On the bright side, the Stracciatella Gelato I had at the Gelato place next door was pretty good...

Random Observation: Italian drivers are terrible! If you see a road with two lanes normally this would mean two cars lined up side by side right? Wel not here in Italia, you will see cars lined up wherever they can fit and that doesn't include people on scooters! Tonight I was at a red light and the guy behind me felt like I did not really have any intentions of going on green so he moved in front of me and parked halfway out into the road at the intersection. CRAZY!!

Snowed in...

Well today (and yesterday) it seems that it has been snowing nonstop! More like Blizzard conditions!! Well this is coming from someone who normally doesn't see snow. Luckily my hotel is close to work and there are some decents eats around here. The "Buono Appetito" cafe is not bad at all. I am in a most residential area, lots of apartments (with all kinds of graffiti) and there are a lot of companies in the area. Some things are within walking distance (~20 minutes max) however my rental car is coming in very handy. The nearest subway stop is 15min walking so i just park the car in the subway garage and go into the city. Some places I have visited that are nearby:

• MediaWorld - This is kind of like Circuit City or Best Buy but on a much smaller scale. I bought my Vodafone prepaid sim card here.
• Esselunga - Local grocery store that has a pretty decent cafeteria. The bagel chips flavored with olive oil and black olives is mighty good.
• Auchan - Some kind of super store like Target. They have food, house stuff, car stuff, toys, etc. It's in a big mall that I forget the name of however within the food court I saw none other than a Mexican restaurant! I may have to try it one day since it's hard to find Mexican food in Texas.

I have been to both airports (Malpensa and Linate) and both are not easy to get to. The traffic here in Milan is horrendous. It took me 2 hours to get from my office to my hotel even though the ride is only 30 min max. Granted 45 minutes of that was me getting lost and trying to find my way back. I am now on my third car as well!! First car didn't drive so well and was an older model so I traded the Seat Ibiza in. Second car was really nice! It was a new Opel Astra unfortunately I lost the keys in the snow and I couldn't find it so I had to get it towed to Avis. Srtrke 2!! So after spending over an hour trying to get to the Avis rental place with the tow truck driver (who for some reason kept talking to himself) I got an Opel Meriva. It looks like an SUV but it's the size of a Civic and is Diesel powered.

The car is currently buried in snow as you can see in the pic. The other pics are just of various things from around my hotel. The McDonalds pic was taken from my hotel window. I am on the 8th floor and the McD was across the street so my camera's super zoom came in very handy!

Ok back to work now!!!

First week status...

Well I have been here in Milan for about 5 days. The first weekend I did some touristy things. Nothing really has changed since I came here back in 2000 however the Duomo which is the centerpiece of the city is under restoration so it's covered up by scaffolding.

The bottom shot is a better pic of the Duomo at night since there are no scaffolding on the sides. Surprisingly there were still quite a lot of tourists at the Duomo square considering it's winter time!