San Siro

San Siro
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
5:18 PM

We jumped on a train Milan so Carlo and his Daniel could get their Student Visas for their upcoming year at the University of Illinois - Chicago. Fortunately I wasn't allowed in the consulate since I didn't have an appointment or any urgent matters. As a result I took the opportunity to walk around a bit and engage in the true test of any country, the quality of their McDonalds.

While most would argue that this is an absurd test because McDonalds is universally terrible, I'd invite them to try McDonalds in Japan. When Al and I went there the summer after second year Kim made us watch Super-Size Me, we both got cravings for McDonalds, and I was quickly convinced that Japanese McDonalds was markedly better than anything I had ever tasted in the States. The Italian version did not hold up to the rigorous Japanese standards, and it was terrible as one would expect.

Their trip to the consulate ended up being fairly painless, and after our government confirmed that they weren't Nazi's or terrorists they had their Visas. We headed down to the Duomo, which I had remembered from the family trip a few years back. It was impressive and buzzing with tourists like myself. We jumped on the subway and met up with one of Daniel's friends and had pasta in a food court for lunch. I was initially pretty skeptical to the idea, but it was delicious.

From there we headed down to the legendary San Siro, home of both Inter and AC Milan. They were changing the field and so we were quickly convinced that we could go on the field. After walking around for a bit like a clueless American we were on the field. It was really impressive and the viewing angles looked like they'd be wonderful. On the upper levels it was undoubtedly a bit cavernous but sweet nonetheless. Serie A, the Italian Soccer League, is known for having the worst grass in all of Europe. Interestingly, San Siro, one of the most famous stadiums in Europe, is known for having the worst grass in Italy. This happens even though AC Milan is home to David Beckham and is owned by the President and 3rd richest man in Italy, Silvio Berlusconi. Inter is also one of the most recognizable clubs in the world. When you consider how good the grass can be even at high school stadiums, San Siro's field was thoroughly entertaining.

From San Siro we jumped on a Bus and headed down to a Castle that Victoria Beckham tried to purchase upon David's arrival in Milan. I'm always surprised at the quality of the brickwork at these places. Yet, to stand up to hundreds of years of weathering and be only lightly scathed something obviously needs to be well built. Outside of the castle was a huge park that wasn't rough on the eyes. We stopped for a bit and watched some 3-on-3 basketball which confirmed my earlier mentions of Italians not playing basketball from a young age.

We then headed down to the nightlife area of Milan which was very fashionable like the rest of the city. Stopping by the famous clubs that the soccer players frequent was interesting because they were like everything else in Europe, small. Even the particularly notorious 'Hollywood' couldn't have been more than a few thousand square feet.

As we were trying to be back in Turin in time for dinner we headed back downtown and caught the train. Carlo had told me that all the trains would be late, that I wouldn't see Andrea Bargnani or LA Galaxy David Beckham jerseys, and just as I was pointing out that he had been wrong on multiple counts our train broke down. We spent 30 minutes stalled on a ride that was supposed to take 90 minutes, but Daniel got to sit up front with the conductor and we got back with plenty of time to spare.