Michael Jackson

Just interrupting the Milan report to give a special mention to one of the world's greatest entertainers. For Steph's birthday back in April, Andy and the family bought Steph tickets to watch Michael Jackson in concert at the O2 arena in London. So, as you can probably guess we are very sad that Michael Jackson has died and that we won't get to see this great performer. Its a very sad loss. Andy is very fortunate that when he was younger he saw Michael Jackson in concert in 1989 on his Bad tour.

Here are some pictures from April, Andy threw Steph a Michael Jackson themed birthday party and everyone dressed up as Michael Jackson.

We are huge fans. RIP MJ.

San Siro

Kaka!

Crazy Fans!

A big part of our trip to Milan was to see AC Milan play. AC Milan is Andy's joint favourite European team with Real Madrid. We were very much looking forward to seeing Maldini and Kaka play.

We arrived at the San Siro (it was an early evening match) to a great atmosphere, we had a drink with some local fans before being let into the ground. As we were early, our first point of call was the club shop. Andy bought a home shirt with Kaka on the back.

The San Siro stadium looks pretty amazing from the outside, but incredible on the inside with an atmosphere to match. The fans make the atmosphere and AC Milan have a hell of a fan base.

We had some great seats, near the bottom, but high enough to have a great view of the pitch, opposite the tunnel.

The match: AC Milan v Torino

The final score was 0-0, disappointing as it would have been good to see AC Milan score.

What we loved was that the commentator would introduce the players number and first name and the fans would shout the surname - brilliant!!

We have to say though that some of the die hard fans certainly had a die hard attitude! We observed the fans on the top tiers and some were hanging off the railings! If they fell, they would have been dead!

Food and drink were brought round the stadium and to our amazement on this pretty chilly night, the most popular buy was the ice cream!

Maldini has only just retired in his forties, for an out field player, that is practically unheard of in England. Does anyone know the secret to why Italian players have longer careers?

After the game there was organised chaos with fans from both sides on their way home. We could not find an empty taxi or a bus to save our lives! We tried walking back to the hotel, but ended up getting a bit lost. We actually found out later that we had walked near to our hotel at one point! Eventually we found a taxi and welcomed our bed!

Shopping!

Andy deserves a well earned drink from all that shopping!

We both like doing this a bit and as it was Andy's birthday, we did a lot of it! Milan is great for shopping, clothes and shoes is what we were looking for.

If you've got a particularly large purse or wallet then the designer shopping centre, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is the place to go. If you're wallet or purse isn't particularly large, then it is still worth a visit. Window shopping at Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc... and the centre itself is beautiful. The architect for the building was Giuseppe Mengoni who unfortunately fell off some scaffolding and died in 1878, a few months before it was completed.

Not far from the famous Duomo is a shopping area called Quadrilatero d'Oro, here you will find little boutiques to large shops and departments stores, as well as a huge amount of Jewellery shops.

For the longest shopping street in Italy, go to Corso Buenos Aires, open til late as well!

While shopping, we did take in some sights as well. Who cannot miss the very imposing and impressive Duomo! There is an entrance fee for the treasury, baptistery and roof, but the Cathedral is free. This is one of the largest churches in Europe, it boasts 3000 statues, 135 spires and 96 gargoyles. Its a very beautiful building and is well worth a visit.

We did this part of the trip over two days, as there is so much to see.

Andy's Birthday - Milan 2007

Andy loves his football and has always wanted to go to Italy, in fact he has actually asked if we can live there one day for at least a year! Don't know when that will be! - So, it was only natural to think that the best birthday present would be a trip to Milan to sight-see, shop and to go and watch AC Milan play.

AC Milan is one of Andy's favourite European teams along side Real Madrid.

I took Andy for lunch at the Peach Tree restaurant in Shrewsbury to tell him about his birthday present, he had no clue and this was a day before we flew (the rhyme isn't on purpose!).

Well, of course he loved it!

We had an early morning flight, which we both agreed has to be one of the best flights we have ever had. It was a small plane (not sure of the type, answers on a postcard!), but it was quick on take off and landing was very smooth.

We both like to people watch and there was one gentleman on the flight which we both noticed, he was a bit secretive looking - so we concluded he had to be part of the Mafia!

To our surprise, he was actually arrested on arrival to Milan, whether he was part of the Mafia or not, we shall never know!

We did have a guide book and tried our hardest to get a bus to the city, but we ended up in a taxi and paying top dollar for the pleasure. Oh well.

The hotel was classed as a 4 star and certainly stood up to it's rating. It was great. The staff were friendly, the room was tidy and clean and we couldn't have asked for more.

We got our bearings and decided on a plan of action. We decided shopping and sight-seeing first. We ended up walking to the nearest metro station as we could not find anywhere to purchase the tickets for the tram. It was a bit of a trek, but we got to see a lot and it was good exercise. We had our tickets, so using the tram was possible now.

We stayed at the Hotel Mozart