Flying to Milan Italy this weekend

jhelgesen · 06:46 AM

My job has be traveling to Milan Italy this weekend, staying a few days, then coming back end of the week. I've never been out of the country before. Anyone have tips for 10 hour flights? Anything to see if I get time to explore after work? What or what not to do? Looked at the weather, supposed to be cold, rainy and snowy all week.

Rodeo · 12-01-2005, 06:31 AM

10 hours to Milan? You must have some awful layovers.

Milan is an industrial city, at least by Italian standards. And they are a fashion capital, although that does not spill over into anything to really do except sit and watch beautiful women when its nice out. Not a tremendous amount of tourist activity. The Duomo is really cool to visit, and you can see DaVinci's Last Supper there (if they re-opened it, they were doing some restoration work last I heard). If you like food, you will be a happy man!

If you have time, Maranello is not too far, the Ferrarri factory is always fun.

singpilot · 12-01-2005, 06:31 AM

Sleep. Sleep after drinking all the water you can stand. Once there, have a plain omelette with simple bread. First night there, steak, no salad. After 24 hours there, you're there. Coming home, same rules, protein, no salads.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Wear a suit onto the plane. Take a change of clothes (collered shirt and comfortable shorts, change of socks and underwear and a hand towel with decent slippers and a fold up hanger) with you and change once you're airborne. This way, if your luggage has problems, you will have your suit. About 1.5 hours beofre you land, take a razor, soap and the hand towel and give yourself a sink bath and shave, then change back into your suit.

At customs you'll look and smell good and you'll have no problems.

When switching time zones, if going East, I skip one night of sleep and then go to sleep at the nighttime of the new time zone. I find this the quickest way to get onto the new zone, if you're going to be there a while.

If you're not going to be there a while, see if you can work on _your_ time zone. Get up at noon and have meetings in the afternoon and early evening. It works for some people.

For the local scene, get Isabo to help. Or better yet her Daughter! Or both!!!

Joeaksa · 12-01-2005, 06:41 AM

Also, no booze on the flight, period. It dehydrates you and thats what you do not need.

Milano is a good place to shop and they have nice shoes, clothes and such there. Do not change much money and pay for everything possible on your Visa/MC (very few places take Am-Ex in Europe) as you get a better exchange rate that way.

Make a copy of your passport and front/back of your licenses/credit cards. Put the copy in a safe place in your room (a safe) or box at the front desk. Put your wallet in your front pocket of your pants and nothing else in your pockets.

If you are suddenly surrounded by a group of children who are getting close to you, they could be gypsies and they are the very best pickpockets there are. They use kids because the tourists do not suspect them. Put your hand in your pants pocket where your wallet is and walk briskly out of their grasp, into a store, restaurant or anywhere.

Other than that, get some grapa and good Italian food and enjoy life!

JoeA

gaijindabe · 12-01-2005, 06:42 AM

Lei il bastardo fortunato!

Rodeo · 12-01-2005, 06:45 AM

Oh yea, I always get the worst jet lag going over, coming home is easy. My sleeping got so bad that now I get 3 or 4 sleeping pills for the first few nights to get me on schedule. If you can get them, bring some in case you need them.

And what singpilot said about water. Lots of it.

jhelgesen · 12-01-2005, 06:53 AM

Flight schedule says 9.5 hours flight time, Atlanta to Milan direct. I just happen to have a few sleep aids in my bag, just in case. Gift from my Dr. during my dealings with my X. I get into Milan about 8 in the morning local time, so I hope to catch some zzz's on the plane over.

Was hoping to do a little xmas shopping for the kids and some friends while there, sounds like the right spot.

Return trip has a stop for a day in Warsaw, more work. I have no clue what to expect there, I keep imagining Bill Murry in Stripes invading the Chec Republic.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Be careful using your Visa card. Call up your card company and see if/how much they charge for currency conversion. We were tagged with 3% by Wells Fargo. Chase is 3.5%.

singpilot · 12-01-2005, 07:11 AM

Let your card company know you are going to Europe. They might block you if you don't travel a lot.

Joeaksa · 12-01-2005, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rodeo
Oh yea, I always get the worst jet lag going over, coming home is easy. My sleeping got so bad that now I get 3 or 4 sleeping pills for the first few nights to get me on schedule. If you can get them, bring some in case you need them.

And what singpilot said about water. Lots of it.

Rodeo, the key to this is to stay up the first night and let your body get on the local time. Lots of people are tired and want to go to sleep when they get into the hotel at noon or 3 PM. This is the worst thing you can do, so drink a coke or coffee and stay up until 8 or 9 PM then crash. Wake up on their schedule and it helps.

JoeA

PS reading lots of conservative magazines helps as well!

Joeaksa · 12-01-2005, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by singpilot
Let your card company know you are going to Europe. They might block you if you don't travel a lot.

If you have a GSM cell phone and are taking it, make sure you contact your local carrier and make sure that international service is enabled.

Also, once there go to the bookstore in the hotel or find one outside. Ask for a calling card for America. This way you call a local number and like a phone card here, punch in a PIN and call home for 3-4c a minute, not the $3-5.00 a minute that the hotels charge. Check your cell phone rate as well if you are going to take one.

JoeA

cstreit · cstreit's Garage

I am a big fan of Melatonin for international travel. It would reduce my jet lag from 3-4 daysdown to 1 or 2. I would generally arrive in Milan about 10-11AM after flying most of the night 6PM to 4AM. Stay up all day and pop the Melatonin about 9:30. By 10:30 I was ready to sleep.

The first two days you usually wake up about 2AM eyes wide open. Watch a little television (nothing like late night Italian TV) then go back to sleep. First two nights are always fitfull.

While there I always enjoyed going to the local joints for dinner. Even the little cafe's had excellent food. If you have a full day to sight-see the Lago de Magore (sp?) region is a few hours away and beautiful.

Remember than Milan is Northern Italy so don't expect superior Pasta there. They really focus on Meat, Fish, and cheeses so enjoy the steak and seafood dishes... and Pizza! Plan on 3 hours for dinner and order the wine!

Rodeo · 12-01-2005, 08:11 AM

I have an unusually stobborn body clock or something. Even if I stay up 24 hours or more to get into local time, I revert back the next night. That's how I found that sleeping pills are the way to go for me. I've even tried to stop them before 4-5 days and I revert right back to home time. So I gave up fighting it, and use mother's little helper liberally

And Joe, reading conservative texts would probably get me all hyped up, I'd probably need 2 pills!

Don Plumley · Don Plumley's Garage

The Duomo (huge Cathedral) in the Piazza is worth a look. You can walk on the roof - and get a sense for how much smaller folks were back then (low arches, etc.) Unless you are a starimaster fiend, there is an elevator on the south side of the building for a few Euro. Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" is in Milan, often a long line to get in to see it. You are very close to Lake Como - It's a beautiful area.

What Joe said about small kids/gypsies - not dangerous but keep you wits about you. It's easy to look like a lost American target, uh, tourist(keeps looking at a map).

Have a great time!