We woke up early this morning in Genoa, Italy. The excursion Courtney, Judy, and I scheduled is a visit to Milan, and meets at 7:20, so we have to get up and going really early. Brad and Glenda decided to do a half-day tour of Genoa, and it meets a little later in the day. It’s a two-hour bus ride, but we get a good view of the Italian countryside.

Early morning as we pull into Genoa.

Castle entry

We arrive in Milan at a large castle in the old center of town. Our guide gives us the pocket history of Milan from the time of the Roman emperors, while we tour the castle grounds. Afterwards, we stroll toward the downtown area and the famous Cathedral of Milan. The weather forecast was for hot weather, and they didn’t miss the mark. It’s hot!!! We ultimately make it down the street learning more of the history. We walked by La Scala, and ended up in the square in front of the Milan Cathedral. I remembered this square and cathedral from my visit to Milan with the Fort Worth Youth Orchestra in the summer of ’69.

La Scala

We get free time to visit the area, and eat lunch. By the time we sat down for lunch, we were beat. The heat was brutal. After a long rest we toured the cathedral. It was over eighty years in construction, and massive. I was impressed when I visited in ’69, and wasn’t let down this time. Wow! After we met the group back out on the square, we walked back to the castle where we met the bus for the drive home. The bus was hot when we climbed on, and never really cooled down. Judy used her fan most of the 2 hour trip home. I’m not sure what the problem was, but it was too hot for a bus to not have better A/C.

Milan City Square

Back at the ship, we showered, ate dinner, and began to prepare for tomorrow’s excursion to Rome. They’ve been talking a lot about the heat, and today was just a “warm-up”……Bigger cathedral, and bigger heat!