Milan, Duomo, and Women's Ice Hockey

Leaving the Dolomites

The next morning, we got up early to head towards Milan for the next event we had tickets for - the US women’s hockey team vs. the Czech Republic. Our first stop, after subsisting on the breakfast food stash the night before, was at a small cafe (or “dairy”), called Gurmont, with the tagline "The flavor of the Dolomites," for breakfast and coffee. This turned out to be one of our most enjoyable experience interacting with locals. All the employees in the shop were wearing team Italy jackets with the Olympic logo, and it was obvious they were ready to welcome international visitors to their establishment.

Most of us ordered the most substantial sausage biscuit we had ever seen (definitely an "Olympic special"), and there were multiple rounds of coffee and glasses of milk to be had. The staff was very accommodating of our non-existent Italian, and the locals having their breakfast in the shop appeared amused at the very least. I also enjoyed observing an interaction between two old men, arguing over who was going to get to pay for both of their breakfasts. Some things are definitely cross-cultural.

From breakfast, we drove strait to the train station to ride the Milan metro (the ATM) into the city. Our first stop was the Duomo, where we had reservations to see the cathedral and visit the terrace (roof). We walked into the square as preparations were being made for the arrival of the Olympic torch. Numerous Coca Cola representatives were on site, handing out free drinks (as an official sponsor of the games). The medal ceremonies in Milan will be held in the square in front of the Duomo, and numerous news agencies lined the roofs around the square with their temporary broadcast booths.

View from the roof of the Milan Duomo

Saint Bartholomew Flayed

As we were standing in line for our tour, Joe was looking for an elevator to the roof. I told him, “You didn’t pay for a lift ticket.” We climbed the 463 stairs onto the roof and began our tour. I dutifully took note of all of the statues and looked towards the ceiling when we entered the sanctuary, thanks to Adam’s instruction. I thought about the likelihood that this cathedral would be full on Sunday morning, despite its large size, given Milan’s population, and the number of Italian Catholics. It's hard to imagine many of these historic churches being used for regular Sunday worship, but this one is almost certainly full quite often, as attested by the modern updates (TVs and speakers). Perhaps the most interesting piece of art was a statue of the apostle, Saint Bartholomew Flayed. Legend says he was skinned alive, and the statue depicts him standing, holding his skin, draped over his shoulder. Gabby said the exposed musculature was surprisingly accurate in its depiction.

Ice hockey venue

After spending an hour or so at the Duomo, we jumped on the ATM again to ride out to the hockey rink. This was a temporary venue in the massive Fiera Milano Rho expo center, and it took forever just to walk the length of all the buildings. We went through a couple layers of security and finally made it inside, greeted by volunteers with face paint, who would help you support your country’s team with a flag or other patriotic art. We made it to our seats, which were in one corner of the arena and waited for the game to begin. We ended up seeing the only goal scored against the US women outside of the gold medal game, and Gabby loved that they played "Free Bird" every time the US scored.

USA vs. Czech Republic

Several folks went to find food, and we soon got another glimpse of the difficulty of organizing an olympics event. Before the game even started, the food stands were out of hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, and sandwiches, and had only drinks and chips. The espresso machine at one of the two coffee stands was broken, and everything had lines a mile long, with what looked like only a small handful of people operating each booth. It only served to reinforce that, hosting the Olympics (which usually happens only once in a lifetime in any single country), is a mammoth undertaking.

Nevada and I made our way to the gift shop, where we selected a hoodie that rang up 40 euro more expensive than it actually was. The (apparent) manager was just coming back with two fistfuls of uninventoried cash, frantically making change where they were short. I explained the issue, and pointed out that the receipt even listed a different item (the assumption being that the tag wasn’t matching the correct item in their inventory system). I could see she was trying to come up with the quickest, easiest solution that would send me on my way when she said, “Okay. I can refund you, but it will have to be in cash.” I sensed I could probably have pushed to have it corrected on my card, but that would have required us to find the exact handheld terminal that had been used for the original purchase. I decided to take the cash while the getting was good, and Nevada did the same.

The hockey game itself was a rout by team USA, and, because it was one of the few events before the opening ceremony, and one of the only early team USA competitions, it was attended by several notable persons. The entire US speed skating team was in attendance (including the US flag bearer for the opening ceremony, Erin Jackson), according to the wife of a speed skating official sitting next to us. At some point, Utah, who had his binoculars out, said, “JD Vance is here!” He, along with Marco Rubio, were sitting across the rink from us, surrounded by security. Sometime in the third period, Tanner and Joe decided to see if they could make an introduction and started working their way that direction. When we got ready to leave, I still hadn't seen them. Justin said, “They’re probably both in the back of some government vehicle at this point.”

We made our way back to the park and ride and returned to find the trunk to one of the two cars standing open. All of our belongings were still present, as far as we could tell, and we weren’t sure whether it had been open for some time, or had just opened while trying to unlock the car from a distance. Putting that aside, the evening included another race to the grocery store before it closed. Our car went straight to the AirBnB to check in, while the other went shopping for dinner supplies. This final AirBnB (where we would be staying for three nights) was an enormous villa that looked like a literal castle (though it was only about a hundred years old). The massive front doors opened into a foyer with red carpet and a spiral staircase. The housekeeper that met us was very friendly and gave us a tour of the house, but made us sign an agreement to stay off of the turret, portico, and raised lawn.

We did have one issue with the power, as we were cooking dinner. It appeared the house’s electrical system wasn’t designed to run a dozen space heaters alongside two eyes on the stove. The housekeeper came back, apologized, and gave us access to the whole house breaker. Meanwhile, Justin was wondering around in the suit of armor scaring people. We made do by cycling the heaters and the stove as necessary and finally had dinner sometime around 11:00 PM. A late night and early morning combination that would only continue to be a pattern for the next few days.