The next morning, after taking it easy for the first time since the trip started, we ate breakfast (scrambled eggs, speck [bacon], and cream cheese on toast) and headed back to the city center to take in a few more sights before the opening ceremony. Our first stop was the San Bernardino alle Ossa (also knowns as the “church of bones”) which brought our count to two rather morbid artifacts seen in Milan churches in two days. We followed up with some gelato from the shop around the corner and a walk through Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Italy's oldest active shopping center, populated with many luxury brands. We then walked by the La Scala opera house, through the Sforzesco Castle, and past the Porta Sempione (Arch of Peace). From there, our plan had been to take our time with a traditional Italian meal, but, unfortunately, the place we picked didn’t have room to accommodate us, as it was run by a single chef who performed every function, including waiting tables.
After a brief look at some other options, we eventually ended up a pizza joint near the main plaza. Although Utah complained that this “authentic Italian” restaurant (run by Argentinians) was playing American pop music, the pizza itself was pretty good, and definitely far from Dominos, though Tanner was uncertain about the basil on his. Joe had heard the that the security services would be closing the square in front of the Duomo for the our Vice President's delegation to make their way through, so, after lunch, we headed back that direction, and watched a motorcade (of the Italian president) arrive (complete with Secret Service snipers on the roof). We also stopped at the Milan Starbucks Reserve Roasters, which is one of only five in the world. It was cool to see the large roasting machine grinding away, out in the center of the store.
Finally, we headed towards the opening ceremony, which I considered to be the keystone event of the trip. Even though we were a couple of hours early, the metro was packed to the gills on the way there. We arrived at San Siro Stadium (the "La Scala of football," home of AC Milan and Inter Milan) and, through some trial and error, made our way to our seats. Despite purchasing the cheapest tickets available, we ended up in a great location on the lowest tier of the stadium, four rows behind the press photographers covering the ceremony. Any photograph you see at eye level from the various news agencies was likely shot right below our seats in the stadium. There was also a police helicopter buzzing the stadium every so often, presumably looking for intruders on the roof.
The ceremony itself was quite the production, to put it lightly. Thousands of performers, volunteers, and musicians were involved. Gabby enjoyed learning the dance to the Milano Cortina theme song (a reworking of the song, "Vamos a la Playa") before the event even started. Luckily, it was only in the 40 degrees Fahrenheit that night. The ceremony itself was close to four hours long, and it did get cold just sitting there. The parade of athletes, in particular, felt quite lengthy, despite DJ Mace playing the whole time. The Vice Presidential delegation was there again as well, but they did not receive the same warm reception that the US athletes did.
There were similar issues with food and organization at this event, but, the good news was, rather than building a brand new stadium for the ceremony, the organizing committee decided to use an existing venue which is regularly full for large events like soccer games. This meant that, by the time everyone was leaving, the logistics and traffic flow were well rehearsed. In particular, rather than 61,000 people flooding the metro station and creating a crush, there were turnstile gates outside of the station that let a limited number of people through at a time. We stood shoulder to shoulder with a massive crowd, slowly making our way closer and closer to the gates. The counters above them showed that, every three minutes, another 500 people would be let through. Everyone cheered when a new count popped up and then booed when it ticked down to zero again. Joe almost made it through without us (a la, the Spirit Airlines flight debacle in 2020), but he got stopped literally *in* the gate and we all made it through together in the next round.
The metro rides and keeping track of whether everyone in the group made it onto the same train and off at the right stop was one of the more difficult logistics points of the trip. It helped that Adam is usually a head taller than any crowd, so I could make eye contact with him across the train and give hand signals for the stops, which he could then pass along. He told me afterwards that, now that we have ridden metro systems in several countries, he felt confident that he could figure it out and get back to the car by himself, if necessary. At one point, Tanner and Justin ended up on a train heading the wrong direction, but they figured it out after a stop or two and were able to rejoin the group at the station.
The over/under on making it back to the AirBnB after riding all the way across the city on the metro and then driving home was 2:00 AM. Even with a stop at a 24 hour grocery store, I believe this particular night was under.
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