There were eleven of us - 8 friends and 3 mothers. We arrived in the afternoon and after finding out hotel we ventured into the city square where we were met by riot police and lots of people! We didn't know that we had arrived on a public holiday and the hot topic was the liberation of Italy by the US...because there were riot police about, I wasn't entirely sure it was a protest or celebration....
Milan has a lovely cathedral and shopping pricinct (where Posh Spice shops) and after spending the afternoon walking about in sunny 20 degree temps, we found an ice cream shop that was shouting at us to come and try it out! I forgot how nice it is to eat an ice cream in warm weather - will London ever be warm again!!??
That night was the first night of 'celebration' and we ended up in a restaurant called Joia, dressed like angels (literally)!The meal was an experience and a half...very 'out there' and 'spiritual'....
There were six courses, and the most memorable one for me was 
the soup...you had 3 small glasses of soup, you ate half of the middle one, mixed in the one from the left, ate half that again, and then added in the right one. Amazing how the taste changed with each addition.
Two hours later we were absolutely stuffed - even though they were 6 small courses, over 2 hours it all added up (as did the bill...along the lines of about €880)!. But we didn't mind paying as it was worth it for the experience, the absolutely delicious food and supurb service.
The next day we all got on the hop on-hop off bus which took us around Milan. Milan seemed to be just another European city - there is the cathedral, the church, the castle and the expensive shops, but not much more....except of course, the 'Last Supper' painting. Vicky - the art history buff she is - gave us a great 'lecture' on the painting and that certainly helped with the memory! (trying to think back to the Di Vinci Code...)
