Giro d'Italia - Part 1

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Come one, come all to downtown Milan for the biggest sporting event of the year. The Giro d'Italia arrives in town for stage 9. Come see Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Danilo Diluca, Michael Rogers, Ivan Basso, Carlos Sastre and more as they battle it out on the streets of Milan.

Yes, today we headed into Milan to watch Stage 9 of the Giro. Wow, what a day. We left home around 8:30 this morning and headed to the Sesto Giovani red line subway stop. This is the closest subway stop to our apartment, about 20 min away. We rode the subway into Milano, getting off at the Duomo station.



The Pizza di Duomo was fairly empty when we arrived. Brandon noticed right away that the stairway to the Duomo roof was open. Last time we were down there it was closed. We checked out the main stage and the start area for the Giro, which wouldn't be starting until 1:35pm, then headed over to Palazzo Reale to see the Monet exhibit. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed. Wow! To see original works by Monet was amazing. Many of us have seen them in books, but to see them in person is an amazing experience. Brandon was even impressed since he has studied Monet in art class at Adams over the past three years.







After the Monet exhibit we headed across the piazza to climb the steps up to the roof of the Duomo. For those that don't remember, this is the third largest cathedral in the world, so there were plenty of steps up to the roof! What a view of both the intricate stonework of the church and of the city of Milan.



It was lunchtime and we were hungry after our two morning excursions. We ended up at the most American choice of food we could find on the piazza - McDonalds. And it tasted oh so good to have a burger and fries and a coke with ice.



After lunch we went back out on the piazza to look at the fleet of support vehicles and motorcycles used for the Giro. Its quite an amazing fleet.





The riders would roll out of the Piazza di Duomo at 1:35pm and make their way to the race course near the Castello, a few blocks away. We stopped near the pedestrain mall to sit and wait for the roll out. That turned out pretty good since we were able to see the riders up close as they rolled slowly by.

Mike met up with us after the roll out and we made our way to the castle area to watch the race. We watched the race go past one time, then decided to move around the course towards Mike's new apartment.





We stopped at the 1 km banner to watch for awhile and enjoy a drink. The day was fairly warm and humid.





The riders were taking about 20-25 min per lap, so each time they passed us we moved up the course a little more. The race was 11 laps on approximately 20km course through the streets of Milan.

Part 2 will be posted tomorrow...