Milano, Snowshoeing in the Alps, and a Little Bit of Juventus Football

   On Saturday, March 2nd, BJ and I visited Milano with three other Americans.  The Duomo was a true work of art!  We were able to tour the inside and were amazed by its beauty.  While in Milano, we also visited an old medieval castle.  According to a map we saw dated in the early 1500s, the castle was once the entry way to all of Milano.  At that time, the entire city of Milano had a very impressive wall built around the city for protection.

BJ and I at the Entrance to the Duomo

The Duomo, an absolute work of art

The architecture from close up

BJ snagged an amazing photo from inside the church as we walked out

The entrance to the "Golden Quad"

This is the Golden Quad, which is a beautiful shopping area with stores like Gucci, Prada, and Dolce and Gabbana

The center of the Golden Quad

On our way to the castle, we saw some amazing street art.  This man was carving fruit and veggies into flowers and birds.

Our first view of the medieval castle

The entrance to the castle

BJ and I in front of the fountain by the castle

BJ!

Inside the courtyard of the castle

The main garden of the castle, with a reflecting pool.  This is probably beautiful in the spring.

I locked BJ in the dungeons until he took a picture I thought was cool enough for this blog

The other entrance to the castle was covered in vines which gave it a cool look

Sempione Park

We aren't sure what this is, but it was cool. The three stooges behind me are the other Americans that went to Milano with us

BJ and me found Harry Potter in Milano... Actually this is our friend Eric that came with us, but he does look like him!

     The next day, BJ and I went back to Bardonecchia to go for a snowshoe hike in the Alps.  A little less than half way into our hike, we noticed a lot of the signs were in French and that the people we passed were speaking French.  We had accidentally hiked into France!

BJ at the start of our hike, the wasn't a cloud in the sky so we were burning up!

Me at the start of our hike, I went all the way down to just my t-shirt!

I made it to the top, or so I thought...

The sun was so beautiful shining over the mountains

BJ finally joined the snowshoe t-shirt crew...

The snow was so deep! This isn't even the deepest parts

This is when we finally realized we were in France! Welcome to Vallee de la Clarée!

The valley we were walking in

It got a little colder on the way back, but it was still absolutely breathtaking

We finally found some French friends to take a picture for us!

BJ was insistent on having a picture with the "water, mountains AND bridge"

The sun setting over the mountain peaks

A view looking down over the ski resorts

BJ's favorite lake... the water was bluer than anything I have ever seen

    On Monday, we got very lucky and were able to snag 4 tickets to the Juventus vs. Celtic Champions League Football Match! We went to the game last night with our two friends from Estonia and had quite the adventure.  When we arrived at the stadium we were trying to find our gate to enter, but we came across a police riot barricade that was preventing anyone from getting near buses that were unloading Celtic fans. It just so happened that these Celtic fans were being unloaded to our gate which made it a little difficult to get in!  After getting to the gate we had to go through three different security check points.  Here, they actually put your name on your ticket, so they check that with your ID and if it is not your name on the ticket, you do not get in.  The second security was a pat down and then you went onto the last security that actually scanned your ticket.  

   This was only the start of our adventure!  When we got to our section, the ushers checked our tickets and saw that we were wearing Juventus gear, and our seats were right in the middle of the Celtic fans.  He then sent us to a different section and told us to talk to the usher there to get our new seats.  Once we found the next usher, we were sat in absolutely amazing seats - right at midfield!! I'm not sure why or how we got lucky enough to be some of the few Juventus fans moved, but it was definitely a plus.  The seats we were given were definitely worth a lot more than what we paid.

Our first glimpse of the stadium, in the rain

When we finally got to our amazing seats, luckily the seats are covered from the rain

BJ and I from our seats, we were above an entrance, and just high enough so we didn't have to look through the glass. So perfect!

Me!

BJ!

Our group, Mihkel and Randel, the Estonians, and BJ and I

They laid out flags with the Juventus colors so at the start of the game the scene in the stadium was awesome.

This flag was spread out in the upper deck by the fans in the stadium and on this side they had the flags form the Italian national flag

At the start of the game, the players are escorted out by local children.  I don't think you can see but the children are in front of the players

The start of the game!

With thirty minutes to go, and the Celtic fans aware that it was their last game of the champions league, they initiated a shirtless song/party which lasted for the rest of the game.  "Here we go" were the only words to the song...

We won! The awesome flags and banners came back out!