After breakfast, we got to the Lucerne Train station. We picked up some more sandwich supplies from the Coop store at the train station. We were heading to Venice and had a 4 hour connection in Milan. The journey to Milan was on Eurocity (EC 253) train, a 4 hour trip.
I had opted for the shortest route from Lucerne to Milan, not necessarily the most scenic route. There are other scenic routes available between these two cities (although not as direct and more time consuming).
Since we had around 4 hours in Milan, we wanted to utilize the time to see the #1 sightseeing item in the city, The Duomo. Milan Central Station being a big hub for railway travel in Europe, is pretty crowded. We followed the red “M” signs to get to the Metro station which is right outside of the Milan train station itself.
Even though Milan Central station has Hold Luggage Departments, since we were traveling light on our trip (the only way to travel in Europe !!) with only 1 carry-on each, we decided to not waste our time queuing up at the station and rather head for the Duomo itself.
Duomo is only 4 stations away from Milan Centrale Metro on the Yellow Line (MM3).
After getting off at Duomo Metro station, we followed the signs to the Duomo exit and when we got out of the station, we were greeted with this amazing view !!
The square in front of the Duomo was crowded with locals and tourists.
There was a long line to get inside the Duomo, but it moved quickly. Me and Karen manned the carry-on luggages while my parents went for a quick tour inside the Duomo. Then they came back and sat outside with our luggage while we went inside. There was fashion police outside the Duomo and we saw quite a few tourists being turned away for short sleeved shirts and shorts.
Due to shortage in time we did not go to the roof of the Duomo. We just walked around looking at the architecture as well those beautiful stained glass windows. After spending about an hour there, we went back to the Metro and took the Yellow line back to Milan Central Station.
Our next train to Venice was on a Frecciabianca train that operated outside the high-speed rail network. On our journey from Venice – Rome we were on a much faster Frecciargento train.
The seats were fairly comfortable. This journey is only around 2 hours 30 mins and so I would not recommend paying for 1st class. A second class compartment would serve just fine.
