The trouble with Milan...

Venice was to be our next destination on this tour of Italy, that was beginning to become my chosen way of life...

The Air Travel had been par for the course, that is to say arduous... Once on Terra fir ma , at the Rome Air Port, Marge and I thought "well now we can start to relax...".

Wrong again ! Wondrously we recovered our copious luggage with relative ease, albeit for some reason we had to haul it personally towards the way out. The way out was the large part of a funnel. The funnel began to taper into a spiraling concrete walkway into which our two person caravan was absorbed by perhaps three hundred parts of Humanity.
Spilling out in spray fashion into a street level plane of more yellowed concrete, we scanned at eye level for our Tour Guide... At last, after abandoning all hope, Marge spotted a gnome like figure scurrying in what seemed like our direction! It was "Rose". Rose gave new meaning to the phrase " short in stature " , and she was just this side of plump. She carried with her her ever present standard. It was an off green, bargain umbrella,that she held high as she led her march of "Tourers" from Museum to Doumo( Cathedral).
Well, suffice to say we saw some of Rome, including The Vatican. The pope was out of town that week, so we missed the Blessing, albeit I did buy some of his coins and stamps. Rose got us in to the Vatican Library, which was actually what I would have opted for... It was very interesting. The Sistine Chapel was kind of a let down though. Kind of like Niagara Falls... Sure, it was great, but not as awesome as we thought it would be . It was not anywhere near as wonderful as holding your first child in your arms .
As I recall, we got into our very modern Hotel room in the evening,just outside of Milan. It seemed kind of sterile after our Roman accommodations. And that was some what refreshing.In the morning we arose to a sparkling , crisp , September day in Northern Italy . It was a little breezy, but that seemed just right. Marge had been complaining a tad about some halitosis , I had developed due to a dental bridge that had gone bad... And I figured in this breeze ... Well it was just a thought.
We saw the famous Opera House " La Scala ", in the morning and Marge took my picture outside , standing by this really neat motorcycle. I think it was a Harley... Yes in Italy. The next thing you know we were having a sandwich on the patio of a downtown restaurant.I was feeling so good I must have been in a manic phase!
On The Bill of Fare for the afternoon was a visit to a " Doumo", Rose had told us we should not miss.We were to meet up with our drove , no later than One. Another Cathedral?!!
The approach was from the west. As Cathedrals go, this one was on the small side. It was small like the very finest of diamonds. It was all of the whitest marble God had created!Even the myriad statues of ancient Saints, that adorned the facade were of the most lustrous white marble...The building had a raised platform of flat stone up three steps, laid out like a white apron, perhaps one hundred yards wide and fifty feet deep in front of the entrance.
As we approached the steps we were joining a crowd of between five hundred and a thousand people who were comfortably milling about, or lounging on the steps in the very bright sunshine. Think of the finest Spring Day you can remember , and that's how it was...Work habits are not easily left behind, even on vacation. So with the aid of my very effective , new prescription lenses, I scanned the plane of humanity for threat levels. Out of the multitude only two people looked odd, but not threatening. The first was a furtive young man of about 19 or 20, who seemed to be moving about with purpose, but in no particular direction.Then there was a young woman with lite brown hair who seemed a year or two older. She had a white canvas bag slung in front of her, like the kind paper boys employed when I was a kid. Although I surmised it was some kind of a European Baby carrier device. My mind quickly skipped on to the beauty that loomed in front of me.
Marge stopped to talk to a couple of our fellow travelers, as I just had to get inside the grand red doors to see what was waiting in the low light inside...Doffing my shades, I put them in their case and into the breast pocket of my sports jacket. I was not disappointed with the medieval sanctuary of the soul that greeted me. Entirely awestruck, I strode into the blazing sunshine that had waited for me outside the red doors. It was then I realized I had become separated from Marge again! She was not going to be happy if I did not take her hand in mine very soon! We had gotten separated for a time in Florence , and she was still mad... But that's another story ( It's all about " David"). So I started straight forward through crowd, and when I had gone about twenty five feet,suddenly the aforementioned young man appeared in front of me, and he grabbed my left arm at the wrist. As he kept up a steady jerking of my left arm towards him, he was babbling loudly in a tongue I didn't recognize as Italian ! At the same moment I could feel a hand caressing my left breast area, ever so briefly... As my adrenaline surged, I began to experience tunnel vision. At the end of the tunnel I saw the threat of a young man. Years of experience kicked in! At one and the same time, I yanked my visible assaulter toward me with my left, and plunged my upward turned palm of my right hand, with all the weight of 205 pounds,into his Sternum!! He flew backwards into the crowd...A man of about fifty suddenly came into my right periphery and said in perfect English " Be careful !" Now I counted three people who certainly did not mean well towards me . Three to one is not good odds in my book . So I made a blind dash to be in a different area, like now! And who comes up to me with my sunglasses case extended for a reward? You guessed it . It was the young man who had just learned a small lesson from Ray. I took the case from his hand. Said" thank you ", and joined Marge at the steps. So the trouble with Milan was like most big cities they had pick pockets !