Milano train station; we had to find a cheap place to stay. We found a tourist center right by the Piazza Duomo, Milans' biggest attraction. The Duomo itself is not pictured. The entire front of the gothic cathedral is currently covered while it undergoes restoration. Inside the 86 euro a night hotel.

We went back to the Piazza Duomo for New Years Eve. Supposedly that's where the fireworks were going to be... A visible portion of the Duomo at night.

When the guy at the toursist center told us there'd be fireworks, we just assumed it'd be similar to a US celebration. Some kind of controlled fireworks. This was not the case at all. It was complete chaos throught the square. The locals provided their own fireworks and cleared areas by igniting their wares in the enormous crowds. Absolute insanity.

Some video of the battle scene - I've given up on creating 2 versions of each video, these are two seperate clips:
crowd 1 [3.05 mb]
crowd 2 [1.46 mb]

Milan has it's own Emanualle landmarks- a giant enclosed shopping area. Milan puts Italy on the map, economically.

Me and Susan...

I never got a decent photo of the crowds on the horse in Piazza Duomo.

The videos do a better job of the chaos in Milan.

fireworks [2.76 mb]
kicking fireworks [2 mb]

Girls getting harrased.

Some video - listen for the countdown in italian, the second is a little lopsided, I've now learned to never use your digital elph's video capabilities in a vertical format:

midnight [3.2 mb]
midnight more [3.18 mb]