Dana and I spent a while trying to decide where we wanted to go for this weekend. W considered Lisbon and Istanbul, but we couldn’t find any good deals. One day while searching, I found an incredible deal to go to Milan that was just too good to pass up, so we booked it. I was pretty excited, but everyone that we talked to kept asking us why we had chosen Milan and suggested we take a train from Milan to another city. However, I am quite glad that I decided not to listen to other people’s opinions because I had a fabulous time in Milan!
Friday: Friday morning I woke up and met up with Dana at Part-Dieu to take the Rhone Express to the airport. We arrived and checked in with my favorite airline – Easyjet. We walked about half an hour out to our gate (because I swear the Easyjet terminal 3 is essentially out on the tarmac). After the short 45 minute flight we landed in Milan Malpensa airport. We grabbed a bus and headed into the city. Once we got to the Central Station, we headed down to buy some metro passes. We were able to buy passes for the 48 hours we would be in Milan for almost the same price as a single trip ticket on the London tube – certainly nice to have prices back to normal after our previous weekend in London. We used our French and English and were relatively easily able to find our Hotel (Ambrosiana). We checked in and were a little surprised at just how small our bed was, but it was totally worth the price and the safety of the location. After dropping off our stuff, we headed out to do a little sightseeing. On our way back to the metro we ran across a little park full of old Italian men playing pétanque. It was a gorgeous sunny day and so everyone was out in the early afternoon. We were seriously impressed with the talent that we saw and it made for quite an exciting game to watch. After that, we headed over to the Duomo and grabbed some gelato in the plaza in front of the gelato – I had some delicious melon and raspberry gelato. I was honestly blown away by this incredible Cathedral. The inside was beautiful, but in a more simple and reserved fashion than some similarly large Cathedrals I had seen, but what was truly breathtaking was the outside. The Duomo took an incredibly long time to be built – over 5 centuries (begun in 1386), which is no shock given that it is the fourth-largest church in the world. After exploring the interior of the church, Dana and I decided to climb to the top of the church. Once at the top we wandered among the Gothic pinnacles, saintly statues and flying buttresses made of beautiful white and pink marble. I was floored by the grandeur but also by the incredible intricate details. Honestly, words can’t even do it justice, hopefully my pictures can begin to show just how amazed I was by this Church. After spending over an hour exploring and photographing the Church, we headed back down. Next we headed next door and walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. This is Milan’s late 19th century version of a mall. The elegant gallery filled with designer shops galore towers above with a wonderful steel and glass covered, cross-shaped arcade. The floor is a work of art and the ambiance of this open-air market is just wonderful. We wandered into this amazing second-hand bookstore with interesting trinkets under the glass floor and beautiful paintings on the ceiling. It was a great shock and Dana (the lit major) was certainly in heaven. Next we wandered through Prada and Louis Vuitton, certainly failing to pretend that we could ever buy anything in those stores. After that, we had heard about this amazing gourmet market overlooking the Duomo and we decided to check it out. We headed up 9 escalators to the top of the department store and arrived in this fantastic store. We walked in and were greeted by the unbelievable chocolate counter filled with life-size chocolate shoes, creative delights and marzipan fruit that looked too real to believe. Next we headed over to the incredible mozzarella bar. We walked around exploring the sushi place and the aisles of gourmet foods we could only dream of trying. Finally, we decided to sit down and take it all in at the fresh juice place. I had what I think was the most amazing juice I have ever had. It had fresh squeezed apple, strawberry, banana, pineapple, and acai berry. It was fantastic and the view of the Duomo behind us wasn’t bad either. After our relaxing afternoon, we headed over to get dinner. We had read about this risotto and our mouths were watering even before we arrived. This place is called Da Abele and each night they serve three different types of risotto. There was not a single other English speaking person in the restaurant and we walked into the restaurant speaking French. It was pretty awesome that everyone we met in Italy thought that we were French, though usually English was much more helpful for communication. The menus were only in Italian and despite the waiters efforts to explain the different risottos, we ended up just selecting two of them to try. Dana go one with sea bass and eggplant which was delicious, but mine with spinach, sundried tomatoes, goat cheese and a bit of love was amazing!! We couldn’t believe how lucky we were to find this place and we decided that after a wonderful day and delicious dinner, that Milan was shaping up to be a great place to visit.
Saturday: We got going bright and early and had a quick little breakfast at our hotel. After that we headed to try to find the Chiesa di San Lorenzo Maggiore, which is the oldest church in Milan and attests to the days when the city was the capital of the Western Roman Empire. While the structure has been altered many times over the centuries, it still has the original octagonal floor plan from the 4th century. During one of the additions in the 16th century, a dome was built, which is the highest surviving dome in Milan. We headed out and felt pretty confident after our successful experiences with the metro on Friday. We arrived at the stop that had been listed on the information we printed out and realized that we had no idea how to find the street that we were looking for. We tried scouring the map, but will hundreds of little streets listed, we weren’t so successful. We decided to ask a nice looking family for some help. Unfortunately, we didn’t speak Italian and they didn’t speak French or English, but they told us in Italian (luckily French is close enough that we could get the gist of what they were saying) to follow them and they would show us where to go. They brought us over to the tramway stop and found some people at the stop who spoke broken English to explain to us where to go. Then, their friend who was heading in that direction took the tram with us to the stop and pointed us in the right direction. Luckily Dana speaks some Spanish and this woman had moved to Milan from Ecuador 17 years earlier, so we were able to communicate at least a little bit. We were so lucky to have found such honestly nice people and we truly appreciated the help they gave us. We finally found the church and we just so happy that we had made it – we honestly were calculating in our heads earlier on what we would do if we were lost in the streets of Milan. We walked up to the church and there was actually a funeral that was just ending, so we waited until it was ok for us to go into the church. It was really different from any of the other gothic churches we have been seeing all over Europe. I hadn’t seen a church that was built in this octagonal shape and we spent a while trying to find the awesome remnants of n old Roman amphitheater, but with no success. After that, we headed over to the National Science Museum that featured Leonardo da Vinci. The first couple exhibits we saw about climate and conservation were pretty disappointing, but the sections on Leonardo da Vinci and all his accomplishments in so many fields was truly impressive. We also really enjoyed the sections on the history of radio broadcasting in Milan – with the history of prohibitions on owning radios from the fascist era as well as the old world globes that were on display. I still can’t get over just how much Leonardo da Vinci was able to contribute during his lifetime. By this point, we were getting pretty hungry and headed over to the city’s largest food market in Piazza Wagner. It was an indoor market and we walked around the market ogling all the food and snatching tastes from each vendor. At the first cheese vendor we stopped at, we tried this delicious cheese – it was so good we had to go back several more times to grab some more samples! After exploring the market, we walked down the street and found a great little lunch restaurant – Al Grande Cerccio. We walked in and asked for menus and found out that it was a vegetarian place, which was great since I could be assured there was no pork in the dishes, since we couldn’t exactly read the menus in Italian. We were very proud of our ability to piece together an understanding of the menu and ordered homemade pappardelle with radicchio (pappardelle futte in casa). It was heavenly and the homemade pasta was what we had been dying to try in Italy. After our wonderful lunch, we ventured over to the Castello Sforzesco. This is a fortress-like castle that was built in the 14th century by the Visconti family and later reconstructed in 1450 by the Sforza family. We walked in and were attacked (as happened at all the touristy sites) by these African men selling little ribbons/bracelets. Their tactic is to be aggressive and if all else fails to throw the ribbon on to you and make you pay for it. Luckily, during my research about Milan, we were warned about this. The guys however, we so aggressive about it, that despite our steadfast no’s they still put ribbons on us multiple times that we had to shake off and just wouldn’t leave us alone. It was frustrating, but at least we were aware of how to deal with the situation. Next we headed inside and bought tickets to 14 small museums within the castle rooms for a steal (only 1€50). We explored Museum of decorative arts, the Museum of Ancient Art, the Picture Gallery, The Trivulziana Library and City Historical Archive, and my favorite – the Furniture Museum. In the Museum of Ancient Art, we even saw a room whose frescoes were done by Leonardo da Vinci. By this point we were getting a bit tired and just couldn’t make it through all 14 parts of this expansive Museum. After leaving the castle, we headed over to Milan’s largest street market held on Via Papiniano. There were a bunch of staples and cheap items, but there were also some nicer designer seconds, and Dana and I tried on a bunch of dresses in the vendors make-shift dressing rooms (aka the back of the vans used the transport the goods with a sheet hanging over the door. I didn’t find anything worth buying, but Dana found 2 adorable dresses and a fair of shoes all for less than 40€. Next on our agenda was to head over to Rossana Orlandi showrooms where are known for bizarre, but incredible pieces. However, we got there around 4pm and it was closed (maybe it isn’t open on the weekend). We did get a glimpse through the window, however, and it seemed like quite an interesting group of pieces. Since we weren’t successful there and were pretty tired from a long day of sightseeing, we stopped off at the piazza Duomo on our way back to our hotel to get some more gelato (we were in Italy after all). I had pistachio and hazelnut and was just in heaven. I finished mine and my immediate reply to Dana was “can I have another one.” Of course I didn’t, but it certainly was delicious enough the merit it. After that, we headed back to our hotel to take a quick rest and look up some possibilities for where to go for dinner. I had a lot of success finding some great looking places, but they were all pretty far from where we were staying. Eventually I found a place that sounded great and we had the receptionist use her Italian skills to make us a reservation. The reservation at Da Maruzzella (Piazza Oberdan) was certainly a great idea on our part, because we ended up waiting about 20 minutes for a table even with a reservation – it was just that packed. However watching them prepare fresh pizzas and the incredible smell kept us happy while we waited. I ordered homemade spaghetti with lobster. The dish was literally half a lobster served over a bed of incredibly al dente pasta with a mouthwatering tomato sauce. Such a fantastic meal. After dinner, Dana and I decided to check out the Milan’s night-life area where there are supposed to be some glowing canals. We arrived and there was a beautiful walkway, but no canals to speak of. The area that should have been the canals was completely dried up. A major disappointment, but we really enjoyed the sightseeing afforded to us as we walked past all the bars. At this point we were pretty exhausted and headed back to get some sleep.
Sunday: We woke up pretty early Sunday morning, grabbed some breakfast and headed back to the airport. It took us some time to get to the airport, but it was relatively smooth sailing and I made it back to my place in Lyon just after 2pm, which was really nice since we’ve been getting home pretty late the last couple of weeks.
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