An unexpected trip to Milan

This was supposed to be my free weekend! Mathilde had a girlie weekend planned in Milan with some of her mates. Unfortunately, due to some complications, they were not able to go. Since it was too late to cancel the hotel, and I found a return train ticket to Milan for 60 euros, I decided to tag along (so no go-carting and beer drinking with the lads this time…).



So, we very quickly got packed, and jumped on the train to Nice, from where we caught the train to Milan. It was a leisurely 5 ½ hour journey, including the half-hour delay. We started off by taking the metro down to the hotel and checked in.

Eager not to waste any time, and to explore Milan, we then set off walking towards the town centre. It was a long but nice walk – it was a sunny and fresh autumn day, just perfect. The first impression of Milan pretty much matched my expectations of a busy, successful no-nonsense major city. It almost didn’t feel like Italy (apparently they don’t even have siestas in Milan!) – even the driving was civilised (mind you, after Cairo, even Naples or Athens would probably feel pretty civilised!).



As we arrived in the town centre, it was nearly dark, but we still had time to walk around a bit. We saw the duomo (the cathedral) – which was very imposing indeed (it’s the 4th biggest cathedral in Europe), the Galleria de Vittorio Emanuele II (a very impressive shopping arcade – probably the most impressive of its kind I’ve seen) and La Scala (the famous opera house – which it has to be said is relative unimpressive from the outside – apparently the inside is a different story though). Having walked around some more, we decided to visit the cathedral. It was very impressive on the inside as well, and kind of spooky (I guess it’s so big it’s difficult to light effectively, and the huge size of it adds to the effect as well).





After this brief visit, we headed to the restaurant which we had picked in our guide book. The location wasn’t very promising – next to a train station, but the place was absolutely brilliant. We were treated to a 4 course meal of local specialities, and even I struggled to finish it. So if you ever do make it to Milan – do try the Osteria dei Binari – it’s not the cheapest eatery in town, but it’s worth every penny!

After a good night’s sleep, we got up, had our very Italian hotel breakfast (which means a bit light for me, it has to be said), and continued our exploration of Milan. We started of with the area around the hotel, called Navigli quarter (aka. the Venice of Lombardy). It’s a nice area of canals, bars and restaurants. Probably very lively in the evenings. From there we headed to visit La Basilica di Saint’Ambrogio, which is one of the oldest churches in Milan (dating back to the 4th century), and (apparently) an astounding example of the Roman Lombardian stlye. (yes, I most definitely nicked that phrase from the guidebook).



We also tried to have a look at the Last Supper by DaVinci (you know, the one in the Dan Brown book…) in a museum next to another church - but in vain (apparently you have to book tickets for the museum in advance, believe it or not!). We continued our walk, through some seriously refined and fancy (and somehow more Austrian than Italian, to my untrained eye) neighbourhoods, and eventually found ourselves by the castle (Castello Sforzesco). It was a pretty big and impressive place, and open to the public for free (including the dodgy fake leather goods salesmen…), except some museums inside.





We finished the afternoon with a cappuccino (of course!), a walk through the fashion district (thanks god it was Sunday – everything was closed!) and the public gardens, and finally a quick pizza lunch near the train station. And then, back on the train to Nice! It was short, but sweet J