We seem to go to Italy less frequently than we did when we initially moved to the Cote d'Azur, which is a bit of a pity. Maybe our passion for Italy has been replaced by a passion for Japan ? Be that as it may, I was looking forward to visiting Milan again, it's been a few years since our last visit. Our "excuse" (as if one was needed?) was the World Expo, which was taking place in Milan this time around.
We decided to stay just outside Milan, in Rho, where the expo is actually taking place - and went for AirBnB, as we do more and more often these days. After an uneventful drive up from Nice, we arrived at Rho just in time for dinner. After meeting our hosts (a lovely elderly couple), we hit the town of Rho. Dining options seemed limited, so we ended up going to the local restaurant recommended by our hosts. The food was OK, but not quite worth the long wait (there was a big group there, which slowed things down). To make matters work, the credit card machine was broken, and we didn't have enough to cash to pay the bill. So off we headed, hunting for a working cash machine with money on it, which didn't turn out to be an easy task (in this day and age??). Well, we eventually managed, and the restaurant owners were kind enough to give me a discount and gave me a free digestif for the hassle ;-)
The next day, on Saturday, we headed off to visit Milan (our tickets for the expo were for Sunday and Monday). We've already seen the main sights of Milan, so were quite happy to just randomly wander around. We start off on the Piazza di Duomo, the main square in Milan, the main attraction of which is (obviously) the impressive Duomo (cathedral) of Milan. I had hoped to visit the rooftop of the Duomo (apparently it's a pretty cool thing to do), but put off by the ridiculous queues to the ticketing office, we opted not to... So after a brief stroll in the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II, an impressive shopping gallery just next to the Duomo.
From there, we continued our stroll around the town centre, eventually stumbling upon Piazza Mecanti (Merchant's square), a medieval square located right in the middle of Milan. It really qualifies as a hidden gem - we never came here during our previous visit - which is a bit surprising since it's right next to the Duomo. Anyway, it's a really beautiful little place where to sit down and relax, and enjoiy the beautiful medieval buildings dotting the square. A real rarity in an otherwise largely modern city.
We then walked down the impressive Via Dante (lined up with national flags, in honour of the Expo, I suppose) to the impressive Castello Sforzescpo, located in the big Sempione park. Built in the 15th century, it was one of the biggest Citadels in Europe. Today it houses an impressive collection of museums. We just had a stroll around, taking the beautiful poppy fields around the castle walls.
By now, my stomach was grumblig, so after consulting our trusty Milan Tripadvisor guide (we recently discovered the TripAdvisor city guide Apps, that can be used off-line - pretty useful when you are abroad!) we ended up in a bakery-restaurant called Patti, where I had the most delicious Cotelletto alla Millanese I've ever had in my life. And those gressini they served before the meal were just, in a word, amazing. So, big thumbs up for culinary Milan, then!
Our apetites sated, we continued our exploration of Milan. After randomly walking around the afore-mentioned Sempione Park, we ended up in the Triennale building - a design museum (naturally, there is bound to be one in Milan - it being one of the capitals of European Design). It's a pretty cool museum, with a huge collection of design of various kinds on display. Plenty of Finnish design (Iiittala, Pentik, Aalto and so forth) on display as well, yippee! The theme of the museum was food (nice choice!) - to tie in with the World Expo theme "how to feed the world".
We continued randomly strolling around Milan, taking in the Arco Della Pace (where, on one side of the arch, there was an anti-gay marriage demonstration, and on the other side, an anti-fascist demonstration ;-). We then made continued strolling around, heading towards the Piazza Garibaldi train station. We stopped for an aperitif at the fancy 10 Corso Como, a rather stunning cafe from an esthetical point of view, almost like having your aperitif in a garden! You do pay for the site, though ;-)
We finished our tour of Milan in Piazza Gae Aulenti - a sort of showpiece for modern architecture. Fountains, fancy shops, cafes, just the place for a Milan facelift for the 21st century, I suppose one could say. Well worth a visit - shows yet another face of Milan.
We ended up dining in a rather disappointing touristy restaurant near Piazza Garibaldi station - the place was pretty packed, but pretty much all the diners were foreigners, always a bad sign... We chose more wisely for luch!
After dinner, we got the train back to Rho, very pleased after a day of pretty intensive exploration!
We decided to stay just outside Milan, in Rho, where the expo is actually taking place - and went for AirBnB, as we do more and more often these days. After an uneventful drive up from Nice, we arrived at Rho just in time for dinner. After meeting our hosts (a lovely elderly couple), we hit the town of Rho. Dining options seemed limited, so we ended up going to the local restaurant recommended by our hosts. The food was OK, but not quite worth the long wait (there was a big group there, which slowed things down). To make matters work, the credit card machine was broken, and we didn't have enough to cash to pay the bill. So off we headed, hunting for a working cash machine with money on it, which didn't turn out to be an easy task (in this day and age??). Well, we eventually managed, and the restaurant owners were kind enough to give me a discount and gave me a free digestif for the hassle ;-)
By now, my stomach was grumblig, so after consulting our trusty Milan Tripadvisor guide (we recently discovered the TripAdvisor city guide Apps, that can be used off-line - pretty useful when you are abroad!) we ended up in a bakery-restaurant called Patti, where I had the most delicious Cotelletto alla Millanese I've ever had in my life. And those gressini they served before the meal were just, in a word, amazing. So, big thumbs up for culinary Milan, then!
We finished our tour of Milan in Piazza Gae Aulenti - a sort of showpiece for modern architecture. Fountains, fancy shops, cafes, just the place for a Milan facelift for the 21st century, I suppose one could say. Well worth a visit - shows yet another face of Milan.
We ended up dining in a rather disappointing touristy restaurant near Piazza Garibaldi station - the place was pretty packed, but pretty much all the diners were foreigners, always a bad sign... We chose more wisely for luch!
After dinner, we got the train back to Rho, very pleased after a day of pretty intensive exploration!
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