Milano, Italy!

Whoever said you can visit Milan in a day lied. I could have spent an entire week in that city and still want to go back.

When we first arrived in Milan we were tired, hungry, and walking around in the rain looking for our hostel, which was not easy to locate: so everyone was a tad bit testy. After finding the hostel and dropping our stuff off everyone’s moods seemed to brighten when we realized food was in the near future. We were on the search for Luini, a small “fast-food” restaurant that serves pomodoro panzerotti, which I described in my last post as “a fried calzone like thing stuffed with mozzarella and tomatoes.” This was one of the top ten things I have ever tasted. I stuck with the mozzarella and tomato while some of my friends got versions with meat or spinach. There is also the option to have them baked instead of fried, but I wasn’t about to do that. Luini also offers sweet panzerottis but I wasn’t able to try any because when we went back on Sunday they were closed! Huge disappointment. But if you are ever in Milan you HAVE to go there, it is located a block away from the Duomo and there was a line of locals outside, so that should tell you something.

After the panzerotti we walked around the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the oldest shopping mall in Italy. While I couldn’t afford anything in the Prada or Louis Vuitton stores, I enjoyed staring up at the ceiling and seeing the artwork and architecture of the building. We headed to dinner soon after at a restaurant close by where I ordered the four cheese gnocchi I had been craving, it was a little pricey because we were in the main tourist area but definitely worth it because it was exactly what I wanted. After dinner we grabbed some gelato and hopped back on the metro to go back to the hostel, clean up and decide where we wanted to go for drinks.

We asked the receptionist at our hostel (Sofia Hostel) where a good area to go would be and he told us to head to Garibaldi, where there were bars and discotheques, so we would have our choice. This was actually a great recommendation because had we been in the mood to go clubbing, there were plenty of options: but there were also more calm, relaxed bars like we were looking for. We ended up at Rocking Horse Ristorante, which was actually a full service restaurant. I wish we had the chance to eat there because everything smelled so delicious and everyone was very friendly. Our waiter, who spoke very little English, told us “Sei bellissima,” which he then told us means “you are very, very, very, very, very beautiful.” We all got different things to drink but I had a couple of glasses of Roero Arneis, a wine I had never tried before but absolutely loved. We hung out for a couple of hours and then headed back to the hostel so we could get some shut eye before waking up early to go sightseeing!

When we woke up on Sunday we were extremely pleased that it was no longer raining, even though it was still a little cloudy. The first stop on our list was the Castello Sforzesco. The castle was originally constructed in the 14^th century and is a symbol of both happy and painful times for Milan. It has been damaged and reconstructed multiple times and has acted as a residency, a prison and a place to retreat when under attack. Today, the castle houses several museums and exhibitions. The castle and grounds itself are really amazing and I wish we could have been able to climb up one of the towers, but they are not open to the public. We purchased the ticket to view all of the museums inside the castle but did not have time to see all of them. My favorite part was the huge room with the tapestries from the 1500s. I sat and stared at two of them for about 15 minutes contemplating how one could possibly make something that large, beautiful and complex by hand.

After the Castello Sforzesco we headed towards the Duomo di Milano to get something to eat. We stopped at Pandino Caffè, about a two block away from the Duomo. While the food I ordered was good, the best part was the cioccolatoso, a drink that was a mixture of Italian hot chocolate and coffee. By the time we were done with lunch the sky had cleared up completely and the weather was amazing the rest of the afternoon. We walked back towards the Duomo to stand in line to climb to the top. The wait was only about 10 minutes so it wasn’t that bad. What was bad and painful was the climb itself; I have been battling a cough for about 2 weeks and 250 stairs did not help it. Once we were at the top though; none if it mattered, the view and the architecture of the Duomo were absolutely breath taking. We could see all of Milan and further because it was so clear. We took our pictures (looking like crazy American tourists trying to sit in the “window” like structure) and then just sat down and relaxed in the sun for a while. I wish we could have spent the rest of the afternoon up there just sitting and looking out over Milan.

When we finally did climb back down we grabbed some gelato while waiting for the cathedral to open up so we could go inside. I wasn’t supposed to take pictures inside without paying a 2 Euro fee, but I snuck a few anyways. The stained glass work was so enormous and detailed and beautiful, I don’t know what else there is to say about it. My other favorite element inside the cathedral was the giant organ, it was ginormous: all the way from the floor to the ceiling. Archbishop Alberto da Intimiano’s body is also preserved and located inside the cathedral.

After finishing up inside, we had one last mission before grabbing our stuff from the hostel and heading back to Cannes: find cannolis.  We went back to the restaurant we ate at the night before and bought all the cannolis they had left. It was the perfect way to end our trip in Milan.

On Thursday we are leaving for Paris! I am so excited to be going back and to show my friends some of my favorite places from the 5 weeks I spent there over the summer. I have a huge test tomorrow I need to study for but all I want to do is pack and plan what we are going to be doing. I know this post was really long and I can only imagine how long the one about Paris is going to be, so I will break it up into a couple of parts for next week!