Milán has been known to be the capital of fashion or at least one of them. I, myself, am not big on fashion and friends from home will tell you that I mix patterns all the time.
This being said, I can see when someone is very fashionable. Now, I was only in Milan center for a day, but I didn’t find the people too fashionable. Perhaps they are rebelling against the image or maybe they were just all tourists.
I thought Naples was more into the image and fashion than Milan with all the woman having their nails done and loads of make up. But I spent more time in Naples city.
While Naples is chaotic, Milan is more composed. While Naples has pizza, Milan has milanesa (more on this later).
It was cool seeing quite how different Southern Italy and Northern Italy are…besides the weather of course.
I was actually in Milan in 2008, but I just spent the night and didn’t tour around so it was nice to finally check it off.
Actually after this time in Italy, I can really say I have been to Italy. The first time was just a week in 2008 and then some days in Venice in 2017. But now I spent about 2 weeks covering the South a bit and North West.
My flight landed in Bergamo. A hub for the low cost airlines; however, I found that Ryan Air flies out of 2 airports in Milan, again more on this later.
There are many shuttle bus companies that take you from the airport into Milan central for 5 euros, taking about an hour.
I stayed at a more hotel hostel place and it was alright. It was new and super clean and shinny. But I found it had more of a hotel energy than hostel and I had a hard time meeting people. Actually, even the staff were more hotel in that when I asked some of them a question about Lake Como, please see that post, they just gave me a blank stare like no one has ever asked them their opinion.
It didn’t help that during the majority of my stay there was a couple staying in my room. They were Latino meaning they ate dinner a bit later and went to bed later. This is fine and dandy. However, when I was clearly asleep at 1 am. The woman would decide it was a good time to have a Skype call with no headphones. They constantly talked at a normal volume through the night.
As my friends know, I love my sleep and when someone disturbs it, it leads to a cranky me. I’m sure they were nice people, but I just couldn’t get around to liking them.
One night the woman had 3 Skype calls: 12am, 3am, and then at 5am. The first night I did tell them to go somewhere else to talk, but I couldn’t do that every night as I’m not their mother (they were younger than me).
My day in Milan center was long haha. The Last Supper painting is in Milan and it requires months ahead reservation. Though I think they sell some tickets the day of especially during low season, but each group is only like 15 people, small groups. I bought the audio guide (total of 15.50 euros), and the voice said the low amount of people helps reduce deterioration of the painting because Leonardo Da Vinci painted it funny- like not sustainable.
Anyways, when I reserved in October there were not that many times left so I picked the 8.15 one meaning I had to get my ticket at 8.
The visit only lasts 15 minutes, but you can take as many photos as you want with no flash.
Afterwards, I made my way around the town. Seeing Pinoteca Brera art museum. My guide book said it was worth it and a friend of mine suggested it as well. However, for 10 euros, I didn’t find it that impressive. Most of the art is religious. And that’s fine, but I’ve seen a lot of those. The cool thing about this museum is that they have a room where restorers work with the paintings and you can watch and there are 2 rooms dedicated to showing art that is deemed not significant to be displayed fully/all the time.
The last room was my favorite as I wasn’t religious and it had a painting called the Kiss.
I eventually made my way to Duomo, the main cathedral. It’s, I would say, the biggest monument in Milan and it is impressive. After seeing all the chuches and cathedrals that I have, I would recommend this one. It’s so popular that they charge different entrances.
There are several different combination tickets, but I just did the 7 euro one which was the cathedral, a chapel, the archeological site, and museum. The extra part I didn’t do was the terrace to get a view of the city. To me, it wasn’t worth the extra euros since Milan city isn’t that pretty in terms of red roofs or medieval buildings.
I told my dad that after Naples I was done with ruins, but Duomo sucked me back in with its archeological site. It was small below the cathedral, but cool to see. Not much English text, but you get an understanding of the medieval history.
The museum was basically religious statues. I would not recommend this.
Finally, I ventured to the canals. Yes, Milan has small canals. They have bars and cafes along the route. I sat in a cafe for a few hours and then went to a restaurant. In Milan, apparently the thing to have is Risotto with Milanesa. Milanesa is thin meat with bread crumbs fried, usually it is veal. I had it in Argentina and thought to try it from where it is actually from (like schnitzel).
I ordered it (my receipt confirms this), but what came out was just risotto. I asked the waiter and he assured me milanesa was inside. He made it sound like it was a herb. Upon talking with a friend, he thinks I was duped a bit and that he didn’t give me any meat. Which would be quite unfortunate. At the end of the day, the risotto was good and I only paid 9 euros with a glass of red wine.
For this day, I bought a day pass of 4.50. A single ticket is 1.50 euros. I only used it 3 times which makes me break even, but it saved me from constantly buying tickets and worrying.
My last night I was working on blog stuff when a man sat down next to me. I decided to try again with talking with someone (like I said, due to the hotel vibe, people were not so open). But he was! Turns out he’s from Spain and so we talked in Spanish for 3 hours. I always seem to find Spanish people haha. He was cool and we talked about a range of subjects. Perhaps we will see each other again. He told me he was working on a birthday surprise for a friend of his and it was really cute. I hope she is agreeable to it! If I’m being honest, this experience helped save my impression on the hostel.
One of the reasons I stay at hostels is to meet people. Some of my good friends are from hostels. And when I can’t make a connection with someone, it’s just not the best that it could be.
My flight leaving Milan to Portugal was at 16.50 so I had the morning. I already saw everything so I made my way towards the central station to get the shuttle bus, but remember I said there are 2 airports? I decided to get my flight from Malpensa airport to see the differences between the 2. I think the bus to and from Bergamo is cheaper, but that’s near or there at this point. Both take an hour.
While I waited I found a section of the city that didn’t seem too turisty, I suppose since it was outside the center, and I liked it actually. I found a cafe and sat awhile while having a big cappuccino.
I enjoyed my time in Italy and I know I’ll be back, but I’m super excited for Portugal.
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