Milan

So Milan has super delicious food.

After delicious pizza on Wednesday night (we’ve discussed - only Naples has had better pizza), we were ready for a couple of days of city sites. After getting a really good sleep, we took our time getting up & going on Thursday morning, detouring through a park by the hotel, where it looked more like fall than winter, and enjoying how decked out the city is for Christmas. Our first stop was at a fancy cafe on Via Monte Napoleone, getting delicious pastries and warm beverages to fortify us for the day, and where we could hear a lot of cheering - EDP thinks there’s a store that’s known for the crowd cheering every day when it opened but it seemed a bit excessive for that. It’ll always be a mystery because it was over by the time we emerged from the cafe.

We made our way down to the Duomo and to see the Christmas market in the Piazza del Duomo. We didn’t prebook tickets for the Duomo so when we arrived and there was pretty much no line up for the stairs to head up to the roof, we jumped online and got tickets, heading up the ~250 steps onto the terraces. I LOVED IT. We have a little bet going to see if I’m over or under 200 photos while we were up there. There is some pretty extensive restoration work going on currently so the dome & large portions of the roof were covered in scaffolding but we still got to wander around quite a bit of the terraces. I loved being able to see the detail of the stonework up close and there were a few places where the restoration was complete so everything just sparkled and shone in the sunlight. It was definitely the highlight of Milan for me. Once we made our way off the terraces, we went inside, where I was enamoured by the organs, the stained glass, and the architecture. No wonder it took them almost 600 years to complete the thing! Then, it was outside to see the market stalls and the front of the Duomo. The market had a lot of baked goods, candy, and jewellery, making it quite different than the German markets. We didn’t stop for anything since we had a date with a museum - plus, none of the Milanese specialities seemed to be on display, aside from panettone which we weren’t really in the market for.

So we wandered over to Biblioteca e Pinacoteca Ambrosiana for our first museum. The reading room was closed but we did get to see into it from one of the galleries in the Pinacoteca. We also got to see the cartoon for Raphael’s School of Athens, which was SO interesting and such an informative exhibit. It was really neat to see it! There was also the largest collection of Da Vinci’s writings & drawings in the Codex Atlanticus, which was EDP’s highlight. It was such a wonderful museum and I’m surprised it wasn’t busier but it was nice to have the place almost entirely to ourselves.After the Pinacoteca, it was time to find some lunch. We headed into Brera, one of the neighbourhoods known for good food. Armed with our phones, we wandered through the little streets until we found something that suited us and had a lovely outdoor lunch under the heaters. It was time to start in on the Milanese specialities so I went for Carbonara and EDP got talked out of the pizza by the waitress, settling on ragu. Then, we wandered around Milan, jumping between a couple of smaller sites, including the San Lorenzo columns, the Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio, the Tempio della Vittoria, and a chocolate shop we ran across. We ran into a bit of trouble trying to get back to the hotel because of protests outside the Teatro alla Scala. It was the opening night of the season. I had tried to get tickets for us but they sell out in minutes and I couldn’t get my account verified in time. It was likely for the best because we wouldn’t have wanted to bring appropriate clothes since we were trying to travel very lightly. And, it turns out, because so many politicians and dignitaries and whatnot attend the opening of the season, it’s SUPER popular to protest! So our route back to the hotel was interrupted by protestors and several kinds of police. It took us a minute to find a way around but eventually we did. We ended our day with a DELICIOUS meal, including what I’m pretty sure is the best risotto I’ve ever had.

Friday was an early day. We had the first tickets of the day to see the Last Supper at Cenacolo Vinciano so we were up and out early, walking through the quiet streets, arriving at the museum before there was full daylight. Entry is a timed 15-minute visit, limited to 30 people. They are taking every precaution they can with the fresco so doors don’t open until other close and they really limit the number of people going through each day. But, there’s also an app that tells you all sorts of interesting things and while 15 minutes doesn’t seem very long, it is actually quite a long time to look at one fresco. Once we were back out onto the street, the rain was starting so we headed off to find a cafe with some seating (harder than you’d think…) to get something to eat before our time at the Pinacoteca di Brera. We prebooked the Pinacoteca and I’m glad we did since tickets were sold out for the next few hours. It was much busier than the Ambrosiana, but that isn’t a surprise since it’s considered one of Italy’s most important galleries. There was lots to take in and the building was quite beautiful. They are building another gallery to display more of the collection and they had some miniature exhibits that will be in the new gallery when it’s completed, which was a nice addition. Once we were through the gallery, we headed off to find a little sandwich shop EDP was excited about. Sadly, it was closed because Thursday was a national holiday and so a lot of places were closed on Friday, as well. But we found another shop where to able to get fresh sandwiches made - one with prosciutto, one with salami, and both with smoked cheese. We stopped in a grocery story for a bottle of Prosecco, chilling it with our now signature outside-the-hotel-room chilling method (no balcony here but there was a ledge outside the window that was more than wide enough for a bottle of wine) making for an excellent late lunch. We topped that off with a walk for some gelato, stumbling across a children’s Christmas market, which we wandered through on our way back to the hotel. We ended the day with ANOTHER amazing dinner where I was finally able to find Milan’s franciacorta wine by the glass, which was a nice treat.

Saturday was all about Castello Sforzesco. We had timed entry tickets for 10:30 so we took our time getting up and finding breakfast before heading into the castle area. There was another market set up around the castle and we had time to go through some of it before making our way inside. The Castello museums are extensive - I think there are 9 in total? They have it well laid out so you just sort of flow from one to the next, each in a different part of the castle. I really enjoyed how many different little hallways and nooks and balconies and whatnot that we went through. After we emerged, we wandered around the grounds a bit, making our way down to Arco della Pace and then back up to see more of the Christmas market. We saw a really gorgeous-looking nougat stall before we headed in so we found that again, getting some tasty nougat to take home and some candied nuts for the walk. I also invested in the world’s largest arancini, which was SO GOOD and soon we were through the market and in front of the castle. We started wandering towards one last church I had heard had some lovely frescos and got most of the way there before I realised it was the Last Supper we were headed towards. So we pulled the plug on that, found a little cafe for lunch/dessert and then headed back to the hotel to get started on packing up for our flight home. With that taken care of, we headed out for an aperitivo at a tiny bar around the corner. It was so fun - we had excellent cocktails and then most adorable little tray of snacks, with some salami & cheese, breadsticks & toasts, a trio of dips, carrots & edamame, and the most delicious warm dish that turned out to be mashed potatoes topped with a ratatouille. Aperitivo is really popular in Milan so it was good to end our couple of days in the city with one. Then, we headed back to the pizza place from our first night, enjoying another delicious round of pizzas. As we were headed out, the host recognised us as return guests, he seemed delighted we had come back for a second night. But it was really good pizza!!! I’d go back again any day!

In the morning, we made our way back to the train station, barely catching the train to the airport. We got to the station with plenty of time but it took longer than expected to get tickets and then there was no track number displayed for the train! We weren’t the only ones confused, another woman was also trying to find it and when EDP finally found someone who was able to tell him what track, we were right at the departure time for the train. All 3 of us ran. The track number showed up on the departures board and suddenly, we weren’t the only ones running! But we made it - all dozen or so of us and we were soon at the airport and boarding our very empty flight to Montreal. We did have to clear customs in Montreal and then our flight was delayed so we ended up landing much later than expected in Toronto but we made it home.

Even with our weather challenges, it was a great trip. The Christmas markets were such a travel highlight for me and getting to Milan has been on our list for a long time, too. We’ll try to make it back to Nuremberg in a few years - and maybe get EDP on his World Cup run, too.