Milano August 14-16

Flight from Dubai left around 3.30 am local time and six and a half hours later we arrived at Milan Malpensa. The flight was regularly fairly bumpy but Emirates service is pretty good and I like flying the Boeing 777. They’ve got the thin seat construction about right and a good leg space for tallish people. This is all better in the 777 than the Airbus 380. It’s a very relaxed arrival into the EU compared to the stringent border control formalities for NZ and Australia. Then you catch the train at a statione inside the airport, so it was a pretty quick and stress-free transfer into Milan city. It's then onto the Metro, finally some use for the shrapnel left over from 2014! The Euro fare is 1.5 Euro, and the nice machine offered English as an option.

We are staying in the Naviglio district after the devious Sergio cancelled our initial booking, which had us more central in the city. The Naviglio has the remaining remnants of the old canals from the city’s days as a port. These have been revived and gentrified as part of a project a few years ago. From all the graffiti and tagging it would seem that they are struggling to maintain the desired profile for the area, but it’s all bars and cafes, so there is a definite dominant demographic in the crowds, and it is certainly a ‘buzzing’ part of Milan to have as a base.

We were met at the apartment and shown the ropes by host Monica’s ex husband! The apartment is very well set up, with all modern gear and a bigger than Juliet balcony. Monica had provided start up provisions, fruit, beer, wine, fruit juice, snacks and soft drink which was a great way to start.

We arrived around midday local time feeling OK and a mere 43 hours after our Thursday morning departure from home in Auckland. That’s not all travelling time, about 9 hours spent in lounges at Sydney and Dubai helps defray the travails of travel.

The local Bar Magolfa, just a couple of minutes’ walk away, was the recommendation for lunch. A piece of pizza looked like the shot for 6 Euros. First mistake. It’s a whole pizza, not a piece!! So we hastily decided that we’d change the plan and have a light meal on the first evening, after we’d demolished a plate-sized pizza each.

We spent the afternoon doing a walk around the area and visited a couple of old churches. The basilica of Sant’Ambrogio, patron saint of Milan was the first and then it was San Lorenzo alle Colonne. Both buildings were constructed from around the 4^th century, after the Roman emperor Constantine ended the persecution of Christian with the Edict of Milan in AD 313. So the architecture is Romanesque and the whole history is fascinating for these very old buildings and the works of art and the décor they contain. They generally have had rebuilds after the odd fire or structural collapse, but the dome at San Lorenzo was very impressive. An interesting blend of architecture in front of the dome with foreground columns are from a second century Roman temple.

By around 5 00 pm we were both flagging a bit, so booked the restaurant just down the road, Cucina Fusetti, for our light meal for the first night in town. The polpo (octopus for me) was terrific and Ann’s cottoleta (a crumbed white veal chop) was delicious too. We met some Austrians over dinner and had a very pleasant chat. We are finding the locals very friendly, and the place is full of international visitors here for the Furniture Expo which is the largest event of its type in the world.

Then our early night, and the strategy worked pretty well as we got up refreshed and ready to go on Saturday morning.

We started with a walk down to the local panetteria to gather provender for a light breakfast of croissants and fruit. Scratch the “light” and I’ve been banned from solo decision-making on the quantity of the aforementioned croissants required. As mentioned before, the neighbourhood supports a lot of nightlife, and this contributes to the grungy appearance. I’ve never seen so much broken glass and rubbish on a city street.

As we do a lot of walking, the hearty breakfast does have some calorie offsets later in the day. We started with a walk to the Metro to get public transport tickets sorted for the next couple of days. Then it was onto the tram to Milan Cathedral, the church with the fourth longest nave in Christendom – and the tallest stained glass windows, one of which was done in 1475. Says something for longevity!

Construction of the cathedral started in 1386, and although consecrated in 1418, it was mostly finished in the 19^th century by Napoleon for his coronation as King of Italy. It was built in marble, white and pink and is an impressive building. We did the self-guided tour of the church assisted by Rick Steve (more me reading his notes while Ann wielded the camera). We also climbed the stair to the rooftop and toured the roof terraces, amid a forest of statues (3000 for the whole building) and 52 pillars, but the walk gave us pretty good city views.

There were large numbers on Army personal controlling entry and scanning, patting everyone down. Ann diligently practising her Italian, had one of the guards volunteering to accompany us for the trip to get to New Zealand. They were very excited by the response to the obligatory “where are you from?“ question.

After the Duomo we strolled through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele Arcade, Milan’s first all-electric building and a very grand glass-domed arcade.

 The floor is mosaic and under the central dome are the symbols of key cities in Italy’s history. That of Turin is a little bull. Legend has it one must spin on his testicles for good luck. After having to replace these many times there is now a metal sunken plate at the key point! Then out past the not so grand La Scala Opera building.

We moved on to the Fashion District on another self-guided walk. It is known as Quadrilatero d’Oro (Golden Quarter) and the prices certainly are. Lots of very stylish clothes, furniture and goods of all sorts on display with all the brands you know and some more besides Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, Cartier, Dior, Versace etc. The pictures convey the tenor, but lots of fabulous looking stuff with mainly astronomic price tags.

 We gate-crashed the setting up of a courtyard event promoting Belvedere vodka. The food being provided looked interesting, particularly the cheeses. Unfortunately we didn’t get to taste.

Onto the tram and off to see Da Vinci’s The Last Supper painted on the wall of the refectory of the Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie. This work was completed over 4 years from 1496. Leonardo was experimenting with technique, departing from the fresco style (painting on wet mortar, which produces a product that lasts fantastically well) and he painted this on dry mortar. Deterioration started after just a few years. The painting has survived the ravages of time, building modifications and war, but is a little like the Irish builder’s hammer that he’s had for years, three new handles and two new heads! The painting has had several renos, but any of the reno’d bits are a paler colour than the original pieces. It still draws the crowds but you need to be organised and pre-book your tour, and you get to view it for 15 minutes in groups of 30. Amazing that we go and look at this some 500 years after the maestro painted it.

We were both getting pretty tired by late afternoon, so back onto the tram and home it was. A quiet meal at trattoria Ponte Rosso on the canal. We tried the local Milanese saffron risotto as an entrée, which was fine. My deep fried artichoke and lamb cutlets dish was ok as were Ann’s prawns with an artichoke and lemon salad.  Despite an assurance that the wine was a Chianti Classico, it wasn’t. So I wrote that off to the language difficulties. The crowds on the canal and at the bars all along it were huge. Everyone out for a drink and a meal.

Sunday was a leisurely start, fruit and croissants again then off to Milan’s Castle Sforza for a visit. Well worth a look. Very grand with an interesting and complicated history. These guys in Europe  (more the Kings and Dukes and would-be’s I suppose) fought lots of wars over a long period of time!! Michelangelo’s unfinished Pieta of Mary supporting Jesus body is housed here. He was still working on it when he died aged 89. Impressive and an interesting insight into his techniques, including a random arm at the side left from an earlier ‘draft’.

We then took the metro a couple more stations to look at a place called Eataly. Four floors of food and beverage, a sort of inside market combined with a Nosh/Farro on steroids approach to food. Impressive range and presentation. If we were staying here a while and doing some cooking it would definitely be a place we’d frequent. But as we are off to Alba, south of Turin tomorrow we stopped in at the local supermarket to stock up for lunch and a quiet meal at home tonight.

This afternoon we walked to the Armani Silos to look at four floors of Giorgio Armani’s fashion clothing over 40 years. Quite stunning to see so much in one place. Some very smart-looking gear and some pretty impractical creations that could be classified as wearable art. All labelled by their season and year. This was opened quite recently and the space is as architecturally striking as the clothes in it. The grouping into clothing styles is done by type of clothing, and colour palette (his preferred black grey and beige palette as well as some stunning touches of colour.) Beautiful fabrics, amazing pleating and beading… Ann was in heaven.