Milan, Italy

Buongiorno, ETD Readers!

Home of Pizza, Pasta & Gelato!

our first gelato experience! OMG!

Next stop: Italiano, baby! First up on our agenda was Milan. We headed on another train from Nice to Milan, with a short stop over in Ventimiglia. Where Gaffa had his first taste of Italian coffee, and I opted for a hot chocolate – which was just awesome! It was very thick and full of chocolate-y goodness.

In Milan we stayed at another AirBnB place. It was very close to the centre of Milan, within walking distance to all the major sights. The apartment was up on the 7^th floor, and the elevator was very very small. Gaffa and I only just managed to fit in it with our massive backpacks on. It was one of those older style lifts where you have wait for the lift to arrive and then open a second door to get in – hilariously, the inner doors opened inwards which made getting them shut and open again tricky since we were oversized and just able to squeeze in!

A bit shaken up by the small lift

After dropping off our bags and asking the hosts about where to eat and drink we headed towards the city centre, firstly to find some food and then to see the Piazza del Duomo, and the Duomo which is apparently the third largest church.

We stopped at a restaurant not too close to the main Piazza (the closer we got the more expensive the food was). We decided to try an antipasto plate of cold meats and cheeses, a plate of gnocchi with tomato and parmesan and a panini with ham, rocket and cheese. All the food was fairly nice for our first experience of Italian cuisine.

We then headed back to the Duomo and took photos outside before heading inside for a look. Little did we know that they kept the dead bodies of recently deceased popes and cardinals there. The bodies still wore the robes and head wear, and masks covered the faces. We only realised when Gaffa took a closer look at the hands and the back of the head…which we both agreed was yucky since they were slowly decomposing.  Altogether it was a bit freaky for us so we left.

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Next we headed into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which is a shopping arcade right near Duomo, with a glass roof and an amazing interior. Gaffa decided that he wanted to go into the shops. First stop was Louis Vuitton. We walked in with our trainers and small backpacks on (not really looking the part), and immediately the guard near the entrance started following us around the shop. We had a look around… tried not to touch anything or look suspicious, and then left for the next shop across the arcade, Prada. This time they were much nicer and didn’t follow us around the shop, watching our every move. Unfortunately we didn’t buy anything either! Haha. 

After wandering around the small streets around the Duomo, we stumbled across a gelato shop with a long line. The line actually caught our attention first, as we were looking at the monument of Leonardo.  After following the line we realised where it led and we decided to wait in line for a gelato too. Good decision it was, because it was probably one of the best gelato’s we’ve had in Italy. We went back there the second day as well. The servings were generous and the ice cream was velvety and soft. Best chocolate gelato EVER, at Lato G!

Gelato!! YEEEE!!!!

After eating our gelato and wandering the streets again to walk it off, we headed back to a supermarket to get dinner supplies and cooked some pesto pasta with olives for dinner in the apartment, and some cheap white wine.

The next day we decided to have a lie in and then to find some of our host’s recommendations for food. We headed to one place, but little did we know they were closed on Sundays. Fail! We walked towards the Navigli canals, (which were dry) to find something for lunch, but again most of the restaurants were closed. We did find another street of restaurants that were open and picked one that looked nice.

expecting white, but got red instead!

Gaffa asked the waitress for wine wine. She replied, “red or white?”, Gaffa replied, “white, please.” She came back with a glass of red wine…. We think she might’ve been hung over, because she seemed really sluggish and when we asked her about two dishes she gave us a description of one only and didn’t even mention the other one! She said, “if you like wild boar, the wild boar pasta will be great…” OK? Thanks! Another sign of her ‘not quite being in the room’, was when she spilt water all over the table when trying to pour it into a glass. Gaffa thought this was hilarious!

Gaffa ended up ordering the wild boar pasta and drinking the red wine, and I had a Milanese risotto. The pasta was lovely. The risotto was nice too, plain but tastey.

Milanese Risotto

Wild Boar Tagliatelle

After anther trip to Lato G and wandering around the streets of Milan a bit more, we headed back to our apartment for an early night. Pesto pasta with olives again for dinner, with another bottle of cheap white wine!

Milan was not big on the sightseeing but a good place for shopping if you’ve got the money. It was a nice city, with great gelato. Probably best to head there in summer, as we mainly just chilled out during our 2 days there.

funky seats I saw while walking down the street

Ciao ciao for now now!! Until next time!