Milano

As you will have seen in my last post we had arrived safely in Milan at just before 6.00 a.m. On reflection this was a great time to be in the City as it was before the crazy humidity of a Milanese August was in full flow. In fact though the temperature was 28, a full five degrees higher than Paris at this time of day it was very pleasant.

The first thing for us to do in Milan was to find the left luggage office, so we could leave our suitcases. This was the very first time I've used left luggage, unlike many of my generation I didn't have the wanderlust in my 20s and take a travel break after A levels, maybe this holiday is me making up for that! The left luggage system worked very well, our three cases were screened in a devise like they use in airports, we were given three tickets for each and they photocopied our passports (lucky we had them!!) and that was it. By 6.05 we were outside the Central station in Milan. We took photos of the station clock which, when I get a better wi-fi connection I will share.

We began by walking through the streets of Milan taking photos of the characteristic Italian buildings in the area. Even at this hour of the morning Milan is a lovely, fascinating city. We found a lovely square called Piazza Argentina and another called Piazzale Loreto which had a monument to the '15 Martyrs' - partisans who were killed in 1944 by the Fascist regime. At the end of the war, on the night he died, Mussolini's body was displayed in this Piazzale.

We came to a small cafe in the square and Drew had his first breakfast. The cafe did lovely coffee, Drew had a cappuccino and I had an americano, the reason I call this Drew's breakfast is the only things to eat were sweet pastries, Drew had a Cioccolato Pane and I had hoped for a croissant, but the only one they had was served with sugar and fruit, as a diabetic this was not for me, so Drew and mine and his.

Following breakfast we caught the metro to the town centre. In Italy metro tickets are sold in tobacconists and we opted to pay the 4.50 Euro for a day ticket rather than 1.50 Euro for single journey tickets.

Coming out of the metro station right in front of the Duomo is amazing, the facade of the building makes such a spectacular sight. Here the people of God have been singing his praise for centuries, in the 12th century this building was raised in his honour and it stands here still.

We spent an hour in the Duomo looking at the architecture and the amazing gallery of paintings. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but even though lots of guide books show this place there is nothing like being in it yourself. In Italy this is the second largest Church, after St. Peter's in the Vatican, it is the third largest in the world.

In preparation for the trip we had googled the places we were visiting and pulled together guides for each town that we the printed to have with us on the trip. The guide for Milan says: "you can do nothing better than starting at the Duomo and walking off in each of the directions finding the very heart of Milan springing from this centre."

This is just what we did, in the next few hours we headed off the square in multiple directions, on one route we came across fascinating ancient buildings including churches and hospitals, in another we walked down a central shopping area, in another through the expensive looking boutique shops of the famous names of Milan haute couture. When we are able to load our photos you will see much of these.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is one of the most spectacular sights, an early shopping arcade it is far more spectacular than the ones we have in Cardiff. It leads through to another famous site of Milan, the Teatro alla Scala this shares a square with the palace where Milan's administration is centred and a large statue of Leonardo de Vinci is located.

Alongside the sightseeing I did manage to get breakfast, and Drew his second breakfast, this was at a small cafe where we both had expressos and two sandwich di mozzarella e pomodoro in nice crunchy bread.

After 6 hours of sightseeing in Milan it was time to get the metro back to Central Station and collect our baggage. The return worked as smoothly as the hand-in had earlier and we had 50 yards to walk from the left luggage office to the Hotel Florida this was a clean, modern hotel, so well placed for the station and one of the least expensive hotels of the holiday. Pictures of the room (475) will be available when I have more reliable wi-fi access.

After an hour of cooling down, the temperature had risen all morning, and the humidity had risen even more, we popped out for lunch. This was at the Caffe Panzera, on the block in front of the Railway station. I'd eaten their in 2001 when teaching on a Open University course in Milan, so thought we'd try it again, and the tastes were as lovely as I remembered. Drew had Pizza Diavola and I had a Calzone we shared an Insalta Mixta. Drew's Pizza had salami on it, but not like any salami I had tasted, in flavour and texture it was more like Chorizo. My Calzone was tasty and perfectly textured. Drew reminded me that I last had Calzone 8 years ago and I think he is right, it used to be a big favorite of mine, and now I remember why. As ever in Italy the salad was fresh and made up of three different leaves, grated carrots and tomatoes. We dressed it ourselves with Balsamic and Olive Oil.

Given the lack of sleep of the previous night we finished lunch and went back to the hotel, I slept for an hour and wrote two blog posts. Drew used his iPad and went out for a walk, but was soon back with the afternoon heat and humidity being to much for him.

By the time we next left the room at 7.30 the humidity had died down and it remained a warm, but pleasant evening.

We waled around the area of the station looking for some nice restaurants, but as many Milanese people leave the town for the hot days of August many restaurants were shut. We caught the metro back into the town centre and having photographed the Duomo in the evening light went off the square in the only direction we hadn't gone in the morning, this brought us to an old market area, within the market was a restaurant called Ristorante al Mercante we don't normally eat outside, but as the outside was well shaded with large overlapping umbrellas, we did opt to sit outside. The comparative cool of the evening made this really comfortable.

I opted for a starter of insalata de piovra patate e pomodori, the rocket worked well with bolied potatoes and lovely sliced octopus, fresh and tasty. Drew had insalata de asparagi soncino e pecorino, this had lamb's leaf lettuce with asparagus tips and pecorino in large flakes over the top. I wasn't allowed to taste this, meaning Drew really enjoyed it. We certainly cleared our plates. For the next course I had spaghetti ai frutti di mare, the frutti being clams, mussels prawns and squid, this felt and tasted like an Italian dish you could have in an Italian resteraunt anywhere in the world, but it felt nice to be having it here in Italy itself. Drew had papperdelle con funghi which had a strong mushroomy sauce. We rounded off the meal with ananas for me and sorbetti limonei. 

We walked back to the Duomo square, took yet another photo of its changing colours at different times of the day and caught the Metro back, arriving in the hotel soon after 11.00. 

Another lovely day, even thought it had a stressful start.