MILAN – INSIDE, OUTSIDE AND ALL AROUND TOWN

DAY 8

We got up late for the first time on the trip because we had been relentlessly on the go for a week, we knew it was going to be raining, and we wanted to just chill in our comfy king bed.

We no longer got the free breakfast with our hotel, so we headed to the now peaceful Piazza Duomo where they were still dismantling the stage and scaffolding from the previous day’s riotous political demonstration.

We broke with routine yet again when we decided not to do the Hop On Hop Off bus, even though it was rainy with temps in the high fifties, preferring to walk instead.

We ate a late breakfast in a PaniniDurini, a chain coffee/ sandwich shop similar to Au Bon Pan in the U.S. This is a good place to get a reasonably priced breakfast, excellent coffee, and then get on with your sightseeing fun and games.

It was raining pretty hard so we sought shelter in a lovely church near the cathedral that looked like all the other lovely churches we had seen In Rome, though smaller and more intimate.

The Angry Africans with their “free” bracelets, who we had first encountered all over the streets of Rome, were back in Milan with a vengeance, which meant we needed to be on our guard at every major attraction. Here’s the scam. Tall male African immigrants team up in popular plazas where they approach unsuspecting tourists with a friendly, “Where you from?”, and immediately try and put a cheap, faux-leather, brown or black plastic friendship bracelet on their arm, and then aggressively demand money. In Rome they had attacked a Japanese couple, claiming they were owed 40€, and beat the crap out of them when they didn’t pay. That kind of shit really pisses me off and I went out of my way to yell at them to get away every time they came near.

It rained the whole time we were in Milan and everyone was carrying umbrellas, so we had to constantly be on our guard not to get poked in the face, which actually happened to me a couple of times. I had good rain gear and didn’t really care about the rain, but the bobbing umbrellas kept us on our toes when walking the streets.

We decided to beat the rain by spending a few hours in the Pinacoteca di Brera, considered the finest museum in Milan. The architecture inside and out is well worth the price of admission. And unlike so many of the most popular museums around Italy, we didn’t need advance tickets and there was no line.

As I have mentioned before, Italian art leaves me completely cold — an endless procession of gigantic paintings and sculptures of baby Jesus and the crucified Christ ( a great name for a rock band!), glowing Mother Marys, chubby naked Angels, fancy pants priests dressed like pimps, and bare breasted lovelies in repose.  Who fucking cares? Inna says it’s all in the technique and attention to detail. Whatever …

By the time we left the museum the place was crawling with large tour groups.  It had been almost empty during our two hour stay. Given that we hadn’t arrived until late morning, I’m still not sure why the place wasn’t more crowded when we were there.

We leisurely walked in a light rain through the Fashion District which was uncrowded and filled with the usual suspects — Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton — and ate at another “fast food” restaurant called Biffino where the freshly-made food was behind big glass cases and we just picked what we wanted to eat. We chose the place because it was crowded, a clear sign the food was good, and they had framed team jerseys (some signed) from many famous European football heroes, like Ronaldo and Beckham.  We ordered eggplant lasagna and some pasta with mystery ingredients. Delicious!

After lunch we continued walking through the Fashion District and then explored the magnificent enclosed/open air, crossed shaped Galleria Víctor Emmanuel with its marble mosaic floors, ceiling frescoes, and even fancier Prada, Gucci and all the other wannabe stores where Inna did some shopping. I do not understand how you can have two Gucci stores that sell $5,000 handbags within a quarter-mile of one another and stay in business, but somehow they do.

In Milan and Rome home food delivery is done by immigrants on bikes with large yellow, blue, or green plastic backpacks from companies like Glovo and Ubereats. It’s a super popular service.

Let’s talk about dental care. In Italy, it is clearly a low priority. I saw many, many people missing teeth or with a mouthful of misshapen teeth. I’m not sure why, but some European countries — Britain is another one — where a large segment of the population looks like they have never been to a dentist. And this includes a lot of rich people who obviously can afford to take care of their teeth.

On a brighter note, Milan goes all out when it comes to keeping its streets clean. They have cute little motorized street sweepers constantly scrubbing the tile walkways. They also have an army of sanitation workers dressed in fluorescent green uniforms, going around the city with green trash bins, diligently emptying cans and sweeping up the smaller refuse, like cigarette butts which litter the street like confetti. The Italians definitely consider the outside a giant ashtray. But the northern part of the country definitely makes cleanliness — personal and civic — a much higher priority than down in the south.

We headed over to see “The Last Supper” down Magenta Street.  On the way, we stopped at St. Maurizio Church, Milan’s oldest convent where all of the walls and ceilings were painted in fantastic frescoes.  The front was a small church separated by a screen dividing it from the back that was entered through a small stone alcove that led into a large area that was lined with wooden choir seats and a large painting of the “Last Supper”.  This area was for the nuns and this small house of worship stood out as unique in a country filled with exquisitely ornate churches.

We continued walking down busy Via Magenta to the orange cheese box church, Santa Maria delle Grazie, that is home to the Leonardo  Davinci’s “Last Supper”. Unfortunately, we needed to buy tickets three weeks in advance.  So we briefly checked out the Holy Mass going on inside the church and then headed over to the Museum of Science & Technology Leonardo Davinci, and some famous red brick building with a splendid tower that looked like the turret on a Scottish castle. The Google Maps App was working like a champ and guided us through a wealthy neighborhood of apartments adorned with flowers and bushes on their stone balconies before returning to Via Magenta and dining to soft jazz in Parco Sushi.  This place specialized in lightly fried sushi rolls. The best Sushi ever!

The jazz music they were playing in the sushi restaurant was like nothing I had ever heard.  It was different female singers singing boss nova versions of punk music like “1979” by Smashing Pumpkins. One of the things I like best about travel is hearing different music, especially with a twist.

After an exceptionally delicious (and different) dinner we walked around the Duomo Cathedral alit in all of its majestic glory. Then we bought some beers, and went back to the room to lay in bed and relax after ten hours of steady sightseeing.  

Walked 7.5 miles

Insider Tip — The day after we arrived, the Milan city government shut down all of the visitor centers in town in order to save money. So, don’t expect to find information centers when you visit. The best you can hope for is a paper map. The tourist bureau provides a large, standard map similar to the one in Rome and I am going to assume they will make sure all the hotels have them. Just make sure you get one in English, because we ended up with a German map, which was very confusing indeed.

Insider Tip — The cheapest places to buy water, sodas, beer, or snacks are in the street stands, not the stores and shops where they will be four or five times more expensive.

Insider Tip — Currency exchanges on the street are total ripoffs.  They will take a THIRD in fees! If you must use one, you need to first ask what their commission is, and then shop around for the “best” deal.  There really are none, but some are better than others. Bank machines affiliated with your bank will always give you the best return, and you won’t pay a service charge.

Insider Tip — After about a week of go, go, go, you will start to run out of gas.  That’s why having a room within easy walking distance of your hotel is an added bonus because you can go back to the room in the afternoon and rest.