Milan Recap
What I saw and where i ate
It was good to start the trip in Milan because it’s more organized and buttoned up than other Italian cities I’ve been to - less of a culture shock. The Milanese don’t want anything to do with you, like in New York how other people are ghosts to look through, and the streets are wide and everyone dresses impeccably.
Friday April 1
I arrived around 9:30am Milan time, which was 3:30pm in my body, and I hadn’t slept really on Thursday ‘night’ on the plane.
First meal was pizza capricciosa lunch at Fra Diavolo Pizza in Sempione right down the street from my AirBnB. 4/5 stars for price, food, atmosphere for lunch solo. (I’ll dive deep into eating alone in another post.)
Because I slept straight through from nap to night, my dinner was a couple handfuls of “Travelers' Best Fancy Trail Mix” I got at JFK between flights. That’s amore!
Saturday April 2
Breakfast was at Casa del Pane in Brera, a double espresso and cream-filled brioche (what they call a cornetto in the south of Italy or croissant). I didn’t do any research on it, like I was still totally whacked by the flight and saw it and went in and honestly can’t really recollect so let’s just give it a 4/5. Then I popped into the Botanical Garden.
Lunch I did read about in Lonely Planet: De Santis. Tiny narrow bar like a slice into a building. Honestly, I’ve had better sandwiches at New Jersey delis so I think this is ye old case of the guidebook slump. I headed to the Duomo after, lit a candle in a side chapel with Mary (old Grotto habits die hard) and climbed to the rooftop terraces.
Dinner was an AirBnB Experience: “Dinner with Friends at a Navigli House” which I booked thinking I would meet a crew of international friends to roll with in Milan; however, due to a cancellation, it ended up being just me and the hosts, a delightful couple Elena and Giampaolo, who offered delicious food and kindly allowed me to practice my Italian. But I definitely walked in, saw a table for three and was like oh.
This was the first and hopefully not last time on the trip where my expectations were not met, I was disappointed, and then something unexpectedly cool happened, and I was like Ok, Universe! Teach my stubborn ass the hard way you bitch!! More info below on that.
Sunday April 3
I woke up really late so breakfast was yogurt and clementines and Nespresso coffee in my AirBnB room. I popped in to Castello Sforzesco to see a draft Pieta` by Michelangelo and then I started my journey to the Shinnyo-En Buddhist Temple (the unexpected thing that happened) to meet Elena and Giampaolo for a ceremony there that they’d invited me to the night prior when I remarked on their Buddhist altar in their living room and we got to talking about *fAiTh* and I said to myself ok let me get to that pray part real quick then! Lean in!
Full post coming on the rest of Sunday which turned into an eight-hour life chat with Jack from Korea, and included bad pizza, good Amarone and me calling Italian 911 because there was a full-on sewer grate fire in the middle of the sidewalk that no one seemed to care about.
Monday April 4
I booked a ticket to visit the Museo Poldi Pezzoli so made my way there via Via Solferino where I purchased my darling godson a baptism outfit at La Stupenderia. Sprezzatura starts young! The most striking piece in the museum for me, cuz you know I really latched onto the memento mori concept in college (some of you may recall my rotten meat painting, well-known, in many art history books), was this portrait of a young man with a skull on the verso. You can see they displayed it in a mirrored case which allowed you to see both sides AND YOUR OWN FACE simultaneously! Even if you are wearing a beret over your fluffy hair now, remember you will die.
For dinner, I took myself out to my first solo sit down meal on the trip at Cantina del Giannone and the food and the staff were both lovely. Me sitting alone eating pasta while reading Joan Didion at 8pm in a white-tablecloth-and-candle restaurant is my brand now. I’ll get into the solo eating in another post because it’s been teaching me how much I need to figure out in order to exist without being an accessory to someone else for the first time in my life since…the goddamn Lacanian mirror stage, I guess??
Tuesday April 5
Breakfast was at this little cafe-store MixMi. I got avocado toast with an egg on top. It was cute inside with clothes and jewelry but something was sterile about it which I didn’t like though the concept is cool. Maybe that’s just Milan? I want some mess so it feels like home.
I had a train to catch to Bologna at 3pm so I popped my bags in with the doorman to walk around and BUY MORE THINGS! Fill that endless pit, girl! I bought two pairs of leather shoes - ‘ballerinas’ in bordeaux and sandals in olive green - at L’artigiano di Brera. Classic shoe styles in simple nice leather. I’ll report back on how they hold up. Then to 10 Corso Como and the Bosco Verticale. I finished my Joan Didion on a bench in the sunshine and watched dogs being happy running around, missing my Buddy.
I took the bus to the tram to the train station because I had an unvalidated digital ticket and dammit if I was going to let $2.20 go to waste! So in a nice symmetry, I started and ended my time in Milano, the capital of design and fashion, as a sweaty American with too much luggage.
Should I be flattered or offended that the waiter said “you can finish both bottles if you want” when he gave me two digestivi on the house?