48 Hours in Milan | Visual Diary

 

The city was sunny and warm with smiley locals everywhere we turned. Milan is beautiful and cris-crossed with trams making exploring the city’s attractions fairly easy but I still cannot put my finger on why I wasn’t too impressed. Perhaps, visiting Lake Garda a few days before might have something to do with it. I was spoiled in the one of Italy’s riviera region, with great lake views within a few steps from my hotel. Relaxing surrounds and fresh food and not the kind that i passed up as fresh just to fool tourists.  If you havent been to any of the towns around Lake Garda then you need to contact EasyJet, BA, RyanAir or whichever airline takes your fancy as this place is stunning! Anyway that’s my next post. 

 

My 48 hours in Milan. The city named as the fashion capital of Italy. I might be in the minority here, but I wasn’t that impressed with Milan. Sure they have the imposing Duomo with an amazing 3000 statues and 135 spires as the city’s focal point. It also didnt help that there were lots of pigeons and people relentlessly offering you bird seeds to feed the pigeons. I still was not getting that wow factor having walked around the city.

 

 

I was exploring the city limits with my sister. Walking around the Parco Sempion, Milan’s large park with lots of landmarks around the greenery. One of these that cannot be missed is the Porta Sempione, the city gate of Milan. Walking through the park we wondered back to Sforza Castle or Castello Sforzesco if you prefer the Italian reference. This also used to be one of Europe’s largest Citadels but now houses museums. Built in the 15th century by Franceso Sforzfa(Duke of Milan).

Transportation in Milan is great but we still managed to get lost once and found a kind local who got us on the correct tram, also paying for our fare which was really kind. We found an opportunity to return the favour via an old Italian couple whose car broke down by a set of traffic lights. You should have seen my sister, the old lady and myself try to push this car along the road while the old man steered. We pushed it a few yards until it was out of the way of traffic. It was a really funny moment as the couple didnt speak English so you can just imagine my sister and I trying to gesture our offer of help to push the car.

 

We must have worked up an appetite after a day of walking and car chasing(pushing), so returning back to Via Dante, a popular street in Milan lined with shops and sidewalk cafe we looked for a places to chill out, refuel with a little people-watching thrown in. Considering Italy is know for its great food, I was not impressed with the food offerings here. So if you know of a decent place with ‘real’ Italian food please let me know and I will check it out next time I am in Milan.