The first time I was in Milan, in 1989, I hated it. I was there because a friend I was traveling with had her passport stolen while sleeping on the train to Venice. So we had to get off in Verona and go back to Milan. We wandered around looking for a hotel (nothing had anything available), looking for the consulate, and looking for food. None of us spoke any italian and the whole town looked like a dirty cave of criminals. The only thing I found impressive was the train station.
My second trip to Milan was in 1992 with my grandparents. We were on our way to Bassignana from Munich. We took taxis and buses, but this was near the end of their lives and they were both forgetful and cranky. Strangely, I don’t remember other towns being so miserable on that trip, but I remember wandering around Milan yet again, unimpressed and eager to leave.
The next time I was there was July 2006 on my way to Florence from Paris, to visit Pieve di Cerreto for the first time. Gratefully, I only had to change trains, and I stayed in the station.
Shortly after that, in October, I drove Katya there. I dropped her off at the train station, but she had a couple hours to kill, so we found somewhere to have coffee. Not far from the train station, but driving there was stressful, and parking was even more worrying. Fortunately, it wasn’t too complicated. As soon as her train left, I headed out to the airport and spent my last night on that trip with room service at the Crowne Plaza.
This trip, however, I decided to give it a chance. Bella had never been there, and seeing that the Hertz office was very close to the train station, I thought maybe renting a car there wouldn’t be so bad. Since the lovely Cisalpino runs between Milan and Basel, I figured that might be a good plan. We had some difficulty finding the rental office, but the staff at the very nice Gallia hotel nearby was quite helpful and explained where it was. We got our car and headed out.
For our return trip, I found that I could get a very good last minute rate at the Gallia, and decided we’d spend the night there, maybe walk to the Duomo and la Scala, and try to find a restaurant I’d heard good things about, and then catch the train in the morning to Basel. Amazingly, everything worked out perfectly! Despite no signage at all in Milan, we ended up on exactly the right street to take us to Milano Centrale. However, the Hertz office was closed — Ferragosto! So I went to the hotel, where the very kind Concierge, Bruno, said it would be no problem to leave the car in front, check in, then return it to the off-hours garage, and he gave me all the details. Even with a bit of rain, we got everything taken care of, got our tickets for the train, and set off to find Obika, a mozzarella bar I’d seen mentioned on dopplr. With the holiday, the streets were practically empty. Until we got to La Scala. All tourists, but probably only 10% of what we’d see on a normal day. Very manageable.
Walked through the Galleria di Emmanuelle Vittorio, around the Duomo, and then found our restaurant.
Mmmmm…. delicious mozzarella di bufala, DOP. With prosciutto di toscana, pasta, tomatoes and spicy sausage. We walked a bit more and found delicious gelato, and then a bit further and found the impressive Castello Sforzesco.
We wandered back to our hotel, enjoying the clean and empty streets and the full moon.
We made it to the hotel at about 10 pm, completely exhausted and looking forward to a nice long quiet night of sleep and a morning bath in the marble bathroom.
When we left this morning, Bruno the concierge asked why we were leaving so soon? Ah not to worry, I’ll definitely be back!
