Woke up quite early and had a quick breakfast. Decided to take a taxi to the station instead of walk, very good decision indeed. My 8:50am train to Milano originated in Mantova so I could hop on early, which was nice. The train was mostly empty and arrived about 10min late.
Whoa the Milano train station is massive. Much bigger I think than any others I've seen including Rome, Madrid, etc. took me a while to exit the station and then there was a line at the taxi stand. The taxi itself was only 8 something euros, much less than I was anticipating.
The owner of my Airbnb apartment had emailed me with the person to get the keys from so I called him and got in. The location is perfect and it's so nice to have my own whole space, even just for three days. And the wifi seems good, yay!
By then it was about noon so I set out towards the duomo, a few blocks away and found famous luini bakery, known for panzerotti, aka little handheld fried pizzas. Got a regular tomato and mozzarella and a mozzarella and spicy salami, and a lemon soda and ate these declicious fried creations in front of the stunning duomo.
Wow. Seen pictures of it of course but oh my lord it is massive. The church is free to enter but if you want to take pictures you buy a 2€ wristband and they had people all over the church enforcing it. Kind of brilliant if you ask me. Bought my ticket to go up to the terraces and did part of it (aka, not the higher part!). The church is so massive you can actually walk on the roof, through the spires, etc.
Walked back by luini and then the line was waaayyyy longer, and went to the chocolate/gelato shop across the street that had almost as long a line. Waited til my number was called. Since it's a chocolate shop they had several single-varietal gelati flavors of chocolate. I got one and combined it with bacio. It was 3€ which is probably more expensive than I have ever paid in Italy for a normal size cup but they topped it with melted 61% chocolate and the single varietal was one of the best I've ever had.
Went through the gallery vittorio Emanuelle and to the scala opera house to the museum which had a big theatre library, costumes from shows, etc. you get to look into the theatre but they were doing something with lighting so it was dark. You could still tell how beautiful it is though!
Walked towards the last supper and on the way stopped through a couple of really beautiful churches. Had some time to spare so went into the science museum, which has models from da Vinci and numerous other cool exhibits. It's actually quite massive!!
I must say, the people here are as beautiful and well dressed as everyone says. The men all wear perfectly tailored suits and all the women wear dresses and stilettos. How do they afford it all!?
10:30pm - whew, back at the apartment after a long evening! The Last Supper is quite amazing. You get 15 minutes in the room only with about 30 people, so you really sort of have no choice but to look at it closely. unfortunately it is quite decayed and damaged, but still beautiful. Don't tell, but I snuck a few pictures!
Caught the tram 16 back to the Duomo and walked back to the apartment for a quick rest of about an hour. Set out again around 7 for dinner, but the place I had picked was all booked up so I booked a reservation for tomorrow night and walked around the corner to Trattoria Milanese, a traditional place that was full of large groups. The waiters all spoke perfect English, which was a bummer, but at least there was no english menu! I had some artichokes sauteed with garlic and parsley, and the traditional risotto alla Milanese, which is made with saffron. It was delicious. Walked back, took some night pictures of the main stuff, and got another gelato at cioccolati - this time the "supernero" chocolate with coffee almond.
Walked back the main pedestrian sreet that connects the Duomo to where I'm staying and there was some kind of club/party going on at a store. Wild. Made it back to the apartment around 10.
Final walking count: 27,111 steps, 36 flights of stairs, and 10.78 miles. Lots of pictures, so they'll have to wait til tomorrow morning.
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