This morning we headed down for our included breakfast, and was delighted by the enormous croissants waiting for us! Santa ordered a coffee, the waiter said “espresso?” which he agreed to (because he has no idea what it is) and I thought I’d keep quiet until the thimble sized cup arrived. Following his initial confusion, he decided that actually, he rather enjoyed his espresso.
We decided to walk through the cobbled streets to the lower
town rather than the bus or funicular. This is where we got the train and settled in for the journey to Milan.
In just under an hour, we’d arrived and immediately set about navigating our way to the Duomo via the metro. After battling some baffling signage, we eventually found the right platform and hopped on the M3 line, ready for our first glimpse of the iconic cathedral. When we emerged out of the statuon, it was busy—like, properly packed—but despite the crowds, it’s one of those moments where you can’t help but stop and go, “oooh… look at that.”
As we still had a bit of time before our slot in the Duomo, we headed through the Vittorio Emanuele – Perfect for a bit of window shopping; where you admire everything, touch nothing, and quietly accept that you’re a lottery win short of buying anything.
We then grabbed a delicious coffee at the Lavazza flagship store (no pastry as that also required remortgaging the house) but it did come with a complimentary chocolate (thankfully as Santa was snackish)
We joined the bag search queue for the Duomo, where the security man decided to accuse Momma of carrying a knife.. and spent an incredibly long time meticulously searching her bag. Once he was satisfied that she wasn’t a potential criminal (it was actually the huge metal keyring attached to the apartment key.. and all fairness could be used as a weapon) he let us go up to the terraces of the Duomo.
Obviously a large section was covered in scaffolding, but as we were lucky with a clear day, we had a great view of the city and the bustling piazza below. It was also a great place for watching Instagramers in the wild.
The trip then continues down into the Cathedral itself. It’s the largest Gothic building in the world, has 52 towering marble pillars and huge stained glass windows.
Another church was next on the agenda, but this time a bone chapel! The walls are lined with the skeletal remains of thousands, arranged in surprisingly artistic patterns. Santa was confused yet fascinated at the same time.
We spent the rest of the day wandering about, taking in sights such as the Castello, the Brera district and another street full of high end shops, high end cars and high end people. After a last look at the Cathedral, we settled for drinks in a bar, where Santa enjoyed a black Imperial 9%
We enjoyed Milan, but underestimated how big the place is – although they have a very good metro system, some of the stations took an absolute age to get to. We were definitely under-planned, and that meant we missed the Navigli district.
The Travelling Ginger 