宇宁: Milan May 2018

Milan

Duomo at night

I stopped in Milan main train station on my way to Venice 12 years ago without visiting the city.

Railway station in Milan

It's great that Li Li and her baby gave me a reason to visit the city again this trip =)

Lunch with Li Li and her baby

Lunch at a traditional Creperia with her

My first impression of this city is utter chaos as landing at airport at 11pm , having to figure out ItaliaRail, credit card not accepted at the ticket machine, 50 euros notes not being accepted, without a map to the city or anyone to ask for instructions to just know where i'm going is .. not fun.

But thankfully there's a really nice Italian girl who was going the same way as me, helped me find the train to Milan downtown, waited for me after getting out of the train to connect the subway and showed me exactly where to go etc. I am forever thankful to her even though I didn't get a name. But it shows good and helpful people do exist and I am truly grateful for her help in my time of need.

Milan is famous for shopping, the Duomo and The last Supper =)

We end up booking Duomo terraces tickets and it's certainly beautiful seeing all the terraces close by.

View of the Terrace

Madonna in the Duomo

Inside the Duomo

The Duomo square from the Terrace

We had to booked The Last Supper tickets via a tour as official tickets are sold out for months. The most interesting aspect of this is how Da Vinci captured the light and luminescence in the whole painting and how he managed to keep the light away from Judas which give the impression that Judas has a dark face and white neck.
This painting has suffered significant damage, and restoration was very well done. But the result of this was manic control in allowing visits (rude security, rude reception, evacuation of groups after 15 mins, how dare you even breathe in this room!) Certainly not the most pleasant experience.

The last supper

Tickets and restorations done on Last Supper

Also, the most famous shopping center in the world, Galleria Vittorio Emanule
Again, good place to find Prada, LV etc all in one place.

Galleria Vittorio E on the outside

On the inside

But as i can't afford those, we bought Savini ice cream there instead =) and it's yum!

Savini Ice cream with the best pistachio flavour! from Sicily pistachio

We also realized Milan has a canal area and had our aperitivo experience there.

Naviglio Grande area

As far as i can tell, it's to eat a snack with a drink before dinner.

Apertivo moment

The recommendation is cocktail with Campari coupled with homemade snacks.

Aperitivo moment

One interesting site was the Milan main cemetery. It has a lot of interesting sculptures and tomb stones. I enjoyed hunting them down with Cristina on Sunday morning =)