We had an early start that morning. We were up and about at 7:00. We took turns having a quick shower, packed our last odds and ends, and then we checked out. We had a train to catch at 8:30. It was a foggy morning and somewhat chilly. We thought that the weather had turned on us, but that thankfully was not the case. We arrived at the station in plenty of time. We already had our tickets, which I had booked online. We would have had amble time for a coffee and a snack, but the only option near the station was McDonald’s and that felt like too much effort for questionable return. Instead, we went straight to the platform. This time we found the right platform on the first attempt.
The train to Florence arrived in time and was still on time when it arrived at the other end. Our next train was running ahead of schedule and was already waiting for us. This gave us plenty of time to find our seats. The Italian long-distance trains are very nice. They also have high speed internet that actually works. You can even use it to order food and drink to your seat. As we have not had breakfast, we made use of this. We both had an apple croissant, which came with a coffee and an organic juice. Graham had a cappuccino and a pineapple juice. I had an espresso and an apricot juice. It was nice and at €5 per person, it was a fair price, too. The journey was a lot less scenic than what we had anticipated as a lot of it went through tunnels. Time still flew and soon we were on the outskirts of Milan. This is where we picked up a bit of a delay as there was a lot of congestion. Still, we were on no particular timetable, and it did not matter.
Our plan had been to leave our backpacks at the left luggage office at the station as we needed to go back there anyway to get the shuttle to the airport. However, the line was huge, and, in the end, we gave up on this idea. Instead, we headed to the metro to get the train to the cathedral. The metro accepts contactless payments, which made this very easy. We also did not have wait long until a train arrived. We were only on the train for four stops, and this did not take long at all, but it saved us a lengthy walk.
As soon as we came out of the metro station, I realised that Milan is not an ordinary city. The street performers were opera singers! We headed straight for the cathedral. We took a slow walk around the cathedral. It is a very imposing building that is 158 meters long and 92 meters wide. The church is big enough to accommodate 35000 people. It took over 6 centuries to complete. Milan cathedral features the largest number of spires of any church in the world. Each of the 135 spires is topped with a statue of a different biblical figure. There are tours available to visit the roof, which must be an absolutely amazing experience for people with a head for heights. Unfortunately, this does not apply to either of us. We admired the rooftop from a safe distance with our feet firmly on the ground.
The facade is decorated with 2245 statues. If you count the statues inside the cathedral as well, the total number of statues stands at 6000, which is the highest number of statues in a church anywhere in the world. I would have loved to see the inside of the cathedral, but the line for the ticket office was insane. I tried to book a ticket online, but they were sold out. Fortunately, Milan is easy to get to as there are multiple flights from Manchester every day. I am sure sooner or later; we will go back and then I will make sure that I get to see the inside.
There are all kinds of interesting buildings around the Piazza del Duomo. To the right of the cathedral and roughly opposite of the metro station is the Royal Palace of Milan. This was a government building for many centuries, but is now a cultural centre that host art exhibitions featuring pieces of art from all around the world.
Next to the Royal Palace of Milan is the Palazzo dell’Arengario. Construction on this started in in 1936 and was completed in 1956. This is the home of a modern art museum. The original design incorporated an archway between the two buildings making up the Palazzo dell’Arengario to help it blend in with the other buildings around the Piazza del Duomo, but this was eventually abandoned.
Opposite the Royal Palace of Milan and the Palazzo dell’Arengario is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. This was built between 1865 and 1877 and was named after the first king of the kingdom of Italy. This is Italy’s oldest active shopping centre. It is affectionately referred to as Milan’s drawing room. This is definitely the place to go to see and be seen. It is home to high end shops and restaurants. It also was absolutely packed when we went past. I would have loved to have a closer look at the interesting architecture, but did not fancy competing for space with half of Milan.
At the far end of the Piazza del Duomo and at the opposite side of the metro station is the Palazzo Carminati. It was built in the late 1860s as private home of a well-known Milanese silver manufacturer. For most of the 20th century, Palazzo Carminati became a famous landmark in Milan, because of its large neon advertising signs. Because of this, it was often compared to Times Square in New York and Piccadilly Circus in London. The signs were eventually removed by Milan’s major Gabriele Albertini in 1999, as a consequence of a campaign aimed at promoting the square’s “dignity”. Even though this decision is not without its critics, I feel the Roman Catholic Church would do well to take note of this. I could not believe my eyes when I saw a huge advert for Samsung being projected on a tarp on the side of the cathedral that is covering up some scaffolding.
After we had a good look around the Piazza del Duomo, we carried on towards the Piazza Mercanti. This was the centre of Milan during medieval times and is home to four buildings that are mainly connected to the legal profession. The exception to this is Palazzo delle Scuole Palatine, which was a prestigious school. It is set back from the square and there was some shade as well as some stone benches. We made good use of this to have a rest.
Once we had rested enough, we took to some of the historical streets. Pretty much as soon as we left the Piazza Del Duomo, the tourists started thinning out and once we entered one of the main streets leading up from Piazza Mercanti, there were very few people around. Our ultimate destination was Gelato Rivareno, but on the way, we wanted to get some lunch. We did not have to go very far. We found Bellavista Café, which did not look like much, but the menu looked interesting, and the prices were fair. Most of the people there seemed to be locals, which is always a good sign.
We shared a bottle of sparkling water. Graham had a local beer, and I had an Aperol Spritz, which was the best I have ever tasted. Graham ordered a starter, which was called Gnocco Fritto. I was surprised when our server asked if we were going to share this. I had misheard this and thought he had said Gnocchi Fritto. I had expected what we can get in every supermarket, which are small potato dumplings. Instead, we got large pillowy strips of a deep-fried savoury dough served with a local cured ham and salami. This was absolutely delicious.
For my main course, I was torn between two local specialities. I really wanted to try authentic risotto alla Milanesa, which is plain risotto that is flavoured with butter, Parmesan cheese and saffron. This was served as a side with osso bucco, which is slow cooked veal shank. I have had this a few times and had not realised that this is also a local dish in Milan. I have always enjoyed this in the past. However, another local speciality, Cotoletta alla Milanese, also was tempting. This is a thin cut veal cutlet that is coated in breadcrumbs and fried in butter. In the end, I went with the recommendation of our server and that the osso bucco with risotto alla Milanesa. This was absolutely amazing. Graham had the Cotoletta alla Milanese, which was huge. I tried a piece, and this was very nice, but not as good as my choice.
We passed on dessert as we had other plans for this. We carried on walking through the historical streets in the general direction of the Sforzesco Castle. On the way, we came past a beautiful church called Santa Maria del Carmine. It being a Sunday, we figured it would probably be closed. I stopped long enough to take a photo and then we carried on walking. It was not long afterwards when we came across Gelato Rivareno.
We had hoped to get some coffee with our ice cream. The branch of Gelato Rivareno in Sydney was small, but this one was tiny. Apart from the counter, there was only enough room for two small tables, which were occupied. We gave up on the coffee idea, but I got us some ice cream to take away. I got pistachio and sweet cream for Graham and Pistachio and chestnut for me. We then headed up the road to a lovely little park. Unfortunately, there were no benches to sit down to eat our ice cream, but we still enjoyed it. It was as good as we remembered.
Once we had finished our ice cream, we headed toward the last thing on our to do list. Sforzesco Castle is a medieval fortress that is now home to multiple museums. We had never planned to visit any of the museums, but the castle is surrounded by multiple gardens that are meant to be quite interesting. There are also some secondary buildings like an amphitheatre in the grounds. We had thought that this would be interesting to check out. We headed in that general direction, which is not far from Gelato Rivareno and the park. There was just the little matter of a construction site between where we were and the castle. There was no obvious way through. It was also suddenly very hot. When I checked the advance weather forecast, our day in Milan was supposed to be the coolest by some margin, but it actually ended up being the hottest. We decided that we did not fancy seeing the castle gardens so much that we were willing to melt while trying find a way through. I managed to get a quick photo from the opposite exit from the metro and then we took the metro back to the central station.
The first metro that came was absolutely packed. We decided to wait and see if the next one was better. It was definitely worth waiting a few minutes as we even got a seat on the second one. We had to change lines at the stop for the cathedral. I expected that stop to me manic, but that was not the case and soon we were back at Milan Central station. The exit that we came out of was somewhere different than the entrance we used in the morning, and it was not immediately obvious from that exit where the airport buses were. I am sure we ended up taking a slightly scenic route, but as the station is pretty stunning, that was no hardship. In the end we found the bus stop without too much trouble.
We did not have long to wait for the bus to the airport. I spent most of the trip asleep. According to the timetable, the bus was supposed to go to terminal one first, but we got dropped off at terminal 2 first. When we got to the airport, check in had not opened yet. The general gate area was already listed, but we figured we better wait to go through security until check in had opened in case there were any last-minute changes. There is not a great deal of facilities landside, but there were some seats and there was a coffee shop nearby. We found some seats and then I went to get some drinks. I got some still water and an Americano for Graham and a sparkling water and a flat white for me. We both had our drinks and spent some time reading.
Once check in opened, we went through security. This was very quick and painless. Airside was actually pretty impressive. There was a good range of shops, restaurants, and bars. I had a look on at the duty-free shop as I was hoping to get some limoncello cream liqueur. The one regret I have about the cruise in June is that I did not get a bottle of the cream limoncello that we tried on the food tour in Naples. I hoped that I would be able to pick up a bottle of this at duty free. Unfortunately, even though they had a great selection, the prices were a lot more than what I was willing to pay. What really surprised me was that the cream limoncello was twice the price of the standard limoncello. I came away empty handed.
We sat down to read for a while and then we decided to get another drink. We ended up at Pret A Manger. We both had a can of sparkling apple juice and a coffee. Graham had a latte, and I had another flat white. While we enjoyed our drinks, I had a notification on the app with our gate number. Once we were done, we headed through passport control. We were the only people there. There was no seating near our gate and there was no sign of life. We found some seating nearby and continued reading.
When the time for boarding had come, we headed over to our gate. We found a huge line. Staff from the ground handler walked along the line and pulled out people who had too much hand luggage. They made good business. We passed muster. People really have funny ideas. One lady was trying to pass off a sturdy reusable shopping back similar to the ones you can get at IKEA as hand luggage. It was the size of a large suitcase. She ended up having to pay for a piece of checked luggage. She was not impressed. I can understand that she was upset as this bag was definitely now suitable for hold luggage and I hate to think how it would arrive at the other end. On the other hand, it most certainly was not suitable for hand luggage either. I know that we had multiple emails from EasyJet ahead of our trip spelling out the rules for hand luggage and were reminded yet again when we did online check in. I don’t see how anybody could not know the rules. She was still arguing with the ground handler when we got on the plane. I am not sure if she made the flight as we never saw her again.
Despite the line at the gate and the fact that this was a completely full flight, boarding was a smooth process and soon we were ready to leave. There was a bit of a delay due to congestion at the airport. I started to read, but I was asleep before we had even taken off. I briefly woke up when we were taxiing towards the runway, but then slept through until the captain made an announcement that we were starting our descent into Manchester. I then read until we landed.
As we had no luggage to worry about, we were the through the airport quite quickly. Even though we had left Milan slightly late, we had arrived in Manchester ahead of schedule. The line for immigration looked impressive, but moved quickly. This was the first time Graham travelled with his new passport. He had renewed this early as this was no longer working in the e-gates. However, he did not have any joy with the new passport either. We only worked out on the next trip why this was. Fortunately, there was no line for the immigration desks,and this did not really slow us down.
Once we were reunited, we headed outside. I had prebooked a transfer as we were getting back after the last train had left. When we checked in with the transfer company, they initially told us that there would be a 45-minute wait. I was very surprised by this. I told him that we had prebooked. They had not expected us yet as we were early. However, once he realised that we had prebooked, he told us that he would call our driver. He asked us to wait a little way away and he would call us once the driver was there. Our car arrived about 10 minutes later and we had a smooth run home. We fell into bed just before 1:00.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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