Yes, I presented myself a short trip to the hostile lands of the North! x'D
As Milan is the city of fashion, here I am in front of the Gucci store!
Mostly because it's the only picture with my deformed face in...
Anyway!
As I told you, the trip that I had in Japan this autumn is going to be the last for a few years, as I'd like to focus myself on my country, once in a while, and the rest of Europe :3
We tend to ignore the beauties that we have in our own countries and it's a true pity.
Recently I realized that I'm perfectly capable of feelings of awe and surprise even with a short travel of half an hour by train or bus without going to the other side of the planet and that I felt very stupid, being knowledgeable about Zen temples and Japanese castles without being able to tell the difference from a Church of the XV century and one of the XVIII century..!
So, with the wish to meet some friends, I entertained myself with the visit of this mysterious city! (no joking!)
My first experience was the one with the beautiful
Milano Centrale station :D
I love this eclectic style of the beginning of the XX century!
--I even got to find a tribute to the "hated" city of Rome XD
--I was really bothered by the advertisements everywhere! I mean, I understand the importance of publicity, but when I have giant posters covering the pretty architecture of a building it really pisses me off XD
I meet with my friend
Lavaapochi, a fellow from the
GIC, for a first walk!
I got to enjoy
the typical trams of Milan!
In Rome these are long gone, but in Milan they've been restored and still in use :D
LOL at the "Don't spit" alert x'D
We took a pleasant walk where I enjoyed the cute buildings!
I also managed to have some otaku shopping, but I'll talk about it later :D
The next day, I met with my dear friend
Barbara, a fellow Nobunaga fan and Japan enthusiast :D
If the day before was pretty much a meeting with a fellow otaku, yesterday was a proper touristic tour, and I managed to see the most intriguing bits of the city :D
Our first stop was the
Castello Sforzesco :D
Note the biscione ("big snake") on the coat of arms of the Sforza: it's the symbol of the city.
The castle is the site of a tons of museums and collections but I've been a bad tourist and didn't visit any ._.
I was shocked to see this:
I seriously believed that this kind of drinking fountain existed only in Rome x'D
After visiting the courtyard of the castle we took a walk along its park-- There were still some remains of the snow that fell the day before my arrival! Despite the snow, though, I noticed that it wasn't as cold of a city as I imagined.
Once out of the place, we realized that the Apocalypse was about to start XD Ahah, welcome typical fog of Milan XD
A cold wind blew it away a few hours later, but I found it quite appealing XD ! (if also kinda scary, LOL)
A shot of the tribute to the Fashion City by the
Triennale museum:
--It was a passer-by who told us that it was supposed to represent a sewing needle! Once we realized it, it was pretty cool...
Next was a due walk downtown to check the famous Duomo!
On the way, though, we took our time to enjoy the medieval bits of the
Piazza dei Mercanti:
How cool!
And next was the
Duomo di Milano, the symbol of the city and one of the few "original" Gothic churches of Italy:
I was tempted to check the roof with its spires, but it was kinda cold and I avoided that XD
Next was the
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II :D
Kyaaaah, pretty!
--I was so amused that I forgot to do one of those popular good-luck things involving the balls of a bull depicted on the floor >o< !!
At the end of the Galleria is the
La Scala theatre:
Unfortunately it wasn't allowed to get inside to take a peek XD
We walked across Brera, and here's a pic of the
Pinacoteca's courtyard, another museum that I didn't visit ._.
BTW, I was really bothered by the statue of stupid Napoleon in the middle of it, so I didn't even want to take a picture, at first XDDD But my touristic side had the best, LOL
Our last stop was a walk along a
Naviglio, in the specific case, the
Naviglio Pavese-- The place is filled with interesting vintage shops, restaurants and spots, I was really curious about it!
On top is a picture of the house of the Italian poetess
Alda Merini :o
***
Now some words about my culinary experiences!
For lunch Lava brought me to a lovely
Tyrolean restaurant, where I enjoyed a first course mix of
canederli and Schlutzkrapfen followed by the Herrengrostel-- Long story short, I ate like a pig :D ♥
For dinner I was introduced to Lava's girlfriend and was brought to a
local restaurant as I was really keen on trying Milanese cooking.
I was granted a "touristic" plate made just for me as Lava told the owner that I came from Rome XD
--The picture doesn't look quite inviting, but it tasted really goood ;o; !!
It features a first course of risotto alla Milanese (a
risotto cooked with saffron),
Polenta Taragna (a polenta made with buckwheat) and the famous
Ossobuco∼
After dinner we went to drink some stuff at
this place-- I had a sweet infusion of cranberries and rose hips called "Pessimism and Bother" x'DDD
The day after Babi brought me to
one of her favourite Japanese restaurants, and it was indeed very good!
I had a delicious chirashi sushi and she had fried rice and gyoza... I stole a gyoza and that was delicious too!
After our walk we got back to the station where we had some warm drinks!
It's
a new spot in the station, and it had some local delicacies!
For my ride to the train back to Rome I bought some delicious mandeghili, meatballs fried in butter ♥
***
Speaking of shopping, I didn't buy much.
I was happy to find some really old missing volumes of Gundam 0079:
On a fun note, Babi was just back from a short vacation in Sudtirol (go figure!) and she brought me tones of delicacies ;o; !!!
The "little Satans" sweets are worth a special mention on my blog XD
Just-- What the hell XD ?!
--And here ends the chronicle of my (first ;D) adventures in Milan ^^ !
Originally posted at
http://daeva-neesan.dreamwidth.org/566957.html If you want, please comment there :3