Back from a week-end in Milan!

Feb 09, 2015 16:26

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

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