Something about this City!

 Milano, Milan or Mailand,

Porta nuova Garibaldi seen from the roof of the Duomo

all the names for my new hometown since more than 9 months. The first time I saw something from Milan, was in an architecture magazine of my mom, in which someone had an apartment from which you could look on the roof of the Duomo. It was a really beautiful view and I thought he was pretty lucky. Therefore, the next time I saw a piece of Milan was, when I just drove on the highway near the city and I was pretty disappointed, because I couldn’t see anything. This was 2 years ago.

Now I´m living here and I know it´s not the most beautiful city of the world or Italy, but I really like it here.

Milan is well known for the fashion, also the Duomo. However, there are also other things worth visiting than the dome or the fashion week, so I will write about my favourite places here and the things you can do.

Garibaldi at night

So my most favourite place in whole Milan is not the Piazza del Duomo, but the Piazza Gae Aulenti, nearby the metro station Garibaldi. This place is the new urban centre of Milan. There are different new skyscrapers, two with many trees on the balconies, “Bosco vertical”, and the highest building in town, the Uni-Credit. In between all of this and other skyscrapers, there is a big piazza with fountains, restaurants, shops and gelaterie. Nearby will be soon opened a park and on this place are no cars allowed and it is easy to reach by metro, tram or foot.

Parco Sempione

From this place, you can easily walk to my second favourite park, Parco Sempione, which is directly behind the castle of Milan, Castello Sforza. The way is easy to find, you just have to walk between the Tesla shop and a restaurant named Stage and there you can see many shops of expensive clothing brands, just like Moschino or Chiara Ferragni. The street that begins at the end of this is Corso Como. There are many bars, restaurants and some shops. You can´t miss the way, there are always many people.The street ends at Moscova, another metro station, which is not far from the Parco Sempione, where are always many people. When the weather is nice, the people meet each other after work to chat and drink or they come here just to take a sunbath, play basket, football or doing nothing. 

Garden behind the Pinacoteca

So if you have taken enough sun, next to the park is one of the most beautiful parts of Milan, Brera. Brera is the artistic centre of Milan, with many little boutiques, antique stores and art shops. The streets are small, the houses old and painted with different colours, it´s quiet and there are nearly no cars. In this part of the city is one of the most known museums of Milan, the Pinacoteca. The building is in first place a school of art, there are lessons all days except Sunday. There is the museum with lots of old and famous artworks and the small garden behind the building, which is accessible when walking through the building and then leave the building on the other side. On the right side is the little garden, which is accessible only from Mon-Sat. until 18 o`clock. In the park it is quiet, there are some places to sit and many different flowers. It is very different from the Parco Sempione, in which are always many people, its noisy and chaotic. This little garden is relaxing, quiet and full of trees and shadow.

Naviglio grande with sunset

In the summer, when it is really hot outside the best is to stay in a cool house or in the shadow until the evening. A place where it is really nice in the evening and one of the well known to pass the evening, is probably Navigli. In Milan is no river, unusual for such a big city, but there are the canals, called Navigli, build years ago to transport the stone to build houses, especially the Duomo. Now many of the canals don´t take water, but there are two, which are in this part of Milan, Porta Genova. The two canals meet up in a little lake, Darsena. On it´s edge you can sit, drink something and meet friends.

Naviglio grande while christmastime

On both sides of the Naviglio grande, the bigger one ofthe canals, you can sit down in a bar (you have to arrive early, otherwise it’s difficult to find a pace) and drink a cocktail and eat something. This is normally called Happy-our, but the Italian word is aperitivo. The Milanese normally go out around 6 o´clock in the evening to drink something and eat a bit before they will eat dinner around 9 or 10 o´clock, so they are eating less. The buffet in most bars is big, there are many different things to eat and in most places you can eat  from 6 to 10 o´clock. Mostly you pay around 10€ for the first drink and an all-you-can-eat-buffet. For all the following drinks you will have to pay the price in the menu. 

I think I will write another post around Milan soon.

Bye, ciao and Tschüss

Emily

PS: My favourite bars to eat at Navigli are Spritz, Vintage Navigli and !Màs!. Another bar I really like, is the Café Etniko, near the parco Sempione.

In addition, a place where you can eat really good burger is Mama Burger, its a bit expensive for fast food, but really really good. You can find one near the duomo, behind the Galleria and one in Garibaldi.