Oh la la Milan

Milan was a dream.

I should have known this trip was going to be a good one based on our airport experience prior to leaving Prague. Yurie and I found the Paul chocolate samples. To say we raided them, would be an understatement. It was the beginning of a great relationship between the chocolate samples and Yurie and I eating all of them.

By the time we landed in Milan and got to our AirBnb, it was on the later end of the night. Nattie and Tracey were starved and wanted to stay in our neighborhood. However, being as Yurie and I are, we decided to explore Milan. One of my good friends from highschool is studying abroad in Milan this semester (sadly was out of town for the weekend), but sent me a list longer than the Turner Qdoba line at lunchtime about what to do, eat, shop, etc. Yurie and I decided to try out one of the restaurants she recommended called Volemese Bene. It sounded and looked good, but as we walked to the restaurant we became skeptical. It was away from the main area on a dark street. As soon as we walked in though, all of our reservations were removed. This was clearly a hidden, local gem that was swarming with people eager to enjoy the good food.

Yurie is my favorite person to eat meals with, because we always do splitsy and try new thing. To start, we ordered a bottle of red wine recommended by our waiter. She also brought us bread, which we devoured thinking it was free. Our next dish was the best prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella I’ve ever had to date. Our main courses were meat and pasta. The meat was a meal dish with eggplant parmesean (we think) and mashed potatoe like sides. The pasty was giant penne noodles with ham in a creamy sauce. Everything was amazing. During our meal, loud Italian music played and during the chorus everyone in the entire restaurant would SCREAM out the lyrics. Yurie and I tried to fit in some by swinging our glasses, but I have a feeling we stood out still. Also, they made a huge deal out of birthdays. The first few birthdays seemed real, but by the fourth or fifth it was clear that everyone wanted to be celebrated for the scene the restaurant made. After a delectable dinner in a true Italian atmosphere, Yurie and I decided to explore the area.

We stumbled upon the Wine Week Festival going on. The street had so many people on it that we could barely even walk through. Yurie grabbed some gelato as we continued to explore. We found so many cool shops and buildings, like a Tesla store. There were giant fountain pools in the middle as well. By the time we were done exploring, we realized that we had wandered too far away so we backtracked some. Part of why we did this too was that the ubers were insanely expensive. We figured if we went to the other side of the wine week that it would be better. So, we trekked to the other side. The ubers had gone down by a few Euros, but it was still close to 50 Euros for about a 13 minute drive. After walking even further, I suggested we pop into a restaurant bar and ask them to call us a taxi. I figured the taxis would most likely be cheaper.

We stopped in the next place we saw. The bartender directed another employee to call us a taxi, and without skipping a beat he asked us if we liked tequila. Of course we do, we told him. He gave us free tequila shots and had us take them with a large group of people celebrating their friends 29th birthday. I misheard them and thought they said 21st and exploded with joy for the person. They all grumbled and said how young 21 was. Yurie and I were not amused by them. We met another guy at the bar who we began talking to. He told us that ubers are way more expensive and slower in Milan, because of regulations that make the cars wait in a lot outside the city. Soon our taxi arrived, the bartender and man at the bar kissed my hand as we left. That was weird.

The next morning we woke up and went into the town center. As we exited the metro, we were speechless. The metro exited right at the duomo, where you could start to see the marble before you even exited. We wandered around the plaza in front of the duomo taking pictures. It hadn’t gotten too busy yet luckily. As I was taking pictures some guy came up to me and tried to give me pasta to take pictures with the pigeons. I knew it was a scam, so I said no and walked away. He said it wasn’t like that, and that it was free. He insisted multiple times that it was free. Finally, I told him I didn’t have any money. He promised it was ok. So, he gave me the pasta to take pictures with the pigeons. He gave some to Yurie too. After we were done, he insisted on 25 Euros. Yurie and I were both ticked, but also literally did not have any money. He said he took American dollars, but we didn’t have any of that either. I have him three euro coins and he buzzed off. We were annoyed, but knew that the duomo was known for persistent scammers. It was crazy to us how prevalent the scams were.

We went back to taking pictures. I met a group of girls studying in Spain while taking pictures. One knew some of my friends from Furman – the small world continues. After, we explored through the Galleria. It was this open air mall type area. The ceiling was a work of art itself though. All of the restaurants were too expensive so we went around the corner to Luini. Luini is famous for panzerottis. Yurie and I got two: the hot salami and mozzarella and the mixed berries and custard. The salami one was the best.

Next, we went to go into a museum by the Duomo but saw the Louis Vuitton time capsule. We had no idea what it was, but explored inside anyways. We got to see Louis Vuitton products being made, past, present, and future LV products, and a cool TV room about LV. My favorite part was the clothes that had been designed. We also got free post cards!

We finally found the museum, and to our luck for one day only it was free! We looked at the art a little bit, but that was not our priority. I had read about a cool view of the duomo from the top, so we rushed up there. On our way down, Yurie and I got ushered to a new exhibit. We found the new exhibit to be quite interesting. Unfortunately, Nattie and Tracey didn’t find it and were waiting for us outside.

We continued on to the stabucks reserve. It was buzzing with people, and there was a wait to get inside. It was remarkable to see the coffee beans being roasted in the middle. I got a cappachino, which was pretty good.

It was time for lunch after this. We wandered to a pizza place called Piz, with a long wait. However, they greeted us with a welcome slice of pizza. We loved it. While waiting, we shopped around in stores nearby. When we were seated, Yurie and I decided to split one white pizza and one margarita (cheese). After we finished, the waiter came up with shots for all of us. We happily took them, and then they wanted a picture with us and all of the staff. It was so much fun, but we were so confused why they wanted it. We had never experienced anything like this before with staff wanting pictures together. After lunch, we shopped in Pull and Bear and Zara and a few other stores before meeting back at the Duomo. It had gotten a lot more crowded since the morning. We all went to go to a thrift store next, but we didn’t love it. We got separated from each other so Yurie and I got gelato before continuing shopping. We went in every and any store. Stradarvarius was one of our favorites. Also, Yurie got such a good deal at the Urban Outfitters.

We zoomed home to get ready for our evening afterwards. We went to a cool roof top pool bar and restaurant called Ceresio 7. It was insanely expensive, shown by the fact we got free chips and olives. Nothing is free in Europe. There was a couple getting super handsy really close to us, so we didn’t linger here long.

For dinner, we were all hungry so just went to a place in the main square. I didn’t mind it, and enjoyed the wine that Yurie and I split. No one else really liked it though. We had a meat pasta and Milanese risotto, but they were really tiny. Tracey left after dinner to go home, but Yurie, Nattie, and I went out to the Space Club. It was huge with mazes of different rooms.

Sunday, we were pretty exhausted. We slept later than we typically do. For lunch, we had Miscusi. It was a customizable pasta place. The wait was close to an hour, but they gave us free welcome champagne and the tastiest bread. Yurie and I, as always, did splitsies. We had burrata, which is an all time favorite of mine. We also had two creamy pastas. One had ham and the other spicy pork. We ate waaaay toooo much, but worth it.

We tried to go to The Last Supper after, but tickets were sold out for TWO WEEKS. Defeated, we got some gelato one last time to make ourselves feel better. Yurie dropped her phone and almost her gelato. We ate it under a beautiful art piece creation by the metro.

To conclude our weekend, we explored the canals of Navigili. Yurie and I wandered in and out of the shops, art galleries, and music stores. We also lit a candle in a church lining the canals. There were little carts selling items along the canals too. Yurie bought a cute star ring, but they were all too small for me. We tried to get matching ones. Sadly, it was time to head back and pack up for the airport. We had a restaurant call us a taxi.

In the airport, Yurie and I got bao buns and a bowl from Wagamama. We pushed it too close, because we had to SPRINT to our gate. We were full out sweating and the last few people let on the plane. We have officially become too casual with airport time.