Milan I

Matt and I just returned from a short trip to Italy. We spent the weekend in Milan and then took the train up to Lake Como for a couple of days. It’s been a couple of months since I last traveled and I could feel some wanderlust building up – I was very ready to get on the plane and see somewhere new!

We had a lot of fun in Milan. The city doesn’t have as many tourist sites as Rome or Florence, but that made it perfect for exploring in a weekend and feeling like we got to see everything we wanted without being too rushed.

I arrived on Friday morning while Matt was still en route from a conference he attended for work. I spent the afternoon wandering the old part of the city on my own until Matt arrived in the evening. We stayed at an Airbnb near the Duomo, and it was a beautiful day to sit in the piazza and enjoy the sunshine. Right next to the Duomo is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a gorgeous upscale shopping centre.

After a quick break for gelato, I wandered around the city admiring some of the beautiful architecture. I met Matt at the train station when he arrived from Pisa and we enjoyed some delicious fresh pasta for dinner.

The view from the front balcony of our apartment for the weekend

 

And the view from the rear balcony

 

One of my favourite things about European cities is when you find old buildings like this nestled in between modern ones. I never figured out what this one was, but it just appeared among some modern clothing stores.

 

The entrance to the Galleria Vittoria Emanuele

 

Inside the Galleria

 

Looking up towards the glass ceiling and the beautiful detail on the store fronts

 

The Prada store

 

The front of the Duomo. They were setting up for a concert by the Milan Orchestra later on in the weekend.

 

A beautiful fountain in a pleasant piazza

 

We saw several of these smart cars in the city. With the narrow and winding roads here, they definitely would have come in handy.

 

A gorgeous old bell tower in a quiet corner of the city

 

Some of the amazing detail on the carvings around a window. I think this was part of the university. There were maybe 10 windows in a row along the building like this and each one was different.

 

Matt finally made it to Milan and we enjoyed some wine, beer, and pasta before watching the opening ceremony of the Euro Cup