Milan emerged more by chance. Jennifer had to go for a business trip to Milan and since neither of us had ever been there before, we took the opportunity to spend the weekend there. Unfortunately, not everything went as we would’ve liked to.
The business trip lasted until Thursday, so I arrived Thursday noon in Milan. We then spent the long weekend there. We stayed at a 4* hotel, the Una Hotel Cusani. The hotel was good, it was cleaner than the 5* hotel where Jennifer stayed for her business trip. However, the hotel is quite small, which is noticeable in the cramped elevator and at breakfast. But the hotel is located in the center, so it wasn’t a problem for us. Especially since we were traveling most of the time anyway. The receptionists of the hotel were very nice and accommodating.
Sadly, we couldn’t enjoy each other’s company that Thursday. Jennifer was tired from work and I, too, had some very stressful days behind me.
Milan is an old historical city, but also a fashion city. It must be easy to find a decent suit, so at least we thought. Nope, we were wrong. The shopping aspect was clearly unsatisfactory, even though we visited many stores. Jennifer found either the standard fashion of H&M and Co. – which you really don’t need to buy abroad – or the choice so chic that it wasn’t wearable for daily life. I wanted a classic black suit without anything, just made of good material in a neat cut. No! Either I’m too old fashioned, or today's fashion no longer covers the area "classic". Anyway, shopping was a fail. Only at the airport, just before our return flight, I found some very nice, classic (!) black leather shoes, which I then bought.
But as we walked through the city and went into various small alleys too, it was obvious that the history is destined to decay. You can see a lot of old buildings that have their glory time behind them. Only the big highlights are preserved and restored: The old cathedral, an old building, which now houses only luxury boutiques and the monastery and the associated Church of St. Maria delle Gracie in which Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting "The Last Supper" still exists. We correspondingly wanted to visit this wall fresco. I had planned this as a birthday present for Jennifer and bought the tickets for the tour online already. Unfortunately, this action failed completely.
So, in general, first of all: BOOK YOUR TICKETS EARLY! The tours to the wall fresco are booked out at least 2 weeks in advance. And the local colleagues are also very strict, you get almost no tickets on site to go in directly.
So, it started that we arrived on time at the aforementioned meeting point, but the tour started somewhere else. Only, that we weren’t informed and so we waited and waited... At some point we started asking around if someone could help us. There are a lot of helpful people, although English is a small problem. A little while later (which felt like 3 hours) paired with a lot of frustration, we found a guide who helped us. He had found a saleslady who worked in the ticket shop and could explain everything to us in English. She had even found our tour guide by phone and so we learned that the group started somewhere else and the city tour will end at the fresco. We could have joined in 2-3 hours later to visit the fresco. That was too much for us, so we went back to the hotel.
In the evening we had a reservation at an Italian restaurant that had made a good impression. However, we were there quite early, so we were the only, and above all the first guests. To sit in an empty restaurant where you can observe the waiter's preparations for the evening, somewhat tarnished the romance.
But the food was very good and the service very friendly. We couldn’t complain, but somehow the day didn’t go as planned, which truly dampened my mood.
The next day we went home again, as I said, this trip was a little bit too short. The city is beautiful, especially from a historical point of view, a highlight. The buildings speak for themselves, from the former splendor as well as from today's decay. Culinary, this trip was rather unspectacular, apart from the dinner at Jennifer's birthday and the fresh, sun-ripened fruits. But the weather is noticeably warmer than in Germany, which is always a welcome change for us. We can only suggest a trip to Milan to everyone, but bring more time with you... A long weekend is too short, in our opinion.
Kommentar schreiben