Fabulous Day 1 in Milano!
Day one began with us landing on time, at around 8:30 in the morning in Milan. I was traveling with my own blanket, neck pillow, socks and foot rest- yup, I need all of those things to be comfortable on the plane- I don’t like being in a confined place with lots of people and lots of weird smells… I also have my noise canceling head phones to take away all the loud noise in the plane. With all of the stuff- I still can’t sleep on the plane… that is just how it is and I have decided to just accept it and move on- so I read, watch and listen but usually don’t sleep…
We got off the plane and went straight for a cup of coffee! We made our way through the small airport and found the Malpensa express and quickly bought tickets. In a few minutes we were seated comfortably in the train eager to get to city center which was about half an hour away. We decided to take the metro from the train station to our hotel and it was not very hard to find.. 3 stops later we were in the middle of the Piazza del duomo! My data on my phone was not working, so all we had was a map my husband had drawn for us of the area. What I now know is if I had saved the map of Milan on my phone for it to work offline, I would have been able to use my phone for directions even without data… the gps works regardless. We figured that out on the second day- so, the first day was quite challenging, using a regular map in a city that is filled with small, windy roads- needless to say, we walked a lot… loads…
Anyway, we found our way to the hotel in no time. We walked in and they told us our room was almost ready, they gave us coffee and we sat and relaxed for a few minutes before going up to our room. We unpacked and showered and left the room by noon. It was a beautiful day and we started to soak the very fashion forward city in. We window shopped in the Galleria Vittorio– the famous Prada and many other high end stores later, we were hungry, so we stopped for a salami panini and a glass of wine! We rested for a while and continued to walk and eventually made our way to the Last Supper in the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent. A friend had told me we had to get tickets in advance, so I had reserved a short tour for us at 6 PM that evening. The tour was fascinating!
We made our way back to the hotel and asked the concierge for a restaurant recommendation. They gave us directions to a place- we made our way, after getting lost many times.. and found out the place was fully booked! What??? So, we asked the waiter to give us a recommendation- he told us about Hysteria Borromei– well, it was wonderful! We started with stuffed zucchini flowers with mozzarella – I love zucchini flowers and this dish was yummy! We then ordered beet gnocchi and a risotto with smoked duck and zucchini flowers! 
All in all it was a great meal with some yummy wine! I didn’t want to have dessert there as my heart was set on a yummy gelato- so we walked back to our hotel and found a specialty food place right next door called Peck– they had a yummy hazelnut and crema!
At this point it was 10 PM and we were exhausted but thrilled to be surrounded with great food, wine and very friendly people and of course each other! Stay tuned…
