Milan Weekend: All the Details

It was a quickly planned and quickly done weekend trip to Milan. It was our second trip there, as I mentioned here, so we had some familiarity with the city and what we wanted to do. Plus, it's Italy, so we mainly just wanted to eat and eat and eat.

Saturday

  • We arrived around 10am after a one hour (YES ONE HOUR!) flight from Paris. The airport is one hour from the city and taxies are about 100€, so the train was recommended to us. It's an hour-long ride, but no traffic and much cheaper. Bonus, our hotel was three blocks from Central Station, so it was perfect. 
  • We checked into the Sheraton Four Points, I found a small suite at a pretty good rate, given we booked a few weeks from the trip. Breakfast included!
  • I had already picked out a lunch place called SoulGreen, an easy walk from the hotel. We love plant-based, fresh restaurants (hello Flax & Kale in Barcelona!) and this one was very excellent, too! Specifically, the ginger-carrot-apple juice was just what I needed after early morning travel. 
  • Leah was dying to see her friend, so I dropped her off for her sleepover and Alice, Dave and I walked to the Duomo and the neighboring area and found adventure and treasures along the way. 
  • (I had planned to visit the Leonardo3 museum and check out the cool recreations of Da Vinci's inventions, but Dave and Alice both vetoed and I was outnumbered. Sigh. The other small art museum I had researched was also quickly poo-poo'd. I need new travel companions.) 
  • Dinner was at Pizzeria Naturale near the Piazza Gae Aulenti and it was incredibly delicious. Alice fell in love with burrata cheese in this spot; note the date. 
Alice and Cheese, A New Love Affair
Sunday
  • After breakfast in the hotel, we walked the three miles to Arco della Pace, Sempione Park and Castello Sforzesco ... I love an old castle! 
  • Tania, a colleague from Italy, met us for lunch at Pizzeria Starita, a spot she had wanted to visit for months. We got there right at opening and by the time we left, there was a line out the door. Again, more delicious pizza. 
  • City Life is a shopping center nearby that we walked to from lunch. It was rainy and cold so we just wanted out of the elements for a while. This area is new and modern and just super-cool. Milan is just like that ... 700-year-old castle to new shopping center. 
  • Oddly, we just happened to bump into Leah at her friend at this mall, where they got lunch an gelato. It was weird. 
  • For dinner, we walked to Eataly in the sprinkling rain, from the hotel. At first it seems weird to go to an Eataly, a market with locations around the world that specializes in Italian food, to pick up dinner IN Italy, but it was an excellent place to make everyone happy. We all got pasta ... and I loved my glass of wine.

Monday
  • We had breakfast at the hotel and took the train back to the airport for the trip home to Paris. Boy, we're really going to miss being SO CLOSE to some many special European cities. In fact, the next European city we visit, we'll have to deal with jet lag. 
Read more about this quick Milan trip here. 



Related posts: 
More Italy travel posts 

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