We started Friday morning with coffee at one of the little cafees near to her place. Two funny things: in Italy you have to pay for a seat, so you will see many Italian people drinking coffee or having breakfast at the bar or even standing. Second thing: Italians, as well as French have this strange coffee I call coffee-vodka shots, because the coffee is served in this really tiny shot glasses. Some people would call it the real coffee, but it's a thing that a person used to Gregg's medium late will just never accept. Sorry.
First stop: Piazza Duomo. One of the top places to see according to tripadvisor and simmilar websites. From the outside, nothing special really. I mean, it looks the way you expect an old cathedral to look like. Ohh and there is this figure on the door, that if you touch his leg and make a wish, he will bring you luck. Even though the door is really big, you can't really miss the leg, it kind of sticks out as at the picture attached.
After seeing a few similar buildings, the Cathedral Duomo shouldn't be somthing new. But the great part is hidden inside. My friend asked me to go up, You can get student tickets for 7 euros and climb all the way to the top. I wasn't really convinced and decided to go just because I was cold. And so glad I am, that we did that, the top was absolutely amazing! All the ornaments and sculptures were just on the palm of the hand. You can't really see any of them from the ground. The archtecture is just stunning, I'm not an art historian, so I can't really say a lot, but everything seems to be done with great precision, so perfectly geometricaly measured, each tiny little piece of sculpture fits the rest. I must admint, the most beautiful thing in Milan. After we climbed there, I didn't want go go back and we spent a few minutes just standing there and admiring the greatness of the Cathedral and the panorama of the city (not that great due to weather conditions).
From Piazza Duomo we went to the 'Prada Quarter' as my friend calls it- real name Via Montenapoleona (still no clue what is has to do with Napoleon). This is the neighborhood of ridiculously expensive shops, all of them being so perfectly polished and beautiful. Even if you're not planning on doing some shopping while in Milan, going through Via Montenapoleona feels so sophisticated and so wrong, leaving Milan without stopping there just won't do.
Did I mention I went to Milan for St. Valentines? Well that was a good choice.
Probably the best add ever. Seen at Dolce&Gabbana.
Next stop: the castle and the triumph arc. The striking thing: I didn't acknowledge Milan having a castle. I googled what to do in Milan before coming there, but the castle just somewhow didn't really pop up. Lucky me, my friend from Milan took me there. The castle is much bigger than it seems from the outside, it leads to a park with the triumph arc at the end. Looks good and must be just so much nicer when the weather is appropieate.
Then, we rushed to Basilica of Saint Ambroggio, the oldest church in the city. After climbing up the Cathedrale Duomo, Saint Ambroggio seemed a bit overrated. Anyway, it's worth just stopping by. and it won't take a lot of time. Basically you just enter, look around and leave. A church from the 4th Century is a piece of history worth seeing.
We spent the evening having pre-drinks at a friend's house, then we continued in the city centre. We finished the day at Armani Prive, a night club in the heart of the old town, close to the castle. Such a change after Nice, where the average age is too-young-too-even-be-there, students are just everywhere (I am a hypocrite, I know it), ladys wear converse and gentlemen... well, are no gentle at all. Milan looks so much better in terms of night life. Either that orr I just don't know Nice at all. But it seems to me Milan has more middle-class-not-old-but-not-student places, Armain was really ok, men is suits, women in heels, everybody so well behaved. Nice is just either the very low level, either super-millionare places.
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