My Europe Trip 2010 – Milan, Italy

July 25, 2010

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The Royal Palace of Milan and Square with a prime view of Milan’s skyline at the back can be seen from the roof too. The palace hosts two of the more popular museums in Milan. We did enter the palace but weren’t too keen on visiting the museums.

The Trumphal Arch, connecting the galleria and neighboring the buildings as seen from the roof walkway.

You will probably spend a good two hours or so admiring the cathedral’s architecture of many towering pinnacles, Milan’s city view or just taking photos of yourselves here. We had the most enjoyable moments in Milan at the Duomo’s roof walkway actually.

Later that day we proceeded to Santa Maria delle Grazie, home to one of the most important and well-known works of art in the world: Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper.

The church is also included in the UNESCO World Heritage sites list. So even if you are not keen on seeing the Last Supper, visiting the church alone was worth the trip.

Unfortunately a reservation is usually required to see the Last Supper. Without an early reservation you will mostly end up missing it, like us. When we were there, we were told that they were fully booked for the next two weeks!

Disappointed, we went to a nearby cafe to grab some bites. Just for your information, your coffee will cost less if you have it at the counter instead of at the tables, which I think applies for all cafes in Italy. You will save a couple of Euros doing this.

The Ham and Cheese Panini was prepared fresh so it was good, kind of memorable for me because it was the better sandwich we had in the entire trip. €6.20 including a cup of espresso and fragrant cappucino.

After that we just wandered around the city with nothing much left to see or do, at least from what we see in our map. It was back to Milan’s Centrale Station to get back to the galleria again for dinner.

The galleria looks best at night too when all the lights around the shops are lit. It makes a mesmerizing ambiance for shoppers and travelers. Kinda romantic if you ask me, hehe.

We chose Restaurant Biffi by instinct, and although the dinner was not a complete flop, we expected better from the most expensive meal we spent in Europe. A whopping €71 or equivalent to about RM290! Even the cover charge alone was €11. This is something you should keep an eye while dining in Italy.
Most restaurants have a cover charge ranging anything from €1 to €20 or even more. So if you are bent on saving and don’t want to pay for this “surprise”, always ask if there is any cover charge before you enter a restaurant.

Well the consolation is that at least we dined in one of the classier restaurants in Milan (even though it is said to be a tourist trap after I did a research later) and had some of Milan’s traditional dishes like risotto alla Milanese (rice with saffron accompanied with braised veal shank) @ €26.
It was a refreshing experience alright, the rice tasted rich and creamy and had a firmer texture compared to our usual Asian rice. The Milanese veal was delightful too, tender and flavorful.
But the cotoletta alla Milanese (breaded veal cutlet with lemon) @ €28 was quite a let down for tasting quite bland and hard, nothing special here.

We had a final look at the majestic Duomo at night before heading to our hotel, ending our visit to Milan. In all I felt that spending two nights in Milan is a bit too long, as you can explore most of the important attractions in one day if you plan and utilize the time efficiently.
Well, unless you are a serious shopper with deep pockets then you might find Milan has plenty more to offer. Anyway, Pisa and Florence were our next destination, and what a charming city Florence is – a total opposite of Milan.