Hong Kong John

This particular post ends my northern tour of Italy, and is actually compiled from two separate visits I made to Milan in September and November. Milan acted as a stop-off point for me on my way south from Bergamo and as a result I only spent a day or so in the city at opposite ends of my (exhausting but fun!) journey on both occasions. As somebody who is more inclined towards sightseeing and chilling out than being a hardcore patron of the arts or a fashion fanatic, Milan I thought would not hold so much for me to see – but I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer variety of activities on offer and it made what few days I spent there enjoyable and memorable ones – including a few of the day trips I went on as well. Please note that due to me being more of a tourist and less of a photographer than usual, a larger proportion of my photos in this post will feature myself, haha.

Milan is a curious city, and without a doubt the most modern city in Italy. It is Italy financial hub and while still preserving old traditions, there are a large number of department stores and modern buildings mixed in. The city feels bustling but at times can also feel slightly soulless due to violent clashes between old and new that exist there. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s not a nice place to visit, though – there are plenty of things from both extremes of the spectrum to keep the average tourist happy.

Above image courtesy of WikiMedia

Arriving in the evening, the first sight to see in the centre of Milan is undoubtedly the beautiful gothic Duomo that stands proud in the literal centre of the city. Roads are generally built to ring around the Duomo and the city expands outwards in this fashion.

The sheer scale of the Duomo is breathtaking, and even more so on a frosty autumn evening because the piazza in front of the beautiful church was almost completely devoid of people. It’s definitely worth a walk around, and in the nearby shopping centre (with the huge archway you can’t miss it!) called the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, you will find a lovely mix of shops with a gorgeous mosaic pathway through them.

About halfway through the arcade is a rather curious pothole positioned tactically on top of a bull’s…well…take a look.

The name of this beautiful mosaic is Turin’s Bull. The bull is inside the coat of arms of Turin (Torino), and has a depression / hole where its genitals should otherwise be. Milanese tradition says that if you place your heel in said depression and turn three times, this will bring you good luck. Photos of myself falling over while attempting this the first time shall not be included here, but I really liked that this was one of those things that people could easily not notice if they weren’t looking for it. Definitely keep an eye out for this on your adventures!

I am fortunate enough to have a friend living in Milan who happened to work at one of the city’s lesser known attractions; a water park known as the Idroscalo located next to Linate airport. It is here that I set off the next morning due to the weather being rather favourable!  The lake is entirely artificial and was originally built to accommodate sea-planes in the 1930′s, but was then turned into a recreational park later on as it fell into disuse.

As the banner behind me suggests, the website for this sports centre is cablemilano.it – it is simply a cable-operated water-skiing and wake-boarding centre complete with ramps and obstacles for those that are slightly braver than I! Signing up for insurance is mandatory but thereafter a day pass (I forget the cost but it was under 30 Euros) was quite good value for money given there was no limit on how often you could choose to venture out into the water.

Be warned, however, that because the cable course is quite long, if you somehow manage to fall into the water halfway across the lake with skis still attached to your feet, it’s your responsibility to slowly wade across back to the pier which could take 10-15 minutes.

The above is indeed a photo of me – in fact, if you look closely you’ll see the cable continuing along the circuit leaving me behind and both my skis somewhere in the water behind me. If you lose control, I recommend you don’t try to hang on for much longer, hahaha!

Later on in the evening I opted to head for dinner in town and also drove around what can only be described as a magnificent fortress – the Castello Sforzesco. This absolutely huge structure used to be the residence of the Duchy of Milan back in the day. These days it houses museums of varying descriptions, so a must-see for any museum lovers visiting Milan during the day. An art collection including Michelangelo’s final sculpture, the ancient art museum, furniture museum, musical instrument museum and prehistoric/Egyptian museums are just some of the exhibits that are now housed within the citadel. I sadly did not venture inside due to how late I got there, but just admiring the walls and fortifications themselves is already quite breathtaking.

After an exhausting day of water skiing and feeling rather sore, the morning called for sightseeing of a different nature – and off I went on a round-trip’s drive to Maranello, home of Ferrari. As a long time fan of Formula One it would have been a crime for me not to at least pop by for a day. I bee-lined straight for the Ferrari museum (Galleria Ferrari) that so many people come from all over the world to see, of course!

The inside of the museum is rich with automotive history and, of course, eye candy for all motorsport fans. Without further ado, here’s some of what you can expect to see inside:

Everything from the oldest sports cars to the newest Formula One monocoques were on display – something for every facet of the legend that is Ferrari. About two hours were spent in the museum before, however, I finally found what I really wanted. Outside the museum you can hardly miss them as you are occasionally approached by someone offering to sell you…this.

It didn’t come cheap – it was a hefty 80 Euros for twenty minutes. However, the place where the car gets picked up from is located next to a stretch of highway that was relatively straight and conveniently didn’t have any speed cameras on it…not implying anything of course. It is also interesting to note that while Italian traffic is generally rather nonchalant – being in any lane you want, selectively obeying traffic signals (especially in Naples!), and so forth – as soon as the roar of a Ferrari comes down the highway the traffic parts like the Red Sea. Oh, what a glorious feeling! So – twenty minutes, an explanation that I like racing go-karts and the instructor being thankful I had signed the insurance waiver later, we arrived back with at least one of us sporting a rather large cheeky smile. Maximum speed attained: no comment. I’m a responsible driver, of course.

Two more days were on offer in Milan though, and after dinner with family friends post-Ferrari I slept early for what promised to be another good weather day. I was not disappointed as the rain stayed away and in the morning I promptly popped out of Milan city centre towards the most well known sporting landmark the city boasted – the San Siro. And let me tell you, this thing was HUGE. To put it in perspective, the fence at the bottom of the photo you see below was about 5/6 metres tall.

For those who perhaps don’t follow football (I don’t really but I like watching the occasional game), Inter Milan and AC Milan are two of the largest and most prominent clubs in European football and they share the same stadium. The rivalry is huge and the stadium is impressive enough to match! I bought a few pins from the souvenir shop for my camera bag’s collection and headed off for a guided stadium tour!

The VIP seats in the middle of the match even had television screens so you could switch back and forth between watching the commentary and the pitch itself! After this we went behind the scenes and got to see both teams’ dressing rooms. Naturally and amusingly, there is a third dressing room for visiting teams which doesn’t look anywhere NEAR as nice as AC and Inter’s rooms respectively. Both rooms are carefully decorated with lots of reminders of trophies and titles won and no expense was spared in making them both comfortable and motivating.

Getting up sufficiently early in the day also meant that I was able to check out the Duomo again after lunch when it was daylight. The highlight of this wonderful gothic church by far has to be the rooftop, which is open to the public and offers great views of the city. You are unlikely to be glancing at the city too much though, when you see the level of intricacy and detail that has gone into even the tiniest tucked-away sections of the roof. I mean, for goodness sake, there are statues on the roof specifically for people who go up there to wander around, that can’t easily be seen from ground level. Clearly they thought about this when constructing the place! It is truly magnificent.

A marching band as seen from the roof of the Duomo.

What makes the roof doubly overwhelming is the sheer expense of it all – there was no one section of the roof that seemed to be dedicated to pleasing those that walked by, but rather the entire thing was impressive in beauty as well as scale.

Anybody even remotely interested in architecture, history and cultural relics cannot possibly pass up the opportunity to explore the Duomo, which to be honest would not be limited to just a day for those particularly keen in studying the detail. A highly recommend essential stop for all those who venture forth to Milan!

On my final day before my flight out, I opted to head into the country a bit and drove up to the beautiful Lake Como near Italy’s northern border where I did a driving tour around one part of the lake, which is shaped kind of like an inverted ‘Y’. The main town of the lake, Como, is situated on the bottom left of this inverted Y. Distinctly different from Milan or even more history-oriented cities like Rome, Como gives off a quiet elegance where the entire place feels like history is simply all over waiting to be discovered – but without being hyped up or presented in such a manner. This feeling of calm and elegance was definitely noteworthy and gives off a fantastic comfortable feel.

Unfortunately, due to limited time I was unable to take a boat up the lake to the other cities, which by the way is highly recommend for anybody visiting the area. Instead I drove the distance from Como up to Bellagio, which is an astoundingly beautiful town at the fork of the inverted Y. I managed to stop along the way to take a panoramic shot of what the scenes I was driving past looked like – unfortunately due to the windy nature of the roads near Lake Como it was difficult to look frequently! If you do go by car I recommend not taking an overly large vehicle; small cars will be able to navigate the local roads around the lake much better.

Bellagio is a beautiful place, where even the pavements are meticulously kept in beautiful order with lots of greenery around. It could easily be a wonderful place to retire, with great views of the lake as well of course. I stayed to have a coffee at a hotel up the side of the hill, and soaked up the tranquil atmosphere. There are indeed very few places habited by people that are this beautiful.

Sadly this is where my day trip more or less ended as I scrambled to be prepared to fly the next day, but I really enjoyed my relaxing day out by Lake Como. If you are looking for a short trip out of Milan I think it would be very difficult indeed to overlook the natural beauty that exists here.

For other short trips from Milan I would also recommend visiting Lake Garda which is nearly as close and very popular amongst young swimmers in the summer in particular – as well as Parma and Bologna, the latter of which was a blog post on its own earlier on this very site.

Milan was a delightful experience and despite appearing industrial in nature there was no shortage of things to do, and I really enjoyed my stay here. Hopefully I’ll make it a stop-off again when I next return to Italy!