I was in Italy for 3 days for the F1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. I arrived in Milan in early morning and got a bus from Malapensa Airport to Milan center. Given a choice I always prefer taking an airport bus to the city rather than a subway train, because you get to see the outside whereas in the subway you are in a dark for the entire ride.The walk from the Central station to the taxi stand was interesting, but not far, although when you are a little lost its does seems far. I took a taxi to my hotel and the taxi driver gave me the real Italian taxi ride experience. He was cursing all along at other vehicles, cutting lanes, honking and what not.
I checked-in to my hotel, rested for couple hours before venturing out for some site seeing.
Milan is a big city, but there is not much touristy stuff to do. Most of the tourists who arrive in Milan, actually head north to the Milan lakes. But there are definitely things to do in Milan if you have a day or so, firstly you can see Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. I was happy to pass this as I have no interest wasting couple of hours standing in line. I took a tram to the Duomo square (Piazza Duomo). At the first glance Duomo (Milan cathedral) looks like any other cathedrals you see in european cities, but a closer look at its facade , its impressive especially the roof. The square was crowded as it also happens to be the main shopping area. I walked around for awhile and came across the popular Milanese cheap food store "Luini " and tried their Panzerotti . Panzerotti are kind of like calzone but deep fried instead, it was very tasty and very cheap too.
 |
| Duomo |
 |
| Square at the Dumo (Piazza Duomo) |
 |
| Shopping Arcade at the Square |
Milan is the fashion capital of
Europe and undoubtedly is a fashion shoppers' paradise. The main shopping area is the Fashion Quadrangle (
quadrilatero della moda), a set of streets, couple of blocks from
Duomo Square. This is the home of all the major high end Italian fashion labels whom our
Hollywood starlets shamelessly advertise during the red-carpet events. It was very crowded with the real shoppers as well as window shoppers like me. Some of the streets are pedestrian only and shop windows resembled more like an apartment windows and some stores looked like houses. Compared to Rodeo drive, its
definitely a very unique experience to walk around these streets. If you are not a
fashionista, you may as well as skip this area, if not its
definitely worth a visit.
 |
| Main Train Station |
 |
| Inside the Train Station |
I walked around for couple more hours, it was well into the evening and shops started closing down.I was starting to sense the jet-lag at this point so decided to head back to the hotel before
gradding a slice of pizza. I had to get up early the next morning to head out to
Monza.
You can read about the F1 grand prix
here.
On my final day, I ventured out of Milan to the Lake Como area. You can read my Blog on Bellagio and Lake Como
here
.JPG)
