Domo Arigato, Milano Gelato

I was assigned to do some work in Milan for two and a half weeks (not too bad, I know), so Jenn came along for part of the time. We had been to Milan previously, but only for one night on our way to meet the Harts in Cinque Terre. My work schedule was demanding during the week, but we were able to get out some at night for dinners and then for the weekend, we explored quite a bit, though the weather was miserable. It was cold and very rainy. We had umbrellas, but that didn't keep us from getting soaked throughout the day. We managed our way through it though and still saw a good portion of the city.

Milan, itself, doesn't get a lot of attention from a tourist perspective because Rome, Florence, Venice, and others are much more popular (and charming), but don't sleep on Milan. Yes, it has more of a "city" feel than the others, but the food is excellent and there are plenty of things to do and see. It's also very easy to get around by metro and tram.

WIA:
I had dinner with my team the first night at Antica Cucina Delle Langhe, a traditional trattoria on Corso Como, a popular pedestrian only area. My cotoletta alla milanese (breaded veal) was very good. Jenn arrived on Thursday night and we headed downtown to eat at Obika, a mozzarella bar right next to the Duomo, the huge church in the middle of the city. It's really impressive during the day or at night. The food was not at Obika. We should have stuck with mozzarella, but we both were hungry so ordered entrees that just weren't very good. We topped off the meal with gelato from Cioccolati Italiani, which was outstanding. You know it's a good ice cream place when they have six different types of chocolate. We ate there a couple more times during our time in Milan.

Friday night, we had dinner with a co-worker and his fiance at Ristorante Zucca e Melone, which has a homey feeling (bordering on tacky, but not quite). The highlights were the thinly sliced mozzarella and the gnocco fritto, which is kind of like a beignet. We ate lunch in the restaurant at the Museo Novecento, which is a new modern looking museum, which houses 20th century art. The prime tables are in a room filled with windows overlooking the Duomo, but since we didn't have a reservation, we ate in back. It was pouring outside and we were hungry, so we couldn't have cared any less, though the waiter did not like it (and told me so) when I tried to take pictures. I had a plate of risotto and Jenn had a cheese plate with burrata cheese. It was overpriced, which was expected, but good. We didn't tour the museum. I'm including a picture of the building at night because it looks cooler.

That evening, we had each had a panini at De Santis, which was a tiny place. I'm surprised more places don't grill their sandwiches on a panini press. It makes even mediocre sandwiches taste 10 times better. I think I had roast beef and Jenn had salami if I remember correctly. Dessert was gelato at Shockalat, which was really good. It's hard to distinguish one good gelato place from another. Good gelato is good gelato. We had a huge "American style" brunch on Sunday at Hangar Bicocca, which is a big warehouse that houses modern art installations. The food was hit and miss, but overall enjoyable. It was a fun experience seeing all the large Italian families come in and have brunch together. The Italians do long lunches. The same families that were there when we arrived were still at their tables after we'd finished eating and walked through the art exhibits.
We weren't as hungry at dinner time, so we just picked up a few things. We didn't get out as much the 2nd week there due to work requirements for both of us, but one other highlight was our meal at Trattoria Rondine, which was small, unassuming, and served very good traditional Milanese food. My boss (who is Italian) brought our team out one night to a place called Puro e Semplice, which I really liked. For a first course, I had veal with parmesan and truffle sauce and my main was tagliatelle with wild boar sauce. Dessert was what they call beignets, but, for all intents and purposes, were profiteroles. 

WID:
We began our Saturday early with a visit to see Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. I didn't realize this, but it is painted on the wall of a church, Santa Maria delle Grazie. Jenn was able to find someone at the hotel to call and arrange tickets for us, which was a surprise because we'd read and heard that you needed to book months in advance. Maybe we just got lucky. Visitors are allowed a 15 minute window in which to view the painting. It was originally painted at the end of the 15th century, but still is in decent shape due to ongoing maintenance and restoration, but it continues to detoriate. What they say is that what we saw is the painting in its most original form due to the most recent maintenance work which cleared away a lot of the previous "touch ups". It's always a little surreal to me to see things like this in person after you've heard about them your entire life. The painting is incredible to see in person, particularly when you put it in context of the time and place it was created.

The rain gradually was getting heavier. We took shelter in the Triennale Design Museum, which opened a few years ago in Sempione Park. The inside of the building is big, open, and white, much like many other modern art museums. This isn't just a modern art museum as I think the exhibits change pretty regularly. Again, I think this is the case. Right now, it has Italian design furniture, which was kind of interesting. The best part was a temporary exhibit called O'Clock, which showed different ways of keeping time. There were clocks, modern, traditional, and bizzare, but also hour glasses, digital creations, and lots of other things that are difficult to describe. It was extremely cool. My favorite piece was a clock that shows time using words. For example, if it was "5:45", it would show "quarter to six".
We walked past the Sforzesco Castle, but didn't go inside. We were getting very hungry, and very wet, and we needed to go somewhere and sit down for a while. After lunch, we walked through the Duomo, which is the fourth largest cathedral in the world. It feels like it. It's an incredible sight, both inside and out.
We then walked down the famous shopping streets, Montenapoleone and Via Della Spiga. It actually wasn't bad to this on a rainy day because it wasn't crowded. I could see it being quite miserable during high tourist season and when the weather is nice out. We took refuge from the rain in our hotel and napped for a while before heading back out later for dinner.

On Sunday, we slept in and then took the metro a little ways out to the Hangar Bicocca. There were only a few art installations to view, but they are very large scale, huge in fact, and really interesting. The most interesting to both of us was a room set up with electric guitars hooked up to amps and a whole bunch of birds. The guitars are set up in a way to entice the birds to perch on them. This then creates sound from the guitars. As you walk through it for a few minutes, I wouldn't say it makes beautiful music or anything, but the contrasts in sound between the footsteps of the visitors, the chirping of the birds, and the guitars is pretty cool.

WIS: 
We stayed at the Sheraton Four Points, which is located a few blocks from the central train station. It's not the most scenic location, but it's also not too far from anything by foot or metro. The hotel is interesting in that they have three styles of rooms, traditional, modern, and a hybrid between the two. We stayed in all three during our stay. The traditional style room was not only old, but pretty dated as well. The modern room was a little too modern. There was no space and they didn't have ethernet cables to plug in a computer for internet access. This is important due to the fact that the wireless internet in the hotel was abysmal. The last room, which was our preference was still a traditional style, but had been updated so was in good shape, had a nice bathroom, and also had a line for internet. The buffet breakfast was adequate, but nothing to write home about either.

WAM:
Why does the croissant have such a vast global presence while focaccia flies under the radar? I ate a healthy (or unhealthy, depends how you look at it) amount of focaccia on this trip, the majority of which was really tasty. It's hard to beat a good piece of focaccia. I love croissants, but I encourage everyone to give focaccia another look. You might be pleasantly surprised.

WTF:
I was in Italy for two and half weeks eating pasta, focaccia, pizza, and gelato and I can't for the life of me figure out how most of the Italians are still so thin. I think I'd weigh 300 pounds if I lived there permanently.

To view more pictures, click here.