I arrived in Milan on a Friday afternoon during fashion week. The Metro here is great; it has 3 coloured lines and is easy to find your way around. A day ticket is €4.50. I had 5 hours to look around before Daniela finished work and she was to pick me up. I met Daniela 10 years ago when she was an exchange student at my high school. We got on great and kept in touch over the years. She was married at the start of September to Marcello & had just got back from her honeymoon before I arrived. Sorry Daniela and Marcello. ;)
For a couple of hours I looked around Duomo Square and took some photos. I checked out the Ferrari shop and display set up for the Monza F1’s, there was also all the large fashion brands. In one shop display window there was both a male and female model using the window as a mirror and they were changing outfits. It was really cool and had the crowd taking photos. I was tired so looked up the closest park on the map and took the metro. I had a great sleep for a couple of hours on the grass. I used my sleeping mat for the first time & it was quite comfortable. When I returned to Duomo I discovered not all McDonalds have Wi-Fi and when they do it is “law” to have an Italian phone number to use it. After lots of tiring searching (I had all my bags) I finally found a restaurant, which had Wi-Fi. I ordered a beer and got into contact with Daniela. She had tried calling earlier but my phone wasn’t working because I can’t buy credit. Marcello and Daniela picked me up from Zara subway station. They have a great apartment close to the center of Milan. I had a shower, relaxed and at around 9 we went out to dinner.
Uharba was awesome! We met up with one of Marcello’s Best Men (he had 2) from the wedding and he’s girlfriend. They were fun and spoke English pretty well. Uharba is an Osteria & the cuisine is Genovese (a town in Italy). We ate some fantastic dishes and drank lovely red wine. The food included nice pasta, Octopus, bread, vegetable dishes and a Fish dish. After dinner we went into the restaurant’s backyard and played a few games of Bocce. The teams were guys against girls and the guys won each time thanks to Marcello. Everyone was amazed I knew what Bocce was and that the Old Italian men played it in Australia. Although it was fun & we had a laugh playing it, they all assured me it was only for old men. Haha
Saturday morning was time for Monza! Marcello took me to the track on the back of he’s Honda Hornet 900. It was cool to be back on a bike, even if I didn’t ride myself. Monza is a large park with 2 circuits. The first is the old oval Autodrome, which has a 30° banking on the 2 corners. It hasn’t been used for a long time & it is very dangerous. A lot of people have died on this track. I went to have a look and there are security watching it. The security fella let me jump onto the track and he took a photo. Grazie mate. The 2nd track is the one still used. Monza is the fastest circuit on the F1 calendar with the fastest average lap speed of around 250km/h. I paid €110 ($140) for a seat on stand 16 at Tribuna Ascari. I saw the cars slow from around 330kph to 200kph into a tight left hander, and they then accelerated into a sweeping right and left and onto another straight. When driving through the right into left the cars would drift a little and during the race on Sunday, Mark Webber spun out there around 3 laps from the end. This caused him to retire due to the large flat spots on he’s tires and, due the speed, too much shuddering.
The grandstand was concrete and you could sit anywhere. The numbered seats weren’t really followed, although it was very full during qualifying. I missed my go pro camera here. It would have been great! The photos I did get show what it looks like. There was a Lamborghini cop car, which drove around the circuit. Yes, cops drive Lamborghinis in Italy!!!
Beers were €6 although I didn’t drink. I didn’t feel like it by myself but if I had someone to drink with I would have. Sandwiches/focaccias/Panini’s and hot dogs were €6 also and I had a couple of these. The program was €10 and was a good read. I didn’t send it home because it’s very similar to the Melbourne program we bought in March. A ticket for Sunday was minimum €195, which was for general admission, which isn’t very good here as there are limited viewing options, Monza, is pretty flat.
I watched the GP2 in the afternoon and they looked great. I walked around the circuit a little and watched them from various viewpoints. It’s a bit limited where you can watch from because trees surround the track. There was even a tree in the middle of our grandstand. I took the train back to the house and luckily the station in front of the house is on the Monza line.
On Sunday I walked around Navigli and took some pictures. We then went and had Gelato at Grom in the afternoon with their friends. Grom is known as the best chain for Gelato in Italy. I think there are around 4 in Milan alone. It was amazing. The ice cream here really is the best!! Nutella was invented in Italy so there is always a hazelnut gelato!! YUM.
Saturday and Sunday nights Daniela and Marcello invited friends for dinner. We had a great night each time. It was nice to entertain at home with friends; we don’t do it enough back in Australia. On Monday I cruised around the city again and checked out the Duomo and the castle. I slept in the park behind the castle and read a book. It was really relaxing. The weather in Milan was sunny and around 30° each day I was there. When I left it rained.
It was good to hang out with Daniela and Marcello. They are lovely people and have great friends. I look forward to hosting them in Australia; I think they’ll enjoy the peninsula, although Daniela has already lived there for 4 months. They introduced me to gnocchi alla romana and olive ascolane. The gnocchi is a biscuit sized disc and is eaten on it’s own. Olive ascolane, which comes from Ascoli, is an olive with some meat & wrapped in a type of dough, then fried. They were both yum!
We drank a Sardinian red wine called Cannonau, which I will have to check out once back in Australia. It was really nice!
- I finally finished the Girl with the dragon tattoo series. Wow. I can’t wait to read them again.
- So far this trip I’ve been to 8 countries, tried to learn the basics of 8 languages and used 5 currencies.
- Ciao: hello/goodby
- There are grates in the ground all around the city and you can see down about 1 story. It is for ventilation in parking spaces, Subways and underground buildings. They have to use all the space they can.