Travel notes: the slow Milan getaway
It was almost the end of summer when we decided to book another short escape, maybe the last one in 2018 probably. The aim was to find…cheap tickets and a place where summer lingers just a little bit longer than in Eastern Europe. I admit that, as a person working in the aviation industry for more than 12 years, I am not a big fan of low cost airlines, because everything seems (is, actually) so fast forward and with no care for the customer. But truth is they make flying around Europe very easy. So there I was, 100 euros away, booking our family’s third trip to Italy in less than 10 months. And it was great, because Milan is not necessarily a very touristy place so it offered exactly the holiday that we were hoping for: exploring local markets, living in a typical Milanese building next to a park, drawing our own map with nice places to visit, cooking in our little kitchen and eating ice cream in a different gelateria every day (our favorite was Gelateria della Musica on Via Cadore 30).
We booked a small apartment in Porta Romana district without knowing much about the neighborhood. It looked nice and it was near a park (Parco Vittorio Formentano), so it seemed like a good choice for all of us. As we started documenting our trip and looking for nice places to eat and have coffee (this trip was mostly about the food, I admit) we discovered that Porta Romana was full of trendy restaurants, just walking distance from our street (our apartment was on Via Spartacus). I always dreamt about holidays like this. I guess it’s a kind of slow travelling (and if you’d like to read more about it, visit Field & Nest as there’s a great article about it there, and other slow living ideas). When you don’t have a list of famous and crowded landmarks to visit, when you want to live like a local and look for more authentic places and experiences, rather than just ticking everything from that list that a classical guidebook will suggest you. In these few days in Milan we even decided it’s more appropriate to cancel our trip to Varena, although I was looking forward to it. But it was ok like that and I am happy with the lesson, because holidays are about making as many memories as possible and not necessarily visiting as many places as possible. In that day when the trip was initially planned, we walked around the neighborhood and stayed in the park a little longer. We admired the beautiful apartment buildings and accidentally discovered a restaurant with the best risotto Milanese in all Italy (Trattoria Masuelli San Marco). It was all a win after all and maybe someday we’ll go back and take that train to Como.
Other than that, we tried all the pastries at the coffee shop around the corner (Panificio Morosini) and had breakfast with the locals every morning, admiring how all Italians take their time to enjoy their cappuccino and read the newspaper in the morning. Always so well dressed and without rushing, taking the time to exchange a few words with the lady from the bakery. We spent a whole morning at Da Vinci museum, which was actually the only place that we visited, beside the restaurants. The funny part is that on the way to the museum we took the tram in the wrong direction and only realized after... let’s say, a lot of stations. So we also enjoyed a little tour of the city in a tram turistico. We had our little tradition of having tea or wine at a bistro overlooking the Duomo every afternoon. We explored the streets looking for the coziest restaurants and the best ice creams. We spent an afternoon in the garden at Un Posto a Milano and then shopped local produces from their little farmers market. We ate buratta and pesto for almost every dinner at Marghe (probably the best pizzeria in all Milan), but we also learned that in Milan late September is still considered as summer time and you cannot find a decent soup in any restaurant. That was strange to hear since we had been in Tuscany in June and ate tomato soup everyday. At the same time these culinary differences from one region to another are something that we love about Italy, so we accepted the situation and came back home to a soup diet (issue solved).
Overall Milan was a great experience. A few memorable days in which we took our time to explore the city in our own way, without trying to squeeze as much as possible in our short stay. We had our naps and hours in the park. We had wine on the balcony and tried living la dolce vita for a few days. It was the perfect slow getaway.