April 5, 2017. Ultra elegant Milano!

LOCATION:  Suburb of Milano, Italy

WEATHER:  Absolutely perfect for walking.  Sunny. Highs low 70s

 

Our small "albergo" hotel continues to surprise us.  It took us a long time to figure out the lights last night.  This morning, we were pleasantly surprised to find that a nice breakfast is included in our hotel stay.  We spent about an hour with the friendly non-English speaking receptionist trying to figure out a train schedule for our trip Friday morning, when we have to be in the Milan Central Railway Station to catch a 7:30 AM train to Pescara, near our next housesitting assignment.  We finally figured out a schedule.  Then, I realized that we would have to leave before the hotel's gates open at 7:00, so we had a long discussion (in Italian) about how to handle that.  The outcome.....we are to toss the keys in the flowerpot as the gate closes behind us! We headed off to downtown Milan on the train as a kind of experiment for Friday morning.  We had to transfer once, which worked out ok.  However, the trains, for whatever reason, don't all end at the downtown Central Station.  We went as far as we could, with plans to take the metro the rest of the way.  But no....the metro workers were on strike and the metro was closed.  We found that the next regular train to downtown would be in about 30 minutes, but that we were only a 30-minute walk to downtown.  So, we decided just to go by foot.  

This area of the town is being rejuvenated.  There are high rises going up everywhere with architects' descriptions of sophisticated living.  Several high rises are full of greenery to help with air pollution.

As we were walking, we were pretty helpless - no map and only a general sense of which direction to head.  We finally found a delivery person to head us in the right direction.  Once at the central train station, we checked out the tracks to see if we can make our transfer from our local train to the Pescara train in less than 15 minutes on Friday.  I'm sure I will be a basket case of nerves!  

 

By this time, we were getting peckish and our feet were hurting from walking.  We ducked into a swank hotel and picked up a city map from a display table.  Then, we walked a bit farther and found a cafe.  We were in the business district with no tourists around.  There were several "self restaurants".....kind of an upscale version of Italian fast food.  It was a cafeteria style where you picked up a salad and then asked for a hot menu item to be cooked.  

We shared a small salad of couscous with some seafood and prosciutto slices.  All around us were lean, lanky Italians with several plates before them.  How do they do that?  These places have indoor as well as outdoor seating.  All quite elegant....

 

Rejuvenated from lunch, and now armed with a map, we made a plan to see several things from my book "A Thousand Places to Go Before You Die"....1) Il Duomo, 2) the fanciest shopping  district, 3) La Scalia Opera House, and 4) the Four Seasons Hotel.  We passed by beautiful buildings on our way...

Our first stop was Il Dumo.  Built from marble in the 1300s, it is just amazing.

La Scalia Opera House was near by.

We found ourselves in the most elegant shopping district.  Versace, Gucci, Louis Vuitton shops were all around us.  The shops seemed to be doing good business, too.  

The Milan locals appear so sophisticated.  All, both men and women, are dressed to the 9s.  The women appear to be poured into ultra-skinny jeans.  Everyone seems to be carrying a shopping bag with the name of a high-end shop.  And, 99.9% of them are glued to their smartphones.     The next stop was The Four Seasons Hotel.  My guidebook recommended staying there, or at least stopping for a coffee or wine, to check out their atmosphere.  So, we splurged.  The decor is elegant.  There are fresh-cut flowers everywhere. The wait staff in the lobby outnumbered the guests about 2 to 1.  We ordered a glass of wine, and two waiters came to serve us.  One opened two bottles to ask us to choose between them.  The other brought some (free) appetizers.  We justified our drinks by telling ourselves that we were saving money.....we saved 2 euros by not paying for public toilets and got free food.  Ha!  

Sufficiently restored by the Four Seasons, we hiked about 1.5 miles to our train station where we luckily caught a direct train to our Desio suburb.  

 

We returned to our neighborhood bistro (the only restaurant we have seen at all).  The same friendly waiter attended to us.  This time, we ordered a bottle of wine, rather than the house carafe.  Then, we each had a first course....a seafood risotto and a fettuccini dish with porcini mushrooms and sausages.  We normally would have split one dish, but they seem to frown on this here.  Most people would have had one of these as a first course, then a meat or fish dish as a second course.  As I say.....How do they do this?!!