Shopping! Shopping ! the first thought of Milan is a city of fashion, designer labels. Well, here we come, and see if it holds the true.
We flew by Ryannair , paid a total air fare of GBP 166 to Milan Bergama airport. This is a low cost carrier airport which takes about 50 minutes by airport coach to central area. We got into Terravision for a return trip of Euro9 per person.
The weather on the day we arrived was incredibly hot, a real summer compared to UK. I could feel the heat upon stepping out the airport entrance. We stood under the sun waiting for the coach, but no where in sign. It was delayed by half an hour. I was hoping to hide somewhwere with full blast air-conditioner as soon as possible. The same feel i had few months back when i was back to Singapore & Malaysia. The coach journey was comfortable though.
Less an hour, the coach stopped in front of the Palazzo delle Poste building, where the central railway station is located. The location was just fantastic as our hotel-Starhotel E.C.H.O was just two streets behind. I was very pleased with Starhotel E.C.H.O. The hotel is of eco friendly and of contemporary design. The receptionist we met was polite, spoke English and provided us with a local city map with highlights on major shopping streets. Our room was on the 5th floor, facing the main road. But not an issue for us as we could not hear any noise at all. The room and bathroom were very nicely decorated and with quality fixtures. Both were amazingly clean, which i could say the best housekeeping amongst all the trips i went. I do hope they could maintain as such quality standard in every room. The hotel had even provided a pair of slipper, which i hardly get in European hotel. The breakfast selection was what we expected in most European hotels, but the croissant was nice. The only disadvantage about this hotel was there was no wifi in certain room. We stayed in superior room. Even if we access the lobby wifi, there was a time limit of 30 minutes per user. The high street fashion shopping street corso bueno aires is just few streets behind the hotel, so we walked around the nearby area after cheking in and offloading our luggages. Oh, i had my first scoop of Pistacchio flavour gelato on my very first day. It melted so fast and i need to quickly finish it off before getting my hand messy.
At around dinner time, we just walked into one Italian restaurant "Osteria Del Lazzaretto". There were a few restaurants around our hotel, but we came into this one because we have thought "Osteria' means family run business, so the food should be authentic italian home cooking style. Yes, we were not wrong 100%, it was family run, but by Chinese. Surprise? Shock? well , not to be rude to just walk away, we decided to give it a try. The lady was also very friendly. We ordered Lobster linguini, Vongole spagheti , and Grilled seafood for sharing. The food did not disappoint us given the price. I had a slice of Tiramisu to complete my meal. Total bill came out as EURO 40.50.
The next day, rise and shine. We had our breakfast at the eco friendly setting breakfast bar. Croissant was nice, and coffee was not too bad either. Straight after breakfast, we headed off to the main station which was just opposite to begin our shopping. At the metro station, we had our first experience with gypsy women. We saw two gypsy ladies at both side of the ticket machines, appearing helping commuters to purchase tickets. She offered help to us as well. But she said the machine can only input notes and not exact token. This was weird, as we did not see any "out of order" sign at all. We hesitated, and meanwhile she was busy coerced another couples to buy tickets and put in the notes. We then realised how tricky they are. They will pickpocketed the changes and returned little coins , and they behaved very aggressive and loud, which I believe no one will want to continue challenge them. We quickly moved to another ticket machines, pressed the number of tickets we need, put in exact coin, collected the tickets and moved on. I was guarding my handbag at all times, as i had heard a lot of people bad encounters with them. We were just puzzled why the metro station did not do anything to stop them from cheating tourists.
Our first stop was the fashion district-quadrilatero della moda (‘quadrilateral of fashion’), or Via Montenapoleone fashion district,, where we alighted at Montenapolene. The sides of the quadrilateral, located to the south of the arches of Porta Nuova, are formed by Via Montenapoleone (SW), Via Manzoni (NW), Via della Spiga (NE), and Corso Venezia (SE); this last meets Via della Spiga at Piazza San Babila.
Streets inside this area include Via Borgospesso, Via Santo Spirito, Via Gesù, Via Sant'Andrea, and Via Bagutta. The zone extends in practice also to the north-west of Via Manzoni with Via Pisoni, and to the south and west of Via Montenapoleone with Corso Giacomo Matteotti, Piazza Meda, Via San Pietro all'Orto, and Via Verri. There are indeed lots of fashion and designer boutiques for us to explore as long as our feet can bring us. I came to Milan with only an aim to take a look of this city, and to get a Prada bag, so we didnt spend too much time visiting all the shops, just randomly to a few shops selling leather shoes. I did find the price not cheap either.
We stopped for a short coffee break at Piazza del Duomo. Dear loved the iced coffee, but the taste was too strong for my liking. After a short break, we continued walking along Corso Vittorio Emanuele, heading towards the Cathedral and Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele. Along the way, we saw Africans everywhere trying to sell wristbands. We did not pay much attention at first until one approached us trying to be friendly, and forcing my dear to "accept" the wristband from him, claiming it brought good luck. We knew it wasn't free, and annoyed by their harassment. While my hubby tried to walk away, i was then pestered by another one who already tied the wristband around me without me realizing at all . I tore it off and threw back at him, and quickly looked for my dear, and saw one of them kept pestering him, and he already had one on his wrist, which we had a hard time ripping it off. I know they were earning money, but if they had not been so aggressive or asked for money in another way, we will definitely pity them, and buy something from them. But at moment, we were just pissed. We donated some money to a few street performancer which I think deserve much more than them.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is one of the world's oldest shopping malls, it was just next to the magnificent Milan cathedral. Walking through it should never forget to look up for its extravagant 19th century glass -topped and Dome . It houses few designer brands, such as Prada, LV, Gucci. I headed to Prada and got myself a cameo color, classic shaped, elegant looking leather tote bag with detachable shoulder strap at Euro1200 (equivalent to SGD2070, SG retail price at SGD2700). I was pretty happy with the bag, except that I was not eligible for the VAT refund, or else I could have saved another 10-12%.
After my big purchase, we randomly picked a restaurant near the cathedral for our lunch before exploring further around the areas, including the Sforza Castle . The weather was too hot, and we had to stop for refreshments. Not really an enjoyable experience to walk under the sun for hours.
We had our last night's dinner at Mama Rose. Fanstastic dinner with good service at around Euro60 including tips.
We woke up at 5:45am the next day morning at had our breakfast at 7am before catching the 7:40 airport coach to Bergamo airport. We reached home around noon time, and we were still able to do our grocery shopping and unpacking.
