Up at seven! More accurately: alarm at seven, but up at six thirty! The thunder and rain have continued through the night, but right now it’s more or less dry. We walk to a bakery half a kilometer away, in the hope that it’s open and that it has something that we might consider breakfast. Yes on both accounts, we buy focaccia with olives, a custard filled croissant, some Parma ham and salami. The raw ham is freshly sliced and costs 25 € per kilo, about half of what you would pay in Belgium. I wonder if I could take an entire ham home, but there’s no way to keep it refrigerated.. we discuss and come up with the plan to buy wine and olive oil, also very Italian but much more easily transported.
For the first time in my life, I try a cup of coffee. I had selected the Cioccolatino Nespresso cups – in the most mild category of coffees – yesterday at the store with assistance of the salesman, with the intention of trying to get into the habit of having a cup of coffee in the morning. Until now, I’ve never tried coffee. The experience is not entirely unsuccessful: I don’t hate the smell, I don’t really hate the taste of it, though I give up and hand the cup to mom after a few sips. I guess it’ll take prolonged exposure. I set out the POI’s on a map and make a route to see the architectural highlights of the city. We’re expecting more storm and heavy rains today, so we might totally skip part of the walk, we’ll improvise around the weather.
We set out around nine thirty, still no rain, and manage to catch a train to the town center just as it rolls into the station, slightly delayed. We have a three day rail pass and it’s a great way to get around town, if you don’t mind the walk to and from the stations. We get off at Domodossola to visit the City Life district, which should have some modern buildings by Zaha Hadid. It’s a nice neighborhood, devoid of tourists, we see just people doing their everyday people thing. We pass a few older buildings, with Art Nouveau era details like stained glass monumental doors and iron scrollwork covering the basement windows, but then we also catch sight of the most recent additions to the area: the three skyscrapers were designed by Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and Arata Isozaki and the surrounding apartment blocks by Hadid and Liebeskind. Together they make the largest pedestrian area of Milan, with green walkways, playgrounds, outdoor fitness and whatnot. You can see more info about the project on their website here. It’s a beautiful place and though there are thousands of people working and living here, it doesn’t feel crowded or busy.
After oohing and aahing over the buildings we decide to visit the mall, searching for a store which sells Y3 or Mandarina Duck. We find a smoothie bar instead and a Moleskin store right next to it, both are irresistible. After the smoothie, I buy a recipe book and mom buys customized writing/drawing books for the grandkids. The mall itself is beautifully designed, with wooden floors and organically shaped ceilings and pillars. The storm breaks while we’re shopping and there’s a downpouring of rain like I haven’t seen in years, making a racket on the skylights high above. We decide to take it extreeeemely easy here, wait for a bit of a lull and then depart to the train station to get to the center of town.
We walk from the Milano Cardona station towards the duomo, taking a different route again then yesterday. There’s a lot of pedestrian streets, but even the streets shared with cars and trams have decent pavement. It’s all very clean and well maintained too. With all this rain, we decide to skip the architecture and try to spend some time indoors, shopping. We visit an Oakley store where I try out a few sunglasses and then have a delicious lunch in a quiet restaurant that seems to serve mostly locals – regulars, even, since most guests are greeted by name. We share a meat & cheese platter, then I have beer risotto and my mom the spaghetti with tomatoes and olives, with a glass of Italian red wine, delicious.
The rain radar indicates the storm system is still raging in the region, but when we walk towards the Rinascente department store we seem to be in a lull again. On the way we visit Tod’s (Italian footwear), Ferrari (known for its cars, but also Italian fashion), then Rinascente (were we still don’t find Y3, but have mocktail on the roof terrace with a view of the duomo) and finally Mandarina Duck (Italian bags and luggage). The total catch of the day : the Moleskin journals, one pair of Oakley sunglasses and two Mandarina Duck handbags (not all of it for me, obviously). We stop to buy takeaway at a vegetarian store, enjoy the spectacle of Italian commuters handling delayed trains and are back at the apartment around seven thirty. Dinner, blog writing and general planning ensues, we now have tickets to visit the duomo. FYI: a duomo is the most important church of a commune, usually but not always the cathedral. More about it tomorrow.
Febe writes 