Milan, why can’t we get along?

Wednesday, 19 September, 2018 32C

We have gone through Milan on the train a few times. Each time we’ve looked out the window and thought, no.  However, for this trip we wanted to not be so biased but make a visit or two. So two visits were booked.

This was the first one. It’s hard to know what to say but I will say that it was very hot. We had changed our first train journey to a week later because of the heat but it was barely one degree cooler than the cancelled date – forecasts had been promising a bigger drop. No matter, we went ahead.

It’s only a fast (300kmh) journey to Milan from Turin. When we arrived at the station, my first reaction was wow. It’s an immense and extremely grand and elegant station, definitely the most glamorous I’ve ever seen. Before I’d even left the station I was impressed. It’s large, grand, bustling and impressive in every way. I had no idea what I was going to do but I’d done some research and hoped to cover a couple of areas and eat a little along the way and get a taste of Milan.

The very grand Milan Centrale station
The very grand Milan Centrale station, a bit of it anyway

We decided to head off towards a modern area. It was called Samsung District – Porta Nuova Smart Community (apparently a prize winning area). The heat was building and I was very tired already. The modern area was wide open with no shade. I soldiered on.

Samsung District, Milan
Samsung District, Milan

From quite a distance we’d noticed a building covered with trees, as we’ve seen in Turin, so we kept going.

Vertical Forest
Vertical Forest

By now I was flagging so left Krish to take photos, while I sat on a park bench near a fountain – no bull heads here! Looks like a little demon.

Milan fountain
Milan fountain

Also in the park was a wall with darker bricks that formed a picture.

Building in Isola
Building in Isola

So here’s my confession. I lingered over no photos, I lingered over nothing. I wasn’t impressed enough by anything. By the time I reached this park I already knew I was done! Tired, hot, and in pain. I told Krish that I couldn’t wander and that he should walk by himself at his own pace and I’d use the day in any way I could that would keep me comfortable. We talked about it a bit and then agreed.

I asked him to try to meet me at Yamaoto, a restaurant he’d wanted to eat, a few hours from then. So he sent off on foot to explore and I set off for the closest metro station, no mean feat!

Quiet street not so far from the centre, on my way to Zara metro
Quiet street not so far from the centre, on my way to Zara metro

I’d heard about a gourmet food store, Peck. It sounded wonderful and maybe somewhere I could sit with a cold drink before going to the restaurant. This meant travelling to Duomo metro, luckily on the same (yellow) metro line. When I came out of the station, again I was completely blown away by what it was like. The pictures don’t show it as well as I’d hoped but it’s an enormous open square with the duomo on one side and on the other three sides, shopping.  It was overwhelming and not in a good way. Tourists were milling everywhere, the noise and confusion were high. I really just wanted to leave so I set off to find Peck.

Vain attempt to show the Duomo and the square
Vain attempt to show the Duomo and the square
Duomo flanked by shopping
Duomo flanked by shopping
By the Duomo, porticoes leading to more shopping
By the Duomo, porticoes leading to more shopping

I couldn’t find it and I was still very hot and unhappy. I wandered about trying to follow my map app’s instructions and found a nice little back area where people were miling a bit to get lunch, but again I was too hot to snap a proper photo or investigate. The name of the game was Find Cool Shelter!

Piazza Mercanti (I think)Piazza Mercanti (I think)
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