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.
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.
From quite a distance we’d noticed a building covered with trees, as we’ve seen in Turin, so we kept going.
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.
Also in the park was a wall with darker bricks that formed a picture.
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!
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.
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)
Back into the metro and on to the area where the restaurant was. I liked it better here, although it was only one stop away. And straight to the restaurant.
Yamamoto is bigger on the inside! There’s an area to sit and wait in or have a snack and at the back is the eating area. I sat at the front and cooled off and waited to see if Krish was able to meet. I put my name down for a table and waited, loving the cool air in there. The menu looked OK but not the Japanese experience I’d expected. Krish thought he could meet me but I went ahead and ordered my meal. They were closing in less than an hour.
I was seduced by the curry. I hadn’t had a Japanese curry since Toronto. Yamamoto’s is more like a curry sauce. It comes with rice and it’s huge. I got through about a third of it before giving up. And I knew it was a terrible choice for a hot day! Tasty though.
As I was paying, Krish called that he was close by so I said I’d meet him at the metro. He wasn’t there but just as he gave up I looked at a map and found another metro entrance…and there he was!
We sat on a bench and rested for quite a long time. Then we went for a walk. We discovered some lovely coloured buildings and another forested apartment. But, quite honestly, neither one of us felt that Milan was a place we could love. It was more about getting through the day and on to the train for ‘home.’
Off we went on our separate ways with a promise to meet at 7:30 at the station. And this time I persevered and found Peck. Everyone raved about this place. However, it’s nowhere near as eye-popping as Harrods or even Selfridges food hall. Too tidy and organised for me. No wow factor. Nothing that yelled out Eat me! Sterile. I’ll pass.
I planned to head to a hotel and sit and chill (literally) for the next few hours, but the heat was still beating me back so instead I stayed inside the station and where did I go – to the McCafé! Someone asked me why and here’s my answer: 1 not pizza 2 air conditioned 3 not pizza 4 has a toilet 5 not pizza 6 i could sit there for 2.5 hours and no one cared and 7 not pizza you’re welcome
PS i had a coffee milkshake and a nocciola biscuit and not pizza
And that’s where Krish found me! Our train was delayed twenty minutes and we were never so happy to arrive back in Turin.
The bottom line on Milan. I want to like it, I really do. But I don’t. There’s nothing wrong with it and I know it was hot and my legs couldn’t handle the distances, but it’s more than that. It’s too impersonal, too spread out, too tidy and aloof. It’s too elegant. No cosiness, no welcoming community feeling, nothing to enchant or intrigue me – it’s just not for me. And Krish and I agreed. We are even considering, barring the temperature being much cooler, cancelling our next trip.
We shall see.