sajawata

A wonderful weekend in Milan of gluttonous gastronomy, haute couture, and catching up with friends from home.

Nicole and I caught early Saturday train to Milan. Lovely ride through eastern Switzerland and northern lake region of Italy including Lake Maggiore. Headed to the Piazza del Duomo and the cathedral. The cathedral (1386) is the largest I’ve been in: capacity 40,000. The style is late gothic, with pillars, pinnacles, spires, flying buttresses and the works. The front part was under renovation, but we still saw most of it in it’s full glory. An interesting note is that a nail supposedly from Christ’s cross lives in the cathedral in a contraption built by Da Vinci. We climbed the stairs to the rooftop, where some 135 spires and 3200 statues watch over the city. Interesting to consider the implications in the changes of architectural styles of churches over the centuries.

Met up with Stacey & Matt in time for a nice dinner in the charming older part of the city (More on the food later…) So nice to see friends from home and especially Stacey since she speaks fluent Italian (although she was a bit reluctant to speak it.) We moved on to a bar next to the castle where we had the most incredible mojitos. They just don’t make them like that anywhere else. Stacey and Matt went back to the hotel to rest up after their long train ride, and Nicole and I stayed on for a lesson in mojito making (and consuming!) from the bartenders. We started dancing and before we knew it the bartenders invited us behind the bar to dance and make them drinks. Wow do those Italians know how to have a good time! We danced and laughed for hours and hours.

The next day we woke up a bit hungover, possibly still a little drunk? Went to a photography museum, then found the fashion district and did a little window shopping. It was fashion week in Milan and there were all kinds of beautiful people swarming. Granted I’ve always considered anything not from Old Navy to be couture, but the clothing was so extravagant, hard to believe people actually wear some of the outfits. The window displays were pretty fascinating though, if you look at them more as art exhibits than clothing. Hundreds of stores with bags, shoes and dresses made from every animal skin and fur imaginable. Prada alone has I think a dozen or so stores in Milan.

We had another lovely dinner with Stacey & Matt then crashed and slept hard to catch the early morning train.

Which brings me to the food. Dear Gussy, where to begin. Salmon & Brie Panini, wine, Lasagna that literally melts in your mouth, wine, Smoked Salmon, Tuna, Shrimp, more wine, lemoncello, peach gelato, tiramisu, more wine, parma ham, carbonara pasta, risotto, still more wine, caprese salad, the list goes on and on. I ordered a huge salad one night trying to be a good girl, it came drenched in pure mayonnaise! It’s really a wonder they are all so fashionably thin. A very good thing that the nutritional guides over here don’t call them calories, they call them energies. As in “oh this chocolate bar has 1500 grams of energy, surely if I eat the whole thing I’ll be able to climb Mount Everest” as opposed to “This chocolate bar has 1500 calories and my thighs are going to blow up like the Good Year blimp.”

Milan was quite the excessive weekend between food, drink, fashion and spending money but I will never forget how much fun it was.

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