Laura and I have been in Switzerland for months, but aside from a return visit to the US, we hadn't left the country. Last weekend, we decided to change that with a visit to Milan, Italy.
We left early on Friday morning via an SBB Eurocity (EC) train. The trip took about 4 hours. We booked second-class tickets because there's not much of a difference with SBB. First class cars are quieter and less busy. That's about it.
It was my first time through the Alps since we moved to Switzerland, and they were magnificent. We would come out of a tunnel, and I'd be looking down. My first thought would be "Wow! We're so high that I'm looking down on the tops of the church spires of multiple towns. This view is fantastic."
...and then I would look up.
It was often difficult to see the tops of the mountains from the train because they were so high. We were absolutely dwarfed by the mountains, even the ones on the other side of whatever valley or lake that we were traversing. I took to counting roads and villages up the side of the mountain. At one point, I counted 9 parallel roads between the villages as I looked up from the bottom to the top of the mountain.We went into a tunnel before I could figure out how many villages I was looking at. Perspective was difficult. It was a bit like looking at those curiously flat sansui pantings. It was exhilarating. My desire to ride the Glacier Express or Bernina Express has increased by an order of magnitude.
We rolled in to Milan late in the morning. We were able to check in to our hotel (Hilton Milan) a little bit early. The staff spoke English well, and they upgraded our room to one with a small balcony. The upgrade also gave us access to the "executive lounge", which meant free breakfast. The room was a little bit older with few electrical outlets, but it was clean and well cared for. The bathroom had a bidet that I wasn't quite brave enough to use.
We went to Pizza Spontini for lunch. This place makes a style of pizza that's popular in Milan. It's a deep dish pizza with an intensely seasoned sauce. The crust is sometimes called "fried crust". It's cooked in a deep dish pan with some seasoned oil. This gives the bottom of the pizza a crispy texture. We ordered two slices to go. They cut two slices that were each larger than a normal plate. (Those plates on the website? They're about the diameter of your computer's keyboard -- if you have a number pad.) They packaged it quickly with toothpicks, waxed paper, and cardboard, then gave us our enormous cardboard tray. Total: 9 euros. We ate in a nearby park. Despite being pretty hungry, we weren't able to finish both slices. The pigeons knew what was coming, and we ate with a small, grey audience.
Next stop: Duomo di Milano. This is Milan's magnificent cathedral and square. It was built over 6 centuries, and it looks it. There are carvings upon carvings, magnificent stained glass, beautiful lights, that amazing deep hushed echo that you only hear in complex, enormous cathedrals, and more. It's also a working cathedral, so a small mid-day service was in progress to one side while we visited. While we were looking at all of these details (like the list of church leaders that dates back to the year 51), the quiet singing of the old Italian women at the service on the other side of the building drifted through the air. It was wonderful, though nearly as disorienting as the mountains. We decided not to visit the roof because I was a bit worried about vertigo.
The plaza outside was bright and hot and markedly different from the inside of the cathedral. It was filled with hundreds (thousands?) of tourists taking pictures, and a few small groups darting between groups of tourists. Laura watched them and the tourists' reactions and figured out that these were pickpockets. We made sure that our things were buttoned up, and took some pictures of the plaza, including the buildings where Benito Mussolini harangued the crowd as dictator. We visited the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (a high-end shopping mall). We stopped at a cafe, bought drinks, and watched the crowd for a while. They brought some snacks with our drinks. And then they brought more snacks. And more snacks. By the time we left, the table was full of hors d'oeuvres.
By this point, we were starting to realize how long we'd been awake. We decided to walk back to the hotel, but we took an indirect route via the Quadrilatero della Moda -- the "high fashion" area full of flagship stores. The streets were full of photographers and high end cars, but the really exclusive boutiques were in courtyards guarded by jacketed security guards. We heard a duo of magnificent violin players on one corner who managed a seamless transition from a violin duet cover of Wrecking Ball to Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
We arrived at our hotel intending to take a brief nap, but we were both exhausted. We slept through our alarms and woke up around 9pm. Our first thought was, "Great! This is a town that eats late and stays up late!" Our second thought was, "...but we're both still exhausted". So, we ate at the hotel restaurant which was really quite good, then went back to bed.
I mentioned that this was an older hotel. This turned out to be relevant. I sleep with a CPAP machine. The only free outlet had a few other things plugged in to it with various outlet extenders. I found a free space and plugged in my CPAP, but something went wrong. During the night, I was awoken to my CPAP sputtering and the display flickering. I quickly unplugged it, but I discovered when I returned to Switzerland that the CPAP machine did not survive.
The next day, we ate breakfast in the hotel because it was free. No loss here -- the typical Italian breakfast is a small pastry and an espresso -- they save all of their calories for one enormous meal. After breakfast, we decided to visit the canals. Those were on the opposite side of the city, so we headed for the metro station.
The train arrived, and people started to board. A few women in front of us got inside the door and just stopped in a way that blocked the door with plenty of room in front of them. The doors started to close, so I shoved my way past them so that Laura and I could board. When the doors closed a few seconds later, I noticed that my wallet was missing. I realized immediately what had happened, and turned around screaming "MY WALLET!" The Italian word for thief -- ladro -- completely fled my mind in the moment, but everyone seemed to know what was happening. I was a good 6" taller than the tallest of them, and I was seeing red. The women had nowhere to go on a moving train, and "miraculously", my wallet fell to the ground between them with everything still inside. I took it back, and they fled at the next stop.
We were a bit shaken by the encounter, but the canals were pretty. We walked around for a while. Personal goods secured, we took a tram back across the city so that we could sightsee along the way. We hopped off in another shopping area and visited Moleskine and Muji stores. This, it seems, is how people spend a lot of time in Milan. There are stores for everything, and everyone going through town picks up "just a few things" while they're in town.
A brief stop at our hotel to drop our purchases got us a recommendation from the concierge for a place call Il Tavolino. This place was wonderful. Food started showing up before we even ordered, and when we ordered the appetizer for 2 (no more details than that on the menu), they cleared the table next to us. That was a sign. That appetizer included two balls of fresh cheese (Mozzarella and another that was delightful, but I've forgotten the name), a large meat platter, a plate of bruschetta, and a pizza-sized piece of fresh herb bread. The waiter recommended a nice pinot noir. Then the next course -- a wonderful saffron risotto -- arrived. We decided that it was good that we'd decided to split the risotto because while generously portioned, we could have each spent the rest of the day there eating risotto and nothing else. We skipped a few courses and went right on to the main course. I think we might have hurt our waiter's feelings with this. Laura had a fantastic steak with Gorgonzola cheese, and I had a beautifully prepared Amberjack fillet. With some disappointment, we realized that there was no way that we could make room for dessert. We paid and made our way back to the hotel.
We realized that we weren't hungry (no surprise), our brains were still full from the Duomo and the canals, so museums didn't hold much interest, and we didn't really want to shop. We decided to find a comfortable chair in the hotel lobby/bar and think about what to do next. It was a quiet time of day, and one of the managers came over to talk to us. He recommended a few things to do and places to visit in Milan during the week, but as this was late afternoon on a Saturday, there wasn't much that would be open besides restaurants, bars, and clubs for the remainder of the weekend. He also recommended an absolutely amazing sweet red vermouth to us called Tregenda. Somehow, we were able to find enough room for a wonderful Negroni made with Tregenda vermouth. This left us so full and tired that the possibility of going anywhere else was simply impossible. We returned to our room for another nap.
A bit later, we awoke, fully intending to go out again, but energy levels were still critically low. Laura really wanted a good Italian dessert, and it was the perfect time of the day to experience a Milan Apertivo. Since they eat dinner late, in Milan, the Apertivo is an after-work drink and snack to help you make it to dinner. Unfortunately, we were still tired and full from our enormous lunch, and the prospect of going out again just didn't sound good. Laura decided that tiramisu from the hotel restaurant would be good enough. Regrettably, while beautifully presented, the hotel opted for their own take on the dish that made it a bit more like a Swiss roll than the traditional Italian dessert.
The next morning, it was time to go back to Zurich. The train station had a small security check, consisting of "Do you have a valid ticket". I assume that this was an anti-pickpocket measure more than anything else. Our return train was on Trenitalia, which was not nearly as nice as SBB. It was more like 1990s Amtrak. Everything was a bit worn and in need of a thorough cleaning and reupholstering. I found myself wishing that we'd sprung for first class for the return trip. Still, the mountains were again beautiful, and the service was courteous, if not prompt. When we crossed the Swiss border, they started to announce how late they were at each stop. We were 10 minutes late at the first stop, but we made up time as we got closer to Zurich.
Since the Zurich Hauptbahnhof is the only thing open on Sunday, we stopped there for a few essential supplies before heading home. We spent Sunday resting and recovering.
You can see some of our pictures on Google Photos.
We left early on Friday morning via an SBB Eurocity (EC) train. The trip took about 4 hours. We booked second-class tickets because there's not much of a difference with SBB. First class cars are quieter and less busy. That's about it.
It was my first time through the Alps since we moved to Switzerland, and they were magnificent. We would come out of a tunnel, and I'd be looking down. My first thought would be "Wow! We're so high that I'm looking down on the tops of the church spires of multiple towns. This view is fantastic."
...and then I would look up.
It was often difficult to see the tops of the mountains from the train because they were so high. We were absolutely dwarfed by the mountains, even the ones on the other side of whatever valley or lake that we were traversing. I took to counting roads and villages up the side of the mountain. At one point, I counted 9 parallel roads between the villages as I looked up from the bottom to the top of the mountain.We went into a tunnel before I could figure out how many villages I was looking at. Perspective was difficult. It was a bit like looking at those curiously flat sansui pantings. It was exhilarating. My desire to ride the Glacier Express or Bernina Express has increased by an order of magnitude.
We rolled in to Milan late in the morning. We were able to check in to our hotel (Hilton Milan) a little bit early. The staff spoke English well, and they upgraded our room to one with a small balcony. The upgrade also gave us access to the "executive lounge", which meant free breakfast. The room was a little bit older with few electrical outlets, but it was clean and well cared for. The bathroom had a bidet that I wasn't quite brave enough to use.
We went to Pizza Spontini for lunch. This place makes a style of pizza that's popular in Milan. It's a deep dish pizza with an intensely seasoned sauce. The crust is sometimes called "fried crust". It's cooked in a deep dish pan with some seasoned oil. This gives the bottom of the pizza a crispy texture. We ordered two slices to go. They cut two slices that were each larger than a normal plate. (Those plates on the website? They're about the diameter of your computer's keyboard -- if you have a number pad.) They packaged it quickly with toothpicks, waxed paper, and cardboard, then gave us our enormous cardboard tray. Total: 9 euros. We ate in a nearby park. Despite being pretty hungry, we weren't able to finish both slices. The pigeons knew what was coming, and we ate with a small, grey audience.
Next stop: Duomo di Milano. This is Milan's magnificent cathedral and square. It was built over 6 centuries, and it looks it. There are carvings upon carvings, magnificent stained glass, beautiful lights, that amazing deep hushed echo that you only hear in complex, enormous cathedrals, and more. It's also a working cathedral, so a small mid-day service was in progress to one side while we visited. While we were looking at all of these details (like the list of church leaders that dates back to the year 51), the quiet singing of the old Italian women at the service on the other side of the building drifted through the air. It was wonderful, though nearly as disorienting as the mountains. We decided not to visit the roof because I was a bit worried about vertigo.
The plaza outside was bright and hot and markedly different from the inside of the cathedral. It was filled with hundreds (thousands?) of tourists taking pictures, and a few small groups darting between groups of tourists. Laura watched them and the tourists' reactions and figured out that these were pickpockets. We made sure that our things were buttoned up, and took some pictures of the plaza, including the buildings where Benito Mussolini harangued the crowd as dictator. We visited the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (a high-end shopping mall). We stopped at a cafe, bought drinks, and watched the crowd for a while. They brought some snacks with our drinks. And then they brought more snacks. And more snacks. By the time we left, the table was full of hors d'oeuvres.
By this point, we were starting to realize how long we'd been awake. We decided to walk back to the hotel, but we took an indirect route via the Quadrilatero della Moda -- the "high fashion" area full of flagship stores. The streets were full of photographers and high end cars, but the really exclusive boutiques were in courtyards guarded by jacketed security guards. We heard a duo of magnificent violin players on one corner who managed a seamless transition from a violin duet cover of Wrecking Ball to Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
We arrived at our hotel intending to take a brief nap, but we were both exhausted. We slept through our alarms and woke up around 9pm. Our first thought was, "Great! This is a town that eats late and stays up late!" Our second thought was, "...but we're both still exhausted". So, we ate at the hotel restaurant which was really quite good, then went back to bed.
I mentioned that this was an older hotel. This turned out to be relevant. I sleep with a CPAP machine. The only free outlet had a few other things plugged in to it with various outlet extenders. I found a free space and plugged in my CPAP, but something went wrong. During the night, I was awoken to my CPAP sputtering and the display flickering. I quickly unplugged it, but I discovered when I returned to Switzerland that the CPAP machine did not survive.
The next day, we ate breakfast in the hotel because it was free. No loss here -- the typical Italian breakfast is a small pastry and an espresso -- they save all of their calories for one enormous meal. After breakfast, we decided to visit the canals. Those were on the opposite side of the city, so we headed for the metro station.
The train arrived, and people started to board. A few women in front of us got inside the door and just stopped in a way that blocked the door with plenty of room in front of them. The doors started to close, so I shoved my way past them so that Laura and I could board. When the doors closed a few seconds later, I noticed that my wallet was missing. I realized immediately what had happened, and turned around screaming "MY WALLET!" The Italian word for thief -- ladro -- completely fled my mind in the moment, but everyone seemed to know what was happening. I was a good 6" taller than the tallest of them, and I was seeing red. The women had nowhere to go on a moving train, and "miraculously", my wallet fell to the ground between them with everything still inside. I took it back, and they fled at the next stop.
We were a bit shaken by the encounter, but the canals were pretty. We walked around for a while. Personal goods secured, we took a tram back across the city so that we could sightsee along the way. We hopped off in another shopping area and visited Moleskine and Muji stores. This, it seems, is how people spend a lot of time in Milan. There are stores for everything, and everyone going through town picks up "just a few things" while they're in town.
A brief stop at our hotel to drop our purchases got us a recommendation from the concierge for a place call Il Tavolino. This place was wonderful. Food started showing up before we even ordered, and when we ordered the appetizer for 2 (no more details than that on the menu), they cleared the table next to us. That was a sign. That appetizer included two balls of fresh cheese (Mozzarella and another that was delightful, but I've forgotten the name), a large meat platter, a plate of bruschetta, and a pizza-sized piece of fresh herb bread. The waiter recommended a nice pinot noir. Then the next course -- a wonderful saffron risotto -- arrived. We decided that it was good that we'd decided to split the risotto because while generously portioned, we could have each spent the rest of the day there eating risotto and nothing else. We skipped a few courses and went right on to the main course. I think we might have hurt our waiter's feelings with this. Laura had a fantastic steak with Gorgonzola cheese, and I had a beautifully prepared Amberjack fillet. With some disappointment, we realized that there was no way that we could make room for dessert. We paid and made our way back to the hotel.
We realized that we weren't hungry (no surprise), our brains were still full from the Duomo and the canals, so museums didn't hold much interest, and we didn't really want to shop. We decided to find a comfortable chair in the hotel lobby/bar and think about what to do next. It was a quiet time of day, and one of the managers came over to talk to us. He recommended a few things to do and places to visit in Milan during the week, but as this was late afternoon on a Saturday, there wasn't much that would be open besides restaurants, bars, and clubs for the remainder of the weekend. He also recommended an absolutely amazing sweet red vermouth to us called Tregenda. Somehow, we were able to find enough room for a wonderful Negroni made with Tregenda vermouth. This left us so full and tired that the possibility of going anywhere else was simply impossible. We returned to our room for another nap.
A bit later, we awoke, fully intending to go out again, but energy levels were still critically low. Laura really wanted a good Italian dessert, and it was the perfect time of the day to experience a Milan Apertivo. Since they eat dinner late, in Milan, the Apertivo is an after-work drink and snack to help you make it to dinner. Unfortunately, we were still tired and full from our enormous lunch, and the prospect of going out again just didn't sound good. Laura decided that tiramisu from the hotel restaurant would be good enough. Regrettably, while beautifully presented, the hotel opted for their own take on the dish that made it a bit more like a Swiss roll than the traditional Italian dessert.
The next morning, it was time to go back to Zurich. The train station had a small security check, consisting of "Do you have a valid ticket". I assume that this was an anti-pickpocket measure more than anything else. Our return train was on Trenitalia, which was not nearly as nice as SBB. It was more like 1990s Amtrak. Everything was a bit worn and in need of a thorough cleaning and reupholstering. I found myself wishing that we'd sprung for first class for the return trip. Still, the mountains were again beautiful, and the service was courteous, if not prompt. When we crossed the Swiss border, they started to announce how late they were at each stop. We were 10 minutes late at the first stop, but we made up time as we got closer to Zurich.
Since the Zurich Hauptbahnhof is the only thing open on Sunday, we stopped there for a few essential supplies before heading home. We spent Sunday resting and recovering.
You can see some of our pictures on Google Photos.
Wow, that was great! I felt like I was on the trip with you. You're a good writer, Willie. It sounds like an interesting and exciting trip.
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