Getting there
Last month I booked a spontaneous one night trip to Milan. I was really excited as I have never been to Italy before and have always wanted to. We flew with Ryan air on Saturday mid-morning. The flight was just over 2 hours. Once we had arrived I assumed we would take a taxi straight to the hotel, until I realised it would cost €150! We went to the transport counter at the airport and found out we could take a bus to the city centre for €5 each. What a bargain considering it was a 50 minute bus journey.
The city
Milan is one hour ahead of UK time, so when we checked in to the hotel it was around 5pm. We freshened up ready to go for dinner. When researching online I stumbled across a pizzeria called Marghe. It was about a 5 minute walk from our hotel and was definitely an hidden gem. When we arrived there were people waiting outside the restaurant for a table to become available. Although we were hungry this was a good sign! The restaurant was beautifully decorated with rustic feel, there were lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling, un-plastered walls and oak furniture. When we were seated we were struggling to translate the menu. Fortunately, we had a very helpful waiter who was able to speak excellent English and translate it all for us. We could see the chefs in the back of the restaurant tossing the doe then baking the pizza in the stone ovens. We ordered a bottle of red wine with our meal which was delicious. The pizzas were very cheap at around €6-10 each and the bottle of wine was €18. Such great quality food and drink at an affordable price.
After our meal we stumbled across a cafe which was playing the football. We decided to go in for a drink and an ice-cream before heading back to our hotel. The cafe was full of locals from a variety of generations all socialising with one another. I ordered a vanilla gelato with a warm chocolate sauce… so good! We also bought a couple of freshly baked croissants filled with honey which we had for breakfast the next day.
Attractions
The next day we checked out of our hotel and walked into the city centre which took around 20 minutes. We headed to the cathedral which is such an amazing building. We took some photos and then headed in to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which is actually the word’s oldest shopping mall. Around this area there are many designer shops and high-end restaurants. We had a coffee in a restaurant overlooking the cathedral. We then decided to head to the central bus station to get our tickets sorted and grab something to eat before leaving. On our way we had chance to admire the paved narrow streets full of beautiful buildings.
Leaving
We took the bus to the airport at 3pm. This time we were going to Milan’s second airport, Orio al Serio International Airport which is still about a 50 minute drive. It was very small so we passed through very quickly in order to catch our flight at 6pm. All in all, I really enjoyed my trip to Milan. It was nice to be able to get on a plane and within two hours arrive in a different country. Although we didn’t get to do much whilst we were there we saw what we wanted to whilst being able to eat in a proper Italian restaurant!