Elgaine in Italy.

In these forced holidays I have taken advantage and I have gone to Milan where my friend Potro lives with Helena (his girlfriend) and Leticia (his daughter). Well, they don’t live in Milan but not too far (in Besnate, Varese) so I could take a train from Gallarate (near Besnate).

I had four days but I could really seized two visiting the city of the fashion. The first day I traveled and I didn’t go to Milan but we spent that evening in Gallarate.

Next day I went to the city and well, I did the tour integrally on foot. That day I visited the Duomo (the Cathedral), the gallery of Vittorio Emanuele II, the Castle Sforzesco, il Arco de la Pace (the Arch of Peace), the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Milan Stock Exchange (only the façade) and lots of shops (not buying but seeing). During that evening Helena’s parents invited me to have dinner with them. Her mother cooked Polenta (a kind of corn pudding) with stew meat (chicken and beef). It’s very tasty when you mix it with Gorgonzola cheese. As dessert, her mother did ice-cream (good but very cold for that night) and then her father gave us a kind of absenta-light (but still strong). They were so nice and quite curious about what was happening in Spain (they think Spain’s more developed than Italy). Italy's in crisis.

On Friday, I visited the Duomo again but I couldn’t go to the roof because it was raining a lot. Then I went to the best shopping street in Milan: Via della Spiga. The best fashion companies are there and they do their best with the decoration and staff’s appearance. I am not a fashion victim but I must recognize their effort and the imagination and work in order to polish the image. I was in AC Milan’s shop and Ferrari Store but I couldn’t spend more time there if I wanted to visit the most important tourist attraction in the city: il Cenacolo Vinciano. What’s that? The Last Supper of Leonardo Da Vinci, famous for Da Vinci Code (Book and film). There’s a long waiting list but they did an exception because I was alone. Then, I returned to Besnate. It was very rainy and I felt quite exhausted and although I would like to visit something more (Art Academy of Brera or San Siro Stadium), I didn’t waste so much time.

In the evening we went out to a fine Restaurant in Besnate, Ristorante I Fontanili. Antipasti (oisters, octupus, fish carpaccio, scallops, salads...) , focaccia and rotola di faraona (a wild hen) with a strong Barbara wine (red wine) was my delicious menu. Then, we wanted to go out to Milan but we (and overall I) were so tired and full with the dinner so we finally discarded it.

Next day we spent all the morning resting and having fun with the baby, but after lunch we went to Milan to spend the last hours in Corso di Buenos Aires (when mostly in the car suffering traffic jams). It’s a commercial street like our Goya Street or Preciados. We can’t spend so much time more because we have to go say bye to Helena (who was working in the shop of Kasanova in Gallarate) before to march to the airport. End of the stance in Milan? Oh no, the flight was delayed and I had to spent more time waiting for the departure with a lot of not so much polite Rumanians.

Well summing up, I liked Milan and I was happily surprised with its people, food, shops, art and design. It worths spending few days whatever you are looking for in city: Milan's got it.

Anyway, see you soon.

Elgaine de Balliers.