Milan was the first stop on our two week trip to Italy and Greece. To be honest, I never really wanted to go to Milan, but I found cheap airline tickets from New York to Milan, so I added one day to our itinerary. Our first stop was supposed to be Venice, but airfare was so much more expensive flying to Venice than it was to Milan. I’m glad I did though, because there is so much to see.
After a long overnight flight of about 9 hours, we were worn out! I mean, who sleeps good on an airplane, unless you have the big bucks to spend on a lie flat bed seat…we however, do not. Arriving at the airport, we had two options to get to our hotel. 1. a taxi or 2. the train. The hotel gave us simple instructions on how to arrive by train, but I was so tired I didn’t feel like figuring out how to get to the train station, so we just got in line for the taxis. I wish I had because about 90 Euros later we were at our hotel!
Where We Stayed
We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Milan North. We loved this hotel. It was easily accessable to the metro station, so it didn’t take us any time to get to the middle of the city. The hotel provided us with a cell phone, so we could take it out with us. This was so great because we could use the GPS to find places, without us having to use our phones. There is also a Hilton Milan, so if you use one of these hotels make sure you know which one you’re going to. The rooms were very spacious and modern, and the entire hotel looked brand new. I felt so stupid because when we got into our room, we couldn’t get anything to come on. We tried all the light switches and nothing worked. We had to call down to the front desk to ask what was going on. So as soon as you walk in, there is a place to insert your key card on the wall, and once you do that everything will work! That was the case with several of our hotel rooms on our trip. The hotel is close enough to the train station that we walked, but it was probably a good 10 minute walk or so.
Things to do
Calling all shopaholics!!! Milan is known to be the fashion capital of the world, and rightly so there is a huge Galleria right next to the beautiful gothic Cathedral. It is called Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. This is one of the world’s oldest shopping malls. It is definitely a sight to see. The architecture is so beautiful and the mall is huge. Even if you don’t want to buy anything, you have to go in and wander around just to see it!
The gothic cathedral is the famous duomo in Milan. It is right next to the mall, so you can’t miss it! You can buy tickets to go inside and to the rooftop. This cathedral is massive and so beautiful! Pictures just don’t do it justice…but then again, no pictures of Italy do anything justice…you need to see it! There will be lots of people around here so just beware. Also, tons of pigeons.
There is a place called Terrazza Aperol that is right beside the cathedral. You have to go upstairs to get to it. A lot of people say it is a tourist trap, and it probably is. They have a great balcony you can sit at outside, with an awesome view of the cathedral. Order an Aperol Spritz and enjoy the view. It is more expensive than most places, but the view is worth it! If you have never heard of an aperol spritz, you definitely will know what it is before leaving Italy. It is an Italian cocktail served in a wine glass with Prosecco, aperol, and soda water. It usually is garnished with a slice of orange.
The main thing I wanted to do while in Milan was to see the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. The Last Supper is housed in the Santa Maria Delle Grazie church. It is a mural on the wall. It is so amazing to see such a masterpiece created so long ago. They allow you to take pictures, but no flash photography. You have to buy tickets to get in to see it. Tickets do sell out, so as soon as you know you’re going, I would look to see when tickets go on sale for the day you want to go. They only let a certain number of people in at a time, so when you book you also have to book a time to go. This is the official site to get your tickets with all the information. It seems though, that a lot of the third party places buy them all and jack up the prices a little bit. I ended up getting ours through Viator. Make sure you print your voucher off before going. Get there about 20 minutes early. You will present your voucher at the ticket office next to the museum. We almost missed the whole thing because we were waiting outside the church thinking somebody would come get a group of us to go in at our time.
Since this was our “throw away” day, meaning our first day, and we were so exhausted that is all we had time for. Milan has so much to see and do. It wasn’t our favorite place in Italy, but again we were so tired. You will not regret it if you add it to your itinerary.