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We left around 9AM and went to Piazza del Duomo; one of the popular tourist attractions. The inside wasn’t anything too special but we truly came for the Tower terrace which was 7 euros to climb up stairs. So beautiful and it wasn’t too busy when we were heading up. So much detail put into this cathedral but the top the view is spectacular at least the side of it as the other side was under construction. When we got down, the line was much larger than when we arrived.
Beside the Duomo is a very high-end mall called Vittorio Emmanuele II that looked spectacular. We just kept walking around into a pedestrian only zone trying to find this calzone place Aaron’s friend had recommended but no luck. We ended up on Via Alla Porta / Via Magenta area and had lunch at Osteria al 29 Pizzeria (Corso Magenta, 29, 20123 Milano). I got a coke and gnocchi Stran-something for 7 Euro – 16.50 euros in total. We wanted to walk to Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio which is right beside a Catholic university. We ended up touring the university and it’s courtyard. We couldn’t find a way out of the church instead made it into the churches courtyard to find it was closed. We continued to walk to San Lorenzo. We continued walking down this one street which led us to the border of Chinatown and Navigli (area with canals). The Navigli area was under construction for the world expo and the other part had low water. There were little booths like the swap meet in Hawaii or the night markets back home.
For dinner, we wanted to goto Giacomo which was 30-40 minutes away but was a little too pricey for our budget. We looked for other options and decided on Da Oscar which was at Porta Venezia station on the S1 line. We walked there only to be told that their night was fully booked so we sauntered over to Osteria Luna Piena (Via Lazzaro Palazzi, 9, 20124 Milano) owned by Pepperino – a movie director turned chef. The food was good but service took forever. We got a prosciutto dish to start and Aaron, Ricky and myself all got the troccolli alla marinara con tagliatta di seppioline de gambero – cuttlefish and shrimp pasta and I got this weird chocolate and ammaretto shot – mandorlino which was too chocolatey for me. 20.50 Euro. Very slow service even with a bell to get their attentions.
From there, we hopped back on the train line to Garibaldi and walked to Il Massimo del gelato in Chinatown area (Via Lodovico Castelvetro, 18, 20154 Milano MI, Italy) for the best gelato town according to the internet. 5.60 Euro for two cones with two flavors. I got cachi – they said it was Italy’s national fruit (similar to persimmons) something which tastes like a tropical fruit i can’t put my finger on. We walked 21KM this day. It’s been a constant 12 degrees celsius for majority of the time we’ve been here.
