Charming Milan

Buon giorno!

In this post I'm going to tell you all about a magnificent, fashionable city. Another city with a lot see, experience and, of course, a city where you can shop till you DROP. I am talking about the third city in the top three: Milan! Milan is the most important city in North Italy. The city itself has about 1,3 million inhabitants, but with the inhabitants in the areas around Milan included, we'll reach an amount of four million! We got there in the morning of May 12th and we left on May 15th in the evening, so we had about four days to enjoy the lovely weather we had there, but we also had time to see things different from shopping streets and monuments. 

The hostel we slept at was much better than we expected. The bathroom was in our room and just for the two of us. We didn't have to share the bedroom with other people and it was nice and clean. But the best thing was that we had a great balcony with a view over the center of Milan. Yes, we yelled when we got there. As the sun set in the evening, the last rays of sunlight shined into our room. It was amazing.

Yum!

We wanted to do as much as possible in four days, so we got ourselves a map and started marking the places we wanted to go. We saw that every Tuesday and Saturday, a market would be held on Viale Papiniano. So on Tuesday morning, we took the metro and went there. We found a huge market where all kinds of food, clothes, shoes and a lot of other things were being sold. It was very nice to take a stroll down the market and enjoy the fresh fruit, search for treasures and experience the atmosphere there.

Piazza del Duomo, lovely

The other day, we went to see Piazza del Duomo; a gigantic square in the center of the city with a cathedral in front of it, the Duomo. In the middle of the square, you'll find a great statue of Victor Emanuel II, he became the first king of Italy in 1861. The cathedral is so big that I had to cross the square almost entirely, just to get a full shot of the building. It was overwhelming. We also went to see the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele next to the square, named after the first king. This is world's oldest shopping mall! It has loads of shops, restaurants and hotels. The building has amazing glass arcades which provide the halls with natural light. In Galleria Vittorio Emanuele you'll find the great names in fashion, such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and more.

Finally, a few tips to fully enjoy your stay in this lovely city:


1. Go and visit a market like we did! We recommend the market on Viale Papiniano. You can take metro number 1 or two, or tram number 14. It's a very nice way to get in touch with the locals in Milan, plus you're able to enjoy the freshest fruit, vegetables and other food. And if you search very well, you may find some real treasures for a bargain price.

2. Do yourself a great favor and look after your possessions very well! Especially when you're in a crowded place (not only an advice for Milan of course, when visiting a big city, always be careful with your belongings). Pickpockets just love markets, metros and trams. Keep. your. eyes. open.

3. Visit the Berschka on Corso Vittorio Emanuele, close to the Duomo and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. Just do it. Not only because of the affordable and lovely clothes, shoes and accessories, also because of the experience.. This Bershka is the biggest in the world! It goes on and on and on. When we visited this immense shop, there even was a shiny vintage Chevrolet SS in the middle of the shop. So cool.


Hopefully you enjoyed reading about our favorite cities of the Europe trip! Each and every city had its own flaws, but in our opinion, Lisbon, Berlin and Milan were the best. Thanks for following the traveling posts, I hope I got you guys a bit traveler's high just like we are ;) 
Keep on reading!

Love,
Ruby

Feeding doves at Duomo