Milano
Today I write from Milan, Italy. I am set to depart tomorrow for home and just wanted to share some thoughts. Milan is a great city to visit and especially shop just like everyone else says. I also find it to have a more comfortable feel than Florence, the other Italian city I visited on this trip. It's not nearly as touristy and you can run into someone who doesn't speak English which because of Florence's destination nature is hard to do there. Yesterday and today we did a little shopping on the Corso Buenos Aires where you can find all the big name shops. No less than 2 H&Ms and Bennetons and many other stores. I bought a few things at Oviesse (a shirt and some shorts) and some other local shops, and checked out the Japanese store Muji which offers travel goods, home goods, and clothes. A great store and probably my favourite find on this European vacation. I did buy quite a few things from their Oxford street store in London. For you New Yorkers you already have a few stores, unlike the rest of the US. I also visited Peck today which is a world renowned Italian food store. They have a huge variety of prepared foods as well as fresh pasta, meats and lots of cheeses. I would definitely say it's not on the cheap side but they do pack everything very nicely and even tie it with a bow. If you live in Milano I would say this is a sometimes place to go and get good meat or special event foods. We picked up a little salami and various olive oils. Then we of course went to see the Duomo which is nearby and the Galleria which is very pretty and filled with high end shops like Prada and Gucci. I wish we had these types of "malls" in the states. We then took a few pictures and headed over to Peck Italian Bar, the lower cost option of Peck owned restaurants, the other being Cracco-Peck. I have to say the food was good but nothing special. The space is very nice, lots of wood and open feeling. I had a sampling of cured Peck meats for my antipasto and my wife had some bread (she is vegetarian). I might not be that much of a cured meat connoisseur but I couldn't really taste a big difference between each type. We then moved on to our main courses, I had a veal chop milanese and my wife had ravioli with zucchini and smoked provolone. I thought the chop was good, it was butterflied and breaded and I ate it up. It wasn't full of complex flavors, just a simply prepared dish. I could say though that I have had just as good in the states many times. I did like the mixed green and cherry tomato salad side. My wife enjoyed her pasta and thought it was unique, what with the atypical cheese and how the zucchini was tossed with (not inside) the pasta with the olive oil based sauce. We then decided to have dessert. I ordered Creme Caramel and my wife order a macedonia (mixed fruit salad) with vanilla gelato. My creme caramel was good and pretty sweet tasting until I found a hair stuck to the bottom of the custard. I showed the waiter who honestly looked shocked. I saw him rush it back to the manager and the kitchen. Unfortunately since there is a slight language barrier he didn't come over and say anything to me. He then proceeded to bring me my espresso and eventually the check which did not have the creme caramel on it when we received it, so I did not have to complain, it was just done. Back to the food, my wife's macedonia was quite good and a nice end to a dinner. The dinner could have definitely been better and I wish someone had at least come over to say something to me about the hair. Overall that dining experience summarized my trip to Italy: pretty on the surface with a hair lying underneath.
P.S. I forgot to mention the hotel we are staying at which is The Best Western Hotel Galles which is located on Corso Buenos Aires and next to a subway station. This is a 4 star hotel so it is supposed to be nice. When we checked in the desk staff spoke english and was very nice. When we brought our bags into our room it was very very small. Almost no room to walk you had to crawl over the bed. When I looked out the window we had a hotel accent spot light on the little terrace outside our window the room was also on the first floor (second in american speak). I went down to the lobby and asked to be moved into another room. The desk clerk obliged and the bell boy showed me the other room. The second room was much larger and on the second floor (third floor U.S.). However the bath room was not redone like the first room. We decided to stay in the second room and got on with our day. The hotel includes a complimentary continental breakfast who's offerings are pretty standard compared with other like starred italian hotels nothing amazing but satisfying enough. I would stay at this hotel again but request a room on a higher floor or check out one of the many other similarly priced Milan hotels.
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