Milanese Shopping Experience... check

10/26/2009

Today Claire, Miles, and I woke up early in order to catch a morning train into Milan. The Gornto’s have family friends there from when their mom lived there as a young lady. Claire was coming for the day and then taking an afternoon train back to Torino, which was able to work out really well because Katherine gave her her Eurail pass to use during her last week in Italy. We ended up taking a really nice, high speed train, and playing the card game that Claire learned over here, scala quarenta (sp?). I really love playing cards, especially with people who understand cards well, pick up games fast, and are good at cards in general. The Gorntos are these type of people and I really enjoyed myself playing with them.

When we arrived in Milan their family friend, Sandro, met us on the platform. So here is the Gornto’s family friends deal. When Claire’s mom, Sarah, was about the same age as Claire and I are now, she came over to Italy to live for a couple of months. She lived in an apartment across from a family, which included a Mom (Etzia) and her two sons (Sandro and Andrea). Sarah became good friends with the family. Etzia has a sister, who lives in Virginia Beach and owned a restaurant that the Gorntos frequented. Also both of Etzia’s sons worked at so the families became closer. Right now Etzia is over in Virginia Beach with Sarah and Brooks, while Miles, Claire, and I are over here with her son, Sandro, and boyfriend, Gabrielle. I think it is a neat switcheroo and an extremely cool example of having friends all over the world.

So Etzia and her family have been kind enough to show us some fantastic Milanese hospitality. Sandro took off some time from work to pick us up from the train station, lead us to Etzia’s apartment so we could drop our stuff off, and then have lunch with us. Miles and I are actually staying in Gabrielle’s, Etzia’s boyfriend who lives right across the hall from her, apartment. It is extremely generous and convenient of him to allow us to do this. It was so nice to get off the train and have some one lead you to where you are going instead of going through the frustration of figuring it out on your own with your heavy pack on your pack in the hot and stuffy metro. Claire did the same things for Katherine and I in Torino and it really was an extremely nice way to come into a city.

Gabrielle and Sandro took us to lunch at a place near the Milan Duomo that exemplifies the Italian take on fast food. The place was called “Ciao” and was almost equivalent to a KandK cafeteria deal, but with really delicious, fresh food that you were able to get fast and for cheap. I got a pasta sampler plate that included porcini risotto, tortellini, and pest spaghetti and then Miles and I split a plate of proscuitto and mozzarella. The meat and cheese plate was good, but not as good as what I was used to a Susan and Diego’s house.

After lunch we walked to the gelato chain, Grom, that we ate at with Claire’s friend. On our way, we walked through an arcade that had some really expensive stores like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Mercedes, and then a MacDonalds in it, go figure. There is a mosaic on the floor of the arcade of a bull, which you are supposed to turn on your heel three times on in order to get good luck. Obviously I did it because I need all the good luck I can get. Apparently Grom is a very famous and well known chain that delivers the highest quality gelato. This trip to Grom was even better than the last time I had it. I got a nutella and stracciatella (cream and huge chucks of chocolate chip like pieces) on a cone. We enjoyed our ice cream in a piazza in front of city hall and across the street from La Scala Theater (a very famous opera theater, so they tell me). Sandro had to go back to work, so we said goodbye to him and set off with Gabrielle to help Claire find an international phone for her mom.

By the way, Gabrielle speaks very little English. He and Claire can communicate pretty well and he and Miles realized that they both speak German, but he and I have some difficulty getting our points across to each other. We just do a lot of smiling at each other. I still think he is a pretty precious peach, all 5’4 sweet little Italian man he is. Sarah really wanted Claire to get her an international phone and had been driver her crazy about it, so we all just went to get it and cross if off the list so Claire wouldn’t have to hear about it anymore. The place where we went to buy the phone was similar to a Best Buy and was in a metro stop, which I thought was an interesting place for a large electronics store. While they were shopping for the phone, I found a very nice shiatsu massage chair and enjoyed a little nap in it. I felt like my dad.

After we got the phone, we headed back to the Duomo to take pictures of all of us together. Then Claire wanted to head on back to Torino so that she was home by the time Susan and Diego got home for work and she also wants to pack in as much time as she can with the kids before she leaves for Virginia on Saturday. She really doesn’t want to leave and is trying to figure out a way that she can get back over here as soon as possible. Susan is also really pushing for this. Claire is so lucky that she has had such an incredible experience.

Once we said goodbye to Claire, Miles, Gabrielle, and I popped into the Duomo to check it out. I prefer the Milan Duomo over the Florence one. It is much prettier to my eyes. The Milan Duomo is the 3rd largest cathedral and the largest gothic cathedral in the world. It had some unbelievable stained glass in it. We looked into walking to the top, but like the Florence Duomo, it was extremely expensive to do this and to me not worth it. Miles and Gabrielle agreed, so we stopped in to a little café for some coffee to recharge our batteries.

The three of us spent the afternoon walking around Milan. Milan reminds me a lot of New York City. There is a banking district, a lot of high fashion shops, the way people dress and walk around, the cafes and restaurants and hotels. It was more of a feeling than factual similarities, but I liked the vibe. After the Duomo, we walked down a famous high fashion street and looked in all the windows. Doing this was an interesting experience for me because I feel so out of touch with these incredibly expensive material objects and in awe of the fact that the market does survive because there are people (and apparently enough for the companies to be profitable) that can afford and do buy these outrageously expensive items. I also find the materials, style, and quality of a lot of high fashion pieces interesting to look at and consider. A 150 euro t shirt from Dolce and Gabana is a ridiculous thing in this world. We went into an Armani department store that sold everything from household furniture to flowers and chocolate, and as with the rest of Europe, the Beckhams we displayed in ads all over the store.

After the fashion street we walked to an extremely old castle, Castello Sforza and checked that out. Also on our walk we saw a gate, which belonged to the very old wall that used to surround Milan, and an 1000 year old church. Both of these landmarks were located randomly throughout the city and were surrounded by more contemporary things on all sides. We headed home around 5:30, because with day light savings gone it was starting to get dark fast. Miles and I had plans to meet Sandro for dinner at 8, so we hung around until 7:30, when we took the metro to meet up with him. Milan’s metro is pretty easy to use. Miles says its similar to DC’s.

Sandro took us to an authentic Tuscan restaurant that was a locals favorite. It was delicious. We ordered a salami and cheese platter, a bruschetta platter that had three different types on it, wine, and then fat, juicy, steaks that were served with French fries. It was close to heaven. I have not had a steak like that in so long and didn’t realize how much I had been missing red meat in my life. We all got dessert and I ordered a great meringue cake with chocolate sauce. Stick a fork in me, I was done. The restaurant was exactly set up exactly the way that I would want to set up a restaurant that I owned. Since it was a locals favorite, the restaurant can set up their own set of rules. The kitchen was open from 8-10 only and even on a Monday night the entire restaurant filled up. It was a very casual and relaxed atmosphere and it was obvious that they were able to do extremely well because the food spoke for itself. Sandro insisted on paying, which was so nice of him. Miles and I are brainstorming good thank you gifts we can give him and Gabrielle in return for their hospitality. Sandro is a card and I really enjoyed hanging out with him all night. He works for Deutche Bank and is in charge of investment banking for a gaming and media section. We talked about my trip for a while and all the place I have been. He made me feel better about skipping out on Berlin. I haven’t heard that many good things about that city and with the winter arriving up north I am sure it is freezing. Its probably a good thing that I have decided to catch Berlin in my next trip to Europe… in the summer.

Miles and I wanted to look into going to see the Last Supper while we were in Milan. Sandro looked up that information for us and it turns out that you cant even get a reservation to see the Last Supper until December. Cant say we didn’t try and oh well there is always next time. Its so nice to be able to hang out in a home for a while. I have been extremely spoiled the last 4 days.