We got up bright and early with a view to getting to the Pinacoteca da Brera as near as possible to its 8.30 opening time. We expected it to be busy for the first day of the Armani exhibition. This exhibition was planned by Armani himself before he died on September 4th this year, so is historic in terms of being his last exhibition. The outfits were beautifully showcased against the backdrop of the amazing artworks in the museum, as can be seen in the photos below. We saw many notable paintings, including several by the great masters such as Titian and Raphael. We also saw restoration in progress of ‘the other’ Last Supper by Rubens, having left it too late to book a ticket for Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper elsewhere in Milan.
We rounded off our trip with coffee and cake in the gallery café. There was a bit of an impromptu fashion show going on with very well turned out asian boys.
From there we wandered along the cobbled street of Via Fiori Chiari and past the scenic Piazza del Carmine before witnessing models posing in front of Sforezco castle whilst buyers’ vans for fashion week buzzed to and fro! Inside the castle we saw a huge range of museum pieces including archaeological finds, ceramics, musical instruments and furniture. Finally we visited the Rondanini Pietà museum where Michelangelo’s last unfinished sculpture is housed.
After that we walked through Milan’s largest park – Parco Sempione – as far as the Arco della Pace. We found a simple restaurant near there for a fairly!! light lunch – porchetta for Dave and oxtail lasagne for me. We ventured into the tram, followed by the metro for our route back and has a much-needed siesta after our culture overload. 🙂
That evening we had booked a 4 hour small group food tour of the Navigli canal district. The heavens opened and there was a dramatic storm, so the area was not as photogenic as we’d initially been told!! We were very determined, however, and had a fantastic guide, Jessica, who told us some interesting historical background. We walked back via the Colonne di San Lorenzo and were very grateful that our hotel was so close to a metro stop!
The food experience included the following:
- Fried mini pizza with Campari. (In Sciué)
- Carpaccio of beef with polenta and blue cheese, served with Chianti. (In Chunk)
- Some street food: farinata (made of chick pea flour – got to try this at home!) and focaccia with cheese.
- The main event: risotto a La Milanese with a regional red wine at Pane e Vino, which had the base of an amazing tower downstairs, dating from Roman times.
- Finally we went to a tiramisu shop, Mascherpa and tasted a home-made deconstructed tiramisu.
Despite the weather, it was a fun activity and nice to meet some fellow travellers.
After the tour we jumped on to a metro train and were back to our hotel in about 10 minutes!!!
Back to Blighty tomorrow, I wonder how the journey will be!