Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Exploring Milano

We started our day again around 1pm. Damn jetlag! Since we walked all day yesterday, we decided to take le metro all day today.

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We walked around the D'uomo area again, and stopped by a cafe that looked really beautiful around Avenue Dante.

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We ordered NASTY tortellini - it was dry, had little sauce, mushy and just plain bad. It is sad to say that I can make a better tortellini from scratch, and even from the can than what this place served. Then we ordered a hot chocolate. We were happy to see that it was thick like the one at Les Deux Magots in Paris. With our hopes high, we tasted and realized that it was very bland and kinda gross. It was like they used cornstarch to thicken it up instead of real chocolate. Blech.

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The gelato section of the cafe. Despite the rainy/chilly weather, the Milanese are always eating gelato.
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I hope it tastes as good as it looks.
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The cafe at night
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Perhaps a random apartment complex?
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Afterwards, we explored some more and decided to try and check out the Last Supper. To our dismay, we found out from the reception that we had to make reservations first. Then we asked a couple Americans and they said they had to plan it 2 months in advance! Man, sucks that we came all the way to Milano and didn't get to see it! We had already explored much of Milano already so we busted out our map to check out what other attractions there were. We found a castle so we decided to trek over there.

This castle used to be the center of Milano, and had a huge wall surrounding the entire city. Pretty cool!!
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There was a big group of Chinese tourists walking around this area. This one Chinese lady asked if I was from China. I told her I was from the US, but that she could speak Chinese with me. She was asking me info about the castle, and I was like "I don't know" in Chinese. hahaha! I was as much of a tourist as she was. Later on some Italian people asked us for directions! Hmmm, do we look like we are locals? I didn't think so but I thought it was pretty funny.

After the castle, we just kept walking around and went back to Avenue Dante. We decided to do some shopping outside the D'uomo area where the more affordable stores are located - Zara, Mango, and some cheaper Italian stores. We noticed that the Milanese definitely dress more flashier and gaudier - since it is the high fashion capital of Italy, Milano is definitely more focused on status. They love to wear logos of high-end brands.

Later on, we stopped by another random cafe and ordered Tiramisu. It was pretty good. Yay! Something tasty in Milano! Btw, the cafes in Milano are interesting - they have bars where people just stop by and get an espresso, drink it quickly standing up, then leave. This was pretty strange since we were used to sitting at a cafe in Paris for hours.

Doesn't it look beautiful?
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After Raf took this picture, the umbrella broke and fell down. I hope it didn't hit anyone in the head! It was pretty funny.
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After some shopping, (Raf got me a reall cool shirt from Zara!), we went home to relax a bit and wait for the restaurants to open at 8pm. When we got back to the hotel, we realized that there were hookers and trannies around our hotel. One lady in particular was ALWAYS outside our hotel. She dressed normally and everything but just stands around with her cell phone at night and in the mornings. We saw another older lady (dress code screamed hooker) with her two pimps. I swear, one of the guys was wearing a white suit! LOL. Made sense though since it was in the financial district where a bunch of hotels are.

We were debating on two restaurants - one restaurant that was pricier but recommended by the hotel, and another one that was arbitrarily chosen and not as pricey. We chose the latter (and was walking behind three tall trannies) as we walked to the restaurant. Much to our surprise, it was a GREAT choice! It looked pretty empty, but when we entered the restaurant and walked down the stairs, there were quite a few diners. It looked like a mom and pop restaurant. One of our waiters was this tiny old man that looked like his name should be Luigi. hah!

We ordered a glass of house white wine that was REALLY GOOD. They are VERY generous with their glasses of wine here - they open a new bottle and fill your glass to the brim. We ordered carpaccio that was fantastic. For our main dishes...

I ordered half a lobster and linguine. Look at the bib they gave me! Raf ordered Spinach Gnocchi with Gorgonzola sauce.
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Raf digging into my dish
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We later ordered Panna Cota for dessert. This place was soooo yummy! This was our first satisfying meal in Milano, and I am so glad we had it before we left! In comparison, the average restaurant in Paris is pretty good (apparently, we heard from others that the food in Milano sucks), and the city is just always lively, no matter what time of day it was. Also, we missed people watching at cafes. Our trip to Milano was interesting, but overall, we were kinda bored and at this point, itching to get back to Paris. Home Sweet Home. ;)

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