Milan

by Glen Strachan

My wife and I have spent many happy times in southern Italy over the years and the great cities of that beautiful country have also had their fair share of our attention.

The obvious quirks and unique features of Venezia and Firenze or Venice and Florence, to give these cities their English language names (why does that happen - surely one would never translate the name of a person in such a way - so why do town and city names appear ‘in translation’?) have made them firm favourites but one glaring omission from our ‘Italian job’ has always been Milano.

Why should that have been? No special reason, other than the fact that it lacked the kind of ‘focus factor’ that Roma has with the Colosseum, Napoli with its volcano etc etc. Whisper it (especially in the company of the Milanese), but we just believed Milan was a little dull by comparison to much of the rest of Italy and so it has been the last of the major Italian cities to appear on our radar.

That situation changed recently as we were planning some time in the UK and, in organising the travel plans for there, we realised that for a very small surcharge we could fly from Alicante to Milan and then on to Glasgow and so a week in Milan came to pass.

One aspect of Milan that is obviously neither boring nor bland is the fashion side of the city and while we have long departed a business scene that had both of us in designer clothing for our professional years, the sharp end of the fashion business is still of considerable interest - even if that interest is now simply as spectators rather than buyers of this kind of clothing.

As luck would have it , our timing was a little out and we missed Milan Fashion Week - which by all accounts is surprisingly accessible in the number of events that welcome the attendance of the ‘great unwashed’ like Flora and me, as well as the BrAnjelinas and the other Madonna (more of her later). But nobody could ever walk through the centre of this city without noticing the opulence of the shops and the eye-watering prices that were being charged for clothes that looked, to our unsophisticated eyes, quite ordinary.

Another small surprise was the number of buyers in these shops as the cash registers happily clanged away and the locals and the near essential Asian tourists hit the street with large bags of their proud purchases. I have to admit this was something of a throwback as most of the cities we have visited lately seem to be suffering from shop closures and a surfeit of sales offering curiously large discounts, apparently in a desperate effort to move merchandise and stay alive through these difficult times for the retail world - but nobody seemed to know about such things in Milan.

Our first port of call in Milan was the fabulous Piazza del Duomo - a vast square in the centre of the old city and that offers a great impression of the city to any new visitor with the Royal Palace, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele 2 and several other beautifully crafted and wonderfully designed buildings but all of that pales into something close to insignificance when seen alongside the remarkable Gothic facade of Milan Cathedral.

Gleaming in the sun like some vast wedding cake, this building is probably the most ornate that we have seen anywhere - given the sheer size of what I understand is one of the five largest cathedrals in all of the world and the one that boasts the largest collection of marble statues anywhere.

From any part of the square the eye is invariably drawn to the gleam from the golden statue of the ‘Madunina’ - as the locals refer to the statue of the Madonna (definitely not the singer, we were assured!) that sits on the highest point of the cathedral roof.

That cathedral also has most intriguing door policy, as a visit is not simply a matter of going right round the building and seeking out the ticket office but, once that ticket has been bought, the young security guards on each main entrance claimed the right to apply a very rigorous dress policy. There were quite a few heated arguments overheard as that unfolded although it must be said that there were some young ladies seeking entrance who looked to have adopted a dress code more suitable for one of the many nightclubs that surround the square. Their insistence that this had not been pointed out when they paid their money was met with an uninterested shrug of the shoulders. When one young American was reminded that she was seeking to enter a place of Christian worship and should moderate her look, she made her counter-point that it hardly seemed Christian to insist that she should pay for entry to this building of prayer in the first place.

I found the inside of the cathedral (yes, they found nothing immodest in my look although the iPad did get a little scrutiny) rather underwhelming after the great impact of the Gothic facade but, in fairness, what could have compared with that?
The visit did make sense, though, when we were able to stroll around the balconies and out onto the supremely sculpted roof. Just the various details around that roof and the closer view of the Madunina were enough but, when you add in the superb views across the city from that great height, it makes a very fine way to spend a morning.

Only a few yards away from this seat of Milan’s version of Catholicism - which contrasts in several significant ways from the Roman version of that creed - one enters the equally impressive Galleria Vittorio Emanuele 2 which carries a wide range of designer shops and some very chic restaurants with equally chic prices on their menus. So there it was - two very different ways to worship, the old and the glittering new!

The restaurants seemed to be doing a roaring trade at lunch time and in the evenings when we subsequently visited the square but it is worth pointing out that, only a few steps outside the vast Galleria, sat a wide range of indoor and outdoor restaurants that were also very well patronised, but which offered very similar menus in food terms at a much more sensible price.

The food itself was absolutely as good as you might expect in Italy. In Milan the emphasis was more on rice than the pasta that seems to be such a staple in other regions. That suited me just fine and we enjoyed several good risottos of one kind or another, not to mention some decent bottles of wine.

We did laugh when we saw the busiest outlet in all of the Galleria - yes, that was MacDonald’s, where the more discerning Milanese seemed more interested in drinking coffee than eating food and somebody did tell us that the price of a cup of coffee there was lower by far than any other cafe in the area. It therefore made sense to buy a coffee there and sit in the middle of this wonderful Galleria drinking it while watching the world and his shopping uncle pass by.

Taking one of the major ‘shopping streets’ out of the square led us to the site of Milan Castle - the traditional residence of the ruling House of Sforzesco. Even allowing for the surprise of finding the castle on flat ground, it was quite an impressive building and on one day that we visited, there was a large market in progress.

To our great delight, we arrived ahead of lunch and discovered that this organic market mostly featured some great wine and a bewildering array of cheeses, which most of the stall holders were happy to cut into small pieces and sell in similar quantity. I doubt if we have ever eaten so many different kinds of cheese on any single day. With some fine red wine to wash that down while sitting in the beautiful gardens that surround the castle, this was a grand way to spend a sunny afternoon. Maybe the cheese that we were most surprised to see (definitely not one we had seen anywhere else) was called ‘Strachen’ - just one letter different from our surname, and naturally we had to try that one - and very nice it was too.

Anybody who has read my meanderings in other SIG newsletters that I have written for will probably find it very easy to work out the one place above all others that would lead me to a Milan visit - one of the most famous Opera Houses in all of the world of music; the wonderful La Scala.
The fabric of the building and the museum attached to the main theatre were as impressive as any opera buff would expect. It was a little bonus to be able to sit in on a full dress rehearsal during our morning tour of the opera house.

It generated a very definite tingle to sit on the seats around an auditorium where first night performances of Madame Butterfly and Turandot were heard all those years ago. While none of the current season’s offerings are likely to break significant new ground in the art, it was still a big thrill to listen to opera there.

Milan is a very attractive city and superb architectural values have been assisted in no small way by the relative prosperity of the city, not to mention a decided sense of style from the wealthy folks who put their money into business there. There are many attractive official halls and churches there. In a city that was a hotbed of resistance from Milanese who were devoted to the overthrow of the Nazis, clearly the years that followed World War II were a very successful time for Milan, while Rome struggled to recover its public image which was left ruined in tattered complicity with Hitler and his twisted aims.

Our time in Milan was spent in a small hotel - one of many in that part of town - in the area off Viale Romagna which, although mostly residential, boasted some great restaurants and bars. We ate at La Mongolfiera several times and it was a very traditional place, much favoured by the locals who seemed to arrive in family groups and almost all of whom were welcomed on first name terms by the owner. Before that week was over, we were being greeted in that same way by the owner and his father - now retired, but still on hand to oversee his world of food.

The owner was particularly helpful in providing directions to various dishes that were not covered exactly by the lengthy menu and we enjoyed the treats that he sourced for us. La Mongolfiera was much smarter than some of the wonderful down-at-heel little local restaurants that we so enjoyed in the south of the country, but it still retained that special knack that Italian restaurateurs seem to have in making dinner ‘in their house’ seem like an invitation to their mother’s home - albeit a highly decorated Art Deco style home. Even the size of the bills from there hardly reflected the quality of the food and service.

The geographic situation of Milan makes it a superb location for travel throughout Europe and the long distance links in rail (five major stations) and air (three airports) are in keeping with the excellent internal city links of Metro and bus. Even the taxis offered a decent service at reasonable prices and perhaps we were just lucky, but the guys who drove the cabs we used were quite affable and helpful.

It is to Milan’s credit that the size of its population - almost 1.5 million - is not immediately apparent in this spacious city while the transport links from a metropolitan area that is heading towards a total of eight million still leave one with the impression of a handsome town, rather than some teeming, over-crowded cityscape.

Apart from my own feelings about La Scala, there is not really much to leave one breathless about this city. But while we are unlikely to return soon - our next trip to Italy will likely be to a destination much further south, probably the fabulous Amalfi coast - we did have an excellent week in Milan. Even if few pieces of that pricey designer clothing found its way into our bags for the homeward journey, we have rarely eaten better.

Forza Milano indeed!

First published in VISA 102 (Apr 2012)