Zurich - Milan

Market on a Sunday in Canal Area, Madrid

I finally got myself into gear and hopped onto a train to Milan for the weekend. Well, it’s never quite that easy, but it sounds good!

I went with Lena and in the end we decided to leave on Friday mid-afternoon and stop over in Lugano for one night and then go to Milan the next morning and stay until Sunday evening. This meant I could do some work in the morning, go for a swim and then catch the train, so I was happy with this plan.

We intended to meet on the platform but actually we bumped into each other at Starbucks beforehand, so that was a good sign that things would work out well. It was a beautiful 27 degrees when we arrived in Lugano and this, along with hearing Italian all around me, was enough to make it feel like a holiday. 

It was an evening where Switzerland was due to be playing in the World Cup, so the square in the town centre had a stand set up to show the match live and more and more people started to pour into the streets as the time of the match approached. We managed to find a rooftop restaurant – Seven – that seemed to be World Cup-free and was surprisingly quiet. We didn’t get a window seat, but the view we had over the lake was still wonderful. The food was amazing and I’d recommend it if you are ever there. It was my favorite meal of the trip.

We heard a roar, a happy roar, at one point and concluded that the Swiss must have won the match and, checking online, they scored a goal at the very last minute which won them the game. We wandered through happy crowds to get back to our hotel, but they weren’t rowdy or drunk or even particularly elated as you might see in the UK. However, cars tooted loudly in jubilation as they drove past and the atmosphere was definitely celebratory. It was a warm and fuzzy ending to the day.

The following morning we got the train to Milan. We were a bit puzzled by the tickets we got from the machine. They seemed almost impossibly cheap but stated that the route was restricted to use of regional trains. However, it is impossible to get to Milan without taking an international train. It turned out that we had to pay a supplement (not a fine) because we were on an international train, but we still couldn’t understand how they could sell a ticket that was impossible to be used in itself. This mystery was never solved.

It was my first time in Milan even though it’s only 3.5 hours from Zurich. It would be worth going for another trip, since we didn’t want to spend time queuing. Consequently,  we didn’t get to go inside the cathedral or climb up to the spires, and we didn’t get to view the painting of the Last Supper, which has to be booked in advance. Of course, there were other things we didn’t manage to do either, such as the botanical gardens or any museums, although this was, in part, because the weather was too good to be spent inside.

We did take a sightseeing bus tour, so we saw the highlights of the city. We spent quite a lot of time in and around the castle and the gardens just behind. There was a large security presence (here and by the cathedral). Music seemed to be everywhere in Milan (it reminds me now that Sheila said that the Italians have a habit of just breaking into song). There was a free band playing in the park (which had a pond with turtles!) and a number of good buskers.

Our main starting point was usually just by the cathedral, so we saw that many times even if we didn’t go inside, and we were also in the galleries in the same area where we enjoyed some wonderful cakes just before we left. I hadn’t realized before that the Italians were good at cakes. Pizza, pasta, and coffee are a given, but cakes was unexpected for me.

By the cathedral, there were lots of very persistent Africans giving bracelets away touting for money to support their country. There were also two bananas walking around giving out free samples as an advertising campaign.

On Sunday, we strolled down to the canal area. Probably in any other European country it would have been called little Venice, but I guess they don’t do that in Italy! There was a huge range of market stalls  and it was buzzing with people; the wares were mostly art, antiques, and clothes. We didn’t have enough time to see all of it.

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we ended up not leaving enough time to get the train we’d planned to take – partly because the queue to get the tickets was so long and partly because the machine was telling us that the train was sold out. We got a train an hour later, so it wasn’t so bad, and we had time to buy some food before we boarded.

It was a very enjoyable weekend and it was refreshing to go somewhere new. I’d definitely go again  and maybe plan tickets for things where you need to be a bit more organized in advance. But for this first trip, it wasn’t a hardship as there were plenty of things to see.