Weekend #2 of European Living: Italy

Weekend Adventures: Milan and Lake Como

(June 18-20, 2010)

We left Friday afternoon and took a direct train to Milan. Aside from the girl that Preston sat next to that must've been deaf considering how loud she was listening to bad techno on her iPod, it was a lovely trip.
 
When we found our hotel, we were pleasantly surprised with its location and set out to S H O P ! It was a beautiful summer night and we decided to walk past the Duomo di Milano and see if we could find a cafe for dinner. Along the way Preston found a great pair of jeans to contribute to his ever-expanding "euro" wardrobe.


After exiting the Diesel store, we saw a police escort pass by and when we took a closer look we realized all of Milan was screaming for a VERY heavily hair-gelled Matthew McConaughey launching his new fragrance at one of the Dolce & Gabbana stores. The funny thing about Dolce & Gabbana in Milan ... it's like the Gap ... there's literally one on every corner. It's truly unbelievable.


We parked ourselves at a prime table at Cafe Madonna where the people watching was awesome. We lingered there for a few hours and decided to take a little detour home and window shop. We stumbled upon Via della Spiga, on the northeast part of the Quadrilatero della Moda, and we were not disappointed. Tiffany was actually one of the less notable shops. We got a little lost :) but made it back to the hotel without copping out for a taxi cab (although it might have been suggested!).

We started early Saturday morning knowing there was a lot we wanted to do. After eating at the hotel (Preston had what he called his dream breakfast, a nutella croissant) we vendured to the Duomo. We opted to take the stairs to the top for 5 euros (8 euros for the crowded elevator). I had been there in 1995 and I had completely forgotten how incredible this church, the fourth largest in the world, really is. It took five centuries to complete and the baroque-gilded bronze Madonna on top was once the highest point in Milan (the Pirrelli Tower's now the highest but that was hit by a small plane in 2002 so you have to think it's not the luckiest of buildings!).

We toured the inside of the church for a bit and hit the same spot, Cafe Madonna, for lunch (not too original but the people watching was really that great).

We left plenty of time to get back to the hotel and get to the train station but that didn't stop us from having an incredibly frustrating experience at the Milan train station. None of the ticket machines were working (to give context to how upset I was, Preston offered an Italian gentleman behind us in line 20 euros to buy our 10 euro tickets to Lake Como, keep the change -- no luck for him either). We boarded the train without tickets and felt somewhat vindicated that they never checked tickets so it was a free ride. When we arrived at the Lake the rain was pouring down but it was still a beautiful scene. We had taken a train to Varenna, on the east side of the lake, and needed to go to Griante, on the west, where our hotel was. In the middle of the Lake, between these villages (I'm learning that's what everyone here calls "towns") is Bellagio. Bellagio is the intersection of the "Y" that everyone describes as the shape of Lake Como. Is a pretty resort town with overpriced (in my opinion!) silk shops and some small jewelers.

Despite not loving our hotel on Lake Como, we were impressed by our room's view. It was beautiful even on a rainy day.

We walked all along the waterfront and Preston enjoyed seeing the enormous lake fish swimming below. We took the ferry back to Bellagio (in the 24 hours we were in the area, we rode the ferry five times!) to walk some more and enjoy the evening. We stopped at Hotel Splendid for happy hour outside on their patio (I had a delicious passionfruit martini). We were also pleasantly surprised that it's relatively common to have free h'ors d'oeuves with happy hour.

We walked around some more and stopped for dinner at the Hotel Bellagio. The food was incredible (Preston had gnocchi with sausage and I had pasta basilico) and we shared a bottle of red wine from the region. 

We called downstairs at 10:30 Sunday morning only to find out check-out was actually at 10. Oops. They kindly allowed us to stay until noon, which we did, and we took the ferry back across the lake to take the same route on which we came back to Geneva. We stopped in Bellagio for lunch (I had the world's best vegetable soup at Bar Oastuccerua Sabremo) and Milan for dinner.

By the time we arrived in Geneva it was nearly 10pm (on Father's Day -- happy day to our dads!) so it was a very long trip back. But worth it. See you soon, Italy!


Complete photo album here: Milan and Lake Como

*******

 Weekend Trip to Milan and Lake Como

 Dates:

 Friday – Sunday, June 18-20, 2010

Things we did:

• Friday night walk through Milan, dinner at Cafe Madonna
• Saturday shopping in Milan, visit to the Duomo (and its roof), train to Varenna on Lake Como, ferry to Griante
• Sunday morning at the hotel, ferry ride to Bellagio for lunch and Milan for dinner en route home to Geneva

Where we stayed:

Milan: Hotel Cristoforo Colombo
Lake Como: Hotel Britannia Excelsior

The Walls' Review:

Hotel review: We loved our hotel in Milan, the Hotel Cristofo Colombo, and were just "so so" about the property on Lake Como. The hotel in Milan was well situated between the train station and the main shopping center. They had a nice breakfast spread and a very cool design asthetic (half of the entrance way was covered, half not, behind the facade of the entrance of the building). The gentleman behind the desk was also extremely helpful in helping us find trains/times to Lake Como.

We upgraded to a lake view balcony room at the hotel on Lake Como, the Hotel Britannia Excelsior. The hotel was situated very close to the ferry stop which was a plus and the views were gorgeous from our room; but the room wasn't impressive, the shower was basically three plastic panels shabbily connected and the tv was fuzzy (annoying during World Cup time). The breakfast felt like a cruise ship meal gone array as it was meant to accomodate, without exaggeration, over 500 people. The majority of the clientele were elder Brits (in fairness, we knew this but the hotel pictures still convinced us to book), who were nice, but looked like they were all part of a tour group -- which I think they were!

Other comments:
While the trip to Milan was direct and easy from Geneva, we tried to cram too much into one weekend and we spent nearly 10 hours travelling home Sunday from Lake Como -- do one or the other, Milan or the Lakes, for a short weekend stay.