Dolce far Niente

I finally had an opportunity to have some non work related jet-setting and took a mini trip to Milan to meet up with my dear friend Aimee. She was in Florence for work so it only made sense to cook up a scheme to meet in Italy for a Saturday lunch. So that is exactly what we did. We found each other around noon on Saturday and departed on Sunday at dinner. The perfect amount of time to indulge in too much food and wine, catch up and make friends with Italian bar staff.

I managed to select the perfect guide book for the last minute trip. It came with a map I could actually read and pretty much had the advice to not worry too much about site seeing and just relax and have some good food and wine. So, since we didn’t reserve our tickets a year in advance as most do to see the The Last Supper, we found a few good restaurants, drank our weight in wine and prosecco and focused on chatting and people watching.

We did squeeze in a trip to view Milan’s Duomo and admire a brilliant building that only took 430 years to complete. I stepped into the role of tour guide and did a dramatic reading of some facts from the guide book to Aimee. My favorite of which was the phrase “la fabbrica del Duomo” which is a phrase the Milanese people use to describe anything that seems to take forever to complete. I enjoy that they have a good sense of humor about their famous landmark and the ridiculous amount of time it took to finish. The builders probably read the same guide book I have and spent more time eating and drinking than on construction.

A true miracle was the fact that I managed to leave Milan having only purchased a magnet. We did visit the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle shopping arcade which houses many of the famous designer brands, but we simply admired the store fronts. While there we did take a break from window shopping to participate in a good luck tradition. A mosaic tile image on the floor by the entrance depicts a flag and bull to celebrate the king who the building was named after. According to local tradition stomping on the bull’s testicles as you walk past brings luck. Aimee and I joined the crowd and stomped away as it was our turn to pass through (photo o fmy good luck stomp is above).

The only thing that did not cooperate during our weekend break was the weather. It was cold and rainy and everything in the entire city was a dreary shade of brown or grey. This of course prompted a nasty allergy attack upon arriving. By dinner on Saturday Aimee got tired of having to say god bless you over and over again and we found an Italian pharmacy. The lovely pharmacist took one look at me and produced a box of something called Reactine. The only thing we confirmed with him was whether I could still drink wine if I took it and we received a thumb up and a smile. 12 Euros and two reactine later and I was back in action. So I guess technically I came home with a magnet and the remaining box of miracle allergy pills as souvenirs.

The highlight of our Italian adventure was meeting Marco the bartender at StraRipa bar. He kept our glasses filled with a delicious secret cocktail, protected us from smarmy dudes at the bar and even gave us his favorite recipe on how to make the perfect salmon (Aimee if you are reading this I still need you to send me that from your notebook). Marco and I promised to be pen pals and while I’m still waiting for my letter from him (and aware of the fact that he will never write me) I was certainly left with some fond memories of a fantastic evening in Milan (and the worst hangover ever the next day).