Jetlag Rating: D
We slept great our first night and on top of that our morning excursion got pushed to 9:30 instead of 8a so we (I) had even more time to sleep in. Hooray for me! Tim had signed us up for “Exploring Brera” the night before so in the morning we embarked on a shopping tour. Milan is Italy’s fashion and design capital and the district has some of the most iconic shops in the world. On the way over we walked past the entrance of Gianni Versace’s 400-year-old Palazzo. Armani also had a palazzo we passed on the way, but we didn’t have a great view of either as they are basically private compounds. Still, it was neat to see them and before we knew it we’d arrived at Ginori 1735, a Florentine House that handprints stunning dinnerware sets. We watched a live demonstration (theres a video in the album) took a tour of the shop, and had some amazing pastry and espresso. The plates were a little ornate for our taste and at around $150-200 each they would have been a little too precious to use.
Following our tour guides down the cobbled street we arrived next at a second generation chocolatier, who kindly invited us to the tasting room in the basement of his shop. There we sampled chocolates made from cocoa and hazelnut, invented before powdered milk was a thing. The chocolates we tried next that had the milk were creamy and delicious, and the final chocolate was a coated lemon peel which reminded me of those chocolate oranges you can get around Christmas. (My Aunty Victoria used to bring me each year and they’re still my favorite!)
Our next stop was ViBiVENEZiA Milano, a company run by two sisters inspired by their love of Furlane, the quintessential Venetian slipper invented in the XIX century, when a group of women began producing the shoes with left-over fabrics and old bicycle tires. They sold them by the Rialto Bridge and they were a huge hit with gondoliers because the rubber sole gave them good grip when rowing while still protecting the wood of the gondola. They are worn by both men and women so I picked up a pair and explained to my friends I would basically be wearing Harry Styles ballet flats (kinda.)
We stopped into Bar Jamaica, historically the go-to spot for artists, writers, and filmmakers since the 20th century. Maybe sort of the Cafe Fleur of Milan. We had a quick drink with snacks and then was the gallery of Sofia Zevi (here’s a short article about her) and found some beautiful Venetian Yali Glass Carafes and Glasses:
Lunch was a hurried stop at a Tuscan-inspired restaurant where we had courses of quintessential Italian classics like an antipasto platter, an amazing sausage rigatoni, and tiramisu for desert. We got back to the hotel just in time to get ready for the US women’s Hockey qualifying match.
We arrived in our customized Team USA Milan/Cortina Hockey Jerseys to root on the Women’s Hockey Team. A friend was able to catch us rooting them on from home:
They absolutely killed it (some videos in the album,) and we decided to sneak off from the group to get some Neapolitan style pizza just before bed. It was the only pizza we got this trip so WELL worth it.
Exhausted from our day of shopping and hockey, it was off to bed and onto day three!