Italy: Milan

We planned on spending Amanda's birthday week in San Francisco and Napa Valley this year, but then we discovered a mistake fare and decided to forgo our original travel plans for Italy. In Italy, we visited Venice, Rome, Florence, Tuscany, Cinque Terre, and Milan.

Part 1 - Planning & Introduction
Part 2 - Venice
Part 3 - Rome
Part 4 - Florence
Part 5 - Tuscany
Part 6 - Cinque Terre
Part 7 - Milan

"We should come home from adventures, & perils, & discoveries every day with new experience & character." 

-Henry David Thoreau

We flew into and out of Milan, but our main reason for spending time here was a stay at the Park Hyatt Milano. Extra bonus that we got to explore a new city.  It rained off and on, and at 48*, it was a little chilly but comfortable with layers and an umbrella.

Where We Stayed

The Park Hyatt Milano is centrally located right around the corner from the Duomo and the major shopping area, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It is the number one ranked hotel in Milan, and at ~$1,000/night, it is extremely luxurious.

There is no way we could afford to pay to stay here, and even if we could, we would not be able to justify the ~$1,000/night price tag. However, we redeemed a night for 22,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points by transferring Ultimate Reward points (from Chase Sapphire Preferred) prior to the Hyatt devaluation in January (now 30,000 points). The only out of pocket cost was 10€ to cover the city tax.

The hotel was gorgeous. 

The customer service was excellent all-around. Upon arrival, we were given a personal tour of our room and two free glasses of champagne in the Park Bar.

The room was spacious and had everything from fancy bottled water, to boxes of chocolate on the bed-side tables, robes + slippers, a soaking tub + rainfall shower, and high-end toiletries. It was very comfortable, and we didn't leave our room until check-out.

There was a complimentary bottle of wine and an espresso maker in the room.

It was such a wonderful experience, that we now have a Park Hyatt bucket list.

The night before traveling back, we stayed at the Sheraton Malpensa Airport. It is a very nice hotel, attached to the airport which was convenient for a morning flight.

We used 7,000 SPG points to stay here and were upgraded from a standard room to a junior suite which was a fun surprise!

What We Did

The Duomo is the fifth largest church in the world and quite impressive. After all, it did take almost six centuries to complete! We walked inside and spent some time in the Piazza del Duomo with the pigeons (free).

Milan is known as one of the fashion capitals of the world. We do not particularly enjoy shopping, but we did spend some time wandering in and out of stores such as Prada, Louie Vitton, Gucci at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

We were really hoping to see Leonardo di Vinci's The Last Supper while in Milan. It is one of Italy's most famous paintings, located on a wall in the dining hall of the monastery at Santa Maria delle Grazie. The painting was finished around 1498 and is very fragile because of how it was painted. In fact, the first signs of deterioration were in 1517. Today, only 25 people are allowed in to view the painting every 15 minutes, after going through two dehumidification chambers.

Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 39-02-9280-0360 (6,50€ and 1,50€ advance booking fee). They sell out months in advance because the painting is so popular, and tours buy out a majority of the tickets. We were unable to secure tickets 2+ months ahead of time and even called a few weeks out to see if anything had opened up (nothing had). At one point, we thought about taking  a city tour which would have included viewing this painting, but it was expensive (~90€). 

We read that sometimes there are a few tickets available for same day walk-up, so we decided to walk over to check (about a mile walk one-way from the Duomo). We arrived around 1:00 p.m. and learned that there were 2 tickets available for the 6:00 p.m. tour (6,50€). What an unexpected surprise!

The Last Supper was much larger than we anticipated it to be (15'x29'). It is amazing that this painting still survives, especially because the building was mostly destroyed by bombs during World War II. The wall, protected by sandbags, remained standing. Photographs were not allowed inside, so we took a picture in front of a much smaller replica.

The Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie  and the courtyard were quite lovely as well.

Where We Ate

We ate hot mini-calzones or panzerotti at Luini Panzerotti on Via S Radegonda 16. There was a line out the door both times we ate here, but it was quick, tasty, and inexpensive (2,60€ per calzone).

Princi bakery on Via Speronari off Via Torino was our lunch stop. One look around and our mouths watered; there were so many choices! It all looked incredible, but we controlled ourselves and ordered ravioli, foccacia, tiramisu, and espresso for lunch (16.25€).

Keeping with the regular routine, we made an afternoon gelato stop at Grom on Via Santa Margherita 16. Grom is a famous gelateria chain throughout Italy, and although good, it was not one of our top choices.

Matt really wanted to check out the Milan McDonalds, so he got a a little treat too. We NEVER do fast food in the states but have come to the conclusion that McDonald's, especially their coffee shop, is so much nicer out of the country (at least in Hong Kong and Milan from experience).

We were hoping to make it to the Naviglio Grande Canal area for dinner, but with late tickets for the Last Supper, the walk back, and needing to take the metro and then a train to the hotel/airport, we ran out of time. Perhaps next time we will get to try Pizzeria Tradizionale at Ripa di Porta Ticinese 7.

In Conclusion

We loved Italy, enjoyed quality time together, and were thankful to return home from our adventures with new experiences and character. 

Thank you for reading along!