July 2015
I took a week long trip to Milan and Vienna with my mom to coincide with the World Expo 2015 in Milan.
Here are some highlights:
- World Expo - In Milano from May 1 to Oct 31, 2015, think of Expo like a massive six-month trade show of countries, or Epcot on crack. See bottom of the post for more, including a short video!
- Food - Milanese cuisine is more rice than pasta and richer than what I think of typical Italian food, but their love and care of food is still Italian and there are many opportunities for great meals.
- Duomo - the central Milanese cathedral is magnificent inside and out and worth a visit.
- Last Supper - one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings is on a rectory wall in Santa Maria delle Grazie Church.
- Shop - I happen to not be a fashion type, but Milano is certainly one of the fashion meccas of the world. Emmanuelle Galleria houses the original Prada shop and some might enjoy the fashion district. I on the other hand, enjoyed the “saldi” season at your lower/mid level boutiques and made a killing at Promod. Italians make lovely shoes as well.
Notes on Milan
- Milanese speak some English in tourist areas, but it's worth getting some basic phrases down
- We stayed in an AirBNB studio near the Lima stop off of the Metro 1/Red line and a 5 minute walk from Centrale Stazione where you can get a bus/train direct from Malpensa international airport. It was so lovely to have a fridge and mini-kitchen for breakfast and snacking, and to live in a more residential area. Highly recommend over hotels.
- Summertime is ridiculously hot, and well into the evening. Avoid being outside mid afternoon if you can.
Eat and Drink
We had a lovely mix of casual and fine dining in Milan. Turns out the olive oil, tomatoes, pasta that I think of when I imagine Italian food is more prevalent in mid to southern Italy, and Milanese are closer to say Austrian or German food with more breads, rice and mix of meat and seafood.
- Ristorante Cracco - we had a decadent, luxurious and creative two and a half hour lunch at Chef Carlo Cracco's two-star Michelin restaurant just blocks from the Duomo. We splurged on the tasting menu with a few classes of wine
- Osteria del Treno
Milan Sites
We joined a guided walking tour through a company called Veditalia. It was 63€ per person for the "best of Milan + Last Supper" and English guide with eight other people for three hours. It was worth it because my mom wanted to see the Last Supper and reservations were full through five weeks out. But our guide Christian was a local Milanese, incredibly knowledgeable and we learned a lot about Milanese history and the sites.
We visited:
Duomo Cathedral and its Square - the central cathedral in Milan took five centuries to construct and is a continuing work in progress. It's 2
Da Vinci’s Last Supper and Santa Maria delle Grazie Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site - given the sensitivity of the famous and ancient Leonardo da Vinci mural, there are strict 15 minute reservations. Totally worth it though, really powerful.
Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery, the “living room” of Milan with the flagship Prada shop
Sforza Castle - outside and its inner yards
Mercanti Square, the medieval city heart
La Scala Theatre (outside) and its Square
World Expo
For those who don’t know, one of my life goals after working at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai is to see every Expo going forward - they happen every five years and cities bid on them like the Olympics (next one is Dubai 2020).
The theme for Expo Milano is “Feeding the World”, focusing on what people and countries are doing to sustainably produce and provide food around the world. More broadly, Expo is about showcasing countries with each nation sponsoring a pavilion that represents their culture, technology and philosophy around food. So what better way to experience this Expo than food/drink crawling!
Highlights at Expo:
- Japan Pavilion - Japan did a phenomenal job weaving together Japanese food customs, industry and innovation in an interactive and digital experience. As a testament to that, it was the only pavilion with a constant line. Overall I would guess it takes about 20-30 min to get in plus an hour to get through the multi-stage show.
- Allavita! - Cirque du Soleil has a special show for Expo. It is fanciful and dynamic and incredible like every other Cirque show I've seen, plus set in an open air theater with a longer interactive show around the theme of food. 38€ for the closest to stage of three sections (open seating in all).
- Russia Pavilion
- Italy Wine Pavilion
- Eataly - I know there are other Eatalys in the city, but if you are in Expo and want to eat Italian food, Eataly is a great place to sample food from every corner of the country. Try the gnocchi and tiramisu at Locanda Mammi in the Abruzzo e Molise region, amazing!
Country Pavilions - besides the ones mentioned above, I find the larger countries to be somewhat underwhelming for the amount of money they are probably spending. I loved the "smaller" places like Bahrain that not only had the most beautiful architecture and told a wonderful narrative about gardens and their primary agricultural exports and Morocco showed their various regional environments and specialties. Qatar was impressive, and I actually love going to places like Senegal to try a baobab drink or Slovenia to learn about salt.
Coolest architecture (take pictures of the outside but not worth going in) - UK, Vietnam, USA (sorry it's true...)
Eat/drink - in addition to Eataly, Italy Wine and Salumeria Pavilions, Japan and Russia, the Czech had pilsners from an outside poolside bar, Belgians had fries, beer and great cafe, Morocco had nice outdoor garden restaurant, US has a Food Truck 2.0 area (I didn't go), Chile for daily 4pm wine tasting seminar.
