Milan, part 3 (The food, finally! :) )

Simply: The food was amazing!
I thought I'd had good pizza and pasta before, but I was wrong.


We found this nice little place called The Kitchen. And went there twice. The service was good, food was out of this world and quite inexpensive.

The picture isn't the best, because I was too hungry to concentrate on photography, but that's my new favourite thing; Pizza Rucola. It'll definitely be part of my last meal, when the time comes!

I get a little hungry just thinking about it, so let's move on...







Himself's calzone. He looked pretty happy eating it, so I'll assume it was nice as well.

It might be a while until we have pizza in Ireland. The problem is, that we're not allowed to have wood-burning ovens here. So even a good pizza is always missing that little something.

The pastas were lovely as well. The whole trip really inspired me with cooking. All the fresh ingredients, the simplicity of the dishes and the tastes...
Himself is now fighting a one-man-battle against badly cooked pasta, trying to figure out the best times, temperatures and that extra little bit of love that are needed for the perfect texture.



The ice cream was everywhere. You could be sure to find a ice cream shop in any street and the selection was just mind-boggling; The usual chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, banana, and then everything from tiramisu to green apple and pineapple.

And man, do they like their ice cream! It seemed to be mostly grown-ups who were enjoying these treats, and the shops stayed open until late.

So a nice cone of your fave flavours is a must. :)









And finally: The Bread.

Yes, I am one of those freaky people, who absolutely adore bread.
Little slices of pizzabase for starters, with rucola and cherrytomatoes, dosed with olive oil.
Gorgeous, chewy sourbread to eat with the pastas and use for mopping up the sauce...

Give me any bread, I'll eat it. :)

So now you understand why I had to take a picture of this little display.

Milan, part 2

On the next day we walked to the main cathedral, Il Duomo.
I didn't have my long-sleeved shirt with me, so we ended up walking around it and admiring the beautiful buildingwork.
The pictures really don't do it justice, it really is an amazing place.

Il Duomo

We had some lunch and went to the Natural History Museum, which we had spotted earlier. Spent a good while looking at stuffed animals, sea-creatures and dinosaur bones. And it was only 1,50 with a student card.

Natural History Museum

On Sunday we armed ourselves with lots of clothes and took a different route towards the Cathedral.
This time we actually got in, had a look around and saw a bit of mass. Even I was nearly moved to tears.

We ended up in a pretty square, but thought it was just another square. Then we turned our heads, noticed a building on our right and I focused my eyes on a poster that said something about opera. Our thoughts got confirmation when two Italian ladies asked Himself to take a picture of them in front of.... La Scala!

We were delighted to see a sign saying "Theatre Museum". And in we went.
It was filled with deathmasks, paintings, stage jewellery and all sorts of interesting bits and bobs.
My favourites were a portrait of Pavlova and Pavarotti's stage costume from the eighties.

La Scala

Himself had noticed a place called Forza on the map, so we decided to try and find it. We knew it was a castle, but didn't quite know what to expect. We fortified ourselves with a doughnut from a street-vendor's stall and soon saw the main tower in the distance.
We had had quite enough of museums for the day, so we just walked into the inner yard of the castle and walked around it. Then we copied the locals and chilled out sitting on the grass for a while, watching the lizzards which were the castle's only occupants these days. Them, and cats. (Lin: One of the cats instantly reminded me of Hobbes. But don't tell that to him, or he'll want a castle built around his kitty-basket as well...)

Forza

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Yesterday I spent four hours at work cleaning fridges. Oh, to be a lizzard in Forza...

Milano, part 1

I have to do this in parts, partly because trying to put up more than four pictures at a time would be too much for my modem, partly because there was so much to see, I have to go to work soon and won't have time to write about it now. But I'm back and it's all back to normal. I was working yesterday, working in the other place this morning and going again.
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Everything went smoothly. Himself's dad drove us to the airport in the morning. We thought we were going to be late, when we saw the line of people in front of us, but were just fine in the end. The flight was in Milan early, we got a bus to the centre as soon as we got out of the airport and the sun was shining even though it wasn't even noon. Lovely.

Himself posing in front of the Central Station

We nearly strained our necks during the journey, looking at all the buildings. We got our first display of Italian hospitality as soon as we hopped of the bus; this fella helping people with their luggage stopped what he was doing and guided us all the way to the tourist information. He even greeted us by name when he passed us later on. I was delighted, because Italians pronounce my name the same way we do in Finnish. (Irish people just can't do it, so I don't hear my name "right" that often, it really was a treat)

The entrance hall to the Central Station

Ok, so there's a lot of pictures of the station. But it's a good example of the architecture in the city: Huge, impressive and beautiful. And a handy landmark, because you can see it from most streets.

We headed to the info point, got a map and made our way to the hostel. The receptionist was really nice, and let us book in early. Hotel Arno is the name of the place, in case you're ever going to Milan and are happy with "cheap and cheerful" accommodation. (Try to arrive during the day, if you want a really warm welcome; The night porter was a bit on the dry side...)

This is the ceiling above the platforms

We changed our clothes, slipped on some flipflops and went exploring. We didn't get too far on the first day, just walked around and took in the views and got familiar with our surroundings.

A "little" statue on top of the station

I have to go and get ready for work, but I'll continue this in a while.

Can't wait....

My internet connection is giving me a headache.
Now I don't seem to be able to comment on blogs with pop-up comment boxes. My modem looks at me, gives me an evil grin and goes on holidays. Disconnecting, re-connecting, shouting and crying have all been tried, and all the methods have failed. Blaah.
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I had my first day in my second job yesterday. I got a call, happened to be off and went in. Worked for a few hours; Did the shopping, cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom. It was great, the time flew and she asked me to come in again next week. And I got a big hug as I was leaving. :)
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We went to Longford yesterday. JC's friend is over from England, and we got invited for a little spin. Had the worst indian in my life, but got to add a new town into my map. Great! :)
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Last but not least:
I'm getting so excited about going to Milan!!!
I actually find it hard to get to sleep, because I keep thinking about the architecture and the food. Mainly the food... :D

There's so much to do... I haven't even decided what I'm going to pack and I need to find something to pack it into. I still have tomorrow, so no stress.
It's going to be our first proper trip together. We've been to Finland twice, but that doesn't count because it's my homeplace. And we were in England once, but Himself has been in there so many times it wasn't really exciting for him. This is going to be the first time in Italy for both of us.

I wish it was Friday already!

In search of Easter traditions

I just realised, that we don't have any Easter traditions.

I don't think my family used to do anything special, and Himself's family definitely don't make a big deal of it. But all of a sudden the pictures of lovely lamb dinners made me want to start a new tradition.

Yesterday I tried to tell Himself (half jokingly) that we should think about his soul and not have a drink on Good Friday. His answer was: " I think my soul is pretty much f***ed, living in sin with a protestant." So we called a few friends and had a few cans.

I think we need to go with something non-religious, informal and different with this tradition thing, like...
...Annual Easter egg hunt. Himself can hide the eggs and I'll do the searching and eating part.

Right,I'm off to the supermarket to check the egg situation! Have a happy Easter!