What to do in Milan? Start with an espresso.

Drama. Passion. Coffee. Coffee, coffee, café.

You guessed it, the land of the Boot. Italy. That’s where I am now, where the waving pointed finger is the only way to make a conversation work. Where you can never say “yes” just once (”si, si, si” in staccato machine-gun succession). And where you and that pointing finger can really say “no” together (”No, no e no!”).

It’s also where the espresso is king. Espresso is the only kind of coffee here. Well, I guess if you’re soft you can have some milk in the morning in the form of a macchiato or cappuccino. But when you ask for a simple “coffee” (and it’s only 80 cents usually) you don’t get 300ml of black burnt sludge that came from a filter machine. No, no, e no! You get espresso. Welcome to Italy.

Onward to Milan

One way to reach Milan — at least for us old-school, no-air fools — is by land and the art of international hitchhiking. Another way is by train. The train from the north, coming down through Switzerland (or Schweiz, or Susse, or Svizzera or whatever they are calling themselves this week) will leave you at Chiasso, if you are as lucky as I turned out to be. Although they all speak fluent Italian and on a Saturday night it seems like even the train platform is a teenage nightclub all set to explode with passion and unrestrained energia, you eventually may discover that you are still in Switzerland. A short walk down the hill will also reveal the border between the Teutonic north and the Mediterranean south.

Upon approaching the line of jurisdiction at 2am, a pleasant torrent of words issued from the one of the four border police. My new standard phrase, “Non capisco Italiano” (I don’t understand Italian), quickly resulted in the smiling English reissue of “Welcome to Italy.”

And I’ve never felt so welcome before. It’s like stepping back a notch to a beautiful era where buildings have ornate augmentations and wrought iron balconies, where pizza shops sell pizza made by real Italians, where sports cars suddenly make sense because they are driven at appropriately sporty speeds.

Just an hour’s train ride into the Italian motherland, Milan is not the screaming scary bustling metropolis you might expect from the catwalk-hopping, handbag-carrying, espresso-assailing image of the city presented via movies, dubbed television and wildly gesticulating radio. Once you adjust to the constant states of exception, then the public transport is exceptional (really, why should it be a problem if the last train is now so late it has now become the next train?).

The streets are not as busy as you would expect for nearly two million people, the people not as rude as in cities where they push you aside to go on their way. Nor are the people too friendly as to scare you with shallowness. It’s all part of a life that sees your espresso downed at the bar, leaving you ready to go out and talk, to pause in the parks, to take in the sun and stroll in the piazza amid the street sellers, locals and fashionistas. Tourists are in short supply here, too, making the Italian-only language barrier a refreshing reality rather than an impossible obstruction.

Things to Do in Milan

Gentlemen of Milan, playing bocce

Where to begin? Milan is a little unlike other cities, having no “cool areas” overstuffed with hip customers where one lifestyle size fits all. The city varies across its breadth, yet does so in an even way that leaves it to you to find what you want. Like searching for four-leaf clovers in a field of fresh grass, at first supermarkets, food and even an internet café are all invisible among the shoe shops, espresso bars and marine-clothing fashion outlets.

But then with a small adjustment of your eagle-eyed attitude, they become yours to find as they slowly emerge from the complex social fabric that makes up the metropolis.

Life isn’t always in the fast lane – the street life extends itself to the bocce tournaments among the more senior members of the city, the curious sound of old men smacking their balls together and the excitement as the calipers come out to determine the winner. Couples sit nearby on park benches necking, somehow refreshing in the spring afternoon light, while elsewhere in the many parts of the parks children show a reassuring independence as they play and repeatedly manage to avoid near collisions upon swings.

It’s an interesting mix of many-tongued immigrants, of colourful Italians and their jaunty small dogs that strut along as if they are the true owners of the city streets. Some sections of park being dedicated to only the bouncing hounds, like a street newspaper where the news is written in invisible ink on every blade of grass, fence post and tree. With a feeling like Paris, but with less grey and warmer air, there is something to be said for visiting Milan in the spring – the very aliveness in the air either drawing you in or letting you sit back and feel it all drift by.

Perhaps a touristic detour is what you need to feel complete?

Then start from Cadorna by the Castello Sforzesco (castle), milling by the moat then on to wander past the largest ice cream in the world — the gothically ornate Milan Cathedral, towering stories high above the thronging piazza and looking as if to melt in the warm sunlight, dripping with detail and stone hewn delights. Pause a moment and take a rite of spring dawning from the European winter with a bag of fresh roasted chestnuts. Marvel at the English buskers playing Oasis covers with a verve that says, “we could never draw a crowd like this in England.”

Now stop by one of the many roadside bars and sip an aperetivo in the golden sunset light and snack upon the olives, cheeses and breads upon the bar as the day draws to its meandering end. Rejoice as Europe shows a rare demonstration of Nature’s fury as a storm tumbles south from the mountains to empty its wares of thunder and lightning upon the wide streets and rooftops of the city.

A passion that you can take on, or just move with. Regardless of what anyone may tell you, Milan is like an espresso for the soul.

–Robert Curgenven

Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s Italy tours and things to do in Milan, from Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ at Il Cenacolo to a Lake Como day trip.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 9:55 am and is filed under Destinations, Europe, Food, Drink & Travel, Suggested Itineraries, Travel Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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