Milano, Part I

I have many happy memories of the Milano cookies my mother would occasionally bring home from the grocery store.  She knew I would go through them at one sitting, so it was a rare treat.   It was nice to finally see the real place and delight in all its pastries and confections.  

You never know what to expect from a city but I have to say that in Milan all expectations were exceeded.  Such a lovely city, much bigger than I thought, so we only caught a small glimpse.  If we had made more of an effort to figure out the tram and metro lines, we could have taken in more over the four days, but are quite satisfied with what we saw.

It always helps to have a generous amount of coffee available at the little apartment we rented on Via del Torchio. The owners provided a DeLonghi capsule coffee machine that was just right for two small cups of coffee when we got back from our excursions, along with little pastries we picked up along the way.  One learns not to overindulge in Milan, as the food and confections are rich, and can leave your tummy rumbling at night if you eat too much.

We had no problem getting around the city, thanks to the handy apps on our cellphones.  We had held out for years getting smartphones, but would have been hopelessly lost in a city like this without them.  Even still it was easy to turn down a wrong street, but were quickly able to find our way back thanks to GPS tracking.  The only real problem is keeping the phones charged, as having the mobile data on all the time sucks the battery dry pretty quickly.  So, would charge the phone at lunch breaks.

Our first stop was the Duomo.  As impressive as it is on the inside and outside, the most magical place is the roof, where not only do you see all the wonderful flying buttresses and massive dome in all their glory, but you get great views of the city and the mountains beyond.  Milan is on a large flat plain, hardly a contour to the city, yet seemingly within an arm's reach are the Italian alps rising up from the northern edge of the Lombardy region, where we flew in at the Bergamo airport.

The Duomo took centuries to complete and was originally going to be in red brick, but the archbishop's cousin Gian Galeazzo Visconti insisted on white marble and the result is magnificent.  Hard to imagine the cathedral otherwise.  The Duomo has undergone several restoration efforts and you see this best at the roof level, where old and new pieces come together.  The roof top itself is like a park, with people sitting on the stone roof tiles, soaking in the sun and views of the city.  Monitors warn you to keep away from the low stone rails, as it is a long way down, even if it is just to another level below.  The sculptures and bas reliefs are all unique.  Images of saints and divine beings over every portal, including the odd little bird carved into the stone, as if sealed in time.

The ticket is all inclusive, so it very important to see the museum on the side of the piazza as well.  Wonderful sculptures and decorative work from the cathedral over the centuries, as well as a huge wood model of the church that allows you to get a better sense of the beautiful proportions.  Tucked away is a chapel from the 13th century that predated the cathedral, with remnants of a lovely fresco on the back wall.

You are expected to where masks everywhere, and show your green pass.  Milan was hit hard during the early days of the pandemic and the city has remained vigilant since then.  Even still, local officials struggle to get everyone onboard.  We met a former colleague for lunch at Signorvino one afternoon.  She now lives in Milan and said that there had been anti-mask and anti-vaccine protests in the Duomo piazza the previous week.  It was a simple meal.  The best part was tasting the regional wines, and catching up on each others lives.

Nothing can prepare you for the Last Supper, or Il Cenacolo as they say in Italian.  I had never realized it was a fresco on the wall of the refectory next to the Santa Maria delle Grazie.  I had always thought it was a painting.  The fresco has undergone multiple restoration efforts, the latest in 1972 that cast new light on at least three of the apostles.  You are only allowed 15 minutes of viewing and surprisingly permitted to take photographs, no flash of course.  The contrast to the fresco of the crucifixion on the opposite wall is profound. Da Vinci captures the dinner as if in progress with lively conversation taking place and a dark Judas, with his little bag of coins, seeming to know how it would all end.  John is surprisingly effeminate in character.  Hard to tell him from a woman, which of course led Dan Brown to imagine all sorts of absurd things in his Da Vinci Code.  Still, your mind can't help but plot a conspiracy of some kind taking place.  I thought of Greenaway or Sorrentino making a movie in which a last dinner is held in the refectory during pandemic times, past or present, with the fresco looming over the characters.

It is very much worth seeing Leonardo's vineyards across the street afterward, as they are tucked in a lovely villa built by Duke of Milan in the late 15th century.  I'm not sure which came first.  The villa or the vineyards, but the Atellani House is magnificent as well.  You can view some of the downstairs rooms, which were impeccably restored by Piero Portaluppi, a renown Milanese architect from the early 20th century.  He did modern interiors on the second floor, but these are all private apartments and not available for viewing.  You go through an ornate hallway to the vineyards, which are kept in a rustic way with a fluffy calico cat wandering around in search of someone to pet her.  I couldn't resist.  

Portaluppi is well worth remembering, as he did many buildings throughout Milan and was in charge of a new urban plan for the city in the 1930s, shortly before it fell under Mussolini's control, who by the way was Milanese himself.  Perhaps Portaluppi's most famous villa is for the Necchi family, completed in 1935.  It is a marvelous example of early Italian modernism, replete with furniture from the era.  The Necchi sisters lived to the ripe old age of 100, holding onto the villa to the very end.  They had initially considered selling it to Armani, who badly wanted the villa on Via Mozart, but in the end bequeathed it to the FAI, the National Trust for Italy, and it is available for public viewing.  The hosts are mostly pensioners with a great sense of history.  We were convinced that the woman who talked to us was an architect, or at least an architectural historian, as she had such fine sensibilities when it came to the interiors. 

Daina had said that it was too bad they put a gilded 18th century sitting room in one of the upstairs bedrooms, bequeathed by the Ferrari family a few years ago, but the host said it wasn't unusual for the Necchi sisters to change out the modern furniture.  In fact, one of the bedrooms had been completely redesigned by Tomasso Buzzi to fit a classical bed and side tables that one of the sisters favored over the original furniture.  Nevertheless, the FAI has kept the modernist appearance by Portaluppi on the ground floor, which has been used in several movies, including I Am Love.  The host also told us it is featured in the upcoming House of Gucci.

We had our big meal at the Al Matarel in the San Marco district, which had  been recommended to us by our colleague.  We got there a bit early.  The first to be seated.  The waiter didn't show much interest in us.   Daina inspected the wine glasses only to find lipstick residue on hers and a badly chipped rim on mine.  We asked that they be replaced, which he did.  Mine was still chipped, but no matter.  The place began to fill up.  The waiter became more lively. When I asked for a Lombardy wine, he recommended the Inferno with a fiery accent on the first syllable.  Daina didn't know what to think of her Risotto Milanese.  It tasted undercooked, but apparently Italians like their rice al dente like their pasta.  I had the tortelloni ai tre sapori, a medley of three flavors.  The spicy pumpkin was the best.  There was a long pause before the main dishes came out.  The Ossobuco was well worth waiting for and Daina really enjoyed her Rostin Negaa.  Both are traditional meat dishes, so tender and savory that they tasted like they had been roasting all day.  All the tables were filled by this point, so we no longer felt alone in the back half of the restaurant.  Conversation swirled around us like a tempest in a teapot.  We had no idea what they all were talking about but it sounded exciting.  The waiter seemingly in the thick of every conversation, as one would expect in an Italian restaurant.  It was a bit pricey but the experience was worth it.

It is this almost seamless blend of new and old that makes Milan such a pleasure to see.  The Neorealism buildings with their sculptural walls can be a bit too much to take at times, knowing the history of fascism, but Mussolini wasn't completely like Stalin and Hitler.  He allowed modern architecture to take its own course throughout Italy.  Probably the most famous architect from that era is Guiseppe Terragni.  You see his apartment buildings, or at least ones built in his style, throughout the city.  They don't really take away from the historic character of Milan.

Between these landmarks, we would stop to look inside the churches.  They were all so impressive but it was the little church dedicated to San Satyro that really struck our eye.  It is a long linear church originally built in Medieval times, but made over during the Renaissance with wonderful Trompe l'lioel effects to give it a depth that obviously couldn't have been achieved otherwise.  We stumbled upon this church quite by accident, which made us wonder how many more hidden treasures there are in the city.

We would take little breaks at the many patisseries around the historic center, each little confection better than the last, but of course what we loved most was the rich Italian coffee.  Daina preferred her coffee Americano but I would take a double espresso each time to get the full flavor.  You can either have your cups at the bar or at a side table, which you usually pay extra for.  We delighted in the Marchesi 1824, perhaps the most expensive cup of espresso in town, but well worth it for the view you get through the semi-circular windows to the vaulted halls of the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II.  The gallery was being made over for Christmas with a huge tree filled with Swarovski crystal ornaments at the intersection of the vast halls.  It's fun to feel rich once in a while.