Milano Meandering

After a fantastic day at the local theme park, we pulled into Milan just in time for dinner.  Thankfully just before leaving on our break, I had lunch with a friend that had lived in Milan for years and told me all about Aperitivo.  Many of the restaurants in Milan have adopted the tradition and I was eager to try.  Aperitivo starts at about 6or 7 pm.  You find your seat, order your drinks and hit the free buffet.  Yes, FREE.   On M's recommendation, we headed to her favorite and feasted on great Italian finger foods and a drink or two each.  There was a point that I thought they were going to ask us to leave as the girls just kept going back to the bar for more and more food (and didn't purchase a single drink).  Needless to say, we were stuffed and happy and sleepy so we headed back to our Airbnb.

 A day in Italy is never done until there is Gelato.

The next morning we had nothing on our agenda except meandering.  It was Monday in Milan and all of the Museums and many of the sights are closed for the day.  I had not been able to secure tickets to the Last Supper viewing (sold out months in advance).  But no matter,  Milan is a town to be experienced from the streets and experience it, we did.  The weather was cooperating nicely so we donned our sweaters and headed the 2 blocks to the square where we got our first {daylight} view of the famous Duomo.

Stunning!  But more on it tomorrow (we had a tour) and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II was beckoning me just to my left.  As the oldest shopping mall in the world, in the fashion capital of the world, this four-story double arcade is more than famous, it is iconic.

And what do you know, we walked directly into a photo shoot.  I snapped a few pictures of the lovely model and we moved on down the gallery...

The two glass-vaulted arcades connect the Duomo to La Scala (the Opera House) and in the very center is the glass and iron dome.  Prettiest shopping mall I have ever been in.  It was impressive, to say the least.

 

The girls were more impressed by the chocolates.

We were all in need of a quick snack so it was time to hit the second recommendation I got from my friend M.  She suggested that we go upstairs to the 4th floor of the mall and sit outside on the balcony of the Terrazza Aperol.  And what else do you order except a Spritz and then sit and enjoy the view...

Her version is a virgin, mine is not.

After a quick bite to eat we were off to La Scala to visit one of the most famous Opera houses in the world.  Built in 1778, the stage of La Scala has been graced by the best of the best, including perhaps the most famous of all, Maria Callas.

Quite unassuming actually.

 But this was fabulous.  We got to stand and watch as they rehearsed for that evenings show.

We wandered the exhibition dedicated to Callas...

Back out in the sunshine we stopped for Gelato (the first of the day, surprisingly)

Wandered back through the Galleria, where we once again ran into a photo shoot (this time a bride and groom taking after wedding pics...)

And hit our last stop of the day - the costume exhibit.  A collection of costumes from La Scalas most prominent productions through the decades it was interesting to see just how intricate and detailed they are.

We called it a day after the exhibit.  Well, we called it Aperitivo...