Milan Week One

Obviously I have not figured out the internet situation here. It has been a whole week in Milan and other than a lot of eating, we have been hampered by illness and weather (overcast or rain in the high 40’s, a couple of days of sun in the 50’s). My 4 year old arrived with a mild cough, which became a severe cough when she infected her younger sister but by the time it mutated to me, it became a full-blown cold with sinus congestion and fever. I am here for Milan Fashion Week, which meant I had to hack my way to all the events while everyone looked at me with fear and scorn. The shows here are incredible and it has been a worthwhile trip since this is the bag mecca of the world, but you can read about all that on Bag Snob.

We are staying within walking distance of the Duomo, the third largest cathedral of the world. I’ve been to St. Peter’s cathedral at the Vatican (the largest in the world) and I cannot remember how it could possibly be bigger than this. The ceiling was 100 feet high with richly colored stained glass extending the entire height. An impressive sight to behold to say the least. As expected, the area is full of tourist traps but we walk there daily because we don’t know how to take the electric cars that run throughout the city. But we’ll get there now that Fashion Week is over. There are 7 of us so although taking cabs is doable it’s not exactly affordable since we need 2 cabs and it seems like everywhere we go amounts to 15 euros (around $20).

We did take cabs to dinner one night when it was raining, which meant $80 in roundtrip cab fares. Luckily, the dinner was incredible!! Da Gaspare on via Ravizza, 19 (apparently owned by a famous soccer player here, but don’t ask me who, I couldn’t exactly make out the name when it was said) is called a Pizzeria and looks like an average café but we learned quickly not to let looks and name fool us. As soon as we walked in to the fresh display of seafood, I knew I was in heaven. Razor clams grilled to absolute perfection – sweet and just tender was sooo good just in its own goodness without need of seasoning. Branzino, we’ve had it everyday, but here, the whole live fish cleaned and immediately grilled is probably what mermaids experience when they eat fish. Spaghetti with clams, yeah, I thought I’ve had this dish before but apparently I have been eating a very mediocre imitation. It is so simple with just olive oil and parsley but with the clams pan fried and the pasta soaking up with precious nectar, it was seriously life altering. It was recommended to me by a sales associate at Stefanel (a trendier version of Club Monaco), I think I will go back and ask for more!