Another day in Milano and, contrary to my expectations, another beautiful, if cold, day. Consistent with my prior days in town, I decided to try to find something that looked interesting on the little map of Milan on my iPhone and head in that direction. This morning, I noticed what looked like a big green space, apparently a park (Parco del Castello Sforzesco), on the map. At what appeared to be the opening of the park, at the center of the semicircle at the south end, is the Cairoli metro stop. That seemed to be a good place to start off the day.
I hopped on the metro and went to the Cairoli metro stop. There, I learned a little Italian. Yes, “parco” does in fact mean park. I also learned that “castello” means castle because the park was adjacent to the Milano castle. I walked inside the Milano castle and took my usual collection of iPhone photographs, some of which I share with you here. There were several signs within the castle relating its history in both Italian and English. It seems that the castle has been built, partially destroyed, rebuilt, expanded and perhaps even painted several times over the past seven or eight centuries. There was nothing specifically spectacular about the castle, but it is always interesting to find some sort of unexpected landmark when roaming through the city. Also, I recognized it as the landmark, along with the Duomo, that I had most often spotted on Milanese souvenir items.
Behind the castle, entering the park, there was a carnival. Yup, just like any carnival back home, there were rides and games of . . . umm . . . skill, haunted tents and a variety of vendors selling overpriced foods that are intended to be eaten by people too young to have been told by their doctors about the dangers of eating such things. According to signs that I saw, the carnival was in town for about six weeks and this was the next to final week. If I had come next week, perhaps I would have packed up and gone with them, but alas, I will be in Rome when they take off and its just not worth the trouble. I didn’t hop on any rides or play any games, but I did grab a cappuccino from one of the vendors and I enjoyed that.
For meals, after my initial pizza, I have primarily been going into little cafes and having paninis in little cafés with café americano or espresso or some other coffee treat. There is one place that I went to a few times that is a cafeteria with several hot and cold options. I tried gnocchi with Bolognese sauce. Another time, I tried linguini with Bolognese sauce. I’m pretty sure that I would eat chocolate ice cream smothered in a good Bolognese sauce. (Sadly, I’m not entirely sure if I’m kidding about that.) I also had some tiramisu and was pleased.
The only other major landmark in Milan that I hit up was the San Siro. For the uninitiated, the San Siro is the home soccer field for both AC Milan (David Beckham, Ronaldinho) and my favorite European club, Inter Milan. I scheduled this entire week of my trip in order to take in an Inter Milan match. I won’t go into great detail about the stadium because that will be an entry in my soccer blog, www.worldclubrankings.com but it was a great time. I picked up my ticket at a hotel about a mile and a half away from the stadium a few hours before the match. I met an American at the hotel and we walked to the stadium. The stadium was magnificent. The match was everything that I hoped for except that it finished in a goalless draw. I know Americans don’t like anything that finishes 0-0, but it was a great match nonetheless, with several opportunities for both sides. But, again, there will be more about that on the other website.
Along with my other entries, those are the highlights of my trip to Milan. Disappointingly, I must say that I never did find any cookies that shared the name and I am beginning to think that Pepperidge Farms doesn’t have a location here in which enslaved elves are putting together its products by hand in rotted out trees. Or am I getting my cookies confused. Whatever. To all the naysayers, Milan turned out to be pretty nice. Now, off to Pisa.
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