One Day in Milan

Today is Monday and I discovered  that you can see two museums for the price of one; and, on top of that, a reduction for being older than 65.  We set out walking to the Poldi Pozzoli Museum located on Via Manzoni, a major shopping street and prestigious address.  Armani's entire-block complex is here, which includes a department store, hotel and restaurant; Grand Hotel et de Milan where Giuseppe Verdi died is next door, and La Scala is just down the street.  The museum is a palazzo where the family lived in grand style with an enormous collection of art, jewelry, porcelain, armor, furniture, sculpture, frescoed walls and ceilings that required unimaginable wealth to accumulate and maintain.

Next, two-for-one tickets in hand, we marched down Via Manzoni to the Musem of La Scala Opera House.  The walk is a cacophony of sights and sounds, tourist in shorts and sandals squinting at their maps, businessmen in crisp suit and tie dodging the tourists, yellow trolley cars rattling by, swarms of motorcycles driven by all manner of people: young women in miniskirts and stiletto high heels, old women in conservative dress, men in business suits, young men in jeans and brightly colored running shoes.

The opera house itself is surprisingly low key, not the baroque birthday cake that you would imagine, but neoclassical in style.  I believe it was built when northern Italy was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Not only are there paintings and sculptures of the opera greats, but also scores written in the hand of composers such as Verdi, Mozart, Gluck, and Donizetti.  You can also go into several box seats.  Today a rehearsal of the lighting for an upcoming opera was is progress.  The director seemed to be fine tuning a giant abstract rear projection that filled the entire stage.  While we watched this unfold in the pitch dark box seat, a group of Japanese tourists tried to muscle their way in; however, I think it was too dark, and they backed off. 

Of course, you can't visit Milan without seeing the Duomo and the Galleria which are just across the street.

Now lunchtime, we went searching for Al Mercante, a restaurant I had seen on the web but hesitated to try because of the wildly different opinions of it on Trip Advisor.  Most people loved it, but ten percent said it was the worst place they had been to in Italy with the worst food and even poorer service.  Were they talking about the same restaurant?  It was located on Piazza de Mercante not far from the Duomo, an evocative square lined with medieval buildings.

 

We had a delightfully fresh seafood salad followed by cold veal with creamy tuna sauce and capers, an Italian classic.  The restaurant was filled with businessmen and women who all looked very successful. The service was impeccable.

The walk back to the apartment tired us out and we welcomed a refreshing nap.  We slept secure knowing that not even a SWAT team could penetrate that apartment door.