The original plan was to start the day with a hot air balloon ride, the second time around that Franny has tried to treat me to / surprise me with one. However, we found out a couple of days ago, that (just like last time) the trip was cancelled due to weather. We initially didn't understand why because the forecast (and the actual weather) looked great for the day. But our best guess now is that the cancellation is related to the severe storms from a couple of days ago, as we witnessed many downed trees and other carnage left behind.
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| Google Milan building next to Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) |
Instead we made an excursion to the Google office to check it out and have some free breakfast. The office is by the Garibaldi train station, and we took the metro there. We made it about 10 minutes before breakfast closed at 10:30a. After eating and checking out a couple of floors, we walked to a couple of nearby chocolate shops (Venchi and Zàini) so that Fran could buy some treats and gifts. After that we hoped back on the metro to head to Sforzesco Castle (Castello Sforzesco), though walking would probably have been just as efficient (I think Fran was trying to be more accommodating for me after last night). We walked around the perimeter, but couldn't enter the castle because of damage sustained during the storms. From there it was a fairly short walk back to the apartment to chill for a bit.
We had 2p tickets for Fondazione Prada, a modern art gallery highly recommended by Chloe (Fran's brother's girlfriend). I was highly skeptical going into this, but it turned out to definitely be worthwhile. It was a 45 minute walk during the hottest part of the day, so I decided to take the metro there while Fran did her walking thing; this time we were both satisfied. I'm not sure that "gallery" is necessarily the right description for the place, but I don't have a better word for it. It's a building complex with exhibits in multiple different buildings. The big building had my favorite installations, the top one being a pitch black room that led into another room full of huge mushrooms. A couple of the other buildings were kinda meh. Check out the pictures for a bit of a taste, though photos weren't allowed everywhere.
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| Inside an exhibition hall at Fondazione Prada |
From there we exercised our metro day pass some more (though we ran into a bit of a snafu with one of the tickets not being accepted a couple of times) to get to Gallerie d’Italia (aka Gallerie di Piazza Scala). This is a more typical contemporary art museum, with a mix of works from the 18th/19th century and later. This was also a nice gallery to visit, but if I was only able to pick one I would choose Fondazione Prada because it is more striking.
After another stop at the apartment, we walked to a restaurant called La Gioia for a 7:45p dinner reservation. This was another Chloe recommendation, and the cacio e pepe just about lived up to her hype. We also sampled her suggested tiramisu; Fran loved it, but I'm not a big tiramisu guy. After dinner it was back to the apartment to figure out plans for Como the next day.
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My favorite pictures from the full trip are here.
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