ITALY EDITION: Milan, Lake Como, Venice, Florence

In an attempt to be able to enjoy Milan a little bit and I decided to go to fashion week only during the first three days of my stay there and enjoy the rest touring around, eating 1,000 carbs a day and falling in love with the boot of the world.

Needless to say that Italy is absolutely gorgeous and romantic! The food is GREAT and the little alleys a Dante poem.

Milan is the definition of chicness and style, people there are so well dressed that you can’t tell the difference between a normal person and a fashion blogger (it must be very hard to be a fashion influencer in a stylish city like this). The antique architecture is impressive and the entire cobblestones a passage to historical times. Something that really surprised me was how beautiful the natural lighting is, in every town we went, it didn’t matter how dark or rainy the day or an alley was I was always able to get amazing photos.

Here the breakdown:

Day 1:

The arrival day, we got tickets to go to the Duomo cathedral ahead. The inside is pretty classic and the vitriol windows a stop and admire.

The best part though I have to say is the rooftop; just take a look at the photographs, below.

From the roof of the cathedral, we catch sight of a chic restaurant on the top of a building that ended up being the renaissance mall a little plus and the restaurant was MAIO. Just picture having lunch with the most amazing view of the Duomo and staying long enough to enjoy the transition to a breathtaking sunset!

After lounging at that at the restaurant for quite some time, we decided to take a stroll and peruse around the mall and the amazing little streets and alleys.

For dinner we headed to Brera, to find a fun restaurant to dine with good music in high volume to shake the jetlag. IT was the winner.

Day 2:

Time to get ready and hit Tiziano Guardini (go to my post and check it out http://www.cinthiaspoon.com/looks-1/2019/12/10/milan-vibes)

After the show we headed to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and walked around the shops, this place is pretty much a mall, but a fancy, castle looking one, very renascence. For lunch, we found a salad bar behind the mall.

Day 3:

I went for a refreshing morning run around the hotel. Surprised by how the streets can change from very pretty to pretty dangerous in a second; I had to keep returning from some streets I kept bumping into, beware. Then back to the hotel to get ready for an afternoon filled with designer’s presentations and glam! (Read more here: http://www.cinthiaspoon.com/looks-1/2019/12/10/milan-vibes)

For dinner we headed back to Brera, looking for a traditional Italian restaurant and go after those carbs! The winner that night was Hostería della Música.

I am not a pasta person but I am glad I went for it because that Penne Carbonara was so good that I inhaled it. We also went for the desserts, three of them to be more specific.

Day 4:

Our last fashion weekday, we had an early start and were done by lunch a late one… This one we did it at Martini Bar, this place is seriously cool (even the restrooms are a piece of art) this spot is super chic and the food is really good too, I had the most interesting eggplant parmesan I’ve ever had, check the presentation below.

After lunch, we attempted to go to Philipp Plein mega show right next to the restaurant but the million people and the lack of cabs situation made it difficult for us to stay, so we went back to the hotel to find a place to have dinner and explore more around the area, we kept it chill for the night.

Day 5: Let’s go to Venice!!!

This was another early start 5 AM to be exact; the trip is a bit long 2:48 minutes by train and we used Trenitalia, but I would suggest you another line, this one is for locals, so is packed and kind of dangerous, yes is cheaper but If you get robbed or kidnap it won’t be cheap anymore.

If you want to enjoy the city you need to start early, there is a lot to see and one day is not enough. I was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful and clean this town is, the natural light is gorgeous, the bright colors of the buildings, the canals, the bridges, I mean everything was nice and even though is an old town, the food stands are pretty on-trend, for example, if you are looking for a natural fresh juice, you are going to find it.

I was not expecting to find so many gorgeous shops, selling leather goods, at a very good price, but they do so get ready to shop.

The gondola is a must-do, as we all know and just getting lost around town is a real pleasure.

Back in Milan… We had tickets for Bob Sinclair at Cavalli Club. The venue is outdoors and nice but I mean.

Italians might know food but manners mmmmmmm not much, the word “excuse me” doesn’t exist, the courtesy of letting you pass either and the act of waiting for their turn just out of their understanding, all this done with a lot of arrogance and disdain, just to add more damage to the wound. So get ready for an interesting night of multiple attempts to fight and wanting to leave every five seconds if you go clubbing to a hot spot.

Once we found a small corner to go through the night things got a little better, but still, it was a challenging evening for my feeble patience.

Day 6: Lake Como

Just what we needed after a long day and night, this one is a short and inexpensive trip from Milan, a wonderful place to relax and recover. You don’t really need the whole day there; we spent the afternoon admiring the half-circle view of the lake and mountains, and that was about it.

This is another clean town with lots of beautiful natural light. We lunch from a food truck. I had a delicious sausage sandwich and my friend a dessert I can’t recall the name of, both on point.

Day 7: Gorgeous Florence

This day we lost the weather luck we had the whole week… Instead, we had a rainy cold day (bummer) but we were not going to let the elements mess with our day. We got umbrellas and off we went. That was another early morning, the trip was 2 hours by train and we took Italo this time, a much better option (tourists friendly)

Florence is a dreamy town, the kind you need to go for dayssss FYI.

Our first stop was supposed to be the Uffizi museum, but we got entertained by everything else, big mistake, here why: Buy the museum ticket ahead and do that first thing the morning because once everyone else goes, the line gets INSANEEE and it makes you waste precious time. We wanted to visit the Da Vinci museum, but given the amount of time, we wasted making lines we couldn’t.

Once we were out of the museum we headed to Ponte Vecchio, walked around this gorgeous town and ended up at Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens. Boboli was my favorite, see why below.

I definitely want to go back to Florence, there is just too much to see in town and out of town.