Touchdown in Milan
Wheels down in Milan, Italy at 6:40am for day 1 of a much anticipated itinerary. Months of planning suddenly became real. By 7:40, Stefano from Suntransfers picked us up for the hour-long drive into the city. The air felt cool, with no trace of the mugginess we’d braced for. The streets looked spotless, almost staged. About twenty minutes in, our two-lane road opened into a four-lane highway pointed straight at Milan. Stefano mentioned, almost casually, that schools wouldn’t start until September 7th. That gave us the city to ourselves for a few extra days. Perfect.
Settling Into Our Duomo-Adjacent Airbnb
Our Airbnb was located near the Duomo. Just a short walk from a grocery store, cafes, restaurants, the Duomo, and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It had one bedroom and a living room with a small kitchen tucked in the corner. It felt good to have a small apartment to ourselves for the next several days. First, we unpacked, showered off the overnight flight, and regrouped.
Aahh, yes, and then there is laundry to be done! Doing laundry is a labor of love! 🤭 – soiled clothes and I do not get along! 🥲
Jet-lagged but wide awake with anticipation, we ran through our to-do list for day one. We needed water, milk, cereal, and something for morning coffee. That meant bread or cornetti, the Italian word for croissants, which took us a minute to remember. Then we planned to simply walk the neighborhood and see what Milan wanted to show us.
First Grocery Run: Small Victories
Our first stop was not glamorous. We found Carrefour Express, the mini-supermarket around the corner from our Airbnb. It provided milk, water, and to my surprise, there was Weetabix on the shelf. Small victories set the tone for a trip. This one had me grinning.
Wandering the Duomo and Corso Vittorio Emanuele II
We had no plan, and Milan seemed thrilled about it. We walked to the Duomo and gawked, doing our best impression of tourists who had never seen a building before. Side streets pulled us in like they knew something we didn’t. Around the corner there was Venchi, and it did not need a second look. With gelato in hand, we ambled down Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, just window shopping.
A Surprise Outside the Ferrari Store
A crowd had already gathered outside the Ferrari store by 12:30. However, I found out that the store was closed. According to the store personnel outside, they were expecting one, maybe both, of Ferrari’s Formula 1 drivers to come to honor Michael Schumacher’s legacy. With time at hand, we snagged front-row seats at a café directly across the street. We ordered an aperitivo and settled in. It became the best kind of unplanned afternoon, the kind where you have nowhere else to be.
The wait stretched to 3:00. Then Lewis Hamilton came roaring in a blue Ferrari, driven of course. As he stepped out, the whole street erupted. Cameras went up, the crowd roared, and we stood right in the middle of it on our very first day in Italy. Milan could not have scripted a better welcome.
Dinner at Dry Pizza Milano
We floated back to the apartment on that high, and sweaty. A second shower of the day was called for, and it was only afternoon. In the evening we took a taxi toward Dry Pizza Milano for dinner. On arriving early, it offered a perfect excuse for an aperitivo at a bar nearby. The place had great ambience, lively beat, and the pizza was yummy! After dinner, another taxi dropped us near the center, close to home. We wound down with a slow, happy wander and a late-night latte. We finally called it a night at 10:00. Day 1 of our Milan Italy Day 1 itinerary had already outdone itself.
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