October in Milan

As you already know, in the middle of October I went to Milan for 4 days - for work (mostly meeting people for my research) and pleasure (seeing friends). But interestingly, those days, full of rain, cold, sun, blue skies, endless coffees and walks, meetings with my darling friends, broken umbrellas, aperitivos at Naviglie and panzerotti by Colonne di San Lorenzo, cozy mornings at the loveliest under-roof apartment and many other cool things, managed to surprise me in the best possible way. 

You might remember that I had to take quite a weird route to get there. Normally the trip from Palermo to Milan takes about 2 hours (even less, I guess) and doesn't cost that much (at the first glance, because later Ryanair makes you pay for it with your nerve cells by constantly trying to sell you sandwiches, lottery tickets, perfumes and handmade bracelets). But this time the tickets were kind of pricey and I had no choice but to buy a ticket to Paris (well, not Paris - Beauvais), wait there for 8,5 hours and then head to Milan.

You might tell me that it's ridiculous - to travel from an Italian city to another Italian city by going to France and coming back, and I will agree with you. But who wants to pay 70 euro more? It's the price of 24 aperitivo's in Palermo (or 10 sandwiches in Copenhagen).

So on a lovely October morning, me and my #horriblypinksuitcase (check my Instagram to have an idea, but I must warn you - it is horribly pink) went on an adventure. 

*Interesting to know - I'm probably the only person in the world that can call going to Beauvais an adventure. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad, but... It may pretend to be an airport as much as it wants, but the truth is that it's just a shed in the field - with a Starbucks and no place to leave your luggage. Yes, you've read it right - it's the airport without the storage facilities. And no one even finds it weird!

So if you had the same plan as me - to leave your suitcase in a locker, go see Beauvais (the city), have lunch and come back - you should reconsider. I literally got stuck in the airport and ended up reading for 8 hours (with a little break for a pumpkin spice latte - I insist on calling it a Stockholm syndrome. Or rather Beauvais airport syndrome).

So I arrived in Milan late at night. It was cold. And I mean - really cold. Really, really cold. And raining. And the metro was closed. And when I finally reached my friend's apartment, I was almost praying for it to be warm and sunny the next day. 

*Spoiler alert - it wasn't. It was grey, cold and miserable for two days in a row.

The warmest jacket I brought had to team up with my travel hoodie and the huge blanket scarf I brought from Sweden, and it still wasn't enough. Did I tell you how much I don't like humidity and humid climate? I believe I did. I also wrote a few times that I'm not the biggest fan of Milan. Well, in those days I realised that Milan is probably not that fond of me either (hmm, I wonder why?)

But when on the third day I woke up and saw this lovely blue sky with no signs of rain clouds, I just couldn't believe it. I think that day I walked around 15 km - had a coffee on corso Buenos Aires, took some bad photos of the sports competition that took place right on the street, enjoyed the sun and some neighborhoods I liked during my previous trips, f.e. Porta Nuova (that you can see on photos).

Can you see me?

We finished that day with going to Naviglie for aperitivo - that neighbourhood is a mast if you are in Milan for the first time. I wish I had some photos, bu it's such a cool vibrant place I don't think it would've made it justice. Just come and see for yourself - walk along the river, crossing from one side to another, chose a nice place, order a glass of wine and enjoy.

The next day was a bit rainy again, and it was also the time for me to head back to Palermo, where everything was about to get better. But even though the last time I saw Milan, it was rainy and gloomy again. I prefer to remember it like this - sunny and happy, under the blue sky.

I guess not is started liking me a bit after all. And I can honestly say that now I kinda like Milan too. It took me four visits, a ridiculous amount of rain, long hours of walking and talking with all my sweet people that live there, but if it wasn't for good things waiting for me in Palermo, I would've been sad to leave.

So thank you, Milan! Thank you for the trip, that definitely wasn't boring. And see you soon, I hope. 

*All the photos (apart from the first two ones) are taken at Porta Nuova and piazza Gae Aulenti. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take many photos of other places because of the weather. But I really like that part of Milan, so I hope that now you do too.