Is Milan Worth Visiting. We had doubts - now we’re sure..

Sometimes travel doesn't go the way you planned. We had to cancel our first afternoon of filming because our flight was delayed, but we didn't want to miss a thing so we tried to fit our entire Milan experience into one full day. We explored, we ate, we filmed from sunrise to sunset. It was a full day and Milan made it all feel worth it. We woke up early and headed straight to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan's oldest and most elegant shopping gallery. It's kind of a glass-roofed palace filled with designer stores, cafes and mosaic floors. You walk through it and feel like you're in a mix of a luxury mall and a 19th century opera set. We made a point of having a traditional Italian breakfast early inside the gallery so we can enjoy the views without the crowds that show up later in the day. Breakfast is served. The cool thing is in this spot there's a few standing tables and the price of everything here is about half price compared to if you were to sit down at one of the reserve tables. So we are at Cafe Marchesi 1824. This is a historic cafe in Milano but it's not the original one. We are now above the Prada shop in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. There is an original shop which is maybe like 10 minutes away, but we came here because we wanted to have this amazing empty morning view of the Galleria here. By the way the cappuccino is really good. Is it? I'm gonna make a mess. I'm trying to reach the chocolate bit. I mean it's very milky but it's very good. You don't really drink cappuccino that much anyway so. And we're allowed because it's before 11 a.m. It's the correct time of day to have the cappuccino. This breakfast with this view. This whole breakfast with this view for 10 pounds. Every single time we've seen this spot here it's always so packed with people. But now it's a Tuesday. And obviously Tuesday at 8 in the morning is the right moment to be here. So we are waiting in line now to get into the Domo. Our slot is at 9 a.m. which is the very first slot. We paid about 40 pounds together for this. 10 euros to get into the Domo and 10 additional euros if you want to go to the rooftop terraces and so on. They do say arrive here about 20 minutes early. I think that's probably more of a thing later in the day than the very first slot. We got here 10 minutes before 9 a.m. and we're just queuing up. Yeah we're just waiting around. I would probably argue this is the most beautiful church in the world or very close to being. One of them, yeah. And it's a sunny day so the views are going to be even more spectacular now. And apparently in Milan it's been raining continuously for the last weeks and these now are the very first sunny days of the year. So we are now on the rooftop of the Domo in Milano. Look at all these statues around us. So incidentally this is the building with the largest number of statues on it in the world. And the most important one is right there behind us. Sadly that part of the church is in construction right now. It's in renovation. Some parts of the church are under renovation. Much like Rome. Much like Rome, yeah. Right at the top there you see there's a golden Madonna, a golden Virgin Mary. And that is apparently the symbol of Milano. It's actually really beautiful. Yeah it's really cool. And you can see the mountains as well from here. Can you? Yeah over there. Oh wow there's snow. Yeah there's snow on the mountains. I'm glad we actually got to see the rooftop as well. For only extra 10 euros to come up here. Still worth it. How impressive is this spot? I like the fact that it's absolutely beautiful but it's not opulent. It's just I think it's because there's not that much golden accents. Yeah yeah. I mean these columns and the arches up here. This is unbelievable. So beautiful. Very impressive yeah. Just like you said the stained glass in this place. These are the most beautiful windows with stained glass that I've ever seen. We finished the tour inside the dome. The terrace was incredible. The dome itself unbelievable. We are now going to the museum next door. First we wanted to get this really beautiful view here in front of the big cathedral. You got the dome on one side. You got the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele on the other side. This is by far the most visited part of the city. Yeah yeah. And for a very good reason. We are at Museo del Novecento and we have some insane views of the Domo from the top floor. There's nobody here. There's nobody here and it's amazing. We got a piano here as well. Incredible views of the square of the entrance in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. The dome and the terrazza up there all over there right across the square. We arrived at Antica Confettaria Romanegno here in Milano. It was about a 15-minute walk from the Duomo. It wasn't the easiest one to find. They have this pastry shop sort of some pastry shop more like biscuits and chocolate specialty shop. Yeah very small shop. Right on the main road and then there's sort of like a secret door that leads to this. It's basically an intercom and you have to ring the actual coffee shop slash bakery to get in. We got ourselves a caffè macchiato and we have a small plate full of goodies. We have chocolate with marsala wine inside. And then we have two local specialties. We have the canestrelli. I think when I say local specialty I might say something stupid but I think this shop is originally from Genova where we're going next. And canestrelli I think is typical Genovese. But either way there are two different types of pastry specialties with almonds and this one is with figs. I think it's with ground almond flour and figs and some lemon as well. I feel like I mean we haven't been to many places yet in Milano but everywhere we go we kind of get freebies additionally. So last night we arrived late in Milano and it was really late and we went to just a localist restaurant next to us. The moment we got in we got a glass of prosecco. And then after that we got some limoncello as well. And now here we got so many other freebies. We ordered a few small pastries and chocolate and we got... Way more. Way more like we have five more additional small chocolates. Probably the poshest most pretentious way to drink water I've ever seen in my life. So we were instructed we need to add a cardamom pod in the glass before pouring the water. Let's see if it tastes different. I don't know. This smells like cardamom. It does have a hint. Does it change the way you will drink water from now on? I mean it tastes a bit better. We got to Castello Sforzesco. This is maybe another 15-20 minutes from the last coffee shop we were at. This is the main castle and old fortress of Milan. It was commissioned by Francesco Sforza who was the Duke of Milan at the time. And he had one very famous employee apparently. Apparently Da Vinci worked here and he used to do painting and designing interiors. So yeah apparently he was an interior designer. OG. OG interior designer. But it is impressive. It is very like the entrance as well. Yeah but the square itself is very enormous. It's huge. Nowadays this old fortress part of it is just a complex of museums. And in one of them you can find Michelangelo's last sculpture which is called Pietà Rondanini. One thing that I like about Milan is that the apartment complexes a lot of them have gardens on the rooftops. Like trees and it's very and even the balconies are very green. So a lot of urban gardens. Yeah yeah really nice. Hopefully we'll get to go to the actual Bosco Verticale. The new blocks of apartments. Because they're not really central. And if we had had that extra I know I'm hopeful tomorrow morning we'll be able to do that. So we paid the five euros to get into the Castello Sforzesco. And with these five euros you can get into a whole number of different museums. So it's actually quite affordable. We are now next to Sala delle Asse which the ceiling though was painted by Leonardo da Vinci. It's beautiful. Very impressive. Sadly there's these sort of panels around us because it's closed for restoration. Much like a lot of Milan. I genuinely think that we might possibly have found Lord Farquad from Shrek. So if you exit the castle through the other side just behind it you'll find Parco Sempione. This is I think the biggest park in Milan. And it's a place where Milanese people come here in the summer for picnics. And you know very much like maybe Hyde Park in London or something like that. Yeah there's even some terraces if you see there. So you can grab something to drink on the terrace as well. Exactly. So if you have some extra time when you're in Milan and the weather's great. Fantastic spot to come to. We arrived in the neighborhood of Brera. It's so beautiful. It's very beautiful. And we had no idea this kind of spot actually exists in Milan. Yeah there's these narrow streets, a lot of plants. It is a bit crowded because it's lunchtime but it's beautiful. It's just cobblestone everywhere. It reminds us of Rome but it's a kind of like a very neat version of Rome. Yeah it's a lot more manicured. It's like very almost like pristine I would say. Very posh. This part of Milan used to be like the artists area back in the day. And now it's just become like very trendy. And there's like loads of really cool cafes and restaurants. We are now walking from Brera to Monte Napoleone which is part of the, we call it the quadrilatere della moda. It's literally a square of four streets where all the shops are. Some of them are very high street-y. Some of them are very very high-end. And we are going to an outlet shop I think. I think. Yeah we found we found something on TikTok. It looked good. Yeah it's either vintage or outlet but it's designer brand so. Quick little pit stop. We stopped next to Casa degli Omenoni which kind of translates to the house of the big men or with the big men. This used to be a palazzo in the 16th century. And they built these very expressive eight statues on the facade. No one really knows what it means but allegedly it's meant to be a flex of the owner to show how strong he was. Is that overcompensating? Maybe if you ask me. But nevertheless 500 years later look how cool this looks. We came to Basilica di San Lorenzo. We took the tram. That was cool. Yeah I haven't taken the tram in like 15 years I think. It was super easy, very streamlined, very clean. You can just tap your card really easy. You don't have to buy tickets. Basically instead of walking an extra 20 minutes we took a tram for like five minutes. We came in front of Basilica di San Lorenzo which is completely covered in renovation. We wanted to see that but more importantly what we really want to see were the ones behind us. The columns here. The Roman columns. These are some of the only Roman ruins in Milan dating I think to the second century. So 1900 years ago. Because we were talking you do see older buildings in Milan. You see renaissance buildings. You see medieval buildings but you don't really see any Roman ruins. And I actually looked it up why there's no Roman ruins in Milan and turns out that Milan was I think at some point the capital of the western side of the Roman empire. But then it got sacked by the Huns in the 5th century and completely destroyed almost. And then destroyed once again in different wars in the 11th and in the 12th century. More recently in the second world war it was bombed heavily by the American and British forces. Because in Milan they were fabricating a lot of the ammunition for the Axis powers. For Germany and Italy and Japan and so on. When it got modernized they kind of built over the old ruins. So sadly that's why you don't really see any ruins. But you do have these columns here in front of Basilica di San Lorenzo. Which kind of remind you how old this town actually is. We had to sit down for an aperitivo because this place is very popular apparently. And I ordered a Negroni. And I've asked for no ice because I get a sore throat very easily. The waitress said that okay it's going to be a small glass. It's not going to be a lot of Negroni, a lot of alcohol. And this is what I got. It's the whole bottle. The whole bottle. This was five euros. That was five euros. This huge Aperol spritz was five euros. And all of this was free. So everything was 10 euros. This whole thing was 10 euros. In central Milan. So we were literally walking from the church towards the Navigli neighborhood. And we saw this place and it said happy hour until 5 pm. It was like 4.45. Five euros for an aperitivo. Had to sit down. The table is free right here. And this has been probably the best decision we've had so far. Although I haven't tasted it yet. And we have dinner as well apparently. So dinner is solved for today. Mamma mia. Oh this is strong man. This is so good. I mean we are at the main road now so it's a bit noisy and it's lively. And even though Milan seems to be full of very young people everywhere. This area specifically close to Basilica di San Lorenzo Maggiore is very lively and young. Of course wanted some gelato. I have no idea what flavors these are. I'm gonna do a blind test. Okay so I think this is the pistachio. It's literally just a test. It's not a blind test. Very good. It tastes of pistachio and a bit of waffles. There you go. Interesting. This is... I don't know what this is. That's salted caramel. Okay so this is the... That's the girl's favorite. The girl who sold it to us. Yes. That's the biscotto della nonna. I think it's meant to be a bit almondy. I feel like this is the best one for me. It is a good ice cream but it's not the best I've had. Okay. It's definitely the best one you had in Milano. First and best, yes. There we go. Hello from the beautiful neighborhood of Navilli here in Milano. So many alfresco dining options. So basically all along the canal there are aperitivo spots and restaurants and that's kind of it. Yeah I've got a serious question for you now. Do you want to go for an aperitivo? No. It's just past 6 pm right now. This is the prime time aperitivo time. We arrived in Amsterdam. It's a bit warmer than Amsterdam but yes. Nice spot here. We have a front row seat at the canal. We are doing people watching and I got myself a glass of wine. I got a beer. Life is good. This wine and this beer they're all made by them actually. I didn't know. I gotta say I am enjoying Milano more than I thought I would. And it's not as crazy and hectic as I remember it. I think you just probably got used to London in the meantime. And by comparison everything else just seems... And from this spot you also get to see a beautiful sunset on the left. It's cute and it's so nice that there's no traffic at all. It's just like pedestrian. Okay so we came for dinner to Osteria Conchetta. This is a traditional Lombardian restaurant. Lombardia is the area where Milano is part of. And we finally got some traditional Lombardian food. So I ordered a breaded veal. It is huge. I don't know what to do with this. Okay for me I got a combination of the two most traditional dishes of the area. One of them is the risotto with saffron. And the other one is the osso bucco which is slow tender cooked beef. And they serve them together. And I'm actually quite excited. I've only ever had osso bucco at home made by my mom. So I don't know what restaurant grape osso bucco is like. This is very very tender. I really like the osso bucco but I think the saffron risotto is really good. I don't think Lombardian food is necessarily the most up our alley in Italy. But obviously it's a colder area. So it feels like everything's more like a winter dish than anything else. Good morning. It's our final day here in Milano. And we came to Vergani Cafe which is famous for its panettone. Now panettone comes from Milano. And we thought what better place to go have it than at one of the most historic places in town. Now the cafe itself is not historic but the family that runs it, they've been making this for over 80 years and it's supposedly very good. And yeah they make it themselves. It's handmade apparently. And it's sourdough. I don't know if that's a plus or not. And we got ourselves some coffees, a bit of panettone and a pistachio croissant. Yeah. Also we have one more cafe after this before we head to the train station and off to our next destination. So it's kind of like a cafe hopping morning I guess in our final day. We are completely exhausted after yesterday's. I think it was over 25 000 scoops. It's a bit more dense than the ones that we usually buy. It's very good. Yeah. But it's not super different. Yeah. I think what's meant to be different is how they make it and how you're supposed to digest it. Because it's easier for you and so on. Okay I think we have a more volcanic reaction when it comes to the croissants. Really good. Is there pistachio cream inside? But I didn't reach the filling yet. I think we'll get one more of these. You sure? It's really good. Pistachio cream, amazing. You got some croissant on your microphone. I don't care. I'm not sure if it's legal for me to dip the panettone in the... You're supposed to do that with the focaccia. I can't even do it. It's too crumbly. No the focaccia is in general. I know. Oh no we just told them where we're going. This is more dense. Yeah. It's a bit drier. Yeah. But I think the flavor is nicer. I like the flavor more than the other ones. Oh well. If I have to go to jail after this I will. Why not the best one though? This is about 10 minutes away from Milano Centrale and for comparison in London you would pay about four pounds at least so about five euros for a coffee. Over here I have two coffees. The really nice pistachio croissant and this. This whole thing was seven euros. We came to crazy cat cafe which as the name says it's a cafe with cats. Crazy cats. But none of the cats seem too crazy. They're all very tame. Okay that one's a bit crazy. She's very vocal. This is one who's meowing non-stop. They're all rescue cats. I think there's about eight or nine or something like that. They're all very chunky. They're very very large cats. This morning's cafe hop was the perfect way to wrap up our time in Milan. After that it was time to catch our train to the next exciting stop on our trip. Thanks for watching. We hope you enjoyed discovering Milan with us. If you like the video give it a thumbs up, subscribe and we'll see you in the next one.