My Life in Travel

The last morning to wake up in Milan, the last day to spend here. Still have some missing spot in our plans and will try to fill them as much as possible. The main plan was to visit some must see museums here and of course to spend some time at Duomo. We’re here for already 3 days, have been on this area several times, but always at night hours. So we couldn’t miss a chance to go back again, but this time at daylight.

And here we are, at the square near Duomo Cathedral. Of course everybody want to go inside of this majestic place, but seeing the huge queue near the entrance we gave up, as it might take around 2 hours just to wait for a ticket. Next time need to consider this and go much earlier, right after the dawn, to admire with the sunrise and be the first to get in. But not everybody was here for Cathedral. There were many people around, feeding the pigeons, which were thousands here. All the people, young or old, had some bread pieces in hands for birds. But there were also some locals (but not Italians), that were offering their help to “call” pigeons to sit in your hands and take corn from you, putting this corn seeds into your hands. But don’t take this help, as after this they are asking.. no, insisting on paying them for this, and not more not less, but for 20 eur! Of course, after some bargaining you can give them only 15 eur, but still, be aware and avoid them, as the same corn seeds, but 20 times more, you can buy yourself at the supermarket around for just 2-3 eur per package!

Walk through the Gallera Vittorio Emanuelle, get off to via Tomasso Marino, walk more 2 minutes and you will reach a small park, where Leonardo da Vinci’s statue is standing in the middle. In front of the park there is a simple building, not very big or impressive and you’ll never think it’s something important. But you will be surprise knowing what is there. It was the famous Grand Opera house for Italian Classics, La Scala. There is opera museum inside the hall to visit, but if you want to attend any famous opera or ballet performance, you should plan and buy tickets few months in advance.

Finally it’s time for some museums, and the first one we went was the Museum of National History (Museo Civico di Storia Naturale). The museum is located inside one of the nicest city parks in Milan, “Indro Montanelly”, where many museums and art galleries are located nearby. The museum we went shows exhibitions of human and animal biology. This was an amazing place to spend time, especially with kids. It the museum you may see all kind of exhibits, all shown in the most real environments. Museum is quite big, separated with the ages and regions. The great collection includes mineralogy, paleontology, zoology, human natural history and all in details. Definitely, this is the best place to be and see how the evolution happened and how the world is now. Much recommended!

Inside the Museum of National History

Another impressive museum we had luck to be was the Science & Technology Museum of Milan (Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia). This was the one, that we wanted to come on January 1, but it was closed on that day (told in one of the previous stories 😉 ). But not today. Today it was already open, as all the museums and everything in general in Milan. So we bought the tickets and entered. This museum also was quite big, with different sections, showing the evolution of technology, how things looked and worked before and how they are nowadays. A whole section was also dedicated to works of Leonardo da Vinci, where you can see the models of helicopter, moving bridge, the copy of “The Last Supper” and many more. Another section was dedicated to Space. It has some tools to “watch” the space, models of rockets, etc. Another section was showing the history of telecommunication: the cables, phones, computers… One of the best parts of the museum was the fact that many exhibits were in interactive mode, means everybody could touch them, play, make their own planet model and many more. One of the most recommended places to go as well, while in Milan!

When we left the museum, it was already dark outside and late to go somewhere else. I mean no any museum was opened anymore. So the only thing we could do was to walk in a city. And the decision was to check one of the most visited streets in Milan, Corsa Buenos Aires. This is the longest avenue with any kind of branded shops and markets. A paradise for shopping lovers. But the big shopping wasn’t included in our plans, so after checking 1-2 shops we were already looking for some place to eat. The day was going to end and we were hungry. Somewhere in the corner we saw a pizzeria, a normal one, not like selling “pizzas” with pieces or by weight. We entered and it turned out that this is kind of luxury style pizzeria, with very well educated waiters. But the prices were not high as expected for this kind of place. We asked for one pizza per person (as they recommended to order like this), but when they brought them, we were surprised, as any of the pizzas was enough even for 2-3 persons. Anyway, this was the tastiest pizza we had, in real Italian style. How can we be in Milan and not try it? Impossible! Now we can say that the mission is completed.. Almost 🙂

There are still a lot of places that we missed because of the limited time. But I still have a list of things to do and to see for the next time, when back to Milan. But for the next visit I will choose more sunny and warm days, sometime between spring and fall, with no holidays, no more closed places and wasted time. See you next time 😉