I arrived from Florence via another Flix Bus, leaving at 13:30 and arriving at the Milan Lumpugno Bus Station at 16:45, costing €12. It was a pleasant, easy journey but the scenery wasn’t amazing due to the amount of tunnels we went through.
I was never really very interested in Milan, I’m not the biggest fan of fashion and needless to say I definitely cannot afford to shop there. For this reason I only booked for 2 nights and set aside some time to watch the final three 6 Nations games. Once arriving at the Lumpugno Bus Station, the Metro Station is located directly opposite. I was one staying 2 stops away, a 5 minute walk from the Lotto Metro Stop. This was a nice area to stay, it felt safe and it has good transport links to the city center and back to the Bus Station when I needed to leave.
I woke up early in the morning and went to explore, catching the Metro to Duomo in the city center. This is the main area to explore, and like in Rome the Metro ticket cost €1.50. I however bought a 24 hour ticket for €4.50, with unlimited travel in the 24 hours. Once at Duomo you exit onto the main square of Milan’s iconic cathedral, so name Milan Duomo. It is free to enter the main building but to go into the treasury costs money. It it a very impressive building being the largest church in Italy and the fifth largest in the world.
From the cathedral I walked over to Castello Sforzesco, an old castle with a nice fountain out the front, and some gardens and parks to explore. It is an impressive castle, originally built in the 15th century, but extensive renovation work has since being carried out. I continued through the grounds round the back and side of the castle, which opens up into a beautiful park where you can lose an hour or so walking around or relaxing on one of the many benches in the sun. If you walk all the way through the park you will stumble upon the Arco della Pace an impressive archway built in the 19th century, to mark the gateway to the city, but it’s origins can be traced back to the where the original Roman walls stood.
From here I continued north to the FourFourTwo Sports Bar, situated very near Gerusalemme Metro Station. I settled down to watch the 6 hours of rugby, mingling with the Italian fans who were there to watch Inter Milan play and lots of Irish who were celebrating the St Patrick’s weekend and who were also overjoyed that the Irish best the English. This bought an end to my time in Milan, I don’t think I really gave it the time it deserved, but for now I’m off to Venice, maybe to return to Milan someday!