One in the capital of Lombardy. Handsome Milan.
Hello everyone, I haven't written travel stories for a long time, now I've got it.
Our little trip around Europe with my son began in Munich for me, and continued for the two of us already in Milan. What can you see in one day in the capital of Lombardy? Something, but still possible. ) Two-day adventures in the country of pasta, pizza, seas and mountains begin. Italy has always been my love, passion and desire, and when you are so close to Milan, why not go there, or rather take a flight? The trip to Italy was planned in advance, we agreed to meet my son in Munich and spend a few days together. Tickets were bought on the EasyJet low-cost airline for some ridiculous money, to be more precise, two tickets - there and back Munich-Milan cost 91 euros with luggage, I don’t know why it was needed, well, just in case, the luggage was also paid, remembering my adventures at the Prague airport, I decided not to risk it. As always, we build plans alone, and higher powers make their own adjustments. My son was supposed to arrive a couple of days before our flight to Milan, we thought we would walk around Munich together, but I had to walk alone. But that's a completely different story. Someday I'll gather my courage and write. There was a hurricane in Germany, trees fell on the railway tracks and trains did not run, despite this, the son rushed to his Flixbus, but he was exactly a couple of minutes late because of the German aunt, who was taking him and several other passengers in his minivan to Dresden, and he left. Night, a hurricane, a child is standing there on the street, I'm all exhausted, it's good that at least there are friends on the Internet. The son called his friend and he came on a bike and took him to him. He had to leave the next day. Late in the evening we finally met in Munich and in the early morning of the next day we were already racing at full speed through rainy Munich towards the heat and the sun! From Bahnhof (central railway station) we stayed at the hotel 15 minutes walk, so there were no problems getting to the station. But, if you have an early flight, and even from the main airport of Munich, it is better to take care of this in advance. We did just that. It was possible to buy a ticket from the machine at the station for the train or take the bus (which still had to go from the station for about 25 minutes) . . we found a better way. From the central railway The Lufthansa bus departs from the station and runs from 4 o'clock in the morning, if I'm not mistaken. At the exit from the station on the left, an inconspicuous sign with a schedule (or at the entrance, if on the other side) Stations in Germany are through. 11 euros and you are at the airport. Drives first to the second terminal, then to 1. In the first, we were one of these early passengers. The road from Bahnhof to the airport takes about an hour with a stop in the city, picks up passengers. Need to say. Munich airport is the whole city! Halls, shops. and even a beer garden. It's easy to get lost. Sleepy, it’s dark and rainy outside, we went into the terminal, immediately at the entrance there are EasyJet counters, waited 10 minutes for check-in, and now we’re already driving down the escalator, it feels like you’re in a disco, the walls glow with different colors, you go and get high.
Quick control and voila we are in the waiting room. There is time to eat and watch the planes while waiting for ours. My son dived into the World Wide Web, and I decided to go scout the part of the airport where we were. Finding nothing remarkable, except for coffee and sandwiches, which I bought, I returned to take pictures of takeoffs and landings of planes. I can watch this endlessly as they take off and land, there is something fascinating in this.
I have a brand new biometric passport, on control, when we were already going to board the plane, an employee with the appearance of Tutankhamun, who looked more like an Egyptian than an Italian, and even more so a German, asked me in surprise - “where is the visa”? To which she answered, but we, Ukrainians, do not need a visa! He was surprised, asked if it was true? I returned my passport and said something like, well, if anything, your problems. Everything! And I was already prepared to fight back just in case).
The plane is warm, even hot, everything is decent, clean, neat - it takes only an hour to fly, but it takes longer to get around the city from the right to the left bank. Climbing up
the sky is rain, clouds. . 10 minutes of summer and about the miracle sun and the Alps!
I haven't had such a beautiful flight for a long time! For a whole hour it was impossible to break away from the porthole. Here you have Lake Como, Garda, surrounded by the Alps in the snow and the sun is shining over all this beauty. We are flying to the capital of fashion and shopping, delicious ice cream, fashionistas and cool cars! But we're here for the sights. And we have only one day, or rather two, but we decided to dedicate the second day to Venice. We landed softly, we leave, and there is heat! +18. In October. The airport is more like a cross between a banquet hall and a hangar. Walk 100 meters and we are inside, waiting for control. We didn’t have time to look around, everything, the control was passed. And oh, pity, no Italian stamp ((. Immediately at the airport there are stands where they sell bus tickets to Milan. 8 euros, an hour drive and we are in Milan! How beautiful it is! Even on the outskirts, old tall buildings, it seems back then centuries ago, the one who built Milan knew that this city would play a special role, it is all so majestic! Clean! Green! The station and the square in front of it clearly make it clear that you are in a difficult city. A symbol of magic or Freemasonry, to whom as you like, even at the station.
Spacious, beautiful, clean! Yes, yes, clean! And a strange installation of an apple with staples. Reintegrated apple. Bitten once a forbidden fruit, a piece returned to its place. We
Do we have the right to return to paradise? This is the vision of the artist with the no less interesting surname Pistoletto. But I don’t understand this Pistolletto. )
The Mythos Hotel was booked on Agoda, the money was taken from the card a couple of weeks before my departure, so there is nothing to worry about. The hotel is within walking distance of the train station. I booked all hotels so that it was convenient to rush to trains and planes. The hotel is old, the furniture is classic in the lobby, and even in the rooms, it is a bit tired, with history. As the son later said, of those hotels where we were on this trip, he liked this one the most. Check-in from 14.00. A slightly unusual-looking man at the reception, completely different from a burning Italian, mumbled something to a girl standing nearby, and she quickly grabbed our suitcase and dragged her into the luggage room, we felt sorry for her, as thin as a reed and my son rushed to her to help. The suitcase and backpacks are thrown, go ahead, enjoy the handsome Milan. The plans were to visit at least 3 significant places, I left the fourth one for last and didn’t tell my son about it, since he is not a fan of such places, but what if? The son opened google maps and the walk began. It's good when someone other than you can take responsibility. The time has come for the son to show and lead the mother so that she does not get lost. We met an old yellow tram on the way to the park, they drive like this in Portugal, and it turns out that there are such in Milan.
There was a park ahead on the map. The park is like a park, nothing unusual. Walking people, dogs, waterfowl, not people, ducks, the measured life of the Milanese.
Such sports patches are installed in parks, with a special coating, and of course they are free. We walked through the park, then our path lay to the Sforza castle.
The monument to the donkey in front of the theatre, what does that mean?
The building of one of the largest galleries in Milan. Pinacoteca Brera. There was darkness around the people, I’m even afraid to imagine what is happening inside. But somehow we were not going to go there this time. Moreover, we did not expect that she would be on our way.
And this is Piccolo, Europe's leading drama theater. Modest in appearance.
Well, here is the castle - rear view)
The castle is many centuries old. Back in the 14th century, the aristocratic Visconti family decided to build themselves a cozy family nest. Then this territory was a suburb, so the walls were strengthened. Sforza, it is called by the name of the commander Francesco Sforza, concurrently the son-in-law of Visconti, it was he who restored the castle. Later, his ancestors worked on his beauty. He put his hand to the castle of Leonardo da Vinci, however, more like an engineer. I won’t retell the whole story, you can read about it on the internet. We just wanted to walk around its territory. When we passed the park, approaching the castle from the side of the next park, that is, not from the main entrance, we saw some tents, crowds of people scurrying back and forth, it seems that some kind of competition was being prepared there. We decided to come and find out. And although, apart from the words bongiorno, scusy, grace mille and belladonna, I understand little in Italian, I still managed to understand that there would be a marathon race. It turned out that a marathon was also held in Kyiv on the same day, I didn’t know that it was spreading like the whole of Europe. We entered the castle from the back entrance, so to speak, there were queues everywhere, people, crowds... we took pictures, walked around, wanted to climb the queue tower and the ticket price of 12 euros also included visiting museums, but we didn’t have time for this. My weak attempts to persuade my son to still climb that tower did not give any results, we do not like queues.
As the son said, assessing the territory, the view from the tower will be normal). We need a large-scale one, since it’s on the tower, so that the whole city is in the palm of your hand) Well, why trample your feet in vain?
And on the territory of the castle there were some incomprehensible tents, cars of various services, but no action took place, the view of the castle because of all these buffoons was not at all mysterious and not old.
An exhibition of vintage cars was held in one of the courtyards of the castle, the girl posed so beautifully that I could not resist and photographed her.
Sign of the Sun on the ceiling in one of the courtyards of the castle.
On this Filaret tower, through which you can just enter the castle, there is a clock on the second tier. They are called the Visconti clock or "Sun of Justice". Why justice? To be honest, I don’t know, but it was a symbol of the Visconti family, which are directly related to this castle. The tower is impressive, 71 meters high. It also depicts the patron saint of Milan, St. Ambrose and the Italian monarch Umberto the First.
After wandering around the castle grounds, we decided to move on.
We also had the Da Vinci Technological Museum and the Duomo in our plans. Honestly, the Sforza castle reminded me somehow of the castle of Uzhgorod, with its walls and moats. I don't know how it is inside, but nothing out of the ordinary. We decided to take a walk in the park, right behind the palace, especially since the weather was conducive to this. The sun was hot, even frying, and so I wanted to take off my sneakers, jeans, but I wanted to take everything off and walk in shorts and a T-shirt. It was Saturday, and the Milanese were basking in the sun, who went in for sports, who lay on the lawn, here and there in the park they held some kind of training, dog owners talked to each other, and their pets briskly chased through the green grass... idyll. So, walking, we reached... Arc de Triomphe. Looks like we're in Paris? No, this is Porta Sempione, which is also the Arch of Peace. But they built it by analogy with the Arch in Paris. The park that lies nearby is also called Sempione Park - this is the main park of the city and the area of u200bu200bthe city is also called Sempione.
Another maidan, already dancing.
And here is the Arch itself.
After enjoying a walk in the park, we decided that we still need to go and check into a hotel, change clothes and have something to eat.
Let's go, my son says there is another attraction along the way, and it turned out to be the place that I decided to leave at random. Monumental cemetery. I can’t say that I am a fan of such places, but there are cemeteries that fascinate and amaze! There is silence and oblivion of the world. The monumental cemetery is known for its ancient unusual crypts, it is a whole city within a city, it is over 140 years old! It was available for burials only to rich people. Even now there are fresh graves of various Milanese families. There are quarters, districts, a central alley. At the entrance is a beautiful building, once it was a church. Famous Italians are buried there. No monument repeats the other. You can wander there for hours. There is also a tombstone of the Campari family, the very one whose drink is now drunk all over the world. We walked a little silence... and peace. Appeasement…
When you wander among these graves, read the gravestone inscriptions, you can imagine all those who lived in one or another clan, family. These monuments and crypts reflect the whole essence of a person's life. . . what he is, who he is, why and why, who he was, how he died, it's sad, but at the same time you understand that life is just a moment.... And from this you begin to appreciate her even more.
To be continued. . .
