This year, Mathijs and I spent the Easter weekend in Milan. We left straight after work on Thursday evening, where our flight departed with quite a delay. We arrived around midnight at our accommodation (Best Hostel Milano B&B) – a nice, clean hotel which was quite cheap (for Milan).

Next day, we of course started by visiting the Duomo (cathedral) in the center of the city. It’s definitely really beautiful, so we kept returning the following days to see it in different lights…

Then we went on exploration through the surrounding alleys: Lots of nice churches, old houses with lots of charm and pretty squares were waiting for us. A cozy city, where you don’t have to get stressed about sightseeing. Also, the weather was perfect on our first day! 🙂

I especially liked the old „shopping center“ Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. Admittedly we had to skip shopping here – not quite our budget…

After all the sightseeing we deserved a bit of relaxing in the park Parco Sempione, which is also home to the old castle Castello Sforzesco. The park itself is quite big and used by locals and tourists alike for picnics, playing ball games or just lazying around in the sun (like us!).

The cemetery Cimiterio Monumentale which is located a little outside the center, is also worth a visit. As the name suggests, the graves are more like monuments there. The design of some of the grave stones was definitely a bit „different“ – with death watching directly over the dead for example…

As evening program, we had booked tickets to a ballet in the Scala of Milan. The Scala is a beautiful old theater and a sight in its own. Unfortunately though the seating has never been renewed so it can happen that you can only see the opposite seats but not the stage from your own seat. Hmpf. I don’t want to b*tch around too much about it now, but I did feel cheated paying so much for our tickets! If you are thinking about visiting the Scala, feel free to shoot me a message and I can advise you on the seat selection.

The next day was a bit grey unfortunately, but luckily the initial rain stopped quickly. First we strolled through the shopping district, but again there was no shopping for us to be had – instead only Prada and Gucci. Ohhh well. Amused we watched people queuing up in front of the Chanel store… Well, if you need it! 😉

Otherwise, this was another day of visiting many churches! There are just so many in Milan and they all have a bit of their own style. At least I think so. Mathijs was done with churches at one point! 😉

Later, we explored the district Navigli, in the South of the city, which is known for its canals. Well… If you live in Holland, you will only have a weary smile left for these canals. But well. There was also not much going on, which might have been because it was the Saturday before Easter.

In the evening we went for Aperitivo in Brera, instead of an expensive dinner. From about 17.00 to 21.00 many bars in Milan offer a sort of all-inclusive snack buffet. You order a drink for 8-10€ and then you can eat as much as you want / as you can. The drink can even be a cocktail! So if you’re travelling to Milan on a budget, this is highly recommended! 😉

On Sunday we took the train from Milan to Lake Como. We visited the little town Como – but unfortunately the weather was not that great and it was rather rainy. Hence, the lake was more grey than deep blue. However, I still liked the little alleys of Como!

On our last day we awoke to blue skies again and immediately made our way to the Duomo. Because – we still needed to get on the roof! This is really something spectacular to do. You can see lots of details from close-by and in theory you could even sunbathe on the rooftop. You don’t really get the typical church-roof-views over the city though and also you don’t see the square in front of the cathedral – unless you go for a little climb…then you will be able to take this pic 😉

After soaking up some more sun in the park Parco Sempione Energie again, we had to make our way back to Amsterdam… Ciao, Milano!

You can see all our pictures by clicking on the cathedral: