Note: Don’t forget to check out apiggyinparis.tumblr.com. It is written by Helen, the official curator of our daily life and journeys in Europe.
We recently had a four day weekend and we decided to go to Milan and make a side trip to Lake Como. It was my first time going to Italy and I wanted to see some sights and at the end of the day I just wanted to see what the food was like.
Here are some pictures from my iPhone:
Il Duomo, one of the largest cathedrals in the world. It is crowned by seemingly innumerable pinnacles and spires while its facade is a speckled, mosaic of marble.
This was probably the craziest thing I saw. A statue of St Bartholomew, who is shown skinless, draped in a length of his own pared flesh signifying the tradition held regarding his martyrdom.
In Milan, is a famous cemetery. It is a forest of tombs, graves and sarcophagi decorated with sculptures and structures of the eerie and somber kind. The pictures speak for themselves.
On to the food:
Milan is known for offering aperitivo, a buffet of fresh foods, such as pasta, pizza, crustinis, meatballs, salami, cheese, olives, roasted vegetables, and so on all covered for the price of a drink, be it a glass of wine, a cocktail or a coke. I really loved this concept (who wouldn’t).
This perspective is what I call FPE (First Person Eating). We ate at a spot called “Peperino Pizza & Grill” and got an amazing lunch menu deal. A whole pizza, mineral water, and espresso for 8 euro flat.
This was my favorite meal of the trip, at a place called Obika, a mozarella bar. To me, this was a perfect plate of food: crumpled heaps of charcuterie, grilled endive, marinated vegetables, roasted potatoes, sweet, tangy cherry tomatoes and the star: buffalo mozzarella. It was just a plate of flawless, complementing bites of food, all puncuated by briny flays of mozarella. Each fleck is raked away by knife and fork, dismembering shreds of milky, white interconnective tissue and forked in along with a myriad of tastes and flavors. It was a joy to eat.
Because we heard that Milan was not necessarily filled with normal “touristy” things to do, we took a side trip to Lake Como. We traveled by train and took a ferry boat to Bellagio.
Days before our trip the dust had (literally) just settled. Milan airport was closed due to ash clouds but opened the week of our trip. As you can see, the view from the sky was gorgeous. I was truly amazed at home green this country was.
