I wish I were still in Stresa. If I were, this is where I would be next week. From May 7 to 15, food and wine connoisseurs will be in luck if they are in Milan. because it's time for Milano Food Week, seven days of events that promise to be a treat for all the senses. The focus of the expo is on eating well while eating healthy, something that to me seems to embody Italian cooking. Here are just a few of the planned highlights of the week:

San Satiro tucked away on Via Torino near the Duomo.

I must tell you about this church in Milan. I'm fascinated by this! The Chiesa Santa Maria Presso di San Satiro, commonly known just as San Satiro, which is just south of the Duomo in Milan. Dating back to the 800s, the church was renovated in the second half of the 1400s by Bramante, and it has one very unusual feature. I read this about it:

San Satiro

by GB

Even for an architect such as Bramante, sometimes bureaucracy just gets in your way.

You’ve been commissioned by Milan’s Duke Sforza to rebuild the church of San Satiro. (Saint Satyrus was the brother and confessor of Saints Marcellina and Ambrose, the latter the patron Saint of Milan.) You’ve gotten the go-ahead from the religious authorities. It’s all systems go, funds in place….

… and then the town council construction board decides to ix-nay permission for the apse. The apse! Of all things, how absurd! How can you have a church without an apse!?

Although the painting (called L'ultima cena, or, Il Cenacolo in Italian) itself is instantly recognizable, many people may not know that its location is quite simple, small, and unassuming. Santa Maria delle Grazie is a church and Dominican convent in central Milan, commissioned in the late 1400s by the dukes of the Sforza family. The Last Supper, which Da Vinci painted for them and finished in 1498, covers the back wall of the convent’s dining hall.

Orange trams brighten up already colorful streets.

Rumor has it that no map exists for the tram system in the city of Milan. Searching around travel forums shows people asking for said map but no one ever being able to produce one. I don't know if one exists either.... Search 'Milan tram' on Google Maps and you will get this map with the locations of tram stops, but no indication at all where they go.

But I do love the Milan tram system, maybe for this seeming chaos and quirkiness. It seems to me there is hardly a street in central Milan where you won't see a tram crossing in front of you at an intersection, hardly a street without a maze of intertwined wires above providing electricity for them. And I love the bright orange trams curving and clanging, passing each other on parallel tracks or backing up behind one another. It takes me back to my childhood somehow, stirring up memories of being led around by my mother, holding tightly to my hand, on New York City subways. Or maybe to Christmas train displays in Manhattan. Seeing trams I feel I'm inside one of those displays. It's probably a combination of those memories, since without having any clue where I am going I'm usually led around by the hand on the Milan trams now too, just as if I were small.

Inside, the trams also evoke a bygone era, again reinforcing this childhood sense in me. They are the old original cars, beautifully maintained with their shapely wooden seats and brass handrails kept polished just by the hundreds of hands holding them. Little white light fixtures hang from the ceiling, and even the modern adverts don't distract too much.



The problem does remain though, how to use the system without a map? Mystery answered... This link, for the Azienda Transporti Milanese, otherwise known as the ATM, can help. Here, you can put in a starting and ending location in Milan and receive a map and directions as to which trams, buses, or metro to take. In the section called Route and Timetable finder, on the left, choose a tram route from the drop down menu. The map will then display that tram route, and list below it all the tram stops on said route. Clicking on the name of a specific stop will show you its location on the map, as well as give access to a timetable. There is an option you can click which eliminates the underground, meaning that your trip will be only on trams or buses. And the site is available also in English. I played around and it works quite well. This could turn out to be very useful...  Next time maybe I'll use this system in advance, and bring maps with me into Milan. And who knows? After some time maybe I'll know something the Milanese all seem to know.. just where indeed each of those trams is going!

When Giuseppe needs to go into Milan for business I am like a golden retriever who knows she's going to go for a fun ride in the car. I can't wait to get there... And because I've been many times, I don't feel the need to always do something touristic. I've long ago figured out what I like to do, and I know how to 'do' Milan, my way, on about 10 Euro, piu o meno, more or less... Here's my routine:

My days in Milan always start in Centro, in the middle of it all, near Via Dante and il Duomo. I start with cappuccino, but cappuccino in Milan has an Old World style and elegance all its own, even if, wonderfully, that cappuccino costs about the same as elsewhere. And the selection of brioche is much, much better. Add another euro if you'd like a brioche... how about one filled with Nutella?

For another euro, if I want to, I take one of the old orange trams and ride around the city just sight- and people-seeing. This is Milan after all, fashion capital of the world, and beautiful-people-watching is as much a part of the scene as anything else. I stay on the trams, maybe reversing direction to return to my starting point, or disembarking at any other point I'd like to stroll back to the Duomo from. I have not yet been able to decipher the Milan tram system.



Then, my secret, favorite spot. There is the department store, Rinascente, directly across from the north side of the Duomo. Rinascente is upscale enough to be filled with beautiful people and goods, but not so expensive or exclusive that I can't shop there. Anyway, mostly, I just window shop. So far I've only spent a few euro today after all... I'll look around for a while on the seven levels of the store, but the whole point, eventually, is to make my way to level seven, the top. Here, one finds the food shops and the restaurants. There are several, the sushi bar, the panini shop, the romantic bar with sofas and lounge chairs. But I go directly outside, onto the rooftop terrace.




Here, one is at the same height as the top spires of the Duomo, and only some meters away. The view provides a backdrop unlike any other for an aperitivo. My prosecco costs a bit more than Stresa, but less than other places in Milan. I enjoy a tall champagne glass of prosecco, which arrives with a platter of olives, nuts, and chips. If it's not busy there, if my table isn't needed, I'll usually stay there as long as I can, reading or watching the sun set, waiting the phone call telling me it's time to jump back into the car, tired but refreshed.

Milan's cathedral. For a few euro you can sit on the peak of the triangular roof.

For just a few euro one can gain access to the roof of il Duomo di Milano, Milan's famous cathedral. Begun in 1385, but not completed until 1805 when Napolean Bonaparte ordered that the facade be finished, this is the fourth-largest cathedral in the world, and arguably one of the most beautiful.

A few days ago I climbed the 170 stairs up to the roof. It was one of the hottest days of the summer in Milan, 34 degrees C, (mid 90s), but the cool stone, the shade offered by the hundreds of spires, and the breezes blowing through them kept the heat manageable. The tight staircase in the stone tower (watch for people coming in the other direction), leaves one standing on the north side of the lower level of the roof. As far as I can recall, there are very few additional safety barriers added, or necessary, as the construction and design of the roof offers its own barricades and railings.




















Up top, one can focus on the details, the interplay of the spires, the repetition of the design, the complexity of the carvings, all that is invisible from the ground. Walk along a natural walkway beneath a row of buttresses, this brings you to the southwest corner. Here, another short flight of 40 stairs or so takes you to the very peak of the roof. Steep inclines on either side slope down to the edge of the roof, but the tall wall of spires all around provides natural protection.


There's not much to do up there, except to just 'be', and people seem to do that for a very long time. I found myself a shady spot on one slope, took my shoes off (so much easier to walk on the slippery marble roof with bare feet rather than heels), sat myself down, and I pretended I was a very content pigeon, for quite some time.

You don’t have to stay in Milan to see Milan. You can stay right here in Stresa and be in the center of the city in about an hour. When I have made the early morning commute I always get a comfortable seat, and after a little time reading or planning or people watching, I arrive in Stazione Centrale or Stazione Garibaldi. From these stations I can leave and walk, or transfer to the Metro system and travel anywhere.