Maxing Out Our Time in Milan

From Venice we traveled north to Milan. I was psyched to see Milan and all of its fashionable inhabitants but I was also really looking forward to our day trip to Lake Como. We were in Milan for three days but I really count it as one and a half because we only went sightseeing the first day and the third morning we were there. This is what we did on those days!

After unloading our baggage (next year I'm contemplating using bag made for backpacking instead), we walked to Sforza Castle. But guys, can we just talk about the hotel we stayed at? For real, it was some super modern hotel, just check out the decor:

You guys all know how much I love a good snack....so I really appreciate when the hotels we stay at have little treats for us waiting upon our arrival. And the rose petals on the bed? Swoon.

Anyway, we walked to Sforza castle, which was really hard to capture in a photo from our perspective.

The biggest thing we did in the city of Milan was to go see our first opera! We booked tickets to see an opera at Teatro alla Scala. I wasn't sure how to dress for an opera--particularly one in fashion capital Milan!--so I went with a dress.

The theater was very ornate inside. From all the red and gold I felt like I was back in the throne room at Buckingham Palace. Speaking of royals, there was even a "Royal box" where royalty would sit to watch performances. We were a few boxes away from it so I got a sneaky side shot of it.

See what I mean about the red and gold? I felt like royalty, although those boxes really are close quarters!

The opera we saw was Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, and unsurprisingly it was entirely in Italian. However,  every seat at Teatro alla Scala had a nifty subtitle bar and we could select English and read along. This is awesome because really the only word I recognized was "Sesame" but I was still able to follow along the story. I didn't find the subtitles annoying at all but if I would have been happy to just watch the performance without having a clue what was actually being said.

After the opera we walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the somewhat-enclosed-somewhat-open-air shopping mall that is Italy's oldest active shopping mall, and the duomo.We ended up stopping back in the Galleria during the day time so we could do a bit of shopping and see the glass roof in the daylight. We also found the perfect git for my tie-loving brother-in-law at a boutique called Andrew's Ties. Of course, Andrew had to buy a tie as well for himself since the shop shared his name!

The only other thing we did in Milan was to go and see Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, which I highly *highly* recommend! It's so crazy to stand in front of a piece of artwork that you have heard about and seen reproduced soooo many times and you realize that you are looking at the original.

The room was shockingly spacious for the handful of people they let in for 15 minutes at a time. We looked at the masterpieces, looked at the walls of the church (I seem to remember someone telling me that The Last Supper was the only fresco that survived the war--the other three walls crumbled but were rebuilt). Don't quote me on that though.

And I feel sooooo tacky BUT I could not resist selfie-ing with The Last Supper. I just had to. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I could NOT pass it up. Judge me...it's okay. I'm still judging myself for it.

I feel like we saw a good bit of Milan for the little time we were there. I wish I could have gone on a serious spending spree at the Galleria--those stores are really something! But I knew I wanted to save my pennies for a leather bag from a tiny leather shop I found in Lake Como, which is our day trip that I will talk about next time!