Milan Adventures, Part II

After a wonderful but exhausting day of touring Milan on Friday, we opted to sleep in for a few hours before hitting the pavement. Saturday's weather was much like Friday afternoon's: overcast and cold, but at least not rainy. For our first activity we visited the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, housed in the estate of an important aristocratic family. The first room we entered contained a superb collection of medieval armor and weapons, which I know my Bloomington friends would have loved. The main permanent collection consisted almost entirely of late-medieval and renaissance religious art. There were many beautiful paintings, but none were by major artists. Also included in the collection were decorative arts belonging to the Poldi Pezzoli family. My favorite rooms in this section included the horology collection--an assemblage of early clocks, some of them incredibly small and all amazingly intricate--and the Wunderkammer room. A Wunderkammer, or curio cabinet, was a collection of scientific and/or archaeological items, instruments, and oddities, and in this collection they had a Devilish Automaton, a wooden devil with gears inside attached to a crank, which when turned would move the devil's eyes, cause a tongue to protrude, and emit an eery noise--cool!

By far the most interesting part of the museum, however, was its visiting exhibit showcasing netsuke. Netsuke were small decorative ornaments attached to Japanese kimonos as a counterweight for a satchel. It became popular to carve netsuke (usually made from precious woods) in the shapes of humans or mythological creatures, and they can possess an amazing level of detail for such small, handmade items. Apparently the Poldi Pezzolis collected a few as part of a larger Orientalist collection, and the rest were on loan from Japan. If you want, you can see them at this link from the museum: http://www.museopoldipezzoli.it/PP_italiano/calendario/mostre/MuseoPoldiPezzoli%20ULTIMO/000%20index.htm -B

After the PPM, we decided to have lunch at a nearby cafe, The Opera Cafe. At this point it was becoming very obvious that nearly all of the restaurants around Il Duomo, La Scala and the museums had virtually the same menu and it wasn't an especially exciting one, focusing mostly on pizza, pasta and risotto. There was also usually a fairly long seafood section, but it was typically too pricey for our budget. While I wasn't wowed by the menus, I was easily able to find something palatable; B, however, was already tired of the limited and in his view bland options, and he was quite disappointed to be faced with the same-old, same-old and becoming concerned that Milan had nothing else to offer. The restaurant itself was quite beautiful and since it had gotten late in the afternoon, many of the other patrons were having snacks or sweets and coffee. The desserts looked quite good and we both agreed that this place may have been a better choice for a mid-afternoon snack than for lunch. However, we went ahead and ate something and headed out to another art museum.

Next on the agenda was an art museum called the Brera, which was only a short walk from the PPM. It was already getting late in the afternoon/early evening when we arrived and we were somewhat concerned that we would not be able to see everything given the size of the building, but decided to try anyway. We were very surprised by the length of the line for admission when we arrived; clearly we weren't the only ones to be starting late. Once we were inside, we realized Brera, in addition to being an art museum, is also an art school, so the museum is actually not that large. The museum mostly focused on Renaissance art with a small modern art room (mostly Italian painters, although there was a painting each by Bracques and Picasso). While the artwork was beautiful, how many breastfeeding baby Jesus' can you see?

Following the tour of Brera, we decided to stop to get a snack and make a game plan. We had passed an Irish Pub on our walk to Brera, which seemed appealing. While we walked around, we also found another parallel street, Palazzo Carmine with a really beautiful church and many shops and restaurants. We walked around this area for some time and were even invited into a pretty hip looking bar for a look around (the manager was soliciting quite hard to get us to stay for a drink, but we decided to continue walking in this new area to explore some more). In Milan, the tradition of aperitivo is popular and quite a good deal. Basically, between the hours of 6 and 9 PM, those patrons who purchase a drink are invited to partake in a free snack spread at the bar. The options are often similar to tapas fair. Ultimately, we chose to stop at O'Connely's for a break and to regroup. B ordered a Gin and Tonic and since we were in an Irish bar, I could not pass up the opportunity to have a cider. I was brought a Bulmer's, an Irish cider I had not yet tried and it was fair, but a little light for my taste. The odd thing was that along with the bottle of cider, I was also given a traditional pint glass- with ICE in it. Very weird. While we reviewed our options, we perused a brochure of restaurants in Milan and learned that Milan does, in fact, have more to offer gastronomically than pizza, pasta, etc. In fact, we found listings for Thai, Indian, and Japanese restaurants. We realized that most were too far for us to get to on public transport or by foot. We chose to go to an Eritrean (similar to Ethiopian) restaurant recommended by our guide book, Warsa, and what a great recommendation! This was definitely the best meal we ate in Milan and the atmosphere was wonderful. The restaurant is in a neighborhood about 3 metro stops from the tourist sights and the clientele of the restaurant were mostly locals. With full bellies and happy hearts, we headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. -S

Well, it is already getting late, and we have to get up early for an orientation at the Fulbright Commission tomorrow, so we'll have to finish our account of Milan tomorrow. More to come!