Day Trip to Milano

It has been a pretty uneventful two weeks here in Riva San Vitale. My focus has been on studio and hasn't allowed me much time to venture out. Our studio project is to build a Starbucks out of only granite stone in compression and chestnut wood. This set of constraints provides for a unique opportunity in designing. I am forced to solve problems that I have never had before. Hans is already making this a challenging semester.

Now more on the culture side of Riva San Vitale. On the 4th was the beginning of Carnevale. All the residents of Riva filed out into the town square to watch a parade put on by the children and other residents. It was an amazing opportunity to experience a different culture firsthand and take a holiday I know one way in America and see its Swiss equivalent. Carnevale culminated on the 9th as Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. It is always interesting to see how a small town celebrates their holidays.

Carnevale Parade

Anyway, now that I have been here for two weeks I decided it was time to get out of the Villa and take a trip. I decided Milano, Italy was the place to visit. It is only an hour train ride away from Riva. After arriving at the enormous and beautiful Milano Centrale station, I started walking towards central Milan. On the way, I stopped by the Porta Nuova Varesine (a park covering an indoor event space) and the Torre Diamante by KPF Architects where the Salon du Chocolat (Milan Chocolate Festival) was occurring. It is a beautiful park especially on the small scale that it is while being surrounded by some of the newest and largest buildings in Milan. It is all very clean and modern.

Torre Diamante

After some more walking, I came to the Piazza della Scala and the entrance to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which is a 4-story enclosed outdoor mall and basically the predecessor to all current malls. It was so beautiful and almost magical. The Galleria is also where the first Prada store was opened. While it was a bit touristy many locals were there too. I even participated in the tradition of putting my heel on the mosaic of a bull on the ground and spinning around three times which is said to bring good luck. Following that I exited the Galleria to the grand sight that was the Milan Cathedral often just referred to as the Duomo.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

The name Duomo means cathedral in Italian and is used as a nickname for the Milan Cathedral. After some confusion as to where to get tickets and a stroll through the Museo di Duomo I made my way in to the church. It is massive. It is absolutely, stunningly beautiful. I wasn't as awestruck as I was with the Sagrada Familia but still I felt amazed. The cathedral is the 5th largest in the world and took nearly 600 years to complete. (By comparison, the Sagrada Familia is about half the square footage and listed as 32nd on largest churches in the world). It was an amazing building in every regard. At only €2 to get into I will definitely be returning.

Milan Cathedral aka the Duomo

Interior of the Duomo

Following the Duomo, I attempted to grab a bite to eat at Luini Panzerotti, a Milan staple, but the line was longer than the one to get into the Duomo so I decided to pass. Next door was La Rinascente which is a department store. The bottom floor was dedicated to design which was interesting but everything was so expensive so I decided to leave. I had to make my way through hundreds, maybe thousands in the Piazza del Duomo who were celebrating Carnevale. Just about every single child was dressed up, mainly as Disney characters, along with a few adults. The entire ground was covered in confetti. It was a huge party atmosphere.

The next stop was Parco Sempione which is Milan's largest park. The main entrance on the eastern side was through Castello Sforzesco built in the 1400s. After going through the castle I was able to see the rest of the park and how spacious it was. My next stop was La Triennale di Milano which is a design museum on the edge of the park. I got to see an exhibition on Italian architecture since World War II which was fantastic. There was so much to see with many models, drawings, and ideas which featured Aldo Rossi, Carlo Scarpa among others. After leaving the museum, I went by the Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace) which is a triumphal arch on the western entrance to the park which lines up axially with the street, through the park, through the castle, down the street on the opposite side of the park, all the way to the Duomo. It was a wonderful discovery. After that it was time for dinner.

Castello Sforzesco

Arco della Pace

I had picked out a place to go to called Rossopomodoro. It was in the direction of the train station and it was a reasonably priced Italian restaurant serving pizza, pasta, and seafood. Upon arrival at said restaurant, I found out it was closed. I came to find out later that it was closed between 3-7:30pm. I tried another place but it was too expensive along with the third choice. The next choices were pastry shops, gelato shops, sandwich shops, closed, or too expensive. After circling the block I finally found a place to go that was reasonably priced and turned out to be pretty good. Now was time to catch the train home.

This ended up being really entertaining. I left the restaurant at 6:46 to catch a 7:10 train at a station that was 1.3 miles away. Google mapped at being 27 minutes away. I was walking up to the station at 7:05 and ended up jumping on the train at 7:09. It was a real photo finish. Also in my haste, I ended up riding home in first class by accident. All in all it was a fun albeit exhausting day. Look for the next update this coming weekend when our studio leaves for our Italian portion of our travels.