Instead of heading straight back to L’Aude from Le Marche (that sounds like the title of a book or even a song) we decided to keep heading northwards so when we got to Piacenza instead of turning left for France, we hit the road for Milan. A former dance student of mine from many years ago, had sent me a message to say that she lived in a suburb of Milan with her husband and two children and that she would love to see me again if at all possible. I hadn’t met up with her for— I don’t know how many years — and I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to catch-up.

We found a lovely apartment in Monza not far from where she lived in Villasante, and booked in for two nights as we wanted to hang out in Milan city the whole of the following day. Neither The Man nor I had ever been to Milan except to the Malpensa airport or was it Linate? I can’t remember.

I made the mistake of thinking that our apartment had secure parking which it didn’t. It did have on street parking which was fairly safe but we had The Man’s bike on the back of the car and didn’t fancy leaving it there overnight. Our kind host arranged for us to leave the bike in his garage, a few streets away, and his partner came over to walk The Man around to the block of garages with his bike, and left the key with him so that he could access the bike if needed. It was kind of them and we appreciated it. The only problem was that when we came to collect the bike on the morning we left The Man managed to open the garage door only to discover no bike! Horrors! The host rushed round to find The Man in the wrong garage! Oh dear. . .

We spent a lovely evening with Tessa, her husband, Paolo, who turned out to be a magnificent cook although a dentist by profession, I’m not sure why I should think the two skills don’t go together but. . . We also met their little daughter Clara and son Lawrie (gorgeous names). We ate pasta with an aubergine sauce followed by slow cooked stuffed pork finished on the barbecue and served with a delicious fennel salad. Wonderful.

Tessa gave us some information about trains into the centre and because we’d managed to leave the bike safely hidden away, the next day, we drove to Monza station. There was a little bit of trouble working the ticket machine but fortunately the train was late so we still caught it and within 12 minutes we were walking out of the magnificent Milan Centrale Station.

Milan:

It’s flat to walk around, the centre feels quite small and there are many roads with trees and green areas. Its streets seemed clean (at least the ones we walked down) and as the second largest city in Italy it was busy but many of the avenues are quiet. We were there on a Thursday and it was Ascension day, the area around the Duomo was particularly busy. We didn’t go into the cathedral, but another time I would definitely do that. The train was busy both in and out of the Centrale Station but the trip was short so it didn’t matter. We walked about 20,000 steps that day and enjoyed a wonderful lunch in a traditional trattoria at no great cost. After lunch we walked to the Sforzesco Castle and then took the metro back to the central Station.

One day in Milan was not nearly enough. I really thought it was a beautiful city and would like to return if possible. When I was searching for a website link for the Sforzesco Castle I discovered there were a multitude of palaces and castles to choose from. The Man and I simply brushed the surface of this fascinating city which has had a long and turbulent history from the Viscontis — whose emblem is a snake swallowing a baby — to the Sforzas who controlled land way down into central Italy including Le Marche where we used to live.