When In Milan…

Alright, I’m about to go totally photo heavy on y’all! Remember last month when I was in Milan jurying the Electrolux Design Lab? Well, my mom came along with me and we took a few extra days to explore the city. I mean, I’m not about to fly halfway around the world for business and not check out the culture!

 

Milan isn’t a massive city, and the heart of it all is based around the Duomo Cathedral (sidenote: love the logo). The structure took hundred of years to complete, and once you see at the intricate design throughout it’s easy to understand why.

 

It was free to explore inside, but for a few Euro you could clime a couple hundred steps to the top which we of course did. It rained. A lot. But that didn’t stop us (or my mom from wielding her Pittsburgh Steelers umbrella!).

 

This isn’t the roof, but a terrace near the top. It was impossible to take a bad photo! And yes, still raining.

 

Directly across the north side of the plaza lies Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It’s a covered open air shopping court with Prada, Gucci – you get the idea. Directly underneath this gorgeous dome is an inlaid bull, legend has it if you stomp on his testicles and spin around three times it will bring good luck!

 

Here it is from across the plaza. My mom talked to a local and was praising the architecture of the buildings, he mentioned how all of the Milanese take it for granted since it’s all around them.

 

La Rinascente is in the same building as Galleria Vitorio Emanuele II and is nothing short of seven levels of of heaven. Name after name of top level fashion designers that I could never hope to afford. But heaven lies on Level 0 in the form of Design Super Market.

 

Aisle upon aisle of everything I’ve ever seen on a design blog ever. I was head over heels and my mom was staring at me like I was a lunatic for the entire hour I shopped.

 

And then we went tot he 7th floor. Food paradise. Including a mozzarella bar and chocolate shoes.

 

The lighting was kind of all over the place, so my photos are as well. That honey on the top shelf? So went home with me.

 

The packaging was incredible. I mean, come on. I think my eyes were bugging out of my head.

 

While we were riding high on food, we walked over to Peck. I’d heard great things about this two-level gourmet market, but was only mildly impressed. I was only able to snap a few photos before they yelled at me. Italy is interesting.

 

And of course we visited our share of gelaterias. Duh.

 

Our last night we had to switch to a different hotel, this was our view from the balcony. Definitely a lovely way to say goodbye to Milano.

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