Mini Milan - Football and Food

[Rescuer]

Friday

So ds and Dh are obsessed with football to say the least. They support a Scottish team and go to every game but they also like to try and fit in mad little trips like Barcelona for a night or London for a day where they fit in 2 premiership games and they love a wee train trip to Newcastle.

A few months ago Dh was playing around on sky scanner and found flights to Milan on a weekend when ac Milan were at home and their Scottish team wasn’t playing for £30 per person return. Flying on the Friday teatime so no time off school and flying back Sunday afternoon. I decided that I’d tag along.

We booked a reasonably cheap hotel close to central station.
B&B Hotel Milano Central Station.

We started our trip with some Christmas treats from eat and a gingerbread latte.

Our flight was on time and was perfectly fine for a Ryanair flight. Dh had at first said he wouldn’t pay for us to sit together but changed his mind and paid £6 per person to pick our seats.

As we only had carry on luggage we were off the flight and ready to catch the bus fairly quickly. We bought tickets at the desk for the Terravision bus €13 each. It was just coming up to 9pm and the bus was due to leave at 9.15 but left ahead of this once it was full. just after 9.

It was supposed to take around an hour but it must have been quicker than that. Ds was quite funny on the way to the hotel when we were passing really fancy places he was like nope that’s not for us we are budget! I think he was pleasantly surprised when we reached our one that although it was cheap and cheerful it looked nice enough.

We were checked in and up in our room by 10 past 10.

Fairly basic, a bigger room than I expected and it was clean and had everything we needed.

We dropped the bags and checked on Trip adviser for somewhere nearby to eat. I’d put in a few places that looked fairly handy and fairly cheap but my setting on trip adviser defaulted to the best nearby rather than just nearby so it missed the places I’d saved. We settled on somewhere about 5 minutes away that had excellent reviews called Mama Rosa.

We arrived about 10.30pm and after the customary looking up and down ( Milan style) from the women at the front desk we got a table in a corner 😂

Our waiter was lovely and we were given a glass of complimentary Prosecco, ok I hadn’t chosen somewhere cheap and cheerful and this was becoming evident now 😂. She says I am a food snob so I don’t think he was too shocked.

We were brought a lovely selection of little breads

and looked over the menu which was very fishy so great for us.

We ordered a bottle of Pinot Grigio, water and a Diet Coke for ds. The wine was lovely and the server poured the coke into the big wine glass for ds which he was cheesing at.

Ds ordered pasta with lobster. The server had asked them to take all the lobster out the shell to make it easier for ds to eat. He loved this dish.

Dh had the mixed fried seafood, he thought this was amazing, a really good sized portion and the batter was just right.

I had Spaghetti with clams which is my favourite Italian dish, it did not disappoint at all, this was so good!

As I said Dh always slags me off and calls me a food snob, I’m not sure that’s totally true 😂however, this meal was my idea of food perfection!

Dh was in the mood for a dessert and rather than a menu they brought you samples which all looked amazing. We settled on 2, the tiramisu which was amazingly light and tasty and the fruit tart which ds and Dh said was really nice.

We were offered a complimentary limoncello but refused and settled the bill which was €130.

More than we’d probably planned on spending on the first night but I didn’t think it was excessive for the quality of food we’d had.

We left here after midnight and waddled back the 5 minutes to our hotel. Although we were close to the station I think we were just far enough away that it was a bit less touristy and it felt perfectly safe wandering around late on.

The hotel was great but the room was fairly warm although I’d say that was a theme this weekend as the heating was cranked up everywhere we went.

[Rescuer]

Saturday

We weren’t up quite as early as we’d planned and I’d had my eye on 2 bakery places as potential for breakfast Pave and Scaringi. Both were however pretty busy by the time we were on the go. With hindsight I should have just grabbed something from another little bakery on the opposite corner and taken it to go.

Dh suggested we start walking and we’d find somewhere. I should know by now to veto any plan he has that doesn’t involve a plan. We set off and passed nowhere not even a supermarket, by this point I was fit to throttle him. Instead I had a bit of a hissy fit and refused to move till I checked trip adviser for the next nearest place that sold coffee and pastries. Luckily, for him, there was a place a few minutes away. We stopped in for a cappuccino and a pastry. It did the job and divorce was looking less likely. €6.90 for a couple of coffees and 3 pastries, no complaints there.

There was no real plan other than a wander round the shops, taking ds to see the Duomo and getting a nice lunch somewhere. We walked into centro storico, it was a bit rainy but not as bad as the forecast had predicted.

We found a few nice arty things to look at and for ds to take photos of in case he felt like drawing later.

Plus I can’t help taking pictures of Christmas trees.

We found a maze of lovely streets most of which were filled with designer shops that I had no plan to visit but it was a nice walk.

We walked up to the Duomo and although some of it was scaffolded the front was clear. It’s very impressive. They were putting up a massive Christmas tree thing in front of it.

We headed over to the Galleria. It was pretty heaving with the fact the weather was fairly miserable. They had a beautiful Christmas tree up covered with Swarovski crystals.

There were a few shops we wanted to have a look in Nike, ACMilan shop, Disney, Carpisa as there was a particular bag I was after and the Lego shop. The Lego shop had a model built of the duomo, it was pretty cool.

I didn’t get my bag, tried 4 different Carpisas with no joy. The shops were pretty heaving with Christmas shoppers.

The apple shop was really cool and was built underneath or into a water feature - Ds was super impressed with this.

I knew there was a bath and body works in Milan but we ended up heading off in the opposite direction so I missed it, probably would have just been frustrating as I couldn’t have bought anything bigger than 100ml. Wish I’d gone to Sephora as since I missed out on bath and body works I could have got some small things there. As it was I bought absolutely nothing!

Pizza was the plan for lunch and we found a great place called Pizzium, with the help of trip adviser again. This place was great, the staff were really friendly and just like the night before seemed to be way more Italians than tourists.

We each had a pizza, ds had the one with Parma ham, I had the one with boar salami and Dh had a white one with Italian sausage. We all really enjoyed our lunch. Good value at €50 for 3 pizzas, wine, beer, water and juice.

We decided to walk back to the hotel as the rain was off a bit. We had a quick 15 minute rest and got ourselves organised to go back out to the football.

[Rescuer]

Saturday pm

Last time I was at the San Siro was 13 years ago and you had to take the tram as the metro didn’t go all the way but it does now. We walked back to the train station to catch it. You can use your contactless card and like in London it has a daily cap. Ds was free. The first metro was fine but the second one out to the stadium was really busy. It didn’t take long.

The weather was rubbish now and pelting with rain. There were food and drink stalls outside but we were happy enough just to go into the stadium. Our seats were fine but for some reason even though it looked like it was covered every so often you got rained on.😂 The seats were soaking and needed to be dried off before sitting.

They had a wee mini laser show before kick off which was cute and the game itself was good enough 1-1. I love watching the section of fans behind the goal that are all doing the same thing at the same time, best entertainment at European games.

Ds and Dh spent a bit of time after the final whistle taking photos of the stadium as this was the first trip for ds. Plus we knew the metro would be mental.

The lines to get into the metro were like monorail lines at close of MK but actually really civilised. It moved every few minutes and we kept hearing jeers and cheers from the front. Once we were closer to the front we could see they had a count back system from 750 every time they opened up the gates for getting though. Really efficient but a wee bit crazy as you got close to the gates. Everyone was in high spirits though and it was actually quite fun.

They must have been filling trains pretty regularly. The scariest bit was trying to all get on. Ds was almost lifted off his feet a little as he was swept along. It was pretty packed and a bit of a squash but again everyone was happy enough. I was glad to get off though.

More random art

I’d planned just to check trip adviser for somewhere close to the metro when we got back, note to self though don’t stand too close to the crossing on a rainy night! We all got pelted as a car went over what must have been a fairly deep pothole of water. Yuck! I was checking my phone at the time so right in the face and ds got his trousers soaked. Funny now but not so much at the time. So a slight detour back to the hotel to take out my lenses and wash my face and for ds to change his trousers.

We found another place to eat round the corner and about a 5 minute walk away from the hotel.
L’antro Della Sibilla.
It was pretty small but we luckily got a table. We were starving. Again the staff were really nice and it was full of Italians.

Our waiter was lovely and when I went to order a bottle of pino grigio he said it wasn’t as good as another he’d recommend at the same price so we went for his one and right enough it was lovely.

We decided on starters tonight rather than desserts and we had these deep fried croissant dough things with mozzarella and Parma ham, they were delicious along with calamari to share.

The bread here was focaccia which I really enjoyed.

For mains ds had seafood spaghetti and thought it was lovely.

Dh had veal Milanese. It was massive! He really enjoyed it.

I had veal too with mozzarella and tomatoes - again this was really nice and I ate dh’s salad along side it.

Another lovely meal this time. €120.

The only food I hadn’t had up till now was gelato and I couldn’t do an Italy trip with no ice cream at all do we went on a gelato hunt, beating in mind it was nearly midnight at this point.

We found a place about 5 minutes away and had a small tub each with 2 flavours.
Pineapple and strawberry for Dh, strattechella and Nutella for ds and exotic fruits and bounty for me. We’ve had better but they were good enough.

It was well after midnight before we got back to the hotel and we’d walked over 25k steps today so we were all pretty shattered but happy we’d managed to pack so much in to one day!

[Rescuer]

Sunday

We were not up bright and early on Sunday morning and hadn’t really left ourselves enough time for a relaxing breakfast.

Pave was still to busy so we settled on takeaway from Scaringi. The cakes and pastries here looked amazing

we settled on 3 cheese and ham croissants to have before we left for the airport and we bought a little tray of 9 of the tiny little cakes to have later.

The weather was still pretty minging on our walk to central station to catch the bus to the airport so I was glad it wasn’t too far. No issues catching the bus, again it left once it was full so not a good idea to cut it too fine.

Bergamo used to be a tiny wee airport but it’s pretty massive now with a fair amount of shops and snack options after security. We chilled out, grabbed coffee and juice and tucked into our cakes! They were all amazing!

We hadn’t realised how big the airport was so had a bit of a rush to get to our gate at the last minute.

Flight was on time and landed back home half an hour later. We were home in the house by including a quick stop at Asda for food. Plenty of time to get organised for school and work in the morning!

Truly fantastic family weekend, exactly what we all needed. Would totally do something like this again if the price was right.

[Goldia]

Sounds like a super trip, not the getting splashed in the face by the car part, but all the eating and seeing the city sounded great. I've never really considered a Friday to Sunday trip as it doesn't seem long enough, but with bargain flights and the budget hotel you can't really go wrong. As it's just lovely to get away together without the usual humdrum or chores that fill a normal weekend.

[orlandobound]

Great report! Was it difficult to get tickets for the match? My 2 boys would love it.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by orlandobound

Great report! Was it difficult to get tickets for the match? My 2 boys would love it.

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It was fine getting tickets for that game. Dh used the official AC Milan website.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Sounds like a super trip, not the getting splashed in the face by the car part, but all the eating and seeing the city sounded great. I've never really considered a Friday to Sunday trip as it doesn't seem long enough, but with bargain flights and the budget hotel you can't really go wrong. As it's just lovely to get away together without the usual humdrum or chores that fill a normal weekend.

See more...

I’d definitely recommend a short trip. I was wary I’d be exhausted going back to work on the Monday but it felt like ages since I’d last been in and I switched off totally.

[Sparksy72]

What a great trip and you did loads in spite of the weather. All your meals look delicious too! What a great mini break

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

What a great trip and you did loads in spite of the weather. All your meals look delicious too! What a great mini break

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Thanks for reading. It was fantastic, trying to persuade Dh to pick out another good European city football trip that I can tag along with.