We arrived in Milan and made it to AHD Rooms (ApartHotel Duomo Rooms) which felt like being inside of a spaceship — the windows even had mechanical metal shutters that could completely seal out the light if we wanted, wild. After a quick reset, we walked all of two minutes and found ourselves looking at the Duomo Milano.

Piazza Duomo at Night

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Fist Italian Dinner: Traditional Milanese Cuisine

After walking through the Vittorio Emanuele III Galleria (aka the first indoor mall ever), we wandered around to a restaurant that Kyle found. Set inside this adorable alley and seemingly near some popular local bars, Trattoria Milanese served us excellent food that was paired with even better service. Although we didn’t have a reservation, they were sweet enough to seat us on the promise that we’d be out by 8:30 for the people who actually did reserve the table, haha. Our server Eduardo was attentive, made sure our coats weren’t dragging on the floor, and forgave our mispronounced words (and helped us with some translations).

The restaurant specializes in traditional Milanese food, meaning RICH! We started with our first of what will be many plates of cured meats on this trip The salami was just the right amount of “funky” but still soft and melted in my mouth, Kyle loved the lardo, but as the name suggests, it was a bit too fatty for me, and the prosciutto was, no surprise, delicious. I opted for risotto Milanese (which is made with saffron, turning the dish a vibrant yellow) and osso buco, and Kyle went with the veal Milanese (pounded flat, breaded, and fried) with a side of asparagus served “cheese style” which means covered in Parmigiano Reggiano – YUM!

We got plenty of sleep on the way over, but our bodies still weren’t quite adjusted to the time change. By the end of our short walk back to our hotel, we were ready to get some sleep.

Piazza Duomo by Day

We started our day much later than we normally do on vacation. Most of our recent travel has been west of home, so the forward time change is weird for us. I’m not used to being so tired in the morning when I’m looking forward to the day so much, thank goodness we are in the land of espresso!!

While wandering looking for a shop where we could buy Kyle some gloves (it’s a bit chilly and foggy here in Milan), we snagged some tickets to go inside the Duomo. We hopped in the queue, and were promptly sent away for forgetting our CDC cards (whoops! thankfully we were only a 90 second walk from our hotel rooms and were back in the queue in about 5 minutes). Let that be a reminder though: don’t forget your CDC vax card / EU Green Pass when you’re out and about, so far about half of the places have asked to see it.

Il Duomo Milano was built beginning in 1336 – it does feel quite ancient when walking through. We rode the elevator up, and then climbed an additional 8 staircases (according to my Apple Watch) to arrive on the rooftops for some beautiful views of the piazza, and cascading views of the city. My favorite was noticing that the closer the buildings were to the Duomo, the older they looked, but as I moved my gaze up and into the distance, the buildings became more modern and looked like financial buildings in a city!

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Our tickets permitted us to walk through the cathedral as well, we witnessed a small portion of Sunday mass and were in awe of how massive the cathedral room was. It’s crazy to think that they built churches like these without modern equipment and mechanical cranes. The stain glass scenes were especially vibrant and detailed- those were my favorite.

Italy is so much less expensive than we expected! So far we’ve found €5 cocktails and umbrellas, and at the time of writing this €1 = $1.13 and we’ve found most things to cost about the same, picked up a Zara tee for €9.95, a glass of Prosecco for €7, two 2-scoop gelatos for €5… all-in-all, we’ve had an absolutely fantastic first 24 hours!!

Next Stop: The Navigli!