Following a fantastic morning at the Duomo we walked the 1.5 miles from AHD Rooms to our next hotel: Maison Borella on the Navigli. Yes, we walked 1.5 miles in heels, dragging our luggage — my wheel literally broke when we walked into the hotel 😂 — but the walk took about 40 minutes, and the way the city is laid our combined with traffic, an Uber or metro would have taken just as long, and we’re planning on continuing to eat plenty of rich food throughout this trip, so walking when we can is probably a good idea.

The Navigli is a grand canal southwest of the Piazza Duomo and is a hot spot for locals and tourists alike, the canals themselves date back to the middle ages and functioned as a system to transport goods throughout the city. In the ancient times, the entire city was linked with canals — much like Venice, but now, most of those other canals are gone and it’s just the 5-canal Navigli system. The canals are lined with shops, restaurants, hotels, apartments, and side-alleys with even more cute art displays, oterias and trattorias! When people say “the navigli,” they are usually referencing this triangular neighborhood bounded by 3 canals.

On the Navigli: Osteria al Coniglio Bianco

When I lived here in 2013, many of my fondest memories were of nights spent out on the Navigli. In January, it was a little chilly and the canal was emptied, but when spring hit, the whole street lit up and was decorated and came alive! Given that we are visiting in winter, I was honestly unsure what to expect, but there was clear water in the canal – not high enough for boats to be running, but high enough that it didn’t feel empty. We passed the restaurant where I had my first (and last) Manhattan, the Mexican restaurant that made a cheap passion fruit margarita, and took Kyle to my favorite restaurant in Milan: Osteria al Coniglio Biano.

On the Navigli: Aperitivo

On the Navigli: Rita’s Tiki Room

We had what can only be described as our single best bar experience ever. During the pandemic, we got really into tiki drinks, learning recipes, making homemade ingredients, and collecting a wide variety of rums. We never miss an opportunity to stop at a tiki bar when traveling, so when we saw Rita’s Tiki Room on Apple Maps near our hotel, we knew we’d be grabbing a drink there. We didn’t know what to expect from an Italian tiki bar, but the menu on their website looked like they knew what they were doing, and had put an Italian spin on the tiki style.

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As soon as we walked in, we knew we were in for a treat. The bar had what may be our favorite decor of any tiki bar we’ve been to. Decidedly tiki, but stylish and not overly kitschy. Behind the bar was a giant wall of rums, and bartenders that knew how to use them. Our first drinks were decidedly tiki-italian fusion (what Rita’s calls “AperiTiki”)- combinations of rums, fruit, and Italian amaros. With our first drinks came a plate of tasty snacks- sweet and spicy peanuts, sesame edamame, wonton chips with “tex-max sauce” (Kyle loved this goofy translation of salsa).

While enjoying our first drinks, we got to talking with the couple next to us. Brendan and Jayne were from New York and are as into tiki as we are! The four of us talked with Andrea, our bartender, about our favorite recipes and ingredients. This is where the night really took off. Brendn shared a recipe for a Mezcal and rum drink, and after a group discussion about which would be the right rum to pair with the other ingredients, he (Andrea) whipped one up for all of us to try. While he was working on it he mentioned that there was a new menu starting the following night, and after asking a couple questions, picked a drink off that menu for each of us. Kyle’s request for something “green” using Agricole (cane juice) rum was answered with awesome blend of rum, cucumber, and lychee (among a handful of other ingredients). Katy wanted something with Jamaican white rum and passionfruit, and Andrea made her a tasty twist on a Planter’s Punch. Each drink was passed around the four of us so we could each get a taste of them. The night continued from there- tasting ingredients, new drinks and a handful of items off their food menu. Andrea really was a master of the art. He knew his ingredients backwards and forwards, had perfect pitch when balancing flavors, and had some fun bar tricks up his sleeve. Our reservation was only from 6-8PM, but before we knew it we were tabbing out at 11PM! It was really a special experience to make friends with other travelers and a local over a shared interest. We didn’t end up doing our Apertivo bar-hop plan, but our night at Rita’s sure beat cheap Aperol spritzes and warming-lamp snacks. As we are so often reminded when traveling, deviating from a plan can produce some great surprises

On the Navigli: Trapizzino

On the Navigli: Maison Borella

For our hotels, Kyle would ask what part of town I wanted to be in and suggest a few hotels in the area and then I would flip through the pictures, check out the location, and share my two-cents. Maison Borella is beautiful and old-timey with exposed rafter ceilings in the rooms and construction-style lighting, but the bed was insanely comfortable, our balcony looked out onto the canal, there was an adorable courtyard that we would have enjoyed had we not spent the perfect evening at Rita’s (and had it not been raining), the attached restaurant — Bugandé — provided us with a tasty glass of wine and negroni while blogging about the Duomo and it was right next door to Coniglio Bianco, so an ideal location. Highly recommend! 

The weather was a bit ick in Milan, but that’s normal for the winter here, and it’s projected to get better and better each day as we move through our honeymoon (or as Andrea taught us luna de miele)

I’m so glad that we didn’t prebook any inter-city transport, we decided that we wanted the flexibility to leave and arrive at our leisure, and if we were ready to leave a city early, we could, and if we preferred to stay for an extra meal, we could. There’s not too much to see and do in Milan, a few tourist stops, much reminiscing, and it was a great first place because it’s a very residential city, so finding things like clothing stores and a stationary shop to pick up a few items we forgot was easy. We slept in a little this morning and took our time getting ready, then headed out to the train station and bought tickets on our phones while in the Uber to Milano Centrale.