window shopping only

We had pastries and coffees at a local cafe called Bar Inter Caffe and then walked toward the center. It rained lightly all day and the cold made it miserable. We passed by a ritzy men's shop liked by celebrities and royalty.

Jack

when in Milan, stop and look up every once in a while





there are nice parts of the city center

We wandered around and found Antica Foccacceria di San Francesco for lunch. We had been to the flagship in Palermo and heard there was one newly open in Milan so we wanted to try it. It specializes in Sicilian street food. No one spoke English and it was a bit stressful for me to order and figure out the system, because there is certainly a system to the place. In the end we got arancini (fried rice balls), sfincione (what in NYC we call Sicilian pizza), and caponata (eggplant, capers, celery, onions, tomatoes, vinegar). It was good but overpriced.

salty, vinegary caponata

sfincione

arancini piccoli

After lunch we took one last stroll through Piazza di Duomo for one last look. But I will spare you more pictures of that.

well, just one

We did pass through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele again and saw a gigantic mistletoe hanging over a red carpeted platform where couples kissed and had their pictures taken. No, we didn't do it.

the Galleria entrance




the gigantic mistletoe




the gigantic silicon snails reminding the Milanese to slow down




playing Pachelbel's Canon in D

We wanted to see the Last Supper but it viewing slots were sold out for the month when we tried to get tickets online. Only groups of 15 people are let in at a time for 15 minutes at a time. We went to the church and convent, the Santa Maria delle Grazie, in case there were no-shows but we had no luck. After caffe macchiati across the street we took the metro to the hotel, picked up our bags, and walked to the train station.

that's one good macchiato!




someday I will own a red Vespa

The train station was chaotic and as soon as our train appeared on the board we headed to the track and very quickly the train filled up to standing room only. We just made it with getting seats!

It was good to be back in Torino. We didn't like Milan overall but we did love the duomo and the Steve McCurry exhibit. Many friends have had the same feelings about the city.

After a glass of wine at the apartment we went out to find dinner and came across a real jewel called Perbacco. We of course didn't have a reservation and at first it was a problem but there was a no show that was 15 minutes late so we got their table after waiting a few minutes. Excellent! I was able to translate some of the menu but had trouble with most of it. The owner came to the table, pulled up a chair, and said he spoke "pidgin English" as he said, but he would try to tell us what he offered from the kitchen. We never had such attentive service!

top notch hospitality (I stole this picture from his website)




il menu

When we said we were Americans from New York ("The best city in the world") he also said he has one restaurant in Hawaii!! Anyways, he translated every item on the menu and it was a steal at 32€ for 4 courses. He recommended a light red to go with our fish and vegetable menu which was a Piemontese varietal we'd never had and now love called Grignolino. Now, we took pictures and they are really really terrible but I will put them here anyway for you foodies out there - not you photographers.

Ken 's first course
thin sliced raw Jerusalem artichoke with bagna cauda, a traditional Piemontese sauce of anchovies, garlic, olive oil, and milk

Ken's second course
vegetarian spaghetti carbonara which was absolutely delicious and a rare find!

Ken's third course
skewer of swordfish with chickpea puree

Ken's dessert
almond and chocolate torta

Jen's first course
a profiterole type pastry filled with fonduta, the northern Italian version of fondue

Jen's second course
spaghetti with shellfish with a red sauce that was like crack

Jen's third course
baccala with potatoes between a thin polenta cake

There was no photo for my dessert of poached pear gelato. But it was tasty. The dinner was fantastic and this was our special night out, one day early for New Year's.

highly recommended Perbacco