Lago di Como & Red Hot Chili Peppers in Milano
, Munich
This will be the last time I write about a trip.
It wasn't even a trip in Spain, but it was still in the time of Erasmus, so I wanted to write about it.
In the end of June/beginning of July my girlfriend and I went to Milan and Lake Como.
For the day of arrival we didn't have so much of the day left, so we just went to the restaurant L'antica Pizzeria Da Michele in the evening.
Multiple Italians told me to try it in Napoli, but they have a few other locations too. Although they said it's the best in Napoli it was already amazing in Milan.
It's a bit detailed, but I want to remember the food we had: First, there was a small dish that I don't remember the name of, but it had croquettes, mortadella, on top of that stracciatella cheese, and pieces of pistachio sprinkled on top 🤤.
Then, as it was my first time in Italy, I had my first pizza I ate in Italy, which had a vegetable that I didn't even know about before Erasmus. A neapolitan friend I met in Seville recommended to try it and I liked it a lot. It's called Friarelli.
After dinner, we shortly looked around Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and the Duomo.
The second day we did a day trip to Lake Como which is easily reachable by train. Our route was Milan -> Varenna -> Bellagio -> Como -> Milan.
After arriving in Varenna we walked around its streets and had some coffee with a lake view. The streets are so cute and have stairs between their houses that lead to the lake. They reveal a bit of the lake view. We tried some pistachio cannoncini and walked up a surrounding mountain a bit until we reached Castello di Vezio. We didn't enter because it didn't seem worth it to us but the walk with the views over the lake were already worth it enough. It is very beautiful and I would recommend prioritizing this place over Bellagio.
Then we took a ferry to Bellagio. Here you can also find cute streets with lots of flowers and blooming trees next to the water. After walking around a bit in Bellagio we had another espresso next to the water. It was a good break after walking around more in Varenna.
Next, we planned to take a ferry to Como where a train would take us back to Milan.
We got the ferry tickets and when the ferry arrived the guy who sold us the tickets told us the ferry is full and tried to make us believe that when he sold us the tickets he told us the tickets are for the ferry afterward. Which we both didn't think he did.
At least we got the money back, but now we had to take a bus to Como. It came a lot later than planned which meant even more people could arrive at the bus stop than were already there.
It was obvious that not everyone would fit in the bus and the next one would be planned for at least an hour later. So people would fight to get into the bus, but we made it.
It might have been the worst bus experience of my life. Everyone stood super close, it was hard to hold on to anything, and it was even hard to close the doors of the bus. And then we needed to drive around an hour to Como.
I wouldn't want to do that again. I imagine the low public transport capacity could be a tactic to scare away tourists so that the place doesn't become even more crowded.
Anyway, we arrived in Como in time for the train but now didn't have so much time anymore to see Como. On the walk from the bus to the train station we could at least walk by a little church and Caffè Monti (which isn't a recommendation, we didn't enter, we just wanted to see it for funny reasons).
The next day we went to Cenacolo Vinciano which is the place where Davinci painted The Last Supper. It is on a wall of the church Santa Maria delle Grazie. Remember to get tickets a lot in advance.
The rest of the day it was raining, so we went inside the Duomo, and then saw Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio.
The next day we saw Cemetero Monumentale, the most impressive cemetery I have seen until now. We walked around Castello Sforzesco, saw the Arco della Pace, and the beautiful district of Navigli with its canals.
In the morning of the next day we tried out an espresso bar that was close. They had coffee variants I have never seen before, and they were actually better than what I have tried before.
Of course the other coffee in this trip wasn't anything special but here there was a difference. This time I tried a ginseng coffee.
Then, it was time for the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. We had a good spot and a great time. This concert was the reason why we came to Milan in the first place. They had concerts in other places in Europe at the time. In Germany, it was in Mannheim, and then we were thinking if we would rather go to Mannheim or Milan. We've never been to Mannheim, but we imagined it to be a lot better to go to Milan instead.
After the concert we still had to eat but almost everyhing was closed. We randomly found a little bar with good ratings that still served pizza at night.
It didn't look super special or anything but inside on one of the walls was a certificate for a world pizza competition where they did fairly well. I thought it's pretty funny that apparently in Italy (well, Milan, but still) you can just walk into a bar like that and find a pizza this good.
The next morning it was time for leaving. We went to the espresso bar again where I tried a shakerato this time before we went to the bus station and the airport.
One thing I also want to remember was that one of the flats in the house we stayed in had a bookshelf in the hallway. One book I randomly saw was Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. I looked it up, and it looks actually pretty interesting and like it is very well-known. I might buy it and try some recipes.
In general, I became more interested in Italy as a country. I hope next year we can see more of it, especially now that I have some friends there. Since April, I even started learning Italian since it's also similar to Spanish.
For the trips I did after this one I don't think I would write more because it's also not really part of Erasmus anymore. But I traveled through south-east Spain before I returned to Germany, spent a month there, a week in Istanbul, and now I'm back in Germany for a longer time again, probably.
The posts I still do want to write would be a general summary of Erasmus maybe and another data analysis statistics post. I don't know when I'll find the motivation to do it, but I'll try to do both at least before the end of this year.