Each year, the New York Times Travel section puts out a list of the world’s top “Places to Go.” Contributing writers to The Times provide their nominations and the editors narrow it down based on a number of criteria including city events, attractions and other points of particular interest for that year. For 2015, there were 52 destinations on the list and this week, we visited their number one recommended location-Milan! Listed at number one primarily because it is the host of the 2015 World Expo, Milan also went through a city-wide facelift recently. The outside of the Duomo was restored and several other large city projects were completed. Neither of us had visited Milan before and it wasn’t on our original itinerary, but Christina’s dad was invited to speak at a conference (in one of the city’s new meeting facilities) and her mom decided to join him for the trip, so we met up with them after our time in Sicily.
Champagne for Mom’s birthday!
View of Varenna
A few days before the conference, we all met on Lake Como and stayed in the beautiful, sleepy town of Bellano. The lake is expansive and dotted with little towns all along the coast, each more quaint than the next. The thing to do when you’re staying on Lake Como is to take a ferry from town to town and visit the historic villas and immaculately manicured gardens. You can also take hikes and enjoy the picturesque views. During our time there, we experienced our first stretch of rain on the trip. Luckily, we had enough sunshine to enjoy our water taxi rides, our visit to Villa Balbianello, and the impressive gardens in both Varenna and Bellagio.
Rooftop tour of the Duomo in Milan
Milan’s second tallest building, the Unicredit Tower
The sun caught up with us back in Milan and we got a chance to see why it was #1 this year. The city was so impressive. It was clean, modern, full of beautiful architecture and piazzas, and super easy to navigate. We toured the Duomo, spent a day at the Expo and wandered the streets stumbling upon one beautiful church or fountain after another.
Water show at the Tree of Life – Milan Expo
Vertical Farm in the USA Pavilion at the Expo
The Expo was a huge production with 145 participating countries and organizations and over 60 pavilions. It was PACKED. The lines to get into the larger pavilions were hundreds of people long and the food lines weren’t easy to get through either. They had a lot of cool things to see like fountain shows, parades and cooking demonstrations, but overall it felt more like a place to collect tourist brochures rather than an opportunity to learn about agricultural innovation and sustainability (the Expo theme). We’re definitely glad we went, but it was different than what we expected.
Our “last supper” in Milan
Despite our lukewarm feelings about the Expo, we had a great time in Milan, a really nice visit with the parents and some phenomenal meals. Italy, it’s been real, but time to head to Greece!
-The Morts
Great pictures! I’m glad you got to meet up with mom and dad
We were so glad too! Now you just have to decide where you’re meeting up with us ?