Took my girl to Milan 🇮🇹 for the weekend, on a city break from Lugano 🇨🇭🌴
Told her: “it’ll be the best weekend of your life”.
Here’s how it went.
Saturday morning: the train
We hopped on an 8 AM, 10 CHF train from Lugano station.
We arrived at the station about 10 minutes early, which was early enough to get on the train and secure a spot (these trains get a bit crowded).
The ride was smooth, no low-lifers, 1h20m.
Breakfast, shopping, apero, and a bit of self-care
After dropping off the luggage at the station (around 10 EUR per day), we went for breakfast and hung out in the centre while doing some shopping.
Little apero, little lunch, more walking around, hairdresser, massage for me, nails for my girl, then shower at the hotel.
Dinner at Frangente
For dinner we went to a fantastic, somewhat new spot called Frangente. We ate by the bar and had an amazing experience.
Extremely curated produce, especially meats and seafood, but also veggies and breads. A really nice balance between gourmet and earthy!
The place is in all the food guides (Michelin and the likes) but with no stamp at the door.
The design is nice and welcoming, yet not “made for Instagram”.
Props to the chef and owner, who is very kind and takes his time to talk to you and explain what they’re about. Also for having a great and fairly priced menu: we spent about 130 EUR for two, food and drinks.
Apparently they also make good cocktails, although we didn’t try (great wine list too).
Live music at Bar Rumore
Later we went to a really fun spot (also relatively new) called Bar Rumore.
They had live music with an insane band: a truly gifted singer and his longtime band (playing together for 30 years!).
This was really good value, since we didn’t pay an entrance fee, just a bit more for the cocktails, which were good. In Warsaw, for comparable things, we sometimes pay 30 to 50 EUR per person in entrance tickets.
Check out the video below and you start to see what the Italian vibe is all about (more on this later!) 😁
We had so much fun here (we both like music) and next time we need to go earlier to see more of the show!
Sunday: walks, food, sun
Sunday we had time to just relax and go around the city for walks and food.
Really great weather, very pleasant vibe ☀️
What you see on a Sunday in Milan
Also a great time to see locals enjoying their Sunday.
What’s remarkable to observe, as an Italian who has lived abroad for a while, is the Italian, and European, way of life.
We often hear about the “downfall of Europe”, “migrant invasions” and “economic collapse”.
Which might have some merit, but the way they’re overblown online is comical.
If you walk around Milan on a Sunday, the idea that “this is a failed, fallen country and society” won’t cross your mind.
What you’ll see instead is some of the best quality of life on the planet.
Happiness and life are not really about millions, corporations and spotless infrastructure.
Sure, those things are great!
But how your day-to-day life is carried, the vibes around you, the relationships and the general sense of community, the beauty of the architecture and the amazing cuisine... These things matter a lot too, often way more ;)
Italy and Italians don’t have and don’t need a lot, while at the same time they have SO MUCH.
Lunch at Sandì
Then we went for a fancy-ish lunch at Sandì, for which, by the way, we again paid 130 EUR for two people, food and drinks, everything top tier.
We hung around a bit talking with one of the waitresses (such a cute and kind girl!) about how the neighbourhood has evolved over time and how many new cool places have opened.
I used to live there 13 to 8 years ago and it wasn’t a trendy area to go out to, whereas now it really is.
That says a lot about how Milan has been growing and evolving over the past few years!
Also a good time to mention the growing number of expats I see in the city, and how they’re funding part of that growth.
The passeggiata
After lunch it was time for a big, ultra-relaxed passeggiata: strolling around incredible architecture, vibe-gazing and people watching.
Milan has some of the best architecture I’ve seen in Italy, in a very abundant and diverse fashion!
Also, as you might expect, you see a lot of people, young and old, fully dripped out, with personality and style 😎
Aperitivo at Bar Basso
Then a little apero in one of our favorite bars, Bar Basso.
By the bar, I got the classic negroni sbagliato (invented here), we tried their margarita and, as I was chatting with the barman about the way they make drinks, he wanted me to try his favorite one, so he just gave us one for free 😂♥️
Great place to socialise too.
We met a couple of artists (a woman from Sardinia and a man from Manhattan) who met at a gallery in Milan and now date while “bi-fecting” NYC and Milan.
But in general you get all kinds of people here, from fashion people to youngsters to older Milanese.
Milan is not just “fashion and nightlife”
One thing people don’t understand about Milan is that it’s not just a city of “fashion and nightlife”.
At the same time, it’s also not your average “boring Swiss town”, nor a “purely industrial city”.
It’s a place where many different realities coexist, sometimes in a really nice way.
For example, one of the cutest things to see are young parents, fresh and stylish, going out and taking kids or pets with them.
Surrounded by younger and older people.
All going about their life, yet everyone in the same city, organically, with very little alienation.
Pizza at Spontini, and a word on migrants
The perfect way to recover from the apero and wrap up the weekend was an authentic Milanese pizza at Spontini, inside the central station.
Also a good time to mention: the large majority of the migrants you see in the city are working hard, integrating, and very much deserving their place in Italy.
On this and related topics: I’m the first to demand a hard line on crime, to push for cleaner cities and better infrastructure, and to support businesses.
All things in which Italy and Milan can and should do better.
But, at the same time, many things are undoubtedly still very, very good in Italy and Milan.
And there’s no reason to avoid it like the plague and be overly critical about it.
One thing is for sure: having Milan at 1h20m by train (and the rest of Italy at 30m to 3h) is 100% one of the top 3 upsides of living in Lugano! 🇮🇹🇨🇭🌴
So, was it the best weekend of her life?
😁
Well, no point in wondering and ranking :)
But it definitely was A TON of fun and a GREAT time 😃🇮🇹♥️
Bonus: why not just live in Milan, then?
Someone asked me this on X after reading the thread: “You seem to be a big fan of Milan. Why didn’t you move there instead?”
Short version:
High taxes.
One thing is a weekend, another is living there full time. It can get a bit intense (many Milanese in fact leave for the weekend, for the countryside and so on).
It gets very polluted in winter (worse than Warsaw).
I’d like my permanent, day-to-day base to be safer and cleaner too.
I wrote about this before: Milan, London, Paris and Barcelona are great for 10 days a year, Warsaw works for several months a year. Switzerland gives me the day-to-day base, with Milan/Paris next door for the weekends. More on my move to Lugano in the next newsletter article!
This piece started as a thread on X. Follow me there to not lose all the various, less filtered content I post on there.
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