Category Archives: Sightseeing

Italy, Restaurants, Sightseeing

My Croatian Itinerary – Part 2: Milan

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Part 1 ended as we left Castello de la Sarre on our way to Milan. Hotel Vecchia Milano turned out to be somewhat old and decrepit despite the photos on the website. I gave up staying in the “oldest hotel” in this or that city long ago. I should have paid more attention to the “vecchia” bit. However, the room was fairly spacious and the bed was comfortable. The breakfast was awful but that is often the case in Italy. I’d chosen the hotel because it was so well located – very close to the Duomo – and the fact that we could park in an underground parking lot at a reasonable price. Remember we had our bikes on the back. But more about that later!

Duomo

We fell instantly in love with the Duomo as everyone must. The change of colour as the light waxes and wanes is fascinating and so are all the incredible architectural details. We had our aperitivo at a café opposite the northern façade (I only know that because churches always face east) and spent a lot of time with our binoculars scrutinising the impressive number of sculptures. Then we found a very nice little restaurant for dinner called “Da Vin – La Toscana e il resto del mondo” in a little street near the Porta Ticinese and ate a tagliata in memory of one of our most unforgettable culinary experiences in Italy. We arrived in a little town called Castiglione Fiorentino at lunchtime, tired, hot and hungry in our pre-Tom Tom days, with our tempers a little frayed. There was a nondescript restaurant next to the church called “Da Muzzicone”.

Sun setting over the Duomo

There was no menu and no one spoke anything but Italian. When the lady told us what we could have, I identified insalata mista and tagliata which I knew was some sort of red meat. It was cooked on hot embers in the far corner of the room and was served with an olive oil, rosemary and green pepper sauce. We still talk about that meal. Tagliata means “sliced” so can actually be any cut of meat but the version you get in Tuscany is really a côte de boeuf without the bone. And we know how much I like côte de boeuf.

Galeria Emanuelle

Back in Milan, we visited the inside of the Duomo next day and were not disappointed. I also love the statues outside that are shiny from everyone stroking them. Other places to see are the Piazza delle Scala, home of the famous opera, the immense Galeria Emanuelle Segundo with its mosaic floor, Piazza Mercanti with its mediaeval façades, Santa Maria delle Grazie containing Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper for which you have to book a couple of days in advance (which we didn’t of course), San Maurizio, once a Benedictine monastery, with its magnificent frescoes of Noah’s Ark and the Castello which contains Leonardo’s last unfinished sculpture which he started at the age of nearly 90.

Duomo façade

Excellent aperitivo at the Marcenti Caffe, 21 Via Dei Mercanti, where we were joined by friends who happened to be in Milan that weekend! We trekked down to the canal which was literally alive with Milanese and tourists. It was also alive with mosquitoes to my great dismay as mosquitoes find me particularly attractive. We sat down in the armchairs outside one of the many bars along the canal and discovered that you can practically have a complete meal just buying a drink that gives you unlimited access to the buffet inside. A lot of the people had repellent with them. Had I only known! I had some Wackoff back at the hotel. However, I would recommend going to Cheese at 11 Via Celestino IV just next to the Porta Ticinese instead. By the time we got there for dessert, covered in mosquito bites, the buffet was over, but we’d seen it the night before and didn’t know how the system worked. It was sumptuous.

Piazza Mercanti

We left next morning after paying a horrendous garage bill – 103 Euros for two days instead of the 60 Euros announced by the hotel. It turns out that their “agreement” with the underground parking lot had changed but they had omitted to tell us. I was furious but it didn’t change anything of course. Next stop Ancona.

San Maurizio
Marcenti Caffe, 21 Via Dei Mercanti, Milano
 
Da Vin – La Toscana e il resto del mondo, Via Pioppette, 3 – MILANO (Colonne di s. Lorenzo) Tel. 0289403300  3283634324 info@trattoriadavin.it
 
Da Muzzicone, Castiglione Fiorentino, 7 Piazza San Francesco, 52043 Castiglione Fiorentino
History, Lifestyle, Paris, Sightseeing

Powerwalking down to Pont Neuf – Part 3

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Last time, in Part 2, I told you about Saint Germain l’Auxerrois but the time before, in Part 1, I explained about Pont Neuf actually being the oldest bridge in Paris. After leaving Saint Germain, you turn left along the Seine to the bridge. Halfway across, there is an equestrian statue in honour of Henry IV and wonderful views on either side.  Turn right after the bridge and you’ll go past the bouquinistes selling their second-hand books and anything else they think tourists might be interested in.

A little further on, you’ll see what is probably the most unusual fire station in Paris – it’s a river boat! Paris actually has a surprising number of fire stations.  There are two in our neighbourhood alone. As soon as the weather permits, they take their fire trucks out in the street to clean them. I personally think they want to show off their uniforms as well! Last Sunday, when we were going to the market, there was a fireman standing by watching a firewoman (?) hosing down a truck – and giving instructions on how to do it, of course!

And now I have a bit of etymology for you. You might notice that the boat says “sapeurs“. Firemen in French are called “sapeurs-pompiers“. This is because in the Middle Ages, the first firemen often had to knock down (saper) the houses around the one that was burning to stop the fire from going any further.  The “pompier” bit comes from pumping water.

If you keep going, you’ll arrive at the Passerelle des Arts and can admire all the padlocks as you go past. Cross rue de Rivoli and walk through to the Place Carrée du Louvre, then left to the pyramids and right through the arcade with its wonderful plate glass windows and  view of some of the museum’s antique sculptures.

Just in front of the Conseil Constitutionnel, you’ll see a rather nondescript column with a plaque on top saying “an 2000 la méridienne verte“. This was a project promoted by Paul Chemetov to celebrate the year 2000. Trees were planted along the Paris meridian which crosses France from North to South (from Dunkirk to Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste). A big picnic was held that year on Bastille Day right along the meridian. Wish I’d known about it!

Turn right onto Place Colette, home of the Comedie Française theatre where Molière died, with its scaffolding, then through the arcade to the Buren columns. In front you’ll see a wooden building which is temporarily housing the theatre. Walk around it to the right and take a look at the exhibitions after the portico. They do have the weirdest things! But they’re often very clever, like the ones in the Pompidou Centre. A little look to see what Miss Bibi‘s up to and then I’m ready to climb the stairs to the 4th floor!

 

 

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France, French customs, Paris, Sightseeing

Slow Walking on Rue du Louvre

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Now if you happen to walk down Rue du Louvre, with your back to the Seine, you should stay on the left side until you come to the remains of a stone wall that is actually part of the fortress built by Philippe Auguste at the end of the 12th century to protect Paris while he was off at the Crusades. It was later to become the Louvre.

Cross over to the other side and you’ll come to a large round building. Few people realise that it’s open to the public and that you can just wander in. It used to be the Bourse du Commerce which, despite its name, isn’t the stockmarket which is about ten minutes away, but the commodities market. It was originally built by Louis-Philippe in 1763 to store and sell wheat. Its location was chosen due to the proximity of the Seine and it was financed by constructing rental buildings around it.

Today it’s the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It’s built on a circular plan, 122 metres in circumference. There were two concentric galleries above 25 covered arcades. The galleries housed the police, the weights and measures office and the statistics bureau. Enormous wheat lofts on the first floor were accessed via two beautiful spiral staircases, one of which had a double revolution so that the administrative staff and merchants didn’t have to rub shoulders with the porters! The courtyard was orginally open but later covered with a wooden dome to protect the wheat.

After a second fire in 1854, the building was closed for 30 years before being renovated and converted into a commodities market in 1885. Wheat, rye, oats, flour, oil, sugar, spirits, rubber, cocoa, coffee, potatoes, and rape were sold by auction until 1998 when it was disbanded due to computerisation of the futures market. If you stand right in the middle and speak, your voice will be amplified.  The inside is decorated with murals depicting the four cardinal points. You’re not supposed to take photos, I discovered after I got to the third cardinal point, so you’ll just have to go and see for yourself !

Just next to the Bourse du Commerce, you’ll see a tall column which has an interesting history. It’s the last vestige of a private hôtel built by Catherine de Médicis in 1572. The queen had the 31-metre high tower built for her astrologist, Cosimo Ruggieri. They often used to go up to the top of the tower together, where he whispered, not sweet nothings, but magic spells.

The top part of the column used to be glassed in but all that’s left today is a metal frame. After Ruggieri died in 1615, it fell into disuse and the building was demolished in 1748 to pay the debts of the last owner, Amédée de Savoie. Only the tower was saved and bought by the City of Paris in 1750. A fountain was added, which has now run dry, and a sundial. Legend has it that on stormy nights, a long black silhouette appears in the iron cage every time there’s a flash of lightening! I’ll let you go and check that out as well too.

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