Milan: San Siro and restaurants

Ah, the reason we went to Milan in the first place: a visit to the San Siro, or the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza as it's more formally known. This was my first ever football match and, so I was told, the San Siro is one of the most famous stadiums in the world. It certainly is massive!

The match we were there to see was the second leg of Tottenham Hotspur vs. Internazionale Milano. Spurs had won the previous week at home, 3-0, the reason why the stadium was only 25% full - the Inter fans had little confidence they could turn things around.


First things first, football stadiums are cold places so wrap up warm. Secondly, sitting in your rival teams section of the stadium is quite daunting, especially when they are Inter Milan fans! They were stamping, screaming, lighting flares, hanging over the edge to wave their giant flags... It was quite scary at times, but we got such a great view sitting in the rival end (and tickets are hard to get if you want to sit in the right end) so it was worth the drama.


Now, I don't know that much about football, I have to confess. I used to follow the England matches quite closely when I was at sixth form - any excuse to go to the pub - but then I moved to Scotland when I was 18 and that put an end to that. But, even I could tell that Spurs did not play their best that night.

The match was a bit of a shambles and they lost 4-1 (after going into extra time) but they still got through to the next round as they won on aggregate. I'm not sure it was deserved based on that match but Olly was obviously thrilled!

 

After the match we headed over to Ristorante Ribot for a late dinner. Dinner cost us €140 (for two) which makes it on the pricier side but it's worth treating yourself - their steaks are epic, though if you don't specify how well you want it cooking then it will arrive very rare and bloody!

After our dinner we just made the last tube back to our hotel - one thing worth bearing in mind is that the Metro in Milan isn't that frequent. If you time it wrong you can be waiting up to 20 minutes for one which is slightly unsettling when you're used to a Tube showing up every few minutes.

Hotels in Milan can be savagely expensive but the 4* Atahotel De Angeli hotel where we stayed was very reasonable. It's about a ten minute tube ride from the Duomo area and we had a suite (bedroom, separate walk-in wardrobe, bathroom, sitting room and kitchenette) for €80 per night. One thing bearing in mind is that you will have to pay tax when you check out. It's €1 per person per night, which is then multiplied by the amount of stars the hotel has.

The next evening we went for dinner with my best friend and she took us to local hotspot Il Giardino dei Segreti. Grab a cab there as it's not near a Metro station (if you're in the centre of Milan it should cost you no more than €10) and make sure you look up when you're stood outside - you'll see trees growing through the restaurant roof! Dinner cost €130 for the three of us - much cheaper than Ribot and more my sort of food - but it gets insanely busy so book a table or get there when they first open. We had an absolute feast that evening, and I can highly recommend the swordfish! x