We have booked a bike ride with a guide, Polina - Less Politics More Pedalling! We have done a few of these tours now , we like it as a way to get to know cities we are new to. Bill liked this on her website - "Milan has much more to offer than the Duomo and 'Last Supper'. Take in the city’s unsung gems with this guided bike tour that pairs famous sights and authentic neighbourhoods. Avoid the crowds of downtown by pedalling off to the quieter corners of the city, learn about Milanese history and culture, and stop to relax over an espresso or gelato at a traditional café."
I won't see Duomo nor the "Last Supper" this trip - that will have to be on next year's list. Polina leads us. She is the woman on the left in the picture below. There are about 14 of us. (Another group went off just before us - they were the Dutch speakers - so they seem to be popular.)
Our first stop is the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti (literally 'rest home for musicians'). It is a home for retired opera singers and musicians in Milan, northern Italy, founded by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (whose statue is outside the building) in 1896.
Bill is particularly interested in this because Verdi in 1896 was a philanthropist. The home, and a separate hospital, have been funded since 1901 by the royalties from his operas and other works. Verdi called it his "most beautiful work", and [from Wikipedia]:
". . . ageing musicians still play out their days at his Casa Verdi retirement home. Piano music resonates down the corridors of the sumptuous Milan palazzo, while a singer performs in the vast main room for dozens of pensioners, who were once professional musicians themselves. With around 60 residents who have all dedicated their lives to music, the sound of music in one form or another is everywhere.
"This place is paradise," says Marisa Terzi, 79, who arrived four months ago. "For me, music is everything, and I didn't expect to find such a fantastic place."
Anyone who has lived in the theatre and in the world of music well knows how varied the fates and fortunes are, the ascents to success and fame and the descents to decline and sunset. Some artists are successful for a long time, others are not; some have solid marriages or family situations, others live in solitude; some safeguard and save their earnings, others spend everything, deluding themselves that fortune will always smile on them; and still others see the results of their parsimonious caution demolished by the general financial situation.”
Verdi has honoured these musicians and there is ongoing funding for artists who have contributed to Milan. It seems they can die gracefully and with honour here.
Next, we cycle into the 'old' Milan. Just outside the historical centre of Milan is the Sforza Castle, a grand 15th-century fortification built on the ruins of a previous medieval fortress, commissioned by Francesco Sforza, Lord of the City at the time.
The holes in the castle were for the scaffolding used as they built the castle. There was a moat where the grass is. Escape routes are underground and windows on the other side of the moat, give a view of invaders.
Inside the castle.
More cycling around the old city streets. Polina takes us through narrow cobbled streets with shops, restaurants and houses all around - in area that missed the bombing in WW II. She says the restaurants are nice and a bit expensive. This one seems to fit the bill! (She says the ones by the Duomo are not so nice and a lot expensive.)
This is an art museum (Brere) with Napolean glorified. Paulina tells us this was not what Napoleon's body (or face) looked like - but the French built the statue when they were ruling here.
This is Berengere taking a photo. She is from Bordeaux and we enjoyed chatting with her throughout the bike ride. I was thankful she had her name on her hat so I could remember it easily. A lovely name to go with her bubbly personality.
Milan used to have a network of canals and locks, it was built on the water. This is one (the only one?) that has not been demolished and replaced by roads.
We left old Milan and moved through to new Milan. This apartment building was super cool - one of only 3 in the world. The Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) is a complex of two residential skyscrapers designed by Boeri Studio and in the Porta Nuova district. The plants and biodiversity attracted to them create it's own ecosystem. The plants are all looked after by the corporate body, it is very organised. Paulina said she had read one 3br apartment sold recently for about $10mill.
[From Wikipedia]: "The Vertical Forest is the prototype building for a new format of architectural biodiversity which focuses not only on human beings but also on the relationship between humans and other living species. There are two towers in Milan that are respectively 80 and 112 metres high, housing a total of 800 trees (480 first and second stage trees, 300 smaller ones), 15,000 perennials and/or ground covering plants and 5,000 shrubs, providing an amount of vegetation equivalent to 30,000 square metres of woodland and undergrowth, concentrated on 3,000 square metres of urban surface. The project is also a device for limiting the sprawl of cities brought about through a quest for greenery (each tower is equivalent to about 50,000 square metres of single-family houses).
The concept behind the Vertical Forest is that of being a “home for trees that also houses humans and birds” . . . the towers are mainly characterized by large, staggered and overhanging balconies (each about three metres), designed to accommodate large external tubs for vegetation and to allow the growth of larger trees without hindrance, even over three floors of the building.
The other thing to look for is “Flying Gardeners”, This is a specialized team of arborists-climbers who, using mountaineering techniques, descend from the roof of the buildings once a year to carry out pruning while checking the state of the plants in addition to their eventual removal or substitution. All the maintenance and greening operations are in fact managed at the condominium level in order to maintain control of the anthropic-vegetal balance. Irrigation is also centralized: the needs of the plants are monitored by a digitally and remotely controlled installation while the necessary water is largely drawn from filtered effluent from the towers.
A few years after its construction, the Vertical Forest has given birth to a habitat colonized by numerous animal species (including about 1,600 specimens of birds and butterflies), establishing an outpost of spontaneous flora and fauna recolonization in the city."
This is a crane at the top used for watering.
This area near the vertical forest is another signature development of new Milan - this is a "busy" office and residential area but all parking, shops and restaurants have been built under the ground and above the ground are green areas and public spaces. So this is what it looks like.
Then we passed an Arc, built by the French - not the Arc de Triomphe but the Arc of Peace. But this Arc points exactly at the Arc de Triomphe and their plan was to build a straight road from here to the Arc de Triomphe - amazing.
Then it was to the Cimitero Maggiore di Milano, the largest and most 'prestigious" cemetery in Milan.
Then our final leg was past another green space with an underground complex - City Life - and back to 'Less Politics More Pedalling'.
On the walk back to the hotel we found a cool little poke bar, for a healthy late lunch.
Loved this car.
Had a very early night. We were in bed by 8.30 pm. But we had made it through our first two days after the 28hr flights very comfortably, so we remain firm believers in No Jet Lag pills - even if they aren't clinically tested Daniel. Placebo effect or not, we're sticking with them.