Milan & Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio d'Italia 2025
Venice to Milan Central on the FR 9724 a few hours before the strike.
The views from the train were beautiful. At one point we passed Lake Garda with the Alps in the distance. By the time I had whipped my phone out to get a photo it had whizzed passed. Not surprising really as the train we were on was reaching speeds of 250KM/H. There was a train strike planned for today, but luckily for us it did not come into affect until the evening by which time we had already arrived in Milan.
We had quite a walk from the train station to our apartment. About 30 minutes walking, fully loaded with our backpacks. It was rather warm and so we walked at a steady pace. Our fitness levels have certainly improved since we first embarked on our trip.
Our apartment was cosy but perfect. We did not do much on our first evening there as we were rather tired from the journey. We greeted the next mornig bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to set off and explore what Milan had to offer.
Luckily, well not so much luck but Simon’s sleuth like skills in deciphering the local transport system, we found a tram stop within a 10 minute walk that would take us back to the centre of Milan where the Duomo is. The Duomo is said to be the largest cathederal in Europe and took around 300 years to complete. The building is impressive, albeit a little ostentatious in my humble opinion.
The Duomo
The Duomo is said to be the largest cathederal in Europe and took around 300 years to complete. The building is impressive, albeit a little ostentatious in my humble opinion.
Next to this building is the oldest shopping centre in Milan. called Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It houses all the high end designer stores…funnily enough…Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci etc.
Camparino
It is also home to a store named Camparino which was opened in 1915 by Davide Campari. I was hoping to have an Aperol Spritz, or a Negroni here seeing as it is the original home of Campari. However, there was standing room only and I was not prepared to spend 19 Euros to stand and drink an overpriced cocktail.
The Legend of the Milan Bull
In the centre of this shopping mall are some floor mosaics. One of which is of a bull. Folklore claims that if you stand on the bulls..ahem ‘goolies’ and spin a round you will have good luck. I am sure I read somewhere it had to be a specific foot and direction too. Now Simon, Oliver and Caitlin will tell you that my sense of direction is not great, so I left the bull alone. Knowing my luck I would have got everything backwards and ended up bestowing 7 years bad luck upon myself.
We enjoyed our day in Milan and did find the oldest coffee shop to have an espresso. the little shop was called Jamaica and was opened in 1911 and is still run by the same family.
Having purchased tickets to get access to the Duomo roof top, church and museum we set off after a caffeine boost. The museum part was interesting and we were able to see statues and artifacts dating back to 1017!!. These were in the Duomo originally but over the years have been removed for preservation. The inside of the cathederal is as breathtaking as the outside.
Also breathtaking was the climb up to the roof top. This came in the form of 245 narrow steps. Each time we saw daylight and thought we had reached the top, we were met with a narrow opening in the wall that was letting in the glorious sunlight. So onwards and upwards was the only option.
The entire roof seemed to be made of marble. I wonder if they close the roof top area when it rains? I should imagine it would be extremely slippery when wet. Magnificent views across the city was our reward for the climb. Happy to report that the 245 steps back down was a lot easier!!!
Next day, and our main reason for going to Milan was to attend the Monza Grand Prix. Ticket prices for the race day itself were astronomical and so we settled for the qualifying.
Our View at the Italian F1.
It looked straight forward to get there but we did not imagine the queues for everything would be so long. Having left out apartment at just after 7 am we finally reached the gates to the race track at around 9:20 am. There was only ONE entrance and exit to the race track regardless of where your seat was. We walked an hour covering 3 kms just to get to our seats. Sign posting was not great and even Simon agreed, so you can imagine how confusing it was for me …a bear with little sense of direction! At one point I thought that if I was a toddler I would be sitting down right where I was and refusing to walk any further!
It was a great experience being there though. Getting back to our apartment took 4 hours. Huge queues again to get back on the shuttle bus to Monza train station. Today we wlaked 17,957 steps and covered 12.7Kms. Most of which was to and from the shuttle bus and our seats!
Waiting for the tram on departure day