Rather than posting more photos of furniture from the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, I will give the topic a break. So …
After a long day running around in the Salone, I left Rho Fiera and took the metro to Duomo. My hotel was centrally located and about 10 minutes down Via Torino on a side street. I booked it in a hurry as most hotel rooms were booked because of the Salone, except the very expensive and very cheap ones. The hotel was centrally located and generally adequate.
The hotel concierge only recommended an eatery just around the corner but would not offer any further advice (he probably took a bribe from that restaurant). But there were so many restaurants in the area. As I wanted to explore the neighborhood any way, I started walking down Corso di Porta Ticinese – doing it “No Reservations” – Tony Bourdain style.
Fratelli la Bufala’s (FLB, “Buffalo Brothers”?) graphic sign suggests a steak house but it also says “pizzaioli emigranti” which I understood it to mean take out pizza.
Met a friendly guy who was tossing pizza and wanted to talk to me in Italian while I was waiting for my table.
FLB’s fillet served on a hot cast iron plate was quite good despite the sloppy presentation. The orange color sauce was made of sun-dried tomato.
FLB turns out to be a franchise, 100 or so restaurants mostly in Italy, that serves Neapolitan style pizza and buffalo meat. They have a backstory about three brothers and made a video about it – FLB.
The restaurant is located just across the street from the Colonne di San Lorenzo.
Colonne di San Lorenzo – one of the best known Roman ruins in Milano – built since the 4th century.
The Piazza Sant’Eustorgio in front of the basilica was slowly filling up with people. Groups standing or sitting in circles under the columns, really friendly atmosphere.
There was a DJ in the middle of the square working a silent disco. The revelers were all wearing wireless headphones with bright blue lights, bobbing away quietly.
During the summer, it becomes a public dance floor – Intellighenzia Electronica presenta: THE SOUND OF SILENCE.
Walking further down towards the canals … the whole area really reminded me of St Mark’s Place in the East Village of NYC.
Two of the canals that were Milan’s major import/export route since the 1200’s meet here at the Darsena (old river port) which looked like a rather messy pond now.
Naviglio Pavese
Naviglio Grande
On that weekend night, people of Milan were out in droves having a drink on the street …
Good times …