Sketches of a Life

Several days ago I returned from a short trip to Milan, Italy. It was a perfect getaway for it included great company, nice weather, relaxing summer feel, and not a care in the world. My friends and I spent four days in the city and one at the Borromean islands at Lago Maggiore - which is a must-see, trust me! If you ever get a chance to visit Northern Italy, make sure this destination is on your list.

Now, I could go on forever on all the things we saw and did in Milan, but I'll try to focus on only a few I think are important to highlight. So buckle up, we're taking off! 

TRANSPORT

First thing's first. How come we ended up in Italy? Well, we booked our plane tickets about 2 months prior to the trip: at the time, Volotea offered return tickets from Split to Bergamo for only about €30 (two pieces of hand luggage included)! The flight took about one hour and, in terms of comfort and overall service, we experienced no problems whatsoever.

Getting from the airport to the city of Milan was also rather easy. There are many shuttle buses from the Bergamo airport to the Milan Central Station that cost €5 (one-way ticket) and take about an hour to get to the city. From the central station you can go anyplace within the urban area using the many metro, tram or bus lines. There are 3 types of public transport tickets you can buy from the ticket machines at the stations or from other authorized vendors (bars, tobacconists, newspaper stands): single tickets (€1.5; valid for 90 mins after stamping), one-day tickets (€4.5; valid for 24 hours after stamping) and two-day tickets (€8.25; valid for 48 hours after stamping). I recommend you combine these depending on how long you're staying in Milan.

ACCOMMODATION

Whenever I travel abroad, I rent an apartment rather than book a hotel room. This time we booked an apartment via Airbnb.com in the Guastalla part of the city and immediately fell in love with the neighbourhood. The greatest advantage of this neighbourhood is that it is conviniently situated 7-8 minutes bus ride to the Piazza Duomo and has everything one might need (shops, markets, bars, restaurants), so I would heartily recommend it to anyone. Also, it's quite busy during the day, but quiet during the night.

PLACES TO SEE

Duomo di Milano (terraces, church, archeological area, museum)
The obvious. Don't just take a photo in front of the cathedral. Buy the Duomo Pass (~€13) and explore both the interior and the exterior - it's truly worth it. But bear in mind you have to book the tickets in advance to skip the line at the reception desk. You'll still have to wait shortly in line to get inside. The Duomo sightseeing route starts with climbing the terraces, reaching the rooftop, then going down to the cathedral and the archeological area, and finally to the museum which is housed in a separete building. 

Visiting a cemetary might not be everyone's cup of tea, but this one is truly unique and definitely more than just a burial ground. They call it an open-air museum and the moment you step inside it becomes obvious why. The graveyard is famous for the abundance of artistic tombs and monuments, and it's like nothing you have ever seen before. A paragraph from a Milan tourist site best describes it, so I'm shamelessly citing it here: "It is as if some of the great sculptors of the 1900s were called together to elaborate and reflect on a particularly demanding theme, to be precise, death." Still, in this place, death is not a sad theme whatsoever. I'd say the place is splendid, glorifying, reverent and even magical.

Warning: the Cemetery is closed on Mondays and public holidays. There is no admission fee but obviously it is expected of visitors to be respectful at all times.

A little over an hour ride from Milan is Stresa, a charming little town situated on the shores of Lago Maggiore. You can easily reach it by train, departing from the Garibaldi station. What no one tells you is that, once you buy a ticket to Stresa (€8), you can board any train heading in that direction and even change trains (the ticket is valid for 4 hours), but you have to be well aware of where these trains change directions, i.e. where you have to board a different train. I'm stressing this because we got late to the train we were supposed to use and, instead of waiting at the station for another two or threee hours, someone told us we could use the ticket to board the train to Arona leaving in 15 minutes, and then switch to another one heading for Stresa. This saved us a lot of time considering that the boats to Isola Bella, our final destionation, cease operating at 6 p.m. Buying the boat tickets in advance is highly recommended.
Isola Bella is an island situated about 400 m from Stresa, connected to the town by regular ferry and private boat services (the tickets cost about €8). It is one of the Borromean islands the name of which stands for "Beautiful Island", and indeed it is. The island is dominated by the lavish Baroque palace with a luxuriant Italian-style garden laid out on ten terraces (the entry ticket to both costs €16). Many parts of the palace are open to visitors, as is the whole garden. The white peacocks that wander over the manicured lawns add their grace to this enchanting spot, and I could not be any happier for seeing this beauty with my own eyes.

FOOD

Oh my God, the food! Milan nearly annuled all my previous two-month effort at losing weight and working on my summer body. Of course we had cappuccinos and croissants for breakfast, of course we had pizzas and risotto Milanese for lunch, and of course we had ravioli and octopus for dinner. And we accompanied all of these with wine and cocktails. 

Some of the places I would definitely recommend are:

POSITIVE SURPRISE

The first thing I noticed about Milan was the rich vegetation and the overall cleanness of the city. Many residental buildings are covered in plants and flowes, and numerous even have an inner courtyard filled with flower pots or trees. And it's so pretty!

Call me naive, but I expected the Milanese to be all dressed up, very stilish and wearing highly fashionable clothes. However, witnessing the actual streetstyle left me somewhat disappointed. What I liked was the diversity, uniqueness and individuality of each single passer-by, but what I genuinely disliked was the choice of their clothing items and, above all, - shoes! Of course, I am aware that not every single person I passed by was a Milanese. But still...

For example, I saw at least 50 handsome guys wearing wonderful shirts and classic pants, and then - boom! these:

WTF?! Maybe they're in, I don't know. Maybe they are comfortable, I can't say. But they remind me too much of when I was a child and my parents made me help them dig out the potatoes they had planted in the fields, and I wore a pair of these. So, if you ask me, these belong either at sports courts or farmlands, but on no account combined with a suit or a formal shirt.

Still, on the plus side, I only saw ONE man wearing flip-flops (which I loathe seeing on a male, in case you didn't know).

I know I am crazy and whining, thank you very much :)

But I'd hate to end this beautiful account of a wonderful experience with this horror. So here's another happy shoe / chocolate greeting card from Milan!

If there's more you'd like to know about Milan, just let me know and I might even write a sequel to this story!

Well, no, not exactly. Only her social networks crash.

But saying the Internet crushed seemed a more intriguing introduction.

Anyway, the girl's Inbox gets jammed with messages asking questions about this amazing place. So the girl decides to write a blog post. Go figure.

The girl is nevertheless amazed by how little people know about this place. After all, on numerous occasions it was proclaimed one of the most beautiful secret beaches in the world. Maybe the secret is in the word "secret". 

The place is, of course, the girl's all-time favourite island of Croatia - the island of Pag. By the way, the girl had also mentioned this place in one of her previous posts, but you didn't pay that much attention, did you? 

Furthermore, the place is actually two places. Two beaches. Situated near the village of Metajna. The village is easy to reach following the main road to Novalja and then following the road signs for another 12 kilometers. Unfortunatelly, the girl didn't take any photos as she was behind the wheel and unwilling to earn another ticket. But she's kindly leaving a Google maps link for you to easily find it if you ever wish to visit.

And the girl will now stop referring to herself in the third person. Because it's just weird.

The Ručica beach
This beach is situated about 1 km from Metajna and can easily be reached by boat or car. The pebbled beach is nestled in a barren bay and perfectly ridden of natural shade. The contrast between the white rocks and the turquoise water provides an incredible sight. You might have noticed this white/blue contrast is what I like most about Pag in general.

The only thing ruining this fully preserved natural landscape is the bar erected nearby. I pray to God someone would tear it down because it's just mincing. The existence of this object, in addition to the easy access, most probably signifies that there are lots of visitors during the summer months (I can't really tell as I went there in April and found not a soul in sight). So if you don't mind crowds, do visit this beach. But if you prefer quiet and are willing to make some effort, then certainly head to...

Beritnica, on the other hand, is not accessible by car or by any other form of transportation except for boat. Alternatively, you can hike to the beach - like we did. The parking lot near the Ručica beach would have probably been the best spot to start the hike, but we chose (unintentionally :)) the more complex route, climbing the stairway someone had built of in situ material, leading uphill the Ručica beach. Eventually, the stairway got us to a building marked "private property", but since it was April and no one around, we turned a blind eye to the signs and somehow got back on the right track. My point is, this is not a recommended route whatsoever. 

Actually, there are two parking lots where you can leave your car, depening on which beach you would like to visit. I'll try to explain using the map below.

Like I said, you can easily reach Ručica by car, so the best option is to follow the narrrow, but easily spottable and fine road from Metajina leading to the spot I marked "Parking for Ručica". However, there's a different, even narrower, dirt road leading to the spot where I think it's best to start your hike if you're heading for Beritnica, and I marked it "Parking for Beritnica". I also roughly marked in red the hiking routes to Beritnica so you could tell why I advise you to start from here. 

However, I must warn you: I was amazed at how much water there is in this seemingly barren place! There are hundreds of streams flowing down the hills to the sea, and I have no idea where they come from and whether they dry out in the summer. Literary no article I have ever read mentioned these streams, and I was totally shocked to find them there. Anyway, the streams make certain areas around the parking lot swampy and the hiking route (which is not easily passable anyway) quite slippery – so wear a good pair of sneakers and mind your steps.

Once you start going uphill, all you have to do is follow the round, orange path markings on the ground. It's basically impossible to get lost. There are actually two routes, and we hiked one on our way to the beach, and the other on our way back. The first (closer to the sealine) is shorter, but steeper, and includes passing through some brownish canyon-like rock formations and leaping over the above mentioned stream beds. The second (further from the sealine) is longer, but not as steep, and mostly extends over the top of the hills and offers some amazing views. No matter which one you choose, the further you go, the scenery gets crazier and crazier. I'm so glad we took them both and would recommend anyone to do the same. 

It took us about 25 min to reach the destination. Just to illustrate the dificuty of the path (at least its final part), it was a partly cloudy April day and we were all covered in sweat and out of breath. I can't imagine anyone undertaking this venture in July or August, except for early in the morning before the sunrise. But as soon as the view on the beach opened, we knew the trail was worth the effort. 

What makes the beach distinctive and recognizable are its two natural structures: the three great rocks that had separated from the hill and slided in the shallow water at some point in history, and the great rock pinnacle, the "tower" of Stogaj overlooking the bay. The later is very popular with climbers (and if you look closely, you could see some in my pictures).