STOP 8 | Milan: Milan as a Tourist and more friends

Dedicated to Dario, Leo, and Luca, who always read this blog – and yes, now I am scared…

Crisky drove me through Milan in the morning as I would have slept in Ale’s house for my last night in Milan. Coordination costs were pretty high and I think both Crisky and Ale hated me a bit, but relying on friends for sleep-over may not be always easy. But I loved riding in Milan: I got the chance to know better Camilla, Crisky’s girlfriend and to talk with Crisky deeper, as he is always surrounded by friends and there was not time earlier. Ale gave me a ride on his scooter towards to the Cathedral and after getting off I was sure I had lost my air-pods – following my sabbatical curse: losing an object in each stop. Spoiler alert: they were home!

 

I decided to book a tour as a tourist and relied on GuruWalk for this. Lucy was my guide: she is originally from Kenya, but has been living in Italy for about 20 years, if not more; she is passionate about tourism and events and she was the one telling me about Milan.

 

We started with stepping on the famous Bull Balls. I did it again, after so many years. And I didn’t wish for anything material, or anything people-related. It was cheesy, but didn’t care, the plan was to live Milan as a tourist a bit and make (re)connections.

 

 

Lucy took me to Pasticciera Marchesi, top floor, where you can see the whole Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, before heading to Via Manzoni, where Manzoni used to live.

 

 

We walked through Montenapoleone and Piazza San Babila till reaching Castello Sforzesco, back via Corso Vittorio Emanuele.

 

 

Lucy made me stop in Piazza dei Mercanti where there is a legend narrating that Ghosts still live there: in fact she let me position me on one side of the building located in Piazza dei Mercanti and whispered in a hole from the other side: I was able to hear her voice loud and clear. Apparently a ghosted transferred it from one side to the other ☺

 

Thinking about connections, one of my other option for September was to walk the “Camino de Santiago”. Eventually I decided not to do it, as I have too many bags with me for a full-hike journey. However, while talking to Lucy, it turns out that his son was just coming back from 30days of this adventure. Lucy was so kind to give me his contact, so I can start planning for the future. ☺

 

I shortened the tour a bit, as I wanted to reach Gianfranco just right outside Milan, as I had not seen him for quite a while. Gianfranco was one of my lovely roommate in Milan, the closest one together with Dario. He is married to Angelica and has a lovely kid, named Niccolò.

 

We lived together for 5 years. This is how we looked like years back, with me being really awful.

 

Life can pull us closer or apart due to circumstances and some friendships can be confined to a specific timeframe in our life. If you are strong enough, you don’t care that much, but may be a little bit annoyed about what happens. I hope we can have a coffee only the three of us again, once I am back next time: I know both of you may be open to it.

Despite me being completely tired, I still had opportunity to have a quick drink with Enrico (Larry for friends). Larry used to be a client of mine when I started working in Google, and then I referred him to Google Dublin in the Sales premier league, so we were coworkers for a bit: oh wow, now that I am writing, I remember that he was forced a couple of times to “steal” some of my clients, but eventually we sorted it our as gentlemen.

 

Larry now lives in Milan and works in real-estate and he let me think about moving back to Italy. But it’s just a thought, still.

 

And last but not least, I briefly met Pasquale. Pas is now a consultant but used to work in my team in Dublin after I left it, actually. I found him pretty arrogant at first – he knows that – but when we started knowing each other, we became good friends. He left Google recently and started a new adventure in McKinsey: so far so good, but it’s just the beginning. The best of luck to you, Pas, and to all the people embarking on new beginning: thrilling and anxiety may be part of them, as well as excitement and fulfillment.