World Expo Milan 2015

World Expo Milan 2015 is an expo after the world famous Shanghai Expo 2010.  However, the contrast is huge in terms of publicity and visitor numbers.  In 2010, people had to queue for hours to enter the expo, then queue again to visit the pavilions.  Milan expo?  It is a breeze.

Our hotel's shuttle bus driver dropped us off at a very quiet place, a path that leads to the ticket office of the Expo.  

Occasionally, there are some stalls selling souvenirs, food and drink.  Hardly any people at 7pm.  

After about 15 minutes walk, we arrived at the ticket office and entrance.  There are two main categories of tickets for the expo.  A day ticket costs 34 euros, which lets you visit the expo for the whole day, from morning till 11 o'clock in the evening.  An evening ticket costs 5 euros, which lets you visit from 7pm to 11pm.  

After the ticket office, we had to cross a bridge, before we arrived at the main expo site, that takes another 10 minutes or so.  Lots of walking, if you are going, be prepared.

Taking center stage is the Tree of Life.  There is a light show a couple of times a day at the Tree of Life, with musical fountains, etc.  It is quite a relaxing show.  

Around the Tree of Life, there are many 'chairs' that look like a child's toy.  You can roll yourself around :)

The entire expo is very big, you might not visit all the pavilions in a day, let alone in one evening, so we picked some that we think we may like.

French Pavilion

The French pavilion is interesting.  They hang all kinds of food, drink, cooking utensils up on the ceiling.  Haha... This year's theme for the expo is 'Feed the Planet', how fitting it is.

Polish Pavilion Entrance

Polish Pavilion Garden

The Polish pavilion is interested, built with wooden boxes.  On the 2nd story, there is a reflection garden.  The garden is surrounded by mirrors, Perfect for people who like to take selfies.  

Polish Pavilion Stall

They also sell lots of Polish products on site, including many types of honeys, alcohols, etc.  Many of them are totally unheard of.  Have you ever seen having nuts immersed in honey?

Azerbaijan Pavilion

My favorite is Azerbaijan Pavilion.  It has very unique light installations, particularly beautiful at night. 

Functional Guitars

Their flower themed light installation are motion sensitive.  The intensity of light will increase when you move your hand close to the flowers.  It is a dance of your hand, lights, flowers.  It is so romantic!

Last but not least, the Chinese Pavilion.   Too bad, we didn't have time to go in to take a look.

If you plan to visit Expo, it is more worth to go in the evening.  You can enjoy the nice lighting effects, as well as enjoy your dinner, and the admission is only 5 euros.  You can come for 5 nights for the price of one day ticket.

As the site is really big, you should plan to visit for a couple of time.  If you plan to have dinner there, then you must factor in the time as well.  And try to have your dinner indoor with air conditioning.  It is hot outside and also there are many bugs, such as mosquitoes, fighting with you for your food and your blood!

Overall I enjoyed the expo very much.  It was a pity that I didn't have the chance to go there a few more times to cover more pavilions.  My friends told me that if you are facing the Tree of Life, those pavilions on the left side are better than those on the right side, so plan your visit wisely.  

If you want to have more information about World Expo Milan 2015, you can visit their official website here.  

Milan Bone Church

I had been to Milan quite a number of times, but I didn't know there is a church in Milan that was decorated with human bones, until recently.

The church is called Chiesa di San Bernadino alle Ossa.  It is built on a piece of land that used to be a cemetery.

The exterior of the church looks very plain and I think I had mistaken it as just any other normal building in the jungle in Milan.

Even the main chapel looks pretty normal.  It is designed with a dome and two side chapels.  But if you turn right into a dimly lit corridor, you will find a small chapel that is decorated with human bones!

The Main Altar

The Dome

Side Wall

Side Wall

Wall Opposite the Altar

All four sides of the wall, the dome, are decorated with human bones.  These bones were said to be from the cemetery that the church is built on.

Life and death meet here, reminding everyone their unavoidable final destination.  Life is short, so it is better than we live a more fulfilling life, rather wasting time regretting for what we have not done, what we didn't do, what we didn't do right.

I think this church is also featured in some tourist guide books, as many tourists come here to admire this beautiful work.  

Milan Duomo: Then and Now

It is my honour to have the opportunity to see the different phases of the restoration/renovation of Milan's Duomo, one of the world's most famous Gothic cathedrals. 

Let's first look at this old old painting of Milan Duomo.  Then follow by another photo of it undergoing a restoration of its facade back in 2005.

The richly decorated facade was covered up for cleaning, to remove the marks left by the industrial revolution of Europe. 

In 2007, things got better.  Duomo lowered the veil and revealed a bit more of its beauty. 

The boards illustrated the different phases of the restoration work.  A long process spanning 7 years from 2003 to 2009.  So let's see how it looks like after the restoration work in 2010.

Unfortunately, when yours truly visited this magnificent cathedral in May this year, the weather was bad, always raining, non-stop raining.  So I can only present to you a less magnificent view from the square of this 4th largest church in the world.

StarHotel Anderson, Milano

It has been our company's tradition to stay at StarHotel Anderson, Milan, which is conveniently located right next to Milan's central station.  There is a direct bus from Malpensa Airport to Milan Central Station.  And from Milan's Central Station, you can easily travel to nearby cities for a day trip or something.

The rooms are small, but very clean and neat.  The Milan subway passes by the hotel, so some of the lower level rooms may get a bit noisy from the passing trains.  Staff there are not too bad either.

However, all that good impression changed on one single day.  On my return to my hotel room one night, I found a lighter on a table in my room.  I don't smoke and I don't have any lighter with me.  So, where did this lighter come from?  The chambermaid?  Did she smoke in my room?  Or even worse, somebody sneaked into my room?  I checked my stuff, including the small safe in the hotel room, everything was intact. 

This lighter is also unlikely to be left by the previous guest as my room is a non-smoking room.  Do you see that non-smoking card? 

Well, next time when I visit Milan, I really need to think thrice before I decide to stay at StarHotel Anderson again. 

Spring 2010 Milan Trip - Part 3: Milan Central Station - A New Look

Milan's Central Station has one of the grandest buildings in Europe.  However, over the years, that glory had been somehow covered under centuries of dust, pollution and bird shit.  This time when I visited the Central Station, I was pleasantly surprised by its new look. 

It seems like the authorities had finally decided it was high time the station had a face lift.  They cleaned up the surface of the building.  The beauty of Italian white marbles regained their beauty and glory.  Modern lighting has been installed to make the interior of the building look spacious and cosy.  It gives you that warm feeling in winter. 

Facilities friendly to the disabled had also been installed, which include two wheelchair friendly escalators connecting the different floors.  In addition, the authorities, somehow, must have learned from their Asian counterparts to make full use of the building space.  They created an addition floor within building, setting up more shop spaces.  The building has been transformed from a single purpose building into a complex meeting both the essential transport needs and shopping. 

The automatic train ticket vending machines had been upgraded.  They are now located right in front of the central ticket office, neatly.  The century-old ticket office had also been upgraded to a modern glass panel office,

Plenty of improvement had been made to this grand building.  Kudos to the Milanese!

You can find all my blog entries about my trip to Milan here..

Spring 2010 Milan Trip - Part 2: An Interesting Encounter at Milan Central Station

We took the Milan Metro from Central Station to Duomo for lunch.  At Central Station, we were quite at a loss as how to buy Metro tickets. 

I stared at the ticket machine, totally confused, mind blank.  Then a finger creeped into my view and pointed to the right option on the ticket machine.  Following that finger, I looked up and saw a handsome Italian guy.  What happened next was even more shocking to me:  He spoke in fluent Mandarin Chinese to me! 

I opened my mouth wide, speechless.  Call me a mountain turtle who has not seen the world, but it is the first time a Caucasian talking to me in Chinese.  It was a pity that I was with a big group of colleagues and in the confusion of getting our tickets, in the whole mess, I didn't even have a chance to say "thank you" to that nice guy.  I hope he will see this blog and I want to say a big "THANK YOU!" to you. 

The world, somehow, has changed.

Spring 2010 Milan Trip - Part 1: Flight to Milan by SIA

In the past, there was no direct flight from Singapore to Milan.  To get there, you had to stop-over somewhere depending on the airline you traveled with.  It was a great hassle as many people lost their luggage during transits.  Now finally there is a direct flight from Singapore to Milan by SIA.  There is no more transit nightmares, the travel time is shorter, it is so much better.

Our flight, SQ378 to Malpensa airport, Milan, took off at around mid-night Singapore time.  The moment we were up in the air, the captain immediately announced we were expecting some turbulence ahead, which we did.  The turbulence lasts for quite some time.  After our first meal, the seat belt sign was on, and it remained on for almost half of our flight time. 

SIA's service has continue to go down over the years.  After the first meal, nobody from the crew bothered to offer any food or drinks to anybody until our 2nd meal.  Everytime that I needed a drink or something, I had to go to the galley to ask for them.  It was quite different many years ago that the stewardess would walk around, offering drinks and snacks, or instant noodle to passengers from time to time.

On my flight back, I asked for a cup of instant noodle, the reply from the steward was great.  We ran out of noodles :(

So much so for the deteriating service of SIA.  The timing of the flight is good.  You depart from Singapore at 2345 hours, you arrive in Milan's Malpensa airport at around 630 hours.  You can still have a full day for your activities. 

You can find all my blog entries about my trip to Milan here.

Spring Trip to Milan 2010

It has been almost 3 years since I last set foot on the Milan.  This time I am again paying a visit to this growing northern Italian city in spring time. I will use this blog entry as the summary page for all my subsequent blog entries of my trip, so stay tuned.  :)

Spring 2010 Milan Trip - Part 1: Flight to Milan by SIA
Spring 2010 Milan Trip - Part 2: An Interesting Encounter at Milan Central Station
Sprind 2010 Milan Trip - Part 3: Milan Central Station - A New Look

Milan Milan

Someone in Shutterstock downloaded 10 photos of mine of Milan in a single day. That is quite impressive. But then when I look at my photos when they are put together, I find I have developed a 'style' in taking photos. Nah, 'style' is just a make-you-feel-good way of saying you are going into a trap of yourself. I have consciously or unconsciously taken photos in 'standard' formats. It is either horizontal, or vertical, like passport photos. There is no 'personality' to talk about. Time to hide in some high mountain and meditate for breakthrough ideas.


My horoscope dictates that I will always look for new adventures. Too bad, that's my fate :D

Confusion, Always

Italy is a nice & mystic country. Just when you thought you know it well, it has changed. When I went to Lugano some weeks before, I bought my ticket at counter 48, I think. Then today, when I wanted to get a ticket to Bellinzona, Switzerland, I was told that Switzerland is considered 'International', so I should go to counter 52 & 53 to buy my ticket! Then I, for the very first time, discovered there is a special ticket office for international trains. Alama!

The queue was long, the hall was hot, very much like a sauna room under the 38 degrees heat wave sweeping through Milan. The heat obviously affected the temper of the staff at the counter.

Never mind, tomorrow I am going to Switzerland, a short escape from the chaos of Italy.

Treasure and Junkyard - The Brera Art Gallery

The Brera Art Gallery in Milan houses many important paintings in Italian's history, yet the building that houses it looks more like an abandoned warehouse. Industrialisation of Europe left an unerasable mark on it.

A bronze statue of its founder, Emperor Napoleon I, stands in the centre of the courtyard. Nothing unusual about a Napoleon statue, there should be many of them, but this one is special. It is a NAKED Napoleon. He is portrayed as a young hunk. Artists are liars. Anyway, his statue is also in an appalling state, covered by dust, spider webs and pigeon shit.

The ground floor houses many replicas of the famous statues, but they suffer a worse fate than Napoleon. All the statues are covered by a thick layer of dust, many have been vandalised. Cigarettes in the mouth, testicles, boobs being probed at.

The first floor is where the gallery actually is. The exhibitions rooms are well maintained, with proper lighting and air-conditioning. The contrast with the ground floor is huge.

Most the paintings are of Christian-related. Master pieces they may be, but if you are not a fan of western history or Christian art, you will have difficulties in appreciating their values.

There is a glass workshop in the gallery, where on a weekday, you can see how the staff restore the paintings to their original glory (or destroy the original work completely, depends on how you look at it).

Many paintings appear to be very 'plastic' to me, after their great 'restoration' work. It is like a digital photo that is over-filtered, over sharpened, noise-reduction over-used.

The most important piece of work in the Gallery is the 'Dead Christ' by MANTEGNA, Andrea for its bold foreshortening. Sorry, I can't really appreciate it, or I don't know how to appreciate it. Any art experts here?

The Neighbourhood

As I explore more about the neightbourhood, I find Gambara is a very convenient place.

I. Supermarkets:
There are many supermarkets around, you are spoilt for choice.

1. Punto Vendita: This is right outside the Gambara Metro station. The scale is small, limited choices, and the price is a bit higher than the others.

2. GS at San Gimignano: This is further away, but bigger.

3. GS at Piazzale Siena: This is comparatively closer to our place.

4. Standa: This is at the junction of Via A. T. Trivulzio and Viale Ergisto Bezzi. It has two stories, many choices, including clothes, electrical appliances such as rice cookers, electric fans, etc. The price is so far the lowest. One kilogram of raw turkey is selling at less than 4 euros. With this price, it is a steal. Other stuff such as pork and chicken are also cheaper.

II. Laundry

The cost of laundry is extorbitant at our apartment. One T-shirt is 4.50 euros, underwear 1.70 euros, socks 1.70 euros, trousers 5.50 euros. Over the last three weeks, I had spent almost 200 euros on laundry alone! A few days ago, I found a laundry shop called "Fuxia Wash" at Via Rubens. I gave it a try today. Not too bad. You go there, a guy would come down from upstairs (he can see you coming through the CCTV), dump your dirty clothes into the machines, and you come back one hour later to collect. The cost is 7 euros for wash & dry. The clothes were not 100% dry when I collected mine, but that is ok as they were about 98% dry :)

III. Eating places

There are many cafes, restaurants, bars, pubs near Gambara Metro station, and a lot more if you walk further down to De Angeli and Wagner. Again, you will be spoilt for choice. There are, of course, many Italian restaurants, but there are also a variety of Japanese, Chinese, and Middle east restaurants, including the Keba. I think I find more Chinese restaurants in this area than in Milan's dull Chinatown.

IV. Shopping

At De Angeli and Wagner, there are also many shops selling clothes, shoes, electronics, and many many others. I just found out today, so I have not really taken a careful look at all of them yet. But city life is vibrant, not as boring and lacklustre as I thought before.

It seems there is an Asian community in this area, with mainly people from the Phillipines. There is a Phillipine Grocery too, but it is closed when I passed by today.

Milan's Chinatown

Milan's Chinatown is centred at Via Paolo Sapri, a crowded working class district. As usual, there are many Chinese shops, but most of them are trading companies doing whole sales business in garments and shoes. There are a few small Chinese convenient stores selling limited number of Chinese food stuff. Chinese restaurants are also rare. This is a stark contrast to Sydney's Chinatown, where you can find almost everything you can find back in China. Cantonese-style Tea Houses are aplenty, you never need to worry about how you can satisfy your tasty buds.

Chinatown is quite self-sufficient. There are property agents, travel agents, immigration agents along the street. The basic needs of a new immigrant should all bet met here. There is even a Xin Hua Bookstore in the middle of the street, selling publications from mainland China.

It is said that Chinatown is very crowded on Saturdays, but when I was there on Sunday today, almost all the shops were closed. Some Chinese lingering around the street. As I understand, there had been some unrest in the Chinatown in recent months due to conflict with the police. Here is the BBC report on the event: Milan police in Chinatown clash

Overall, Milan's Chinatown is a let-down for me. I don't get what I want here. My craving for Chinese food, especially Cantonese food is not satisfied.

To get to Chinatown, you can take Tram #4 outside Cairoli Metro station. It is a 10-min ride.

Residence Osoppo

We were invited by some colleagues from Shanghai to visit their residence - Residence Osoppo. It is located slightly further away from Gambara Metro station, about 10 mins walk. Diagonally opposite a big cathedral, along a busy street.

The rooms are twice as big as ours. The kitchen even has a microwave oven. Bedroom and living room, kitchen are seperated in some rooms. A long sofa in the living room. Furniture is new, the building is new, too. The cost is 1400 euros per month. It sounds like a steal, comparing with Residence Desenzano. The only minus point is there is no Wi-Fi.

THE Duomo - Milan

Duomo, the Italian word for cathedral, has now almost become THE Duomo, which refers to the Duomo in Milan.

The Duomo in Milan is the world's largest Gothic cathedral, 3rd largest cathedral. The construction started in 1386, and completed only 5 centuries later by Napoleone. Just when you think it is complete, it goes into perpetural restoration/repair/renovation, or whatever you call it. Two years ago, the facade was under repair/restoration, two years later, the restoration work is still in progress. Ok, ok, comparing with the 5 centuries that it took to complete the duomo, 2 years is really nothing.

Doubtlessly, the architecture of Duomo is magnificent. 135 spires decorate the roof, with a golden La Madonnina dominating the city skies at a height of 108.5m, 3400 statues of medieval motif-saints, animals and monsters protecting this holy place.

Climbing up to the roof terrace of Duomo should be one of the 1000 things you must do before you die. The view is splendid, the grandeur of the duomo is more enticing atop. You would wonder how those saints can stand on that tiny little pinnacle for a few hundred years, withstanding the heat, the cold, the gusting wind without falling down?

To climb up to the roof top, go to the right of Duomo (means your left, if you are facing Duomo). There are actually two entrances. One for people to climb up the steps themselves. The cost is 4 euros. Further up, there is another entrance, you can take the lift there, the cost is 6 euros.

Duomo has caused me quite a bit of depression. Facing such a nice creation, I am at a loss as how I can portrait it in my photographs to show its beauty. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Traveling on Public Transport in Milan

The public transport system in Milan is quite mature and efficient. Bus, tram and metro are all integrated. You can buy your tickets at any news stand for 1 euro. With this ticket, you can travel for 75 mins on bus or tram for as many changes as you wish, but you can only travel for 1 trip on Metro.

To save the hassle of buying a ticket every time you take a train or bus, you can also buy a 10-trip pass - a Carnet (pronounced as car-nay) at 9.20 euros. When you travel on train or bus or tram, just validate it by inserting it into the yellow box at the metro entrance or at the bus/tram stops. The time you travel on train/bus will be printed on the reverse of your carnet as a record. It serves as a souvenir for travelers, too.

Usually there is no conductor to check your ticket, but don't take chances, they do check! I encountered once when I traveled from Duomo to Central station. The station staff did come out to check other passengers' tickets.

Updates:

1. A colleague just told me that I can actually get a season pass. The cost for making the pass is 10 euros. The cost for a one-year pass is 300 euros, for a one-month pass is 30 euros, for a one-week pass is 9 euros. This is a very economical way of traveling on Milan's public transport system. The season pass works the same as the ez-link card in Singapore. You tap it at the reader when you enter the Metro station. Upon exit, you just walk out, there is no need to tap your pass again.

2. I found out yesterday that if you use your carnet or ticket on a tram, it is valid for 75 mins. If you change from a bus/tram to a train within the 75 mins, you don't have to pay extra. Another way to save on transportation cost, it can be quite substantial if you have to transfer between trains and tram/bus.

Questura di Milano

For anyone staying in Italy for more than 1 week, you are supposed to get the residence permit from Questura (means immigration/police).

For Singaporeans, you need the following documents:

1. Passport + 1 photocopy of the information page & the page where you immigration stamp when you enter European Union is on
2. Original + 1 photocopy of your air ticket
3. 2 copies of the application forms. The application form is 100% in Italian. I couldn't figure out a thing what it is all about. Luckily there was a consultant engaged by the company to help out.

Questura di Milano is located at 26, Montebello. Take Metro and alight at Turati Station. There are many exits, just make sure when you come out of the Metro station, you see Oltre Caffe. The Questura is just 50m away. Follow the crowd, you will see many foreign looking people moving towards a certain direction.

Once you are there, you need to first queue up to get a queue number, or a ticket as it is called. Wait for your number to be called, submit your documents, and in 5 minutes, you will get a stamp on your application form. Voila, done. Simple as that.

Sounds very simple, isn't it? But the actual fact is it is a waiting game. We arrived at 11am to meet our consultant. Then we got into the Questura at around 11.30am. The number being served was #256. At 3.00pm, the number being served was #267!!! Then all of a sudden, from 3pm to 4pm, the number went from #268 all the way to #280! From 4pm to 4.22pm, the number went from #281 to #290! Finally, we got our documents done at 5pm!

We were just sitting there waiting and waiting. From time to time, you would see people being escorted by police officer to come in and go upstairs. We even saw a black guy come in with hands being handcuffed behind his back, and being escorted by two policemen.

There is a vending machine here selling bottled water. The price is reasonable, 35 euro cents per bottle, but the machine does not give out changes. I only had a 1 euro coin, so I ended up buying 3 bottles of water!

This is really an interesting experience.

Residence Desenzano

In Milan, I live in a service apartment called Residence Desenzano at Via Desenzano. It is in a residential area. Neighbouring are other service apartments and residential housing blocks. There are bars/pubs/pizza shops just around the corner. A small super market right at the exit of the nearest Metro station Gambara. Another bigger one is down San Gimignano. It is much further away, but it offers more stuff.

First Metro train to Duomo leaves at 6.25am at Gambara, reaching Duomo at 6.35am, reaching Milan Central Station at 6.45am.

The staff at Residence Desenzano are friendly. Since I checked in on Sat, I had bugged the receptionist Lorenzo quite a number of times, asking for this asking for that. He had been very helpful in providing information and assistance. And I didn't give him any tips! Probably I should do that later. I appreciate his service very much.

The rooms are quite small, look at the photo right below you will know what I mean.

The residence provides necessary cooking utencils for your use, including a wine opener! It comes in really handy when I need to open the bottle of 2005 Merlot I just bought today :D

The residence's website is here. According to Lorenzo the receptionist, this place is popular with model wannabe's, but so far I have not seen any.

Panic Run at Milan Central Station

This morning, I repeated the panic run that I had with Peiling two years ago. The difference was two years ago, the train was to depart in minutes, while we still didn't know how to buy the train ticket! This morning, the train was to depart in minutes, and I had the ticket on hand, but I didn't know how to find the platform! This time round, I must record down the 'proper' procedure to do all these crazy stuff.

Buying Train Tickets:

There are a few ways to buy train tickets, you can buy online, using the self-service machines located on the ground floor of Milan Central Station, or at the ticket office. If you use the self-service machine, you can choose different languages. Pick your destination, departure time, your seat and then pay by either cash or credit card. A train ticket will be issued to you immediately if instructed by you.

I also found that the price is the same whether you choose your own seat, or you let the system do it for you. Yet there is still a small difference. If you choose your own seat(s), most probably you will end up at the back of the train, say coach 12 or 2/3. The coach usually have very few people on a normal day (Not sure about peak seasons though). If you let the system do it for you, then you most probably will mix around with the locals.

Practical Information to board a train:

1. To find out which platform you are to board the train, check the departure information at the station displays. It is very straight forward if your destination is the same as the train's final destination. If it is not, then you have to figure it out by looking at the departure time, then go to the train staff who will ususally station at the entrance of the 1st class coach to find out. That was what I did. I was going to Firenze (Florence), but the train's final destination was Roma Termini (Rome).

2. Some useful Italian words:

Carrozza means Coach
Posti means Seat

3. If you are taking EuroStar, then it does not matter whether you validate your ticket at the yellow box before you board the train, but for TrienItalia trains, you have to validate it; otherwise, you may be imposed a big fine (said to be around 70 euros)

Updates: The train ticket for regional trains do not specify the train number, neither is there seating number, and it is valid for two months. That explains why if you don't validate your ticket when you board the train, you will get a heavy fine once caught.

Milan, in Summer

I had never expected the change of season can have such a big impact on my impression of Milan. Milan was just a dull, liveless industry hub of Italy when I first came to know this centuries-old city. With the arrival of summer, everything has changed. The city has transformed itself into a lively and beautiful European city of great history.

This transformation is most obvious at Sempione. There was nobody there, everything was just simply gloomy. Now that Summer has come, you see people having pinics with friends and family, sun-bathing/tanning under the lazy afternoon sun, children running around. What a typical lively summer afternoon!

And can you believe that I am writing this blog entry at 9pm local time, and the sun still has not fully set yet!