Hilton Milan
Room booked: Queen room
Room received: Queen executive
Rate paid: €97
The main reason I booked this hotel, besides the rate of course, was it’s only a 5 minute walk from the train station and pretty much everything I’d want to do in Milan is walking distance from the hotel.
I arrived at the hotel right at 3 and headed up to my room on the 8th floor. My overall impression of the room was positive, OK size and has all the modern conveniences of renovated rooms, such as one touch on/off buttons for the lights that actually control all the lights, unlike the one at the Dubai Creek hotel which left one random light on behind the headboard of the bed that I was too tired to try to find the switch for. The bathroom was a tad small and had a shower with enough knobs that they actually include step by step instructions for use.
The executive lounge is on the 8th floor and is nicely appointed but a bit on the small side. There is seating for probably 30 inside and another 15 on the attached patio. Given the weather nobody seemed to use it except for smoking.
After leaving my bags, the weather Sunday seemed better than the Monday forecast, so I walked to the Duomo and climbed the terraces.
After taking in the views and climbing up and down the ~250 steps, I walked for dinner and a beer at Al Pizzetta and Hop, respectively. Al Pizzetta is a hole in the wall place I found on Yelp. 2 small (4 inch) personal pizzas came to 4.40 EUR. Super simple and tasty, though the fantastic tomato sauce on the margerita pizza stole the show. Not pictured as I ate it too fast.
Hop is a craft beer bar that’s only a couple blocks away. They had a selection of 6-7 local beers on tap ranging from 4-6 EUR. They also provide free snacks to all customers, which is a bowl of popcorn and a house made pesto/cheese bread.
After this I headed back to the hotel with enough time to grab a glass of wine as the exec lounge happy hour was closing up shop.
Day 2 in Milan
On my second day, I had breakfast in the lounge and it was pretty decent, if somewhat unmemorable after so many lounge meals
First stop was going back to the Duomo to see the interior, which I didn’t do the prior night because of the uber long line to get in. Stopped for a slice of pizza at Spontini which was near the Duomo. From there I walked NW a bit to Sforzesco Castle, an old fortress from long, long ago.
The archaeological part of the tour, underneath the Duomo:
I began to feel thirsty and hit up the Baladin restaurant/bar, which serves up Italian microbrews. Prices are fairly reasonable at €4.50 for a beer. Once I got back to the hotel I rested for a bit and hit the lounge happy hour before going to the opera house. I enjoy checking out the beautiful opera houses in Europe, and this night they had a concert for only €11. Unfortunately the music was not exactly my preference and it was uncomfortably hot inside the theater, so I left at the middle intermission and took the subway back to the hotel.
