Take a stroll around Milan

Hey guys, hope you had a wonderful weekend and a nice start of the week. For me this is the last week at home…I’m kinda of sad about it because it means the summer is officially over and I have to head back to England to start the new University year. But I had fun working during the summer and I’m happy I found great people I will never forget.

So this weekend I wanted to experience Milan at its best since in a week time I’ll leave this beautiful city and I’ll be back only in winter. When I was younger I didn’t really appreciate Milan that much, I thought it was too grey and not very interesting. Today my opinion has changed completely! I’m so grateful to live in the city of fashion, art and let’s say it, fog. Milan has grown so much in the last few years: a lot of new initiatives take now place here, many interesting museums opened and many catchy shops could keep you busy for days. Mostly, I do like the small bistrot/cafès that have opened in huge amounts in the last five years, the ones where the atmosphere is magic, where it’s like being at home, with nice staff and cozy rooms. This is why when I read on some blogs about a new coffee shop that opened recently near Corso Garibaldi I was really curious to go and try it out. So, on Saturday I took my boyfriend with me and we went to Porta Garibaldi to have a stroll around and have a go at the fantastic Macha Café. As its name says, the specialty of the Macha Cafè is the Matcha, which is a type of green tea. In the last months everyone has been crazy about Matcha and its positive effects, which include being an energizer, improving the mood and detoxing the body. A good cup of Matcha is a good compromise when you had way too many cups of coffee but you still need something to keep you going through the day!

But, before getting to the Macha cafè we stopped at a new amazing shop. I have to say that I always love window-shopping: it’s so easy and you can find amazing occasions. At a certain point, after many famous brands, I stopped in front of Toiletpaper which is a very fun place. I didn’t know what it was till few days ago when I read somewhere that a new shop inspired by the magazine Toiletpaper opened in Corso Garibaldi. So I looked it up and I found some information: the two fathers of this project are Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari who paired as photographers in order to give birth to irreverent and unique images. Since they were both attracted by interesting and surreal images, they decided to create this publication which became also a shop where you can find all the extravagant things you see on the paper. It’s all about the power of images, of playing with visuality and society. Walking around the shop is a weird experience where everything seems to have lost its sense. Objects are assembled together in a challenging and controversial way and you lose contact with reality. It’s nice to walk around and let yourself go in a new parallel world, while witty representations of life are displayed in a peculiar setting.

Finally we made it to the Macha (after stopping at every window shop, obviously)! I have to say I very much liked the Macha Cafè! It’s pretty small (I actually expected it to be much bigger) but very cozy. The atmosphere is calm and relaxing and the staff very nice. I ordered a matcha iced latte and chocolate-jam pancakes. To be honest with you, I have to say that I am not a huge fun of green tea in general and, even if I liked my matcha drink, I won’t start drinking matcha every day instead of black tea. However, it’s been a very nice experience and once in a while it’s nice to have something different. What I absolutely loved was my portion of pancakes. They very exquisite. I had matcha pancakes (the flavor of matcha was not too strong, but you could still taste it) filled with dark chocolate and mixed berries, decorated with edible flowers. Just one word: heaven. The great part was that even if I ate pretty much, I didn’t feel it and at the end of the afternoon I wasn’t full at all. Considering the place, the decorations at the Matcha are very nice, everything is in Japanese style and there is a wall full of origami in a shape of birds.