Milan, Italy (2008)

We spent only a night in Milan with Nick, Shelly, Sarang and Johanna after having spent the weekend at Lake Como. We went out in search of apertivo, which is basically free food with the purchase of a drink. But it’s not like bar food peanuts and crap. Milan is the capital of apertivo and prides itself in the quality and quantity of the selections. We were told that it kind of started when they wanted to increase the nightlife and boost the economy so restaurants, clubs and bars started offering more apertivos. As competition increased among neighboring apertivo places, so too did the quality, quantity and reputation of apertivo.

First, we went to recommended Slice Café, but as you can see by the crowds outside, we were unable to get in.

Instead, we went to that boat just down the canal from Slice.

We got one drink each, then loaded up on massive amounts of food.

Sarang chooses from some of the apertivo selections during his one and only trip to get food (uh yeaaaahh).

We stopped for gelato after dinner.

Only Shelly and Nick got gelato because the rest of us were too full. As you can see, the rest of us quickly became not-full.

We stopped to examine an erotic vending machine on the street.

The next morning, we checked out the Duomo on the way out of Milan.

More Duomoage.

The hall next to the Duomo.

And finally, a failed attempt to take a picture of a church with a cool visual trick painting.