Honestly, I hated Milan, more so than other parts of Italy.
All of Italy has:
Awful bureaucracy
Arbitrary business hours
Disorganisation
Poor service
Dirty streets, poor driving standards
Intense language barrier if you can’t speak Italian.
But at least it has good food, beautiful architecture, nice weather and good scenery. Milan has none of those. In addition, Milan has:
No beautiful scenery. It’s in a flat basin at least a couple of hours drive from the mountains/lakes and another couple of hours to the coast
Crap food compared to other parts of Italy. Polenta? Yuck. Cotoletta? Just Schnitzel with a posh name.
Bad weather. Sweltering humidity in summer, cold gloomy and grey in winter and lots of rain year round.
Crap architecture compared to other Italian cities. Sure the Duomo is ok and the central train station is cool but Milan has far more modern buildings than Rome, Florence etc. It’s basically a German city but without the German efficiency.
Snobby locals. Milanese are the Parisians of the south.
Frankly it can’t compare to the rest of Italy. Even Naples, for all its faults has something Milan lacks. Character.
What do you mean by arbitrary business hours? Most shops these days follow standard hours (that are longer than elsewhere in Europe), certainly in big cities like Milan. Closing for lunch and randomly at other times is really only a thing in small family-run places in the villages.
I’m also curious about corruption; I mean, I’m sure there is corruption behind the scenes like in any country, but I’ve never witnessed overt corruption, like cops or civil workers taking bribes form the public.
I agree about the weather, architecture and locals in Milan. Food is great, though! Not so much the traditional Milanese (although there are some good dishes, and the cotoletta isn’t chicken), but everything else; you can find any Italian regional cuisine and lots of international cuisine, and the dining scene is brilliant. And the Po plain is depressing, but Milan is one hour away from lake Como, and while the high mountains are 1.5-2 hours away, they’re the central Alps, with easy access and world-class hiking and skiing, they’re mot some random range.
as much as i agree with most, the scenery is untrue - it takes 30 mins to get to places like lecco or como which are gorgeous and outside the old town you have beautiful vistas onto the alps, The coast is also quite near, takes 1,5 hrs to go to genoa where i often go on weekend trips, also as an architect i must say that it is untrue, milan was the heart of the developments in architecture since 1800s till 1950s and the edifices are less touristy than idk vatican which is kinda a basic bitch place and this is a city of da vinci. Apart from all the others i agree, really great place for short vacations or great for living if you are rich but otherwise kinda a lot to stomach.
Honestly, I hated Milan, more so than other parts of Italy.
All of Italy has:
But at least it has good food, beautiful architecture, nice weather and good scenery. Milan has none of those. In addition, Milan has:
Frankly it can’t compare to the rest of Italy. Even Naples, for all its faults has something Milan lacks. Character.
What do you mean by arbitrary business hours? Most shops these days follow standard hours (that are longer than elsewhere in Europe), certainly in big cities like Milan. Closing for lunch and randomly at other times is really only a thing in small family-run places in the villages.
I’m also curious about corruption; I mean, I’m sure there is corruption behind the scenes like in any country, but I’ve never witnessed overt corruption, like cops or civil workers taking bribes form the public.
I agree about the weather, architecture and locals in Milan. Food is great, though! Not so much the traditional Milanese (although there are some good dishes, and the cotoletta isn’t chicken), but everything else; you can find any Italian regional cuisine and lots of international cuisine, and the dining scene is brilliant. And the Po plain is depressing, but Milan is one hour away from lake Como, and while the high mountains are 1.5-2 hours away, they’re the central Alps, with easy access and world-class hiking and skiing, they’re mot some random range.
as much as i agree with most, the scenery is untrue - it takes 30 mins to get to places like lecco or como which are gorgeous and outside the old town you have beautiful vistas onto the alps, The coast is also quite near, takes 1,5 hrs to go to genoa where i often go on weekend trips, also as an architect i must say that it is untrue, milan was the heart of the developments in architecture since 1800s till 1950s and the edifices are less touristy than idk vatican which is kinda a basic bitch place and this is a city of da vinci. Apart from all the others i agree, really great place for short vacations or great for living if you are rich but otherwise kinda a lot to stomach.
I imagine (possibly incorrectly) that South Tyrol would be better on those points.