Great Cafes: Milano's Cafe Bianco Latte

Milano is the birthplace of the ECM (espresso coffee machine, NOT electret condenser microphone! LOL!). Also the birthplace of Dolce e Gabbana. OK, caffeine and fashion, not anybody's ideal mix!

While I did look around the city for those glitzy designer boutiques, my true radar was fixed on coffee.

The journey to a latte starts from the first step. Via Turati...


This cafe could've easily passed off as "uninteresting"... until you actually bother to stop by, drop in and sit down. The exterior looked essentially chic but seriously, you need more than chicness to entice a true coffee lover into the Venus flytrap.




Entering Cafe Bianco Latte is like entering a white-washed fantasy playground... This is a place you know, will take your coffee presentation seriously. I paid special attention to its many house merchandise, hoping to get a few before I leave Milano. (But I never made it back to Bianco after this visit!)

Window dressing at Cafe Bianco Latte...

I didn't stay long at this lovely cafe. Would've loved to, if not for a canine visitor panting and drooling away in a corner. Dogs and I don't mix. Unless it's a hotdog!

But I did promise my travel buddy Wahdi we will drop by again - sans canine!

This cup now sits handsomely in my showcase...

I must return to this cafe one day...





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Travel Sights: Walkway Biscuits

You may have walked a thousand miles in a city... but do know it inside out? When you looked around, you would have looked up, too...

But have you looked down?

Early morning buzz on a Parisian street...

Have you noticed those metal "shields" that popped up every now and then as you walked?

They are manhole covers... and they have little stories of their own to tell...

Some are round, others are square or rectangular... Some are cast-iron, others are concrete... But they all come in various sizes! And colours!



A rectangular one in Como, northern Italy...

We trampled over them, some even spat at them unknowingly... And some had their heels stuck in their gaps!


This one must have been here since they first set foot on the island of Mykonos.

Nicknamed "biscuits", these manhole covers are to prevent us passers-by from falling into deep, dark, labyrinth-like networks of tunnels... They hide passages to sewage chutes, gas pipes, and drainage trunks away from our prying eyes.

I always find them fascinating... I can spend hours tracking each one down and photographing them... I like how they put in some elements of design to make them functionally presentable... They look like pieces of artwork intentionally embedded into our walkways as if to make the streets look decorated...

But above all, they are a testimony of what have been laid under, sometimes decades ago... And in London, it isn't difficult to see one which could easily date back to the reign of Queen Victoria...

They have been some which are so cute-looking; and as they dot the street, they look like a handsome string of shirt buttons from afar...

A cute small one...






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Travel Sights: Batik Juice, anyone?

In marketing, clever branding is an essential attribute to good positioning... It's all in the name, and how else can you be identified easily, if not by your name?

Spotted in a supermart in Milano's Stazione Centrale... a drinks range called BATIK...


Recycled juice?

Hope this is not batik dye packed as a beverage! LOL!


* Batik is a Javanese wax-resist dyeing technique.






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Great Cafes: Milan's best kept secret...

No matter how modernized a city is, you cannot deny its glorious past. Any city worthy of a traveller's time, needs to have that foray of diversities to cater to the varied types of curious visitors...

Milan is as ancient as any Italian city... Much of its glorious past has been kept intact amidst all the modernities which are synonym to any fashion capital of the world.

There is a particular old Milanese cafe that I have often read about... and I kept telling myself, I must have a cuppa there if I ever set foot in Milan. So, it was only natural that I find this cafe, no matter how many nooks and corners I have to go through, or how long it takes...

This is, after all, the cafe of all cafes... This is COVA...




I finally found it on Via Montenapoleone... in the neighbourhood of world-class boutiques...





The thing about Cova is, you must not just rush into the parlour... You need to spend sometime looking at its window dressings...









And just to prove a point, they even have their markings on golf balls and clubs! How about that for class? London's Harrods doesn't even come close!







I wasn't really ready for a dining experience here, and was rather under-dressed for a place people would normally dress up for... But the coffee aroma was just too irresistible... and before I knew it, I was already seated for what I have always dreamed of - having coffee at Cova!





Some pastries, perhaps?




One must not leave Cova with an empty hand! I picked up something that will journey a few thousand miles with me home... Will tell you what it is in another entry! In the mean time, don't you find these coffee pots charming???




Have you experienced Cova? Do tell, OK? I know I will be back one day...






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Travel Story: Milano's ugly side...

Every city has its bad side. Any seasoned traveller can spend the next three days telling you the nightmares they had to face while trying to get acquainted with the local life... Scary? Sometimes...

Milan is the commercial hub of the northern Lombardy region of Italy. Seriously, there really isn't much tourist attractions that can place this city on par to other fashion capitals of the world. Who said that? I did.

I had done Rome, Venice and Florence - all very famous art capitals of Italy. Somehow, Milan didn't quite fit in with these three cities. The odd one out.

I tried to like Milan. I did, to a certain extent. My first impression of this city was marred by a group of over-zealous street peddlers... Afro peddlers. Not that I have anything against them, but they really were a nuisance!

He didn't like being photographed...

As if greeting visitors on behalf of the Duomo, they pop up right before your face, tying to sell you a wrist band which they claim to be "free"... The way to treat them is to smile at first, shake your head and move on. Ignore them.

Don't worry about being physically harassed. They wouldn't dare, as the Piazza del Duomo (the square fronting the Duomo) is heavily guarded round the clock.





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