Milano: Brera District

Wanting to see more of Milan, we headed one day into the Brera district.  Some of Luke's co-workers had mentioned it as a more artsy place with a lot of unique boutiques and shops, so we naturally had to check it out.  Of course, we first set out to grab some lunch.

We started out with some Parma ham, and moved onto fresh gnocchi and squash ravioli

Oh, and wine.  As if it needed mention.

All in all, it was a delicious success.

We then wandered around, ducking in a shop now and then, making our way to the Pinacoteca di Brera, a well-known art gallery.

As there was a HUGE line of people waiting to get in, we were forced to find ways to entertain ourselves in the mean time.  First, we experimented with taking some self portraits (in what we later found to be one-way mirrors - so we probably entertained some people in the gallery as well).

And having a contest for which bust had the best mustache (clearly, this guy won).

We saw some great pieces, particularly in a special exhibit featuring Cezanne, Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, Monet and Matisse, including Matisse's famous "Goldfish" painting.

After enjoying the best aperitivo we had yet encountered in Italy, we headed to a restaurant that had earlier caught our eyes: Ham.  Italian food is fantastic, but every now and then, nothing beats a burger.  We settled in and were handed an iPad, on which we could explore the menu, place our orders, and then play around with photobooth, the internet, etc.  It was pretty fun, though our handy dandy Italian to English dictionary was still necessary to translate the menu.   Despite the fact that when we asked the waiter what he recommended, he replied "Uh... I don't know.  There's a pizza place down the street so I always eat there instead," we wound up with pretty decent burgers.

The Brera district was definitely a cool place in Milan, one that gives a very different feel from that of the kind one gets around the Duomo and more popular, tourist-y areas.  It really impressed upon us how big Milan is, how much it has to offer, and how cool it is that we're so close!