Enjoy My Milan: my app for iPhone and Android

I'm very proud to inform you that now my app Enjoy My Milan is available both for iPhone (you can download here) and for Android (click here to download).

Enjoy my Milan is my personal city guide of Milan, with a collection of my tips and favorite places where to enjoy this great city: the coolest venues where to have aperitif, grab a hamburger or enjoy a brunch on Sunday; the most trendy art galleries or shops and the cutest bakeries where to indulge in a good coffee and sweet treat.

Enjoy my Milan will be always available on your smartphone and it will be useful for:

- those who live in Milan and want to get the best from their city,

- those who just visit Milan for a couple of days and want to enjoy this city not as a tourist but as a real local!

• All the contents are also available offline so that it is possible to access the maps and the information even when internet connectivity is not available.
• The main features of this application are:
• Lifestyle guide of Milan (in Italian and English) organized into categories and map.
• Regular updates of the newest places collected into the category “New in Milan”.
• Special category “Open of Sunday” with a collection of the best places where to spend Sunday in Milan without losing time in the hunt for an open café or museum.
• Photos, opening time, range of prices, website and brief description of each point of interest.
• Display more than one category on the map.
• Positioning map to find the places closest to you and directions for each point of interest.
• Save points of interest in the "Favorites" or share them on your Facebook page.
• Search engine.
• Weather Forecast of Milan.

Enjoy this app, enjoy my Milan!

Silvia

Vote S'Notes on Grazia.it

I apologize if this english version of my italian blog S'Notes has not been updated in the last months, but I'll soon translate the posts and I hope to do it regularly.

In the meantime I'm participating to a contest: Blogger We Want You for an important italian magazine, Grazia.it. 

If you would like to vote me, go on this web site: http://blogger.grazia.it/blogger?id=98 and click on the heart.

It's possible to give a vote every day. Therefore, if you would like to give as present your little red heart, I'll be very happy for it! :D

Hug&kisses

Silvia

Fiori Chiari Plates

When you're in Brera you do not need much more. Just walk through its narrow streets and elegant Art Nouveau buildings, you can feel in the air all the charm of this district of Milan crowds of life and beauty.

If you are in Brera and take the opportunity to have lunch at Fiori Chiari Plates, then you understand why you are so much in love with this heart of Milan! 

Un Posto a Milano

How to stay immune to the charm of Un Posto a Milano. For me it was impossible! 

Pavè (living room with kitchen)

Breakfast! Long as only Sundays can grant, as good as Pavè can offer! 

Toasteria Mi Casa

This triumph of yellow and taste of Provence is called Toasteria Mi Casa and it is the most romantic and colorful note I've ever seen in the area between via Monza and via Padova. 

Brunch at God Save the Food

Two pancakes and a cascade of syrup poured by the intrepid Carli: God, besides the Food, should  save also my health! 

Cycling to the Certosa di Pavia & stop to Erba Brusca

A fantastic bike ride on the Naviglio Pavese during one of the Sundays when the traffic of Milan is blocked and the whole city is on foot and on two wheels! 

The colomba of Pasta Madre

It is well known to many Milanese that the prodigious hands of Pasta Mother (read post here) churn out every day with croissant breakfasts, lunches and dinners of delicious dishes of traditional Sicilian and Pugliese cuisines (some really impossible to find in Milan). 

Vivaio Riva

I would be fine even with a piece of small land, discreet and quiet, but also with a plant that can courageously live in my un-prodigious hands!

I cannot afford to have that wonderful tree with the mirrors, the azalea pink like a Big Babol, or that table in the shade of the pergola, with a bottle of wine waiting to be sipped in the company.

Everything is fine for me, as long as it is a piece of that paradise hidden in the Vivaio Riva! 

Lupo Bistronomia

A place nice like this cannot fail to catch the attention of the people walking in Via Gian Giacomo Mora. Just a glimpse of a white wall with red stripes to attract the eyes and just a couple of steps to find out that this is a place nice and new. His name starts with Lupo (that in italian means wolf and it is the last name of Mark, the owner) and is completed with Bistronomia, the new format of haute cuisine prêt-à-porter who brings along palates and portfolios of gourmets. 

Thinking about the weekend: David Lachapelle and Via delle Arti

And if it will be sunny on Saturday?! "Sperem" a typical Milanese would say! 

Light and warm weather already make me want to plan for the weekend, my mind escapes from the office and I already put in the bag the camera to capture a corner of the sky and a light cloth to steal a corner of the grass.
Finally I would complete the en plein air kit with few good venues in Milan.
Here are a few that came to my mind between evasions and digressions of mid-week!
Two ideas to feed your eyes with colors of the arts and the with an excellent breakfast. It is too late: my countdown has already begun!

Restaurant EFF - Cucina e Stagioni

I knew I was already in love with EFF Cucina e Stagioni even before spending an evening in this great place. 
The beautiful pictures seen on internet, the look of an elegant loft and the lights of Manhattan just few steps from the crowded disco Goganda, the colors and fantasy of the food, the various reviews on the web, the idea of listening live jazz on Thursdays evening. They were all appealing strokes of an attractive and colorful paintings that could not be imprisoned for too long time between the white of the web pages and the gray of my notes. 

Restaurant Al'Less

The poor food is getting very fashionable in the last period in Italy, but the boiled meat (in italian: the "bollito") remains one of the traditional italian plate that I really don't appreciate! I haven't been eating it since the years at the high school and the bollito has remained in the obscurity of my adolescence together with the acne and interrogation of maths.

After about ten years I wanted to try again the bollito at the restaurant Al'Less, the most famous restaurant in Milan on boiled meat. And in fact here the Gran Bollito reigns supreme in the menu and is in good company with other traditional Italian dishes: tripe, braised colt, boar Maremma, soups, ravioli in broth, testaroli. But since this dinner was meant to be a reunion with an old acquaintance (the bollito of course), I could not do the honors to the protagonist of the restaurant and taste the various cuts of meat boiled and the various accompanying sauces.  

Saturday loves: breakfast at Marchesi and the design at Studio Achille Castiglioni

A good dose of optimism for the upcoming spring and a quick polish to the bike and the sunglasses before cycling to a Saturday morning in the Magenta and Castello area. The streets of Milan flow with the rhythm of life in the heart (as Lucio Battisti used to sing) and I keep a safe distance from the noisy traffic of Milan: on Saturday mornings all I need is the peace of mind. Better if it is accompanied by two good excuses to pamper myself: a delicious breakfast at Pasticceria Marchesi and a visit to the Studio Museum Achille Castiglioni. 

This is really happiness prêt-à-porter!

A brief of spring at Villa Necchi Campiglio

Here are my pics snapped today in the beautiful garden of the Villa Necchi Campiglio during the trade show sponsored by the FAI (Italian Environment Fund).

The exhibition will take place also tomorrow, Sunday March 4 from 10 to 18 (full price 5 €).
It's a great opportunity to buy some flowers and plants, visit the beautiful Villa, take a break in the Caffeteria and enjoy the first moments of spring.

Zona Tartina

There are always some good reasons to spend an afternoon in Zona Tortona and Navigli: a photographic exhibition at Spazio Forma (very nice the exhibition of Women of Life - until 11 March) and have a snack at Zona Tartina. This venue has been open for almost a year in the Tortona area and has turned name and logo into a parody! 

But the surprises are not limited only to the name, but also inside Zona Tartina shows beautiful, colorful and interesting activities, with the design creations of Studio Nimè and initiatives of the CREU, a cultural organization that aims to "raise children to remain children and adult to return to be children."

Saturday brunch on Navigli at MAG Cafè

I always wondered how Navigli looks like during a cold Saturday morning in Winter.

This question is not for granted for someone like me who lives in a completely different area of Milan and who spend Saturday morning dribbling among market, gym and washing machines. 
But a couple of weeks ago I planned to visit the Affordable Art Fair in Tortona area: an extremely good opportunity to take a ride on the Navigli and give an answer to my question, and an excellent excuse to stop at MAG Café and make a brunch, cheap and very nutritious! 

First whoopies in Milan: Di Viole di Liquirizia

After macarons and cupcakes, the new fashion among the mini-cakes seems to be that of whoopies, a cake with two chocolate chip cookies and a soft filling. The name you can tell from the first bite: the exclamation of happiness is spontaneous and the etymological mystery is solved soon!

Milanese who loves Sweden: Mud Art Cafè

The typical Swedish common places dwell in Milan on dusty Billy libraries, among the books of the Millenium trilogy and some DVDs of the great director Ingmar Bergman. But there is a Swedish place in Milan not common at all: its name is Mud Art Café and it looks like a typical caffetteria and bistrot of Northern Europe, cosy and warm like a living room with a nice and red kitchen, just as in the enviable photos of the Ikea catalog.