Eurotrip 2025: Milan and onwards

Arriving in Milan

We landed very early in Milan (6.30am), and made our way to the hotel. After paying an exorbitant early check-in fee (it was necessary as check in was supposed to be 3pm and I would have died) we were able to relax and shower before heading out for the day. This was the view from our hotel room, the building in the distance is the Duomo!

We ventured out to have a very necessary coffee and caught some VERY rattly old trams to explore more of the city.

First, we went to the Pinacoteca di Brera. It was a beautiful building with some interesting Renaissance pieces like a Caravaggio, but there were also a lot of religious works which get a bit samey after a while. There's only so many weird baby Jesuses you can look at.

After getting museum legs we decided it was time to find some lunch. The random place we selected has some great pizza and octopus salad which helped to energise us a bit.

After lunch we were exhausted/jetlagged and made our way back to our hotel, and I think I passed out at 3pm.

We realised that the reason our flights were so cheap was that our arrival coincided with Ferragosto, and so most shops and restaurants were closed which made it difficult to find anything near our hotel which wasn't right near the touristy areas.

After Henry woke me up from my jetlag nap, we decided to venture out to find a supermarket to find some random things for dinner in our hotel room. We discovered that Italy is so good for food intolerance stuff, lots of gluten free and lactose free goods. We had some delicious lactose free cheese, salami and salad.

Milan day 2

Well refreshed the next day, we went for a walk in the nearby park and discovered a park cafe with some mediocre coffee, and watched the dogs playing in the fountain.

Later in the day once things started opening we went back to check out some museums and saw the Duomo di Milano up close.

We had a quick street pastry snack with some delicious little strawberries, and had the traditional Italian restaurant (not really) Jolibee for lunch, which was a hugely stressful experience never to be repeated, both the huge queues ordering and the wasp that tried to attack me while eating it.

Overall I felt a bit flat about Milan, with it being quite quiet due to the holidays and a lot of unfriendly people. Not sure I would go back!

Driving to Morzine, France via Aosta, Italy

We picked up the rental car early from Milan airport to avoid driving in Milan city (but honestly it was so quiet due to the holiday it probably wouldn't have been a problem!).

We stopped for a lunch on the way in, a cute town in the Italian alps. It also has a lot of Roman ruins which are still integrated into the old town which was cool to see.

We had a delicious pasta lunch and espresso in the town. The gnocchi was drenched in local cheese which was so good. We also had some nice gelato (not pictured because we ate it too fast).

We had made good time, but unfortunately once we hit the Mont Blanc tunnel things took a turn for the worse. We ended up stuck queued in traffic for 2.5 hours to get through the tunnel.

They did give us some bottles of premium 'Mont Blanc' water as an apology though (I'm sure it was delicious glacial water not just tap water from a bog)!

Once we got through it was only another hour to get to the ski village of Morzine in France, alongside some pretty mountain views!

Our chalet was right in the centre of town between two chairlifts up different mountains.

View from our bedroom window.

View from our verandah.

I'll leave this blog here and see you next time from stories in the French Alps!