Once upon a time, a handful of runners got together in Bushy Park of London to put on a simple, timed, 5K run for free. After a year of putting this on it spread to another park, and then another as it grew into the running phenomenon we know as parkrun. Today, we don’t just find parkrun in London, and not just in the UK, but all over the world, and as it happens just under two miles away from where I was staying there was the Milan North parkrun.
After a light breakfast and preparing some sandwiches for later, I headed out at 08:15 for a combination of slow running and walking to the Parco Nord Milano. It’s a fairly short journey, and simple too. I’ve already done more parkruns this year than any year previous, but my times have not been great this year. In 2019 I would expect sub-19 times, and now it seemed nothing short of a miracle to get a sub-20 at any given parkrun.
Just like any other parkrun I’ve done in the UK, there was a briefing beforehand, telling you what you need to know, but of course this being Italy, you’d expect it in Italian. However, it seemed there was a group of at least ten Brits and we got our own briefing. In the unlikely event I needed to ask a marshall which direction to go in, I knew sinistra and destra for left and right, and avanti for going forwards. This didn’t matter however as unlike parkruns I’d been to before, there were no marshals out on the course; they had temporary signposts put in the ground instead.
I spoke to some of the other English-speaking parkrun tourists and helped them out with taking photographs, getting one of myself taken at the same time.
As the run started there was quite a sizable group that were off like a rocket. I’d started at a steady pace, but I’d overtaken all but seven of them by the first turn. Over the next half a mile I overtook some of them too as the route winds to the perimeter of the park, and encountered the only real incline on this course. It then goes past the velodrome, and winds around a little as it makes it back to the start for the second lap. This time around my mouth was feeling incredibly dry as I’d been out in the sun for some time now. When I got to the incline I walked up it, and let one of the runners overtake me. I then got running again until there was only half a mile left, and just didn’t feel like pushing myself as I knew I’d got a whole day of walking between sights to come. This was when another runner overtook me.
To my surprise, I finished parkrun in 6th place with a time of 19:08. It was considerably faster than any I’d done back home for sometime, and I wasn’t as worn out either. It was in fact only one second slower than my parkrun personal best, so it was a shame I hadn’t pushed at the end after all. I didn’t really linger after finishing either as the sooner I got back to the apartment, the sooner I could shower, get changed, and get out. So rather than walk the majority of the route like I had there, on the way back I ran most of it and met my sister by the lake.
Once I was ready, we then headed to the bus stop at the end of the road and took the bus from there to the metro station we needed. We thought the easiest way to get tickets would be using the ATM mobile app, but the QR the purchase created was not being read by the ticket barriers. There were no staff around to help us either, so it was incredibly lucky that a local saw us and tried to help. Although we didn’t really understand each other we managed to bring across the meaning, and they decided to use their travel pass to help us get through so we could sort the problem out on the other end.
When we reached the Monumentale station the QR codes still wouldn’t work, but my sister noticed they included a code to create the ticket from the machine. Of course this needed validating from the other side though, and so once again we couldn’t get through the barriers using the tickets we’d already bought. We were fortunate that someone helped us get through again, and once we were out of the station we’d be spending the majority of the day getting between places on foot. I decided that next time we needed a ticket we’d get one from the machine instead.
Our first stop of the day was Cimitero Monumentale, one of the two largest cemeteries in Milan. It might seem strange to visit a cemetery whilst you’re on holiday, but the reason for this is that this one is filled with incredibly ornate tombs. Some had large sculptures of angels and other characters, whilst another was big and bore a passing resemblance to The Last Supper. At the entrance to the cemetery there’s also a building filled with rooms that are a lot like ones you may have seen in North American TV shows - walls of square slabs with a name on each.
Whilst we didn’t spend too long there, we were already a little behind our intended schedule due to the problems with the tickets. Whilst most of the day could be to any schedule, we had to be at the cathedral for a specific time, so had planned the morning around working our way towards it. When we found it’d be a thirty minute walk to get a reasonable look at the Bosco Verticale, that didn’t help us at all. What made this diversion worthwhile is how unusual it is; they are residential tower blocks with plants growing up them. To get back to where we needed to be in the easiest route we cut straight across Chinatown on our way to Arco della Pace.
We were most of the way there when we stopped and had lunch, sitting on the wall of a park. When we left there I realised we only had forty minutes to reach Il Duomo Milano for our access to the dome, and Google Maps was predicting just less than that to get there. By the time we reached Sempione Park this estimate was even tighter meaning not only were we moving slower than I normally would, which I’d expected, but we were moving slower than Google estimates too.
It didn’t take that long to cross the park really, even though we risked pausing every now and then for a photograph, and a few more when we reached Sforzesco Castle. We’d originally planned to have our lunch at the castle, and go up Branca Tower. When we’d not been able to get tickets for the tower it was disappointing, but now it was looking like it was lucky we hadn’t. The last stretch felt like a bit of a dash to make it to the Duomo. We’d been told that knees and shoulders must be covered, so I zipped on my legs outside, and my sister put some leggings over her shorts.
We went around the side of the cathedral to find the entrance and found an incredibly massive queue. I felt this queue couldn’t be for those that had pre-purchased tickets for the lift, so I asked, and was directed around the corner to a shorter queue. That one had been for the stairs and people that had not booked, this other entrance took us ten minutes before we reached security where our bags were checked before we showed them our tickets and went up in the lift to the roof terrace.
This direct access to the roof meant it wasn’t too bad for my sister, who is scared of heights. The lift exits straight onto the roof terrace where a lot of the area for walking on is the sloped roof. There’s no wire meshes here either, the stonework is so considerable around the edge that it provides all the safety precautions you need also. It’s for this reason why my sister could overcome her fear of heights enough to get close to the edge to take photographs as well.
When we saw all we could, we went around the other way and found there were some steps up that’d take us onto a higher section of roof. She didn’t do as well with that. Through small holes in the stone wall she could see the ground far below. Step by step she forced herself up these stairs, but was then frozen in fear once she was on the roof. Rather than try to coax her around, I dashed around the roof to take some photographs, and rather than linger to appreciate the view, I rejoined her so we could head back down.
I went slightly ahead thinking it’d help block her view of what is in front of her, but she could still see down. She stopped at the top of the stairs for a while, this was going to be more of a struggle for her. Eventually I decided I’d wait for her at the bottom, and the people behind her was a reminder she needed to move. She tried one step, and then another one, and eventually made it down several steps to the lower terrace where she’d been more comfortable before. Sadly it was then stairs all the way down into the interior of the cathedral.
We looked around inside of the cathedral for a while, but found that the archaeological area was closing just as we got to it. With nothing else to do there, we went outside and bought gelato from a stand. I realised this probably wasn’t the cheapest, but we were hot, and we were thirsty. I went for a two scoop cone for €3.00 containing a berry scoop, and a mango scoop.
Our next stop was the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which is nothing more than a fancy shopping centre a little reminiscent in some ways of the GUM in Moscow due to the splendour of the architecture. This one is filled with big name brands such as Louis Vuitton, and Gucci. There are two stories I know about this place. The first is that people say standing on the bull is supposed to bring you luck. The second is that Giuseppe Mengoni, the designer of this mall, died from falling from the gallery. So he may have been missing out on some of that luck.
We’d somehow now gone from being behind schedule to being ahead, so we decided to go back and see the buildings of Piazza Mercanti we’d missed. This was an area that had been used by merchants centuries ago with entrances for different types of goods, but today the only thing around there seems to be a cafe. With still more time to spare, after we’d sat down for a while, we thought we’d check out the Crypt of San Sepolcro which is just behind the Ambrosian Library. Sadly the old church with the crypt in was closed, so it’d been a wasted journey.
Having made this small diversion we now needed to get back on track which meant heading back to Il Duomo and then beyond it to the Santuario di San Bernardino alle Ossa. When we found this church we looked inside but could not see the decorations made from bones we’d expected to see, so went next door to the Basilica di Santo Stefano Maggiore thinking perhaps they were there. Again, we could not find them. The only explanation was that it was the first building, but we’d somehow missed them. We went back inside, and sat down - looking around us. I decided to look again at the entrance, and found a sign there saying Ossa, so we followed that and found the small chapel that was decorated with human remains.
The walls were lined with bones and what I believe were infant skulls. On one wall they were arranged in such a way that the skulls formed a cross. Ossuaries are very unusual places, with a very macabre feel to them. I’d not visited one before, even though I’d been in the church above one once when I was in Lima. We didn’t need long in this one, and we were soon on our way once more.
We walked past the university and took breaks a little more frequently than before. Our feet were starting to ache now, and my sister was starting to struggle with it even though we were taking it slowly. We decided we’d stop for a drink somewhere as soon as we found a place, but all we passed were churches I didn’t know the names of until we found our way to the Naviglio Grande.
As we approached we could hear shouting, and I think my sister thought there was some sort of protest taking place, or some sort of trouble. I had however made out what I thought sounded like ‘row’ so I reassured her it was just some people having a rowing competition. When we got to the wall alongside the canal we peered over and sure enough we could see two long rowing boats competing in the water. There was also a cafe!
Before trying the cafe we got the photographs we wanted, and then tried to find somewhere to sit that was as much out of the sun as we could manage. When we found that very small glasses of mango juice would be €5 each, we decided to move on and find somewhere else. When I say small, I mean shot glass small. It was fortunate there was another over the road in the shade, but the drink selection wasn’t great. We each had a Tango for €2.00 and took this as a chance to sit down and relax for a while. We were that far ahead of schedule now we could spend quite a bit of time sitting down if we wanted.
When someone lit a cigar at the table next to us, it was time to move on. For a time we walked through the middle of a market, but nothing there interested us. It did, however, take us almost all the way to the National Museum of Science and Technology that we were going to finish the day with. If we wanted to see inside the submarine it’d have been necessary to book online, but neither of us felt like it. The first entrance we tried was actually the exit and the gift shop, and we had to walk what seemed like a long way around the block to find the right one.
The entrance for the museum is €10 for an adult, and can easily take half a day to look around fully. We didn’t want to do that, so instead we started off with the section dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci before moving on to a couple of the other sections and deciding we’d had enough. We made our way down to the ground floor and thought another drink at the cafe would be an idea, but this turned out to be just vending machines and a seating area.
Outside you can walk around the outside of the Toti submarine for free, and see a Fiat G.91R aircraft. My sister sat down whilst I photographed those and the various engines in the rail building. There were quite a few engines that were over one hundred years old. There were friends I knew would find these interesting so I made sure to get plenty of photographs.
The next building is then the last one before the gift shop and exit. It’s an air and sea building, but we didn’t spend much time there either. Instead, we headed straight through and out to the metro to buy a three day pass for €12 so we could make our way back to Niguarda for the evening. The journey took around an hour from where we were, but we went a little past the apartment in order to get some more water for the days ahead. The thing to note about these big supermarkets is you need to scan your receipt to leave the store.
With only one short walk out after dark, we stayed in for the remainder of the evening. I cooked lasagna and roast potatoes for us this time. I’d hoped for an early night, but found by the time I’d prepared for my morning long run, it was already quite late. I had at least decided to be sensible and reduce the length of the run due to the time I’d spent on my feet today.