Milan or Madrid?

steirishrover

Looking to bring the girlfriend away to either of the above for a few days in September for her birthday,

I checked up about Milan and all i mostly seen was that it has musuems (BORING!!!)

Also checked up Madrid and looks the better to bring her....

Can anyone help which could be better

Cheers

puppetmaster

I can't comment on Madrid, But imho I couldnt recommend Milan to Anyone, I thought it was such a Dissapointment, Beautifull central Square and Duomo area. But i found it Run down and over priced otherwise with just not alot to do. Italy has alot more to offer than Milan. My 2pence would be skip it..

steirishrover

Yeah i thought it looked a bit boring,,,,,,

Thanks for the info

rossie1977

visually madrid is a nicer city, it has some really good architecture (both modern and old), lovely open parks, world class shopping and great nightlife especially on a friday/saturday night around the puerto del sol area of town

milan gets a bad rap on these pages, its a nice city, milan cathedral is stunning but what milan has going for it is it locality in northern italy close to lake como (about 40mins by train from central milan) which is a really beautiful part of the world, if you have seen casino royale you will have idea of the beauty of lake como, this scene was shot on the northwestern part of the lake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky5BC3-qwGM

steirishrover

Interesting u said it about lake como, i heard alot about this before,

I am so confused keep the info coming,

I am hoping to sneek in a football match as well. I know about both stadiums well but dont want it to be a boring trip all about visiting cathedrals and museums. The shopping in madrid sounds good too

rossie1977

well if its a football match you want to go to then madrid all the way, nicer stadium and will have an actual big crowd inside no matter who the opposition, you can also buy real tickets online at their official site and pick your own seat in the process (corner of the stand near the corner flag is a a great spot we got seats in row 2 last time out and less than half the price of seats only a few rows away)

ordinary_girl

Milan's good as long as you go to the right areas, and there's a lot more to the place than galleries and museums. There are some amazing bakeries just past the Duomo - you can actually smell the pastries as you walk along the streets. There are a multitude of restaurants and most of them are reasonably priced and very tasty, expect a large pizza to cost in the region of 9-12euro.

As for shopping, there's an abundance of designer shops which are good to look in but wildy expensive. For women's clothes shopping I'd recommend Zara and, at a push, Max Mara. Just being around those streets can be pretty exciting if you or your girlfriend are interested in fashion.

Admittedly Milan can look very grey and there is very little green space, but it's still somewhere that I think is worth a visit. Very good nightlife aswell! And I second what Rossie said, if you go to Milan you should definitely see Lake Como, it's stunning and you can easily go there for a day trip from Milan with little hassle.

irish_goat

Madrid.

Milan is nice in the centre but quite expensive and finding a place to sit and have a few drinks is a nightmare. Myself and my brother went and spent about 30 mins walking around the city centre and beyond before finding a bar (an Irish pub) and from there they directed us another 15 mins down the road to another pub. Walking about at night it was a total ghost town, I couldn't believe how dead the place was. There's plenty of little cafes/pizza places that sell drink but they're not exactly places you'd want to stay for longer than 20 mins.

Down by the canal was lively for a bit but seemed to shut down pretty early and if you weren't having food you looked out of place.

Also with Italian football matches you need to have your passport scanned to get a ticket and we spent about 45mins queing to go to an AC Milan match.

Go to Madrid, it's cheaper, nicer and has good wine and food.

Dum_Dum

I can recommend Madrid over Milan. You certainly won't find Madrid to be a ghost town at any hour!

thegills

Madrid for me as I lived in Milan and didnt like it.

What about Barcelona. It seems to tick all the boxes - soccer, nightlife, scenery, museums, (Gaudi etc.). Ryanair also fly to the main airport so not too far away.

havana

I wasn't too impressed with Milan. Other than it's location as mentioned, and the beautiful cathedral it didn't do it for me.

Haven't been to Madrid so can't offer an opinion but the two other major Spanish cities I've visited - Barcelona and Valencia - I really loved.