Great 'MoneySaving city guides, #5: Milan' Hunt

ornto

Curious_George wrote: »

and... the last thing i can think of is if your sightseeing and want to get into the duomo you need to be covered up, no skirts or shorts above the knee and no strappy tops, they have (armed!!!) guards outside stopping people innapropriatly dressed from getting in!

lol, that's true for all the churches you'll visit, even if actually it depends on the local priest and on who's checking incoming people (sometimes just no one ). The fair rule for clothes is exactly the one you said. Don't be too scared of the armed guards, they're armed because after some investigations on islamic groups some time ago they found a list of possible targets which included the duomo of Milan.

Augustus_the_Strong

Being used to London prices, the cost of Italian cafes seems very cheap (if you're standing at the bar), and the pastries are nice and you can get a good pot of tea. The prices for sitting down seemed to be the same as normal cafe prices in other big cities. The point is, rather, that the standing-up prices are unusually cheap. It's nice to stand at the bar and watch the barman at work - very professional, with speed and efficiency, not like (high-priced) London 'baristas'.

ornto

Augustus_the_Strong wrote: »

The prices for sitting down seemed to be the same as normal cafe prices in other big cities. The point is, rather, that the standing-up prices are unusually cheap. It's nice to stand at the bar and watch the barman at work - very professional, with speed and efficiency, not like (high-priced) London 'baristas'.

Well, I'm starting to write too much in this thread but maybe I can be of help for once . The price of coffee for sitting down can vary HUGELY from place to place. The price for one espresso "al banco"(standing up) normally goes from 1 to 1,20 eur per coffee everywhere. Sometimes less especially if the bar makes some breakfast offer. If you sit down, you might incur in a service charge called "coperto" (often not detailed in the bill). Bars in small towns or outside of touristic routes usually won't charge that, but sitting down for an espresso looks at least "strange" here, nobody does. :rotfl: In restaurants of course you won't pay any service charge for drinking the coffee at the end of your meal, you pay it once for the whole meal. Where the coperto might become a real issue is in historical bars and city centers and you're gonna discover it in the hard way. Can't say about Milan but for example being near to Venice I can tell you that I've been reported about a sitting-down price for a couple of coffees in Caffè Florian being around 20eur a few years ago. :eek: Well yeah, you sit down right in front of the S.Marco's basil often with live classical or jazz music being played in front of you so someone of you might consider it worth the price. Personally I don't