While Rome may hold the political sway, Milan is Italy's economical power behind the throne. A place which has staved off much of the corruption and dysfunction of southern Italy to become a well-functioning and classy modern city.
Where to stay:
Anywhere inside the "inner ring" of the old city or near Navigli. Don't make the mistake of staying in one of the numerous Downtown hotels in the north-eastern part of town unless you are here on business. During the nights this area shuts down completely and has little life to speak of. Hotels in Italy are generally a bit more run down than their number of stars would let on, be wary of this.
Logistics:
With a passport in hand you can buy local prepaid SIM cards for 25-35€ depending on your plan. Note that you have to pry out all activation and administration controls from the clerk where you buy the card though. There won't be no English language manual.
A full day card on the metro will set you back a reasonable 4€, single rides within the city are 1.5€
Sight seeing:
The Duomo is the obvious centrepiece. Even if you come here solely to run game you owe it to yourself to take a tour in the world's third largest church/cathedral and THE largest in the Gothic tradition. If you have cultural aspirations a visit to La Scala, arguably the world's most renowned opera house, is in order. It happens to be closed during July though and tickets are out weeks in advance. The restaurant district Navigli is a must for anyone that loves good food. During the evening there are tons of Happy Hours which offer a buffet and glass of wine/beer for very affordable prices. I could go on forever regarding sight seeing, this is Milan after all one of the greatest art centres in history.
The Duomo
Prices:
With the current slide of the Euro, everyone getting paid in dollars should have no problem with affording a bit of a splurge in Milan. In this region you have access to some of the world's best wines to phenomenal prices. A good bottle of Chianti won't even cost you 5€. There's also plenty of clearances on Italian fashion during the summer months. Stock up on Zegna and Cavalli at some of the best prices in the world while you're here.
The Talent:
While Italian girls in their native country generally get a bad rap on this forum it is worth to note that a lot of girls in their college years (say 18-25) move to the city to study or find work from other parts of the country. Thus they are generally more open than the average Italian to chance encounters. The Italian girls tend to stay on the slim side with no a whole lot of back to them. Their dresses are delightfully tight during the summer months, this is a culture that values and appreciate beauty especially so for Milan (see more on this below in random points). In general this age groups speaks English pretty well and any person in Milan that works in any kind of service profession will know English well enough to communicate with you. Still you should be learning the most common Italian phrases, and a simple 'mi scusi, parlo inglese?' will help opening immensely, local or tourist. If you already know Spanish Italian will come easy in turn.
There are also plenty of tourists as well. These come in two types, typical sight-seers and the shopping/fashion tourists. Since these tourists are people that have made an active choice to travel to a non-beach destination they tend to be a bit more cultural and in my opinion hotter than the average tourist going to the Mediterranean beaches (I suspect they get plenty at home). I advise you to focus your energies on the shopping/fashion tourist group as they generally look better and travel by themselves or in small groups. You can easily intercept them in the gorgeous and open Vittori Emanuele II luxury gallery (an upscale mall just by the Duomu) and sit them down at the nearby Camparino in gallery for a spritz or espresso while talking about how the Campari family founded the place over a hundred years ago. This is a good general strategy for ANY tourist destination but even more so in Milan with its rich culture. Read up some on its history and buildings and you can take girls to any place and entrance them with how you're on grounds with a past were history was shaped.
The tourist this season seemed to be mostly central and eastern European. Outside of a few package tour groups I encountered no Brits at all, day or night.
Navigli
Random points:
*In Milan you get treatment proportionally to how good/well-dressed you look. Style is the name of the game and while you'll see lots of flip-flops (the summer days do get pretty hot) proper attire is a must if you don't want to look like a sloppy tourist. The locals certainly know how to dress and while the tourists lower the bar (as is usually the case) they are definitely in better outfits than you'd encounter around beach destinations.
*You want models? This is where you should be going. New York and Paris might have higher numbers of them but Milan at its comparably diminutive size of 1.5M people is still the third most important city in fashion (some would argue very close to Paris). Because of this Milan has the highest rate of models per capita of any major city in the world. It's impossible not to notice them out on the streets - tall, lanky creatures either rushing somewhere but often also slightly lost (most are not Italian) and completely by themselves. I lost count of the number of swan-like girls I spotted alone studying a guidebook or fold out map. Pass up such an opportunity and you are either gay or haven't done your homework on the city enough to be that charming, helpful guy. The fact that the city contains a lot of models also ups the bar for the rest of the populace when it comes to looking good.
*Someone asked where all the Eastern European tourists are this summer, they are in Milan. At least the more well-to-do ones. You can spot them by how they are putting real energy into posing in churches and at the Duomu. Another tell is how they are dragging along a guy behind them carrying their Gucci and Prada shopping bags for them. These guys are in turn easily spotted by the fact that every single one are dressed in Abercrombie & fitch t-shirts with just the logo text on the front. It's uncanny! If you want to blend in going east this year get yourself an A&F wardrobe!
*Milan offers some of the world's most plentiful Al Fresco game. Along the canals of the restaurant district [i]Navigli's[/b] streets people gather outside the hole-in-the-wall pubs/bars beer/wine in hand brought from indoors. Dozens upon dozens of groups of girls (and guys for that matter) litter these streets with socializing in mind. Yes, you can drink out in the open in this place and most people do. You have 100s of Trattorias (mid-size restaurant), Osterias (small restaurant) and micropubs in an area smaller than a km².
And since the forum is all about pics these days I'm supplying a few of some of the talent found in the city (click to enlarge). I know the pics aren't of great quality and the're not meant to be either. They are here to give you an idea of what you can find. If this thread fills up with ratings posts I swear I'll ask Roosh to delete the entire thread.[/b]
Where to stay:
Anywhere inside the "inner ring" of the old city or near Navigli. Don't make the mistake of staying in one of the numerous Downtown hotels in the north-eastern part of town unless you are here on business. During the nights this area shuts down completely and has little life to speak of. Hotels in Italy are generally a bit more run down than their number of stars would let on, be wary of this.
Logistics:
With a passport in hand you can buy local prepaid SIM cards for 25-35€ depending on your plan. Note that you have to pry out all activation and administration controls from the clerk where you buy the card though. There won't be no English language manual.
A full day card on the metro will set you back a reasonable 4€, single rides within the city are 1.5€
Sight seeing:
The Duomo is the obvious centrepiece. Even if you come here solely to run game you owe it to yourself to take a tour in the world's third largest church/cathedral and THE largest in the Gothic tradition. If you have cultural aspirations a visit to La Scala, arguably the world's most renowned opera house, is in order. It happens to be closed during July though and tickets are out weeks in advance. The restaurant district Navigli is a must for anyone that loves good food. During the evening there are tons of Happy Hours which offer a buffet and glass of wine/beer for very affordable prices. I could go on forever regarding sight seeing, this is Milan after all one of the greatest art centres in history.
The Duomo
Prices:
With the current slide of the Euro, everyone getting paid in dollars should have no problem with affording a bit of a splurge in Milan. In this region you have access to some of the world's best wines to phenomenal prices. A good bottle of Chianti won't even cost you 5€. There's also plenty of clearances on Italian fashion during the summer months. Stock up on Zegna and Cavalli at some of the best prices in the world while you're here.
The Talent:
While Italian girls in their native country generally get a bad rap on this forum it is worth to note that a lot of girls in their college years (say 18-25) move to the city to study or find work from other parts of the country. Thus they are generally more open than the average Italian to chance encounters. The Italian girls tend to stay on the slim side with no a whole lot of back to them. Their dresses are delightfully tight during the summer months, this is a culture that values and appreciate beauty especially so for Milan (see more on this below in random points). In general this age groups speaks English pretty well and any person in Milan that works in any kind of service profession will know English well enough to communicate with you. Still you should be learning the most common Italian phrases, and a simple 'mi scusi, parlo inglese?' will help opening immensely, local or tourist. If you already know Spanish Italian will come easy in turn.
There are also plenty of tourists as well. These come in two types, typical sight-seers and the shopping/fashion tourists. Since these tourists are people that have made an active choice to travel to a non-beach destination they tend to be a bit more cultural and in my opinion hotter than the average tourist going to the Mediterranean beaches (I suspect they get plenty at home). I advise you to focus your energies on the shopping/fashion tourist group as they generally look better and travel by themselves or in small groups. You can easily intercept them in the gorgeous and open Vittori Emanuele II luxury gallery (an upscale mall just by the Duomu) and sit them down at the nearby Camparino in gallery for a spritz or espresso while talking about how the Campari family founded the place over a hundred years ago. This is a good general strategy for ANY tourist destination but even more so in Milan with its rich culture. Read up some on its history and buildings and you can take girls to any place and entrance them with how you're on grounds with a past were history was shaped.
The tourist this season seemed to be mostly central and eastern European. Outside of a few package tour groups I encountered no Brits at all, day or night.
Navigli
Random points:
*In Milan you get treatment proportionally to how good/well-dressed you look. Style is the name of the game and while you'll see lots of flip-flops (the summer days do get pretty hot) proper attire is a must if you don't want to look like a sloppy tourist. The locals certainly know how to dress and while the tourists lower the bar (as is usually the case) they are definitely in better outfits than you'd encounter around beach destinations.
*You want models? This is where you should be going. New York and Paris might have higher numbers of them but Milan at its comparably diminutive size of 1.5M people is still the third most important city in fashion (some would argue very close to Paris). Because of this Milan has the highest rate of models per capita of any major city in the world. It's impossible not to notice them out on the streets - tall, lanky creatures either rushing somewhere but often also slightly lost (most are not Italian) and completely by themselves. I lost count of the number of swan-like girls I spotted alone studying a guidebook or fold out map. Pass up such an opportunity and you are either gay or haven't done your homework on the city enough to be that charming, helpful guy. The fact that the city contains a lot of models also ups the bar for the rest of the populace when it comes to looking good.
*Someone asked where all the Eastern European tourists are this summer, they are in Milan. At least the more well-to-do ones. You can spot them by how they are putting real energy into posing in churches and at the Duomu. Another tell is how they are dragging along a guy behind them carrying their Gucci and Prada shopping bags for them. These guys are in turn easily spotted by the fact that every single one are dressed in Abercrombie & fitch t-shirts with just the logo text on the front. It's uncanny! If you want to blend in going east this year get yourself an A&F wardrobe!
*Milan offers some of the world's most plentiful Al Fresco game. Along the canals of the restaurant district [i]Navigli's[/b] streets people gather outside the hole-in-the-wall pubs/bars beer/wine in hand brought from indoors. Dozens upon dozens of groups of girls (and guys for that matter) litter these streets with socializing in mind. Yes, you can drink out in the open in this place and most people do. You have 100s of Trattorias (mid-size restaurant), Osterias (small restaurant) and micropubs in an area smaller than a km².
And since the forum is all about pics these days I'm supplying a few of some of the talent found in the city (click to enlarge). I know the pics aren't of great quality and the're not meant to be either. They are here to give you an idea of what you can find. If this thread fills up with ratings posts I swear I'll ask Roosh to delete the entire thread.[/b]