We went to Milan, Cremona, Portofino and surrounding areas (Rapallo, Santa Margherita Ligure and Monterosso). The weather was very good and it was very hot when we were there. We stayed 2 days in Milan. We visited Duomo, Teatro Alla Scala and Leonardo3 Museum. We wanted to see Last Supper but because we booked our trip last minutes it was fully booked .
A lot of people say that there aren’t many attractions to see and only a few days is enough but for us, we needed more days. We loved the city and we would love to go back there near future.
We stayed in Cremona for two nights. Cremona is famous for the violins and violas made there in the 16th–18th centuries by the Amati family and their pupils, Guarneri and Antonio Stradivari. The School of Violin and Viola Makers has a museum of antique stringed instruments in the Palazzo dell’Arte. (Britannica) We all loved it. My younger daughter plays the violin so she was really excited to visit there. We went to Museo del Violino (Violin Museum) and watched a Stradivarious violin played by a violinist in a museum concert hall which is violin shaped. I never had a chance to see that many Stradivarius Gaurnerious or Amati so it was a very good experience. When we were strolling near the museum, we came across a violin studio and the luthier kindly let my younger daughter play her violins. That was definitely her highlight in the holiday. She says she loved the city and wants to visit there again and so do I. It is definitely a less touristy area so if you don’t like to be in busy cities, then you will love Cremona. It was very peaceful there.
Our first plan was to visit Como, too but my husband wanted to go to the beach and the nearest and nicest one we thought was Portofino. From Milan, we took a train to Santa Margherita Ligure – Portofino then took a ferry to Portofino. There is a bus service as well but it looked very busy when we were there. We walked a lot in Portofino, it was a bit hilly. We stayed there only one day but it was enough for us to visit 2 beaches and we even had gelato twice! We stayed in Rapallo that night (went by ferry from Portofino). On the next day, we went to Monterosso to play in the beach. We really enjoyed it but didn’t have enough time to visit the town.
It was a short trip which we decided to go on last minutes but it was really fun and we had a great time. We didn’t have any problems with our accommodations and transportations. We all loved the food, beautiful architectures and sceneries. We are already talking about where we should go next in Italy. I hope we can visit there again soon.
