Image by Alessandra Gesuelli

On piazza delle Cinque Giornate inside the Coin department store there is an Eataly shop. This is the Milan branch of the famous Turin shop, managed thanks to the collaboration with the Slow Food Movement. This association started many years ago to promote good food, zero miles products and local producers.

Eataly is a marketplace, an opportunity to taste and take home the products of artisans that produce high quality food at fair price. When I go there I like to take a basket and fill it with the best Italian cheese, salumi, fresh meat, good artisan pasta, so many sauces and mustards.

Eataly is a real heaven for Italian food lovers. There are some tables where you can have a snack or a brunch. I love to go there to buy bottles of craft beers from Italian microbreweries and the best Northern Italy red wine.

It’s also a great place to find a gift: if you don’t know what to chose there is a new service online or at the shop to buy a voucher from 50 euros as a gift to a friend. So you can bring home your wonderful experience!

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Eataly | Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks | Pesto 120 gr € 4.00
piazza Cinque Giornate, 1 | Porta Vittoria | +390292870066
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 20:00, Sat 10:00 – 20:30, Sun 10:00 – 20:00

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Image by Alessandra Gesuelli

In the center of Milan there is a special place. It’s called Antica Focacceria San Francesco and takes its name from a similar deli and bistrot in Palermo. I knew the Sicilian branch so when it opened in Milan I immediately went there.

The reason why it is so special is not just for the obvious good quality of their Sicilian food but because that deli in Palermo, run for five generations by the Conticello Family, was one of the first to say no to pizzo, the protection money that hundreds of businesses throughout Sicily have had to pay to the mafia clans.

Antica Focacceria San Francesco soon became a symbol of this fight against the mafia and was an example for others to do the same, together with organizations like Libera and Addio Pizzo.

If you don’t have the chance to go to Palermo, this shop in Milan offers all the best from Sicilian food tradition. It’s open from breakfast to dinner. Here you can find pasta con le sarde, sfincione, panelle and crocchè, cannoli and cassate.

I love cannoli, and here I found the right place to taste them. The secret is that they fill the cannoli with the ricotta cheese cream when they serve it, so the tube-shaped fried pastry remains crunchy! Inside there is also the corner Spirit of Sicily where it’s possible to buy products from Pizzo Free and Libera, grown on land liberated from the mafia. They host regularly some art exhibitions.

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Antica focacceria San Francesco | Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants (Sicilian) | Cassata € 5.00
via San Paolo 15 | Centro | +390245071057
07:00 – 00:00 daily

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Image by Audrey Smith

Before I moved to Italy, one of the first things that came to mind was FOOD! Salami, cheese, pizza, pasta oh and all coupled nicely with some wine of course! And of course, Italy didn’t disappoint me.

When it comes to cheese and salami I would recommend a visit to a fabulous jam-packed delicatessen just off the Corso Buenos Aires shopping strip.

Being Australian, my knowledge of Italian cheese was limited to Parmesan (Parmigiano) and Mozzarella and sadly, the only mozzarella I really knew was the copied version we put on our pizzas.

Now I can safely say that I have managed to try a reasonable percentage of the many cheese and cured meats Italy has to offer, but there is always something new to discover. Grab a few servings when you’ve worked up a hunger after shopping or maybe grab a few things for a picnic and relax in the nearby Giardini Publici (Public Gardens) near Porta Venezia. Don’t worry if they don’t speak English, just point at a few things…you’ll be right! They are really friendly and like to joke around with the customers. Avoid Saturday mornings as it’s really chaotic!

MM Metro Lima is the closest stop.

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Salami & Cheese | Shopping, Snacks
Via Tadino / Via Vitruvio | Centrale/Greco
Mon 08:00 – 13:00, Tue – Sat 08:00 – 13:00 & 15:30 -19:30

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Image by Chiara Anselmo

Gattullo is one of the most famous place in Milan for sandwiches and for pastries.

The place is just the same as it was in  the late 70′s: furnitures, lamps and cutlery look so stylish in my opinion, and the “panini” are just a must.

I recommend you to go for the “Gattullino”, wich takes the name from the owner of the bar) or Manhattan (with shrimps, artichokes, rucola, smoked cheese and cocktail sauce). The original recipe includes also ham but I ask to have it without it and I think is excellent.

If I come here for lunch I will also have a small slice of homemade pizza (with aubergine or onions) and at the end, together with coffee a small pastry with fresh raspberry and chocolate.

When I lived in the area I often had breakfast with cappuccino and brioches and my favourite was the kipferl with blueberry jam, but also croissants with crème are wonderful.

The prices are not so friendly but for the quality of ingriedients this is a place where I like to take my friends to experience a wonderful “Italian panino”.

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Bar Gattullo | Bars, Snacks, Restaurants (Italian) | Sandwich& Coffee € 8
P.le di Porta Lodovica 2 | Ticinese/Genova | +390258310497
Tue – Sat: 07:00 – 22:00

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Image by Arianna Malacrida

A few days ago it was a rainy and cold afternoon in Milano. I was having a walk with a friend and we had this longing for a cup of tea and a slice of cake. I thought about this cute place on the Naviglio Grande called Nero Fondente. Their window is always full of beautiful fresh cakes that seem to tell you “come in and taste me!”.

The place is small and cosy, there is a little mezzanine and from the big window you can see the canal. The apple pie I had was delicious and still warm cause they had just got it from the oven. Everything there is home made and fresh. I can’t say which is the best period to go to Nero Fondente, since when it’s cold outside you can find a warm atmosphere, but in summer you can also stay just outside and have a fresh drink. I would say the style is country-chic and the service very accurate.

They are open daily, from early in the morning until late at night so you can walk in any time.

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Nero Fondente | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Slice of cake € 5.00
Alzaia Naviglio Grande 48 | Ticinese/Genova | +390289059084
08:00 – 02:00 daily

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Image by Audrey Smith

While I wouldn’t write home about the fantastic service, I would highly recommend this cafe for its chocolate. Now open only afternoons/evenings it’s a good spot for that slice of cake for an afternoon sugar burst or a very chocolatey gelato after dinner – it should satisfy your chocolate craving.

Yes, you can get chocolate gelato at any gelateria, but there aren’t many with a range of different chocolate flavours like this! I would recommend the spicy chocolate – ciccolato peperoncino. On three levels, this café is also a good place to sit down and catch up with friends or watch the world go by for a while after a big shopping session.

There is also a great selection of chocolate based products on sale, perfect for gifts. While the service can be a bit slow it’s a a cosy place to grab a corner, relax and chat with friends. Don’t forget to look upstairs for a seat by the window!

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Choco Cult | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Coffee & cake € 5.00
Via Michelangelo Buonarroti, 7 | Fiera | +390248027319
15:00 – 00:00 daily

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Image by Audrey Smith

This is a favourite place for a beer at any time of the year but in winter it is particularly cosy inside, with comfy chairs, quirky furniture and old book cases with ageing books. It’s a little different from the usual bars in the Navigli area which can focus more on the Happy hour trade and cocktails and can lack a bit of atmosphere. 

Another cute thing is that they serve the beer in kitcsh ceramic beer mugs. They serve a good Italian brewed favourite Menebrea and the Prague favourite from Staropramen.

They don’t do the normal happy hour buffet but you can order fantastic value cheese and salami platters if you’re feeling a little peckish. It’s easy to find, just at the start of the Naviglio Pavese. The first canal if you are walking from the city centre. If you get there early you should have no problem finding a seat, later in the night after 10pm, could be more difficult.

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Coccio Birreria | Bars, Snacks | Beer on tap € 5.00
4 Alzaia naviglio pavese | Ticinese/Genova
Tue – Sun 18:00 – late

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Image by Arianna Malacrida

This is a very young ice-cream shop, opened in June 2010. By the taste of the icecream, though, you would say the opposite: it’s like savoring the most refined and traditional Italian “gelato”.

You can always choose among 24 different flavours, creams and fruits. All the ingredients are carefully chosen, fresh and high quality. Each day you don’t know what you’re gonna find because it depends on the mood of Roberto, the passionate ice cream man. Beside the most traditional flavours an ice-cream shop can’t miss, he really likes experiments and trying new recipes. Once I tasted a papaya and ananas scoop and it felt like being in an exotic place!

If you’re not longing for a real ice-cream, different specialties are waiting for you: homemade ice sticks (try the mojito flavour!), “bicchierini” (small glasses of icecream and pralines) or ice-cream cakes.

And if outside is too hot/cold stay inside and watch Roberto at work: there’s a window between the shop and the room where the ice-cream is made, so that you can discover all the taste’s secrets. If you have a keen eye you will also find a very refined quote from a movie: “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice-cream”. After this one for sure.

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Officine del gelato | Coffee & tea, Snacks
Viale Montenero 46 | Porta Romana | +390259904118
11:00 – 23:00 daily

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Image by Arianna Malacrida

This pastry shop was opened in Milano in 1936 and in the years it’s become very well known by Milanese people thanks to the excellent quality of its products. They are specialised in homemade sweets and they offer a great choice of different typical Italian cakes, pastries, candies and chocolates. Needless to say ingredients are always fresh and I am sure you will immediately taste it if you treat yourself to something.

In the shop there is also a tea room to spend some time inside. The style belongs to early XX century, with classical furniture, fancy table clothes and elegant cutlery. With the warm season they you can also seat outside: on sunny days there are a lot of people sitting quietly and enjoy their food and drinks.

Personally, I love their croissant: jam, cream, honey, chocolate, empty or whatever, the pastry is so good and fresh! Very often, on Saturday or Sunday late mornings I wake up with this craving for these croissant and I feel lucky my apartment is only one minute walking from the shop!

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Pasticceria Cucchi | Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Snacks | croissant € 1.00
Corso genova 1 | Ticinese/Genova | +390289409793
Tue – Sun 07:00 – 22:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Milan

Image by Arianna Malacrida

Botega caffè cacao is mainly a very refined pastry and coffee shop. But not only. Furnished like an American café from the sixties, in this place you can have a sweet breakfast, or a tasty and healthy lunch or just a good coffee in the afternoon. At least you have to try one of the many variation of the Italian cappuccino the list offers.

At the first bite you can taste that the food is fresh and homemade. You can take your time and enjoy your slice of cake at the table or you can just step in and buy a stick of chocolate or a packet of coffee.

Facing one of the main street of Brera neighbourhood and with two floors, each detail of this place is take care of, from what you eat to what you see. Hard to say if I like the food or the atmosphere the most!

For lunch you can make up your own menu and spend less than 10 euro having a main dish, water, coffee and dessert. Even if this place is often very crowded, waiters are really nice: one time I had lunch with a couple of friends and we had such a homey feeling that we stayed there more than 3 hours and nobody asked us to leave.

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Botega caffè cacao | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Italian) | Light meal € 10.00
Corso Garibaldi 12, | Brera/Porta Nuova | +390280506589
07:30 – 20:00 daily

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