46 Feature eye on travel

FASHION NEVER SLEEPS is one of Europe’s great fashion centres but you need to take time to get the best value for your euro by Maryalicia Post

most discerning shoppers come here expecting not only “what's new” but also what's going to be new. It's an easy walk to this area from the La Scala end of the Galleria. Just cross the park behind the statue of Leonardo da Vinci and turn right on Via Manzoni. At number 31 Via Manzoni, detour into 's Megastore. Opened by Armani in 2000 to celebrate his 25th year in fashion, its 750 square metres are crammed with everything you need to live the Armani lifestyle – fashion for men and women, books, home decor (the Armani “Casa” range) and a flower shop. Relax Armani style in the basement electronic play centre and recharge afterwards in the cafe or sushi bar. Open every day from 09:00 to 17:00. Continue down Via Manzoni to Via Montenapoleone, a street so “fashion forward” that it maintains its Shops in the Galleria own website featuring current window displays and a Milan's Galleria - no mere shopping mall gallery of ‘street mood’ photos. For details, visit www. viamontenapoleone.org. You can spend hours in this neighbourhood window-shopping the exquisite collections of jewellery, clothing, handbags and shoes. You're welcome Milanese of slender means If you like a bargain, to browse inside the shops too, particularly if you've you can find them in Milan, too. Try DMagazine at 26 Via dressed smartly for the outing. (High-end shopping is not Montenapoleone, right in the Golden Rectangle. The shop a casual sport in Milan.) If you have time, relax in Caffe sells overstock from labels like Armani, , and Fendi. Cova at 8 Via Montenapoleone. Expect to pay €15 for It's crowded with bargains and often over-crowded with coffee and cake in these luxuriously elegant surroundings. bargain hunters, too. (Open Monday to Sunday, 09:30- But what if time is the one luxury you can't afford? Here 19:45 Metro Montenapoleone.) are two shopping shortcuts: La Salvagente – the “life saver” – has been a Milanese Contact a personal shopper like Marian Harber, a fixture since 1978. The shop, with three floors of designer British ex-pat who has lived for 30 years in Milan. She clothes for men, women and children, is located on Via knows where to go and will take you straight there – not Fratelli Bronzetti, off Corso XXII Marzo, a 15 minute walk just in the Golden Rectangle, but also in the lesser known from Metro San Babila. You will find the best selection of clothing in the smaller sizes. Prices here hover around Fashion in Milan isn’t all about clothes boutiques in the surrounding small streets. She has some good addresses for household linens and home furnishings, wholesale. Il Salvagente is open Monday afternoon and too. For details, visit: www.shoppingwithmarion.com. from 10.00-12:30 and 15:00-19:00 on Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays. On Wednesday and Saturday it stays open certain style seems to come naturally to the Head straight for La Rinascente department store in Piazza del Duomo. You’ll find in-store boutiques of small straight through from 10:00 to 19:00. The shop is closed Milanese. Naturally, a visitor to Milan can all day on Sunday and on Monday morning. No credit acquire it, too – at a price. designers, two floors devoted to men's fashions, and a Design Supermarket in the basement featuring everything cards; cash only. Worth knowing : “ATM” signs in Milan The forerunner of all the world's “galleria” refer not to cash dispensers but to the transport system: shopping malls – Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II from specially selected lighting fixtures to children’s A toys. La Rinascente’s food shop on the seventh floor is Azienda Trasporti Milanesi. An automatic teller machine is – opened in 1871 between the Cathedral and the Opera a “Bancomat.” House. bursting with cooking staples that would make great gifts, including oils, wines, chocolates and sweets. A meal or just For the more committed bargain hunter, there are Outlet Work on the triumphal arch that frames the main Shopping Tours that will take you across the border to entrance from the Piazza del Duomo took another 10 years a coffee on the terrace of the rooftop restaurant, almost within touching distance of the spires of the Duomo, is a Switzerland and back again with time to prowl the 160 to complete. Then as now, luxurious shops and some of shops of the Mendrisio Foxtown Outlet (www.foxtown. Milan's most respected restaurants and cafes lined the positive plus. (Bring your camera.) La Rinascente is open Monday-Thursday: 09:30- 21:00; Friday-Saturday: 09:30- ch). All the familiar brands are here at 30 per cent to 70 indoor streets of the double arcade. The Galleria, with its per cent off. The ambience is fairly up market. For tour magnificent central dome, wall paintings and mosaic floor, 22:00 Sunday: 10:00 to 21:00. The four restaurants on the top floor are open until midnight. After store hours, take information, check with www.zaniviaggi.it or your hotel was too sophisticated to be called a “mall”; instead, it was concierge. dubbed “Milan's drawing room,” and under these vaulted the pink express elevator non-stop to the seventh floor; glass ceilings, you may feel that time stands still. entrance around the corner from Piazza Duomo on Via S. Not so in the Quadrilatero d'Oro, the “golden rectangle” Raffaele. formed by Via Montenapoleone, Via Andrea, Via Gesù, Finally, if you really want to speed things up, rent a Via Borgospesso and . On these fashion- Ferrari for a day. The people at http://europeluxurycarhire. * The XXX ESCRS Congress will be held in Milan filled streets, time never stands still for a second. Milan's com/supercars-car-rental will quote a price. Be sure to from 8-12 September 2012. choose a model with room for your shopping!

EUROTIMES | Volume 17 | Issue 2