Food and fashion in Milan

One thing I love about living in Zurich is that you can do things like dash off to Milan for your birthday, which is exactly what we did this past weekend. We even had our own personal Milan tour guides, Jul and Scott, who used to live there and planned all our meals. The food was fabulous and included everthing from perfect, brick-oven pizzas to a four-hour, seven-course marathon of haute vegetarian cuisine. The mozzarella bar, which we visited twice, was also a treat.

The shopping was just as exciting, and I was a woman on a mission. With winter nearly upon us, I sorely need to beef up my whimpy California wardrobe. And unless you're in the market for chocolate, the shops in Zurich are mostly unremarkable and overpriced.

So I was in fashion heaven in Milan. I drooled over the window displays in the famous designer district around Via della Spiga and Via Monte Napoleone, but the only thing I bought in that area was a cappuccino at the Armani Cafe. The cafe is part of a huge Armani complex that takes up a whole city block, and sells Armani-brand flowers, chocolates, and cosmetics, in addition to all the clothes. It was there that Jul introduced me to caffè marocchino, an espresso drink with a policitally incorrect name meaning "little Moroccan." It's a shot of espresso with a dash of milk and cocoa powder. Despite the name, it's delicious.

For actual shopping, I spent most of my time browsing the more affordable boutiques across town on Corso di Porta Ticinese and Corsa Genova. My best purchase was a wool coat with big buttons and a big, floppy collar (yay, 60s!) in off-white and forest green. I couldn't refuse the matching green, cowl-neck sweater, which was on sale.

In almost every clothing shop I came across the same scrumptious colors - royal purple, violet, mossy green, and turqouise. It was like candy, and I wanted something in every color but settled for another sweater, a funky purple number with pom-poms that tie around the waist. I am a very spoiled b-day girl.