007 Travel story: Milan (ITALY) 2015, day 1/3

007 Travelers on the road again, doing some Bond location hunting!
This time we had an Italian tour.

Friday 24 July 2015

Airline: Finnair
From: Helsinki, Finland
To: Milan, Italy
Price: 627,88 EUR (2 adults, 1 child)
Duration: 3 hours


Milan 

Milan is the second-most populous municipality in Italy and the capital of Lombardy. Milan is home to many cultural institutions, museums and art galleries, that account for about a tenth of the national total of visitors and recepits, and Milan also is a major national and international centre of the performing arts, most notably opera. Milan is widely regarded as a global capital in industrial design, fashion and architecture, many of the most famous Italian fashion brands, such as Valentino, Gucci, Versace, Prada, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana, are headquartered in the city and Milan is also regarded as one of the fashion capitals of the world, along with New York City, Paris, and London.

We arrived in Italy and Milan in the morning and it was a really hot day. From the airport we took a train with one change, and soon we were near Hotel Admiral. Our accommodation was only few minutes from the station Domodossola Fiera.

Accommodation

Hotel: Hotel Admiral Milan ****
Address: Via Domodossola 16, 20145 Milan, Italy
Booked: Via Hotel Admiral Milan
Price: Check via Online booking
City tax: 5,00 EUR / person / night
Breakfast: Included
Wi-Fi: Free
Parking: Private parking, no reservations. Ask the hotel about the prices.
Check-in: 12.00
Check-out: 7.00 - 12.00
Room type: "Diamond" suite 

The owner and manager of the Hotel Admiral Milan is one Edward Coffrini Dell'Orto, heir to the Dell’Orto & Sons empire, an Italian family company and world leader in the manufacture of carburetors for racing cars. The hotel was founded by Luigi Dell’Orto, who was instrumental in the research and development that led to Dell’Orto’s success in the early 1980’s.

Edward Coffrini Dell'Orto

The receptionist was very nice and helpful, and he called the hotel owner and manager Edward that we had arrived. Edward´s office is near the hotel lobby and we met him at once. He showed us his hotel and then we interviewed Edward. See our interview of Edward here. 

Edward is a really nice guy and he gave us the book "James Bond 007, 50 anni di un mito",
and Edward has written this book together with Andrea Carlo Cappi.

Edward also gave to our Little Agent Traveler something nice.
 

There are 60 beautiful rooms in Admiral Hotel and it offers you the possibility to choose between 3 different kinds of rooms: (classic, golden and diamonds) in 5 different size: standard, superior, Jr suite, suite, or family room for up to six persons.

Little Agent Traveler
visiting the Golden suite

The Golden suite is one of the hotel´s beautiful rooms
which we also visited

This is the Diamond suite, where we stayed over night. There were two rooms, one room for Pirita and Mika, and the another for Little Agent Traveler.

Pirita´s and Mika´s room above and Little Agent Traveler´s room below.





Edward has such a beautiful collection of Bond items.

Edward´s wife wore this in their wedding and this is made of the same fabric as the original dress which Bond's wife Tracy used in film "On Her Majesty´s Secret Service" (1969). Really fabulous replica!

It was great that Edward had time for us. He left for another meeting and we went to have some lunch. Near the hotel is Millenium Cafe where we had pasta. After that it was time to explore the hotel by ourselves.

Later we took a taxi to the area of Repubblica/Centrale (the area near Repubblica Plaza and Central Station) , it was 17,00 EUR. 

007 Travelers met Bond book writer Marco Donna in Ristorante Giannino, which is a Bond location in John Pearson´s Bond book "James Bond, the Authorized Biography of 007" (1973). When that Bond book was published, the restaurant was located at Via Sciesa, but is now located at Via Vittor Pisani, 6. We had dinner with Marco. See our interview of him here. 

Mika / 007 Travelers

Mika, Pirita and Little Agent Traveler / 007 Travelers and Marco Donna on the right

Marco and Mika ate ossobucco like 007 did in this John Pearson's book in Giannino.

Ossobuco is a Milanese speciality of cross-cut veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine and broth. It is often garnished with gremolata and traditionally served with risotto alla milanese.

Ossobuco or osso buco is Italian for "bone with a hole" (osso bone, buco hole), a reference to the marrow hole at the centre of the cross-cut veal shank

Both Edward and Marco signed this book "Dall' Italia con amore" for us. This book´s author is Marco, and the epilogue is made by Edward. The prologue by famous Bond book author Raymond Benson.

Marco & Mika
with book "Dall' Italia con amore"

Marco is awesome and also our good friend. It was nice to meet him in wonderful Milan!

"Bond offered her dinner in one of the finest restaurants in Italy - Giannino, by Via Sciesa. They ate artichoke and osso buco alla milanese - and Bond spent a night with her. After grappa and gorgonzola it felt like a perfect ending for a perfect evening."

John Pearson: "James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007" (1973)

An old photo of restaurant Giannino

This was such a nice day to start our Bond tour, thank you Edward and Marco!

Our Bond tour continues. Next stops: Carrara and Marinella di Sarzana. We will return to Milan at the end of this Italy Bond tour.