After the Ikea Blogin award ceremony on Thursday (read here) I went back to Milan on Saturday, with my boyfriend.

We booked the Inner Design bike tour, that I strongly recommend for next year. Thanks to the past editions huge success, I think Lucia Rota, founder of the community, will be glad to reply the idea. If you’re interested, write a note on your calendar or maybe register on Inner Design and subscribe to the newsletter: if design is your passion or your job, in both cases this is the community for you.

Thanks to the newsletter, I knew about the event and I soon booked: it has been the right choice for me, because the available tickets (10 per day) have been sold like crazy! Besides I knew from Lucia that I have been the first one, in record time!

Bike tour, a chronicle

Meeting at 9 o’clock at Rossignoli, corso Garibaldi, that will lend us the bikes. Just the time to wait for everyone to arrive, choose the bike and here we go! Big surprise: today’s guide is Gianpaolo Allocco (Delineo Design), his navigator is Massimo Rosati (Design Street editor-in-chief), the same of the Ikea Blogin cremony… How do you say? fuorisalone is really a small world!

The tour includes: Vico Magistretti building in piazza San Marco, Casa and Torre Rasini by Giò Ponti; Ca’ Brutta by Giovanni Muzio; Villa Necchi Campiglio by Piero Portaluppi. Along the route we also make a stop at Leonardo’s watergates and we cross the Montanelli park.

I expected a fourisalone tour, but I’m really happy for this change of plan: Gianpaolo and Massimo are exceptional guides. A visit to Statale University follows, to see the fuorisalone installations, this time; the tour ends in front of the monument dedicated to Sandro Pertini by Aldo Rossi: another reason to admire our guides!

Now we are ready to go to via Paolo Sarpi and taste a delicious light lunch at Presso – Kook sharing: check out their website to understand why it is such a special place!

[The first picture on the left is by Gianpaolo Allocco, the last one on the right is by Lucia Rota-Inner Design]

Triennale, happy hour and relax

During the afternoon, not tired yet, Marco and I decide to use the public bike sharing system Bikemi to take another tour by ourselfs. The service is really easy to use here, for occasional users (like us) too. In few minutes you register on the website, pay with credit card a dayly ticket (2,50 €) and receive a personal code by sms. You need a smartphone with access to the internet, of course.

We then relax on the grass at the Castello Sforzesco, invaded by giant birds in fluorescent colors, and after we go straight to the Triennale. At first it seemed like a conventional choice, too conventional compared to what we could see in the other districts, but I change my mind right away, the choice is just perfect!

We end the day back in the Statale university area, where we mix up with the youngers, taking a beer from a banquet promptly organized by some university students and a slice of pizza at the bar across the street. Nothing pretentious, no nightlife, just the right relaxing end of a perfect day.