In Milan center there is a place you don't expect, one that is believed to exist only in a child's fantasy, or in his dreams. And in fact it is a bit like that. Who does not have among the childhood memories the odd one of a Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, the rampant baron, with his faithful dachshund Excellent Massimo?
Well, Great Massimo is really there, and it is a stone's throw from the Duomo: you enter this bar and you feel like you are leaving. Yes: you go in and you feel like you are going out. Beyond the door opens a clearing with a tree planted in the earth, a tree of the real ones (on the other hand, that's where Cosimo swore to live forever) and you can already breathe the air of home, that same house that you built as a child when you spend summer afternoons reading books because this is how the teacher wants.
It is the ideal place for unplug from the city and to spoil yourself a little, that ideas are not lacking: from mini sandwiches to spoon desserts, from chocolates to salads. Also bring a book maybe, and devour it together with yours lunch on the ground floor or from the top of the balcony, among the branches and leaves: here you can enjoy your time in the company of nature and a few stars, even if it is day.
The star of Felice Lo Basso, the chef who will know how to put you in crisis with his creative combinations: try it, then you will tell me if I was not right, I would have tasted everything! And I didn't mention the panettone sandwich.
Excellent Massimo is in via Victor Hugo 3, ang. via Spadari, in Milan, and is open from Monday to Friday from 7.00 to 19.30, on Saturdays from 10.00 to 19.30. (Tel. 02 49457661) Come in and fly away with your imagination, just like Cosimo aboard his hot air balloon.
