A Milan lifestyle through the eyes of foreign social media influencers
The city of Milan has a lot to offer, and social media influencers around the world portray Milan in a way they see fit. Let’s dive deeper into how a foreign social media influencer views Milan.
By Léopold Rabéchault and Daniel Thomsen
Sana, a Dubai Perspective
While we were collecting information, we asked Sana Chikhalia, an Emirati food and travel influencer (107k followers), a series of questions about her visit to Milan. But before jumping into her answers, here’s a little background on her. She is a certified influencer on instagram, and provides other insights to her travels through her personal blog.
The first couple questions that were asked dealt with her overview of Milan and which parts helped to benefit her lifestyle the most. An obvious point she brought up frequently was the level of diversity among the cuisine offered in Milan. After asking her why she has chosen to visit Milan, her response was “personally, I love the fast paced life of Milan, the coffee culture, and the number-able restaurants to try different cuisines. No matter how many times I visit this city, it will always be a favorite of mine”(S. Chikhalia). She made a post about one of her favorite dinners in Milan, which took place in Castello Sforzesco.
She also enjoyed discovering the way Milanese people live in a very fast paced culture, which is typical in Italy, even though “people love to enjoy things wholeheartedly whether it’s enjoying their coffee, their gelato or a meal”(S. Chikhalia). We noticed that she really values the level of appreciation people have for everyday activities. In fact, she was not coming to Milan in search of her a relaxed and peasy Italian lifestyle, rather looking for the Metropolitan and exciting lifestyle Milan has to offer.
She told us that she was really enjoying the artistic and cultural dimension of the city. She further explains this point made in one of her blogs written about her favorite aspects of Milan. Some of her favorite locations in Milan to hit are Santa Maria Delle Grazie, which is home to the famous Leonardo Da Vinci painting of The Last Supper. Another spot she also really enjoys is Castello Sforzesco. She said these are some of the best places in Milan if you are looking for the full experience, giving good insight to what a foreign social media influencer values in Milan.
Outside of the interview with Sana, there are a number of other social media influencers blogging about their experiences in Milan, and what they find offers the best Milanese experience.
Sophie, the not so well known parts of Milan
Sophie is someone who can provide a different perspective on how a foreigner views Milan. She grew up in the countryside in England and often travels between London and Paris. Milan was one of her stops along the way, and she wrote a short blog about the more secretive parts that people should really consider visiting.
One of the places she recommends visiting is Basilica di Santo Stefano Maggiore. In her blog, she states “while many of these ecclesiastical spaces have since been transformed into concert halls and quirky museums, the Basilica di Santo Stefano Maggiore remains a church to this day”. The history this place offers is one of the things that really gives it the special feel when you visit. The 5th century was when it was first established. There was a fire in the 11th century that damaged much of the building, but the current building is over one thousand years old.
Her choice to include this church is something I really agree with. People should spend time learning about the history of Milan, and a major part of that are all the churches throughout the city.
One more location that Sophie included in her blog is Cimitero Monumentale. This is a cemetery outside of the city center, but offers amazing monuments and tombs. When she talks about the cemetery in her blog, she says “funerary shrines and sculptures in the cemetery include a depiction of a pyramid, a representation of the Last Supper on a family tomb, and various other interesting sculptures”.
This is not a place we have heard discussed regularly when talking about the major attractions of Milan. It offers a different site seeing opportunity from the churches and art galleries. There appears to be amazing architecture here, which gives even more reason it should be on the list of places to visit.
The places Sophie has given offer other sites worth visiting outside of the ones you will read about in every Milan handbook.
Hellan, A Nightmare Arrival In Milan
To get a wider view about foreigners influencers in Milan, we found Hellan, alias @girl.in.milan. She is a Nigerian travel-and-food influencer and blogger that had some serious issues about her trip in Milan.
She explains in an article in her blog named “Terrific first days in Milano” how difficult this experience had been for her. Arriving in Malpensa after a twenty-four hour trip, she found out that her bag was only closed thanks to a white plastic bag. After this, she faced a terrible loneliness when families were getting reunited in the sound of laughter and gladness.
The next difficulty was the supermarket, the products were so different that she “couldn’t identify a single product on the supermarket shelves” because it was only Italian brands. She said that she only could collect nine articles after having brought her dictionary to translate the most important goods. Same thing for the public transportation when she had to pay a fine for having spontaneously taken a bus. We can clearly identify here that beyond the language barrier, it is also a whole interculturality problematic that Hellen faced. It would be much easier for western country people to feel-at-ease in Italy, even though Milan is quite an international city.
Fleur, Niche-Information About Milan
Then, we discovered Fleur, a french influencer that owns the blog “Completement flou”. She was born in Nancy and she moved to Milan in 2005. Through her blog, we discovered some very specific articles about this city. For example, she wrote articles about places in Milan for comic’s lovers, flower’s lovers or even photographers. This precision about the topics she covers is differentiating because it goes further than only “best places in Milan” articles and she can reach few-days travelers or people who live here as well.
We focused on an article about six feminist places in Milano and we noticed that Fleur offers to her community some very deep analysis about this topic. For example, she presents the “Casa delle donne”, an old school which was transformed into a welcoming place for all women. She explains that women can find here information about Milan’s services, conferences and help for personal issues no matter their religion, culture or age. Choosing to talk about this “living place” with cultural, sporting, political or professional activities shows the diversity of what a foreign influencer can search for in Milan. She also presents places like the “Libreria delle Donne” a library dedicated to women, some self-defence courses provided by the Police Academy, “CADMI” a home for abused women and “Cicip&Ciciap” a debate and cultural meeting spot.
This Lombard city has indeed much more to offer than just cultural, fashion or gastronomic places and these people want to make us discover all its richness.
