The lovely ladies of Modenus have put together the perfect post to kick off BLOGTOUR MILAN...be sure to stay tuned to our travels via instagram, twitter, etc…

A HUGE thank you to our most generous sponsors: BLANCO,  Cosentino,  Gessi,  Clever Storage by Kesseboehmer,  NKBA, and MODENUS (and BLOGTOUR).

BLOGTOUR MILANO

 THIS ONE MAY CAUSE TRAVEL ENVY

We always do a post about our upcoming BlogTour and BlogTour Milan is no exception. Usually we title the tour “What’s this one all about?” but in this case we can almost dispense with that little formality. Close your eyes and think of Milan and, oh, while you’re at it, leave some room for Venice because we’re going there too. Got it? Italy. Gondolas. Design. Architecture. Food. Wine. Fashion. Really handsome men. Really beautiful women. People on scooters. Very small cars. You get the idea. And what? You still want all the details about BlogTour Milan? There’s just no end to your curiosity is there?

WARNING: Envy alert!!!!

BlogTour Milan has been on our minds for years and when we finally decided to do the tour in 2014 we were thrilled to focus on Salone del Mobile, Eurocucina and Fuori Saloni for a few days and set to planning out a wonderful itinerary filled with aforementioned design, architecture, food, wine and so on. And we were pleased with the plan, very pleased in fact. But then we had an opportunity to include two nights in Venice in the tour and, since we’re big fans of impromptu jaunts (ask our friends from BlogTour Cologne who ended up in Amsterdam) we added the City of Bridges to our agenda.

Day 1: Tour of Venice

We will be spending a full day touring Venice under the knowledgeable guidance of Cristina Gregorin of Slow Venice (special thanks for the introduction goes to Venetophile JoAnn Locktov) who has arranged for a visit to a private palace, a fabulous luncheon and a walking tour to see the endless treasures hidden in this most romantic place. Cristina has her doctorate in history and foreign languages, has been a certified guide for over twenty years and, as if that weren’t enough, focuses on sharing the real Venice in a tour that incorporates the history and contemporary stories of this singular city. 

Our evening will be spent with BlogTour sponsor Clever Storage US at their showroom outside of Venice. We have their team to thank for our jaunt to Venice, so grazie tutti!

Day 2 Heading to Milano:

A relatively short train ride will take us through Vicenza, Verona, Brescia and Bergamo as we make our way to Milan. We promise to perfect the pronunciation of these and many other Italian cities before we return. Wine, we are told, helps in this endeavor.

To make the transition from Venice to Milan as gentle as possible, we found a hotel on a canal in Milan. The Art Hotel Navigli is located in the eponymous area of Milan that is known for it’s many bars, design shops, art galleries and antiques markets and we’re quite confident our team will have a great time after a hard day’s work.

Day 3 Salone: 

Our first full day in Milan will indeed be spent hard at work with a design filled day at Eurocucina, as we meet with our sponsors Gessi,  Cosentino,  Blanco,  Clever Storage and the NKBA in addition to exploring other parts of this gigantic trade show.

Because the show is so big we’ve decided to let the team divide and conquer during the day and reconvene on the hotel terrace after dinner for drinks and sharing of design finds. By the way, every team member will select 3 Top Design Finds for the tour which we will publish on www.blogtour.co ( Check out BlogTour NYC Finds too) .

Day 4 tour of Milan, Via Tortona and a fabulous evening:

Our fourth day allows us a bit of breathing room and we’ve offered an optional guided tour of the sites in Milan or our team can take the morning off and sleep, shop or explore more design.

We will meet everyone for a cool gelato, courtesy of NKBA CEO Bill Darcy before wandering over to Via Tortona Design District which is only a stone throw from our hotel. Here we will find narrow streets, teaming with design lovers and lots of shops and showrooms that are participating in the festival. 

Our evening will be spent at Cosentino’s VIP dinner followed by a drink or two at the fabulous Trussardi alla Scala.

Day 5 Gessi and an afternooon with a Diva

Ending our whirlwind tour on a number of high notes, we will spend the morning touring the Gessi showroom in Brera, followed by a lunch with the Gessi team, “somewhere in the neighborhood” . Knowing Gessi this “somewhere” will be pretty fabulous and we’ll gladly let them take the lead that morning.

Part of our afternoon is free to explore Brera and we look forward to seeing our friends at Design Junction and also at Spazio Pontaccio.

And then….we meet up with none other than the grande dame of antiques’ tours, the Diva, the one and only Antiques’ Diva Toma Clark Haines for a tour of shops in Brera that ends in, what else, a visit to La Scala followed by the classic Milanese version of Happy Hour, Aperitivi.

And this, dear friends, ends our sneak peek of BlogTour Milan but, rest assured, the amount of coverage during and after the tour will provide you with more design inspiration than you can possibly hope for.

We will see you back in about a week, until then please stay tuned towww.modenus.com/blog/blogtour for live feeds from our team.