Milan is a fantastic city at the best of times, whether visiting the Duomo and other beautiful buildings, attending any of the Fashion Weeks, or being lucky enough to visit during one of their all night festivals. Of course anyone with any interest in furniture attends the Salone Di Mobile, the worlds most important furniture fair.
Due to an airline pilots strike… or was it the baggage handlers…?! we had to fly into Turin and take the train. We spent 2 full days walking nearly 30 kilometres round the Salon Del Mobile this year and other than coming home with holes in our Grenson’s we were not disappointed. It was superbly organised and we were very impressed with many of the stands but particularly by the chairs showcased by Maruni Wood Industry. We fell in love with the beautiful Hiroshima chair and the poor stand attendees had to wrestle their only walnut version from Will’s arms. We will be getting one for the office!
An interesting thing regarding this years Salone del Mobile are the number of fashion brands that are starting to join in the party. Many of the big names such as Versace and Giorgio Armani participates in some way during the five-day fair, along with smaller brands keen to take advantage of the many opportunities that open up here. It is a must for anyone interested in design, whatever field you’re in.
Though it take a few days to cover the whole fair (a great deal of the really interesting stuff happens in town away from the fair itself), with a bit of prior planning you can achieve all you need to whilst finding time for a bit of fun. A great restaurant which is out the way and in the backstreets (you will feel you’re in totally the wrong place… but you won’t be) is the two Michelin starred Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia. We had the tasting menu which was utterly sublime, and luckily a knowledgeable sommelier on hand – tasting menus are, of course, exceptionally hard to pair!
