After our 24 hour stay in the Cinque Terre, we made our way back up to Milan for a couple of days.  Milan is not my favourite city, largely due to a terrible job I had there back in 2010.  It was only a two month contract, thankfully, replacing a teacher who had done a runner overnight.  “We can’t imagine why he left,” the boss told me, while moving me into the same accommodation this teacher had had:  a room in a convent.  Yes, a convent.

The room had no kettle or fridge, nor was there access to a kitchen in the convent. My room just had two single beds and a desk, and that was pretty much it. No wifi either.  It was a horrible, horrible time, made worse when I got pick-pocketed on my way to the airport to fly back home and didn’t even have money for the airport bus (thankfully, the Italian police took pity on me and got me on board).

So I don’t have fond memories of Milan.  As I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about this destination, I encouraged Dr HH to choose what he wanted to see, and he found the Monumental Cemetery.

It’s a gigantic cemetery full of mausoleums and statues, and even a life-size stone replica of The Last Supper.  It’s certainly an interesting place to have a wander.  And, more importantly, it’s only about a ten minute walk from a vegan-friendly sushi place.

I seize any opportunity to try sushi, even if it’s in Italy! We were the first diners for the lunch session at Zushi, which has both takeaway and eat-in options.  It was a bit fancier than we were expecting – it’s fanciness can best be demonstrated by the fact that the seat of your chair actually lifts up so you can put your bag inside a little compartment out of the way.  La di da!

There were only a few vegan options, which are nicely consolidated into the vegan brunch set for €14.90 – quite steep for what it was. We got a bowl of edamame for a starter, which was quite exciting.

The brunch set itself came next.  There were two pieces topped with tomato, which were unsurprisingly a bit boring.  The two with avocado were better, and there was another delicious one topped with some tofu and fig jam.  There was one topped with an actual mountain of wakame, and six little rolls striped with chives, filled with tofu, asparagus and fig jam, and topped with flaked almonds.  They were the most exciting, and the most delicious.

We were still a little hungry, so we decided to split the only vegan dessert: a €6 chocolate cheesecake.  It had a thin, spongy base (my kingdom for a biscuity base!) and some kind of marmalade layer, and the chocolate mousse itself was rich and indulgent.

I enjoyed our dishes, but we basically exhausted all the vegan options right here, and it was quite an expensive meal.  Zushi is a chain that we saw in most of the other big cities we visited later, so it’s a good backup to have up your sleeve for emergencies, but not really a must-visit unless you’re a die hard sushi fiend!