Yeah, I know I ask too much when I have you working in the dark.
But that helps. I had found a lot of examples with 言 in the phrase, but none without it, so I didn't think they were interchangeable.
So am I right in concluding that since that clause just says that the speaker got all this from Milan, the paragraph would impart the same information (except the source) without that clause altogether? I kept seeing そうです ending the sentences in his answers, which I took to be a way of reminding us that he was imparting hearsay, and was kind of ignoring it since it doesn't read very smoothly in English with that tacked on every other sentence (maybe I shouldn't have
). So when an entire clause showed up with Milan's name in it, I thought it must be important to the meaning of the sentence.
Again, thank you so much for your help!