My first few days in Italy brought me to the wonderous city of the north. As you can see I was literally in shock
Look at the fricken airport walk way. Woah, its like the inside of a thorax!
I had a few hours to kill be for my hostess Virginia would be home so I headed to the city center to check out a few sites. I was amazed at the size of the “Duomo”
And then the gallaria…
Inside there were really fashionable stores like
and 
and
And finally
Super swanky. Ok that was a lot s space and the punch line a bit lame.On with the tour. Next was the famous bull of Milan. As with tradition I stomped on his balls and spun in a happy circle. Weeeeeee.
Well things finally got interesting when I got to the Borsa’s. First thing first when you arrive at the Borsa’s… Food! My first home cooked Italian meal; Spaghetti, pesto, and parmesan. She then took me back into the city and gave me the low down on everything I had walked and gawked at before heading to her house, then to her old university and to the Sforza Castle (it has a moat).
Once again I was in awe of the Italian engineering
After the tour she and her Mom went to yoga and Peatro and I watched The Simpsons and The Griffins (aka Family Guy) back at the homestead. When they go back we went to dinner at a great little restaurant called Osteria “da Francesca” where I had the aforementioned gnocchi and of course a bottle of wine. By the way, Family Guy in Italian is still hilarious. That Peter, what a character!
Ok this pretty much gives you the pictures that correlate with my second blog entry. Over the next three days I would be a tourist while Virginia was at school then we would go around Milan to various museums, parks, or other sites and I would ask questions to my hearts desire and she would be very patient and answer them all. At night we usually got together with her girl friends (awesome) and go to get some drink or dinner. It was really fun to just sit back and listen to them talk. I had no idea what they said but when it turned to politics the hands started flyin. I think half the Italian language is in the hands. The two gestures most commonly used are making the ‘praying hands’ and waggin them at the wrist infront of your chest and then with one or both hands pressing your fingers together and kinda shaking the weird fist that it makes kiddy corner from your chin and shoulder. For those from Grizzly, it’s like the “puuuuate” gesture before you throw your hand up in the air.
The last night I was in Milan we had risotto at Leila’s house and then headed to the Disco. Itialian disco’s go something like this; you have to have a special pass to get in, I had to fill out a form and get a temporary identification card. If you are already a member you get a token for a drink. They had 3 colors of tokens which gave you various drink ranges from the cheap beer, well drinks, and mixed drinks. This reminds me, earlier in the week I had “the Godfather” which is Disaronno and Whiskey. This drink will cause me problems in about 1.2 from now. I’ll tell you about it later. So once you get your drink you head to the dance floor. This place had a 80s and a 90s dance floor. Lots of Madonna flyin around the airwaves. It was jam packed. So you squeeze in somewhere and kinda bob. Most of your drink will be spilled and you’ll wonder where the dancing is. Not that I’m a huge fan of the American dance clubs and the bumb n grind, but this was odd to see everyone in there own little silo bobbing up and down. When in Rome: bob. We had much fun.
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The next day I had my last café and brioche and headed to the train station to start the work camp. I know I’m leaving out a lot of things in Milan… Here’s a list
1) Old are museum with New age art exhibition --- This was awesome. Virgi and her Mom and I went to this great museum in downtown Milan where there were amazing sculptures and paintings and to contrast the stuffy art was a german born contemporary art show of live performers in each room. Room 1: a group of 3 who would repeat “This is so contemporary” while clapping and dancing around the room. Room 2: a woman doing an interpretive dance on the floor. One spectator didn’t realize it was all part of the show and thought she was having a seizure and tried to help her. Room 3: a woman facing the corner who repeated the phrase “this is propaganda” every 10 seconds or so. Room 4: a couple moving in slow motion whilst making out on the floor (there was also someone keeping guard that silly people wouldn’t take this as an invitation to create their own art). Room 5: a male stripper. He just took his close off to the non-existent music, redressed, and did it again. Room 6: a man would make a noise he felt emanated from the people walking through it (my favorite). Room 7: the art critic of the human exhibits. Which he didn’t like me calling it a performance and tried to explain that it was just a repeated action yadda yadda yadda artsy artsy artsy, I couldn’t quite follow, but it was very deep.
2) Gelato! Yum. I got in trouble by the owner for taking this picture and she made me delete it, here it is for your view pleasure: Gelato contraband. I had one scoop of chocolate with cinnamon and one scoop of pistachio. Poor combination choice.
3) Milan Happy Hour. This is great if you are hungry. For 6 euros you get a drink and all you can eat of buffet food. Its not the best food but its hot and available (heh heh) if you get there early enough. I was late this day because I had taken the day to go to Venice because Virgi had classes all morning and afternoon so met up after I got back. At this time the food was look warm and scraven but I was really really hungry and filled up on what she had saved me (what a great hostess!) The only down side to the Milan Happy hour is if you want two drinks, its another 6 euros. This is where I had the first “Godfather”.
4) The Duomo: It is huge. You feel like a tiny little person walking inside this church. If it weren’t for the flood lights pointing towards the sky you couldn’t have seen the top of the church. The columns holding up roof were like redwoods. Nothing in this building was small. My house would have fit through the doors. Maybe. Ok, maybe my room. The point is this place is Gothic. Inside there are a number of amazing sculptures and carvings and paintings. The one that stands out in my mind is the sculpture of Mr….i have to look it up, but apparently he had become a martyr and had been flayed. The sculpture is the guy standing there holding his skin over his shoulder and his face is kinda swinging by his legs. Amen.
Ciao!
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