Open Courtyards (Cortili Aperti) in Milan, Sunday, May 25

Milan is like a discreet lady, often luxuriously gorgeous behind a simple veil.

Want a chance to go nosing around some of these courtyards? You're in luck!...More......

Sunday, May 25, is the annual "Open Courtyards" (Cortili Aperti) day organized by ADSI, the association of historic Italian homes NOT to be confused with historic house museums. The homes belonging to this association still can be private dwellings, or can have been transformed into B&Bs or hotels.

In Milan, here are the places you can visit (no reservation necessary):

- Casa Sioli – Legnani – via Borgonuovo 5
- Palazzo Orsini di Roma – via Borgonuovo 11
- Casa Recalcati – Taglisacchi – via Borgonuovo 15
- Casa Bigli Samoyloff Besozzi – via Borgonuovo 20
- Palazzo Moriggia – via Borgonuovo 23
- Casa Valerio – via Borgonuovo 24
- Palazzo Landriani – via Borgonuovo 25
- Palazzo di Brera – via Brera 28
- Orto Botanico di Brera – via Fiori Oscuri 4
- Casa Ajroldi - via Fiori Oscuri 13

In some courtyards, you will be treated to music thanks to a collaboration with the Civica Scuola di Musica.

In others, you'll be able to look at historic cars thanks to a collaboration with CMAE, the Milanese club for historic vehicles.

The InfoPoint is in Palazzo Moriggia, seat of the Museo del Risorgimento (via Borgonuovo 23). There are guided tours throughout the day, but they'll be in Italian, and you have to sign up by 7 P.M. on Saturday the 24th. Adults 18 and over pay Euro 10 once there (the price includes the use of the headset...but from previous experience, if you're a little picky about putting things on your ears that have not been sterilized, I'd bring some disinfectant, if I were you), anyone under 18 attends for free. Just in case you want to brave it:

E-mail: info@cittanascostamilano.it
Tel: 347 3661174

I snapped this shot in Via Amedei on the 23rd of December, 2011, at almost 3 P.M.

Enjoy!

Google, Maria Gaetana Agnesi and via Manzoni 6

Maria Gaetana Agnesi, a Milanese woman born into a well-to-do family in 1718, dedicated her life first to scientific and humanistic learning of the highest levels, and then to caring for the poor for which she spent even the last pennies of her hefty inheritance, and gave up the family mansion to live in a humble suite of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio, of which she had been nominated director. She died in 1799, and was remembered two decades later in the bust on the far right on the façade of the Brentano-Greppi mansion at via Manzoni, 6. For more info about her and the palazzo, see my earlier post.

Today, she is honored by Google with a lovely animated logo, catch it while you can.

I snapped this photo on the 2nd of August, 2011, around 3:30-4 PM.

Enjoy!

Days stale? Add a bit of tang with white vinegar...if you can find it.

Hunting for fun, interesting and helpful reading for my ESL students is a (time-gulping) joy. One of the latest just in time for spring is a list of clean freak fixes easier said than done in Italy because some of the common U.S. products aren't readily available, here. For example? Your be all and end all white vinegar....More...

According to Rozin in DIPLY, white vinegar kills 99% of bacteria, 82% of mold, and 80% of viruses. (For a slide show of all the things you can do with vinegar, Rozin sends you here.)

Especially suspicious when it comes to English foodstuffs, I can hear Italians asking, "Just what is white vinegar?" Even if white vinegar is a given in your household, you might not even know. I didn't until I came to Italy, and had to try to track it down in the "exotic" food stores in town (white vinegar as an exotic food, still makes me chuckle).

Think grappa gone sour: distilled grain and water resulting in a perfectly transparent vinegar. In the international food stores in Milan, you might find it in various concentrations; 5% is the standard, but to me it tastes a bit stronger than typical Italian red vinegar, so be parsimonious, at least the first times you use it.

It can be used just like you use Italian vinegars, but since it only is tangy, but really doesn't add any flavor of its own, it doesn't alter the taste of food, as all the Italian vinegars do, it just adds a pleasant bite.

Furthermore, since vinegar is acidic and anti-limestone, it’s a very effective and inexpensive cleaner, for example, for the interior of your fridge.

I miss the Heinz brand, if only I could find it in Milan….

Just a closing reminder that I get no kickbacks of any kind for mentioning products.

Hey, if you're an international food store person in Milan, and are curious about all the products that I miss, and that might be interesting to the Anglo-Saxon crowd in town, just drop me a comment. I'd be happy to send you my annotated list. Really, I have an annotated list.

Enjoy!

Incredible India!

Believe it.

The tagline for India's national tourism pretty much sums it up for me.

A fascinating mix of...More...

...ploughing with oxen and a wooden plow while wearing a loincloth and talking on a cell phone,

...palm leaf huts with satellite dishes,

...little dusty dirty feet on spindly young legs topped by a tidy school uniform worn inside an unpaved roadside village's spotless cheerily painted classroom without a stick of furniture, but strung with children's proud drawings and with a blackboard covered with local and English writing,

...filth and refuse carpeting river banks and filling streets next to spotless sidewalks swept continuously with a handful of twigs forcing the sweeper to bend in half at the waist,

...brilliant colors and drab and dusty grays and browns,

...magnificent ancient temples and palaces and crumbling, moldy, paint-peeling stretches of post-WWII buildings,

but most of all what echoes and re-echoes and re-echoes in my heart...

...the ubiquitous open-souled eyes connecting warmly soul-to-soul even in a glance and the occasional hostile glares.

I've almost finished getting my pictures in order.

I can't wait to go back.

Enjoy!

Telethon "Walk of Life," April 27, 9AM-noonish

We've just survived two marathons, and now here comes the Telethon "Walk of Life."

Super cause, but a big pain in the...More...

...neck, public transportation-wise.

Forget moving around anywhere in the areas of downtown Milan and past the castle into Corso Sempione from 9 A.M. until about noon.

Get to the castle park early with the kids, cheer on the walkers and enjoy Parco Sempione's greenery and kiddie park.

Enjoy!

Like freebies? Head for civic museums in Milan from April 8th to the 13th

Getting foreign journalists and visitors to love Milan (as they should...in both senses of this phrase) has been made easier, again: another round of freebies entry to civic museums for the week of the city's famous furniture trade fair from the 8th to the 13th of April at the Rho-Pero Fiera convention center site just outside of town. (Taking the metro? Don't forget to get the round-trip ticket with the supplement!)

Participating museums are:...More......

Museo del Novecento (dedicated to modern art of the 20th century; web site in English)

Museo della Storia Naturale (minerals, dioramas, stuffed animals, informative didactics,...; web site only in Italian)

Musei del Castello Sforzesco (the variegated museums in the city's lovely castle, including the collection of historial things Milanese and the ancient Celtic and Egyptian collections; web site in English)

Palazzo Morando (fascinating glimpses of the Milan of yesteryear seen in period paintings; the rooms are punctuated with displays of period dress; web site only in Italian) (hmmmm...I was sure that I had done a blog post on this museum, already, but I can't find it, so I should put it on the top of the "To Do" list)

Acquario civico (refurbished a few short years ago, the acquarium, similar to Goldilock's bowl of porridge, is "just right"...neither too big to bore non-enthusiasts, nor too small to bore fans...and there's a fun tub-tunnel...hmmm, I see that I need to do an individual post on this museum, too, but for a general look see this post)

GAM-Galleria d'arte moderna (go here for your 19th century art background before you head off to see the modern stuff...not so interested in 19th century art? GO ANYWAY...the early 19th century palazzo is gorgeous...stay out of the park in the back, though...it's reserved for families with young children; web site only in Italian; yet another museum to add to the "To Do" list, apparently)

Museo del Risorgimento (dedicated to the peninsula's finally successful attempt to become a single independent nation, it also has other delightful surprises: the coronation robe Napoleon wore in Milan's Duomo, the bell cracked by hammering during the 1848 insurrection, paintings whose content can surprise and move...; web site only in Italian ... and yet another museum to add to my "To Do" list)

For another source of official times, places and directions, here's the link to a list in English...page through to find the ones listed above...the city's site is horribly depressingly black and hard to read the type is so small, but at least it's in English.

Enjoy!

Not another public transportation strike...yes, I'm afraid so

Well, you can tell that things are heating up for Expo2015 by the frequency of the strikes, or the threatened strikes.

I'm really sorry to have this news to give you, but it's better to know it, than not.

Tomorrow, at least in Milan, there will be a public transportation strike from 6 P.M. to 10 P.M.

At least it will last only 4 hours.

Countdown 'til the covers are pulled back from the new metro trains and eco buying

Looking for something to do this weekend, maybe with the kids? Curious about new technology, or just nosy? Want to know more about the little and big things you can do to live a more ecologically sustainable life? Here you go!

From the 29th of March to the 13th of April, 10 A.M. to 7 P.M., the new trains of Milan's metro will be on display free-of-charge in the Duomo's piazza.

Not your style?

How about eco consumerism? You can see (and, I'll bet, even buy) new and favorite products on display at the 11th national commercial show of conscientious buying, ecological concepts and life styles, "Fa la cosa giusta!" (Do the right thing!). Where? Fiera City in downtown Milan (MM1 Lotto-Fiera). You wanna know something more, like how much it costs to get in? Their web site is in English, too!.

For your personal, non-commercial viewing pleasure, I snapped this shot on the 20th of May 2013, and then retouched it this morning with PhotoShop thanks to all I'm learning from my teacher, Beppe. Thanks, too, to my sweet friends Etta and Giorgio who encouraged me to take the class. I'm having lots of fun and learning lots of useful stuff!

Enjoy!












FIRST FEW LINES HERE...More......REST OF MESSAGE HERE

FAI on you! And some sirens, too.

Can't resist a good pun, and this weekend in Italy it's "FAI" weekend...Fondo Ambiente Italiano, which means the fund for the Italian environment...but they take care of not just gardens and wetlands, but lots of important historic buildings and collections, too....More......

Every spring, FAI sponsors a weekend of Open Days (link only in Italian, I fear) for some of their own properties and properties that aren't theirs. Find something open in a city near you and just show up. If you're a member, you get to stand in the fast lane to get in. If you're not a member...become one! It costs really very little (something like E. 45 a year) to make a small, but important contribution to preserving Italy's patrimony.

And in these days of crumbling walls at Pompeii, the topic couldn't be timelier.

I took this snap of the 1782 fountain of the sirens that Piermarini's favorite sculptor, Giuseppe Franchi, installed in front of the architect's new façade for the archbishop's mansion. The piazza, right behind the Duomo, is now called "Piazza della Fontana" (Fountain Piazza). The lovely sculpture was just cleaned.

If you're in Milan for the StraMilano marathon tomorrow morning, Sunday, March 24, why not swing by to see it?

I took this snap just a few days ago for your personal non-commercial pleasure.

Enjoy!

ahhh, another public transportation strike, today

Sigh...another public transportation strike, today.

In Milan, that means you'd better hustle out the door quick like a bunny because it starts at 8:30 A.M., and will take a break only from 3 P.M. to 6 P.M., after which get out your tennies, 'cuz you're walkin' home.

Can hardly close with my usual "Enjoy!," can I?

There is sun in Milan in the winter...

...it's just slipped in between wintery days, that's all!

I snapped this on the 25th of January, 2014, at about 12:15 P.M. at the corner of the Piazza del Duomo and via Mazzini.

Enjoy!

Snow is on the way for Wednesday the 29th of January, but...

...the day should end with rain followed by a few rainy days, so it shouldn't stick...thank goodness.

Enjoy the pretty flakes while they're coming down!

I snapped this shot of a statue on the outside of Milan's Duomo on the 3rd of April, 2005, at almost 9 A.M.

Another local public transportation strike, today...

There's another local public transportation strike, today. Busses, trams and subways are involved.

In Milan, the strike goes from 8:30 A.M. to 3 P.M., then from 6 P.M. to the end of service.

Oh...and Happy New Year....

Neo-Futurist fun in Milan

Running around Milan for last minute holiday gifts?

Look up, now and then!

An expected delight on the corner of Corso Magenta and via Carducci just a hop, skip and jump from the Cadorna train station: Rino Ferrini’s 1936 timidly Expressionistic and Neo-Futuristic building…apartments above, shops below.

I snapped this photo on the 17th of November, 2013, at about 5:30 P.M.

Enjoy!

Strikes December 2013

Not happy news to share, but share I must, then run. Hope it's helpful (and hope to post more, soon!).

December 6
--Meridiana Airlines, probably from 12:01 A.M. Dec. 6 to 12:00 P.M. Dec. 7, not specified. Meridiana flies in the south of Italy and, I've just seen, also to Tirana, the capital of Albania.
--LOCAL TRANSPORTATION, 4 hour strike, in Milan: from 8:45 A.M. 'til 12:45 P.M.

December 9
--Trucking, from 12:01 A.M. until 12:00 P.M. May cause slowing (or stops) on the freeways, beware.

December 16
--SEA handling, so Malpensa and Linate will be involved; from 12:01 A.M. 'til 12:00 midnight
--LOCAL TRANSPORTATION...again...four hours, not yet specified how Milan's public transport will be affected, but I'm guessing it will be like the strike scheduled for Friday the 6th...from 8:45 A.M. 'til 12:45 P.M.

December 17
--Meridiana Airlines...again...probably from 12:01 A.M. 'til 12:00 midnight

I can hardly say "Enjoy!," can I?