When life hands you lemons...

...take pictures!

Friday there was a national strike of local public transportation. Of course,...More......

...I had a late evening course to follow that was supposed to finish at 10 P.M. But, not to be totally grumpy, it wasn't raining and the temps weren't bitter, so, armed with my camera, I snapped my way to work with a lovely blue and sunny winter sky and, skipping out a bit early, then home in the dark.

First stop was Piazza della Scala. Why are pictures of other people taking pictures so much fun!? (O.K., so it isn't Ansel Adams, but I'm still working my way toward black-and-white photography.)

Known today as the Armani building, this simple building, a lovely balance between modernism and a touch of traditional decoration in the form of a relief, was planned in the Novecento style as a multi-purpose building by Enrico Agostino Griffini in 1937-38, but only built right after WWII in 1947-48. The dark glass upper floor was added by Armani around 2010, and is a good example of a well-integrated addition, in my opinion.

Front and...

...back of the monument by Aldo Rossi (1990) dedicated to Milan's first post-WWII mayor and later President of the Republic, Sandro Pertini. The monument was recently cleaned, and the stone's natural tones have come out, creating a delightful and mystifying variegated surface where once there was just chalky white. With its original tones, the monument, rather large for the small piazza Croce Rossa, seems less overwhelming, and fits better into the space. ("Faces in Places" fans will appreciate the back view, in particular).

A few tourists enjoy the lovely courtyard of the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum where I work in the afternoon.

Work and the class over, it was time to walk the long road home. Though a few trams and busses did pass in both directions, nothing was helpful for me, so with the company of the camera I began my trudge by snapping this shot of the AEM (electrical company) building in Corso di Porta Vittoria, 4. It has long fascinated me, and I have searched for info on it. In your honor, I got lucky! The official website of the Region of Lombardy has information cards on a lot of the region's cultural patrimony. Here's the info (in Italian) for this building by Antonio Cassi Ramelli, 1947-1948, a post-WWII reconstruction of a 15th century building (once home to the Pio Albergo Trivulzio) severely damaged during the bombing raids. I find the recessed glass and metal cage of the door an absolutely enchanting and fascinating space.

Weird light on the Piazza della Fontana fountain designed by the famous Giuseppe Piermarini and executed in 1782 by his favorite sculptor, Giuseppe Franchi (the first responsible for the design of La Scala and the relief in the building's pediment, the second responsible also for the execution of the opera house's relief).

The apse, the oldest part of the Duomo, begun in 1386.

The façade of the Duomo, finally completed in the Neo-Gothic style by Carlo Amati in 1813 (the blue blur was a lucky break: a police car shot by as I was snapping some pics, so I was careful to get it, too.)

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele with the barely visible blur of a biker in the right hand corner. This covered street connecting the piazza of the Duomo to the street towards the then new central train station planned for where Piazza della Repubblica now lies was first decided just prior to the successful revolution ousting the Austrians, and was to be called in honor of the reigning Austro-Hungarian emperor, Franz Joseph. The successful Unification of Italy beginning in 1861 (the same year as the architectural competition for the building) gave a whole new meaning to this ambitious project renamed after the new country's first king. The project chosen in 1864 was by Giuseppe Mengoni, who fell to his death in 1877, perhaps not entirely accidentally, from heights in the structure after heavy criticism. The building had been opened in 1867, but the triumphal arch of the façade seen in this picture was only completed a year after his death.

Hopefuls waiting for taxis at the far end of the Duomo's piazza.

The Broletto (Palazzo della Ragione) by night. Perpendicular to the ancient Roman cardo massimo departing from the area of the nearby church, San Sepolcro, this market (open air arches) and town hall (structure above) was constructed by the podestà, a "foreigner" (from another city-state) entrusted with broad powers for a year, Oldrado da Tresseno. The original structure went up to the cornice line, and had a peaked beam-supported roof, replaced by masonry arches under Maria Theresa of Austria in 1771-1773 when the upper floor with oval windows was added. The building continued to function as the city's town hall for a few more years, until the function was moved to an area in the nearby street still called via Broletto. (Why "Broletto"? After all, doesn't that mean, "little garden/orchard"? Yes, it does, and it comes from the habit that arose in the Carolingian epoch of the arch-bishops, in charge of civic government on behalf of the Frankish rulers, of holding civic meetings in the garden of the nearby episcopal palace, partially transformed over the centuries into the royal palace we know today.)

Still more hopefuls at the tram stop in Piazza Cordusio (looking down toward the Sforza Castle). No action, though, so I kept on trudging.

Garibaldi, himself recently restored, watches over the surprisingly quiet night from a piazza near the Sforza Castle. (Artist: Ettore Ximenes, 1895)

Claes Oldenburg's very recently restored "Needle" (1999-2000) in front of the Cadorna train station.

A cruel scene in via Monti for little famished exhausted me, but by then I was almost home.

Thank you Mr. and Ms. Tram Driver. I got almost 2 hours of more exercise than usual. (If dripping sarcasm were honey, we'd be eating baclava.)

"False friends" and dry goods

A "drogheria" might have been a place where you could have gotten drugs in the olden days, but it isn't anymore. "Drogheria" in this case is a false, not a true, "friend" in that it looks and sounds a bit like a word in English, but doesn't mean the same thing. Today, a "drogheria" is a kind of old-fashioned mom-and-pop little dry goods store, rather hard to find in Milan these days.

There's a nifty one in Milan with an address on Corso Magenta, but with the entrance on Largo d'Ancona.

Why is it so nifty?...More......

Because, besides having a little bit of everything any self-respecting supermarket has (deoderant, house cleaning supplies, shampoo and the like), it also has candy-by-the-pound, teas and...drum roll, please...even some not-easy-to-find exotic food, such as various kinds of chutneys, English cookies (called "biscuits" in UK English, thank you very much), Chinese rice noodles and the like.

The place is called "Grossi" after a family name, but don't look for that on the store front.

All you'll see that is prominent are the yellow and red "J&B Scotch" signs, liquors and wines also being sold here.

Interested in more info about this and other exotic food stores I've found in Milan (no easy task)?

Go here, and download my (occasionally updated) list: https://sites.google.com/site/starsthisandthat/home/my-milan-italy/eating-and-drinking-in-milan.

Forewarned is forearmed. The place is teentsy, and so half the store ends up behind the counter, or way up high, or behind glass doors, so you'll have to ask for help. In fact, within seconds of coming in, you'll be asked "Posso aiutarLa?" (May I help you?) or "Ha bisogno?" (Do you need something?), or something of the sort. So this means you'll get good service, and hopefully will find what you want, but there will be no price and product comparing.

If you're ready to jump into the purchase of your favorite kind of chutney (etc.), a simple "Sì, ma parla inglese?" (Yes, but do you speak English?) will get you started. If you just want to look around a bit, "Vorrei dare un'occhiata prima, grazie" (I'd like to look around a bit, first, thank you) will do.

Enjoy!

O Bej O Bej 2011

December 7th is the annual day dedicated in Milan to its patron saint, Ambrose. Lots of things are closed, so I worked at home, and decided to take a walk in the clear brisk bright wintery air after lunch. Where to go, though? Passed through Cadorna, the train station remodelled a few years ago by Gae Aulenti (there's a Claes Oldenburg sculpture out front)...More......

"Oh! I know, I'll go to the first day of the city's two day pre-Christmas fair, called "O bej! O bej!" ("Che bello! Che bello!," that is, "How beautiful! How beautiful!")." It used to be in the area around the church dedicated to S. Ambrose. Now it's all around the Sforza Castello.

Since the fair is more commercial, now, the traditional Lombard artisan products have company: products from the south, perhaps moved up here after the influx of southern workers in the 1960s for the factories. The factories have given up the ghost, unfortunately, but the yummy southern products have remained.

The crowds are pretty intense, but there were breathers now and then...I wonder if the economic crisis contributed to that. It's usually PACKED.



By the time I had made the rounds of the entire castle, the moon had come up.









On the way home, snapped a shot while walking under the strings of Xmas lights.

Once this spate of work is over mid-month, I'll get some night shots of the Xmas lights. Nothing like in the States (sniff, sniff), but the Xmas tree up in Piazza del Duomo looked nice.

Until then...Enjoy!

A beautiful architectural female "mask"

I've passed this series of beautiful Eclectic style female "masks" for years. They're on the front of a building in Piazza Virgilio. The light was never right to photograph them, or the light was right, but I didn't have my camera, or when recently the light was right and I had my camera...More......

...I discovered that the modern lamps added so insensitively just below their faces, in order to illuminate them, also hid them at the same time, and were in the way of getting a good photo.

Sigh.

Maybe a week, or so, ago, I finally gave up. I just couldn't find an angle that would have done justice to the architectural decoration AND let me turn it into a needlepoint (or cross-stitch) diagram for my other blog, Ars acupicturae stellae - Star's Needlepoint blog.

Today, I chanced to be walking down the street behind that building, and, guess what?!, the same building covers the whole block, so these masks are the same as those on the front of the building, but they're on the side street, via Metastasio, instead, and they're not covered by lamps! Yeah!

The building is part of the area of town developed after the Unification of Italy, in the late 19th century, and is between Cadorna and the church Santa Maria delle Grazie, where Leonardo's Last Supper is.

Isn't that female "mask" lovely?!

If you'd like to make it into a needlepoint, or cross-stitch, design, here's the link to my blog, where I put the diagram for your personal non-commercial use: http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2011/04/milan-monday-28-beautiful-mask.html

Enjoy!

Semi-random thought from Marcus Aurelius for the day

Why am I so enamored of Marcus Aurelius? If previous messages haven't clarified this, maybe I'll attempt a few words, later. Right now, I've barely got enough time to jot you today's semi-random thought from his "Meditations"...More......

...parapharased in my words, here goes:

'It brings gladness to a human heart to do the true work of humankind. And the true work of humankind is to show goodwill to others, to disdain being too moved by our sense perceptions, to discern specious impressions, to take a comprehensive view of the Nature of the Universe and of everything that is done at its bidding.

You have three relationships: the first to that vessel your body in which you are contained; the second to the divine Cause from which issue all things to everyone; the third to those that live with you.' (Book VIII, verses 26 and 27; Loeb edition)

Marcus' thought can be meaningful for you, wherever you find yourself on the spectrum of religious thought, from traditional approaches firmly convinced of the existence of a god, or gods, an approach supplying a comforting system of behavior precepts and a system of punishments and rewards, to those accepting the mystery of the mere fact of existence, with the consequent enormous personal responsibility for comportment, which best fulfils the thinker positively, while respecting the environment and fellow inhabitants of our world.

Sometimes, as in this case, he refers to "Nature," other times to the "Gods." Interpret these references as you will, and absorb his respect for self, for those around us, for the world in which we live.

Yes, yes, yes, we need to plan for our futures, but keep the center of your soul firmly rooted in the here and now because the past is gone, the future may never come, all we have is this present moment. Use it to be a better, happier, more positive person. Kiss your spouse, your kids, your friends goodbye each time you take your leave of them; have a kind word for each, treat yourself, your co-workers, your employees, the environment with respect. You may never have another chance to say "I love you."

The center of your soul will become more resilient, able to withstand better the buffeting winds, now soft, now battering, of daily life, and you'll spend each waking moment with part of your conscious self "stopping to smell the roses" as you scurry along with the rest of us in this fragile rat race called life.

This post is dedicated to everyone, who has recently lost a dear friend, or family member.

Remember the positive, evoke the love and laughter, let the sharp edges of grief gradually be blunted.

The sharp knife of loss, the terrible void, always will be there, but you can learn to live with it, if you invoke the positive presence of the missing loved one to keep you company on the rest of your journey.

I snapped this shot with you in mind on April 13th at about 4:15 P.M. in Piazza Virgilio, Milan, Italy.

The taxi shot I've been waiting for

Here's the taxi shot I've been waiting for...had to be the right weather, the right time of day, a day when I could plant myself there to wait...and wait...and wait...and then--SNAP! yesterday at 4 P.M.--it finally happened!

Dedicated to the great NYC taxi driver blog I follow, here's the info, in case you'd like to, too: http://www.nyctaxiphoto.com/.

Wisteria and more ice cream

I've now got ice cream on the brain. I've probably passed this sign on Corso San Gottardo 500 times, at least, but never noticed it. All of a sudden, a couple of days ago, there it was. I didn't give in, though, so you go, and tell us what it's like. In the meantime,...More......



More 'spring has sprung' photos. A delightful very Milanese turn-of-the-century building a bit veiled by the netting of tree branches and small new green leaves; come summer, the building will be hidden completely by the thick foliage of the trees.





Heavenly heavenly heavenly perfumed air...aaaahhh, wisteria!






Now, back to ice cream.

On the way home the other day, I noticed an ice cream store I hadn't seen before, or rather, I had, but since it's called "Chocolat," I figured it was a candy store. The lighting must have been right because I finally could see into the big front window. Tell-tale refridgerated counter and a flash of more or less colored circles. Ice cream. Mental note.

This afternoon? After a day's hit-and-run storm, the sun was back, a brisk breeze kept it from being roasting. "Aaah, I could walk to that ice cream place, and check it out for the blog readers." (Are you feeling guilty, yet? No? Read the text in cursive, again.)

Chocolat, via Boccacio, 9, just around the corner from the Cadorna train station (where the "trenino" arrives from Malpensa, just in case you have some time to kill while to-ing and fro-ing between the airport and town).

The medium (i.e., medium-small) cup is more expensive than the average, at E. 3,00 (about $4.30). There is a baker's dozen of cream-based flavors, a half-a-dozen sherberts, a hearty handful of tables indoors (great for when the roasting temps begin) and a few outdoor seats in the shade during the hot afternoon.

The first couple of bites were very full flavored, but quickly something just wasn't right. The consistency is halfway between ice cream and a spongy soft serve, so the doubt arose in my mind...do they whip their ice cream, or extend it with something, so that they can charge more for less, and just what is it that I'm eating, anyway? At home, I checked. Their web site says they use only the most expensive natural ingredients.

If they say so.

And the type font, interior decor and logo are silly looking and faddish, too. (No photos because the light was wrong.)

Am I playing the part of the persnickety, overly critical critic?

I'm sure I am...especially since I now am reassured by the claims of their web site regarding the contents of their ice cream.

Would I go, again?

Yes, but not YES. My favorite ice cream place is still LA CIRIBICIACCOLA, Viale Romagna, 10.