More Milanese holiday time fun

First, tea with one very nice friend, then off for a long walk with another.

We started with roses......More......

...passed through Piazza Fontana ("Fountain Piazza")...

...past the Duomo at twilight...

...through Piazza Cordusio...

...with the sculpture dedicated to Abbot Parini (see the preceding link for info)...

...down via Dante...

...past the American Bookstore in Piazza Cairoli, where I took the metro to the...

...Cadorna train station (from which also leaves the...

...Malpensa Express for the airport of the same name), and got lucky!

Road work deviated the tram I needed for home right past the station.

Two whole hours of walking, chatting, fresh air and lovely weather with just a bit of a sit-down.

Thanks for coming along!

A day of my own...

With apologies to Virginia Wolfe--though she might have approved, since it's about temporal, rather than physical, space--I am luxuriating in the prospect of a day all to myself. No work that can't be put off comfortably (at least until tomorrow),...More......

...no Christmas phone calls or dinners (though both pleasant),...

...shopping all done, gifts unwrapped and enjoyed...

...the rain and an incipient cold may help keep me at home, the idea for a present for a friend itching me to get out the sewing machine, oodles of fun books to read that have backed up over the months, "Downton Abbey" scheduled for this evening, and--I am so grateful--a quiet warm clean house with a full fridge in which to do it all, including writing to you. Missin' ya!

The rush of preceding days over, the city seemed almost ghostly.

Santa has come and gone.

There'll still be time to enjoy the lights in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele,...

...the piazza of the Duomo...

...and the city's Christmas tree (in this year of austerity, offered freely to the city by a brand of watches).

Have you ever tried Campari, a traditional Milanese aperitif? It's a bit sweet and bitter, and better yet with a slice of fresh orange.

Maybe we could ring in the New Year over a glass in the historic cafè where the drink was invented.

Enjoy!

(All snaps are mine and are recent, shot for sharing Milan's holiday spirit with you for your personal non-commercial pleasure...Merry Christmas!)

Photoless Friday

Already Photoless Friday, again, whew!

Run, before it closes on Monday the 30th of this month, the photographic exhibit of the "manimals"...More......

...of Guido Daniele ("manimali" comes from the conjunction of "mani"/hands and "animali"/animals), the body painter who does the extraordinary animals painted on hands, or other kinds of body painting (for example, for the Mueller yoghurt commercial).

The exhibit is in the "Chiostro dei Glicini" (Wisteria Courtyard) of the Società Umanitaria nestled into the Renaissance ex-monastery of S. Maria della Pace on the corner of via Daverio and--where the current entrance is at n. 48--via S. Barnaba, behind the "Tribunale" (Milan's central courthouse).

The exhibit, open "every day" (though one has to be careful in Italy, this often means "except Sunday") from 10 A.M. to 8 P.M., has been mounted to bring to the attention of the public and Umanitaria's students (generally reasonable fees, folks!) the theatrical make-up course that will be offered there, and for which Guido Daniele has promised to teach.

For more information about the course:

Accademia Professionale di Trucco Artistico di Gabriella De Michele
tel. +39.02.579.68.379
formazionedemichele@umanitaria.it

Five Days of Milan (Cinque Giornate di Milano, 18-22 March 1848) and Grandi's monument

Teaching people to read and write, to do a bit of basic math, to keep orderly ledgers, to give them a fighting chance during the competition for various public office jobs (a secure paycheck...sounds pretty good to me), that should be a good thing, right? Employing and promoting locals raises moral, should improve efficiency, and keeps the money circulating locally, hopefully reducing whining for money from the central government. Still good, right?

It sounded like a good idea to the Austrian empress, Maria Theresa of Hapsburg, and her son, Giuseppe, then in control of enormous swathes of northern Italy, including the duchy of Milan, in the second half of the 18th century, but it backfired.

You start teaching people to think for themselves, and they kinda want to do it, you know?...More......

Meanwhile north of the Alps, the French Revolution had toppled a divinely appointed monarchy, and put The People in charge. Never mind the internal squabbling and horrors. It still sent that party pooper Napoleon, young, brash, in favor of establishing the independent Cisalpine Republic in northern Italy (until he decided to be emperor, himself, instead), blowing through Milan. He ruffled Austrian feathers from the end of the 18th into the beginning of the 19th centuries, and helped toss them out, but toss 'em out, they just kept coming back.

It didn't hurt that, over the centuries, the Milanese often welcomed anyone helping them break a heavy yoke, only to welcome back the former to help break the new and equally heavy yoke of the latter.

That first time the Austrians were still nice about it, though.

Skipping lightly over continued turbulence, on the 18th of March, 1848, the Milanese once again had had enough of what, from the Milanese point-of-view, was Austrian domination (can't really say the uprising caught the Austrians completely by surprise, but the fact that the Milanese duchy had been part of the Austrian Empire since the early 16th century did kind of lull them into a false sense of security).

Barricades were thrown up out of whatever could be dragged out of nearby buildings, and piled up to block streets.

A completely crazy idea.

Fight imperial troops from behind piled up mattresses and chairs.

But it began to work.

And five days later on the 22nd, the Milanese were so close, so close to kicking the Austrians out that someone began hammering like a madman on the giant bronze bell--cast in 1352!--in the city hall tower to rouse the Milanese to one final effort.

It worked--the imperial Austrian troops really were kicked out that day--but the bell got the worst of it...it cracked.

The original is on display in room VI of Milan's Museo del Risorgimento.

It also is remembered in this monument with one female personification for each of the five days and a bell. Designed by Giuseppe Grandi, the monument was raised in 1895 in Piazza Cinque Giornate (Piazza of the Five Days), site of one of the fierce battles during that week. The late 19th century monument also serves as a patriotic burial place for the Milanese, who died during those days, and whose bones in the meantime had rested under the Column of Christ in Largo Augusto, which deserves a (later) message all of its own.

More simple math. I can hear the wheels turning in your head. "If that was March 1848, and this is March 2011, why is Italy now celebrating the 150th anniversary of its birth as a nation?"

You're right, the math doesn't work.

You're forgetting about Carlo Alberto, a duke from the ancient House of Savoy in Piedmont, chosen to lead the gathering forces against the Austrians.

Way outside Milan, his troops started loosing battles and ground, and things began to look pretty grim.


Cutting his losses, he accepted defeat a few months after those glorious Five Days of Milan in March, and, almost as if it were a hindsight, came out onto the balcony of his headquarters in the then brand new Brentani-Greppi mansion (1829-31) on what today is called "Via Manzoni" to spill the beans, then make a run for it.

The clueless Milanese still thought that they were free and independent. Silly fools.

When they heard what Carlo Alberto had done, giving them back into the hands of the Austrians, they went bonkers with rage, and would have pulled him literally to teentsy pieces, if his guards hadn't spirited him away with great difficulty (it wasn't the first, or the last, time that a Savoy betrayed them...you'd think once burned, twice shy...).

This time, the returning Austrians were not happy campers.

Very severe restrictions, retribution, for about ten years pushed the Milanese again to desperation.

Once again, they were in the forefront of the agitation and battles to push the Austrians out. That time it worked, though, and little by little more bits were added to the growing Italian nation formally united under a Savoy monarch on the 17th of March, 1861, though more bits and pieces continued to be added for years to come:

Happy 150th Birthday, Italy!


With you in mind, I snapped the photo of the Cinque Giornate monument on January 01, 2011, at about 3:30 P.M., while I snapped the Brentani-Greppi mansion on the 13th of April, 2009, around 2:45 P.M. as part of my general photographic campaign of Milan to document it and express my love for it.

Trumpeting angels to herald in the New Year

On Monday, I try to choose something for my blog on Milan, Italy, that also allows me to create a "Milan Monday" diagram for my needlepoint blog. Today, I felt the urge for angels trumpeting in a (hopefully) Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and Serene New Year....More......

Problem was, while the picture is great (I think!), getting a good frontal snap of just one of these angels would have at least required a tall ladder and who knows how many kinds of permissions, so I decided to post this picture, and use a free clip art image for my needlepoint blog (see: http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2011/01/milan-monday-sort-of-19.html).

I snapped this photo for you down Corso di Porta Vittoria on December 27, 2010, at about 6:15 P.M.

Counting my blessings (01)

When Jeanine of Italian Needleworks wrote about something I love in Milan, I couldn't help but thank her, and she hoped that she'd find some pics of the very same thing on my own blog.

How could I say "no?"

So come on in, sit on down, put your feet up, and enjoy the tour!...More...

"Back up, back up, back up," as my (dear) sister says.

I'm very very, very big on counting my blessings.

I need to do it, in order to put everything in perspective.

Being sincerely and healthily grateful is restful.

Being a whiner and a complainer is not. It nibbles away at your soul.

In the last months, I've needed rest and positivity (who doesn't?), and so I turned to writing this and my other blog (Ars acupicturae stellae - Star's Needlepoint Art) to share two, no three, of my passions: Milan, needlepoint and snapping pics.

Out of curiosity (thank the Cosmos for Blogger's "Blogs of Note!"), I started methodically going through all the archives (there are personality hints, there, for those willing to grasp them). So far, I've made it back to February of 2006, and I'm still going strong.

Some blogs with fascinating titles don't exist any more, sad to say, but others have been a gift from the celestial spheres.

Mind-openers. Heart-openers. Soul salves. Inspiration. Real people sharing real experiences in a way that makes me feel like I've gained something positive, even if "just" a smile, from them.

Like I said, I'm grateful.

So, when Jeanine asked for snaps of the Umanitaria school in Milan, how could I refuse?

The physical place in via San Barnaba, 48, is one of Milan's hidden gems: a mid-15th century cloistered monastery, with some later additions. The structure is now the Milanese seat of the wonderful organization with two names: Società Umanitaria and Fondazione Humaniter. One of them is operated by the other one...I can never keep this straight...but the upshot is that it is a non-profit school for work- and fun-related topics at very good prices, and where you'll meet lots of interesting people, and maybe even make some wonderful friends. I highly recommend it.

You've already seen the (probably late 19th-early 20th century) wrought iron gate closing off one of the courtyards open for special occasions.



Here's a snap (over a fence) of the attached Renaissance church's façade...it isn't part of the Umanitaria complex...more about it in another post.









Used to walk past this little Renaissance courtyard every time I came, but that entrance has been closed for construction for quite awhile, so...










We come in this way, now, down the Renaissance corridor.
(The curtains are new, this year.)
















There's a little café, but I have yet to find it open, this school year, already two weeks old. Should open, soon...











Are you still looking for a chair?











(I snapped these pics for you, today, Oct. 15, 2010, at around 4 P.M.; rain should be blowing in, so the air already is a bit hazy with moisture. Softens and dampens and whitens the light a bit.)

P.S., if you're interested, see Jeanine's two posts (and my comment on one of them):

Italian Needlework - "Società Umanitaria" (Oct. 13, 2010)

Italian Needlework - "Società Umanitaria" (Oct. 14, 2010)