Blatant Plug for a Friend's One-Man Show (and the scoop about what I did with my Easter vacation)

Here's a blatant plug for a friend's one-man show: popular John Peter Sloan will delight (mostly in Italian) audiences at the Teatro Smeraldo, Milan, on the 12th of April, 2012, for more information and other cities, see http://www.teatrosmeraldo.it.

Go, John!

And now for the scoop about my Easter Sunday and Angel Monday...More......






Lovely, lovely, lovely: much needed rest and the healing comforting company of friends (none of whom are visible in this snap of the lovely weather to be had in the Piazza del Duomo on Easter day, the same angle appearing in a blog post months ago with the taxis waiting in dreary weather, http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.it/2010/11/milans-taxis.html).


Walked my friend to the tram, and spotted this spring-y little robot in a shop window on Via Torino.

Fade out Easter day, fade in Angel Monday...huh? 'What is Angel Monday?,' I can hear you asking. I'd never heard of it before coming to Italy, either, so don't feel silly. If you're not Catholic, you probably don't know, either.

It's the Monday immediately following Easter, and is a holy feast day dedicated to angels, so it's a public holiday, too. (Good going! This is one thing I *love* about living in Italy...the hectic pace of modern life is tempered with a sprinkling of a few more public holidays than in the U.S., well, at least it WAS...with the crunch, some of them have been cancelled, boo-hoo!)

Got another glimpse of one of the "crazy" new skyscrapers going up around town. This one in the Porta Nuova* area looks like it's pregnant.

*The second, newer, Porta Nuova, from the NeoClassical era, not the earlier, older one of the same name (that wasn't very clever, was it?) from the medieval period. I think I should do a post just on the gates of Milan.


Did I mention two excellent movies, too?

The first movie we saw, and had planned to see, is called "Magnifiche Presenze" ("Magnificent Presences") by Ozpetek, a Turk, who has lived many years in Rome, where the film is set (in Italian, but with a video, http://www.cinetv.info/film/commedie/magnifica-presenza-trama-e-trailer/). I'll only reveal what is clear from the billboards: a young man somehow comes into contact with spirits from the 1940s. A dream-like film, gorgeous to see, too, that explores the relationship between reality and fiction, but with a delicate touch. I'd enjoy seeing it, again, and that's always a good sign.

Wandering in a dreamy state, we chanced by the theater where the other film that had interested us was playing, but another one looked even better, and was more personally significant: "La scomparsa di Patò" (The Disappearance of Patò), book and screenplay by a wonderful author, Camilleri, http://www.comingsoon.it/Film/Scheda/Trama/?key=48318&film=La-scomparsa-di-Pato.

Is it crazy to see two films, one right after the other? Who cares?! In the right place at the right time, we launched ourselves into that experience, too. I was very curious to see how the film transposed the narrative--expressed through a series of letters and newspaper clippings--into film. I won't spoil the surprise, I'll only say that--except for the more obvious spelling out of the ending, which in the book is more delicately and effectively left to the reader's imagination--it was a delightful expression of the story.

The two-day holiday (with a bit of work thrown in so as not to feel guilty!) came to a delicious end: oh, what a heavenly smell and colors...the wisteria is blooming on via Monte Santo - Monte Grappa.

I hope your Easter and Angel Monday were restful and significant, too.

These pictures were snapped on Easter Sunday and Angel Monday with you in mind for your personal, non-commercial pleasure.

Enjoy!

Santa Maria Podone: a mysterious beauty

I love languages. Today, we have a church of mysterious beauty (mysterious because I haven’t seen the inside, yet, it has been closed for restoration since 1999, with—apparently—no end in sight) with what seems an equally mysterious name: Santa Maria Podone.

“Santa Maria” is clear, but “Podone”?...More......

Usually for my names and dates I refer to “Milano” by the Italian version of the Automobile Club of America, the TCI-Touring Club of Italy. Being too lazy busy to get up and find my copy, I hunted on the net, and found some good stuff on the official site of the diocese of Milan (http://www.chiesadimilano.it/or/ADMI/esy/objects/docs/256671/cenni_storici.doc).

The church was founded before the year 871, the first time it appears in documents, by a fellow named “Vuerolfo.” If it sounds like an ancient Germanic name, you’re right, first the Lombards from the other side of the Alps and then—by this time—the Carolingians (heard of Charlemagne, right?) had been in control of large swathes of Italy, including Lombardy (get it?), for centuries and centuries. So, this guy Vuerolfo founds a church on a piece of his property once covered by houses, and, as often happened/happens, the church was named after its founder (huh?...keep on reading!).

Fast forward to the mid-15th century, and the ancient, noble and rich family (gee, life must have been hard for them) the Borromeo had a house in front of the church, so in 1440 Vitaliano Borromeo tore down the houses between his mansion and the church, created the piazza between the two (and a strong psychological connection, as well as a pretty darn good view) and built a family chapel onto the church. Within two years, the Borromeo had obtained a kind of official patronage over the church, making changes in it, building chapels, adding a porch, and generally maintaining the church to the glory of God (and the Borromeo).

Another Borromeo, Carlo, Archbishop of Milan from 1565-1584 (eventually made a saint for his fundamental role in the reform of the Catholic church after the Protestant Reformation, it's probably to this time that the sculpture of Dionigi Bussola dates), had the bell tower moved to the place where it is, today, while his cousin, Federico, Archbishop of Milan from 1595-1631 (also a cardinal, and more famous for founding the “Pinacoteca Ambrosiana” and its library), redid the church, and made it a “home base” for charitable activities (yeah, Federico!). The family’s religious motto was “humility” (“humilitas” in Latin—see my needlepoint blog for a diagram of its original form in Gothic-style letters: http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2010/12/milan-monday-18-humilitywith-crown.html).

Centuries of family interventions later, in the late 18th and early 19th century the church was deprived of independence by the government—twice—, and it was handed over to the larger nearby church Sant’Alessandro, as part of complex official attempts to eliminate corruption and fill empty civic coffers. In 1999, S. Maria Podone then passed under the direct control of the diocese of Milan, and restoration began… I’m still waiting to see the inside of the church…one day…sigh….

Oh, and the name “pedone?”

“Pes” is “foot” in Latin. “ “Pedis” is “of the foot, and “-one” in Italian indicates “big” in a negative way.

Remember Vuerolfo? His knickname was “Pedone”…I’ll bet that, in that period of mixing up Latin and local languages in development, "pedone" meant “Big clumsy feet.” And by the end of the 18th century, “Pedone” had been changed into “Podone,” so there you have it.

I snapped these photos on the 12th of December around 4 P.M.