1st Session: June 29th to July 10th Introduction Level Introduction to Interior Design Introduction to Product Design Introduction to Graphic Design Introduction to Fashion Design Introduction to Fashion Marketing Introduction to Fashion Styling Introduction to Fashion Accessories Intermediate Level From Haute Couture to Pret-a-Porter: Paris/Milan Lighting Design Studio Landscape Architecture Studio Advanced Level Costume Decoration [...]

“Bici“, (bee-chee) short for “bicicletta“: bicycle! I borrowed a bike and have been for a couple of rides south from Milano down the Naviglio Pavese canal. It’s a nice straight shot used by lots of other bikers, both serious and casual. Decked-out cyclists, leathery tan from habitual riding in Italy’s sun, clustered in speedy packs, [...]

Took my long walk to the grocery store today, up along Corso San Gottardo, where the little specialty shops are, as well as a few “bigger” stores. The grocery store has a good variety and good quality. In my shopping bag today was: a big red pepper, a half dozen on-the-vine tomatoes, green beans, garlic, [...]

Dinner at Il Giardino del Naviglio (Garden restaurant, near the Naviglio Pavese canal). When our server brought this platter and set it in front of me, placing another one on the other side of the table, I thought that each platter would be shared by two. But no. She brought two more matching platters. This [...]

Mount a poster and you’ve got public notice. Mount 2 or 4 together and it becomes art. The repetition of one image creates a pattern perhaps unintended by the original designer, but SO effective by the one with the glue!         

I have been dreaming… and I am! This poster had my name all over it… and the names of all my family and friends!

The “street art” – the graffiti and murals – around here keeps my fingers clicking. And I find imagery around any corner, behind, under and on top of other things. The back sides of billboards. The hard-to-access building facades. The posters on top of posters, then layered and peeling. I find brick coupled with print [...]

There’s nothing like buying a new cell phone, in Italy. Just shopping for one was hard enough without a language in common with the sales person. Now I’ve bought one and the manual is in Italian and the phone is in Italian! Setting it up is a trick. My reading comprehension is pretty good, but [...]

The most complicated thing I’ve (tried to) shop for is an Italian cell phone. It’d be easy to simply get any old cheap phone, just something that’ll make and take calls, and do SMS… But I’m a tech junkie. I want a nice interface and good design. I want bluetooth. If it’s going to have [...]

Milano’s Cimitero Monumentale – Monumental Cemetery – is beyond words. It rivals many museums of architecture and sculpture and offers a lesson one could spend years studying. The architectural periods and sculptural styles are diverse and magnificent! And to have them side-by-side provides a concentrated contrast hard to find elsewhere. I had heard about it [...]

The 10-foot high French doors are wide open. (Are they called “Italian doors” since we’re in Italy?) We had a long, strong rain last night and the air is cool. The sky is blue. Someone in an apartment that faces this courtyard has the stereo playing Louis Armstrong singing “What a Wonderful World” and other [...]

I guess I could have gotten a bigger plate. A little of this, a little of that and all of a sudden the small plate was piled high with proscuitto crudo, scamorza affumicata, focaccia with carmelized onions, a few slices of bosc, some pan-seared green beans, and fresh tomato drizzled with olive oil and balsamic [...]

There’s a really great grocery store that I walk to about a mile away. It’s a good thing that it’s two miles there and back and that I walk because I keep finding really delicious cheeses to try out! (Uh oh! I’m much more of a sucker for the cheeses than the photogenic pastries here. [...]

A pair of these beautiful, iron hands knock on double doors along Corso San Gottardo, between my apartment and the grocery store. They stopped me in my tracks.

This spiral greeted me as I stepped out of the Romolo subway stop near home.

I’m always looking for an interesting “M”, since that’s my first initial and often how I sign my letters and e-mails. This one is quite beautiful, found just around the corner from my apartment, along the canal.

I saw these two one-day-after-the-other: 1) A display in the subway station advertising a shop that sells “American Indian artifacts” (yeah, right!), and 2) Pop corn, branded with the image of a Plains Indian Chief. Curious the fascination with America… but maybe not at all! Look at the U.S. obsession with Italy! I guess it [...]

I’m such a nester. Always have been. I awoke at 4:30 or so this morning, Saturday, forced sleep ’til about 5:30 then got up. Cup of coffee at my side, I wrote and messed with photos for a while ’til I started getting drowsy at about 9:30. I napped for a little more than an [...]

Yesterday morning at 11:00 I came up out of the subway right in front of the magnificent duomo. Wow. Such a sight and it was great to be back again; I enjoyed it so much last year. It reminds me of a sandcastle that was built by dribbling wet sand down my fingertips. But there [...]

I don’t see keys like this in the U.S. Anyone else? This is my main apartment door key, although I have 4 to use by the time I get in: one at the sidewalk gate; one at the door to the hallway; two at my door.

OK. I just had to try it on. I was walking right across from the duomo in what is probably one of the world’s most expensive shopping districts, surrounding the Galleria, and my head whipped around when I caught sight of the fabric of this dress. It pulled me into the store, Pollini. I walked [...]

Mmmm. I discovered this cheese last summer and loved it: Scamorza Affumicata.  (“Scamorza” is the kind of cheese. “Affumicata” means it’s smoked.) So I found it again at the store yesterday and had a chunk this morning with some fresh tomato. Good breakfast?   From a Wikipedia entry: Scamorza is an Italian cow’s milk cheese. It can also be made [...]

Wandering around Milano yesterday, not far from the duomo, I turned into the old, enclosed Piazza dei Mercanti. I was struck by this incredible staircase and think it’s simply a construction staircase for workers, as it looks like the building is under renovation.

Up and at it early this morning. I awoke at about 4:30 but know I’m still affected by the time change and jet lag. We had quite a lightning storm last night with vociferous thunder and a cooling rain. This morning, I heard the birds singing in the woodlot across the street from my apartment! [...]

Pinch me. Am I dreaming? My apartment is located about 2.2 miles south-southwest of the duomo, pretty darn close to the center of town. Who could ask for more? Fourteen foot ceilings. Hardwood floors. A living/dining area with cozy red couch and ottoman. And a kitchen space with, from left to right: freezer, fridge, utensil [...]

Sono qui! Sono arrivata a Milano! I’m here! I’ve arrived in Milano! My plane got in yesterday morning at about 8:30. I found the ticket office for the Malpensa Express train from the airport to the center of town and took the 40-minute ride to Cadorna station. From there, I went to my new home [...]

      Quarter to 5:00 New Jersey time. The flight to Milano leaves at 6:35, so I’ve had a bite to eat, wandered up and down the concourse (the most exercise I’ve had in weeks), and will hang out ’til it’s time to board. I’m rummy, (as Dad always used to say). Tired and [...]

Late Sunday night. Minutes before midnight. I’ll be at the airport by 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday, so I have just two days left in Seattle. “Goodbyes” and “See-You-Laters” are stacked one on top of the other, leaving snippets of time to tend to the details of the move itself. But the fare-the-wells are essential. (I’ll [...]

Should I be using the proper Italian spelling of city names, or the English rendition? I’ve already been vacillating and inconsistent. Milano or Milan? Venezia or Venice? Firenze or Florence? Or write everything twice, first in one language then the other? For an English-speaking readership, perhaps just English, but it feels incorrect and an uneducated [...]

As soon as I had even the glimmer of a decision to make this move, it was all-of-a-sudden very easy to go through my house and send things down the road. Home for just two weeks after my Summer trip, I gave away half my clothes, then later gave away even more. Every pass through [...]