Milanese Courtyard Birdsong

Who can identify this birdsong?

Granted, the video’s not great; it’s not intended to be. Just close your eyes and listen to the sounds I hear in my courtyard, most of all, that wonderful, lyrical birdsong that thrills me. There can be sirens and trucks, and conversations between canalside revelers. Kids can be playing nearby, and construction workers finishing their day. But above it all, I hear the birds.

(I’m hoping that someone with European birding experience will listen to this and tell me who’s singing.)

READ THE UPDATE BELOW THAT FOLLOWS THE VIDEO.

June 2, 2012
Walking along a side street in Milano today, I heard “my bird” loud and clear. At that moment, an older woman walked by, then I thought, “this is my chance!”

“Scusi, signora”… “Excuse me, but do you know that name of that bird singing way up there?”
Usignuolo“, she said.
I thanked her. Wrote down the name she gave me, came home and looked it up.

English: the Nightingale!
LatinLuscinia megarhynchos
Italian: Usignuolo

Here’s a page from Birdsongs of Italy and their listing for the Usignuolo. Listen to calls 1 & 3. They sound most like the birds I here around my courtyard.

(These recordings are close, and I’m unsure whether they’re quite right or not. But it’s the most I have to go on right now.)

Neighborly Hydrangeas

Neighborly Hydrangeas

Shortly after arriving in Milano, I had a nesting moment and went out to pull weeds in and around my little courtyard just to tidy it up and make it a little less jungle-like. It’s really a pleasant garden spot in the midst of these 8-story city apartments. It’s tucked in a narrow passage on the north side between two buildings, just an easy stone’s toss from the canal.

This narrow, verdant swath is divided into 6 separate gardens by chicken wire and chainlink. Between my garden and the canal is a plot that’s being torn up and rebuilt as part of a new art gallery going in along the street. (I’ve been hearing jackhammers and sledges start early in the morning as a part of the remodeling.)

Seeing the demolition going on, and seeing the hydrangeas that were just starting to bloom on the other side of the chainlink, I called out to the workers and asked if the flowers were also being torn out. They were unsure of the flowers’ fate. I suggested that it’d be a shame not to cut and enjoy a few of the flowers, and they agreed. I loaned Marco a pair of scissors, and he cut 2 big stems for me.

I made a lovely bouquet of “Neighborly Hydrangeas” rescued from the rubble, arranging them in a “quartino” pitcher (quarter liter) I found in the kitchen cupboard, and placed it on a vintage tray and damask table cloth, also found amidst the house odds-and-ends.

So simple and so beautiful, here in my Italian home-away-from-home.

Woman in White

Woman in White

Wandering the street market today, I saw this woman in white from head to toe, including white, fishnet gloves. She was beautiful! I tried to take some “stealth” photos, but kept getting just the back of her. So I moved to the other side of the seller’s booth and got this photo from in front of her, thinking she didn’t notice.

When I got home and looked at the photo and the expression on her face, I could see clearly that she absolutely saw me.

Is she Italian? Is she an ex-pat from somewhere distant that settled in here long ago?

I’ll have to keep my eyes open for her next time and stop to chat.

Osteria Soccer on a Cold Night

Osteria Soccer on a Cold Night

Brrr! It’s been chilly in Milano much of the last week. For late May, temperatures in the low 50s are quite a surprise. I hadn’t expected it, so I didn’t even pack full length pants! Sitting here in my house trying to get my work done, my fingers were cold, my toes were cold, my ankles were cold. I had to run out and get some cheap, long leggings, and a t-shirt, and then I layered them all together under my calf-length pants and other tops. Brrr!

How does one get warm when it’s unseasonably cold in Milano? One cold day I made a pot of chicken soup, with veggies from the street market.

Better yet, another cold night I went to the nearby osteria along the Naviglio Pavese Canal and watched the soccer game with the locals. (Napoli vs. Torino Juventus) The wood-fired pizza oven warmed the room. Add to that the crowd of soccer fans and a glass of red wine and my fingers finally warmed up for the first time in days.

Shopping at the Street Market

Shopping at the Street Market

On Saturday, three blocks from my house, is the weekly street market selling fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, cheeses, olives, preserved foods, household sundries and clothing. It’s a hub-bub of people buying their provisions for the week.

You have to know “the system” for shopping there. Decide what you want, then go stand in line at the side, and wait your turn to request your purchase. You do NOT pick out your own produce! And you do not simply ask one of the stall vendors out front for what you want; you will be cutting in line in front of others. (I had to learn this a few years ago through observation.)

My big complaint is that although the produce is displayed so beautifully, and the quality is so high, the handling of it all is so rough! Ask for such tender things as tomatoes and apricots and they will arrive home bruised and punctured from having been roughly pitched into the bag.

It still feels like high-pressure shopping to me after several years. But whether I stock up for the week there or not, the Saturday street market is always an opportunity for gathering beautiful images. In addition to the gorgeous berries, lemons, olives and fish, I enjoy the “Street Market Script” used to write out the quick signs. (Some have begun to use computer-generated signs and they’ve lost all character.)

 

 

Strolling the Canal

Strolling the Canal

The Naviglio Grande – The Grand Canal – is between my casa and the metro subway station, Porta Genova. This gives me plenty of opportunity to stroll the canals and see what I can see, to allow my eye to be caught by sight.

Pharmacy and Sweet Shop, with residences above.

This is the door to an artist’s studio. The Naviglio Grande is lined with studios, antique shops, restaurants and gelato sellers. It’s a hot spot in the evening!

Classic look in signage and appearance satisfies the stereotype of “Italian Style”, likely drawing the tourists.

Sunny Morning Courtyard

Sunny Morning Courtyard

The little courtyard is paved with stones and scraps of ceramic tiles. It’s surrounded by camellia, hydrangea, iris, rose and greens-gone-wild. And the little sanctuary had been neglected by students that cared more about the evening aperitivo social hour than weeds in cracks.

The afternoon was dry and warm and I was in a nesting mood. I’d look for some garden gloves. When doing my shopping for the day, I went up the street to a small shop selling every sort of sundry. I asked the woman for a pair of work gloves. She dug under heaps of products and plastic bags and pulled out a pair of cheap, printed gloves: 2 Euro. Perfect.

Satisfaction. Back at my casa, I cleared the weeds growing around the edges and between the pavers, and the courtyard became more welcoming again. (I spent more time weeding that patio than in my own yard in Burien this year!)

The next morning shone bright with sun coming into the courtyard. An ideal spot for a chair, a journal, a cup of caffé.

Long Pilgrimage Stroll to the Duomo

Long Pilgrimage Stroll to the Duomo

After sitting inside all day working, by 6:00 p.m. I had to get out and take a walk from here to my beloved Duomo. I had arrived late Tuesday evening, spent Wednesday getting settled and hadn’t yet been to my favorite landmark in town, 2 miles away from my apartment. I must always go to the Duomo, do a pilgrimage to the great cathedral.

I stretched the 4 mile loop out into just under 4 hours, shooting 200 photos along the way, catching sights that amused my eye. Come take a stroll with me and see what I see.

A Milanese fashion faux pas. I really think this woman needs a good friend to pull her aside and suggest a different outfit. Those are actually leggings printed to look like denim with funky strap markings. Very odd.

 

Milan has an intense cover of graffiti all over town, some of it quite artfully rendered. When is it acceptable, and to whom? When is it ugly defacing of property? 

I find frequent evidence of fascination with Native American representations here in Italy.

These are the locking mechanisms operated by my funky-looking house keys.

Retro Levi’s signage.

One of Milano’s MANY bike-share stations! Swipe your debit/credit card and ride.

I specifically timed my walk to catch the early evening sun on the west-facing facade of the Duomo. (Note the red banner over the main door announcing the Pope’s visit coming up on June 3.)

The Piazza del Duomo is the “living room of the city” of Milano. This is the place to meet friends, people-watch, riot and celebrate. This piazza is the city’s heart.

The Duomo, (building commenced in the 1300s), has something like 4000 sculptures all over it, including this disemboweled man. Macabre! (And the point is?)

Yesterday was pretty chilly, so a warmer day today brought everyone outside onto the sidewalks and piazzas. The city was teeming with nightlife. Some bars had a couple hundred people outside, standing around with drinks and cigarettes.

All over Italy you’ll find freely running water fountains from which you can drink and/or fill your water bottle. (Though I never have.)

The Galleria is smack next to the Duomo: two adjacent cathedrals, one to consumerism, the other to religion and spiritual foundations (among other things, too many to discuss in a photo caption.) At the intersection of the Galleria, under the dome, is a Louis Vuitton store, Prada store and a McDonald’s!

The Galleria floor is richly embedded with mosaic. Last year I saw some men working to replace stone pieces, repairing the mosaic. I politely asked one of the men if I could have a square of black marble and he gave me one! (How many people have a piece of the Galleria floor?)

Part of the Louis Vuitton window display in the Galleria. (Milano has tremendous window displays!)

Of course I had to stop and pay Leonardo a visit. (He lived in Milano for many years and made many contributions to the city in the realm of not only art, but science, architecture, science and engineering.)

This one took me a minute… I did a double-take.

Since I often sign my letters with an “M”, I like these Metro signs scattered around town.

Not the best choice for a small meal, but at 8:00 p.m., with low-blood sugar and in the vicinity of the Duomo, I just needed food. For 5,40 Euro, I got one slice and a bottle of sparkling water. If I could have kept walking a bit, away from the tourist hub, I could have paid 8,00 Euro and had an apperitivo buffet and a glass of wine instead.

Piazza San Lorenzo Maggiore is illuminated and offering a place to sit with friends.

Here’s the same Piazza, earlier in the evening as people relaxed after work.

The street name is “Corso di Porta Ticinese”, which someone has translated with a rebus puzzle: the door is “Porta” + the letter “T”, pronounced “Ti” (tee) + plus the caricature of a Chinese man, which is “Cinese” in Italian. There’s an additional sign which I’d like to know the story behind: “The Way of Irony and Apathy”.

The Piazza XXIV Maggio is about 3 blocks from my home, at the junction of Corso di Porta Ticinese and Corso San Gottardo, where the Naviglio Grande and Naviglio Pavese (canals) meet. Year 1815.

Bike repair and sales shop late at night, at Piazza XXIV Maggio.

Fruit Map of Italy. (I’ve been to all of the places shown.)

A beautiful, stenciled flourish.

 

Light in a Skinny Kitchen

Light in a Skinny Kitchen

The mid-afternoon sunlight is coming into my almost-three-foot-wide, skinny kitchen and it strikes me as so beautiful. It’s almost a black and white shot, except for that delicious green mug, a sprinkling of red, painted petals on another mug, and red pepper lip stains on the cotton napkin. Nothing contrived or set up, yet it is all so perfect. I smile.

Evening Canal Stroll

Evening Canal Stroll

At 9:00 tonight I set off for a walk up and over and around the Naviglio Grande zone – The Grand Canal. It was a brisk and breezy 60 degrees out and it felt pretty chilly. But there were still lots of people milling around and the little restaurants were doing well with people cozy inside for appetizers or dinner.

I must say that I seem to have a hard time perfecting the “easy stroll”. I take on the “New York Pace” like a “man on a mission” and hot-foot it as if there’s someone with a stopwatch at the end. That said, I did stop enough times to shoot some photos of the hub-bub, and to browse old Italian books at a seller’s along the way.

Still Life with Toilet Paper

Still Life with Toilet Paper

First day in town required some grocery shopping. A few things to eat (favorites I’ve missed), and a few things for the house.

Starting from the back, left to right:

  • Cherry tomatoes – sugar sweet and full of flavor. Who needs candy?
  • Fresh Mozzarella di Bufala – the real thing
  • Whole milk for my coffee
  • Granola
  • Toilet Paper
  • Balsamic Vinegar
  • Fazzoletti – Tissues
  • Cutting Board – from the “Euro Store”
  • Rucola – Arugula, for my salad
  • Romano Green Beans
  • Gorgonzola Dolce – I can’t find this in Seattle. It’s gooey, creamy and very mild with random streaks of Gorgonzola goodness
  • Yogurt – Plain, nonfat
  • Liquid Hand Soap
  • Beet/Cabbage Kraut – from the Austrian-influenced deli
  • Balsamic Vinegar Cream – A reduction of vinegar. I like LOTS of it on my salad! $17.00 at De Laurenti’s in Seattle. 3,40 Euro here.
  • Red Pepper – big and luscious
  • Plastic bags – 20, to line my sorting bins for paper, plastic, glass and trash
  • Bresaola – Thin sliced cured beef. (Also available in horse meat.) Can’t get this in the U.S. because of fears of Mad Cow Disease.
  • Nespole – Fruit about the size of an apricot, with a bi-lobed seed in the middle.
  • Scamorza Affumicata – Smoked Scamorza cheese, tied with a cord for hanging in the smoking process.
  • Bread – also from the deli. Dense, moist, hearty. Atypical Italian, but more common in northeast Italy.
  • Pears

Today’s shopping cost 48 Euro ($61 U.S. at the current exchange).

Here’s my “Still Life with Toilet Paper”
(click for a larger view)

And then I had to arrange things in a decorative manner:

Home Along the Canal

Home Along the Canal

May 15 Journal Entry – London Heathrow Tarmac. Departing soon for Milano.

“Sleepy and subdued after the long flight from Seattle to London, but I look forward to flying into Italian skies, seeing the distinctive Italianate architecture down below me. After arrival at Malpensa and retrieval of my one checked bag, I’ll take the train into Cadorna Station, then on to my apartment, my ‘casa‘.*

“Following my previous returns to Milano, there’s always the delight in the ride through town to my apartment, savoring the familiarity I feel for the city and its neighborhoods. Typical of most big cities, the street scenes are peopled and alive. But particular to Milano and to other Italian cities, are the narrow passages, the cobbles, the shutters, the ornate street-facing balconies, the stone work and visual details.

“Maybe this evening, I’ll go for a walk along the canal to stretch my legs and revel in my return (or maybe I’ll just get some sleep early!)

(A “casa“, though it means “house”, is also “home” and is used to refer to units within condo and apartment buildings. “Villa” refers to stand-alone homes on a private lot. I, therefore, live in a “villa” in Burien… and it feels like it!)

– – –

“It’s always striking to me to see that the land surrounding Milano is checkered with glistening rice paddies. Italy is so very agricultural.”

– – –

“I have not missed the omnipresent cigarette smoke!”

– – –

My apartment is along Milano’s canal, “Naviglio Pavese” and this is the nightlife hotspot across the water from my front entrance. The whole length of the canal is like this, as is the Naviglio Grande. Filled with the hip, the young and the artistic.

Canalside view across the Naviglio Pavese (Canal) from my apartment entrance. (Click the photo for a larger view.)

May 16, Wednesday. Milano. 7:00 a.m. Journal Entry

“The wind howled all night and the sound confused me. I thought it must have been pouring rain as well, but the first birds sang at 5:05 in the midst of the gusts. When I got up and looked out into the main courtyard, I was startled. It was bone dry.

“What had been rattling and shaking all night were the ‘tapparelle’, the security/privacy shutters that all of Italy closes after dark, sealing themselves in against ___?____ Now, with my shutters open, I see morning sun on the building across the courtyard and welcome the light. The birds continue to sing.

“I’m in a 2 bedroom student apartment in the Navigli Zone, ‘my neighborhood’. This is home and familiar. It’s where I know and have lived each time before, so it warms my heart to have returned.

Canalside view. My apartment building is the one just to the left of the tallest building in the middle, on the right (west) side of the canal.

“Much of Milano has ‘secret gardens’, inner courtyards invisible from the streets. The building facades front the sidewalks and gates, and inset doors allow entrance.

The large green gate at the left opens wide for cars and motorbikes, but has a smaller door for foot passage to my apartment complex.

“Once inside, there is generally an inner courtyard, often lush green with plantings. My ‘casa‘ here now has a large public courtyard (for residents) with half a dozen large trees. I also have a small staircase off the other bedroom that enters my own private, planted courtyard, ideal for journaling and sipping a glass of wine. (My location smack next to the canal, however, puts me right in the midst of mosquito-heaven, so I may have to buy some citronella candles.)

At the very end of this video, you see my two tall, thin windows into my bathroom and kitchen, and the shuttered windows into my eating/sitting room.

“The wind is easing off. The sky is blue and sunlight is filling my bedroom. Light-junkie that I am, it pleases me.

“Now I will put on some music and set to work tidying this place and making it mine for the time-being.”

– – –

Here’s a walking tour of my “casa” – my apartment – in Milano, along the Naviglio Pavese (canal).

House notes:

  • Doesn’t everyone have the Pietá on their microwave?
  • A wild piece of vintage fabric forms a curtain covering some shelving. There are cupboard doors in front of the curtain, but I couldn’t bear to close them and hide the fabric.
  • I can’t do much “decorating”, so I’m making do with what’s here. For instance, I rehung that painted plate and rooster pheasant painting. The baroque mirror, shelf and chair were already here, amidst Ikea-style. Funny.
  • The front door, not unusual, opens half-width to slip through. Entering with bags of groceries requires some shimmying… or I could open the full width. Note the locking mechanism and absence of a turning door knob. I use my funky keys for the locks.
  • The shower door opens to a maximum of 13.5″, so if your body is wider than that at its largest point, you will NOT fit in!
  • A bidet is standard-issue even in a student apartment.
  • My kitchen is 35″ wide. (I have not found this to be typical of the Italian kitchens I’ve seen.)

These large, quirky, quasi-skeleton keys are sculpture in themselves.

 
Starting a Journey… Again

Starting a Journey… Again

Backing up a bit, here are some journal excerpts from March 18, 2012, in Burien, WA, as I reflected on my then-imminent trip to Milan:

“I am now just under 8 weeks away from heading back to Italy. At the 10-week mark I felt ‘the shift.’ I am now straddling the globe, neither fully here nor fully there. I’ve notched up my energy and efforts, my focus, all in preparation for being away from here and returning to a life – my life – there. (When I returned at the end of June last year, I really ‘came back’, emotionally and psychologically. But the shift was palpable 2 weeks ago.)

“So I’m consumed with both preparations and completions, and this state is isolating. No one in my life has such a life pattern or makes such choices.

“From where I sit here in my living room, I look out to only tall firs, Puget Sound, Vashon Island, my bright green yard and rain drops hanging suspended from the Japanese maple. The Olympics are hidden by an early-Spring, leaden sky, but would otherwise define my horizon.

“In two months I will be on the third floor of a city apartment, just off the freeway exit, looking out to my neighbors’ balconies and the courtyard with the garbage bins. The sound of traffic will be ever-present and its grit will filter into my living space.

“The contrast between the two places is absolute. I dearly love my home and its location here. But spending city time in Milan brings something entirely different to my days and my experience. Living in Italy requires that I live closer to ‘the edge’ and that is good (though exhausting over time). It both develops and draws on my inner resources, forcing me to stretch. In the midst of and because of this, I feel exquisitely alive when in Italy.

“I sincerely attempt to have that sense of aliveness while here in Seattle (Burien) but am aware of how different it is. It’s a deeper, calmer sense here.

“I look forward to returning to Milan, to seeing now-dear friends and being back in my neighborhood. I like the life of being on foot, bike, subway or train for all my travels. Thought it is limiting, it is also quite freeing. I don’t mind walking 2 miles for a good loaf of bread, and absolutely swoon over riding my bike into the farmland for fresh ricotta.

“Truthfully, my life in Milan is not the typical Milanese life. They are not all going ‘Tra La La’ as they ride out for fresh cheese! But neither is my life typically American. OK. I seem to make it work and it is envied by many. But this choice excludes other choices I could make; they don’t see what I give up to have this.”

May 14, 2012 – Departure from Seattle, through London, to Milano.

Seatac Airport: One of the public art, tiled columns as I head toward the S Gates at the South Satellite. (With On-the-move smartphone blur.)

Awaiting departure from London to Milano.

"Welcome to Milano", the sign says as I briskly leave the plane and head out of the airport, Milano Malpensa.

Could this greeting be any more perfect as I was leaving the airport, heading for the train into Milano?!