The grape varieties and resulting wines here in Italy are numerous and quite different than in the U.S. What better way, then, to learn about the wine I’m drinking than to take a wine-tasting class. After attending intensive language classes last winter, I figured I was ready to enroll in the preliminary class series offered [...]

Last Friday, after my whirlwind morning in Genova, I continued on to Sanremo for what was likely my last visit with my “landlady” Sandra and her husband, Mauro, before my departure from Milano. I had visited them a couple of times in winter and at my departure then it felt as if longtime friends were [...]

It all started with hat forms on Milan’s Grand Canal. Five weeks ago I went to the Mercatone Antiquariato – Antique Market – along the Naviglio Grande and saw hat bases made of coarse fabric. They are from the Bovone sisters that were making hats in the 1930s. The hats have asymetrical, sumptuous curves and [...]

Two Chinese and one American strolling together along the Naviglio Grande speaking Italian, their only common language. Now if that doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will. I had gone back to the Mercatone Antiquariato – The Big Antique Market – (the last one before my departure) in search of the few, last treasures. Three [...]

How do you give a 13-year-old a whirlwind overview of Milano and other spots in Italy? I had grown up picking rocks off of Earl’s parents’ waterfront on Three Tree Point, just down from the house I have in Seattle now. (In other words, he’s known me since I was born.) So when Earl decided [...]

The excitement of a college-time trek through Europe! Hannah & Zibby started together on June 8, in Newcastle Under Lyme. They went on to Amsterdam and Berlin, took a wrong train into Switzerland, and arrived in Milano yesterday. They’ll go on to Venezia, Firenze, Roma, then Athens and Santorini. A time to discover themselves and [...]

One year ago today my plane landed at Milano Malpensa Aeroporto. I caught the train into the center of town, to the Cadorna Station. It was a hot day. I started sweating quickly. My Irish/German skin was bone white in contrast to all those on the street and I laughed. I was whisked through the city [...]

Last September, with just a few clues in hand, I wandered around Venice in search of Trattoria da Ignazio. Having heard about the exquisite meals freshly prepared by Signora Ada, I was disappointed to find the restaurant closed for the day, but vowed to return. With wide eyes, my wonderful Italian teacher in Bellevue, Josefina, had [...]

Sally flew over from Seattle a week ago to share the sights of Milano, the wonderful food treats available and the simple efficiency of my apartment. She came off the plane and out of customs beaming. We took the Malpensa Express train from the airport into town, and got out at the Cadorna station. We walked [...]

While here in Milano for the cycle of a full year, I’ve tried to get some sense of every holiday or special occasion. I’ve attended, or found myself caught in the middle of, festivals, parades, fairs and spontaneous crowds, and each one tells me a little more about Italia and her people. Yesterday was Festa della [...]

Two “fashion” trends persist for men around here: orange-colored pants and the Milanese “man purse”, a sleeker, chic-er version of the multi-pocketed, safari vest. U.S. travel outfitters sell them as “travel vests”, but here in Milano, they are daily wear for the 60-80 set. Now that winter has gone, these functional garments have come out [...]

I liked his smile. I liked his black and white striped hat and the color of his violin. I liked his playing. So I smiled back and pitched some money in his box. He smiled again.

It was another sunny afternoon and a good time to go to the Piazza del Duomo to wander around. I hadn’t known that there was a sidewalk art sale going on. Much of the work was very mediocre, as if the artists were uncertain. I saw the work of a few painters that showed surety, [...]

What to do when the temperature is in the 80s on a Saturday afternoon, post jet-lag? Go for a bike ride with a cyclist friend, start along the canal, ride through the farmland to a little lake, get and fix a flat tire and make like a sculpture. Cyclist Emilio and I rode out west [...]

The fence joints along the canal were interesting to Dad, so I had stopped to take some detail shots. One of the cyclists, Emilio, stopped to ask if I needed any help. I explained about the fence, then we stood at the canalside and continued chatting for 20 minutes or so. On this cloudy day, [...]

There’s a farm field along the canal, across from the Zibido Cemetery, that has piled up a rank-smelling mound of rotting straw and organic matter. Luigi sees it as prime compost for his garden and is hauling it home one bucketful at a time. As I was riding along, I didn’t recognize him at first. [...]

Boy! My two cousins come into town and a riot ensues! Connie and Gerry arrived yesterday morning, crashed out for a nap then wandered the town for a while. I met them in the evening at their Duomo-close hotel and we goofed around the piazza for a while. Connie succumbed to the bird food man, [...]

On the last Sunday of the month, one can browse Antiques and Flea-Market-Finds for as far as the eye can see (2 kilometers), on both sides of  the Naviglio Grande, the Grand Canal. (This canal intersects with the Naviglio Pavese, the one I ride my bike along.) . . There is still some limited boat [...]

Running parallel to the Naviglio Pavese canal, between the bike path and the highway, is a drainage ditch overgrown by a tangle of brush and trees in every state of growth or death. Luigi knows this. The 82-year-old man rides his 70-year-old bike along the canal and stops to cut deadwood. Today he worked on [...]

They put the temporary, scaffold-and-tin poster walls back up in my neighborhood just in time to feature advertising for the regional elections. Three inch holes are bored into the sidewalk, with rubber plugs for the off-season. Overnight, they can pop the plugs and throw up the walls clean and ready to be weighted with soon-flaking [...]

As I was returning home from Firenze and taking the metro from the train station, this couple was practically “doing the one-two” on the subway! That’s quite a git-up they’ve got going there. (No. They are NOT typical, which made them all the more unbelievably laughable.) They sat across from me and I just couldn’t [...]

Would you let 30 random strangers eat off your plate? Would you, in turn, eat off the plates of those 30 strangers? The Uovo Performing Arts Festival included one “performance” yesterday of 30 individuals, by reservation only. “Mangia che ti fa bene”, “Eat that you will feel well.” For 10 euro, or about $13.50, I walked [...]

Last June, just a few days after I had arrived here in Milano, I went to the Cimitero Monumentale – the Monumental Cemetery - to look around. It is, indeed, “monumental” and every bit worth an afternoon of strolling and looking. As they say, it is WAY over the top! One can study architecture, sculpture, typography [...]

It’s been great fun to get to know the group of women from the schools here. Now and then, when a few of us are available, we’ll go out for aperitivi. Here, from left to right, are: Keryn, from Australia Ashley, originally from the U.S. (but recently London) Anna, from Iceland. Now her parents are [...]

Dinner the night before was followed by a long lunch the next day. Renata and Angelo, who live in a town within walking distance from Sanremo, were having some friends over on Sunday and I was invited to come along. So gracious! It’s a real treasure to have people open their doors and ask me [...]

It’s a natural for friends to gather for food and conversation. This is worldwide, but I find that the Italians do it well and do it often. Last weekend, in Sanremo, seven of us got together for dinner around the table: my landlady, Sandra, and her husband, Mauro, and their friend, Sandro (all of whom [...]

One thing about being invited into people’s homes is the chance to have them bring things out to show me, such as old photos. In my recent visit to Sanremo, I got to see a few photos from “Young Life in Italy” from the mid-60s to mid-70s. Old photos are always informative and amusing. (And [...]

Nicoletta rode over the overpass at the same time I did and then began to move ahead. I called out, “Excuse me. I have a question.” She slowed a bit, I pulled up alongside of her and we rode the rest of the way together, talking. “Why are there no other women cyclists?” I mentioned [...]

We got together to celebrate Anaïs’s 24th birthday with traditional Milanese apperitivi at an “art bar” in town. Several of us women from Italian classes get together outside of class for chats, bike rides and travel. Anaïs is one of them. She’s from Cannes, France, and 3 of her friends drove over, (bringing her kitty [...]

The “pinch me” part. Along our drive I had been seeing “travel-guide Italy”, scenic, seaside towns, cliffside old buildings, palm trees, polished hotels and trattorias. The statues, the weathered stone and white columns were brilliant against the blue sky we had been given, and were just the sights that make people book a vacation. Incredible. [...]