After rising up from the valley floor in the funiculare tram, a short walk brings you to the old plaza, la Piazza Vecchia. Encircled by palaces, a bell tower and a colonnaded portico, the space is punctuated at its center by a Baroque fountain from the late 1700s. The piazza is the heart of the city.Those palaces [...]

Have you ever wondered about the first ones to eat something new that they hadn’t encountered before? IS it edible? What PART is edible? Should it be eaten RAW or COOKED? What part do you DISCARD? What part is most DELICIOUS? How is it best PREPARED? What should it be eaten WITH? Traveling to and [...]

Gotta love these Italians. They had two national, Catholic holidays at the beginning of December. Then two weeks off for Christmas and New Years. Then, today is the Feast of the Epiphany, also a national holiday. (Italy is about 98% Catholic.) A lot of people took this whole week off since they were already on [...]

From my journal entry, New Year’s Day 2010: I took off walking toward the Duomo at 4:10 today. It’s New Year’s Day. I needed to get out of the house and get my body moving. I decided to zig zag through the “neighborhood” on streets I’ve never seen before, rather than take the sure, known [...]

In addition to the International Festival of Light that’s present in Milano right now, there are special light displays and decorations all over town. I like the illuminated scrolls that line the major avenues, these along Via Alessandro Manzoni, through the center of town: Brera is the chic, creative, cultural neighborhood north of the Duomo. [...]

Milan is currently the host of 33 large-scale lighting installations. (6 December – 10 January.) In the evenings, I’ve wandered through town to see the pieces and love how it changes the night scene, the visual texture and energy of the city. These intriguing works of light encourage after-dark strolls. Along Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Milano’s [...]

The fridgy day and the taunting sky followed through on their promise and have coated us all with 2 inches of snow. And it’s still coming down. What will I wake up to? If there’s a thick, white blanket of snow I’ll have to hop on the subway and go down to the Duomo to [...]

It was about 6:30 on a Sunday evening and I thought I was merely going to a champagne-tasting I had been told of. As it turned out, I came up out of the subway into a massive, standing-room-only crowd that filled the Piazza del Duomo in the center of Milan. Mini hot air balloons, about [...]

It’s the holiday season, and it starts with a rush here in early December. Today, December 7, is the Feast Day of Milan’s Patron Saint, Sant’Ambrogio; it’s a citywide holiday. This day is followed with a national holiday tomorrow, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and all the Italian world is shut down for a [...]

15 Agosto – Ferragosto. A major Italian holiday, the high, midpoint of the Italian exodus month, and “the day when Roman Catholics believe the Virgin Mary ascended into heaven”. Having heard about this being such a big-deal holiday, and knowing that I’d be in town, I made a special trip a few days ago to [...]

There’s just something about this huge Maybelline ad sky-high against the duomo that doesn’t quite fit.

Friday night, and I hadn’t been out of the house all day. OK. I changed my clothes, walked to the subway station and hopped on the “green line” at Romolo. Four stops to Cadorna, a switch to the “red line” and just 3 stops to the duomo. I stepped out of the subway looking right [...]

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]