by Maureen | Jun 3, 2010 | Discoveries, Featured Articles, Introspection, Journal, People, Photo of the Day, Photos
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 Repubblica.(See the wikipedia entry below.) I went online to find out what the city was doing for the holiday and I found mention of the ceremony at the Piazza del Duomo.
I came up out of the subway into the piazza at a quarter ’til noon. Being little, I weasled my way toward the front of the crowd so I could see better. A military brass band was playing, and a half dozen military groups were standing in formation.
At noon, they began raising the flags of Italia, Milano and the European Union. (I was amused that the visual backdrop for the ceremony was not the Duomo, but rather a sexy sunglasses ad for Dolce & Gabbana. I’m sure D&G planned their ad placement for this precise timing!)
When the national anthem played, the crowd around me sang with passion, especially the older folks. A marching procession followed, with each of the military groups in formation. Firefighters and local police were included in the groups.
It was a short march around the corner of the piazza then down to the side of the Duomo and the courtyard in front of the Palazzo Reale. (I was surprised when I got a little choked up.)
Small groups of city officials and military leaders gathered for informal portraits, then people dispersed into their midweek holiday.
“Festa della Repubblica (literally Festival of the Republic or, in English, Republic Day) is celebrated in Italy on the second of June each year. The day commemorates the institutional referendum held by universal suffrage in 1946, in which the Italian people were called to the polls to decide on the form of government, following the Second World War and the fall of Fascism. With 12,717,923 votes for a republic and 10,719,284 for the monarchy, the male descendants of the House of Savoy were sent into exile. To commemorate it, a grand military parade is held in central Rome, presided by the President of the Republic in the role of Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. The Prime Minister and other authorities attend too.”
An article (in Italian) on Milano’s web site:
“Festa Repubblica per recuperare i valori del Paese”
“Festa Repubblica to recover the values of the Country.”
by Maureen | May 24, 2010 | Introspection, Journal, Quips
While riding the subway this morning heading into town, the train came to a stop and an elder man got on. I was pleased when a young woman offered him her seat, but he declined it. He and I were standing next to each other and he leaned over to me and said “my face is old, but my legs are young.” He told me he’s 82 years old, and I told him he looked 70. “And you’re 12, right?!” he said to me. We both laughed and continued to chat until two stops later when we got off and wished each other a nice day.
I came here for encounters such as this.
These little moments are big pleasures.
by Maureen | Apr 23, 2010 | Featured Articles, Introspection, Journal, Photo of the Day, Photos, Quips
“My car fits. Doesn’t that make it a parking space?”
“It looks like a parking space.”
“Oh. You mean this is a sidewalk?”
“If I park here in the road, when I come out I can just put the car in gear and go.”
Not ALL Italians are on foot, bike or metro! Seattle cops would meet their yearly budget if they were giving out tickets here for “improper parking”. Sometimes I’m walking along and just crack up at the creative parking I see. This would NEVER go over in the U.S.! But I guess it’s an understood system and it seems to work for everyone and so it’s OK. (It still cracks me up.)
Side note: Stop sign? I’ve figured out that, for the most part, they’re there to establish right-of-way and fault in case there’s an accident. People don’t actually stop. Not even a “California Rolling Stop”. There’s a particular stop sign in the city when I’m heading southbound out to the bike route… Cars go even faster through that intersection than if there were no sign. One day, a northbound car (with the right-of-way) approached the intersection at the same time a southbound car and I did. I realized very quickly that I’d better stop because Mr. Northbound wasn’t going to! The southbound car slowed just enough to make it all work. (In the very center of town, there’s more adherence to signals and signs, but it all seems to be a very loose, squishy system.)
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by Maureen | Mar 28, 2010 | Discoveries, Journal, People, Photos
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 bring myself to get my camera out at such close range. But the backside view tells enough of the story for you to get the idea.
by Maureen | Mar 15, 2010 | Discoveries, Featured Articles, Journal, Photo of the Day, Photos
JUST as they were on a crane removing this billboard ad for high-fashion lingerie, I was walking by with my camera and had mere moments to shoot. What will they put up next to keep the construction workers inspired?
This is a large, new complex being built at the north edge of town, right around the Garibaldi metro stop.
by Maureen | Mar 12, 2010 | Discoveries, Featured Articles, Journal, Photo of the Day, Photos
Milano is a fabulous place to do a “design intensive” exploration, and I’ve stepped up my voracious visual consumption of the rich details around me. What a place to study typography, graphics, signage and advertising! Everything captures my mind.
Even a toothpaste ad.
“The green has all our respect, the red is the passion we put into it,
but it’s the white of your smile that’s our true mission.”
No, not all Italian packaging has such a retro, stereotype look. One finds the usual Crest, Colgate and Sensodyne on the grocery shelves, but with Italian swapped for English. That must be why “Pasta del Capitano” seemed like such a throwback, and stopped me while rushing for the subway car.
by Maureen | Jan 17, 2010 | Discoveries, Featured Articles, Journal, Photo of the Day, Photos, Quips
Getting out at Milano Centrale Metro Station to change from one line to another, I came up the escalator and was faced with this beautiful, colorful, tired doorway. Gorgeous.
by Maureen | Jan 9, 2010 | Cheese, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Food!, Journal, Meals, People, Photos
“Maureen, there are a few of us having some appetizers and wine. Why don’t you come join us?”
It was Mario, the regional director for ONAV, the National Organization of Wine Tasters. We had met a few times at their wine-tasting events: Prosecco-tasting, Barbera- and Barolo-tasting, Champagne-tasting. I’m going to attend their 9 week course in wine-tasting, beginning in February. Any of their gatherings, formal or casual, are opportunities to sample some diverse and very special wines… and meet new people.
I took the Metro across town, walked two blocks and entered the ONAV classroom full of tables and chairs. These four guys – Michele, Vicenzo (giving me a choke-hold), Mario, Carlo – sat at a table cluttered with meats, breads, wine, oil and sweets. (The three are long-time friends of Mario, not with ONAV.) As you can see, it wasn’t a stuffy group.
We sampled a number of wines and also enjoyed a tasting of Extra Virgin Olive Oil from the San Gimignano region.
I didn’t realize until afterwards that I should have gotten a photo of Carlo in his striped sweater, with Vicenzo in his striped hat and me in my striped coat. It would have been a highly-visual photo. (Vicenzo asked if I know of any American women I could set him up with.)
The table bore mortadella, salami and a raw, seasoned meat/fat combo that Mario simply peeled the casing off of and spread on bread. (I know the photo’s out of focus, but at least it gives you an idea of the meat’s appearance.) We ate from a large rustic loaf, a potato loaf, and Sicilian bread sticks and rounds.
There was a bone-white spread of pecorino and ricotta cheeses pureéd together. And a special treat was the “Lardo di Colonnata”, raw, salted, herbed pig lard, aged at least six months and served as thin slices on bread. Mmm, good!
(I’ve become quite fond of eating raw meats and moldy cheeses.)
We drank a sparkling red, a white, a rosé. The most “startling” wine was the deep red Ruché (Roo-kay); I had never tasted anything like it with its very distinct flavor. (I’ll have a better vocabulary to describe it AFTER I take the class.) You could ask for Ruché* at your local specialty wine shop, but its very low production makes it unlikely that you’ll find any.
Our little post meal sweets were dried figs and apricots from Sicily, and almond pastilles that are frequently offered as favors at weddings. (In the States, too.)
The very special end-note to the evening was a wonderful Passito di Pantelleria from the tiny little Island of Pantelleria, Italy, between Sicily and Tunisia. Passito, made from dried and shriveled moscato grapes, is a gorgeous amber color and a drink that requires every sip to be savored. I couldn’t keep my nose out of the glass; the scent was divine.
Below, on the right, is a bag of the not-fully-dried, shriveled moscato grapes used for making passito. You can eat them much like raisins.
Ruché (from Wikipedia):
Ruché is a red Italian wine grape variety from the Piedmont region. It is largely used in making Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato, a small production red varietal winewhich was granted Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) status by presidential decree on October 22, 1987. The current DOC recognized area of production for the wine, covers only about 100 acres [[40 hectares) of vines around the villages of Castagnole Monferrato, Refrancore, Grana, Montemagno, Viarigi, Scurzolengo andPortacomaro.[1] Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato is, therefore, one of the lowest production varietal wines in Italy. The grape is also grown to some extent in the neighboring province of Alessandria.
There is some debate about the origins of the Ruché grape. One theory is that the varietal is indigenous to the hills northeast of the town of Asti. Another theory is that the grape is a local variation on a French import. It has been grown in the area for at least one hundred years but has only recently been marketed and consumed outside of the immediate vicinity of its production. Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato tends to be medium bodied with notes of pepper and wild berries and floral aromason the nose.[2] The wine is often characterized by moderate acidity and soft tannins. In the Piedmont region it is often paired with slow-cooked beef, northern Italian cheeses and mushrooms.
by Maureen | Jan 7, 2010 | Discoveries, Featured Articles, Journal, People, Photos
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 a two week break and why come back for two days, have one day off, and then come back for two more days before the weekend? Might as well extend the two weeks into three.
There was a parade through town for the Epiphany. Actually two parades: the official one of Magi and Wise Men, then the parade of older, Milanese women in their fur coats. I must have seen a thousand fur coats today. Boggling.
After rain, snow, cold and gray, the 45 degree day brought the crowds out. It seemed that this must be the traditional time to strut one’s fur. Amazing. I was more amused by playing sleuth photographer and people-watching than I was by the pageant of the “real” parade.
(I shudder at some of the faces of these women. Some look cold and hard.)
The furs were worn with argyle, cashmere and hand-knit. With fur hats and berets. There were full-length, knee-length, sporty-short, wraps and stoles. There were SO many women in furs, that it was comical, an exaggeration. Was anyone else noticing?
by Maureen | Dec 28, 2009 | Christmas & New Year's Eve, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Incredible Locations, Journal, Paris, People, Photos
By day’s end, my feet were screaming. The “slow museum shuffle” is exhausting, more so than walking briskly for 5 miles. I had to get back to my room, unload the few things I carried and take a break.
The subway system, with two transfers, consumed 45 minutes, then I arrived at the Maubert-Mutualité stop. I started up the hill to the Hotel Moderne Saint Germain and paused outside the Magic Shop. I’ve been passing by every day this week, and this time, wondered if there might be something magical to take home with me. I went in.
I laughed and asked the man if he speaks English. “Yes”. (Quite well, really!) I told him that I wondered if there might be something special for me to take home.
“Yes. Of course. Let me show you this trick.” He showed me “magic” with 8 playing cards and I was bowled over. 13 Euros. I had to have it. A simple set that would make a great party amusement (once I learn it).
Then he took two inch-and-a-half, soft, foam balls. He gave one to me and had me squeeze it tight in my fist. The other one he held tight in his own palm. “One, two, three”. He opened his hand, and showed me the other as well. No ball in either. I was reluctant to open my hand and said I’d have to fall on the floor if there were two balls in my palm. …There were, of course! (But I didn’t fall down.) I couldn’t believe it. Of course I had been very attentive to everything while he did the trick, but apparently not to the right things. How did that second red ball end up in my hand?!
One last trick: a Chinese coin and an American 50 cent piece. I picked one, the 50 cents. He handed me the Chinese coin and it went into my hand which clenched tightly around it, fingers down. The 50 cent piece was set onto the back of the same hand that was holding the Chinese coin. He took a playing card, covered the 50 cent piece with it and tapped the card. When he removed the card, the CHINESE coin was sitting on top of my hand and the 50 cent piece was tight in my fist. How the coins traded place, I have no idea.
So I ended my time in Paris with a short magical evening. Even if I never learn the trick I bought, the 13 Euros bought me laughs, entertainment, amazement and conversation.
The shop, Mayette Magie Moderne, is (allegedgly) the oldest magic shop in the world at 201 years. My magician for the evening was Quoc Tien Tran, who was born and raised in Paris and has been “doing magic” since age 6 or 7. (His mom told him it’s a “gift from God”.)
As I was getting ready to leave the shop, a mother and her very young son came in. Quoc Tien stepped right up to do a disappearing ball trick for the little boy (who will probably grow up to be a magician because of that ball.)
THREE BASIC RULES OF MAGIC (As they were explained to me):
1 Never explain the trick.
2 Don’t perform the trick twice in the same instance or for the same person.
3 Perform it only when YOU’RE ready to perform it, and you know it very well.
What an enchanting and amusing way to end my time in Paris!
Mayette Magie Moderne
8 Rue des Carmes
75005 Paris
TEL: 01 43 54 13 63
WEB: www.mayette.com
Metro: Maubert-Mutualité
