Day 65: Massimo Shows Us Milan
Wednesday - July 21, 2010:
This summer I've really embraced my hair's natural wave (or sometimes nappy wave) because I'm usually to hot in Italy to blow it dry. But since were in Milan and meeting our guide, Massimo, I go the extra mile and shower early this morning and blow dry my hair. How kind of me, right? It actually really wakes me up and that, combined with my full 8 hours of sleep, gives me energy to conquer the day. So I head down to breakfast early, read while drinking my cappucino and then everyone else slowly starts to come down.
First part of the day was a class with Massimo about Milan's influence in Modern Design and Architecture. It was interesting, but it surprised me by how the whole lecture was mainly architecture. I guess I didn't know Milan was so interior design as it is, but it was fun to learn about this stuff. My favorite is that I discovered Kartel -- a furniture brand. They make this clear, plastic chair that I've decided screams "Sara Kate buy me" and it's already on my Wish List!
After our lecture we break for coffee on the way to our next exhibit. In Italy we like the mutual agreement between teachers and students that coffee is a necessity!
Next on our agenda was a visit to the Villa Necchi Campiglio of Piero Portaluppi. The blue Smile bus magically appeared in the street so we hopped on and it took us to this place. I must have missed an intro lecture or an email or something because my head was in the clouds the whole time we were here -- I have no idea what the point of this visit was... I didn't know where I was. So needless to say, I'm not much help on explaining this leg of our Milan journey. All I know is that we toured some house that had 1930s era architecture and interior design... But all I could think about while we were walking through was how much it reminded me of a fancier Graceland!
Part of the reason we were all antsy to be done with the ambiguous house tour was becaue it was 2:00 and we hadn't eaten for 5 hours... So our next stop was lunch! Today the program was treating us to lunch at this Japenese restaurant, Myako. When we walked in and saw the low tables we all thought we were going to have to sit Indian style on the floor in our dresses, so we were like "oh fabulous, real lady like''. But when we sat down we discovered there was an open space underneath the table where our legs were supposed to go -- so weird and unexpected! Cinzia had phoned in our meal orders earlier, so almost immediately after the waitors brought us our drinks our food was on the table! Love that. We had a choice between sushi, soup, chicken terriyake and salmon terriyake -- you never know what to expect with these types of restaurants, so I stuck with the chicken terriyake. It was pretty good -- a nice international flair when we're usually eating pasta and pizza.
I told you today was a busy day, so after lunch we still had two more exhibitions to go see. Luckily the bus drove us to these visits -- Milan is a HUGE city!
Our first post-lunch stop was at the Hangar Bicocca Center of Arts. It's a contemporary arts exhibit thing and it might have been the strangest place/experience in my life. Ever. Ever ever. Seriously, I don't know what this place was. I don't even know how to begin describing it... I apparently don't understand contemporary art or don't have that level of understanding in me because it was way over my head.
The first thing we saw were three projector screens with a film of an old man smoking a pipe. It had no noise to it -- an upclose and personal free-hand camera shot of him. And the seats to view this masterpiece movie? Foam blocks. It was so funny.. We all sat down, bounced around and were equally perplexed by this movie.
Once the screen faded out and the movie was over, Massimo led us to the next area of the museum. He lead us into this huge warehouse with seven ginormous structures. These looked like stacked dumpsters to me -- I told you I didn't think I had this contemporary art eye in me. So we looked at this, Massimo asked us how this made us feel and looked some more. Once we all had a face of confusion on us, we went to the last sight of the exhibit... The weirdest thing. So we're still in this huge warehouse and there's a walkway created by a border of chain-link fences. We wall through it, I'm confused and a bit scared because this is so strange, and then this noise starts to play as we walk down it. It sounds like a heartbeat. It's heavy and intense. I felt like I was in the Magic School Bus episode where it goes through the cardiovascular system. We make it to the end of the walkway and what do we see? A huge, HUGE mound of clothes with a crane over it. And the crane was moving -- picking up and dropping clothes. What?! What's the meaning to this? I am so lost. All I can think about is how many clothes are infront of my eyes and what good those clothes could go to besides laying in a pile in this warehouse. I think this sight perplexed everyone -- even the contemporary art people.
Needless to say, I was ready to be out of that exhibit so I was thankful when Massimo asked his last questions and we were headed back to the bus.
A visit to the exhibition “Private Lives: Erwin Olaf photography" was next. Erwin Olaf was known for his black and white pictures and they were mostly of celebrities like James Dean, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, to name a few. I really enjoyed these pictures, but then we stepped into the next room and it was more contemporary art... Fabulous. I won't even go into detail about what I saw with these pictures becase I mentally checked out. It confuses me to even think about it!
So after the photography viewing, Massimo left us, but he invited us to appertivo later that night. We all head back to the hotel, change and meet back downstairs at 7. We're all starving, so we are excited to eat all of the buffet we can. Only problem? No buffet at this particular spot that Massimo picked out. It was supposed to be Appertivo, but it ended up being just a wine bar. So we were polite and ordered a bottle for a few of us to share before 5 of us left and went to dinner. Amongst all the real appertivo restaurants lining the street, we managed to find an actual restaurant. We sat down outside and ate dinner. On the menu tonight? Pumpkin ravioli with butter and sage. It was AMAZING. Possibly the best pasta meal I've had -- it was just so different and so tasty! I can't wait to try and recreate this back at home.
We got done with our dinner, sad that it is over, and head back to the hotel. This is when something we've tried our hardest to prevent all summer, happens. It was awful so I'll try and be quick and not bring back these memories to the surface. So, we're riding the subway and being really careful about watching our purses. Laughing, having a good time. So we get off at our final stop and take our usual route out of the underground. Were walking up the stairs and this little Albanian girl pick-pockets Kate. Right after it happens, Kasi is suspicious and asks Kate to check her purse. It's gone and a frenzy starts. About 20 seconds have passed so the girl couldn't have gone far -- we run down the stairs and, by some miracle, we pick the right exit to run up because when we get to the top we see this girl. On a side note, the funny thing is we were talking at dinner about how we would react in a pickpocket situation, so the topic had been on our mind. Ironic, right? So we see the girl and Kasi and Caitlyn go after her. They talk to her and get inside her purse to find Kate's wallet. They find it, but with everything except her cash, credit and debit card and license. Dang dishonest pickpocketers. We're frantic and don't know what to do because she obviously stole Kate's stuff, so we get these nice Milan lawyers to help us and after the girl runs away, they go after her. They corner her and check in her pockets and Kate's stuff isn't there, so she obviously had already passed the stuff off before we'd gotten to her. So the nice men call the police, the police come, we file a report and then leave defeated. Did this really happen? We have been so careful this whole trip and then here at the end, it happens. Oh well...
Needless to say, we're all a little shaken up afterwards. So we gather in one room for a while, rehashing the event, before heading back to my room. I clear my head by reading Breaking Dawn for a good hour or so, and then fell into a hard sleep.
I assume it goes without saying that this really dampers my opinion of Milan... The verdict is not looking to good thus far--lets see how tomorrow goes!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
This summer I've really embraced my hair's natural wave (or sometimes nappy wave) because I'm usually to hot in Italy to blow it dry. But since were in Milan and meeting our guide, Massimo, I go the extra mile and shower early this morning and blow dry my hair. How kind of me, right? It actually really wakes me up and that, combined with my full 8 hours of sleep, gives me energy to conquer the day. So I head down to breakfast early, read while drinking my cappucino and then everyone else slowly starts to come down.
First part of the day was a class with Massimo about Milan's influence in Modern Design and Architecture. It was interesting, but it surprised me by how the whole lecture was mainly architecture. I guess I didn't know Milan was so interior design as it is, but it was fun to learn about this stuff. My favorite is that I discovered Kartel -- a furniture brand. They make this clear, plastic chair that I've decided screams "Sara Kate buy me" and it's already on my Wish List!
After our lecture we break for coffee on the way to our next exhibit. In Italy we like the mutual agreement between teachers and students that coffee is a necessity!
Next on our agenda was a visit to the Villa Necchi Campiglio of Piero Portaluppi. The blue Smile bus magically appeared in the street so we hopped on and it took us to this place. I must have missed an intro lecture or an email or something because my head was in the clouds the whole time we were here -- I have no idea what the point of this visit was... I didn't know where I was. So needless to say, I'm not much help on explaining this leg of our Milan journey. All I know is that we toured some house that had 1930s era architecture and interior design... But all I could think about while we were walking through was how much it reminded me of a fancier Graceland!
Part of the reason we were all antsy to be done with the ambiguous house tour was becaue it was 2:00 and we hadn't eaten for 5 hours... So our next stop was lunch! Today the program was treating us to lunch at this Japenese restaurant, Myako. When we walked in and saw the low tables we all thought we were going to have to sit Indian style on the floor in our dresses, so we were like "oh fabulous, real lady like''. But when we sat down we discovered there was an open space underneath the table where our legs were supposed to go -- so weird and unexpected! Cinzia had phoned in our meal orders earlier, so almost immediately after the waitors brought us our drinks our food was on the table! Love that. We had a choice between sushi, soup, chicken terriyake and salmon terriyake -- you never know what to expect with these types of restaurants, so I stuck with the chicken terriyake. It was pretty good -- a nice international flair when we're usually eating pasta and pizza.
I told you today was a busy day, so after lunch we still had two more exhibitions to go see. Luckily the bus drove us to these visits -- Milan is a HUGE city!
Our first post-lunch stop was at the Hangar Bicocca Center of Arts. It's a contemporary arts exhibit thing and it might have been the strangest place/experience in my life. Ever. Ever ever. Seriously, I don't know what this place was. I don't even know how to begin describing it... I apparently don't understand contemporary art or don't have that level of understanding in me because it was way over my head.
The first thing we saw were three projector screens with a film of an old man smoking a pipe. It had no noise to it -- an upclose and personal free-hand camera shot of him. And the seats to view this masterpiece movie? Foam blocks. It was so funny.. We all sat down, bounced around and were equally perplexed by this movie.
Once the screen faded out and the movie was over, Massimo led us to the next area of the museum. He lead us into this huge warehouse with seven ginormous structures. These looked like stacked dumpsters to me -- I told you I didn't think I had this contemporary art eye in me. So we looked at this, Massimo asked us how this made us feel and looked some more. Once we all had a face of confusion on us, we went to the last sight of the exhibit... The weirdest thing. So we're still in this huge warehouse and there's a walkway created by a border of chain-link fences. We wall through it, I'm confused and a bit scared because this is so strange, and then this noise starts to play as we walk down it. It sounds like a heartbeat. It's heavy and intense. I felt like I was in the Magic School Bus episode where it goes through the cardiovascular system. We make it to the end of the walkway and what do we see? A huge, HUGE mound of clothes with a crane over it. And the crane was moving -- picking up and dropping clothes. What?! What's the meaning to this? I am so lost. All I can think about is how many clothes are infront of my eyes and what good those clothes could go to besides laying in a pile in this warehouse. I think this sight perplexed everyone -- even the contemporary art people.
Needless to say, I was ready to be out of that exhibit so I was thankful when Massimo asked his last questions and we were headed back to the bus.
A visit to the exhibition “Private Lives: Erwin Olaf photography" was next. Erwin Olaf was known for his black and white pictures and they were mostly of celebrities like James Dean, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, to name a few. I really enjoyed these pictures, but then we stepped into the next room and it was more contemporary art... Fabulous. I won't even go into detail about what I saw with these pictures becase I mentally checked out. It confuses me to even think about it!
So after the photography viewing, Massimo left us, but he invited us to appertivo later that night. We all head back to the hotel, change and meet back downstairs at 7. We're all starving, so we are excited to eat all of the buffet we can. Only problem? No buffet at this particular spot that Massimo picked out. It was supposed to be Appertivo, but it ended up being just a wine bar. So we were polite and ordered a bottle for a few of us to share before 5 of us left and went to dinner. Amongst all the real appertivo restaurants lining the street, we managed to find an actual restaurant. We sat down outside and ate dinner. On the menu tonight? Pumpkin ravioli with butter and sage. It was AMAZING. Possibly the best pasta meal I've had -- it was just so different and so tasty! I can't wait to try and recreate this back at home.
We got done with our dinner, sad that it is over, and head back to the hotel. This is when something we've tried our hardest to prevent all summer, happens. It was awful so I'll try and be quick and not bring back these memories to the surface. So, we're riding the subway and being really careful about watching our purses. Laughing, having a good time. So we get off at our final stop and take our usual route out of the underground. Were walking up the stairs and this little Albanian girl pick-pockets Kate. Right after it happens, Kasi is suspicious and asks Kate to check her purse. It's gone and a frenzy starts. About 20 seconds have passed so the girl couldn't have gone far -- we run down the stairs and, by some miracle, we pick the right exit to run up because when we get to the top we see this girl. On a side note, the funny thing is we were talking at dinner about how we would react in a pickpocket situation, so the topic had been on our mind. Ironic, right? So we see the girl and Kasi and Caitlyn go after her. They talk to her and get inside her purse to find Kate's wallet. They find it, but with everything except her cash, credit and debit card and license. Dang dishonest pickpocketers. We're frantic and don't know what to do because she obviously stole Kate's stuff, so we get these nice Milan lawyers to help us and after the girl runs away, they go after her. They corner her and check in her pockets and Kate's stuff isn't there, so she obviously had already passed the stuff off before we'd gotten to her. So the nice men call the police, the police come, we file a report and then leave defeated. Did this really happen? We have been so careful this whole trip and then here at the end, it happens. Oh well...
Needless to say, we're all a little shaken up afterwards. So we gather in one room for a while, rehashing the event, before heading back to my room. I clear my head by reading Breaking Dawn for a good hour or so, and then fell into a hard sleep.
I assume it goes without saying that this really dampers my opinion of Milan... The verdict is not looking to good thus far--lets see how tomorrow goes!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Labels: My Summer Abroad
posted by Sara Kate at
4:11 PM
2 Comments:
Another Interesting day in the life journal of SK! I'm proud of y'all for chasing the pick pocket down but on second thought that might not have been the safest action. Oh well if that's the worst thing that befalls you this trip you've been lucky. Also,did you ever get to finish the bach??? What a hose'r. We have to talk, SOON!!! Love you, stay curious...
Pop
I think Massimo would have lost me at stop #1!! You've got to be kidding me, a pile of clothes???? Just think of the good that could have done with Dad's friends under the overpass. Can't believe the story, yall chased down the pickpocket??? No wonder you were upset. Keep up the posts, you're almost done, great job. (Did you see your post from your follower Nancy, you must respond so she doesn't get her feelings hurt)
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