I'm old enough to know that I don't have any answers, but that won't stop me talking
Not far from my hotel in Milan is an area filled with well designed new skyscrapers. This 25 storey building has been designed as an urban vertical forest, covered in shrubs and bushes equal to what would cover an entire hectare of land.
Aside from this, a lot of other buildings appear to have enormous rooftop gardens. Milan seems to attract the best talent and ideas in design and innovation.
Magenta is a town on the railway line just outside Milan. It is also the location of the Wallaby Australian Pub.
I visited yesterday and had a beer and a chat with the owner, an Italian chap who has owned it since 2007 (it’s been there since 1994) and has fond memories of drinking Guinness at the Hero of Waterloo whilst in Sydney on a holiday many years ago.
The beer was a Coopers Red label, and he mentioned that some of the locals dislike the yeast precipitate in the bottle. I suggested he adopt the Australian practice of rolling the stubby, as is traditional with Coopers. He said it was impossible to get Fosters anymore and I said I did not mind because Coopers was now the only major Australian brewery not owned by Asahi or Kirin.
As you can see, there were outlines of kangaroos or wallabies around the place, and he had made a sincere attempt to get other paraphernalia like a slouch hat, a didgeridoo and a big picture of the Olgas.
Kangaroo burger is also on the menu.
Compared to what I saw in Rome, this is a far more committed attempt at an Australian Bar. And it has a nice pub atmosphere too.
But as Milan is so like Melbourne, could I expect less here? Milan is an excellent choice as s sister city.
This is my third day in Milan and I must say that I love this place. It is a living city, where the modern sits perfectly with the past, ie the fascist era, Risorgimento, renaissance and medieval buildings.
In many ways, it is similar to but classier than my home city Melbourne, which has a lot of grand Victorian buildings amidst Art Deco and contemporary skyscrapers etc, combined with grand parks. Milan is also the sporting capital of Italy and is criss crossed by an extensive tram network.
But the level of sophistication and quality of style and design – quite apart from the history – lifts it to another level.
The only thing missing is ready access to the sea.
When I was 6, my grade one class went on an excursion to Montsalvat, the artist colony in Eltham which looks rather medieval. I’ve never been back, although I occasionally ponder it – they probably have luthiers there but not coopers, and I have more need for a cooper than a luthier.
I did not expect to find something along those lines in Italy, ie a faux medieval village, but here we are. The Borgo Medievale is in Valentino Park on the banks of the Po, and is a late 19th recreation of what a fortified medieval Piedmontese village would look like.
I’m not surprised to find this in the city of the Savoys. I found a fantastic old quarter in Salerno a few days ago, but the Savoys demolished almost everything old in Turin, leaving a crass Risorgimento era city. That they would have paid to create a fake medieval village on the grounds of what was one of their palaces is not exactly surprising.
It’s very well done, and looks beautiful, but it’s just an imitation of what has been destroyed, paid for by the people who did the destruction – it is just as well the Savoy family did not rule in the age of the bulldozer and modern demolition charges.
As a side note, the woman at the desk in my hotel told me that it was the real medieval heart of Turin. This just shows how out of touch with history many people are, probably most people. This is dangerous as it makes us all much easier to fool, and on more important things than this….
I went to Oktoberfest this evening in Valentino park. Whilst it was meant to start around 6.30pm (this is me giving benefit of the doubt as I suspect the advertising said 6pm but am not certain), the beer did not start flowing til after some inauguration ceremony featuring a band and some people addressed up like extras from Amadeus.
By then, it was 7.15pm and people had started walking out in droves. As the event had wasted at least 45 minutes of my time, I stayed for one beer in a plastic cup and went back to my hotel. It struck me as a particularly joyless event with hardly anyone in attendance.
In Valentino Park today, I saw squirrels! This is quite cool as I have never seen squirrels before. Sadly I think these are American grey squirrels, an invasive species. This is a positive mark on the ledger for Turin.
I’ve been quiet for a few days because I’ve been pondering about what I really think about Turin. Finally I’ve decided I don’t like it.
Whilst Turin dates back to ancient times, being a settlement of Cisapline Gaul visited by Hannibal on his way to wage war on Rome, there are very few ancient ruins to the city. Nor are there any medieval remains and very few buildings from the renaissance.
What it really comprises is a lot of buildings from the Risorgimento in the late 19th century. This is perhaps understandable as it was for many centuries the capital of the House of Savoy, the sort of crass Royal family which would even turn a staunch monarchist like me into a republican.
Palaces and monuments to the over rated Savoys abound in this city, and there is even a piazza which seems to imitate St Peter’s square.
Which I suppose befits a city which seems to want to be a northern version of Rome (a city I tend to dislike).
This beautiful church is subject of a pilgrimage from the city of Bologna up a nearby hill every Easter. The area commands amazing views of the city.
It appears to me that green copper coated domes are a major thing here in Bologna.
Chalice is not really used in common parlance. It’s a quaint word from another time. If you’ve ever heard it, I bet it’s probably in the final act from the Danny Kaye classic The Court Jester:
‘The vessel with the pessel
Has the pellet with the poison
The chalice from the palace
Has the brew that is true.’
Chalice, or more to the point, Calice, its Italian equivalent, means wine glass. It’s not a word I’m used to hearing or using, and nor were any of the other Italian Australians I was hanging with in Cosenza last week. When we order wine by the glass, we use ‘bicchiere’ which means drinking glass.
I guess that is because our Italian wax taught to us by parents who migrated in the 1950s, and who did not know words like ‘calice’ because any drinking glass would do and who could spare the money for fancy glassware. (I’m proud to say that my family used to save its vegemite jars to use as drinking glasses.)
But here in Italy today, in bars and restaurants, when you order wine by the glass, you ask for a ‘calice’. I like it, and it is my favourite word I have learned on this trip.
This shows how all class Richmond supporters are.
The Western Bulldogs (aka Footscray) are also a club based on working class battlers, but we don’t behave like this when we have something to celebrate.
Indeed, their behaviour Saturday night makes me grateful Collingwood didn’t make it through as well, and makes for a great argument as to why Medicare should not be extended to dental treatment…..
Lost For Words!