After one week in Milan, I feel as though my stomach has shrunk by at least a third – it’s still getting used to the different pattern of eating, often feeling starved the whole day then scarfing down an entire pizza at 9pm : I guess stomachs feel culture shock too. The hours of operation are so different here that for the first time I became sensitive to the quality and characteristics of simple white noise of the city.
The highlight of the week for me was the Fondazione Prada. The whole place was like a total work of art, with the buildings and the spaces in between relating and having a conversation with each other. It was fun to pick out the materials and textures of old/new (rusting walls, corrugated walls, gold painted surfaces, velvet chairs, modern chairs) and natural/manmade (metal, wood, mirror) of materials and textures made for a unified space that manages also to be diverse and distinct in its character.
Karina, Baylea, and I booked last minute train tickets to the coast of Italy to Cinque Terre, but it felt like I had left the country and gone to something like a tropical destination spot. I half expected not to find any of the typical coffee, pizza, and gelato shops that populate the streets of Milan but juice bars and Hawaiian cuisine restaurants instead (I was wrong though). We paddle boarded/canoed and were pretty stressed the whole time (it helped that it felt as though I was in a dream). We rented our boats/boards from a small shop near the dock which was run by a beautiful couple – I feel as though I have encountered more genuine people here in Italy, at least in places of business. It’s either indifference or sincere friendliness with no in between, so when it’s the latter I know its not a front many workers in America feel like they have to put on for customers.
