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Milan, Italy
She's so swishy in her satin and tat, in her frock coat and bippity boppity hat, oh god I could do better than that
Most of the time when I organize these slideshows, I will send the pictures out in the order that I experienced things. I start where I started and finish where I finished. This time things will be slightly different. It's been about a month and a half since I was in Italy, and since then I have (finally) sorted through over 3000 pictures, posted just under 500 and then pulled 50 of them together in order to include them in this slideshow. This trip was a combination of big destinations and small ones, and in order to hit certain places on certain dates, the actual itinerary made absolutely no geographical sense. So as a result the slideshow sort of bounces around a bit both chronologically and geographically, it sometimes combines smaller destinations and hopefully it will all make sense in the end. Hopefully.
With that long and totally unnecessary explanation out of the way, it's time (already) to start conflicting myself. This first picture and the slideshow starts where I started. My flight (on an Air Canada 787 Dreamliner) landed in Milan/Malpensa right on time, and before I knew it I was checked in to my hotel and standing in front of the Duomo, in the middle of one of the great public spaces in a country full of them but in a city that otherwise seems like it could use just a few more.
I started and ended my trip in Milan, so while the last picture was one of my first, this second picture was one of my last.
The unmistakable center of Milan is the piazza in front of the Duomo. Coming out of the poorly designed corridors of the Metro, the cathedral facade is directly in front of you and it just glows beyond belief in the late afternoon sun. On your right are twin fascist buildings designed under Mussolini's reign, behind you is a statue and some big signs atop generally non descript buildings, and to your left is the spectacular Emanuele Vittorio II Galleria, a glass domed covered shopping arcade that leads to La Scala and a place that I have been in every time I have been to Milan. While I have been inside it many times, this was the first time that I had been on top of it. The new (to me) Milan Highline is nothing like the (real) High Line but is instead a metal walkway floating above the galleria's roof, with occasionally dramatic views back to the piazza or cathedral, even though the best views are the constant close ups of the dome. It feels as beautiful close up and from on top as it does from underneath.
I have been to Milan maybe five times, maybe more (depending on how you count). And while the Duomo and galleria are spectacular and always worth a trip, I went out of my way to try and see something new. Luckily Prada and Rem Koolhaas had just what I was looking for.
The Fondazione Prada is a museum in new and existing buildings in a section of Milan that could be described as up and coming, but more accurately could be described as incredibly boring. Shaking things up is Prada's brand new museum, which (partially) opened only a few weeks before I got there. It is kind of like PS1 in Queens, except that there is more new construction and the main existing building is completely covered in gold leaf. The campus was beautiful with really well designed galleries and an extremely sensitive use of some pretty wacky materials. The only problem with it (and it's a pretty big problem) is that the visitor experience makes almost no sense. It's damn near impossible to find some of those well designed galleries, and even when you do, it's hard to tell if you're in a dead end or a main circulation path. Maybe when the place is all finished there will be some sort of magical logic that will reveal itself. Until then (like me), I guess you're on your own.
The Fondazione Prada was not completely designed by Rem Koolhaas and his eternally under appreciated Office of Metropolitan Architecture, a small corner of the museum complex was designed by filmmaker Wes Anderson. Bar Luce feels a bit like being inside one of his films- the decor is kind of like the Grand Budapest Hotel and you almost expect Owen Wilson or Jason Schwartzman or Bill Murray to just show up wearing cowboy hats or turbans or something. And while there was no Owen Wilson or Jason Schwartzman, there was a Bill Murray. This is a close up of the Steve Zissou pinball machine, which (of course) is from "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," my favorite Wes Anderson movie and one that would easily land somewhere on my all time top ten list, if such a list were to actually exist.
The train shed at Milan's immense, impressive and difficult train station is as immense, impressive and difficult as the fascist stone halls that lead up to it. Here trains can take you to places like Loquasto or Zubrowka or Ping Island (if those places were real), and the real promise of other cities and other places and other worlds is strong. Tomorrow's slideshow pictures could be from anywhere. Unless they're still from Milan. With this slideshow this year, you can just never tell.
