Viva Italia!

A few weeks back I went to Italy for a long weekend, and I'm just now getting around to downloading and posting pictures.

I went to Milan, which is in the northern part of the country and is the financial and business center of the country. I always think of Italians as a fairly laid-back, laissez-faire kind of people, but northern Italy is very industrious and hard-working (it must be the proximity to Germany that does it.) The Milanese love to complain that their hard work props up the rest of the country economically; consequently, Milan doesn't feel quite as "Italian" as you'd expect an Italian city to feel. Nobody was lounging around in cafes or tossing pizzas in the air; the people mostly rushed around, wearing suits and talking very seriously into mobile phones.

Still, it was interesting to see that Italy has a serious side, especially after visiting Rome in high school and getting frustrated because trains don't run on time and waiters in restaurants are slow and nobody will do anything unless you give the tip first. So without any further adieu (or the Italian equivalent thereof), the photos:

Milan is internationally renowned for its fashion industry, which as far as I could tell consisted of a few trendy boutiques, coupled with hundreds of North African street vendors selling knockoffs of the merchandise inside said trendy boutiques. However, Messrs. Dolce and Gabbana did kick off their partnership here.

Italy has a big election coming up, and from by all accounts Italians are very passionate about politics. There were a whole bunch of campaign signs covering the sides of buildings, including this one for Silvio Berlusconi and his "Forza Italia" coalition. "Italian Force" would be a good name for a pizza parlor, by the way.

Here's a nice example of a traditional Italian piazza. Very pretty, despite the weather.

This woman (in the green jacket) actually paid these men money for the privilege of having their pigeons land on her. Needless to say, she was American. Right after I took the picture, she discovered that Italian pigeons poop just like American ones do.

Making Out In Public is one of the four pillars of Italian society (the others are Smoking A Whole Lot, Riding Around On Scooters, and Sending Text Messages While Smoking A Lot Or Riding Around On A Scooter.) Actually, I thought this was kind of a neat and romantic picture.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele was the world's first covered shopping mall. It opened in the mid-1800s and is currently anchored by Sears, Kohl's and JC Penney. Wait, that's Golf Mill.

Inside the Galleria. Eat your heart out, Old Orchard.

Where is everybody? Italy has the lowest birthrate of any industrialized nation, but this seemed a little ridiculous.

I took a day trip up to Lake Como, which is in the foothills of the Italian Alps. It was a really neat little town wedged up against some pretty spectacular scenery. I had a delicious Italian lunch there and rode a funicular railway up to the top of one of the mountains, which afforded me a great view of fog and mist, since the mountains were all covered in clouds.

They have Carnavale in Italy too - it's not as raucous as the one in Brazil, but the Italians seemed to be getting into the spirit. I think this float may be caricaturing politicians or something, but I was afraid to ask. A lot of people in the crowd were dancing - I learned that Italians may be a fashion-conscious and passionate people, but they still dance like the whiteys they really are.

Of course it wouldn't be complete without a shot of an airplane, right? This is the weirdest-looking plane I've ever seen. I flew it from Milan to Zurich, which was a short 45 minute hop. The flight attendants were in the aisle the whole flight, passing out little Swiss chocolates to everyone. I ate at least ten of them. Best inflight catering ever.




The flight from Milan to Zurich took us right over the Alps, and the scenery was incredible. Now I really want to go to Switzerland too.









So that's a brief photo tour of Milan and environs. I don't have any travel scheduled yet aside from a thrilling in week in Knoxville in early April. I'll also (hopefully) be going to San Francisco to visit the House of Dudkowski and Bridges around the same time, and if prices go my way I might join Jendrik in Hamsterdam for a few days too. I'm going to be eating beans for months to finance all this, but you guys are worth it.