Sopresa! Siamo a Milano!

Rome Diary IV:
Il Mio Ritorno a Roma!
Wednesday January 24, 2018
Sunny 59°F/15°C in Rome
Sunny 51°F/10°C in Milano
Sunny 50°/10° in Austin, Texas
Buona giornata amici miei!
      Translated, the title of the first blog in the new series of Rome Diaries is: Surprise! We Are in Milan! But, hey! It’s OK because I landed in Rome after my long flight from Texas, and that’s where

Andiamo a Milano!

my rental apartment is. But Michael and Laura wanted to take me with them to Milan for my birthday, and since I’ve never been to Milan before, I repacked a small bag and the very next day, the three of us caught the Italotreno, the sleek, high-speed train that shuttles between Roma and Milano at speeds up to 300 kph or 200 mph, double any sane highway speeds. (Eat your heart out, AMTRAK!)

      Normally, I go to ground for a few days after a long transatlantic flight to cure my jet lag and other travel jitters, but this time, I hit the ground running and I did not get a chance to relax in my apartment for the next week. We stopped by to drop my bag and pick up the keys from Amina, the landlady and went out to dinner. Then after a night’s sleep Michael and I headed for Milan.
     Since my last visit in the spring of last year – la primavera – Laura has changed jobs and now works in Milano, commuting from Rome to Milano on Tuesday, returning Thursday or Friday and working from home in Rome on the days she is not in Milano. Upon arrival at Termini station in Roma Central, we stopped at a snack bar and picked up two panini e bevande, so we could snack on the train.
      Europe, Japan and now China are light years ahead of the U.S. in the development of a high-speed rail system. California has one under construction, Texas has another on the drawing board, but the battle for American high-speed rail is all uphill. Too bad! It’s 350 miles from Rome to Milan, a six-hour drive. The high-speed Italotreno traverses that distance in half the time – three hours flat! Italy has two high-speed rail lines, Trenitalia, which I’ve ridden to Florence and Venice, and Italotreno, which we took to Milano.
      Since this trip to Milan was a special birthday gift from Michael and Laura, a very special tour of the city had been arranged by my son the professional City Wonders tour guide. But first, a short cab ride from Milano Centrale to our rented (Airbnb) apartment on Corso San Gottardo, where we met Laura and checked in. As we walked in to the inner courtyard, I spotted a gleaming glass elevator which had been installed long after the main building. I was relieved because I knew our apartment was up a long flight of stairs on il primo piatti, what Europeans refer to as the first floor, and Americans know as the second floor. My advancing years and a bad back problem have me walking with a cane anyway. Laura must have seen the relief in my eyes when I caught sight of the elevator. Don’t get your hopes up! That elevator is not for us, she said. We don’t have a key. When I asked her why we couldn’t use the elevator, she explained. The residents of the building decided to chip in and pay the cost of installing the elevator, she said. One resident refused to contribute, so the rest of the tenants locked him out of the elevator. The apartment we’re staying in does not have access to the elevator. Laura concluded, and that’s why you have to hobble up a flight of stairs!
       Corso San Gottardo runs parallel to one of the network of canals – The Navigli - that once connected Milan with the Po River and thence to the Adriatic Sea, which made the city of Milan an inland port city on the order of Stockton, California, which lies 100 or so miles up the Sacramento River from San Francisco Bay in Central California. Some of the canals were filled in in the 1930s, and by the 1960s plans to remake Milan as an inland port were abandoned. Along the remaining canals today is an enchanting river walk, La Darsena, with quaint shops and restaurants with an abundance of ancient, historical buildings that give this part of Milan a unique flavor.  Once we settled in to our comfy second floor, or primo piatti apartamento, we headed out for a stroll along the Naviglio Pavese looking for a ristorante to have dinner. I had no idea that Milano, like Venice was a city of canals. But, unlike Venice and its famed gondolieri and their sleek, black gondolas, the canals of Milano are awash in the kayaks belonging to the city’s sports clubs.
      The next morning while Laura headed off to work, Michael led the way up the Corso to the tram stop, where we caught the Number 3 trolley to Il Duomo, Milan’s spectacular gleaming white

marble cathedral. There, we caught up with our City Wonders guide, Simone, who would take us on a walking tour through Milano toward what my son had decided would be the piece de resistance of my birthday celebration, an opportunity to stand and gaze at Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece The Last Supper! But first, Simone led our group through the heavy security cordon surrounding all of Italy’s landmarks in this era of heightened tensions. Il Duomo, or Milan Cathedral took nearly six hundred years to build. Its trademark white marble was quarried miles away and was carried by barge through the canals to a port adjacent to the construction site. Simone kept up with his colorful description of the art works and events that have taken place in the cathedral over the centuries. As we exited the cathedral, Michael and I left the tour because there was a statue that we wanted to see that was not on Simone’s regular tour

itinerary – the artist Maurizio Cattalan’s huge statue of a hand with its middle finger extended skyward toward Milan’s stock exchange in a statement intended by Cattalan for the stock exchange’s brokers and bankers. The giant finger caused a furor when it was first installed in 2010, but, it remains to this day in Piazza Affari blaring its message across the piazza to the denizens of La Borsa, Milano’s venerable stock exchange. Naturally, Michael and I took time to snap some selfies with the giant statue.
      By now it was almost time for our main attraction, The Last Supper. A short stroll past Sforza Castle, built in the 15^th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, brought us to the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where the mural is displayed. After passing through the usual tight security our group was led through a series of interlocking, climate-controlled glass chambers until we reached the convent’s former dining hall where we came into the presence of Leonardo’s masterpiece.  I

thought to myself, so this is the centerpiece in Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code.” Well done, Robert Langdon!
      Both Laura and I were celebrating our birthdays in this same week – me on Wednesday and Laura on Friday. For my birthday, Laura and Michael took me to a Ristorante Milanese-cum Texas-style dining establishment called Brisket! Sure enough, the entryway was adorned by a large map of the Lone Star State, and inside, Lone Star flags graced the walls. My namesake meal was delicious! The brisket I had definitely had been cooked by an Italian chef. Not quite Franklin’s in Austin, but it was tender and delicious. Later, the owner told us that he special-orders his meats from the U.S. After a short stroll along Naviglio Pavese, we were back at our apartment.
       Friday morning, Laura left early for a meeting at her office. She would meet us later at Milano

Laura, MikeBo, Michael at Dinner

Centrale, Milan’s main train terminal for the three-hour ride back to Rome. Michael’s day would not be over for many hours yet. A van would be waiting to take him to Lumina Studios to rehearse for the television pilot he would record the next night. But, the studio driver’s first stop was his house, so he could pick up his ukulele for the rehearsal. Once we got to the house, Michael grabbed his instrument and headed to rehearsal. Laura drove me back to my apartment where I collapsed in a heap. It had been an exhilarating but exhausting week!

Next time: A star is born, and other adventures! I’ll keep you posted along the way.
Ciao,
MikeBo

[Mike Botula is the author of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! He is a retired broadcast journalist, government spokesperson and media consultant.   Mike’s book is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble Books. You can visit Mike Botula at www.mikebotula.com]