A Quick Visit to Milano

On Friday morning we went from Monza to Milano Storico for a quick visit. 

Not having a GPS made for an adventurous drive. We meandered our way into the center of the city using a REALLY old map, vague memories, and a few street signs. Eventually, we thought we were close enough so we parked and made our way on foot the rest of the way. 

Our route took us through some of the prime Milano shopping areas. The Italian window displays are always great but in Milan it is a high art. Sometimes the simplicity of the products makes the window but other times the clothes, etc. are upstaged by the setting.

This is a Dolce & Gabbana window. I was fascinated by the way they did the tile. They actually spaced it quite far apart and filled everything with grout.

I am not sure how practical it would be but I thought it looked great.

Our route took us through the Galleria, one of the modern era's first shopping malls. It is filled with pricy stores, cafes, and people.

We meandered our way to the Duomo along with all the other tourists. You now have to pay to go in (Euro 2).

It had been so long since we had visited the Duomo that we could not remember what the inside looks like. At first blush it is rather plane but the sculpture is delightful.

It also has beautiful stained glass windows. For some reason it was impossible to get a good photo of the pictures on the windows. However, they add rainbow light to the interior. The floor is also beautiful tile work. We were glad we paid our money to see the inside.

I fell in love with these shoes and handbag! The photo doesn't show that they seem to be brushed with gold fairy dust.

As I've said before, I need to go back with more money! :-)

We found a spot for a quick lunch on our way to the car. By 1:50 we were heading back to Capannori. Surprisingly, it only took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to get back. That was after a forty minute drive to find the Tangenziale (the Milano ring road). Again, with no GPS it probably took us twice the time it should have.

It was fun to see Milan again. Now I am ready to plan another visit!

Expo 2015

Thursday, from our night near Pavia, we drove north to Expo 2015 on the outskirts of Milan.

The first thing of note we say was these really interesting power poles. Everywhere you look in the Milan area there is interesting architecture and design. 

We prepurchased tickets and parking online and arrived right at the opening at 10 am. It was rather quiet at first. This is a view from the top of the US pavilion. However, I soon figured out this is just a fraction of the site.

The USA pavilion was supposed to be one of the most popular. However, we found it rather boring. I did like these aerial gardens.

Here is another shot of the "hanging" gardens. It's possible more was going on later in the day.

Everywhere you looked there were interesting shaped and decorated pavilions. The one in back is Germany and the one to the left is Ecuador.

This is the center promenade. It was practically deserted when we first arrived. In spite of the day's heat it always seemed cool underneath these panels. I think they were pumping in cool air but Dom thinks they were shaped to increase the breeze.

This might be the Peruvian pavilion. Dom says they used the box it came in. Those external supports are all wood!

This is Israel's pavilion with plants growing on the exterior walls. There was a lot of this. The theme of the Expo is food and feeding the planet. However, there were no free tastings.

This is the Holy See (Vatican) pavilion. It had a very moving multimedia show inside about Catholic relief services all over the world.

Banca Intesa San Paolo had a great pavilion showcasing all sorts of public works projects, theater, arts, and other projects they support throughout Italy. There were a number of "creatures" depicted in spotlights from the ceiling. To make the videos play you put your hand into the beam and raised it. When you did it it looked like you were holding the creature.

We did not go into very many pavilions but we did wait in line for the Kazakhstan one. It proved to be the best we saw. Extremely well done and everything worked. This sand painting video at the beginning told the history of Kazakhstan.

Upstairs in the pavilion they highlighted their wheat and apple production. They are among the largest producers of each in the world. It was like being transported suddenly to Eastern Washington! They also had a great moving 3-D exploration of the country. It's beautiful! They are hosting the next Expo in 2017.

There are all sorts of interesting sculptures around the site.

And interesting buildings!

And the Tree of Life where there is some sort of show (but we didn't hang around for it).

We ate at the Algerian pavilion where they had a great buffet plus cous cous. We had one of each and shared. Just the leftover shown here.

Not a great picture but this was the Algerian restaurant.

Then we went by the New Holland farm equipment exhibit. 

They had a grape harvester, grain harvester, and giant tractor on display.

You could of course climb into the cab. It seems to be a popular activity with boys and men. Dom waited his turn to explore the cab of the giant tractor.

Then we went to the France exhibit where you zigzagged through gardens of all types of grain, fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

It was a very good looking pavilion. Inside they had all sorts of food available. I bought six yummy macarons!

By the time we finished France we were getting pretty tuckered out and it was about 3 pm. We decided to finish walking the length of the site and then take the shuttle back to our car. Along the way we saw more interesting pavilions.

I think this is South Korea.

This is Vietnam.

This pavilion was entered by walking on cargo nets strung between the two sides of the building. I would have loved to see what that felt like but the line was quite long.

Angola's pavilion.

Finally we reached the end and a classic car...

...a Ferrari Formula 1 car, o course.

That was it for the day. We took our exhausted selves back to the car and then drove to Monza. All we did there was find a hotel and spend the night.

We really enjoyed our visit to Expo 2015 and think it's well worth a day, maybe even two if you really want to see a lot of the pavilions. It is very well done. There were plenty of restrooms, cash machines, and other services. Our favorite stop for food was the Lavazza bar--great coffee and pastry. There is LOTS of food but none of it is free. Buy tickets and parking online beforehand. Wear comfy shoes and have fun!

The Lamborghini Museum, Pavia, and a Lovely Cascina Stay

This past Wednesday we took off early for another excursion. This time our destination was Expo 2015 in Milan.

Our first stop was the Lamborghini Museum. We tried to go there last year but it turned out with was closed for the afternoon for a special event. This year we had better luck.

This is the main floor of the exhibit area. There is also an upper area. It's not a large museum but interesting.

Lamborghini was involved in F1 racing for a while. Here is Dom peering intently at the car.

I am pretty sure this is a concept car but not all the exhibits have "labels."

This is a lovely car but I find it most intriguing that they hung it on the wall. Dom suggested we do that with his race care after it is painted. Why not?

This is another "unlabeled" model. It has a single seat but I could not figure out how one got into the cockpit.

I will take one of these. It's a four seater. Actually, at the Ferrari store in Milan I found my dream car, a Ferrari FF. It too is a four seat sedan and is also 4x4. 

Here is the back of the sedan. I wonder if you can fit a pair of skis in the trunk?

Don't ask me the model name...

Lamborghini also made boat engines.

This looks like it was based on the Hummer. However, the write-up about it claims it was a precursor to the modern SUV. It was first designed in the 70s so I suspect the Hummer might have borrowed from the Lamborghini design. It was never put into production.

As we were leaving, someone was going for a test drive. They don't actually let you drive the car, at least not at this point.

This video shows the test drive car pulling away. The driver is a factory employee so you think he would know how to shift. Apparently not if you wait until the very end.

From the Lamborghini Museum we drove to Pavia. It has a lovely covered bridge. Amazingly it actually carries two lanes of traffic.

Bad selfy!

A closer view of the bridge over the river Ticino.

 

Pavia had quite a few interesting vignettes viewed from the main streets.

Here is another.

We found the Pavia Duomo and went inside.

This was an interesting piece but of course nothing ever looks as good in photographs.

This bar had the most fascinating interior.

And then there were the pasticcieria windows

.

Times two!

We drove to the nearby Certosa di Pavia--an historical monastery that is still a monastery. We walked up to the gate and there were lots of signs saying no shorts, no sleeveless shirts. Both of us were in shorts and I had a sleeveless shirt on. Our car was nearby so we went back and changed out of the trunk!

It turned out no photography was allowed. However, I took this before I understood that. Oops! The entire complex is beautiful and well worth a visit if you are ever in the area.

I had made a reservation at Country House, not least because of the beautiful picture of the pool. It was lovely!

The entire complex was picturesque. This is the patio off the owners' kitchen. Our apartment was upstairs along the main road. It is all part of an old cascina complex nestled right in the midst of rice fields. 

Here is some information on cascine which you see all over the Po Valley:

A typical cascina is a square-yarded farm (sometimes having multiple yards) located at the centre of a large piece of cultivated land. Different types of brick-wall buildings are lined on the perimeter of the courtyard, which typically includes houses (usually a main house for the farm owner's or tenant's family, and simpler buildings for the peasants' families), stables, barns, pits and fountains, ovens, stores, mills and dairies. As most cascine were isolated, semi-autonomous settlements, with sometimes as much as one hundred inhabitants, many of them included public buildings such as churches, inns, or even schools. For the same reason, cascine were sometimes fortified structures, with defensive walls, towers, moats and drawbridges.

Cascine are found in most part of the Po Valley. Those from the High Po Valley (also known as the Dry Po Valley) are usually smaller and housed as much as 4-6 families, while those from the Low Po Valley easily reached 10-15 families of inhabitants or more (up to a maximum of 20-25).

Peasants working in the cascine, especially in large ones, had specialized jobs. For example, so-called "campari" were responsible for the maintenance of irrigation structures; "bergamini" looked after the cattle; "casari" worked in the dairy; "bifolchi" were responsible for ox-driven tillage (and "cavallanti" for horse-driven tillage); and "contadini" were factotum peasants, although their main task was that of harvesting hay for cattle feeding. In modern Italian language, most of these terms have fallen into disuse, with the exception of "contadini" (which has become the general term to refer to farmers) and "bifolchi" (which is only preserved in a derived, insulting meaning, similar to that of the English word "boor"). Of course, larger cascine also had carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, and other workers whose jobs were not directly related to agriculture or farming.

Production in the cascine of the Po Valley mainly consisted in wheat, maize, rice, barley, milk and cheese. Arboriculture was also common; cultivated trees included cottonwood,elm, and mulberry. Cascine located close enough to larger urban areas and cities (e.g. those in the Corpi Santi comune outside the walls of Milan) often specialized in cultivating fresh, perishable vegetables (e.g., cabbage or carrot), that were very profitable in urban markets.

(From the Wikipedia entry, Cascina a Corte--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascina_a_corte)