You can see ALL of today's photos - look for the link at the bottom of this post.
I'm writing from Hamburg where we will spend the next week exploring this city and visiting my nephew, Kris, and his wife, Mirjam and their two girls, Jona and Maya. Wales is now behind us but not forgotten. It was a magical week spent with good friends in a very special place. Ann and Alex stayed behind but they leave for the States in a day or so. Jane and Mark flew back to New York yesterday. Stacey and I travelled on to Germany.
The last few days in Wales were varied and rewarding. On Day Two we did what became a usual routine: breakfast at one of the beach cafés. These breakfasts have been variations on the full English breakfast,i.e. eggs, bacon or sausage, roasted tomato, toast, coffee (which has been excellent here) and then, to work off those calories, a long walk on the beach path. This time we headed into the nearby town of Mumbles. We were off to see the restored ruins of a Norman castle and then explore the sweet shopping street that comprises the center of the town. Mumbles is just a hop and skip away from the larger city of Swansee but has its own small-town flavor.
Alex orders breakfast. "Well send it to your table."
Mumbles is a lovely little Welsh seashore village. Small and neat houses are spread out on a hill with the bay and shopping street down below. In the distance, Oystermouth Castle, a Norman stronghold built in the 12th century.
Back street of Mumbles with Oystermouth Castle in the distance.
CLICK PICTURE TO SEE IT LARGE!
Newton Road, the main shopping strip in Mumbles.
Oystermouth Castle overlooks Mumbles.
The castle overlooks Mumbles Bay and the town of the same name.
The castle had a commanding view of the town and bay, but the short film shown inside said that at the time of its construction in the 1100's the bay was much lower in level and thus, further away than it is now and that trees obscured any view of the water.
We climbed the parapets of the restored ruin and took in the views. And we stopped to shoot some photos of historic characters.
Two Norman lassies and their bodyguard,
L-R: Anastasia The Fair, Janetha The Short and Anndrewth The Flamboyant.
Marcus The Magnificent.
A group self-portrait.
After the castle, we strolled the streets of the town ducking into this store and that to check the wares.
Heading back home after a day in Mumbles.
My next post marks the end of our Wales trip - a visit to Janie's cousin in the interior of Wales and a National Trust historic house. After that, we're off to Hamburg and a week in Germany. Please come along with us. - Matt
Saturday, August 25th was our first full day in Wales. We arrived late the night before after an all day affair with British roads (and no maps, guides, and a dodgy GPS/smart phone). Our friends, Ann and Alex, were patiently expecting our arrival and we kept in touch by mobile as we slowly made our way to their home. Alex is quite a cook and after some drinks, he prepared a superb salmon dinner, accompanied by wine, salad, dessicated kale (wow!) and risotto with brocolli rabe. Quite sumptuous - we were impressed.
Old friends: Jane, Ann and Stacey.
NOTE: you can click any photo to see it larger.
We turned in after some convivial conversation. The next morning, we did what Ann and Alex do almost every morning - we set out for a walk on Langland Bay, on which body of water sits their apartment.
Alex graciously made our morning cups of java.
A brief word about their location: Wales juts out west from England, separated from it on the east by the Severn River. It is an semi-autonomous part of the United Kingdom (composed of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) and has its very own history (one of subordination by England, and others, and a fierce sense of independence and autonomy), language and culture.
Click to see larger.
Many well-known people hail from Whales, among them Tom Jones, Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta Jones (Jones is the most common Welsh name, by the way) and the late, great poet, Dylan Thomas.
Note from the map that the sea plays an important part in Welsh history. Ann and Alex's place is just outside of one of Wales three larger towns or cities, Swansea. The other two are Cardiff, the capitol and Bangor in the north. Swansea and Cardiff are both on the Bristol Channel, bordered on the north by Wales and on the south by England's south west region. On its west, Wales is bordered by the Irish Sea.
Coal played an enormous part in Wales' economic development but most of that is gone now. Margaret Thatcher closed many of the mines and widespread poverty and near- destruction of the powerful miner's union was the result. There have been rebounds in later years due to tourism and special economic projects which were put in place to replace mining which had been so central.
The southern coastline is incredibly beautiful. It's filled with one wide bay after another as small peninsulas jut out into the sea, lined with rugged cliffs and broad beaches. There's lots of weather as the wind blows in moisture from the Atlantic - rain is plentiful but so are brilliant blue skies filled with white clouds. In minutes that can change to dark and ominous skies, winds and pelting rain which can change quickly back again to sunny and pleasant. Every minute or so brings a new kaleidoscopic scene through which view the Channel and its churning surf.
Ann and Alex's place was once the mansion/palace of a coal baron from the early 20th century. Later, ironically, it became a convalescent home for aged miners who had been the source of the mine-owner's wealth. Now, after having lain derelict for many years, it has been converted into condos and it's, well, incredible, Perched on a hill above the bay, their place offers wonderful views of the Bristol Channel with the Devon coast visible (weather permitting) across the water, some 26 miles distant.
Waiting for the others on our first morning walk.
Our friends' apartment is on the top two floors
plus a roof deck at the top of the tower. Beautiful!
But I digressed. I was telling you about Ann and Alex on their daily routine. Note that this is their vacation house. Their other home is northern California. So when they're here, it's the life and routine of vacation. A morning walk, a little breakfast at the cafe down by the beach, hanging out, checking email and browsing the web, reading, visiting friends or Welsh attractions - all the sort of things that make retirement so pleasurable. We set out to duplicate the routine. Walking out of their development and then just across the road, one quickly reaches the beach. A paved hiking path goes off in either direction, along, but high above, the water. Each turn in the path gives you another exquisite view of the water, the rocks, the beach, the bathers and surfers and the surrounding cliffs. Outstanding beauty!
We had breakfast at the Brasserie, one of several restaurants/cafés that dot the hiking path and beach. And it was lovely - eggs, bacon (think Canadian bacon), toast, lox (smoked salmon over here), and so on.
Mark and Jane frame our hosts' apartment.
At the Brasserie for breakfast. Jane and Alex.
After breakfast we took a long walk on the path, heading east toward Bracelet Bay. From there we'd hop on a tour bus and ride into Swansea to the Dylan Thomas center which memorializes the life of the great Welch poet.
Thomasian Philosophy.
It had been a great day: breakfast at the beach, a long walk on a spectacular footpath, a visit to the Dylan Thomas center. We took a cab back home, rested a bit and met up on the deck on top of the castle-like tower that Ann and Alex live in for a pre-dinner cocktail. That granted us even more spectacular views of the sky and the sea.
Views to the sea from the roof deck.
We then sat down to a lovely dinner, once again prepared by Chef Alex: but not before some singing and chatting. Alex prepared a dinner of Welsh hill lamb was on the menu. Superb!
PRESS PLAY for a video ... Mark led us in some good ol' singing.
A perfect dinner caps a perfect first day in Wales!
Our first day in Wales was, to the say the least, memorable. Tomorrow, we visit Janie's cousin in the countryside. You can join us. Just follow us in my next post.
See you on the left side of the road.
- Matt
If you'd like to see all of today's photos, simply go HERE.
On Thursday, August 23rd, we awoke early, packed our bags, had breakfast and then picked up our rental car at the airport - the convenience of claiming our car at the airport and not dealing with London traffic is why we stayed at Heathrow instead of London proper.
We thought we would use the GPS that Google offers (and it's great ... as long as one has a cell connection) to guide us around England. So, stupidly, we had no map, no guide book, no nothing. We are such laid back travelers that we believed that we could find our way around a strange country without any help save our smart phone. Well, that was true but only to some extent and that hubris did get us into trouble a couple of times. Nothing serious, just delays, which I'll detail later on.
Our Peugeot 3008 mini-van. NOTE: You can clck on any photo to see it larger.
Oxford, the famous, and ancient, university town of the aristocracy and privileged, is only an hour or so from London and even closer from Heathrow. That was our first stopping point of the day. We'd have a nice lunch (didn't happen) and a walk around the town with its midieval buildings and sprawling meadows.
We parked our car in an underground lot and set out to explore.
Mark checks out the lay of Oxford town.
We popped into the local tourist office and picked up a map with a short walking tour that would take us through some of the university's more interesting buildings. Our first stop was Bodleian Library which is a working library to this day. It is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, dating back to the early 17th century but with roots to the 15th.
The Bod, as it's called, is one of a group of buildings that form the historic heart of the university. One outstanding building is the Radcliffe Camera - camera referring to the Italian word for "room." It was built in 1734 and houses a science library today.
Radcliffe Camera on Catte Street.
Further along our walk, we came to Merton College and its chapel. The University is made up of many colleges and this one bordered beautiful Merton Field and beyond that a vast meadow: Christ Church Meadow, its green fields vanishing into the distance. A broad dirt promenade divided the two fields and people strolled along it to enjoy the view in all directions.
This the chapel of Merton College.
Mark strolls along Merton Field.
Lunch was at a coffee shop but was a disappointment. Mark's "caesar" salad consisted of some pale iceberg lettuce topped with bottled ranch dressing. My "homemade" tomato soup was bland and tasteless. I hasten to add that the cafe was not typical of the basically good cuisine that we enjoyed throughout our trip.
We strolled back to the car park to start our drive to our evening's inn: The Old Stocks Hotel in Stow-On-The-Wold. [MAP].
The Cotswolds are a region of hills in central and southwestern England. A wold, we read, is a high and open place. The region is dotted with lovely and quaint market towns, situated on the wolds and many populated with midieval buildings. Back in the day, sheep farming required the driving of your herd to market in the center of town. Our hotel was situated on Market Square, one such sheep-trading plaza.
Market Square in Stow-On-The-Wold.
After unpacking, we had a couple of drinks at the hotel bar and noted that the price of cocktails here were about a quarter of those in our fancy-shmancy London hotel. Dinner was at a wonderful Indian restaurant recommended by a friendly British woman and her daughter who happened to be walking down the street with us. Indian cuisine is ubiquitous throughout England and is very popular.
The next day we strolled about the town, taking in old St. Edward's church, cute tourist shops and its beautiful and narrow streets.
St. Edwards Church. He's the patron saint of Stow.
Mark outside a saddlery in Stow.
A Cotswold gent out for a shop.
We checked out of the hotel and packed the car. We were on our way to Wales and our friends, Ann and Alex, who have an apartment there. But first, I suggested that we take a look at a couple of other Cotswold towns. We drove to Moreton-On-Marsh and spent another hour there, perusing the shops and the street. Not as old as Stow but nevertheless, another lovely Cotswold town.
From Oxford to Stow to Moreton-on-Marsh.
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It was starting to rain and the forecast called for more, so it was time to get started on the road to Wales. The GPS said 2 hours or so and that became the standing joke of the day. No matter how far and how long we drove, Wales was just "2 hours away." The final length of our trip? Seven hours! Many factors intruded: our smartphone constantly lost its cell connection in the country, leaving us alone with our wits, and nothing more, to find our way. Once, after driving for an hour away from Stow, we came across a signpost that said "Stow, 9 miles." My brain would not accept it and I offered an interpretation: "that just means a road that goes toward Stow. It's not referring to the town itself." Sure, sure. But wrong! No, we had gone, somehow, in a complete circle, ending up just about where we started.
The second factor, turning two hours into seven: the traffic. Aside from the modern Motorways, the so-called "M" roads, Britain has many old and very narrow roads and they intersect other old and very narrow roads at roundabouts (what we call traffic circles in the States). Roundabouts are great but only when they serve a limited number of cars. Trouble is this: there are too many freakin' cars on the road and then the elegant fluidity of the circles fails and they become huge bottlenecks. Signage testifies to that as they warn you: "may be queues ahead." And there sure were. Every few miles - another two mile backup as cars negotiated the roundabout.
Finally, we reached the Severn Bridge which crosses the river of the same name and separates England from Wales. The river then broadens to become the Bristol Channel which opens into the Atlantic. Hurrah! Only two more hours to Swansea and our friends' house. But it wasn't to be. The M4 motorway was clogged and almost at a standstill. We hadn't realized it but the Friday we were travelling on was the beginning of Britain's August Bank Holiday (equivalent to our Labor Day and marking the end of summer vacations). Londoners were streaming to holiday in Wales and we were part of that vast and very slow moving migration. Three of us four voted to get off the M4 and follow our belabored GPS along a parallel route. It worked - the road was moving and we just sailed along. About 40 minutes passed when we came to a sign that said "Welcome To England." It seems that our navigator had us correctly following the A48. However, we were following it in the wrong direction - east instead of west! We stared at the sign in disbelief. Again, denying the reality of our mistake, I tried to make it go away by concocting a scenario that the Wales / English border was convoluted and we must just have passed temporarily back into England but that, nevertheless, we were on the right road. But it was not to be:. We had, in fact, gone the wrong way and were back, once again, at the Severn River where we had been an hour before. Again, it was only "two hours to Swansea" ... all over again.
This time we proceeded, still staying off the clogged M4, westward to our destination and we finally reached it and our friends at 9:30 pm. Such good friends, who waited so patiently for us. A fine meal there for us - our travails only served to make our repast that much better. It didn't matter that our two hour trip took us seven. We were finally in Wales!
Our Wales of a story continues in my next post. Don't miss it.
To see all of our Cotswolds photos, just CLICK HERE.
I write this from Wales in the United Kingdom on Day 6 of our European trip. We left the States on the 21st of August with friends, Jane and Mark, and flew to London. There we would stay two nights at the Hilton in Heathrow. After landing and spending the night at the hotel we started out, via the Underground, for a day of walking around the historic center of England's capitol city.
Mark, with his laptop and mobile, at Newark as we waited to board our plane for London.
We boarded the Underground at the airport and took the Piccadilly line to Hyde Park. It took us about an hour, door-to-door. When we emerged, we were at the southeast corner of London's beautiful central park. It was very exciting, cars, double-decker buses and bicycles whizzing by around us and the peaceful and quiet oasis of the park beckoning us inwards.
Stacey in Hyde Park's Rose Garden. Stunning!
We strolled around an extraordinarily beautiful rose garden for a while and then headed eastwards through the posh neighborhood of Mayfair. Wending our way through streets, both small, quaint and quiet and then noisy and teeming, we made our way eventually toward Piccadilly.
At a pub for lunch.
We were getting tired of walking and also started to talk about lunch so we found what looked like a nice pub where Jane and Stacey tried the traditional fish and chips. Mark had a hamburger and I had a Ploughman's platter of bread and cheese. We all had some proper British beer as well. We kept on our long march and made our way Trafalgar square. With its tall column surmounted by Lord Nelson and its extraordinary lions which served as the perfect backdrop for posed photos, it was a real center for meet-ups and hang outs. The sun was shining brilliantly, people were everywhere: standing or sitting on steps and ledges. It was quite beautiful and very popular.
Posing for pictures in Trafalgar Square. Smile! You too, Leo.
We ended our one-day, whirlwind walking tour of London town at the Thames, down on The Embankment. We took a down-and-dirty circular boat ride up to the Tower Bridge and then back down, ending at Westminster and its famous tower with the Big Ben clock at its top. What a great way to see the old city and its skyline. We passed under many bridges. Here was Blackfriar's Bridge and London Bridge. There was Christopher Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral and finally the famous Tower Bridge (thought by many of us Americans to be London Bridge). On the way back up the river we passed some of London's new architecture, including an awesome building that looks like glass needle (said to be the tallest building in western Europe), the Tate modern art museum and the famous London Eye which is an enormous, slowly-rotating wheel which one can ride around for fantastic views from aloft.
Tower Bridge.
The London Eye
We finished our boat ride at Big Ben. It was after five and the streets were crowded with after-work walkers, bikers, cars and buses. It was quite frenetic. People were standing with friends and beers outside of pubs for a bit of after-hours socializing.
We made our way northwards again, not knowing whether we should pick up some take-away (as they say here) for a dinner in our hotel room. But it was so late we figured that we wouldn't end up eating "dinner" until nine o'clock what with an hour Undeground ride back to Heathrow and our hotel. So we opted for Indian food on a Yelp-recommended restaurant on Denman Street. The only problem was, we couldn't find Denman Street. In trying to locate it, we happened upon Chinatown - we didn't even know it existed! But it was filled with lots of restaurants and lots of Londoners and other tourists. We were so tired, we picked one that looked good and, guess what? It was!
Hanging out after work at the pub. Chatting outside with a cold one.
Bikers rule! Lots of people on bicycles and this is rush hour after work!
After our really good Chinese dinner.
A good dinner, an hour train ride home and a good night's sleep ended our first full day in the U.K.
An interesting side note: our niece Marlo was in London as well - she was here to promote her Thro products that manufactures and sells. She was going to be live on QVC, the sales channel but we couldn't get it in our room. Stacey cajoled the hotel staff to turn it on on the telly in lobby (without sound, however). And we watched Marlo live on UK television - grand!
I filmed Marlo live on QVC - right off the hotel lobby telly. There's no sound though.
Tomorrow, we pick up our rental car and head to Oxford and the glorious British countryside in the Cotswolds. We'll see you there. - Matt
If you want to see the rest of our London walking tour photos, just CLICK HERE.
My Aunt Sissy, Sylvia Kaplan (nee Lotz), passed away last night. We got a call from her neighbor and dear friend, Laura, urging us to come to Coney Island Hospital where she had been taken in an unfruitful effort to revive her. She died peacefully and suddenly after spending a lovely day with her aide Norma. They had been cooped up inside for the past several days while the heavens poured out unending rain. But yesterday was clear and they spent several hours sitting on the green commons outside her Warbasse apartment in Brighton. Sissy was in a wonderful mood and greeted friends and strangers alike. She loved little children and a neighbor, Elena, was there with her kids and Norma said that Sissy was energized by talking to them. That evening she gave Sissy dinner "which she ate well and plentifully" and then washed her and put her to bed where she passed away, literally, in her arms.
Cory and Sissy at the Brooklyn, Botanic Garden April, 2009
I have memories of my aunt that go back to my earliest years. Married to my mom's youngest sibling, Seymour Kaplan, she lived in Brighton Beach in a small bungalow on one of that neigborhood's unique little passages: Brighton 3rd Place - it was more of an alley than a street. But the family lived happily there and their two children, my cousins Cory and Jay, grew up there, played, made lifelong friends and attended the neighborhood schools. Around the corner on Brighton 4th Street lived Grandma Lilian ("Bunya") and Grandpa Sol ("Zuzick"). So we were there often.
Standing out in my memory are the numerous birthday parties for Jay and Cory; barbecues in the front yard with the extended family all around and we kids racing up and down the path that fronted the house.
My mom adored her younger brother Seymour and counted him and Sissy among their close friends. In later years Sissy and Seymour lived in Manhattan Beach for a time and that relationship was even closer - mutual visits and lots of nights out at a favorite diner. The kids, of course, were long gone in those years - the 80's into the 90's - so Stacey and I, living in Manhattan Beach as well, didn't see them but contact was maintained though not as frequently.
In recent years, after Seymour's demise with a terrible bout of cancer and with Jay and Cory living far away, Stacey and I and a niece, Ellen, on Sissy's side of the family, looked after Sissy and dropped in on her frequently. There were many dinners and lunches or just outings. When Sissy had mostly lost her sense of taste we introduced her to Indian cuisine with its strong flavors and she enjoyed that. I remember a birthday party at our favorite Indian restaurant in Bay Ridge. Her boyfriend in those years was Hy who we included in our outings. Hy, too, passed away but Sissy continued on and had many good years.
She lived in the Warbasse development of high rises in West Brighton. She still went to the Brighton Baths which was a wonderful social environment that nourished both Seymour and Sissy with friends and activities. After it closed, she joined a beach club in Sea Gate and continued her socializing there. That was given up in more recent years as she aged and her health deteriorated somewhat.
In these last few years, Sissy began to lose her memory and her health continued to fade. There were injuries and falls, a broken hip and elbow and more memory loss and confusion. So it goes. But through it all there was a very sweet woman with a calm demeanor who was always happy to see us and greeted us with a smile and a kiss. We knew it was a genuine affection for us when we visited - it wasn't just a smile pasted on for effect.
I'm fortunate to have celebrated her 91st birthday with her just a week or so ago and that's how I will remember her: smiling, cheerful and happy to see me. When we made a sad farewell last night, viewing her lifeless body at the hospital, I was overcome with an intense sadness, realizing that death is so final - I would never see my dear Aunt Sissy again. We will miss her, almost the very last of her generation in our family. We miss her already.
To see a collection of photos of Aunt Sissy go here.
Our for Pizza at Il Fornino in Williamsburg. March, 2008.
-- Nov 16, 2010
from American Airlines flight No. 199, en route to New York from Milan.
We ended our Italian trip with a four day stay in Italy’s fashion and business center, Milano. You'll remember that we began our sojourn two weeks ago on November 2nd, landing in Milan’s Malpensa airport and then immediately boarding a plane for Palermo on Sicily. We joined our friends, Ellen and Brian in sharing a rental apartment in the ancient town of Modica in southeast Sicily - this trip was to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. After spending a week with them, Stacey and I drove off of Sicily and onto the Italy's mainland where we drove from the her toe to her heel; i.e. the region of Puglia. Though small in area, Italy has a wide diversity of culture and geography and we were able to savor a few of them with great delight over the course of two weeks.
What can we say about Milan? We loved it. Coming from New York, we felt very much at home in this great Italian metropolis. For sure, there are vast differences. New York is tall and vertical. Milan is decidedly low-rise. And New York is not very old and changing its skyline almost daily it seems. Milan has been around a long time and even though it suffered much destruction from Allied bombs during World War II, it still feels and looks like an old, if not ancient, European city. New York City, and Manhattan in particular, are laid out on a grid. Not so Milan, whose streets emanate from Il Duomo in concentric fashion and then become a mumble-jumble of chaotic confusion where the name of a street changes at a whim as you travel along it.
But what really ingratiated itself to us was the electricity and rhythm - the vibrant buzz of the city. Milano is so alive! People are out and about, on foot, on bike or scooter, in the trams and buses and yes, alas, in their cars that clog the streets and foul the air. Italians do love their cars but at least they sip gas rather than devour it as do ours.
This is decidedly not a city of the working class. Milan is a bourgeois town and it's decorated with the iconography that announces it: the stock market is here and it is the banking and business center of the country. Here is the Quadrilatero della moda high-fashion district with the retail temples of Versace, Chanel, Fiorucci, Prada and Dolce and Gabbana. These are the designers for Italy's ruling class with prices that only the very wealthy can afford. Progessive politics is not very evident here - no graffiti demanding peace or victory for working people - as it might be in other Italian cities where the Left is stronger. No, this is the city of Berlusconi and his far-right partner, Fini (the former’s brother owns the major newspaper and Berlusconi, of course, owns virtually all the broadcast media throughout the country).
But it is also the most ethnically diverse city in Italy - with many Chinese and other Asians, Africans and Arabs evident in the neighborhoods that we walked through. As such, Milan has a more cosmopolitan and international feel than other Italian cities we’ve been to on this trip and before. It has an eclectic architecture - due to the devastation of the war - with an elegant mix of 19th and 20th century buildings. The apartment houses downtown, evidently home to wealthier Milanos, are elegant and substantial with their carved stone facades, corbelled terraces and grand doorways. The palazzi of former royalty surround Il Duomo and inform us that this is a neighborhood of the very rich and powerful.
Because it’s the center of design and fashion, the Milanese dress accordingly. We never saw a t-shirt on a man in a restaurant. Always, a buttoned shirt and a sweater as a minimum. More often, jackets and ties. Rarely jeans and sneakers.Women, too, are dressed formally and fashionably The retail shops, and particularly the clothing stores, are very avant, showing off their wares as if they were works of art. And food? Every few feet, another eating establishment - pizzeria, bar, café, ristorante, osteria, salumeria, frommageria and so on. Again, oozing luxury and elegantly designed to beckon one within. By the way, we never had a bad coffee in all of Italy - we drank café espresso (which we do at home as well) and it was always excellent, even at a gas station on the autostrada. The same goes for Italian tomatoes which, in every instance, exploded with flavor in their salads, pastas and pizza. The food throughout our trip was always high quality in taste and preparation and I often wondered why that’s not true in our country as well. Mostly, it seems, because small establishments still exist in Italy, throughout the country in small towns and big cities alike, where our cuisine has come to be dominated by the huge fast food chains and all that portends for the food we ingest.
Milan’s transit system is a thing of beauty. We’ve learned that this is true throughout Europe which, by and large, did not destroy their trams and trains in favor of the auto and truck. While we’re paying for that reckless lack of planning at home, Europeans have access to modern mass transit now as they have always had in the past. Our hotel, which was in a residential neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, was very convenient to the centro historico (historical center) via the No. 12 tram which stopped right on our corner. What a delight! It woved its way slowly, but methodically, downtown, passing one interesting neighborhood after another. With our 24-hour billetto (ticket) we were able to hop-on and hop-off as we pleased - and we did, riding and walking and exploring wherever we wanted. Other choices included a subway ride or a bus, part of an extensive system that covers the entire city and beyond to the surrounding metropolitan area.
And bicycles, once again, were in good use. Not, perhaps, nearly as much as in other European cities. But Milanese of all ages and classes use them quite a bit to get around easily; to avoid the traffic jams and to reach areas not serviced by a tram or bus. We saw elderly men and women, hip young women and businessmen in suits with briefcases, all cycling here and there on errands or on their way to work or wherever. The city also provides many locations to rent, very inexpensively, so-called city bikes that can be picked up at one spot and returned to another - a very convenient way to get around. Still, unlike even New York, there are few, if any, bike lanes and the streets are very often paved with large cobblestones and inlaid with tram rails, making, it seemed to me, a somewhat hazardous place to ride a bike.
We walked – a lot! That may be our saving grace as we ate much more than we are accustomed to. We must have walked quite a few miles each day that we were in Milano. From the Duomo to the Poldi Pezzoli museum; from the Centro to the Coin department store a while away; from one side of Parco Sempione to a hip bar scene near the Arca della Pace on the park’s other end – we walked and walked and walked. At the end of each day, yes - we were tired!
So, we loved Milan - even with our critical outlook of its fashion, banking and business demeanor. We love cities and the social cooperation that they foster and so we loved Milano for its city-ness; we loved it for its vibrancy, its big city feel, its elegance and for its people who, like people everywhere, were friendly and always willing to give directions and advice when asked by a tourist in need. We’d return again without hesitation.
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Now for some highlights, in words and pictures of our four days in Milan. By the time you read this, we will be back in Brooklyn - the joy of travel and our Italian trip will soon become a memory. One reason for writing about our travel is to commit our experience to paper something a bit more firm than my fleeting memory. This serves my purpose but I hope you’ve enjoyed reading, and travelling, along with us as well.
Buon giorno e ariverderci! Ciao, ciao! - Matteo
Day 1, Friday -
We arrived from Bari by plane to Milan’s Malpensa airport and rode into town and our hotel on the Malpensa Express - a train ride to Milan’s center. Our hotel, however, was not downtown - that kept expenses within reason since Milan is one of the ten most expensive cities in the world and Italy’s most expensive. We debarked the train at the Bovisa station, couldn’t find a taxi easily so we walked to the hotel - a big, and very tiring, mistake. We reached our hotel, luggage in tow, some 40 minutes later. That might have been easier a few years ago.
After a long nap, we ventured downtown, catching the No. 12 tram on our corner. It took us to the historic center and Milan’s marvelous cathedral: Il Duomo.
Our first glimpse of Milan's Duomo - was this an appartion of the night? Remember that you can click on any photo to see it clearer and larger.
Tonight was just for a first look. Tomorrow we'll explore the Duomo with a bit more energy.
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is a covered arcade built in grand style between 1865 and 1877. It connects the Duomo and La Scala plazas and is an incredible monument in its own right. It's filled with all the names of Italian high fashion and very fancy restaurants, shops and bars. Breathtaking just to see it or stand within and look up and around!
A place to see and be seen: the famous Milan Galleria - the progenitor of today's shopping malls. Built from 1865-77.
That's the famous La Scala opera house. Click any photo to see it larger.
We walked around the Duomo and La Scala plazas and then started off, following the GPS-Google map on my Blackberry. Our destination was about a mile away - Ristorante Maruzella. We would meet up with our friends Ellen and Brian who we had spent almost a week with on Sicily earlier in our trip, This was our first night in Milan but their last - they were flying back to Washington the next day.
Our firt night in Milan was Ellen and Bran's last night in Italy. We met them for dinner at a very popular pizzeria that they had been eating at over a few days: Ristorante Maruzella.
Our very friendly pizza maestros at Maruzella.
After dinner, posing in front of an elaborately-carved door of an apartment building.
Day 2, Saturday -
We again rode downtown, getting of the tram and walking through some neighborhoods near the Piccolo Theater. The streets were abuzz with people out and about for the weekend. Flea markets were here and there and the shops were open and beckoning buyers with beautiful displays of their wares - clothing, knicknacks, furniture and, always, food, food, food.
Press PLAY for a Milano street scene video.
Signs at many tran stops inform you when the next one will be arriving.
It's not Amsterdam, but bikes are plenty popular and used by all ages to easily get around town. Still, with cobbled streets and trolley tracks -- I wouldn't feel particulaly comfortable. A view from our tram as it passes Parco Sempione.
There are flower vendors everywhere.
Elegant apartments in downtown Milan.
One of the older tram cars. Some date from the late ‘20s, are well maintained and are beloved by Milan's riders.
A scooter store with a Vespa 150 in the window. I have always loved Italian design - classic!
Milano downtown - elegant apartment houses.
We walked until we reached Il Duomo and took in its grace and majesty again - this time in a gray daylight (it’s rainy season in Italy). It’s an amazing work of art, begun in the 1300's and not completed until the 1960's! As such, it’s quite an amalgam of different eras and architectures and architecturally controversial in that regard. What do we know -- to us, it just seemed magical.
Il Duomo.
Detail of Milan Duomo. Click to see larger & clearer.
Interior - altar and aisle, Milan Duomo.
We left the Duomo and walked north to the Brera district with its restaurants, shops and hi-fashion streets. We were hungry. Our hotel did not include breakfast so we were searching out a tourbook recommended eatery: Obiká, billed as the world’s first mozzarella bar. On Saturday they offered a buffet and it was fabulous. Along with four or five different mozzarellas made from the much-praised and admired milk of the buffalo, there was Italian salami and prociutto, arugola and tomato salads, potatoes (yes, potatoes - which were on the menu in virtually every restaurant we ate in throughout Italy - fried or roasted), pasta, soup and lots of pastries and fruit for desert.
On Saturday, our first full day in town, we had lunch at Obiká, billed as the world's first "mozzarella bar."
Milan street scene: bike, tram tracks cobbled pavement.
One of Milan's most famous salumieria (salami store) - Rossi and Grassi on Via Ponte Vetero. Mouth watering!
We headed back to the hotel and rested - we’ve discovered that travelling at 62 and 64 is not as easy as it used to be. However, that night we tried to recapture our youth by heading to one of the city’s hip bar areas where large portions of free aperativi are served along with your drinks - but, after a long walk along Parco Sempione to the Arca della Pace, we found the hip places there too young, too crowded, too smoky (oh boy! do they smoke!) and too noisy for our squarer tastes. It was quite late already - about 10:30 - when we finally found a quieter and very lovely place, the Ristorante de Nuova Arena, just off the park and we shared a delicious pizza and salad and then made our way back to the hotel, not with the greatest of ease - it was late and the trams were on a reduced Saturday night schedule, so we waited and waited and ... it finally did arrive. An adventure for sure.
Heading out again on Saturday night. We’re catching the No. 12 tram - right on the corner of our hotel on Via Villapizzone. This is one of the old cars - charming.
5782 Stacey on an old No. 12 tram. Charming.
Day 3, Sunday -
It was a drizzly, gray day but surprisingly mild in the mid 50s. Because of the rain we decided to take in one of Milan’s museums and we headed to the Poldi Pezzoli, east of Il Duomo. The museum was named after a wealthy and royal collector of the 19th century and is housed in his former palazzo. Much of the interior has been renovated to make it more accessible for use as a museum. But some of the groom still have the grandeur and furnishings of the former palazzo. It was a graphic display of the incredible wealth of yesterday’s (and today’s) aristocrati rulers. The museum was presently running an exhibition of the great Italian master, Botticelli and included two of hist most famous works.
Press PLAY to watch Pinnochio play some music in Piazza Cordusio.
A Botticelli exhibit at the Poldi Pezzoli museum. The museum is in a beautiful palazzo owned by a wealthy Milanese collector of art. This is the Madonna of the Book.
Botticelli's masterpiece: the Lamentation over the Dead Christ.
After the museum, we perused the famous Quartolateral fashion district, so-named because its rectangle is defined by four thoroughfares. Here were the big names of fashion, in shops that oozed the extravagant and avant garde designs that have made Milan one of the centers of fashion and design.
Walking through Milan's high fashion district, the so-called Quadrilatero della moda (quadrilateral of fashion). Prices are as outrageous as the fashions themselves. Who wears this stuff? Click the picture to see it larger.
Handbag envy.
Ogling Dolce & Gabbana in the rain on Milano's famous Via della Spiga.
After our walk through fashionista alley we headed, via subway this time, to a neighborhood southwest of the Duomo - the Navigli. This part of Milan contains the remnants of canals, now drained and no-longer used, that were designed by Leonardo DaVinci to enhance commerce in the city. The neighborhood is one of the city’s new, young and hip areas, filled with bars, cafes and shops. That reminded us of New York which, it seems, constantly reinvents itself with new, vibrant neighborhoods. At the same time, we wondered if the same process of gentrification in our neighborhoods that displaces poor residents with new, well-heeled ones is at work in Milan and concluded that it probably is.
Having not fared so well the previous evening, searching for Milan’s aperativi during their version of happy hour, we were willing to try again at a bar touted for the some of the best (free) appetizers in town. And we found them at Le Biciclette (The Bicycles), a very modern bar, decorated with bicycles and bicycle wheels. The place was empty at 6:30 when we showed up. The crowds don’t show up until 7:30 or so and these places, as we had learned the night before, get really hot and packed at eight or nine and into the wee hours.
At the Navigli - canals, now drained, that were designed by Leonardo to improve commerce in the city. Previously seedy and run down; now hip and youthful with lots of shops and eateries.
Sunday night "dinner" was in the Navigli where happy hours means lots of free aperativos when you buy a drink and hang out. A Milano tradition. This place, decorated with bicycle ephemera was called, naturally enough, Le Biciclette - The Bicycles. Click photo to see larger.
On our way back we took the tram and, while waiting for it, I shot this photo of Milan’s rain-soaked streets.
Day 4, Sunday -
This was our lazy day and our last day in Milan. It rained, fairly hard and steadily, most of the day. We had to pick up a few more gifts for our grandchildren so Stacey suggested we visit an Italian department store and our No. 12 tram would take us all the way there without any switching and standing in the rain waiting for the next one to come along. We were going to check out the Coin (Cohen’s) department store, a ubiquitous Italian chain. We took the tram to striking distance and then got off because, again, the neighborhood looked interesting and we still had the explorer itch in us. We walked several blocks and came across the Camera Dei Lavori Milanese - it was the headquarters for one of the trade union confederations in the city. Just around the corner was a pizzeria that was crowded with people - usually a good sign - and we entered the Ristorante Porta Vittoria. The joint was filled with people from the union hall and the staff was friendly and welcoming. The food was also welcoming - very! We shared another pizza and a plate of risoto ai porcini e branzino. Wonderful on both counts. A cute waitress tried out her English on us and I tried out my Italian - her attempts were much better than mine.
On our way to Coin (in English - "Cohen"), the Italian Department Store, we found this restaurant next to the trade union headquarters and frequented by thir workers. We had a superb risotto with porcini mushrooms and branzino and a great pizza (is there any other kind in Italy?)
We thought that that would be it for food on our last day and went back to the hotel and a long rest. But we’ve found out that the more you heat the hungrier you get. Why? So I fired up the laptop and Googled our hotel and searched the environs for a restaurant. The hotel staff had told us that there were none since we were in a residential neighborhood. But how wrong they were! We had dinner at L’imagine Bistrot, just a few minutes walk away, and what a treat that was! First, the effusive welcome when we walked in and then at our table with clementines and oranges, wonderful crusty bread and marinated sun-dried tomatoes that the owner had prepared. Next two glasses of sparkling prosecco were brought to the table. After the risotto for lunch, Stacey decided she had to have a bit more, so we ordered the Milanese version which adds saffron to the mix - Oh -- So good! This was a meat restaurant so I ordered the tagliata di bisteca - tender and tasty steak cut in strips with an arugala salad and the omnipresent roast potatoes on the side. Great also. “No desert please” I demurred. So they sent a bottle of limoncello, cookies and a dish of peanuts and almonds to the table instead. Then, as we parted company, the young owner insisted that we have a glass of grappa with him ... which we did. Then we sort of staggered the few blocks back to our hotel. It was a memorable night out, and perhaps the best dinner of our trip, though that’s hard to say, food in Italy being so good..
L'Imagine Bistrot - a gem of a restaurant and a 4 minute walk from our hotel.
Besides wonderful food, a very warm welcome with fruit, sundried tomatoes, crusty bread and prosecca - all courtesy of the house. This was our last night in italy.
Day 5, Tuesday -
Today we rose early at 5:30, brought our luggage to the lobby and called a cab which came promptly. We asked to be brought to the Bovisa station where we’d catch the Malpensa Express train to the airport. But the driver promptly informed us, in broken English, that the train was not running due to electrical problems. He could drive us the 30 miles to the airport for the fixed fee of 85 Euros. My New York City antennae went up - were we being scammed? He seemed so nice and genuine. But when he said he would cut the fare to 80 Euro I knew we were being had. “No, just take us to Bovisa station and then wait for us,” I told him. Stacey went inside to find out the status of the train. Sure enough, it was running. There were no problems. It was a sad little coda to an otherwise wonderful few days in Milan. There’s always one bad apple.
This was Stacey’s fifth trip to Italy and my fourth. We’ll probably come back again - it has the perfect blend of ingredients that make travelling so rewarding - beautiful scenery, great food, wonderful people. Then again, there is that book: “One Thousand Places To See Before You Die.” Thanks for travelling with us. Until the next time.
