One of the areas inside the castle that Leonardo da Vinci designed for the Duke of Milan houses a school for applied arts, appropriately enough.
Tag Archives: Milan
Learn Italian in Song: Parco Sempione
Sempione Park
Another piece of dark humor from Elio e le Storie Tese, which also follows in the eco-aware tradition of Il Ragazzo della via Gluck – and, like that song, is inspired by Milan, environmentally one of the worst places to live in Italy.
Continue reading Learn Italian in Song: Parco Sempione
Milan, Christmas 2008
^ sparkly crystal display in the dome of Milan’s Galleria
After a disastrous trip from Denver, Ross and I made it back to Italy the Saturday before Christmas, rather than the Friday as originally scheduled. Which meant I was still exhausted and jet-lagged when I made a dash into Milan to see friends that Monday. After having tea downtown with Mary Ellen, I had some time to kill before meeting Enrico, so I wandered over to the Duomo and Galleria area to enjoy the Christmas decorations. It was a foggy night (typical of Milan in winter), which lent a magical softness to the scene.
This year’s theme at La Rinascente, the fancy department store next door to the Duomo, was apparently crystal, resulting in some unusually attractive escalators: 
The outside windows contained tableaux of “Swarovski-inspired” fashions which mostly looked weird, but I did like the beds of crystals the mannequins were standing in. 
Beneath the central dome in the Galleria is a mosaic floor including this representation of a bull which I believe is a symbol of the city of Torino (torino literally means “little bull”). There’s a custom in Milan to place your heel firmly on the bull’s testicles and spin, as this man was illustrating to his wife: 
…resulting in the damage you can see below (the mosaic is repaired from time to time). 
This is supposed to bring good luck, though it seems to me it might have originated as a dispetto (sign of disrespect) for the rival city. 
La Scala. I’m still not used to it being painted white. The vertical and horizontal strips of lights behind outline the new wing that was added in the recent restoration.
Milan Cow Parade 2007
above: Pippi Longcow with a junior art critic – Piazza Castello
Street art didn’t fare so well in Milan. The newspapers reported that Milan set a record for the number of cows vandalized, particularly during the night that the AC Milan football club won the European championships for the seventh time. The poor cows were variously burned, thrown into a fountain, or simply taken away. They had been intended to be sold to raise money for charity. Alternative ways to raise this money are now being explored.
Here are a few I managed to salvage photographically.
metro station at Cairoli
La cow é mobile, qual pium al vento…
via Dante
Design Week Milan 2007
^ above: “Wrongwood”
Today I went to Milan to visit, with fellow Woodstock School alumna Ringae Nuek (herself a designer), some of this year’s Design Week sites.
^ Established & Sons: The Font Clock, by Sebastian Wrong – soon to be a fixture in every graphic studio in the world, no doubt.
^ furniture by Zaha Hadid, reflected in mirror by Sebastian Wrong
^ bathtub by Boffi.
Lovely, but would I feel like a noodle in a soup bowl?
^ At Moroso: Can you tell what this wall is made of?
How about now?
Got it yet?
Still no?
Yes, that’s right….
^ A gazillion plastic drinking straws.
^ A fun object by a student from the Design Academy Eindhoven – a semi-electronic typewriter.
^ There’s so much to see that, after a while,
you need to sit down for a rest.
