Italy is justly renowned for many centuries and styles of stunning architecture. Unfortunately, all the good stuff is at least a century old. Before and after our move to Lecco in 2003 (initially into a rented apartment), we spent over a year looking for a home to buy. Much of what we saw was of … Continue reading Modern Italian Architecture: Long Past Its Glory Days
I was, unusually, in Milan yesterday (a Saturday), working at my office with Sean Carlos (who’s teaching me cool new website tricks, more on that later). We went out for lunch, and were just getting ready to leave the restaurant when three young guys came in, whom we noticed particularly because one had hair in … Continue reading Scenes from Italian Politics
Since I began commuting regularly to Milan, it has been brought forcibly to my attention how much of Italian productivity is lost to strikes. I haven’t kept count, but it seems as if there has been something to prevent me from getting to the office about twice every month. Tuesday, Milan’s local transit system struck … Continue reading Italian Complaints
I was walking along a street in Milan last Monday, heading to the bar with colleagues for our usual post-lunch coffee. There’s scaffolding on one of the buildings along the way, which was dripping water onto the sidewalk as the weekend’s snow melted. So I stepped under the scaffolding to avoid getting wet. And, exiting … Continue reading Bang!
Northern Italy is bracing itself for the winter Olympics. I am thankful they’re being held in Torino instead of Milano, but we’ll get some spillover traffic, and it seems that we already have extra security measures. Every day a pair of policemen walk down my morning train as soon as it leaves Lecco, scanning for … Continue reading Nerves: Bracing for Trouble at Italy’s Winter Olympics
