Everyday Italia

Today I did a little bit of shopping. Milan has a two-week sale at the end of Summer and we are here during the middle of it. Problem is I didn't care to fight the crowds at the beginning of it so a lot of stores are picked over. A lot of places have 30-70% off, which is pretty impressive. I guess this is the time when they try and clear their merchandise out before the new Fall line in September.

I checked out Diesel's 'flagship' store here, which is apparently smaller than the one in Florence. Diesel is actually an Italian company, I discovered, although they have some offices in the U.S. A lot of stuff was gone but I did find a cool denim sportcoat. I went over to H&M which, even though they have some in America, are nowhere near me, and this one had a huge sale going on. A lot of stuff in my size was gone but I still managed to get a couple of great button down shirts that fit perfectly.

Then I went into a store that was the Italian equivalent of Sam Goody. I've been trying to track down some Italian music while I'm here, but I have yet to find any places that deal in old vinyl, but I still managed to find an album by a group I like. I have some time tomorrow so I plan on hitting one more independent looking record store I saw on the tram as well as the other Diesel store, which will hopefully be better stocked. But by then all the shops were closing so I hurried home.

I'm trying to decide now what to do about my final itinerary for this weekend. My basic plan is to take a train to Geneva and on Saturday take a train to Paris and spend time there until my flight leaves Monday afternoon. I need to figure out the transit times to get a good idea, and figure out what hostels I can stay at. The big issue is whether to leave Milan Thursday after class or Friday morning. Friday morning will cut into my Switzerland time, but it seems like there are lots of loose ends to tie up here. I'll know tonight.

Since this is sort of the calm before the storm, I thought I'd try and take a little time describing the differences I've observed between Italy and the U.S. in the last few weeks. It seems easier to do that within the context of my average day, of which today was certainly one. My morning routine is pretty ordinary. My class is at 10am so usually if I leave our hotel by 9:30 I'm fine getting there on time. When I have gotten breakfast out, it's usually a brioche. Brioches are a lot like a croissant, only more sugary, and often with fillings. Marmalade and cream are two standard ones, of which I like marmalade.

I walk over to the newsstand across the train tracks and buy a train ticket. The subway here doesn't go to a lot of locations so the train fills in most of these gaps, with a few odd buses here and there. I guess it's inaccurate to call it a train. Let's call it a tram. It's a lot like the trolleys we used to have in American cities, and still do in cities like Toronto and I imagine all over Europe as well. There are tracks embedded in the streets for the tram, and it just goes along with traffic like a bus. I guess the advantage over buses is it runs on electricity and doesn't produce smog. Some of the trams, the older ones, are a lot like buses, but a few nicer ones are like a nicer, cleaner subway.

There is a tram, the 3, which goes all the way to my school. There's a nice automated screen that tells you how many minutes away the next tram is, which is awesome, although some of the stops don't work. Some people take the 15 to the subway, but I've tried that and it's more of a hassle and not any faster. The 3 goes all the way to the Duomo in the center of the city if I want, but I get off after about 10 minutes or so and walk a few blocks to school. One other uniquely Italian aspect to these trams - the tickets. You buy a ticket which can be used at any time. There are several entrances and by each, in the bus, is a place to stamp the time on the tickets. You're supposed to do this, and if you don't you can get a 25-50 Euro fine. But...no one really does. Except some old ladies. When in Rome, do as the Romans. Sometimes I stamp and sometimes I don't and basically ride for free. These are some of the inefficiencies of Italy, and there are many.

Once at school we're in class from 10am until 1pm, and then have an hour off for lunch. At that time almost always my friends Lindsey Z. and Jessie and I will go to lunch, sometimes with other international students from our class, usually Carlos, from Columbia, and B.J. from Taiwan. We like this one Chinese restaurant, but today we tried a new place our friends and Jason Hooper recommended, Da Willy Pizza. It was actually quite a hit, so we'll probably go back. I usually get a pasta dish and sometimes fries. Pasta toppings include pesto, and various combinations of sauces including tomatoes, mushrooms, cream, prosciutto, pancetta, salsicia, seafood, but never ground beef like our meat sauces in the U.S. There's no lasagna and usually not any stuffed pasta, but the noodles can take just about any form.

There's also pizzas and calzones. Lindsey and Jessie get one or the other sometimes. You've got your standard margherita - pomodoro sauce and mozzarella. Pomodoro is a thinner, oilier sauce than marinara, but usually tastier and it always sticks to the pasta perfectly. There's also usually risotto, or rice dishes, as well as bruschetta and some appetizers and some seafood and usually one beefsteak. I'm sure the dishes in the South can be very different but Tuscan food was very similar to this. Cinqueterran food was more heavy on the seafood, but also it was pretty touristy so I imagine they ate a lot of other things too. My usual lunch there was something I don't know the name of that was basically a big square ciabatta bread with tomatoes and sometimes other things baked in and then served cold. Decent, filling and cheap. I have a feeling a lot of our Italian food in the U.S. is entirely indigenous to the U.S., and the rest of it only found in the South of Italy.

We go back to school by 2pm and have three more hours of class. At 5pm we can do whatever. I used to use the free internet at school for most of it but the shops all close between 7pm and 8pm so I eventually broke down and started buying the internet at the hotel, expensive though it may be. There's a lot of traffic between 5 and 7pm, but not as bad as rush hour since some people go home and some shop, and those working in the shops don't get out until 7pm. Grocery stores and tabacchi stay open until 9pm. Tabacchi are a lot like the bodegas in New York, except a lot of them serve gelato (ice cream), beer and soft drinks and maybe a little food as well. You can buy some convenience items (the name comes from tobacco) and be on your way. They occupy the same spot in Italian culture as convenience stores, but they're nothing like Sheetz or 7-11.

A lot of restaurants serve lunch as their main meal, since for most Italians I am told lunch is the biggest meal. They close between 7 and 9 like other stores. I think all bars serve food. They usually open around 6pm and serve an aperitivo, basically a buffet of cold finger foods that is free if you buy a drink. I'm not so big on the aperitivos but maybe I've just been going to the wrong bars. Some bars, like the Tex-Mex place we're going tomorrow, open their grill for dinner at 8pm, and I think all restaurants pause from about 3pm to 6pm or later. Most Italians take their meals later than we do, usually in the 8pm to 10pm range. Most restaurants close precisely at 10pm, or at least their grill does and they continue to serve drinks.

Another interesting distinction is the cars here. As I've mentioned, the public transportation is quite good here. Still, there are lots of cars. Now, the cars here are quite different from the ones we have. Let's start at the lowest level. First, you will see the occasional bicyclist out on the streets. Nothing unusual here. Then we have scooters, or what I call mopeds. Vespa is the best known of these brands, but there's also Piaggio and a host of other kinds including some foreign makes. Scooters differ from motorcycles in that you sit down like in a car, not like on a motorycle, which is comparatively like riding a horse. They don't go that fast, but I'm sure for here it's enough. Occasionally you'll see one with a cockpit, which is just weird.

Next step up we have your motorcycles. You've all seen these, although Italians never use Harleys or the really big highway bikes we have. Just the small, sleek ones. They outfit a lot of scooters and motorcycles with luggage compartments and windshields. You'll see women as well as men riding scooters, and people in business attire, but motorcycles are usually men and usually not as well dressed. One step above this is the Smartcars. I adore Smartcars. They're made by Smart, which is jointly owned by Mercedes (now DaimlerChrysler I've read) and Swatch, the Swiss watch company. There are tons of them here (none in Croatia though), in every color. All the ones I've seen are the same model, the 4x2. It has two seats and a little back area for storage and no front end. Basically as if someone lopped off the engine, rear seats and trunk off an American car. Smart makes bigger cars, but I have yet to see one. Supposedly they are meticulously engineered and more reliable in a wreck than a Jeep or SUV.

Next up we have compact cars, which make up I'd say 60-70% of the cars. They are all hatchbacks and almost always two-door, four seat. They actually don't look too cramped, although I've ridden in Eir-Anne's Geo Metro, and most of them are about that size, and it's not that comfy. You'll find a lot of different styles and makes. Fiat, the biggest Italian car manufacturer, is a common sight. As are French cars like Renault and Citroen. Some are really nice like the Mercedes and Alfa Romeos, but there are less of those. Fairly often I see a Ford version of this, which I've never seen in the states, and occasionally a Toyota, Kia or some Asian company, though not that often.

Next we have four-door cars. You see these routinely, although they're no more than 1 in 5 of every car. The makes are similar to the above and you've seen plenty of cars like this. Nothing on the scale of a big Cadillac or Oldsmobile. Once in a blue moon you will see a minivan or SUV, but this is very seldom. Maybe once every three days. These are likely to be American, although I have seen a Volkswagen Toureg before. And trucks. There are trucks but they are all as little as the cars. It blows my mind but I have never once seen an 18-wheeler and nothing bigger than a big Ryder truck. I wonder how they do it.

Part of the reason cars here are so small is of course gas prices. It's impossible to compare costs since they use kiloliters and kilometers instead of gallons and miles, but I'm told it's much higher, especially with taxes accounted. But the reason for all the smaller cars is also one of parking. Parking garages are very rare and street parking is at a premium. You will almost always see cars pulled up in a row entirely on the sidewalk all down one side of a street. There's almost always some car or another that is completely blocked in. How do they get out! How do they get in! It's completely a mystery. The people with Smartcars seem to be the best off.

I've included some pictures of these cars although I wanted to take more, and I might tomorrow, since this afternoon my camera batteries died and I had accidentally left my spares at home. I also took a few pictures of some ordinary Italian stuff that might be interesting, Idunno. I'm not positive I'll do much updating tomorrow since it's my birthday, but I'll at least try to write something in class since we're in the computer lab. We're working on editorial design with Alessandra, which is a lot more fun and useful, and I feel like I'm learning something. More on that later. Tomorrow all my friends and I are going to a Tex-Mex place to celebrate and then to a bar I've picked out called the Rocket. I hope they like it, but its drinks are sure to be cheaper than Old Fashion was the other night.