MILAN

I boarded a Flixbus to Milan, an 8 hour ride heading north of Rome.  Again, beautiful mountains and scenery which is why I like the bus and trains. We stopped in Florence and picked up some college students heading back to Milan where the university is. One of the young men sat next to me and he was excited to practice a little English and he helped me translate a little child’s book I bought in Italian into English.

He also explained why everyone says “Prego” – which to me feels like all the time. I walk into a coffee shop and the lady says “Prego” I order a coffee and she hands it to me and says “Prego”, I pay for it and she says “Prego”.  I sit outside and there are two men drinking coffee next to me. They are talking and then one says “Prego, prego, prego.   My seat mate tells me that Prego has many meanings.  It can be a greeting, like come in, what I can I get you?  It also means thank you and can also mean, Ok, Ok, Ok!  I told him in the USA it is the name of a spaghetti sauce, he laughs out loud.

When we arrived in Milan he and his classmates not only helped me navigate the metro system, they show be my next hotel which was on their way back to the university.  One of my hints for traveling alone at my age is to befriend the younger crowd who know how to get around and the best reasonable places to eat and have a coffee.

I enrolled in a 4 hour Italian cooking class in Milan to learn how the “real” Italians cook. There were about 10 students which included a few from France, Australia, Chile and even a few from Florida. It was all hands on with very specific instructions on how long to beat the eggs, how hard to knead the dough, how to handle tomatoes etc. Our instructor was charming and fun.  She would blurt out now and then when one of us was not following her  instructions to a tee “Mama Mia Tamara, what you do?” Then come over and correct us. Several times throughout the lesson she would say “OK, I tell the secret of this dish, but tell no one or they kill me!” I kept thinking who is going to kill her, the Mafia, is this their secret dish?

 We made tiramisu and learned that the word literally means “lift me up” which it always does when eaten. The eggs have to be beaten just right. Tira- lift, mi – me, su -up.  She said she never uses any liqueur like Marsala – she said it sets off the taste. But then she added “Well, if you like, go ahead.”

There are two types of pasta- wet and dry. Wet of course, made with eggs, has to be refrigerated and dry is what we see on the shelfs in our grocery stores. We made homemade tagliatelle with two sauces. She gave us so many secrets- sorry I can’t reveal them to you or they might kill me.  But if you invite me to your home for a few days I will cook an Italian meal for you. Of course, we ate everything we cooked and had wine to go with it. After class I had to go back to my room and take a nap, so much pasta, bread and wine.

I did not leave Milan without visiting the Duomo Milano – The Milan Cathedral. It took a full six centuries to complete this cathedral. Construction began in 1386 and completed in 1965. Therefor it has many contrasting styles and the reactions have been from admiration to disfavor.

In 1867 Mark Twain visited Milan and dedicated a chapter to the cathedral in his book “Innocents Abroad.”  he wrote “What a wonder, so grand, so solemn, so graceful”. He essentially loved it.

Then in 1875 Oscar Wilde visited and wrote a letter to his mother about it and said “The Cathedral is an awful failure. Monstrous and inartistic, overelaborated, vile.

So, there you have it. Similar to life everyone sees people, places and things differently.

Life is not a spectator sport, don’t waste it sitting in the grand stands.

Pasta making

Concentrating hard to get it right

Duomo Milan

Sculpture at Duomo

They are called “smart Cars” sooo small