Month: December 2018
I love Paris in the winter
As Cole Porter put it: “I love Paris in the winter, when it drizzles.”
Feeling very French!
Christmas, 1953
Christmas in Florence!
Light show projected upon the Ponte Vecchio gives the old bridge a fresh new look:
And the Palazzo Vecchio also is brightened up for the holiday:
The Palazzo Medici has a lovely tree in the cortile:
Say it isn’t so! Starbucks in Italy
I’ve made my feelings on Starbucks in Italy known before, so I’ll skip that rant for today. I was recently in Milano and I made a special trip to the new Starbucks there and to try their coffee. My expert opinion below.
They chose a beautiful building, not far from La Scala and il Duomo, for their home. Obviously Starbucks wanted to land with a big impression. So far as the location goes, they were successful. Money was clearly not an object.
It’s fancy and high tech inside. Instead of the green that typifies all of the other Starbucks in the world, they have chosen warm and coppery colors and materials, maybe to match the coffee beans (ha ha) or to express wealth (metallic colors can do that). Either one works for Starbucks.
This message board above changes every few seconds with new info. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to linger and decode the information. It reminded me of the departures/arrival times at the Termini train station in Rome as it used to be. Now it is digital too.
The usual coffee paraphernalia on offer.
Every sort of bean imaginable is for sale.
The coffee roasting area:
The symbol for the Starbucks “roastery” shops. I think there are 4 worldwide.
A few artworks pay homage to Starbucks.
Oh, and the aspirational wall. This metallic globe is “dedicated to Milan, the city that has inspired our dreams. Every coffee that we have served came from here.”
Cheesy or what?
Oh, and here’s my cappuccino, the worst one I’ve ever had anywhere in the world:
It doesn’t even LOOK right, does it? I drank a few sips and then found one of the thousands of workers milling around and told her that I am from the US and that I know Howard Schultz (he used to be a neighbor), and that I thought he’d be sad about my cap.
She asked what was wrong and I said, well look at it.
She asked if she could make me another one and I agreed, as long as it was takeout. I needed to catch a train. She refabricated my old cap, making it milkier, and dumped it into takeout cup. It was still awful.
Don’t come to Florence, Starbucks. I’m warning you.
The Roman amphitheater in Verona, Italy
I just returned to Florence from a trip up north to Verona and Milano. This is not an exhaustive post (I’m sure that is good news for once!) on the subject, but I wanted to share what the amphitheater looks like from inside. It is on my to do list to attend an opera in this venue some summer soonish.
And from the outside:
Coffee on trains in Italy
Everybody knows Italians invented the coffee culture that is beloved around the world today. I will never forget seeing a Starbucks in Dubai. I almost fell to the ground in gratitude for something I recognized in that (to me) very foreign place!
But despite how many places I have seen coffee on offer in Italia, nothing surprised me and yet didn’t surprise me at the same time as much as seeing fresh coffee beans ready to be ground and brewed on an Italo train from Milan to Verona last week. I mean, per che no? It only makes sense!
And this was a self service coffee maker at the end of a train car. There is also a cafe car that serves freshly made espresso…but this machine is available closer to your seat and avoids the messy interaction with live people! And sometimes train workers will pass by and offer you coffee or other things from their carts. But, Italians, at least on this train, have yet another coffee option. They might want to grind and brew their own joe on their own.
You have got to love this culture!
Eat your heart out, Starbucks!
Milano, dicembre 2018; ready for Christmas
Arrived in Milan from Florence and admired the fabulous Milanese train station. It always awes me.
It was fun to see American Tomaso Edison inscribed as one of the world’s great minds.
No time to linger: places to see, people to avoid (crowds that is!). Here’s the archway leading to the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel; I’ll be back to admire the Christmas decorations when the sun sets. See below.
A quick glance of our first stop: il Duomo. We bought our tickets and got in line to wait for our turn to enter the cathedral and then climb to the roof.
I’ll talk about the duomo in a separate post, coming soon.
So, the duomo took up the entire afternoon and the sun set. Back into the Galleria to admire the amazing Christmas decorations.
Absolutely spectacular! Milan knows how to play up its strong points!
Milano plays host to one of the great Florentine artists: Leonardo da Vinci.
La Scala is nearby to add its gravitas:
The downtown streets of Milan have a modern Christmas vibe:
Back inside the Galleria, we approach the Dolce and Gabbana store, all lit up and no place to go. D&G has no need to go anyplace: the crowds throng to it!
You can see D & G’s neon sign at the end of these over-the-top decorations.
See it?
And that’s how Milano preps for Xmas!
Crèche scenes in Italy
Every church, chapel, and town in Italy has a crèche scene. Sometimes an entity can have multiple crèche scenes. They are always fun to examine.
Last week in Vernona, I saw this crèche in the duomo there. It is a sweet crèche and reminds me to tell something I have only seen in Italy. The figure of the baby Jesus is always left out of the scene until midnight on December 25. Only then can the baby be added, for indeed, he was “just born.”
get back, lauretta! 
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