Milano Day 2 and 3

 Milano Day 2

Breakfast in the bottom level outdoors courtyard: lovely. The last of the ZenCon0 bros (90% 30 something males) are having breakfast before heading to the airport.

Breakfast included, including hot dishes not on the buffet; Principe charged for those items not on the buffet

We decide to take a walk after breakfast in the local environs, including the canal. However, THB starts having heatstroke and so the walk is shortened, it is again in the mid-80+s in the sun.

Pics are from around town, taken at various times:

Off to the rest of our day, and the first stop is a sandwich place that THB read about in the NYer, All' Antico Vinaio. Taxi from Magna Pars around $10. A little before noon and there's a line. And across the street the delivery guys are waiting. 

We order two versions of porchetta sandwiches, and it turns out one would've been enough.

Castrovilli makes it onto the wall of fame

We dine on a bench in front of the church next door. The cashier was doing 4 things at once, two sandwiches and two drinks, $23. THB forgot his VISA card (the cashier should've done 5 things at once?). Fortunately the woman in line behind us sees us dining and sends THB back and the card is retrieved. The focaccia is excellent. 

Our first art stop of the day is a few steps away. First we stop at a BNL (BNP Paribas) ATM and get the maximum withdrawal: 200 euros. On to Museo Del Novecentro, overlooking the giant Duomo plaza (see pics above, did you spot the bride and groom?). The Museo just re-opened, looks spiffy. More modern art, with a few contemporary pieces as well.

Leger

Servini

de Cherico

Morani

Modigliani

Malmi: Le Couple)

Modigliani: no eyes!

Carol Ramas: bike tires (a DB fave)

Pistoletto (again: pic in the pic)

Penone

We stroll through the morass of people in front of the Duomo and into the arcade, a very large crowd is awaiting us. We duck into the niche and await the elevator to the 5th floor and a visit to the Observatorio Fondazione Prada. It is an offshoot of the Fondazaione Prada which we visited on our first time in Milan in 2016 and decide not to revisit. Lots of fascinating videos on "Role Playing" which we spend quite a bit of time watching. Sorry, no pics (videos are not conducive to stills).

On our way to the Triennale...until our need to stop and relax for a bit overcomes THB and DB.

Two huge scoops each, coffee and dark chocolate, $7

We had planned to visit the Triennale first, there's not enough time before our visit to Officine Saffi, one of the few Italian galleries that travel to shows like Collect. THB and DB own two pieces purchased from Saffi and may be making another purchase soon...tbd.

Shozo Michikawa - Saffi is now carrying his work, we bought a very small teapot of his work last month in Berkeley!

Katie Tuominen

end table (one of three we are considering)

Made by exploding gunpowder in leather hard vessels. this one is NFS

Not the work, the display! Have different size hollow boxes made and then it is easy to re-arrange art

Can the chase be over for the day? Nope...the Triennale is only 5 minutes away and we have 1.5 hours before our next surprise visit of the day. We were at this site 5 years ago as well, and like everything else they have been closed for most of the Covid era.

Photograph by Jessica Wynne

And, our last event of the Day: Apertivos with Valentina, our guide for the last Venice Biennale in 2019 and the upcoming one next week. Milano is her home town. We catch up, including an explanation of why Italians may not watch the streaming version of My Brilliant Friend (the "dialect" is not understandable to non-Napolitanos and much of the dialogue, especially in the early seasons, is a foreign language to many Italians). 3 drinks and enough food to feed 6 people, $42.

Milano Day 3

What is this? Probably hasn't been used in almost 3 years?

What room are we in...look down, idiot!

Another scorcher. Good news: THB slept in, getting 10+ hours of sleep after collapsing at 9pm last night. Even better, we only have one planned activity today, visiting the incomparable Anselm Kiefer indoor installation at the Pirelli Bicocca Hangar, a repeat from 2016. This is easily one of the top 3 indoor installations THB has visited (think Richard Serra in the Bilbao Guggenheim), a tremendous blend of form and function.

Pretty much in order to get a taxi you ask wherever you are (e.g., hotel, restaurant, museum, etc.) to call one for you. They pull out a device that kind of looks like one of the portable credit card machines, complete with printout capability, and activate it to order a taxi. Everyone has one. The printout is handed to you and then you go and wait outside and match the printout to the company called (not to the individual vehicle the way UBER does it).

Today in Milan another big Design Week show is starting and cabs are at a premium, meaning the machines take a bit of waiting to finish up the printout and time to arrival. Before leaving Magna Pars we learn there is a strike on the Metro today, though it isn't happening during commute hours.

Free admission!

Our taxi ride out to the Hangar and Kiefer takes a few minutes to arrange. GREAT!!! 45 minutes and $35 we have arrived. As good as we remember! Maybe Better. Awesome. 

Paintings and Towers

A worried man with a worried mind?

The next three are panorama shots taken by DB

The temporary exhibit is Bruce Nauman from the 1960s

Lunch outdoors: THB has veggie burger and chips and an ice coffee, DB enjoys the first real salad of the trip and a local brewski: $42

And, now we enter the strike zone: the metro isn't running again untip 3pm and it is now 1pm.

La machina por la taxis: no answer...for 20 minutes, no taxis available

La machina por la taxis: no answer...for another 20 minutes, no taxis available

And then the adventure really begins: A guy rushes in, somehow decides we must be looking for a ride, and offers us a ride in 1/2 hour in a taxi that is coming back for him and taking him to the train stations.

What a great idea! We're going to the train station too....OOOPS! THB and DB will be about 20 hours early for our train to Verona and without out stuff which is in room 29 at the Magna Pars. 

Very tempting...even so, DB tries Uber one more time and there's a hit, someone in a Mercedes Benz will be out front to pick us up in 20 minutes. From no offers to two in under 3 minutes. 

We rush out to the front of the Hangar, a good distance from the road, abandoning the 1/2 hour guy. The Uber car is getting closer and closer. In meantime, there's some street action:

Uber never shows up. However a taxi does, parking up on the sidewalk. The driver is waiting for 1/2 hour guy. The Uber not only doesn't show up, DB gets a request for a tip! 1/2 guy shows up and in we go in the taxi, DB in the back and THB in the front passenger seat (masks up!). The taxi can only take us to the train station, he has to go to his brother's wedding. THB is tempted to ask if we can attend, we have nothing on for rest of day.

The taxi driver has a better idea: since the traffic is at a standstill, he pulls up on the median, stops and signals to the taxi next to him to roll down his window. THB does same, and now the driver asks the other driver if he is really available and can he take THB and DB to the hotel. 

YEP (Si SI)

DB and THB say our grazie's and jump out and transfer to the other taxi. A truly random act of kindness. DB did not get 1/2 guy's name, just that he was a museum director (of course, visiting one of the world's great museum installation), on his way from Geneva to Venice. THB did a bit of research and it is possible that 1/2 hour guy is the director of Geneva Museum of Contemporary Art...couldn't verify for sure because couldn't find a pic. 

DB did find out he had been to Biennale twice already. THB will send a note to the Geneva museum in a few days to see if we can reconnect with 1/2 hour guy. Hope he made his train. The Kiefer was so good he didn't have time to pick up his salad from the Hangar bistro. 

First taxi: free. Second taxi: $35.

Dinner at the hotel: negronis and snacks in basement garden. Around $25.