So it started with landing in Milan to visit Diane, where I also tried in vain to get a new Chinese visa. Let me tell you know that it's no fun dealing with Chinese/Italian bureaucracy. The Italians are already crazy and don't believe in lines, which is also in keeping with Chinese people so it's just mass chaos. New York Chinese consulate was very orderly (those Americans keeping everyone in line), as is Sydney. But Milan? OH MY GOD! When I first got there there was a swarm of people hanging about outside the entrance (actually I went there the day before and it was all quiet and I thought SCORE but then found out it wasn't opened on Tuesdays... grrr...) and they were not really letting people in. Or only very slowly. There were these guys selling newspapers and trying to convince you to buy them, and they said if you did you'd scoot to the head of the line... not quite sure, it worked for one person, but I still feel like it was probably some kind of scam. Anyway, I was mashed amongst people for ages and STILL no use! No Visa! Ugh!
And also if I at any point thought Italy wasn't just a little bit racist there's this: they let the Italian looking people through FIRST and even let them PUSH THROUGH the crowd to get to the front. I realised this was because once inside the lines for getting visas was much shorter than the lines for Chinese consular issues (not sure what most people were dealing with) and ONLY the Italian looking people in the visa line. I mean I know it's partly a practical thing, but wouldn't a better system be to have one line for people doing Chinese-y things and one just for visas outside? Ugh... never again. I'm so glad I don't have to deal with Italian style bureaucracy anymore. Hate it!
Not that China is that much better. More organised/less crazy chaos, but long lines at time and so much admin/paperwork! Stamp this, show this, photocopy that. Everything is so exact and precise! I must say that GENERALLY it is fairly efficient though, which is nice. As long as there are no problems everything goes through very quickly, quicker than Australia!
Besides the visa dramas Milan was fun! It was rather surreal walking around and seeing all these familiar things. It kind of felt like it hadn't been that long and yet it was. So much can happen in two years.
I did some touristing around during the day while Diane was at work. I randomly went to Parma when my train to Como didn't turn up (oh Trenitalia... so RELIABLE) because my Lonely Planet said it was famous for its food, particularly ham. I love both food and ham. But Parma was a disappointment because it was August and lots of stuff is closed then. Also my LP is a bit out of date now (it was good in 2006!) and the salumeria in it no longer exists. *sigh* In short, Parma is kind of lame, don't go unless you've got a good reason. Better than you just kind of like ham and don't know where else to go.
I also finally made it to Como, yay for me. Beautiful but I almost puked on the bus from Como to Bellagio and that would have been unpleasant. All those nasty bendy bits in the road. Ugh.
Plus two of my friends from exchange were also in Milan! Score! I was meant to be meeting them in Amalfi but I hadn't realised we'd be in Milan at the same time. I met them in Taxi Blues (just turned up after I got an email saying that was where they'd be for lunch) a cafe near Bocconi university where we always used to eat lunch. And then we did what we always did in Milan and went shopping - down Via Torino!
"Back in Milano!"
Then onwards to aperitivo at Slice. Yum, just as delicious as always. We also tried going out to Old Fashioned Cafe but it was... ba bam BAAAAM! Closed. Dead as a doorknob.
Instead we got the best gelato in Milan from Ciocolat and then ended up at some outdoor drinking place where everyone stands around drinking beer and cheap alcohol.
The next night we had a nice Italian dinner (complete with after dinner espressos and limoncello) and ended up at Old Fashioned again which we'd heard was opening up that night! Such a difference from the night before where we have photos of us standing outside a desolate and slightly decrepit looking gate... It was a great continuation of my Milan reminiscences tour. I'm lucky I had friends there because it would have been a pretty sad place to revisit on my own.
Being at Old Fashioned was just like going out in Italy always was. Although we knew a lot less people. But you always meet skeezy Italian men when you're out and about, particularly if you're with three girls with blue blue blue eyes, and particularly when two of them are blonde! Italians are obsessed with the blonde hair/blue eyes look! I guess it has that foreign appeal that the Italian guys like. Except if you're Asian. Do I sound kind of bitter? I'm not exactly, but it IS annoying. I'm not going to turn this into a rant about Italy and racism (already done that up above) because I'm not living there anymore so there's no point. And there are some really nice Italians too, so I guess it's not fair to lump them all in the same broad category. And dealing with all of that is also a trip down memory lane, just the not so good side.
Overall a good balance. A mixture of the good and the bad. Enough for me to be like "yes there was all this stuff that I forgot that I enjoyed in Milan" combined with enough of the "oh yes, that's right, it was like THAT" so that I could be happy with my re-visit but also happy that it's not my home anymore.
Next up - Amalfi! :o)
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