We saw carousels everywhere in France. This is the only one I saw in Italy.
Somebody is having a good look at the Baptistry roof.
Look how many heads there are in the bottom of the previous image. I shudder to think how crowded it is in July and August (and shudder to think how hot it will be, too). April is a lovely time to visit Italy!
Here's a closer look at the guy examining the roof.
Inside the market. Hams.
We call it romanesco. I was too intent on its fractally beauty to look for a sign so I'd know what it's called in Italy....
Beans, glorious beans!
This is where I would begin, if I were making bean soup. I don't recognize the round green ones. Whole peas, maybe? Our mix here in Michigan would be likely to have green lentils, rather than orange ones, and would have navy beans and pea beans. (Michigan grows a lot of beans which are dried and end up in soup.)
Looking at these beans gives me the same feeling I get looking at people's laundry, hanging outside to dry. A feeling that I am amongst people I can understand, along one small dimension, at least.....
Capers in salt.
Capers in vinegar.
Tomatoes, carrots, celery, and -- Inka Cola. I didn't notice the Inka Cola until I saw this on the big screen, and I've never seen it anywhere other than in this image.....
Black corn.
Hot peppers.
White corn.
Potatoes, I'm pretty sure.
Herb mixes.
Back in the apartment. Packed up. My new suitcase strap, and my new orange luggage tag.
I never took pics in this apartment. Its writeup on airbnb does a good job of showing what it is like. One long room. No charm (aside from vaulted ceilings), no view, quite noisy in the evening (outside noise -- people's voices, and motorcycles). Clean, comfortable, decent wi-fi, plenty of hot water. Fabulous location. An investment in double-glazed windows, and a few more pots and pans would make this an even more desirable space. I would look to see what else might be available, but wouldn't rule out staying here again.
Here's the one thing I took pics of. I had never seen this way to suspend a shower curtain. It's pretty rickety, but it holds a shower curtain in a way that makes it possible to have a shower, without getting water all over the floor, without some massive structure hanging from the ceiling.
If you pull down on the loop at the bottom, that plastic top part comes down, and its teeth hold the metal rods apart. Pretty clever!
We've checked out of the apartment, have trundled everything to the train station, have purchased our tickets (cash in a ticket machine, again), have determined which track we want, and now we're waiting for our train. We will go through Bologna on our way to Milano.
Note double trash receptacles. I am sure one is for recyclables, but I never was clear if that meant allllll recyclables, or only some, or what.
Our train left right on time.
This pic was taken 50 minutes after the previous one. I was surprised by how much of the trip was underground. I suppose I shouldn't have been. We drove through a lot of tunnels (through mountains) as we came south toward Florence. I guess it's to be expected that something relatively new (like tracks for fast trains) might be underground, particularly where there are mountains to deal with.
This was on the ceiling in the aisle on the train. Note our speed! 292 kmph is 181.44 mph. I believe this is faster than I'd ever gone (on the ground) before. (The fast trains we took in France didn't tell us how fast we were going.)
I only took two trains in Italy (Venice to Bologna, Florence to Milan). Both of them had luggage racks over the passengers' heads. It was common for trains in France to have luggage racks at the ends of the cars. I took one of those bike locks with a long cable to France, and to Italy, to use to lock the bags to the end-of-car luggage racks, so I didn't feel like I had to keep an eagle eye on the luggage. I used that lock several times. I never used it in Italy.
We have arrived in our hotel room.
I was really dehydrated and tired. My daughter decided to hike downtown to see the cathedral and the fancy shopping across the way from the cathedral. I stayed here and got hydrated and rested.
We went to a nearby (and very highly-regarded, if the stickers in the windows were any indication!) restaurant for supper. One of the signature dishes of Milan is risotto with safron. It was really good. Perfect comfort food. Mmmmmmmm.
We also had grilled vegetables. A lovely supper.
Another place I would happily eat again.
In order to facilitate chronological traversal of these posts, here is a link to the next post.
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