Heading toward the train station from our hotel in Milan.
One thing that struck me about Milan is how many plants there are. These balcony plants have clearly been here for a long time. Years.
Plants and flowers for indoors.
Milan has two airports. Linate is the older one, I am pretty sure, and is certainly the one that is closer to town. Twenty(ish) minutes from our hotel -- it was a 19 euro cab ride. The other airport is about 45 minutes, and we read it is a 90 euro cab ride. (Travelers from across the ocean arrive at the more-distant airport.)
My daughter took a bus from the train station (for 5 euro) to the newer, farther airport, to join her buyers' tour.
After being together for three weeks, it was odd to see her off, and to go on alone.
My plan was to go to the center of town. I went into the train station to get a tourist map (there's a tourist information center in the train station).
On the 16th, my bags were at the hotel, so I had two hands free for taking pics. Here's what the business part of Milano Centrale looks like.
After so many years of tight security at airports, I'm sort of weirded out that any random person can access trains.....
I found the tourist information place, and asked for a map. Without prompting, the nice woman in the booth marked the train station, saying "You are here." and the cathedral downtown, saying "Cathedral here."
All righty then. Just what I wanted to know!
I thanked her, and headed toward the front doors.
This is one of those big old train stations. Only not that old. I read that Mussolini built it. Well, ok, he didn't build it, but it was built on his watch.
We're still in Italy -- look at the floor.....
The front of the train station. It looks sort of "heroic worker" square and muscular. Sort of ... Soviet-Union-ish..........
Remember what I said about the plants in Milan? Trees, in front of the train station.
Here's a close up of the heroic worker. Or whoever he is. This looks a bit too mythological to be Soviet-Union, doesn't it. It's the style I am reacting to, not the subject matter......
Italian drinking fountain. With grass and trees. In front of the train station.
This circle is in front of the train station. And there are trees.
Curb cut. It makes sense a curb cut would look something like this, given it is made out of stone rather than concrete..... Note also the walkway overhung by building. There aren't as many covered walkways in Milan as in Bologna.
A pro, walking (some of) his charges.
Serious plants, in huge planters at street level, and balcony plants.
Google translates this as "golf vacations".....
More trees, more plants-on-balconies.
It's urban here, yes it is. Taller buildings than we've seen elsewhere. But there are plants on balconies, and I'm pretty sure we can see some trees, farther down this road.
A really big boulevard, with big trees in the center. (Note also plantings on building across the street.)
Big green area with magnolia.
Art in the Piazza della Repubblica. The more I look at this, the more claustrophobic I find it. I'm sure it's shallow of me, but I vastly prefer art that is uplifting...............
I suppose the artist is glad I find it disturbing, but ... I do not wish to be disturbed. I find regular life disturbing enough. I don't need art to deliberately disturb me............
Wow. I've never seen this before.....
I wonder if this was just beginning to leaf out. The leaves look like little clusters of bunched up tissue paper....... I'm wishing I walked over to this tree and gave it closer scrutiny! Not that I could have gotten close to the leaves. This is a big tree.
On the other side of the boulevard. More big trees, and plants on the building.
In order to facilitate chronological traversal of these posts, here is a link to the next post.
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