MILAN, ITALY – We have had a riotous day: wonderful, hilarious, surprising, and slightly crazy.
We stopped in the executive lounge of our Milan Grand Marriott Hotel on Via Giorgio Washington for breakfast and I was able to practice my Italian with Monica again. We knew we would have a long day at the Expo, so we tried to get away as early as possible. We left the hotel at 11 a.m.
Anne insisted that we take along the mammoth-sized Marriott heavy duty umbrella whereas I assured it that it was not going to rain and if it did it would only be a downpour in the later evening. By golly, King Arthur could have defended his entire round table armed with one of these umbrellas.We had planned to be back long before the anticipated nightly downpour so why lug it along with us on this particular day?
So we compromised: today we would cart around only one umbrella, instead of the 2 we’d lugged around all day long the day before during our tour of downtown, the Duomo, La Scala, the Galleria, and even to view the Last Supper. We would share it and take turns carrying it.
For a while, it looked as if I had guessed correctly. We made it to the subway just fine. We exited the subway at the Expo stop and things began to change rapidly. Thunder and lightning began as soon as we got off the Metro at the Expo stop. We were greeted immediately by two friendly security personnel who chatted with us in Italian. Again, I was complimented on how good my Italian was, for an American. I’m still not sure if this comment is meant as a compliment or an insult. Annie’s take on this is that Italians are so surprised to hear any foreigner attempt to speak their language that just a little bit will go a long way.
After our metro passes were checked we were directed to Security. I thought it would be a great idea to photograph Annie going through the security line so that I could send the photo back to thebaynet.com. I was suddenly confronted by a Security agent who told me “no photos”. I apologized saying “mi dispiace”..Then, in English I asked him if would like to me to erase the 3 photos photos I had taken and he said yes. So I tried to do just that but my Verizon is so slow and I was not on wifi so the first photo took forever to delete. He patiently waited for what seemed an eternity for the photo to disappear and when it stubbornly refused to do so, he finally waved me on through. In English, I promised that I would delete the 3 photos I had taken. He had looked at them when I’d cued up my photos so he knew I had only taken three. Talk about averting an international incident!! He was so kind and of course, believed that I would erase the photos.
The “mi dispiace” apparently did the trick because I knew he also read the expression of apology on my face. And I didn’t know what else to say. And by that, I mean that I truly didn’t know what else to say because “mi dispiace” are the only 2 Italian words I know to use to apologize. (And in fact, I did delete those 3 photos just a few minutes later when an Expo personnel managed to get my phone to download the Expo App and then I was on free Wi-Fi for the rest of the day at the Expo). By the way, when I finally went through Security and had to have my purse screened, my titanium hip did NOT set off the alarm as it usually does. So, so much for Security at the Expo!
We walked quite a ways (Annie says a half-mile or maybe even more)under white canopies (reminiscent of the “pilgrimage” to the Shroud of Turin).
We asked directions when the canopy ended and then we learned that there was a shuttle bus. It started to rain just a teeny little bit as we tried to decipher the kiosk shuttle bus service. We were then directed by another helpful Expo employee to the exact spot to meet the bus, and we walked over a little bridge to the stop. We had acquired a map by now, and made our way to Stop #10. We got off the bus at the Tree of Life exhibit.
The size of the site is enormous. We compared it to visiting Disney World.. There are 145 exhibits and we thought we would be able to see them all in one day. It appeared that we were practically the only people there until we reached the central avenue (main street). All the people who were not in Venice or at the Duomo Square in Milan were here at the Food Expo. And by now it was raining cats and dogs. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped as lightning jagged across the sky. What to do?
We huddled together under the lone umbrella that Anne has insisted we carry with us. Having this umbrella with us was fortuitous because when we purchased a tasting from the Sicilian exhibit we were forced to eat it standing up at a small table in the rain taking turns propping the umbrella up between us. We shared small samples of potato, octopus, fish with ink, and fried chick-pea mash for 5 euros. We were disappointed to see that most of the food at this Food Expo was sold and not available as free samples. We learned later in the day that the Russian exhibit offered free food and drink but we were never the first in line while we were there and the samples ran out quickly.
As a matter of fact, our only free sample was obtained in the pouring down rain from a personable young man named Roberto who was handing out carryall bags with postcards inside at the Coca-Cola exhibit. He cheerfully complied with our photo opp request.
Although the walkway of the central avenue was covered with partial canopies, they were not sufficient to keep the rain off of the visitors. The wind had picked up a bit as well and it looked as if we spend our entire day there being wet and cold. And then we would have to make our way back to the Metro and then walk again from the Metro stop back to the hotel.
After browsing many of the exhibits we decided it was time for more serious fare. We found a delightful little Italian cafe called “Let’s Toast”. Anne purchased a beer (4 euros) and backed potatoes (3 euros).. I enjoyed a glass of white wine (3 euros) and also had the backed potatoes. We could see trays of cute little round potatoes on other customers’ trays and we realized they must be the backed potatoes listed on the menu.. The beautifully hand-lettered sign had apparently been off the spell-check grid as it should have read “baked potatoes”. And they were delicioso. They were light, not salty, cooked to perfection, and seasoned with a sprinkling of herbs.They really tasted good and I hope to see backed potatoes just like these offered back in the USA.
After this light lunch at 2 p.m., we browsed throu several more beautiful exhibits. By now, the sky had cleared and the weather was fantastico. But we were beginning to get tired as the Expo area is vast. Annie had her heart set on seeing the pavilion as she feels she has a special relationship with Prince Charles. So, we took a bus one stop and got off as close as we could to the UK Pavilion. We found this Pavilion rather easily and it was worth the search. The Pavilion is entered through a maze-like garden setting of containers with grasses and wildflowers. This maze leads to a gigantic metal structure resembling a honeybee hive. Anne climbed up inside it but I was too tired to tackle the steps so I sat and waited for her to return. This gave me an opportunity to admire the classy Jaguar on display in this part of the exhibit. After just a few minutes wait, Annie returned raving about this UK exhibit.
She reported back to me that the entire exhibit was connected to an actual beehive in England. Lights on the metal structure lit up when the real bees were active. The path of flowers mimicked the route the bees took when flying to their nests. She said that “it was just a delightful exhibit”. Great Britain redeemed itself in our eyes with this timely topic (honeybees) compared to what we had seen at the Biennale (reminder: naked sculptures and cigarette butts; emphasis on the “butts”).
Then the fun really began. The rest of our day ended up resembling a Looney-Tunes cartoon. We were both so tired; our legs felt like rubber from all the walking we’d done. We knew that we had a long walk to get back to our Metro train. And then a long walk back from our Metro stop to the Marriott. We started for the bus stop. Anne was inspired to take a peek at the United Emirates exhibit. It looked intriguing with the inviting Pavilion which mimicked sand dunes. She was sure she would only be a minute. And why not? It had only taken us a few minutes to go through any of the other exhibits. What could go wrong? I opted to sit nearby and wait for her. The line for this Pavilion was quite long but Annie was directed to a spot which fast-tracked her to enter. I told her I would wait at the stone wall. She promised to take only 10 minutes. And then she disappeared inside. Three separate UAE employees subsequently spoke to me several times during the 40 minutes that Annie was gone. They were courteous and thoughtful but did not want me to sit on the stone wall. Instead, they brought me a chair and placed it near the entrance so that I would be sure to spot Annie when she finished up.
Meanwhile, inside the UAE exhibit, one of the tour guides had asked Annie if she would like to have the exhibits explained in detail. Being the super-nice person that she is, Anne of course said “yes”. Annie was led from kiosk to kiosk with an explanation of about a dozen of them with topics such as oil, food and water. Annie was trapped. No matter how many times she said that her friend (moi) was waiting outside, the tour never seemed to have an end. It even involved a movie. The tour guide skipped the “solutions section”, thankfully, and sent Annie on to see the movie about a young girl who was transported back to her grandparents’ life in the 1960’s as they struggled to find water and food. After some adventures, this young girl is transported once again to contemporary times with a new understanding and appreciation of the environment. The movie had no end and segued into a Part II. She finally manged to push her way through the crowed to make her escape.
In the interim from my designated chair on the outside, I had sent her 3 emails (have I mentioned previously that my Verizon phone does not work in Italy?). One of the UAE employees even made a call on her phone for me to Annie’s phone because it seemed like she had been gone longer than the normal tour was supposed to last. I was sure she had already exited, missed seeing me on the chair, and had started on the long trek via foot, bus and metro back to the Marriot on her own.
So we were finally on our way back to the Marriott. We exited the Metro after 10 stops, walked probably a mile back to the hotel, returned our umbrella which we’d carried around all day long (we would have been charged 10 euros if we had not brought it back) and went straight up to the executive lounge. We had 2 (or 3) glasses of wine each, plus the night’s offering of chicken wings and rice.. Delicioso.
Tomorrow…on to Lake Como and other adventures. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a George Clooney sighting.
