more shocking news from milano

To continue my earlier discussion of my cultural acclimation to the beautiful city of Milano and the Milanese people:

6. Dogs are welcome everywhere.  Big or small dogs walk right into cafes with their owners.  They come to the grocery store and sit inside by the shopping carts, sometimes patiently and sometimes barking up a storm.  Today I bumped into one in a department store.  In other news, owners do not seem to be required to clean up after their beloved pets.  Dog poop and yellow puddles litter the sidewalk so you better watch out while you’re walking or your perfume will be in extremely poor taste!  Despite the poo-poo problem, I give the Milanese 5 stars for their doggy loving.  After all, my mother’s favorite child is my four-legged, fluffy baby sister, Nellie.

7.  Let’s talk refrigeration, or rather, the lack thereof.  While at the grocery store the other day, I discovered that both the eggs and milk were NOT in the refrigerated section!  What?!  I faced a fierce internal struggle between option a) refrigerated milk with fat or b) non-refrigerated skim milk.  Place your bets, but the skim milk won out with assurances from my roommate, Monica, that the carton is completely sealed and safe to drink.  Getting home with my groceries, I discovered why nothing is kept in the refrigerator because our fridge for 7 girls to share is about the size of one you would keep in your college dorm room just for booze and chaser.

8.  Prices are different here in Milan, as well.  No, I am not referring to Euros vs. American dollars.  For those of you less Euro-savvy than me, google the European Union and you will discover the Euro is the shared currency of many countries in Europe, including Italy.  Anyways, the price variation I was referring to was the water vs. wine phenomenon.  Please don’t mistake this for a biblical reference, I am simply alerting the alcohol-drinking population of America (shout out to my fellow IU students here) that wine is cheaper than water in many stores here in Milan!  Prediction: mass exodus from Bloomington, IN to Milan, Italy.  Warning to you hasty travelers, the wine is cheap, but airfare is often not.

9.  Alright, I’ve already addressed the driving situation in fair Milano, but parking is enough of an issue that it deserves its own bullet point.  Similar to dogs going everywhere, so do cars.  They appear to be particularly fond of driving on sidewalks.  They park on sidewalks, on the road, in private drives, and today, even in the middle of the road.  Be wary pedestrians, they will jump out from inside buildings or start backing up on the sidewalk in front of you!  Forecast for Milan’s sidewalks: dog poop and smart cars galore.

10. The last point I’d like to make today is that I walked for about 4 hours, uncounted miles (or should I say kilometers?) in heels--lovely, snakeskin, t-strap heels.  Thankfully, they are broken in, so this is not a whine fest about blisters, but in fact, a sigh of happiness that not one bratty little girl stared at me or made snide comments to her friends about me wearing heels in the middle of the day.  Thank goodness I have found a home where I can dress up and wear heels at anytime, any day.  *Sigh*.  Despite the afore mentioned differences, some of these little things are making me feel very much at home in my new environment J

xoxo's your milanese sam