Zebra Hostel, Milan, Italy, Giorno 88. The Tao of a Day in Milan
I had a good conversation with our most recent addition to our travel group, Devon, about how we’re traveling. We take our day in a new city not frantically, not stressed-out, not up early to do as much as we possibly can do—we let what happens happen. This day exemplified this Tao method of traveling.
The morning and noon were spent orienting ourselves to the rest of our time in Italy, days in each place, hostels found, and other things. Unfortunately, I was too stressed out about my own return trip to Norwich, England, to contribute to the group. I did get my plane and train tickets back, though.
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| Joe conquering the cheese... before it conquered him. |
The free breakfast at the hostel was skimpy, lasting us only an hour or two. The first stop on our day pilgrimage of Milan was lunch. Only Vinnie, Devon, and I had pasta—the other four chowed down on ridiculously cheesy and huge, thin-crust pizzas. A tomato base is not common forl Italian pizzas, so the ones they ordered had SO MUCH CHEESE. But really. There were side-effects for everyone save Mo: Vito, Joseph, and Caitlin were so full they moved slower when they walked. It was hilarious to look at their almost pained faces. Meanwhile, Mo merely skipped and hopped for joy. But still, so much cheese.
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| Vito under A Vittorio Emanuele |
We planned the day as we went along. We stopped at the roundabout and street-corner marble statues and finally found the Piazza Duomo. Vito got really excited to see his name on the title of the glorious shopping centre, A Vittorio Emanuele, shaped as a brilliant archway stretching out far into the centre. Once we stepped in the plaza, the Duomo di Milano (the cathedral) came into view and took our breath away. A rumour circulated in our group that it took 500 years to build—I almost believed it, as I looked at the elaborate exterior that impresses one with an all-mighty, godly presence in its majestic size and beauty. Despite wearing shorts, all of us but Vinnie got in (in Italy, there is a custom of wearing trousers and relatively nice clothes to visit a Cathedral or sacred site). Vinnie was wearing sandals, which somehow inspired me later to do the same back at the hostel for the evening. (That also had bad results.)
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| Devon, Vinnie, and Mo feeding the pigeons in the Piazza Duomo |
Once inside, the beauty reminded me of the French Sacre-coeur that I visited with Katya. The vaulted ceilings always inspire me to feel the power of man as meek and modest compared to the architectural manifestation of a godly presence. This is the rhetoric of religion, etched in the pillars and arches, supporting man below as an infinitesimal being in the face of spatial infinity.
There was a downstairs area, giving views of a crypt through metal bars in the dimness of candle light. In the main one, an ominous room held a golden chest within the base of an altar table. The white table was balanced by trios of candles on both sides of its surface, while the four corners of the inner room held candles from the ceiling by chains. This really made for a ‘da Vinci code’ moment. To add to that, a statue of Leonardo da Vinci himself was at the end of the shopping centre as we passed through.
On our stop in the mall, Vito bought a hamburger to tease the mighty Mo who had conquered the pizzaland of cheese earlier. Mo refused it, but just before giving it to the pigeons, Vito spotted a homeless man on the ground and gave it to him. Witnessing that lightened my heart a bit.
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| Vito and I outside the Castello |
I took command of the map as we drifted through the streets and the dribble of rain until we reached the Castello Sforzesco. Throughout this day, we played as we walked, abusing our pun game to death (‘Hey there are fish in that pond!’ ‘Ah, that’s e-fish-cent.’ and ‘Caitlin shot the football into the trash can.’ ‘Ah, what a trashy shot!’). Vinnie bought a mini-football (soccer ball) outside the castle as Joseph, Devon, and I were weirdly entranced by two cats in the grassy moat below the drawbridge. Off to get rats in the castle, we assumed.
There was a gloriously big park behind the castle and that was our playground for hours: looking below a small bridge at our reflections made me feel a little like we were in a Winnie-the-Pooh setting, almost playing the game of seeing a twig go under the bridge and waiting for it on the other side. Caitlin captured a beautiful camera shot of all of us on the bridge.
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| This was the bridge we stopped at. |
We found a series of chairs entrenched within cement steps in the shape of a stadium seating arrangement and attempted football shots into the trash can below us. Then we headed to an actual playground and acted like children, heading for the swings and the slides. It was so peaceful, so nice to be playing in a beautiful city.
Taking the metro back, we stopped at the store for salads and some of us took naps once we got back to the hostel. I found time to email, realizing that my bank suspected fraud on my account for booking a flight to Norwich from Portugal and my phone couldn’t connect with the international numbers given. I was able to call my dad who helped out. My account’s fine now. Unfortunately, my phone is now out of credit.
I spent time with my friends in the game areas of the hostel, but once we headed out to taxi our way to a club, I absent-mindedly had kept my sandals and shorts on from earlier. I basically got a taxi back right away and fell asleep for nine hours.
Overall, there was no set structure to the day—we let ourselves relax into the Tao of effortless travels through the parks and air of this sunny day in Milan.
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