PERSPECTIVE ON ITALY
WHY I LOVE MILAN
When Americans ask me where I
live in Italy
and I replay, “Milan,” I always get the wrinkle of the nose and
the same opinion cited from many travel books, “Milan!
But Rome and Florence
are so much nicer! “ I simply smile and bite my
tongue, adopting this Zen-like attitude because I now realize: many people are
too lazy to come up with their own conclusion, choosing instead to simply rely
on
the opinion of architecture critics.
But even my Italian friends are
surprised by my love for this powerful financial city in the north. Yet for me
at least, Milan is a very lucky
place. The anecdote that I always tell is the one in which I once needed a
board for a shelf. My
roommate took the measurements and then set off to go and buy one from Ikea.
Five minutes later, he was back – someone had throw out some old furniture on
our street, and there was this board, which happened to be the exact size that
I needed. This is the most improbable example of many lucky things that have
happened to me here, but I think that the vibrant energy that Milan
contains, the atmosphere frequently criticized for being too rushed and
stressful, makes incredible things happen.
Milan
is not a place for tourist trying to take as many pictures as possible to show
friends back home. I love Milan as
a place to live here and now, for Milan’s
beauty is not one of the glorious past but it’s a (yes, fashion-conscious)
beauty that looks to the present and future. If one were to pass by Santa Maria
Novella in Florence every day, how
long would it take before the church’s beauty becomes taken for granted, just
part of lovely landscape? I would rather walk down Milan’s
street with busy shop and ever-changing displays,
because I can relate them to me and my life now. All-out consumerism
is not what I am advocating, but seeing a gorgeous dress in a shop window, even
though it may be too expensive for me to actually buy, fuels my imagination and appeals to my sense of
beauty. I’m sure that in my two years in Milan,
I have exclaimed “Che bello!” more times before a shop
window than a Florentine resident did passing the same monument everyday. It’s
not that I disrespect monuments, but I often feel that people give “high
culture” too much weight.
Instead, these people should be
focusing on the variety of nightlife that Milan
has to offer, such as bars and discos where people interact instead of sitting
mutely before the revered performance. To its integrity and credit, Milan
is a city that requires active participation; it is not a place that caters to
people who disdain real life by exalting an artist’s interpretation of the
life, available at certain time for a certain price. To experience Milan,
one must live it, not just simply check off places on a “to see” list. Perhaps
the Milanese are too busy socializing to erect cold,
stone buildings of the past to please tourists.
The idea that I have of the
Milanese being sociable and living for the present is one that does not seem to
be shared. Other Italians have accused them being “cold”, but I appreciate how
the Milanese are hardworking and supposedly the most serious people in Italy,
yet they still maintain the Italian love for beauty and zest
for life. During rash hour, I see so many well-dressed business people still
talking a moment to peer into a
shop window. They still arrive at work on time and go back to the shop later,
which is how it should be. Even when they seem to be in a hurry, the Milanese
are poised and
sophisticated. Along with the regular influx of models from around the word, people makes Milan
beautiful.
Everyday Milan
has a surprise for me, whether it is my favourite band coming to give a concert
or running into someone
that I know on the street. And at night, if I can’t be bothered to turn on the
news, I can still know whether Inter
won a match or not by simply listing out for the celebrating honking
cars,
and hearing them makes me happy –not only because I am an inter fan, but
because it is another example of how what is going on can be so relevant to me;
life is so pervasive in Milan, so inviting and so all-inclusive. Milan’s beauty
is not one that can be readily seen, not a real physical embodiment but a
vibrant force, and I would argue that in this way, Milan will never suffer for
the crumbling walls
or fading frescos
that some other architectural marvels might.
From a journalist of San Francisco which is living in Milan
since two years.