Design, Design, Design.

I think my blog entries are usually pretty mechanical. I usually just tell you where I’ve been and the things about them, as if I’m teaching you. But really, you probably don’t really want to hear about the history of a 600 year old estate in central Italy. I’m guessing, if you’re looking at this page, that you want to hear about me. That’s pretty cool, and humbling to me, that people are interested enough in me to get on the internet and navigate on over to a page that I put up to keep people updated.

I want to paint a picture. Not with watercolors, as I have recently enjoyed, but with words. I don’t really know the significance or importance of describing this particular event in detail, it really has no consequence on my trip other than being a memorable experience. But I feel that I have been lacking in descriptions.

Last weekend, I went to Milan with 7 of my classmates and friends. We left on Friday night at 11:30 and took a night train to Milano Centrale. What an experience! As soon as we got on board the train, it smelled of tons of bodies, it was really musty and warm. We squeezed our way down the hallway that was full of people. Some were trying to sleep, some had given up on that futile endeavor and were just standing and staring at the wall in front of them. Our seats were full of people as well. We showed them our tickets and they made their way out of the compartment. It was a 6 person compartment, and two more of us were in a separate compartment. So, my friend and I made our way to that other compartment.

There were people in those seats as well. We showed them our tickets and, after examining them, they said that they also had the same tickets. They didn’t move. So, in desperation we went back to the compartment with our six friends inside. I said, ”We’re piling in!” So that’s how we spent the night, eight of us in a six person compartment on the six hour trip to Milan. Whenever one person had to move and change position, it affected everybody else, so sleep was far from undisturbed. But, I surprised myself and actually slept for four hours, which made me exceedingly happy, as I didn’t feel exhausted when we arrived in Milan at 7:05am.

It was now Saturday. We figured out the metro system and made our way to the Duomo at the center of the city. We walked inside of it, and I found out that it looks exactly like the Mines of Moria on the interior. (that’s for you Lord of the Rings fans) We then climbed the stairs to the roof of the Duomo. The entire surface of roof is walkable, I’ve never been to another cathedral like that.

We did some various other things around that area of town before we decided to go to a park. This park was awesome. Giardini Publici is what it was called. It is an enormous park, it reminded me of the public parks in London. (large, international, wealthy, business-centered cities must take great pride in their parks) We stayed there for hours, the entire afternoon. Everyone else but me fell asleep. I got out a book and started reading it, a book by Kurt Vonnegut called the Sirens of Titan. I’ve never had so much fun reading a book. (I read the 325 page book in 4 days, a new record for me)

Anyway, that night we didn’t have a hostel reserved in Milan because there had been none available on account of the design fair. We stayed in the small, beautiful town of Como, about thirty minutes north of Milan by train. It is situated at the end of an arm of a beautiful lake in the foothills of the alps, only a few kilometers from the Swiss border. The air was so fresh and crisp! We ate dinner in an open air restaurant on the waterfront as the sun set. Beautiful. I really mean that.
The next day we got up early and went to the Saloni, Milan’s enormous convention complex. The international design fair was there, and that day was the only day it was open to the general public. There were about 20 enormous halls completely full of exhibitions displaying the latest designs. There was furniture, lighting, and some student exhibitions too, along with some up-and-coming designers trying to make a name for themselves.

Sometimes I felt as if I was seeing the same thing over and over again. After I saw about 50 modern sofas in one exhibit, I went and saw 50 more in the next exhibit. Then I stopped and realized that the 50 sofas I had just seen looked remarkably like the first 50 sofas. There’s only so much you can do with a modern sofa I guess. And I got to see all of it. Sometimes I had to move to different areas of the exhibition to keep myself entertained. After an hour in the sofas, time to go see some lighting, then off to the chairs, and so on.

Seeing so much design stuff was cool, I suppose. But why? So much energy is spent on making different sofas that most people in the world can't afford anyway. So many of the exhibits were so exclusive and expensive looking that I felt uncomfortable going into them. I did not feel "at home" in them, which is what I want when I'm sitting down on a sofa. But I know I want my house to look cool someday, and It’ll probably have things in it that look similar to things that I saw at the exhibition.

Milan is such a design-oriented city. Its almost overwhelming. There are galleries everywhere. Most of it seems to be furniture design. We went to a “design district” of the city and parused a few of the galleries. There were also some product design galleries. After the last dose of design, we hopped on the subway and went to the central train station. We found our train and began our 5 hour train ride back to Orvieto.

And that was my weekend.

Only eight more days remain of my time here in Orvieto.