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Waking early after a mostly sleepless flight and happy we made it this far - it was still more than an hour before the hotel breakfast was open. Breakfast was particularly surprising, in a very good way. Typical scrambled eggs, but with a full cast of Italian salume as companion (prosciutto, various salame/sausages), some very good mini-pastries, chibatta, lovely creamy yogurt with a selection of toppings, and... But, the star for your sleep deprived traveler, bottomless cup of LavAzza cappuccino! A good start of the day...
The hotel itself is in a less fashionable area of Milan, Cenisio (not far from Milan's Chinatown - who knew. Out we went for a wander with the goal being an open market close enough to get a good walk in to start clearing the cobwebs. We arrived in the dark so didn't get to see much around so exiting the hotel gave us the first taste of the neighborhood, and it was my kind of place for photos!
The neighborhood seems to have more folks of color and signage of a more diverse population. It does border on Chinatown and has a wide variety of restaurants.
Then we came upon this:
Cimitero Monumentale - the Monumental Cemetary
And it was. From the outward facing chapel and tomb, to the kilometers of trails lined with graves, memorial statues, and mausoleums that would be small houses outside the cemetery walls. There were tombs with family names that were easily recognizable - Campari, Olivetti, Toscanini - along with names probably we would recognize if we were Italian.
Some were monuments that seemed to tell stories
While others celebrated their calling to the other side...
Finally pulled ourselves out of this beautiful, peaceful place - we had a market to get to. I could have easily spent a LOT more time taking pictures of all the remarkable art dedicated to making the living feel somehow better from losing parts of their family.
Back in the living world, we found a place full of interesting images telling different stories - more of the living. They were focused on the folks living in the district with a variety of themes and mixture of styles.
The built environment, both that added to the walls and new eco-friendly experimental constructions are part of this neighborhood. A large mural of a face composed of strips from multiple folks... A new high rise construction with forests for balconies. Milan creativity at the borders.
Reached our goal - Mercato della Isola - which had more surprises for us.
For one thing, it was huge! It was set up in three long blocks around the Piazza Tito Minniti, which seemed like miles of shops.
The other surprise was that it wasn't just a farmers market or simply food related, it had almost a flea market feeling to much of the rest. All with lots of bargaining, sales pitches, and offers of the "best of everything."
Finally, after a stop for some okay pasta, back to the hotel. The walk back found more wall art for the collection, both formal (i.e., someone wanted it there) and less (more of an improptu look to them).
For a full collection of pictures from Milan, take a look at the Milan - 2 April 2024 album on my Google Photos collection. These are largly unedited and will be replaced when I get time to develop better images later on. Enjoy.
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