Character

look closely

I like characters, I like strange people. I always find them, perhaps because I am always on the lookout. Like the other day when this man on the subway asked me for a tissue out of the blue. He was extremely well-dressed in typical milanese style: all black, head to toe, but then his black leather shoes had a very thin hot pink piping around where the shoelaces were. Very classy guy, and he asked me for a tissue. I told this to one of my coworkers and she thought he was hitting on me, but he wasn't. He took the tissue and blew his nose and then stared into space.

Italy in general is scare on characters, Milan has a fairly large amount for Italy, but then everyone says that Milan is not really Italy, that it's not a city of Milanese, that it's all foreigners, etc. etc. I have several theories on why people tend not to be "bizzare" diciamo in Italy. First, people are never far from their homes (exception to this rule is in Milan, as i said). They know how things work, how to get things done, how to deal with people and bearacracy and all that jazz (we foreigners don't, hence why we look so strange. Two years in and i am finally starting to get a grasp, barely). Second, Italians (especially outside of Milan) don't really rush. Things are done "con calma." Third, "fare la bella figura" having a nice public "figure" is very important. There are many possible theories.

Still, many things and characteristics that would be strange in New York aren't here. For starters, random people are friendly, like my shoe cobbler who showed me a photo of his son who lives in America. There are also a lot of trucks parked on the side of highways with produce from the south. The other day I bought some oranges and clementines and fennel and damn they are good. The real odd thing is that the truck had a bag with the farm's name on it, when many greengrocers near me in Milan barely give out bags at all.

One that note, I end with a picture of a store composed entirely of neon paint and vending machines:


]