Fondazione Prada, Milan

A visit to the coolest new art venue in town...

10 ideas for the summer in Milan

Summer is finally here but... what if everyone is leaving town and you're stuck in Milan?

Here are 10 ideas to survive the Milanese summer:

A day in Macau - part 1

Macau is a Special Administrative Region of China. It was once a Portuguese colony and it is now the Asian capital of gambling, which is why it's called the "Las Vegas of Asia", although it generates more revenue than Las Vegas itself.

Macau is not only gambling and big hotels, after centuries of Portuguese colonization (it was the first and last European colony in Asia), historical, cultural and culinary remains can be seen all over the place.

Jing'an temple, Shanghai

Jing'an temple (静安寺; Jìng'ān Sì) is an impressive Buddhist and Daoist temple in Shanghai's Jing'an district, near the French Concession.

Jing’an Temple is located in a bustling area surrounded by shopping malls, luxury hotels and modern constructions. However, the atmosphere inside the temple remains relatively calm, with many local worshippers and few tourists.

Yu Gardens, Shanghai

If crowds don't bother you, getting lost in this maze of gates, halls and gardens might be just fine for you...

Confucian temple, Shanghai

Also known as Wen Miao (文庙), this nice temple is a surprisingly calm oasis in the middle of bustling Shanghai.

A day in Copenhagen

Only a day to spend in Copenhagen, make the best out of it!

A day in Oslo

As you know from the previous post, we took a mini-cruise from Copenhagen and had 7 hours to visit Oslo.

Summer at the Museum: Free entrance to some of Milan's museums

Just a quick note to let you know, in case you're visiting Milan or staying in town this summer, that you can visit some of Milan's most important museums (until September 8) for free.

Milan's Duomo

Spring seems to be finally coming to Milan, days are getting lighter, weather is getting better, shops' windows are displaying bright colors, trees are blossoming and there's just a different feeling in the city.

Lady Dior as seen by

One of the most famous handbags ever, the Lady Dior was created in 1995. Princess Diana got it as a gift from the French first lady while she was visiting Paris. It became Diana's favorite and, therefore, women in the world's favorite. It has become an iconic accessory and a symbol of timeless style and class. So of course it had to inspire the greatest artists of our times: David Lynch, John Cameron Mitchell, Patrick Demarchelier, Arne Quinze, Wen Fang, Maarten Baas, Olympia Scarry, Recycle Group, Luca Trevisani, Vedovamazzei, and Alessandro Carano and Davide Stucchi. At the Triennale there are more than 70 art pieces on display, each of which honours in its own way this iconic bag.

And while I'm saving to buy my own Lady Dior (it might take me a couple of years), I just had to visit the exhibition!

Sunday in Hangar Bicocca

So, it's Sunday again in Milan and you don't have any plans?
Get up and take the train or the tram (the new Metro line 5 will be opening soon) and visit Bicocca, the quarter in northern Milan that used to be the old Pirelli factory area.
To get there: Get on the train to Chiasso (Switzerland) from Porta Garibaldi station and get off after just 5 minutes in Greco Pirelli station. Or take the subway (red line to Precotto or yellow line to Zara) and then tram number 7.
A short walk up north through the quarter's modern buildings (the University, Arcimboldi theater, Deutsche Bank and Siemens headquarters, etc.) will bring you to the Hangar Bicocca.

More statues... now in Milan

Talking about statues by contemporary artists... Guess what I found this afternoon while walking around Milan's downtown? More statues!

Statue-hunting in Düsseldorf

When I was doing some research for our weekend in Düsseldorf, I read about Christoph Pöggeler's 'Pillar Saints', 9 sculptures spread accross the city that represent people from different groups of society removed from their daily routine and put on a pedestal, displayed as individuals. At first I didn't pay too much attention to them but when I tried to find a website in English showing their exact location and couldn't, then I thought (as Barney Stinson would say): "Challenge accepted!". And so the hunt began, which we'll call "Project Pöggeler".

Soumaya

Soumaya Domit was a philantropist and art promoter, she was the wife of Carlos Slim Helu, the world's richest man. He named the new spectacular art museum of Mexico City after her. It holds an impressive number of art works (66.000) by Mexican and European artists and it was designed by architect Fernando Romero, his son-in-law.

Soumaya museum in Plaza Carso

Roman snapshots

As you probably know by now, Rome is one of my 3 favorite cities in the world (together with NYC and Copenhagen). We spent a nice summer weekend there a few weeks ago - as you may see in this post, this other one and also this one.
Here are some other random pictures from our weekend in the eternal city.

Fiat 500

house covered in plants near Piazza Navona

Ruins near the ghetto

Kosher restaurant in the ghetto (the one where Mark Zuckerberg ate)

Roman alley

Turtle Fountain in Piazza Mattei

detail of a turtle, probably added by Bernini in 1659.

St. John of the Florentines church

Castel Sant'Angelo (Mausoleum of Hadrian)

My first 30's!

Here's a little collage I made to symbolize my first 30 years in this world...

... and if the next 30 are as great as these were, can't wait!!!

Pinterest-ED or Pinspire-D?

Who hasn't heard of Pinterest or Pinspire these days??? They're like the new social networks that are actually not social networks, it's like your good old desk board, you know, the one behind the desk in which you used to pin the important papers, photos or images together with post-its, etc. Well, Pinterest and Pinspire are like an image database in which you find that, images, which you categorize in Boards and share with the world. For example, take mine:

As you can see, I divided my boards in 7 interests: the clothes, accessories and hairstyles I like are in "Style", the words of wisdom I often refer to are in "Quotes", the delicious recipes I will one day try are in "Food", the places I've been to or wish I could are in "Places", my favorite books or the ones I want to read are in "Books" and I have also added some images to the database, they're in "My Polyvore Sets".
The board "Ideas" is where I keep some ideas for my drawings (yes, another of my hobbies), right now I'm drawing a mexican-inspired Tree of Life and I've found many bits of different images that I'd like to add to my drawing so, what better way to keep 'em all in one place without printing or filling up the Bookmarks?

You can search for people with your same interests or whose images you like and start "following" them, you can re-pin their images or just "like" them (that's the social approach). Oh, don't forget to follow me!

On Pinterest

Or Pinspire

Epic cruise - Part 2

Day 2 - at sea 
After spending the early morning in the gym (it has like 20 threadmills, weights, lots of machines for each muscle, lessons, etc - there's water available and cold mint towels to freshen up) we had breakfast &lunch at buffet. Then we attended the auction with champagne. The art gallery on the Epic has 1500 works on board, making it the largest collection at sea (it's a Park West Gallery). They have works from Picasso, Rembrandt, Romero Britto, Peter Max, Thomas Kincade,  etc.

a Peter Max

We were interested in Peter Max's works but at around $15000 for a small oil on canvas piece, they were so out of our budget...

Moderno Churrascaria - from www.ncl.com

The Epic has  many dinner options, if you want to grab a quick bite, nothing formal, you can try the Garden Cafe buffet which has lots of choices. If you prefer something more like a pub menu there's O'Sheenan's, an english pub open 24 hours! Then if you want to have a nice dinner seated you can choose between the contemporary Taste and the classic Manhattan Room (where there's a band playing). These options are all included in the cruise fare.
Otherwise, for a little extra charge, you can choose among other specialty restaurants: the Steakhouse Cagney's ($25/person), the Brazilian Churrascaria Moderno ($20), the Italian Le Cucina ($10), the French Le Bistro ($20) and the Teppanyaki showcooking grill ($25). There's also a circus tent where you can dine and see a show for $35 (not for us) and sushi and chinese restaurants with interesting menus (extra charge), pizza delivery to your cabin, room service, etc.
For our second day at sea we chose dinner at Moderno Churrascaria; they serve you different cuts of meat from swords, and they keep it coming until you say stop. There's also a great salad bar, my advise is not to  eat lots of salad, starters and sides, because the most delicious meats come by the end (lamb chops, sirloin and the juicy costela), we didn't make it to the dessert. Great choice!

Day 3 - at sea 
Still a bit jetlagged, we woke up and went to the gym (after dinner at Moderno, we needed to burn lots of calories!). The day was cloudy so we did not go to the pool area and stayed in the cabin. Personally I prefer balcony cabins for days like these, you can chill out in your balcony with coffee just watching the horizon.

O'Sheenan's pub - from: www.norwegiancruiselineepic.com

We had lunch at O'Sheenans pub (tuna melt and mozzarella sticks, good), it's a nice place to hang out since there are 2 bowling lanes there, draught beer and you can get a nice view of the atrium big screen and the movies they often show. Dinner at Manhattan Room which was delicious, perhaps the nice atmosphere with the band playing helped. We had to wait like 20 minutes to get a table but it was worth it.

Manhattan Room - from: www.ncl.com

After dinner we had a quick round in the casino. Those damn slot machines are so addicting!