a blog about my passions: travels, good food, good wine, fashion, books, etc.
25.10.11
24.10.11
Learning to travel
"Traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt [...] that to travel is worth any cost or
sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have
not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about
travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky,
restless, newborn baby--I just don't care what it puts me through.
Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like
me. It can barf all over me if it wants to--I just don't care." — Elizabeth Gilbert
Long time ago, I was (unsuccessfully) trying to write a book about traveling. It started with a big thank you to my mother, the person who taught me how to travel.
We used to travel a lot by car through the Mexican countryside, in daylight, by night, on big highways, on dirt track roads, etc. The days before the trip were tense at home, if I sneezed or coughed, my mom would look at me and yell "you are getting sick! that means you won't be traveling and you'll ruin our trip!" . So we were all very careful not to get sick, we would wear jackets and eat only chicken soup before the trip in order to avoid sickness... We were all used to packing our own stuff (again, if you happened to forget your toothbrush, mom would go again: "you're ruining our trip, you don't know how to travel...!") and get information about the places we were going to (is there a amusement park nearby? a museum? when do they open? are there any concerts during our stay? etc.), which in pre-internet times was pretty difficult. We had to be able to find our location in maps, no mistakes allowed. And we had to control our bladders: bathroom stops were scheduled every 5 hours (no exceptions for anybody). No yelling, no loud music, no complaining (are we there yet?), no whining - otherwise you would hear the famous phrase "you don't know how to travel!". So all these years went by, all those trips, some yelling (of course our trips were filled with love and laughter, until one of us made a mistake... then the yelling started), all the bladder control, all the map reading. Then I started to travel by myself and with others and I realized what a great lesson mom taught me. I was able to move around Europe reading maps, planing in advance, not wasting time looking around for bathrooms, avoiding tourist traps, always with proper clothing and of course, never forgot my toothbrush. Unlike many of my travel companions, I became a disciplined traveler always getting the most out of any experiences. So, thank you mom.
These days I'm planing another weekend abroad and the ritual has started to make the most out of it: hotel search, transportation (hate to take cabs, they're expensive and you see more from public transportation), what to see (based on my interests), what's going on during my stay (concerts, opera, theater plays, festivals, markets, etc.); restaurants (the worst thing that could happen to me is to end up in a McDonalds so I do a lot of research in this field: what's the specialty? would I like it? how are the portions and prices? location?); a bit of culture (I try to read some relevant news about the place I'm visiting): get familiar with the location by look at the map beforehand, that saves so much time!
Then of course, the basics: remember the passport, travel documents, toothbrush, etc. A checklist is really helpful, especially in longer trips. Pack light (you can always buy a sweater if you are cold - and then you have an excuse to go shopping!), wear comfortable shoes and I'm ready to go!
Long time ago, I was (unsuccessfully) trying to write a book about traveling. It started with a big thank you to my mother, the person who taught me how to travel.
We used to travel a lot by car through the Mexican countryside, in daylight, by night, on big highways, on dirt track roads, etc. The days before the trip were tense at home, if I sneezed or coughed, my mom would look at me and yell "you are getting sick! that means you won't be traveling and you'll ruin our trip!" . So we were all very careful not to get sick, we would wear jackets and eat only chicken soup before the trip in order to avoid sickness... We were all used to packing our own stuff (again, if you happened to forget your toothbrush, mom would go again: "you're ruining our trip, you don't know how to travel...!") and get information about the places we were going to (is there a amusement park nearby? a museum? when do they open? are there any concerts during our stay? etc.), which in pre-internet times was pretty difficult. We had to be able to find our location in maps, no mistakes allowed. And we had to control our bladders: bathroom stops were scheduled every 5 hours (no exceptions for anybody). No yelling, no loud music, no complaining (are we there yet?), no whining - otherwise you would hear the famous phrase "you don't know how to travel!". So all these years went by, all those trips, some yelling (of course our trips were filled with love and laughter, until one of us made a mistake... then the yelling started), all the bladder control, all the map reading. Then I started to travel by myself and with others and I realized what a great lesson mom taught me. I was able to move around Europe reading maps, planing in advance, not wasting time looking around for bathrooms, avoiding tourist traps, always with proper clothing and of course, never forgot my toothbrush. Unlike many of my travel companions, I became a disciplined traveler always getting the most out of any experiences. So, thank you mom.
These days I'm planing another weekend abroad and the ritual has started to make the most out of it: hotel search, transportation (hate to take cabs, they're expensive and you see more from public transportation), what to see (based on my interests), what's going on during my stay (concerts, opera, theater plays, festivals, markets, etc.); restaurants (the worst thing that could happen to me is to end up in a McDonalds so I do a lot of research in this field: what's the specialty? would I like it? how are the portions and prices? location?); a bit of culture (I try to read some relevant news about the place I'm visiting): get familiar with the location by look at the map beforehand, that saves so much time!
Then of course, the basics: remember the passport, travel documents, toothbrush, etc. A checklist is really helpful, especially in longer trips. Pack light (you can always buy a sweater if you are cold - and then you have an excuse to go shopping!), wear comfortable shoes and I'm ready to go!
19.10.11
My Wordle
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. ( from wordle.net ).
Here's mine:
17.10.11
A sip in style
If I had to choose only one place for a good aperitif in Milan, that has to be Marc Jacobs Cafe! It is located in Brera, the part of Milan I like the most, in a cozy Italian square (Piazza del Carmine) next to the shop. So in case you need a drink to relax after your shopping, this is the place. In the summer they have tables outside in the square and the atmosphere is very cool. The aperitif costs 10 euro (not really cheap) but it is worth it because their cocktails are well prepared and the finger food buffet is good; no greasy rice or pasta salads, here you get vegetables with a healthy olive oil dip, bruschette, etc. The music is good and the service is... well, cold... but hey, they have to be posh! (exception made for the nice Brazilian waiter, he's great!). This is the only place I have really enjoyed my favorite drink at. Which by the way is Bloody Mary. This is how it should be done:
Bloody Mary- ice cubes - vodka (40 ml.) - salt - tomato juice - ground black pepper - Worcestershire sauce - Tabasco sauce - lemon juice - celery stalk *fresh grated horseradish (the NY school of bartenders uses this ingredient but I've never had a bloody mary with horseradish and since I'm not a big fan I wouldn't use it)
Mix all ingredients and garnish with the celery stalk.
WHERE:
Marc Jacobs Café
Piazza del Carmine, 6
20121 Milan
Tel. +39 0272004080
(book ahead)
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