The Other Italy

Having seen Rome, Florence and Venice, I ventured into the other Italy with Milan, Rimini as the main two destinations, and Riccione, San Marino, Portofino, and Como as day trips.

Let’s begin with a few Milanese snapshots:

The Duomo and its Piazza is probably the liveliest place in Milan, beautifully spacious though filled with tourists. The view of the Cathedral looming on the piazza makes it a dreamy place to visit whether to take your morning sip of coffee or to sit idly at night and enjoy the lights of the cathedral and the duomo.

A little off the piazza, you can go to the 7^th floor of one of Milan’s main shopping malls, the Rinascente, and choose between the indoor deli (De Santis) for its most delicious sandwiches of cheese and meats and its fresh Anastasia salad, or step outside to have dinner with a view of the Cathedral and a choice of four restaurants, my favorite being Maio for its juiciest burger and its colorful and fruitful iced tea.

To go around Milan, you can go online (www.bikemi.com) and purchase your username and password to get a bike from the many points across the city. A ride towards and around Parco Sempione to the north-west of the Centre is very pleasant and you can pass the Castello Sforzesco and Arco della Pace.

An hour drive north of Milan can take you to Lake Como and its surrounding towns. Festivals around the lake are year-round but the lake itself offers a beautiful view.

I happened to be there when they were having a Swing Dance Festival and watching the dancers was a pleasure.

To the South of Milan, you can take a train to Santa Margherita and head south-west along the coast to Portofino or other coastal areas by bus, or more conveniently, you can drive the 2+ hours from Milan south towards Portofino for views not to be missed.

And when it’s time for lunch, don’t miss the grilled sea bass in Ristorante Delfino right on the marina. The Scampi is just as good, almost.

For a place to swim near Portofino, the best is Bagni Fiori in Paraggi, between Portofino and Santa Margherita. For around 60 euro, you can get two beach chairs, umbrella, and two towels.

Another option closer to Santa Margherita would be the beach associated with Hotel Helios with its partially enclosed sea-water pool aside from its access to the sea itself (a 50 euro value).

But for a real sandy beach experience, you would want to take the 4+ hour drive to Rimini on the east coast, stopping by Verona to take a peek at Juliet’s alleged window but also to walk around the city.

Once in Rimini, these sandy beaches and clear waters will force you to spend all day in your swimsuits either for a lazy day of relaxing with a book, or if you want activities, there are dances, volleyball fields, boats, surfboards and other sea-related options.

At night, you can drive or take the bus to Riccione for a more lively night scene. Dinner of delicious Pasta and Pizza at Pizza Maria Dina or Canasta on Viale Maria Ceccarini is highly recommended.

And if you want some history, you can drive west to the Republic of San Marino, one of the few independent states within a state (Vatican and Monaco being the other two). The Castle at the top is a good destination for the view it allows you of the city, and for that walk into the past often associated with castles.

This is barely a glimpse into my trip, which was itself a mere glimpse into the beautiful Italy. The pictures can't do it justice. You have to smell the air, taste the food, and hear the sounds around you to really appreciate the beauty. Looking at the pictures now, I miss the actual sights. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but an actual sensual experience is priceless.

*My tribute to Italy is prompted by Spain's victory in Euro2012. Spain can win a thousand champions, Italy remains the most beautiful country.

My trip, again, to Manhattan

This is a select expose of Manhattan as I already posted plenty on it in 2008 here.

Because there’s always a new thing to see in Manhattan, and because books are my favorite people (?), I begin this post with this picture of Scribner looming larger than St Patrick’s Cathedral behind it. Literature always comes first for me.

And because art comes hand in hand with literature, I select for you two works of art from the Metropolitan Museum. First I give you James Rosenquist’s House of Fire (1981) that piqued my interest with its reds. 

Next, here’s Francois-Josephy Navez’s The Massacre of the Innocents, “Exhibited to great acclaim at the Brussels Salon of 1824, this work presents the Massacre of the Innocent as an intimate family drama, whose ‘frightening realism’ struck critics.”

Massacre and fire would naturally bring to mind the necessity of presenting you with the 9/11 memorial. The park is not completed yet, but personally, the site touched me more when it was left as ruins of the buildings. Somehow rebuilding this, with all the good intentions meant by it, lessened the emotional effect it left on me the two times I visited after 9/11. (2004 and 2008) 

And from destruction turned to memorial, I take you to nature created by New York in the next three examples. The first is a small hanging garden as part of The Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park, designed by Brian Tolle, Gail Wittwer-Laird, and 1000 Architect in 2002 to commemorate the Great Irish Famine of 1845-52. 

The second is that huge construction called Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux as the Greensward plan in 1858, as viewed all the way in the distance behind the concrete jungle of New York. 1,600 residents of the park area, mostly poor African-Americans and Irish, had to be evicted to construct the park.

The smaller park you see by the green Metlife building is Bryant Park behind the public library, better viewed in the following picture. No detailed history for this one, except to say that by the 1970s the place was nicknamed Needle Park (for clear reasons) until the park was cleaned in the 80s.

The third, and my recent discovery this year, or rather a friend’s discovery pointed to me, is The High Line Park, an old raised railway turned into park. Designed by James Corner, Diller Scofidio, Renfro, Piet Oudolf, Buro Happold, the park opened in 2009, and it runs for 1.5 miles (2.4 km) parallel to 10^th Avenue from Gansevoort St (by 12^th st) to 34^th St.

Oops. Where did Yasmina come from? J

An amazing walk would be from Battery Park to the entrance of this park, by the Hudson river, with a view of New Jersey and many small scattered rest areas on the way. That’s 2.8 miles (4.5 km). That would give you a spectacular 4.3 mile walk that will not disappoint you.

Now enough about nature, real or constructed, and let me end with art and literature. As you walk around West Village, you can't help but gawk at the walls of buildings turned into museums of modern art.

And in close vicinity (specifically on 3^rd st between Avenue B and C) You come across the Nuyorican Poets Café, which, unfortunately, I was only able to visit once due to the short duration of my trip. 

But that one visit made this, now, my most certain future bite at the Big Apple. It was open mic day and we were dazzled by poets and musicians.

And this ends my short slideshow of my favorite city in the world. (Next post will be on the second part of this trip: Boston)

Istanbul in May

Istanbul is a very beautiful and lively city. It is crowded, clean, and safe even for a walk late at night in its very robust streets. My favorite walking destination was İstiklâl Caddesi (Avenue) that is lined with different types of shops, restaurants, cafes and alleys leading to more restaurants and cafes. It’s a great walk either during the day or late at night. Music is heard at night from the scattered bars and clubs or simply from the people standing to greet customers (360 restaurant offers a beautiful view of the city from its roof setup). Abdi İpekçi Caddesi in Nişantaşı is a more quiet and elegant street for shorter walks, also beautiful though not as lively as İstiklâl (Midpoint restaurant serves delicious pasta).

The Modern Museum is worth a visit, maybe more for the spectacular view from its restaurant than for the works of art displayed there. There were some interesting paintings around, most noticeable to me were two rather different and eye-captivating displays, one of a woman’s profile about 2x2 meters made by stitching together differently colored fabric, and another of a carpet that appears like a painting of cigarette smoke and on closer inspections proves to be a carpet. There are other works of art scattered around but nothing that specifically captured my attention, but then maybe because I’m not much into modern art.

The Dervish ceremony I attended was not as mystical as I’d expected it to be. It’s a good show lasting for one hour, but was definitely missing that aura of the Divine Truth it is meant to lead to. Or maybe, like modern art, mysticism just escapes me completely.

Topkapi is a museum that claims to house the swords of every Khalifa you can think of, strands of hair from the prophet, Moses’s rod, a dress for Fatimah, another for Hussain, among other artifacts amazing simply for the ability of the museum curators to expect its audience to believe their authenticity.

I leave you with a few snapshots that my camera remembered to take:

Scattered around the streets are three main food vendors: Kestaneh (Chestnuts), Misir (Corn on the Cob), and Simit (bread, between a bagel and a pretzel)

Saj or Pancakes are made by this delightful Turkish woman in a place called Home Made, filled with cheese, spinach, meat, or whatever else. This is also where I ventured to try Raki and found it, if not unbearable, yet not a drink I would order again. But it was a must try in my must try drinks. (The small picture of Knafeh is from my favourite coffee place, Mado, a chain found around the city. Their breakfast plates are delicious but I attacked the food before remembering to take a picture so I went again to try their Knafeh (yummy) and take a picture of that.

Boza: a drink made with burghul and sugar. This is another one of my must-try Turkish drinks. Thick and heavy but very good. Creamy and sweet with a touch of cinnamon on top. The people in this place had nuts thrown in or eaten on the side.

The Grand Bazaar in the old town is a fun place that reminds me of Khan el-Khaleeli in Cairo. Antiques, light fixtures, silver jewellery, shawls, just about everything eye-gawking. Unlike its Cairo look-alike, this place is spotless clean and there are no cats and dogs roaming around while I drank my tea. It is also completely indoors as I believe the weather in Turkey is not always as gentle as it is in this month of May.

Ortaköy Pier is a place rather hard to reach as no trams or Metro stations lead to it. I avoided taxis during my stay as the city is extremely crowded and the public transport system is very well-maintained. But in this case I had to take a taxi to get here. The view of the sea is amazing and the coffee shops and restaurants scattered around are all very well-serviced, offering delicious food.

The majestic Aya Sofya, basilica turned to mosque turned to museum. Spectacular, the interior is a sight that my camera failed to capture properly. Again this reminded me of Muhammad Ali's Mosque in Saladin's Citadel in Cairo. If the Dervishes mysticism failed to entrap me, the designs inside this mosque definitely succeeded. I didn't want to leave. Mosques and Cathedrals always have this effect on me. There must be some religious fanatic inside me waiting to be released :)

There was an excessively long queue to get into Dolmabahçe Palace which I personally thought was a more pleasant palace to walk around than go in. The gardens with their sea-view are much more inviting that the forced toured walk into the palace. The palace itself doesn’t offer anything different. There’s nothing special in Salamlak, just the usual European style palace furniture with only a hint of two of Eastern art. The paintings are mediocre. My favorite room was the grand ceremonial hall. The Harem part of the tour was more worthy of a visit though our guide insisted on started his explanation before all of our group arrived to each stop.

Sultanahmet or the blue mosque is a very beautiful building though unfortunately I couldn’t go in as it was prayer time and I wasn’t properly dressed. The building had a hint of bluish grey which justifies the nickname, but I expected something actually blue. (Imbedded is a smaller view from Aya Sofya onto Sultanahmed with the bluish domes more noticeable)

A trip to Istanbul wouldn’t count without a view of the Bosphorus, always a pleasant view from any corner of the city. This one is taken while walking from Kabataş Pier to Dolmabahçe Palace, another mosque viewable here in this city of mosques and minarets (Bezmi Alem Valide Sultan Mosque). the imbedded picture is from the cafe area in Aya Sofya.

This city tour would also be incomplete without a snapshot of one of Istanbul’s metro stations as the train is about to pull away. This and the tram are my main mode of transport here as the city is too crowded for taxis to be worth their while, and the public transportation system is very well-maintained and an excellent means of getting around.