Sobre Milán

Milán (en italiano Milano, Milan en lombardo) es la principal ciudad de la Italia septentrional, capital de la provincia de Milán y de la región Lombardía. Se encuentra ubicada en las llanuras de Lombardía, una de las regiones más desarrolladas de Italia. A fines de 2004 poseía una población de 1.308.311 habitantes, y un área metropolitana de 4.280.820, en una área urbana de unos 6.500.000. Es definida por algunos como la capital económica de Italia (o como capital del Norte del país). No en vano, Milán es la sede de la Bolsa de Italia. Además, la Feria de Milán es considerada la más importante de Italia y una de las principales de Europa.

Su provincia se encuentra al oeste de Lombardía; cubre una superficie de 1.982 km² y posee una población de 3.775.765 habitantes. La provincia consta de 188 comunas. En los diez años que van entre 1991 y 2001, la comuna de Milán perdió 113.084 habitantes (8,3%).

La ciudad es famosa por sus firmas de moda, el tradicional pastel navideño llamado panettone, y por su catedral (duomo en italiano) de estilo gótico, con fachada neogótica. Junto a la catedral se encuentran las famosas galerías de Vittorio Emmanuele, cubiertas con grandes cúpulas de vidrio en forma de cruz latina, donde se encuentran algunos de los cafés y comercios más conocidos de la ciudad. Al otro extremo de las galerías se encuentra la Piazza della Scala, donde se encuentran el Teatro alla Scala, uno de los teatros de ópera más prestigiosos del mundo, via Manzoni, via Montenapoleone y via Gesù donde se encuentra el Museo Bagatti Valsecchi- una casa-museo inspirada en los palacios señoriales del Cinquecento lombardo, decorada con objetos y muebles renacentistas italianas.

En la Iglesia de Santa María della Grazie se encuentra la famosa obra de Leonardo da Vinci "La Última Cena". La obra se puede visitar haciendo una reserva con 48 horas de antelación.

Me interesan mucho los planos de transporte urbano, especialmente los de metro. En Milán, sólo conozco la línea verde de la Estación a Cadorna y la línea roja de Cadorna a Pagano, pero ha sido suficiente para verificar que el metro de Milan es muy viejo y muy sucio.

Travel to Turkey_1

Ey, the travel to Turkey has been so good that now I have to make a big efforce to explain all my sensations in few words.

I will start from the beginning.

First part: Milano and Cri.

In order to take the plane in Madrid-Barajas on Tuesday morning I should take the bus from my city at 4 a.m., so I was sleeping a bit in the way and I arrived in the airport very early in the morning, at 7. I phoned my Wolf, my staunch friend for special moments, and he spent all the morning with me until the time to take my plane.

From the plane I could see again the wonderful aerial view of the Alps. In that moment I was remembering very much my last trip to Italy in the last March. I was very happy to see Cri again.

The pity is that Cri was very very busy, she could not take me in the station, so I went by metro until her flat. This time was very easy for me. I feel like at home in Italy. The language is not a problem and the people are more similar to the Spanish.

When I saw the square in front of Cri's flat, I realized that I was at home. The traffic, the noise, the pollution...

Milano fa veramente schifo!!!!

Cri received me at home with a big smile. We were talking very much about a bit of everything. We were taking the dinner with her flatmates: risotto for everybody.

After that, I was enjoying her flat. I like the flat and I like the atmosphere that they have created there. Students of Architecture, Town-Planning and Design living together and creating a working atmosphere that produced me a kind of envy. I live also with two students of Architecture and my flat is totally different: the living-room is a continuos mess, the bedrooms are the working spaces, without connection.

Of course, nothing is perfect. Cri had some differences with some of her flatmates because, in their opinion, she has too many visitors. So we took the mattress from the living-room and we fit it in the small Cri's bedroom.

The next morning Cri should go to the University, so I stayed a bit more at home and later I went to the Stazione Centrale.

I had enough time to walk a bit around. From the huge square located just in front of the station one can see this towers, this axis, ... Everything with a scale out of the human scale.

Also, one can see the M of Milano everywhere. It is easier to find a Mc Donald's than the entrance for the underground. Milano is the city of Mc Donald's. It is amazing.

Over the human scale we can see the Station. Typical fascist architecture, classical style but with decoration trying some kind of abstraction of the elements.


















In spite of this, I like that building very much. In fact, I don't know too much about the fascist architecture in Italy. I should. But my lessons of History of the Art were not enough to know so much. The 20th century is almost ignored in that lessons, with the excuse of that we should learn it in the rest of the subjects. In my opinion, the programme of my degree is not according with the logic.

The interior of the station is great. The building for travellers is amazing.

And the big hall for the platforms is huge and full of light. I like it more than the Hauptbahnhof in Hamburg. Of course, one cannot compair, but this hall is more alive.

The time was over and I should take the bus to the airport.

Flying to Istanbul...

Literalmente en las nubes...