Mangiare, mangiare, mangiare

Colazione, pranzo, aperativo, cena. Everything in Italy seems to be organized around food.

Before you go to work you'll have a caffé con brioche. At lunchtime you hook up with your colleagues or meet some friends to have a decent pranzo which usually consists out of a primo (pasta), a secondo (meat, fish or vegetables) all flushed away by some water or a vino della casa. If this hasn't been enough you can go out for an aperativo late afternoon or wait for diner time.

Even in Milano many shops - especially the small entrepreneurs - are closed from 13.00h to around 16.00h. To people from the north of Europe this might seem very old fashioned. For the Italians however this closure (or siesta as it is called in Spain) gives the entrepreneurs the opportunity to have a decent lunch. The decent lunch will enable them to go on until halfway the evening.

During the weekend lunch becomes even more important. On Sunday families or groups of friends go out together or meet each other in a ristorante or go for a picnic or barbecue in the countryside.

A few weeks ago me and my boyfriend went for a long hike up in the mountains near Bergamo. Since there was enough time we started somewhere around 300m and walked up to a rifugio a 1000m higher up. After a three hours walk - during which we hardly encountered any people - we reached the top. And we were amazed. Not only by the view but probably more by the fact that the hill-top and the field around the rifugio was packed by people eating polenta and drinking local wine.

This is Italy. Even when you don't expect it, you will find food and people enjoying it. Although people might be critical on the country and the way it has been governed in the last decennia we could all learn from their traditions in which food - and eating food in particular - has such an important role in daily live. After all  it is true that Mediterranean diet and life style makes people healthy and old. 

Keep it cool

August should be the hottest month of the Italian summer. Therefore many people choose to go out of the city to spend their holidays in the cooler mountains or near fresh sea breezes. But if you decide to stay in the city there are also many options to refresh yourself. Here you will find some suggestions.

The Italians are famous for their ice cream. Not only tourist but also the Italians themselves love to eat them. And it can be eaten almost every time of the day. Whether it is hot or cold an ice cream get's the pain away. Lately I've read this amazing sentence saying: You can't buy happiness but you can buy ice cream. And that's almost the same.

Besides ice cream the Italians made a wonderful invention called granita. The price of this fluid ice drink rises with the quality. But if you know where to go, you can spoil yourself and your friends with any flavor you like and be sure that you can stand the heat for a couple of hours more.

If you don't fancy a cold stomach than you can decide to stay on one of the many terraces along the streets which usually offer shaded seats. Sit down and have a caffé of - when you feel like you need to relax - take a beer or a spritz. A visit to a terrace could be as long as you want.  It can take 10 minutes when you only have a caffé up to some hours when it's late afternoon and you decide to fill-up with an aperativo.

If all these options are not enough to cool you down I suggest you head for the centre of Milano or any other touristic spot in the country and find a terrace with human vaporizers. You maybe won't believe it but - even in this period in which we live in a economic crisis and seem to head for a climate crisis - there is someone who invented these vaporizers cooling down people like they are vegetables in the supermarket.

I rather choose one of the first. 

Graffiti

What has graffiti to do with food? I’ll tell you within a few moments.

Milano has a good source of bars, cafes and restaurants. During the day it brings the streets alive sending out all kind of smells. To me it is very nice to walk or cycle around the city and recognize by the smell that a coffee bar is close by. This is Italy to me!

The country (once) dominated by the mafia wants to be safe. Most banks have a security guard wearing a Teflon vest walking around all day. Also shops – no matter what they sell – have shutters on the shop fronts as if they are jewelry stores offering unique diamonds. You almost start to wonder if they really only sell bread.

The closed-off shops make streets deserted. Especially on Sundays when shops are closed and during August when most Milanese have gone out of the hot city into the countryside or to some seaside resort. But the closed of plinths has inspired some to exhibit their creativity and demonstrate the content of the shop.

So this time period of the year, when the city is not very lively at all and when its hard to find a coffee bar or a place to eat, you have to feed yourself with the joy of art. 

Stranieri a Milano

I am a stranger in Milano now. And although I don't now many people yet I know I am not alone. For at least half a year I am going to live in this new city in a another country. Even though it is still Europe and only an hour and a half from where I used to live, I think I am going to see and experience a lot of new things. You will read them from the eyes of Food in the Streets.

Italy is well-known for its food culture. Although it is not completely sure where the country did get its pasta from and who invented the pizza Margherita, it is there and we all know this. The Italians are proud of their kitchen and love to enjoy it during pranzo or for dinners after work. Mamma's are cherished like they are true goddesses of the kitchen. Although big fast food restaurants exist - and Italians even seem to eat there these days - I am sure they know what's good and what's not.

In my first weeks in these city I've already encountered a lot of interesting places. My apartment is situated in an area which used to be full of industries. In the beginning of the last century it became part of the Comune di Milano. From then the rough village slowly turned into a vivid quarter of the city full of bars offering tavola fredda/calda (cold and hot plates), restaurants and pizzerias.

As in many cities, Milano has a lot of immigrants. Now I am one of them. As you might know immigrants bring their own culture and adapt it to their new 'home'. Not only does it make them feel more comfortable in a place they are not used to. It also gives them the opportunity to show their culture to 'autochthones'.

Milano is one of the more wealthier cities in Italy. This attracts people looking for opportunities. One can therefore find a lot of restaurants offering food from all over the world: there is turkish kebap (strangely enough they haven't found and Italian name for this), ristorante cinese (Chinees) and Giapponese (Japanese). Off course the Italians have found out that there is more to explore than their own beautiful kitchen and therefore these restaurants are really popular too.

One straniero/-a was very brave  and found his/her way into the Italian kitchen. This person dared to open a pizzeria you can see on the picture above. Would an Italian ever dare to visit this?