Melby's Travels

Isola and Porta Nuova are known to be the revival of a formerly blue-collar neighborhood. Porta Nuova has a shopping center, with fountains and mirrored facades that dance groups take advantage of. There is also a botanical garden of sorts nearby, as well as the architectural attraction Vertical Forest. While Porta Nuova looked more new and urban, Isola felt more charming with bars and cafes, along with street art. We stopped by Bar Frida, and like most Italian bars, it has more than just drinks. It also has a very nice, green courtyard, along with a shop selling designer clothes. Food rundown: Gnocco fritto con squacquerone (cheese)  e zucchine (pl. zucchini) - popular dish from Modena and Reggio Emilia. Fried bread/dough filled with creamy cheese and zucchini! Focaccia di Recco - from Liguria/Genoa. Thin crispy dough filled with cheese. Reminds me of Georgian khachapuri Farinata di ceci con pancetta dolce - cake made with chickpea flour. Texture like polenta? Tasted a bit sweet, ...

Took a look around Chinatown. Many dumplings, breads, crepes, skewers, and other Northern Chinese specialities I'm not used to seeing. Stores have a much smaller produce section, but stock large packages of tofu and multinational dry goods, from Filipino ube to Turkish kataifi. And I got my fix of beef noodles and bitter melon. I would love to go back and get some soy products. Nearby was the Parco Sempione, where they were holding a cherry festival and the big attraction Castello Sforzesco. While hiding from the heat in the courtyard, I discovered a group of musicians with Renaissance instruments. They were live performers for an amateur group of dancers. There was one guitar-like instrument with a rounded belly, violin-like instrument with six strings, and two musicians who both played various instruments. Among other instruments were bagpipes, recorders, oboe-like instrument, and long tubular wind instrument with no mouthpiece. Considering that I don't know the names, maybe ...

Today, the lab went on an excursion to Caravaggio, which is a rural area an hour away from the Politecnico. There is an area for "agroturismo," where we rented a place to grill meats and eat. In the same area were also animals to look at and various activities for families to do. This was also the first time I encountered squat toilets outside of China and Japan. This was also my first time riding in a car in Italy. The professor Giancarlo was very skilled at navigating through the cars and people, despite driving a car with manual transmission. The many rotary roads ("rotondo") were particularly tricky roads. We were driving on an expressway, but it was simply weaving through one rotary road after another. I was only slightly surprised (based on the driving behaviors I have seen here so far) when cars pushed up against each other side by side, all technically in one lane, where there was a small jam.  Luckily, it seems harder to get a driver's license here than...