STOP 8 | Milan: From Chicago to Dublin, via Milan!

Dedicated to Marta and Silvia, moms-to-be. And to Daria, she knows why!

 

I met Marta - now knows as Masna - in Chicago in 2008 and 13 years have passed...we did our unpaid internship together at the Italian American Chamberof Commerce Midwest, during the summer. We stayed in touch all over these years, I remember we worked together on the final paper for her degree, in Osmate, eating polenta and brüscitt, and brainstorming so much bull**it that we still cannot believe them. And that was also the first night ever I slept in a sleeping bag, as it was freaking freezing.

 

Masna was the one who drove me to Orio al Serio when I moved to Dublin in 2011. She now lives in Milan with Francesco and they are expecting a baby.

 

Marta/Masna arrived with a couple of hours late, she felt so sorry about that, but actually I was super happy as this gave me the chance to walk from Isola to Duomo. When you are in a rush, the only way to cut time is taking public transportation.

 

 

I walked all the way for about 1h, stopping at the supermarket to buy yoghurts, as I didn’t wanna have sweet pastries. I enjoyed the scenery a lot and I also got the chance to buy souvenirs as per my sabbatical playbook.

 

 

When Marta arrived, we went straight to the Milan Cathedral Rooftop. In 6+ years I lived in Milan, I had never visited the Cathedral rooftop so Marta offered to accompany me and to take this chance to show Milan from the top to his son-to-be.

 

Over the top, I exploited Marta’s presence to take my transition pic, as I have been waiting for that moment: you can see below the spiers of the cathedral behind my back and myself wearing Sicilian socks.

Seeing Milan from the top was really heartbreaking / Mozzafiato, as well as heartbreaking was to see her from close:

 

 

For lunch, we met Silvia, another friend who was in Chicago with us back then – actually she has been in Chicago till recently. Also Silvia is expecting a baby and Marta and Silvia spent some times in exchanging their thoughts about the pregnancy.

the fact that almost all my friends either had kids recently or are having kids should let me think, but I try to escape that thought.

 

 

After our late lunch, I was able to reach another friend from “Dublin”, Curta (real name: Luca). Luca and I used to work together, with him selling the dream to the clients and me making it happen. With no doubts, Luca was one of the best people I’ve ever worked with, and he now lives in Milan with LaNoe and two kids: Riccardo and Mattia.

 

 

The only problem with Luca is that he roots for Inter Milan. I don’t follow Italian soccer, to be honest, but I really dislike Inter ☺.

After a – luckily negative – Covid-19 test, needed for my flight, I met Milica (read Mèeleeza) for a drink. Milica and I did our Undergrad School together in Milan, she is Serbian but moved to Italy to study and has been living here since.

 

 

We talked about work and about our common friends, touching a little bit about Covid-19 situation: we both agreed that Italy is messing up a lot. When she said “I lived the Belgrade bombing and we were much more free during that time” referred to lockdown, I laughed out loud.