Parco delle Basiliche

After a late start, yesterday I was taken to a different neighborhood on the other side of Milan. My host told me stories of growing up in the neighborhood, and even showed me the bedroom window of his youth. The number 36 was still on the building, as he remembered. It was a thin tree-lined street with a welcoming feeling. The trees were tall and thin, and the trees on opposite sides knew that they should bend in towards the street in order to become a canopy offering shade to to the Milanese.

I was told of story about walking to school and having a neighboring girl always waiting for him so they could walk together. Apparently there was nothing romantic between the two, because when the girl revealed that her boyfriend did not like this walk she was taking with someone else every morning and had to stop, she had little hesitation to cut off their morning routine.

Being a fanatic of ancient and medieval churches, we saw three in the neighborhood. I heard more stories of alleys and tunnels that served as shortcuts on the way to school 50 years ago. The old Romanesque architecture was impressive, but I was also surprised with some elements within the churches. One church, dedicated to St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, was especially old and interesting. It was built after the ascendancy of Constantinople, and although one was badly damaged and almost unrecognizable, there was another Byzantine-style mosaic of Jesus and the apostles that was in wonderful shape. 

Another interesting feature deep within one chapel was the body of (presumably) St. Ambrose, lying in state, as it has been for over 1600 years. This was more impressive because in many churches that claim to have a body of a venerable saint, the body is so far away and obscured to the public eye that one with doubt might not believe that any body was there at all. However, St. Ambrose was in a glass coffin and people were free to walk up to a meter close to see the body.

After visiting another church, San Lorenzo, we also walked through the Park of the Basilica, which was a long park with churches at either end, both of which we visited. 

There is one interesting thing that I am noticing and reminds me of my last time in Italy. There is a lot of graffiti on the walls, and throughout the parks and squares where we visit, there are many young people who look like hippies. They gather in large circles and you can spot them from their ratty and dirty clothes, dreadlocks and/ or half shaved heads, scraggly beards, scribbled tattoos, and the smell of funny cigarettes. There are many hacky-sack enthusiasts and future circus jugglers practicing their art.

Another fashionable group that I have seen are those who are helping the 80s fashion return, with a 21st century twist. What I used to call step haircuts are prevalent here, especially amongst women, where the hairline just above the ears is shaved all the way down, and the top is allowed to grow and flow in whatever manner. I remember always being reprimanded in high school because as an act of pseudo-rebellion, I refused to cut my hair in an acceptable fashion that would comply with the dress code.