milano, lombardia (iii)

about six months after my departure, i found myself back in milan. a big part of it i won't mention here as it was and still is perplexing to me, the why and what and how. but anyway, back when i was about to leave the city almost a year ago, i knew i wanted to be back very soon. i even told a friend that i would come back on winter, which was like three months after my departure. but there i was six months after, having what i thought was enough reasons to pack my bag and go back to the place i once called home.

the whole process of getting myself there was a real hustle and looking back i must admit that i was such an ass for creating unnecessary troubles mostly for myself because of my own thoughts and also for someone else who had to deal with my behaviors back then.

anyhow i was there on the dates coincided on purpose with the salone. it was my third salone, and although i missed most of it because of some immigration problem, i have to say this was the least favorite salone i've been to in terms of what were being exhibited, the installations and furnitures, etc. but still i took with me some notes and inspirations. and also because of this event i got to meet my friends who was also there and getting to know friends of friends. and because i know more people now than my previous salone, i'd bumped into friends here and there and sometimes got lucky to be able to cut some long ques.

one thing that i noted when i was there was the difference of how the city of milan (in particular, and being abroad in general) and the city of jakarta affecting me. roaming the streets of milan i felt like there are more chances, more possibilities and varieties of how life can be, places you can be. while in jakarta it's like you're stuck, doing the one thing you can do, and that's it. and then you have to follow what the society tells you to do because everyone is basically doing just that one thing. being abroad you're one free soul, free to do whatever you want. the city with all its content send you the ability for your thoughts to run wild. while in jakarta everything you see is uninspiring and you need to hustle day by day with all the problems it gives you, you barely have time and ability to think about other good things. your day just go by one after another, hopefully someday something will take you somewhere. but then again of course it's not as simple, i could write pages long about this matter. and it's not that i hate this city i live in nor that i have particular emotion towards milan either. it's just a thought i had when i was there and a lifelong question i have about the city i live in. and hopefully one day i would find myself some other clues leading to the answers i've been needing.

lecco, lombardia.

i knew moving from como to lecco was gonna be a right decision, and it was. i don't think i need to write about it more than what the photos here are already showing of what kind of place it was and what kind of feeling it could evoke you while being here. lecco was my last place i travelled to before my period living in milan officially ended. and somehow i'm glad that it was here. the only thing i wished i could have done differently is that i wished i could stay longer instead of having to rush back to the train station to catch the last train going back to milan. though we did keep saying to each other, let's stay for five minutes more.

como, lombardia.

i don't know why i never made it to any of the lake surrounding milan other than lugano (which is in switzerland) while it was just couple of minutes train away. i finally visited lago di como on my last month living in milan when my friend who lived in perugia came to visit and stayed at my place. we decided to visit the city of como, instead of bellagio, the one that is famously luxurious and expensive.

and while being close to water always brings that calming and reflective feeling, i don't remember much other impressions about como. it was nice and beautiful, but that's about it. so we decided while we still have time to move to lecco, another town on the other side of the lake.

orvieto, umbria.

from spoleto all the tragedy began on our way to orvieto. there was a misinformation so we hopped off the wrong platform for our train and it messed up the whole thing. because it was a sunday, there weren't much choices of transportation. this was the part where i felt i could be proud of myself cause in this kind of situation i would try to find options and make a way however it takes to get to where the initial plan was. i'm never a quitter and i hate it when things don't go as planned. so we finally found the most effective route of trains, changing lines, so we could still get to orvieto on time.

and then as always, the universe never seemed to back me up. about one minute away from terontola, where we supposed to change train, we heard the magic words, "è rotto il treno." the train is broken. there and then the train stopped. for 3,5 goddamn hours. with the power on the train turned on and off, mostly off. as it was getting dark and darker, funny things started to happen when you're stuck in the middle of nowhere with bunch of strangers and a cat. things got funny and people did stupid things like humming christmas song to the cat.

when we finally got to terontola, we decided to return back to perugia, hopping off the train heading to rome. this time we made sure and asked a passenger whether we're on the right train heading to rome. little did we know that there were actually two routes to go to rome. and guess what, we took the wrong route. and instead of arriving at perugia, we arrived at.. orvieto. we were too tired to even notice that we're heading to the wrong direction until we've arrived. lucky enough that we didn't reach rome instead.

we arrived very late at orvieto, and to get to the city center we need to take a bus because it was far uphill. fortunately we could still catch the last bus. and we were magically welcomed by a parade of fireworks we could see on our journey on the bus. we had no clue what occasion it was for, but hey it wasn't bad at all.

it was kinda romantic actually exploring orvieto in the middle of the night, if and only if you're with someone you can be romantic with, haha. but we did enjoy orvieto, despite one incident and the fact that we were damn tired and at some point we just laid down on some bench staring at the open sky. we took the earliest bus downhill, around 4-6am i don't remember, thinking that we would be back someday.

spoleto, umbria.

should there be any chance to visit umbria, i would never miss it. this time i was there to visit a friend who was staying in perugia. although i've been living in milan sporadically for like around 12 months in total, i would still say with a cliché that umbria still is my favorite region. i really didn't get why i didn't visit more of umbrian towns last time when i lived here four years ago. maybe because i was already living there everyday so it didn't urge me much to explore more of similar experience. but coming from lombardia, i feel like i need to explore as much as i can this kind of relaxing feeling and toning down given by the intimate scale of the medieval old towns of umbria.

first town we visited from perugia was spoleto. it wasn't my first preference but we adjusted the cities we could visit according to train schedule because of our limited time. while it isn't our favorite city, still we very much enjoyed the umbrian atmosphere of walking he narrow alleys, up hill, down hill, discovering pretty hidden corners here and there.

we confused ponte sanguinario (the bloody bridge) with ponte delle torri (bridge of towers, fourth picture), ended up not visiting much places. but we stopped a lot to just sit and enjoyed what were there, just as how it supposed to be being in umbria.

vigevano, lombardia.

vigevano sat on my to-visit list for quite a long time before i finally paid a visit. it appeared there on the list all because of a rumor. a rumor that said it is where the most beautiful piazza in italy located, piazza ducale. the rumor apparently was based on this one famous american starchitect, which i don't fancy at all, who said it's his favorite piazza in italy. and also in italy itself the piazza is quite famous for being beautiful.

it was actually just about 30 minutes of train ride from milan but i was always too lazy to go. until that time when i was dating a guy from vigevano and he invited me over. it was on and off and on and off and i ended up not going. and i finally went by myself, for a rather short visit, a little after that period. and. it turn out to be not interesting at all. both the piazza and the city.

i can totally get why it is beautiful. the details on each side of the piazza were amazingly beautiful. the scale felt right in proportion. the way the piazza is connected to its surrounding is comfortable. there is a staircase that is not really visible which you can climb and reach the castle and its courtyard. so technically, it is a nice piazza. but i always judge a piazza based on how people occupy the space. here it felt all dull. like there's no life to it. and it was summer time when i was there. i can't see any comfortable way of how people could occupy the space instead of just sitting on the seats provided by the restaurants. apart from that there were just some bicycle passing through every now and then and a couple of old men leaning on the fountain chatting. it's just a lifeless piazza. more people are actually occupying the courtyard of the castle to hang around, including myself. so, conclusion is, what's the point of being beautiful if you're just lifeless. it's like a pretty girl but utterly idiotic. my vote for the best piazza would still goes to piazza del campo in siena, it's just not physically beautiful, but you could feel how beautiful it is by being there with all other people.

bergamo, lombardia.

went to bergamo for a day trip to visit a friend. it's always a refreshing thing to go out to smaller cities around milan even for just a short trip. you get a more relaxing and less chaotic atmosphere. in bergamo at least you get the more dynamic terrain and panoramic view which you don't have in the flat out boring milan. and some part of the city actually reminded me of the old town gamla stan in stockholm.

i wouldn't count bergamo on the list of my favorite italian cities but i did enjoy my whole time there, i ended up boarding the very last train to milan which was almost empty. just like when i visited her three years prior when they lived in liguria, what made the trip was the companionship. i didn't visit much parts of the city, but i did enjoy every spot we went to, whether it's just for a stroll, or a stop for ice creams, or just sitting and endlessly talking, or getting too full by a bowl of polenta, or drinking a new kind of italian liquor. the kinds of thing that made a trip more meaningful and memorable. the feeling that lingers on.