Looking for an Italian Man?
Go to Florence in January!!!
For January is when the Pitti Uomo Fashion Shows start. And that is when the men come to Florence!
The Fashion Event first started in 1951, and influentials travelling to the Paris fashion events were persuaded to come to Florenza. Since then the annual shows have had a significant effect on fashion and Italy's international image.
One evening, when we returning from our explorations over the bridge through the city towards our hotel near the railway station, we noticed something unusual about the shoppers.
They were all men! All well dressed, all ages, all good looking, that I could see.
Gosh, its not just raining men, it is pouring!! Crowds of men in the streets, in the shops trying on garments. Queueing to get into the Opening Night Cocktail Parties. In the bars and cafes. Queues of men everywhere. And in all the hotels which is why we could not book into our favoutite hotel as it cranked its rates up especially for the event.
So ladies, if you are travelling to Europe in winter to take advantage of the winter sales, and would like to meet a man or six, come to Florence in January!!!
Showing posts with label queueing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label queueing. Show all posts
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
No queues anywhere in Milan on this winter day except....
On our first morning morning in Milano we woke up to very unusual quiet noise outside.
No footprints of people trotting to work, no noisy traffic queueing, even though we were not on a main street.
Then we looked out of the window.
A winter scene awaited us. Huge soft billowy snow flakes! Falling swirling, softly down. It had obviously been snowing for a while, as everything had about 6 inches, or a palm span, of snow - trees, parked cars fences, footpaths, motor cycles - wait til you see the pics when I work out how to load them! What was most amusing that nobody pushed the snow off their vehicles before driving off! So all moving traffic had a thick layer of snow of top - like a layer of icing.
After breakfast Chris and I set off walking in the snow to our arranged time to view the famous Last Supper fresco which we anticipated was about half an hours walk away.
What fun it was, walking in the crunchy snow! I have not done so for years!! We soon found out that it is best to walk where someone else has been so that we do not walk into pot holes, and that the salt which is liberally scattered everwhere quickly turns the snow to much wet slush in the gutters and to ice on the roads where no ice has been scattered.
To our surprise, we were a day early for our booking!! So back to trudging along the Milano city pavements in the snow - fun..... Then we discovered a very interesting art exhibition by a renowned Italian Artist Sifano (pardon spelling - will change it in due course) of his work from the 1960´s to 1990s. Some of it was nostalgic because during this time the role and acceptance of modern art, along with protests etc in the sixties and seventies was rather contraversal. I am sure that there is a website somewhere.
For much of the day we wandered around the city square, visited the Duomo, which looks very clean having had the outsides restored to their marble coloured glory, but the inside was still dark, and visited Chris´favourite department store Rinascente (pardon spelling). We found out that many of these particular stores have, when they can, roof top cafes often out in the open. This one looked straight out to the Duomo at roof height - an excellent way to view the beautifully carved roof top. I went up to the roof on an earlier visit to Milan about 8 years ago a stunning and peaceful place to rest and reflect, especailly, as at that time, there were thousands of visitors down below! There was a much smaller crowd there today - another reason for travelling to Europe in winter!! Oh and did I mention the Milano sales? And the people travel to Milano to go shopping at the winter sales?? Wait for my next blog......
No footprints of people trotting to work, no noisy traffic queueing, even though we were not on a main street.
Then we looked out of the window.
A winter scene awaited us. Huge soft billowy snow flakes! Falling swirling, softly down. It had obviously been snowing for a while, as everything had about 6 inches, or a palm span, of snow - trees, parked cars fences, footpaths, motor cycles - wait til you see the pics when I work out how to load them! What was most amusing that nobody pushed the snow off their vehicles before driving off! So all moving traffic had a thick layer of snow of top - like a layer of icing.
After breakfast Chris and I set off walking in the snow to our arranged time to view the famous Last Supper fresco which we anticipated was about half an hours walk away.
What fun it was, walking in the crunchy snow! I have not done so for years!! We soon found out that it is best to walk where someone else has been so that we do not walk into pot holes, and that the salt which is liberally scattered everwhere quickly turns the snow to much wet slush in the gutters and to ice on the roads where no ice has been scattered.
To our surprise, we were a day early for our booking!! So back to trudging along the Milano city pavements in the snow - fun..... Then we discovered a very interesting art exhibition by a renowned Italian Artist Sifano (pardon spelling - will change it in due course) of his work from the 1960´s to 1990s. Some of it was nostalgic because during this time the role and acceptance of modern art, along with protests etc in the sixties and seventies was rather contraversal. I am sure that there is a website somewhere.
For much of the day we wandered around the city square, visited the Duomo, which looks very clean having had the outsides restored to their marble coloured glory, but the inside was still dark, and visited Chris´favourite department store Rinascente (pardon spelling). We found out that many of these particular stores have, when they can, roof top cafes often out in the open. This one looked straight out to the Duomo at roof height - an excellent way to view the beautifully carved roof top. I went up to the roof on an earlier visit to Milan about 8 years ago a stunning and peaceful place to rest and reflect, especailly, as at that time, there were thousands of visitors down below! There was a much smaller crowd there today - another reason for travelling to Europe in winter!! Oh and did I mention the Milano sales? And the people travel to Milano to go shopping at the winter sales?? Wait for my next blog......
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Welcome to England, Travellers!!
Ever been travelling so much, that some times you are not sure where you are? Sometimes in this global village of our world, every city street has the same shops - Starbucks, Makkers, Subway, and the usual big name department and fashion stores.
Chris and I were sharply reminded, today, that we were in London, England. Because we discovered, again, that the English are very good at doing one thing. No, it was not shopping in in Regent street, checking out the sales, on what, we found out, was the busiest shopping day of the year. No, it was not their delightful London English accents either.
It was the queuing! English people are qreat at queues! You can see them, everywhere - Bus queues, get into shop queues, outside changing room queues, makeup testing queues, select product - but not pay for - queues, pay for item queues, information queues, try on shoe queues -oh and make sure you are queueing for the correct brand of shoe or, yes, stand in that queue over there, please!!
At least, after an exhausting day of queueing at the shops, we did not have to queue up for a beer at one of the English local pubs in London...... Uh Oh, somebody is standing behind us.... "Excuse me - is this the queue to get a beer?"
Chris and I were sharply reminded, today, that we were in London, England. Because we discovered, again, that the English are very good at doing one thing. No, it was not shopping in in Regent street, checking out the sales, on what, we found out, was the busiest shopping day of the year. No, it was not their delightful London English accents either.
It was the queuing! English people are qreat at queues! You can see them, everywhere - Bus queues, get into shop queues, outside changing room queues, makeup testing queues, select product - but not pay for - queues, pay for item queues, information queues, try on shoe queues -oh and make sure you are queueing for the correct brand of shoe or, yes, stand in that queue over there, please!!
At least, after an exhausting day of queueing at the shops, we did not have to queue up for a beer at one of the English local pubs in London...... Uh Oh, somebody is standing behind us.... "Excuse me - is this the queue to get a beer?"
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