met on 27 september

Ekin, at Zog, Milano

Ekin, besides being extremely cute, has an extremely soft voice: wrapping tone, neither too fast nor too slow, neither too high nor too low.

I was really tired and I would have spent the whole night listening to her.

it would have been great meeting

Nancy Upton

blue monday

met on 25 september

Royal Emilia barman, Milano

The Chinese bar on the other side of the crossing between viale Umbria and corso 22 Marzo is a proper detachment of Plastic. 

If you go dance (or socialize) there, you will spend at least one third of your night here.

this space goes to...

my beloved crabby friend Angelo, who's tired of having so many women friends that lead him to cut his fingers into toilets doors.

a new error

met on 24 september

Marchino, at his place, Milano

Marchino is definitely back and we won't let him leave anymore.

He's living alone and we're going to make his house our own house - I can already imagine rainy nights spent chit chatting and playing table games (or else).

Please note his glasses, obviously coming from Shanghai: they are made of wood and incredibly light.

[Thanks to Dino for the nice portrait]

happy birthday to

Viola, now 24 years old!

cellphone's dead

met on 21 september

Elisabetta, piazza XXIV Maggio, Milano

Long coffee (actually iced tea) break with my little blondie Elisabetta. 

She really needed a help for a video she has to shoot for a (sort of) job application, I did not come up with any noteworthy idea, but I really hope she will last out.

She has been my flatmate in India and we loved each other, but we live in the same city and we never manage to meet. Shame on us!

here is...

...where Chinese people take their wedding pictures in Milano.

wedding dress

met on 20 september

Noey and Sso, at Zog, Milano

Don't know how I met these incredibly cute girls from South Korea out of Zog, I suppose we have some common friends.
I liked them so much and I think they liked me too, so we set a regular meeting every tuesday at Zog. See you next week!

pay as you want experiment at Jap One...

...ended yesterday, three days in advance, because of very low profits.
In terms of numbers it has been a success and my friend Arianna collected many surveys for her thesis.
Above is a picture of our last lunch there, with Verdiana, Roberta and Angelo filling in the final questionnaire.

east harlem

met on 19 september

a guy, Central Station, Milano

I hate meeting people that want to talk, at all costs. It was late monday evening, I was doing my business on the train from Brescia to Milano and he started asking me what I was doing, how and why. The thing is that he only waited for me to ask "and you?". I hate when people talk to you only waiting for their turn. When I asked him "and you?" I actually wanted to asked "and you, where are you going? (he told he had to go to the airport)", but I couldn't complete my sentence because he started "Yeah, I'm going to Norway because I have a girlfriend there, she lives in... she studies... I come from... I live in... I live with...  I study...". He ended up telling me "Hey, your face is already familiar to me, it's like I already know you, I told you so many things!" - that I did not want to know.

movie recommendation

Carnage by Roman Polanski

strange mercy

met on 16 september

Davide, Ari, Lavinia, corso Ticinese, Milano

Davide plays the drums with the Mojomatics, he lives in Venice, but often comes to Milano because of my friend Arianna. Actually, they dated for a good while, before I discovered she was going out with somebody. Please, keep me updated because I'm always the last one hearing of any gossip.

Lavinia is an incredibly young songwriter coming from Udine and here you can listen to her first album, Magadasca by Lavinia!.

arianna is writing a thesis about

the pay what you want pricing system. 

A Japanese restaurant in piazza XXIV Maggio (Jap One) agreed to collaborate with her for two weeks from monday to friday and she told me that many people are going there for lunch. It is an unlimited buffet lunch and by now the average price paid has been 6.20€. 

all my friends

met on 10 september

Cioppi

[met at Università Bocconi - pic clearly stolen from her facebook]

Cioppi, the traveller. She spent half 2010 between Melbourne and Sidney, then lived in New York for the first three months of 2011. Back in Italy, she went back to her hometown, Modena, but then spent the whole summer in Lecce. Next destination? Maybe London. Let's see!

unusual saturday night

[pic taken by a person not able to use Hipstamatic. i'm talking about myself]

After some update about our lives and some healthy gossip, we - me and the girls in the picture above: Federica, Flavia, Rossella - decided to spring a surprise on our friend Laura, working in a restaurant.

We knew Laura had to finish between 00.30 and 1, so we arrived and started smoking cigarettes waiting for her. Unfortunately she stopped at 3.30. We spent TWO HOURS AND A HALF out of that posh restaurant and when she finally arrived we spent not more than 10 minutes with her!

At least, she loved the surprise or, better, she could not believe we did not go away after one hour.

night time

Silvia, via Paolo Sarpi, Milano

This beautiful sulky girl is Silvia, she comes from Bari, studied with me in Milano and then moved to Rome. It was at least one year we did not see each other and we casually met thanks to our friend Angelo.

I spent the afternoon with her, Angelo and Alice walking around via Paolo Sarpi, the little China town in Milano. I would have bought so much stuff - wigs, mainly: i've found a bordeaux one that would look so perfect on me! - but luckily I've found an ATM only before going home, so I bought only some edamame beans and some beetroot baozi. 

poor baozi(s?), ...

...yesterday it was the first time I tried to cook them. I read they should have been prepared using a double boiler or a microwave. I opted for the microwave (I was in a hurry) and made a big mistake: I didn't eat them immediately. When I tried to eat them, they turned into stones. Dinner ended with my flatmates and my boyfriend throwing baozi(s) against me. 

pink steam

met on 8 september

Tube and Ste, Old Fox Pub, Milano

Happy birthday guys! 

Right present to the right person:

Tube - Tea-pot, mugs and slippers by Muji + 6months subscription to the magazine L'Espresso

Ste - Butthole Surfers t-shirt, beer-cap, portable fan and big inflatable soccer ball

happy birthday also to these beautiful girls

Laura on  the 7th, Cata on the 8th and Rossi on the 9th

in my mind

met on 7 september

Roberto, Colonne di San Lorenzo, Milano

Once he used to have curly hairs, but yesterday I met him with this short hair and I didn't recognized him at all! He's now working with the artists collective WooLoo in Copenhagen and, for what he told me, he's enjoying his (weird) job.

Giancarlo, La Vineria, Milano

Giancarlo works at La Vineria, a nice wine shop / bar where I spend a lot of time (maybe too much) with my friends. Yesterday it was his birthday and he offered sparkling wine to everybody of us.

i'm in love with Milano, always more and more

people playing football at Castello Sforzesco, under an amazing light.

island in the sun

met on 4 september

Dino, Irene, Marchino, at PanePasta, Milano

Irene is now the fourth occupant of PanePasta and she perfectly fits us ♥

meanwhile, my other flatmate Alice...

started knitting in her spare time. can't wait for my xmas present!

i know where the summer goes

met on 2nd september

Cristina, via Vigevano, Milano

I met her for the first time at the end of 2007, here in Milano, thanks to an amazing common friend, Paul.

Cristina is a true Milanese, but now moved with her boyfriend (for professional reasons) to Pau, in south-western France, where she's desperate: almost every woman has at least one child and city life is built around children. She instead told me that Bordeaux and Toulouse are great cities both to visit and to live and I've just added them to my Places-to-go list.

it has been great having lunch at

Latteria, via Vigevano 33

missing

met on 30 august

Giordano, Università Bocconi, Milano

Hey! It was at least one year we didn't see each other! 

Giordano talked me about his particular experience at Diesel, where he's doing an internship. 

Diesel headquarters are situated almost 40km far from Vicenza and you should know two things:

- Vicenza is not famous for being a lively city and, with no offense for anybody, its inhabitants are not famous for being specially open-minded;

- Giordano spent last semester in San Paolo, Brasil. 

By the way, he's enjoying this experience and I had no doubts about it, since he's an extremely positive and sunny person.

i'm in love with

[pic found on tumblr, taken by molnillusion]
origami

there is an end

met on 29 august

We've finally opened the magic box, we were 12 and everything worked.

It has been the best present ever. 

Thanks to:

- obviously and first of all, Dino

- my other great 10 helpers.

it would have been great meeting

Whoopi Goldberg, the woman who never gets older

i'll take care of you

met on 23rd august

Andrea, Festa di Radio Onda d'Urto, Brescia

Andrea's dad was the photographer I always used to go with my family when I was a child and lived in Verolanuova: I perfectly remember him, the shop and his fluffy dog. 

Andrea is now also a photographer and you can take a look at his work here: andreagilberti.com

I met him because he's now dating Anna.

i was in love with his chow chow Lulu

lose it

special edition: met on H O L I D A Y

Azzano Mella

Ivan and Yessen (pic stolen from their facebook, taken at Venice Biennale) came visiting me at my place, we went to Iseo Lake and I've discovered that I don't know Iseo at all!

The weather in July has been fine and when August arrived... everybody felt it! 

Above on the left is my brother, able to sunbathe only because of the fan next to him.

Manuel, official winner of the kitsch-tombola!

What's a kitsch-tombola? It's a sort of bingo, but, as a prize, we put up all those awful objects we did not want anymore. Manuel won many things: the zebra cap he's wearing, a rucksack branded Algida, a married couple made of ceramic, a terrible heart-shaped-clock and many other things.

Favignana

Dino and Ste, just chilling out on the beautiful island of Favignana. 

We met Stefano just for one day, before he went back home. 

If you go to Favignana, rent a bike and enjoy the amazing coastal little roads. 

Marettimo

Irene, who will be my flatmate starting from next September, hosted Dino and me in Marettimo, island next to Favignana. If Favignana was beautiful, I'd say Marettimo is almost perfect. 

I spent awesome time there and I'll endlessly thank her and her fabulous parents for giving us such a great hospitality.

Palermo

    

Roberta, Robi, Ro! (pic stolen from her facebook)

We virtually met last summer (she had to be my Couchsurfing host in Berlin), but actually met in March in Milano, because she moved there. 

While having breakfast in Favignana, Dino asked me: "Isn't she Roberta, your friend from Palermo?". Yes, she was. Fate. We casually met for breakfast in Favignana, so she offered us an accommodation  in Palermo. She's a crazy, outgoing and incredibly nice girl and her friends too. Thank you! 

In Palermo I totally fell in love with the tree in the picture above: ficus macrophylla.

Cecina

Marchino, we missed you so much! He's just back from Shanghai, where he spent six months. We could hardly wait to meet him after such a long time. 

Also his parents are amazing: his cute mum, Manu, is really famous among our friends because of huge breakfasts she prepares for her guests. 

it has been great receiving

Dino gave me this wooden box as a present for my 24th birthday.

Actually, the box is the container of the present, but it has one big peculiarity:

in order to be opened, it needs 24 hands, I can't open it by myself. On the sides of the box there are some little keys/wrenches that have to be pulled at the same time to unlock the cover; the keys are in total 23 and the 24th hand has the fundamental task to open the cover.

I still don't know anything about the content, but I loved it. I love that he spent so much time to figure out this idea and the way to realize it, but I mostly love the final result and the thing that this box is so fascinating and cute that gives me patience to wait for the right night to open it.

king of the beach

.

chi c'è, c'è. chi non c'è, non c'è.

met on 1st august

Martha, at my place, Azzano Mella

Last time I met Martha I was 12 years old and, after 12 years, here she is again!

Martha comes from Kyoto, but worked in Europe as a textile designer for many years. She's a friend of my aunt, who met her in London while studying there during the 90s.

She's incredibly calm, but always has a smile ready for you. 

She was really happy and fascinated by the big change happened in me and in my brother, who has become "a Hollywood star".

it would have been great meeting

Helena Rubinstein, who's story really made me dream.

splitting the atom