Expo

I have been intended to write this post actually one year and few months ago, but for a series of circumstances, it simply never happened.

Last year, for about half a year, a quite big area of Milan has been transformed into a gigantic world exhibition about food sustainability. This has been a very big thing for Italy and in Italy. Every time we were there, there was no talk that didn't include the world "Expo" and everyone wanted to go and check it out.
At the end, we decided to peek a look as well. After all, we are both interested in both food and sustainability.
Living abroad, I was having the opportunity to actually get a quite decent discount on the tickets, but the procedure for getting it was a sphinx riddle.
Nevertheless, with only one kid, we took the train, we conveniently arrived at the station, got the ticket and entered this "city" in the city, crowded with people, in a very warm august.

The expo decumano crowded with people

In order to be able to visit it properly, I think one would have needed at least a month.
Almost every nation on Earth (except all the Nordic countries - so that noone in Sweden has a clue what this is about) had built up a gigantic pavilion or at least some form of exhibition space showing off.
I think it mostly became a showing off, not of food neither of sustainability. It was beautiful, interesting, that was the red thread around the whole place and for each country, but it seemed mostly like each pavilion was pushing for getting more tourists. But maybe that was the goal of it?

Big pavilion are sticking out at the horizon

We had no big preparation for the day, so we decided just based on pure inspiration where to head.

A copy of Milan's symbol: the golden virgin statue on top of the Dome

The great thing was that during the whole afternoon, considering how warmth it was, we had the opportunity to refill our water bottles thanks to free distribution machine. That was a blessing, but also took a lot of time since every station had often a little queue.
And talking of queue, depending of the pavilion, there were interesting queues to face.
We gave up (although by having a kid we had often faster routes) visiting few pavilions, including the most popular one of them all, the one of Japan.
We did visit few countries I don't even remember the name, some from the far east (maybe Polinesia?) some from the middle east.
We managed to go into the one from Marocco, Spain, European Union (which was actually the most educational, with a little movie with special effects), walk through the common thematic areas from the African countries... but for absorbing everything time was definitely not enough.

Pavilion Zero

Some of the pavilions were having impressive shapes and design. This is the one from Ungary.

The interior of the Ungarian pavilion

The effort put by each country could vary quite much (I guess budget made the difference), but everyone made surely an attempt to stick out.

Pavilion from USA

Are we really in Milan? Qatar's pavilion

I don't remember :-( Clearly something from East?

China, or part of its pavilion.

One of the hope I was personally having was that it would have been possible to taste more food.

In reality, this was very limited. In the different pavilions it was often possible to buy some product specific from the country, in some others it was possible to eat there. But both options were far from being cheap. 

We did buy some random food in one of the many stands from which one could try some extravagant fast food variation, but we were still hungry and had the need for a proper meal.

Tasting chocolate at the Lindt pavilion

At the Emilia Romagna section

Eating becoming quite an interesting project. Thank God we landed at Eataly which offered as many restaurants as italian regions, with specialities from each of them. Problem was that it was pretty crowded and the seating was not exactly optimal (and we had a stroller with a little boy in it).

Anyway, we managed to quickly eat a quite nice meal, for a decent price.

Choosing was though quite a problem. I could have been eating a dish from each region/restaurant!

The future supermarket?

A taste from the future

As the exhibition should be about food and sustainability, we got attracted by visiting a supermarket and other few interesting items that were spread a little bit everywhere.
The supermarket was quite interesting, but it didn't shock me that much. Although there was an attempt to bring up more organic food and to have some interesting display capability, I would have expected something even more futuristic than just a fancy screen?

An attempt to have a proper recycling system for such an event!

Algae Folly. New proteins?

Vertical farm

So, is the future going to be these modern nanotechnologies related way of cultivating some form of food, or are we, especially as Italians, going to stick with our traditions and our traditional food as the one presented at the Expo?

Who knows. I know though that the whole Expo is now quite a desert. And this is a pity considering the amount of infrastructure, how big the area is and what possibilities of learning and exploring there were. I would have made it quite a permanent fair, if it wouldn't be that expensive, I guess, to maintain each pavilion. 

Though, I guess the whole area right now is not there without any cost - although I know that there are plans for reusing part of it.

This summer we decided to pay a visit to it, since the Children's thematic park was still there.

The atmosphere was though completely different than the one from the year before. No more crowds, a form of desolation when looking at the whole Expo and a feeling of nostalgia all over.

Cascina Triulza

Observing the old Expo area from distance

Where is everyone?

The children's park was quite interesting and well done. Probably best to target kids in primary school, but still I think it was quite ok for Isabella to be there, although she didn't grasp so much of the messages that wanted to be passed over through the park.
It was a lot about nature, energy and environment.
One could smell different herbs, understand the richness of water, exchanging drawings with unknown kids by fishing them up from a pond, and finally observing how one creates energy when using bikes... among other things.

Bikes for energy!

As it happened the year before, we managed to miss just for a tiny bit the show of the Tree of Life, which will be the symbol of the Expo from the years to come.
This time though, we went close to it and I actually found it magnificent!

Observing the surroundings. The tree of life on the horizon.

The tree of life

Under the tree of life

The big pity of our second visit was that from the children's park to the tree, one needs to walk. A lot. With kids. Among ponds and sluices. In the heat, with mosquitoes, no shadow, no trees, no wind.

Let's say that there was plenty of whining and it was not the best part of the visit!

I'd hope, but here maybe I am just a dreamer, that the whole area won't be forgotten and small things, as the path I have just mentioned, improved, to keep the memory of what all of this was, especially for those that didn't even have a clue it existed (namely all the Nordics who missed the great Italian food culture concentrated in once place :-D).

Visby and Almedalen

This summer, for a serie of circumstances, I ended up having the possibility to travel to Visby for going to Almedalen.

Visby

Almedalen is a political event that lasts about a week. All the politician and a lot of organizations meet up and there are a lot of events and seminars. During the years, this event has grown up in size and, as for every event in Visby, half of Stockholm is there.
Said this one has to know that I am completely disinterest in politics. I have no clue what goes on in my own country most of the times, and in Sweden, it is even less. I am quite detach, I do not know the people that run this place and surely, I wasn't burning to be in Almedalen for some special reason (or for meeting some local VIP).
However, I thought it could have been an interesting experience, and it was.

In the architects antrum...

One of the seminars

In the town center

Almedalen per se' didn't impress me. On the other hand, I was very puzzled of the importance given to an event where there is a large amount of noise produced by everyone. Who is there is mostly to talk and show off, not to listen. If you have a message, you can be there and splat it in everyone's face, but it is not said that somebody will actually understand it.
So, it is a bit of a waste of time. Except if your voice is big enough to actually be heard.

Visby on the other hand was very pitoresque. The historical centre is small, compact and it is lovely to just stroll around, although there was a lot of people (but I suspect that is almost inevitable the whole summer there).

Streets of Visby

Typical house in Visby. House painted with tar.

Details of the painting on the house

Streets of Visby

Nice corners

Interesting buildings

The wall is beautiful from every angle, but especially at sunset. The church ruins are fascinating.

Majestic

Inside the ruins

A buildings meltpot

Beautiful church ruins

Basically, everything that is breathing medieval is very refreshing in a country where wherever you go the most ancient building is from the 1800 century and everything else has been burnt down, reutilized for building something else, or haven't existed at all.
Of course it is not Rome, but considering where one is, it is quite impressive that the core of the town is almost intact with old buildings.

View from the wall

Houses and wall

One of the towers

The wall at sunset

I had also the opportunity to peek a look outside the wall. Visby per se' loses then its touch as soon as one get far away from the center. It becomes a very conventional 70s shaped town.

Nothing extraordinary (except that there are two cranes here). But this picture became really good in my opinion!

Outside Visby the island have plenty of potential. The landscape can be very beautiful and dramatic, with high cliffs standing on water (pity that the weather was awful when I went to observe the panorama...), there are again ruins of quite big monasteries and finally, there are also small fishermans villages, small, intact in the atmosphere, typical with low buildings.

Talking of Roma. This is the ruins of the monastery in Roma

Roma monastery

Building annexes to Roma monastery

 If food though is a very important element for my trips, it was not the case for the rest of the people I was surrounded, so sadly, the food experience was quite boring. Not that I would think that during such week there is the possibility to eat in some nice place, with typical food, at a reasonable price, but we ended up eating a pizza, and of course, that I would have never chosen if I'd be on my own visiting there.
Hopefully, if there will ever be another trip, there will be then some chance to eat something typical! 

Brosarp

During our vacation time in Åkarp, we decided to do a small excursion.
The kids had the opportunity (slightly guided by their parents) to choose where to go and the destination was Brosarp.
The place is located in the east part of Skåne and the reason for going there is that it is possible to take a train ride from Brosarp to St Olof and back. On a steam train.

The train is ready to go

 The whole experience is very nice because everything is handled like in the old days. It is possible, for example, to buy tickets in the station. From a person. Through a window. And the person is dressed with a bit old fashioned clothes.

Brosarp's station

The whole station is still breathing 1930's atmosphere. The building per se is decently well preserved and there are details, from the benches, to a fireplace, from even a scale, that gives also an idea of how a station was run in the past.

A stove in the waiting room

Waiting for the train

The old timetable

 The train is composed by the steam locomotive, plus different wagons. The wagons are mostly different from each other and, if I remember right, all of them are from the 30s - 40s.

Interior of a wagon

 The experience is very different from being on a train today. First of all is incredibly noisy. But then it is quite slow and shaky. Oscar was very afraid and didn't dare to go on the platform to feel the wind and experience the landscape from outside.
Going through the hills is very nice. The ride is about 40 minutes and the train stops at few stations on the way. While going of course there is a lot of whistling coming from the locomotive.
The only thing to do on the train is to admire the scenery or talk to each other. I'd say taking out a mobile phone and surfing during this ride should be forbidden!

Vitaby station

 The final destination is St Olof. There there is again a station, a ice cream kiosk (sadly, prepackage ice cream) and apart for a toilet visit (since there is none on the train) one can stay and study the locomotive, first doing maneuvers to reach the other end of the train, second while it is steaming off and preparing to go back.

The locomotive in all its beauty

Tjo-tjoooo (chuu chuuu)

On the way back, with Isabella, we took turns to stay on the platform just in front of the locomotive. That was the best idea we got (apart that we got ashes stains on the clothes, legs and shoes). It was very impressive to be in front of the locomotive and one could observe the environment with new eyes.
It was definitely the best part of the experience. Oscar, sadly, was still terrorized by the sounds, so he didn't dare to be on the platform, but when finally back at Brosarp he couldn't just get enough to observe the locomotive in action, from distance.
At Brosarp we decided to get some food and the option, apart to buy ice cream, is to get some food on the restaurant/cafe wagon situated on one of the tracks. The food is very basic but with a railway team in the naming convention. At least, good enough to give something the kids to chew on at a reasonable price.
There is also a little shop selling interesting railway related books, railway related toys and such.
A nice "souvenir" ending for the extreme train nerds that might pass by ;-)

Bosjökloster

This summer me, Isabella and two friends of ours, decided to take a girl-power excursion and have a little trip nearby. One of the purposes was also to visit a shop (Frid och Fröjd) which is a bit "luxury" second hand shop, that I had put an eye on by looking at its Instagram pictures.

As that was the last thing we did during the day, we spent most of the day instead at Bosjökloster.
The place has inspired me for many years, but we have never got the chance to actually go there.
The castle/monastery and the church are located on a little peninsula, that not so long ago, was actually a little island in the middle of the nearby lake (Ringsjö).
The church can be visited freely, while the garden and the castle (which once upon the time was a monastery) wants a fee.

The parts that can be visited of the castle are what once was possibly the refectory, which is now full with details about which families have been living there, and some interesting information about the nunnery.
The church is simple, but soberly decored and when one is visiting it, can listen to a recording that explain the story of the place.

A very beautiful kakelugn

On the other wing, one can visit several rooms and admire the staircase that, full of enormous portraits of his old inhabitants, brings to the private parts of the castle.

One of the entrances to the castle

Everything is quite well preserved and the view from the rooms, down the lake, is very pitoresque. It is definetely not a coincidence that somebody thought of building a nice palace (nunnery? ;)) here.

In the court

The garden/park is of course also huge and divided in different areas. Sadly, the weather was not at its top the day we decided to pay a visit, but nevertheless, we managed to look around quite much.

Beautiful red dahlias

The playground was a must that we didn't manage to skip.

After that, we ate at the cafe', which was having a quite disappointing menu (just some quite expensive sandwhiches and very limited kids alternatives). 

There are different activities offered for the kids, though. From a funicular railway (which we skipped), to some minor boat activity (if I don't remember wrong), to, finally, walking in a majestic park where there are few animals.

The first animals are quite cute goats that run around in a fenced area. 

At the end of the area there is one of the most beautiful tree I have seen (which sadly I forgot to photograph without the kids inside). The oak tree I am talking about is about 1000 years old and it is just majestic. 

Finally, there are few animals more that one can meet.

Horses. Well. Mini tiny small horses that gets easily annoyed (and kicked infact Isabella) 

The horses and their friends

But the most surprising ones to meet where the llama, who had the most extraordinary funny faces (and haircut) ever.

I wonder though why on earth are they staying there! This is not South America ;-)

Hi there! We are very cool!

Assuming you manage to find a sunny day during a summer in Skåne, the place is worth a visit. I would just bring my own food next time, while instead of relying on their cafe' (I have heard though that the nearby golf club has a more decent restaurant, so maybe one can use that for satisfying the hunger). 

Nostalgia

During the past months, I have spent a lot of energy trying to find the time to update the blog.
I have surely small and uninteresting things that I would like to pester everyone with by sharing them through the blog, and although I have been taking notes of what I want to talk about, I have barely managed to prioritize finding the time for this.
The result is that some stuff got obsolete and some "classical" posts have not happened (the one about Isabella's birthday for example).
Said this, it seems though that everyone survived just fine...

On top of this desolation of posts, I have also noticed that most of the older posts, which were enriched by wonderful pictures, have lost the appealing side (the pictures, that is), since they were on some free online service and it seems that doesn't work anymore.
Well, if anyone gets the urge to actually be curious what certain things were or not, I have of course all the pictures (I hope) so in that case, I would try to fix the post, otherwise, I hope posterity will forgive me for my lazyness.

During the last months, apart some house improvements, which has brought also, together with the piano, boxes full of manga, books and university material (wow, I was keeping my notebooks in such order), a wave of nostalgia, especially "musically" wise.
Nevertheless, when going back to Italy for the summer holidays, I checked for more find from the prehistoric age and got some nice hits.

Anime from the 80s

Although our kids are not exposed to the same quantity of anime that I have watched (both because we are a bit stricter with the TV than my parents and because we have to go through youtube for watching them), I am trying to gently push down the culture I have been growing up with. 

Finding these two books was great. "Il pianolibro" was a cute book with small extract of the anime opening titles in simplified piano score format. There was also a little keyboard that could have been used to play pedagogically the songs. Unfortunately, that got broken very quickly.

Since now the kids are watching Captain Tsubasa (Holly e Benji) - finally, by the way - they like me to play that quite much.

The other book, Memole has also the opening title piano score on the back and Isabella loved the story. I hope to find the cartoon online sometime. 

Mermista, She-ra Princess of Power and Angella

After visiting a friend of mine, who had a fantastic book about the Masters of Universe, I ended up searching my She-ra dolls, where She-ra was the sister of He-man. If you don't know who they are, or you are too old, or you are too young, in either case, I recommend to study a bit on Google :-)

The dolls became very popular with Isabella, so I was forced to bring them to Sweden. 

Sadly, Angella's wings have been broken almost from the very beginning and now the shields and the sword are quite brittle and break every two seconds....

These were the 90s instead

Finally, I have found also the piano scores of one of Take That's albums (I would have preferred though to have "Everything changes"). Luckily, I was so cheap that I just went and did photocopies of the piano score. Not funny to play those songs when you don't have a boy band....