I went back to Milan by train and metro, and shortly before 9 am I was ringing the bell of the apartment of Lino's mom, la Signora Maria. Lino himself opened the door and I was very glad to embrace my Sardinian friend. Lino is an artist and runs a small but very artistically decorated hotel in the mountain town of Orgosolo, in Sardinia. With its beautiful mountain scapes the town has spawned generation after generation of artists, who have made the small town famous for its socially-conscious murals. Lino, himself, has designed four or five murals that have roughed the feathers of the local council and some fellow artists, but he has stuck to his guns and is considered a bit of a rogue. But his most sellable creations are in the beautiful jewelry that he designs, based on his thoughtful study of the Nuragic culture of Sardinia (2,300 BC to 240 BC), and this is why he is in Milan, operating a small floor display at one of the upscale shopping centers in Como (100 km north of Milan and close to the Swiss border.
So we said hello, drank some super concentrated coffee, said hello to Signora Maria, who kindly invited me to spend the night, and took off for Como, which is a charming mountain town, developed around Lake Como. We were arriving in executive hours to the shopping center, because Lino had her two able sales assistants, Alessia and Margherita, open at 9 am. Both young women are attractive and extroverted, which is a major asset to a sales rep. The stall is in the middle of the main drag of the center, and with a scintillating display of exotic golden objects attracts much attention. That is all it takes: A potential client stops, Alessia greets him/her with a smiling "Buon Giorno", and a few minutes later she knows all about the sister who will receive this jewelry as a Christmas present while Margherita wraps the purchase. Smooth as silk. I am going to guess that this is harvest time for Lino, but he has to pay for the space and the stipend of the girls, so at the end he will probably make just enough to keep him in business for the following year.
While this was going on I took the time to go look for a new pair of shoes, and was lucky enough to find a pair of sneakers with 50% discount that fit me like a glove. I was happy to get rid of my winter boots, which might had been good if there had been black ice on the sidewalks (and possibly another broken leg in my future), but were a definite overkill in sunny northern Italy (the temperature is fresh without being cold, so the two jackets I brought are one too many).
Taking advantage of his great selling team Lino took me for a tour of Como, and a walk along the lake shore. This is where the soccer stadium is located, and it just happened that Como was playing Palermo. The crowd sound told us that it was a good game, but when Lino checked on his telefonino the score was Como 2 and Palermo 3, with no more than 15 minutes to go. Fourteen minutes later we heard a roar coming from the stadium! Como had tied the score 3 to 3 in the very last moment! As you can well imagine we saw a look of content in most of the people who came streaming out of the stadium.
Afterward we went back to the shopping mall, where we stayed until 8 pm. We wished Margherite and Alessia "Auguri" and "Buon Natale", and went back home to Milan, where Signora Maria had dinner ready for us sometime around 10 pm. I am not being able to catch up with my blog, but I am eating like a king.
The following morning I woke up early, and while everyone else in the apartment was still asleep I made my way to the metro (which for reference costs 2.20 euros per ride) and the train station, to take an 8:20 am train from Milan Centrale to Alessandria to Genoa Principe to Cogoleto, where I arrived at 1:20 pm. It was just like arriving home, with my dear friend Giulia waiting for me at the station to drive me to her home, where I will spend the next three nights.
I met Giulia two years ago, when I spent a couple of weeks in Cogoleto while writing my book about Environmental Geology. "My" apartment is a part of her fourth-floor penthouse (with a super-comfortable bathroom and a kitchenette), but in reality she welcomes her guests to use the living and dining rooms, and the beautiful terraza with its stunning view of the Ligurian Sea. When I got there two years ago I thought I had died and gone to heaven, and I experienced the same feeling this time round. If you come to Italy you can do no better than to come and spend a few days in Cogoleto staying at Giulia's (website: acasadegiulia.me email: giuliaghigliazza@gmail.com).
The other two beautiful facets of Giulia is that she is an artist and a fabulous cook. I had just arrived on December 24, right on time to sample the best of her cooking :) For example, she had a Minestrone ready for our lunch, and had prepared all sorts of appetizers to receive friends who were invited to stop by for a Christmas Eve aperitif. Before that, however, she took me to see an amazing nativity display at a nearby convent, where a cave under the convent has been turned into a small town populated by all sorts of ceramic characters, maybe 30 cm tall, all of which are bringing the best of their wares to honor Baby Jesus in his manger. A stunning collection no doubt built over many years.
Back at home I had the pleasure of embracing Giacomo, Giulia's 15-year old son, who had spent most of the day riding his mountain bike. Two years ago he had introduced me to many of his friends, and I remember fondly our conversations, and their horror at the indignities that we in America had inflicted unto the national dish. "How can anyone eat a pizza with pineapple and ham? Yach!"
The Christmas Eve aperitif was fun, and the friends who came were good conversationalists, so I had a fair amount of practice listening to Italian and trying to speak it back (the former is easy, but the latter is hard because Spanish grammar gets in the way). And then there were all the delicious tidbits with caviar, cheese, anchovies with pimentos, salmon, cookies, and panettone. Yum! In contrast with Mexico, however, where the main festive meal is on the 24, here in northern Italy the big meal is on the 25, so there are much more delicious moments to come.
To wrap up the evening, around 9 pm we went to Varazze, the next town to the west, to visit the Live Nativity, a tradition inspired by our common friend Giovanni (more about Giovanni in a couple of days), who would bring his ox and sheep to the church yard on the 23 and 24, to recreate the Nativity scene. Over the years people added to the color by dressing up as peasants (the girls are particularly cute), and setting small wooden "shops" to show traditional arts of the mountain country to the north, from cooking polenta pancakes to mulling wine, to working wood with old implements, to tending to the goats and a crabby donkey (no ox, however), to sewing or weaving. Overall the slopes of the small hill around the church turn into a small town of Bethlehem where neighbors come to say hello to each other (everybody knows Giulia!).
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