Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Social Communication Project

In the heart of the Milan shopping district we stumbled upon an exhibit called, "The Social Communication Project." What first caught my attention was pictures depicting the mafia. Upon closer inspection I realized it was a campaign encouraging people to stand up against the mafia! I've had quite a few conversation about the mafia with various Italians friends after this encounter. They've told me about the corruption in the south and a reality that the mafia is still interlaced in their government. Que mal!
The banana signifies the cause of trouble. Or something to that end.




"Do not be afraid of teasing the Mafia."


The mafia posters are what first caught my attention but the social communication project had exhibits of so many different campaigns. It was really cool because most of them were slightly obscure. The exhibits were creative and really got people attention. There was a whole sidewalk length of exhibits.
Raising awareness of the extinction of Tigers
The poverty compared to America...







Italia

I don't know how long I've been longing, yearning to go to Italy- Let's just say since the day I could say cappuccino. So for the first time I embarked to Milan, Italy with two of my amigas,  high hopes, and my incredibly small ryaniar approved luggage. And by luggage I mean school backpack. This proposed 2 problems. One I've never packed that lightly and 2 we were headed to the fashion capital....with no room to bring fashionable clothes. Minor setback. The first night we stayed in Bergamo and the next day we took a day trip to Lake Como. It was a perfect sunny day and the town was simply enchanting. That evening we boarded the train to Milan with  no real idea of where we would end up sleeping that night. It's quite hard to navigate a strange city with a language barrier and shotty iphone wifi service. Simultaneously one of us would ask direction in spanish, english and broken Itanlian. And by broken Italian I mean all we knew how to say was D'ove(where).

After a lot of aimless walking and a pick-me-up gelato we ended up at a low scale hotel (as there are NO hostels in Milan). We ended up bartering with a less then pleased hotel staff but eventually got a decent room rate. Lets just say they weren't pleased with us. We started the first night in a suite with a terazza and 3 beds...only to end up the 3rd night in a one bed, no toilet, shackle of a room. Each night they offered the same rate, 25 euros. Who knows.

Lake Como
Regardless I became absolutely enchanted with Milan.  During the days we walked the city, gaped at the architecture, studied the fashion and ate pizza like pros. During the nights we hung out with our Italian friends (Friends of my good friend Zack Cram). Real nice people. They took us to a happenin club the first night where we had drinks and great conversation. The next night we ordered in pizza and played their favorite American drinking game(kings) (I don't think there is such a thing as Italian drinking games). The last night they cooked us authentic Italian pasta and fish. We love those Italian men, so appreciative of them for showing us a good time and for showing us their city!

Our Italian friends! The best company and the best pizza!
We were living the good life until we ended up sleeping in the airport to save money the last night. Reality sunk in but not without a few good laughs and the company of some nice french boys. The whole Milan airport was lined with traveling overnighters. We could barley find a spot to post up!