Finding the Time

Milan, 6th March 2008

Most of the cliches about Italian style are true. The shopping mall in the Cathedral Square would put most cathedrals in other countries to shame, with its vaulted glazed roof, sculptures and paintings. Admittedly it is the short cut between the third-biggest Cathedral in the world and the square which has La Scala opera house on the other side and the statue of Leonardo da Vinci in the middle. The local police drive Alfa Romeos. The local Ferrari shop will sell you a $5,000 model Ferrari. The shops are stuffed with designer labels, Italian, French and American. Most of the "minor" local churches would be major tourist attractions in any other country on earth. The Cathedral itself would reward weeks of close examination. It is studded with 3,500 statues, large and small. Three large windows behind the high altar have 390 panes between them - never mind all the other windows around the other wals.

But can you find a cheap watch? You would stand a better chance of finding a duck-billed platypus roaming these historic streets. It all started on Sunday morning when I pulled into long-term parking at Gatwick Airport. There was a sudden clunk and my wrist watch had slid into the gap beside the handbrake. The bracelet had snapped and, the insane economics of mass production being as they are, it makes more sense to buy a whole new watch. It is irritating out of all proportion carrying the watch in my pocket, but cheap watches seem to be unobtainable round here.

So far I have seem the Cathedral, several "lesser" churches such as St Ambrose (the citys patron saint), the Pirrelli building, the incredible Art Deco rail station (here
..and the Science and Technology Museum (where Leonardo gets frequent mention of course, playing the same role as Beethoven in Bonn or Shakespeare in Stratford-on Avon). I have been up to Lake Como and had a boat ride up and down the lake, surrounded by wonderful hills and mountains. The town of Como is a blot on its lovely landscape, but the cathedral is again absolutely magnificent. I took the boat ride to the little town of Colico at the north end of the lake. My guidebook had absolutely nothing to say about Colico and the local tourist office was closed, as I was so early in the season. But a poster on the door pointed me to the local military fortress.

Being Italy, even the gun turrets looked stylish. I thought the whole set up looked suspiciously Teutonic and suspected a WW2 German relic. But in fact it was a wholly Italian creation from 1914. It guards the pass coming south from Austria. Politics change, but geography does not; there is a 12th century castle ruin less than 200 yards from the "modern" fortress with its four 5.8 inch Schneider guns. (Despite the name, Schneider is French. Like Krupps in Germany and Vickers in England, they are the long-time national armaments suplliers). It is still an active military site, surrounded by barbed wire. Italy and Austria are at peace, but you never know......Even these old guns could provide a lethal welcome for any unwelcome visitors from the north.

Italy is always full of surprises and contradictions. The military base at Colico is named in memory of both a WW2 partisan AND a WW2 fascist. Is this dual tribute unique anywhere in the world? One of the subway stations on the Milan metro is named "Moscow" - which could only reflect the influence of the very strong Italian Communist Party. But less than 100 yards from St Ambrose there is a memorial to the men of an Italian division who died on the Russian front between 1941 and 1943.