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| Three out of the four shops are closed. One of them usually sells food |
An empty
city has many advantages. Cars find parking space anywhere, riding a bike
becomes more fun and traffic lights can be ignored safely. But the silence of
an August in Milan also has its backdrops: there is no way you can find fresh
food.
Summer started early in Italy. As soon as the kids are ready with another year of school,
you can slowly see the streets becoming more tranquil. The real low-season in
Milan is in the month of August, with a peak around the ferragosto
week. In that week almost everyone is away and I’am not exaggerating when I tell you that 75% of the shops was closed!
This year
in the middle of August I spent some days in Milan. And it wasn’t easy. Usually
I can reach four bakery shops within 10 minute reach of my house. On the walk I
did in that week I couldn’t find any of them open and was forced to enter a
supermarket. Not that I try to avoid supermarkets, but the bread department usually
is not in my route.
Having a
cold beer in the middle of the hot summer seemed to be as difficult as meeting
a penguin in the center of the city. Hardly any bar was open and when you
finally found one, it wasn’t the kind of fun you usually can expect in a bar.
In unlucky cases it was just you and the barman around.
But even
after ferragosto the city stayed in a
kind of deep sleep. A market I visited in the second half of the month was only
filled with half the stalls I would usually find. And especially the food
stalls where badly represented. A temporary food desert it was.
Now
September is about the start and the kids need to go back to school again, the
city starts to breath again. Instead of passing by the grey protective doors, I
look into colorful fruit shops, smell the perfume of fresh espresso and see
people going for a drink by the end of the afternoon.
