Travel Virus

I’m getting ready for my next trip to Kerala, India, and I just went to the consolate in Milan to get a visa… not a simple job! On the ambassy and consolate website is written that a turism visa can be requested in Milan, in via Larga, with the passport and a form that can no way be downloaded from the website… what to do? I try to call to get the form but no anwer… Ok so I dowload the form for the Rome ambassy and fill it in. Next I go to Milan, via Larga, very long street with no number (too much work, you know!)… I walk round and round, finally follow a group of Indians and find it. There are approximately 200 Indians in two small rooms in some sort of cue, and only two ladies behind the desk (I can’t see them, only hear), oh jez should I wait my turn? But there are no white people here! One indian girl ask me if I speak english and if I can translate her a form, but the form is in english… i’m confused what does she want me to do? “Tradurre in italiano!” because they didn’t speak much english, only italian and hindi… interesting. So I ask her if she think this is the right place for me, so her family take me all the way to front of the line talking in hindi with the other people in line and pointing at me, as if I had a special right to skip the line! Well we stayed near the from for half an hour but the line doesn’t make any progress, we didn’t advance even of one person. finally the family tells me that the turist visa are issues in another part of the city. WHAT? where? “It’s written at the entrance”.
So I go back to the entrance, nothing is written but there is one man giving information and he tells me I have to go to via Marostica, metro stop Gambara. Damn it’s nearly 11 and the offices close at 12 I need to hurry up. So I run to the metro, have no idea where is this place,  oh I see it’s nearly out of the city, to the west. It takes me half an hour on the metro and then walk along this huge road to find the office, but it’s a residential area, there are no offices here. finaly I find it:  looks like I’m going in somebody’s house, or better somebody’s parking place! Look:

Finally the spring is coming… the flowers are in blum and Lugano is beautiful under the fresh sun. Today there was even the rainbow in Paradiso (Lugano)!

I just found a powerful visual interpretation of the middle east crisis in Lebanon

This weekend we’ve been to Torino, and this time they did stop us at the border to check the passports… another interesting story: drive here, go there, no not there, more forward and leave the car and walk back, “lei parla italiano?” yes i do but if maybe you decide where i need to go it’s easier in any language… bhha.
Finally we reach Torino and there is a familiar voice coming from the main pizza, and, oh it’s really Berlusconi, probably tring to rise some votes for the upcoming elctions but as a metter of fact there are more people at the food market than in the piazza listening to him! Remeber, we are italians, we know how to enjoy life!!

In Torino we meet Anna and Giuseppe, who just moved to study there, and together we go to have a picnic on the river Po, very nice, then to the chocolate fair (too nice), and finally to the Egyptian museum, beautiful and huge:

Sfinx, Egyptian museum, originally uploaded by sabrina b.