Versace, Milano, Paris and Biella

I just met Santo Versace, brother and succesor to Giovanni versace, the famed designer who died a few years back. For my lunch break my colleague decided to give me a tour of central Milan and show me some of our high end luxury partners. After visting gucci, valentino, bulgari, ferragamo, I was getting tired but he insisted we walked over and check out the new versce home collections. and as we stood outside admiring the brand new building, Versace walks up and we have a chat. guy seemed nice enough although one of the men with him looked like he could qulech troubles just by being around. if you know what I mean.
Compared to paris, where I was earlier in the week, Milano is lacking in architectural proclamation. the city is not as engaging as any of the other major italian cities either. it is noted for its fashion, models and football but that's all she wrote. really. Anyway, last week while visiting Paris, I had forgotten just how much I loved that city. vibrant architecture, top fashion and deliberate cuisine, makes it a top contender on my majors list. The "deliberate" in paris cuisine is underscored by the most amazing string beans I had with my steak and escargot appetiser. The care taken to cook the string beans in a light oil and garnish with airy cheese was really a delight to my tasting buds. While I didnt have much time to sight see on this visit, I was reminded of the need to throw in another paris excursion before my time is up in august, since I still have to make it back to my favorite museum -d'orsay and to the Moulin Rouge.
Before hitting Milan today, I had gone a few towns northwest to visit with some friends in Biella. As my train pulled into Biella, the small italian town nestled in the foot of the Italian Alps, the site made me reminisce about my backpacking trip 4 years ago across Europe and the awe I was in when my train from france pulled into Interlaken - the outdoors/extreme sports capital of western europe. Biella is no interlaken, the laziness in the atmosphere defiantly pressed in the face of any sourjourner into that region. A wine producing, former textile manufacturing colony that I found to be very welcoming, Biella promised me the unbridled excitement of nothingness - exactly what I was looking for to rest fom a hectic week in Paris and an even hectier one to come in Milan this week.
The weekend was filled with big dinners, bbq's, brunches, aperetifs (italian style tapas that can be used for, or a prequel, to dinner). My friend, Trinity from NYC and her friend Marjorie from Scotland (she once made Prince Charles bed while he was visiting a scottish castle) were kind enough to let me crash in their apartment. I cannot but mention that we rocked the 2 biggest clubs in Biella till 4 am both nights and despite my attempts to expend little or no energy, I must have lost at least 5 pounds dancing in the crowded, full euro-techno/ american-eighties jam sessions in both places (Madonna is very big here btw).
I will have to say my favorite parts of the weekend included taking a nap in the city center park, having tea and fruit at 5am in th morning and hanging by the city mini waterfall pondering why deep questions such as why the old textile factory has a row of twenty blue penguins with scarfs hanging from the rooftop.
All in all, a very hectic couple of weeks recently that has been especially fun with all the travel but moreso as I continue to hang out with my bella ...someone I will write about in another update ;)