Wednesday, 18 October (Day Thirty-one)
This morning I went to get a new transit pass. The clerk was pretty surly today. At first she said she couldn’t help me without my receipt, then proceeded to ‘do things’ after I said I didn’t have it and what could I do? When I thanked her, her curt response was BYE. All right, then.
I looked at stalls to find stuffing for my next dolls. No luck. But on the way there, and after feeling somewhat down after my GTT experience, I had a good morning smile. In front of me, near the market, were two elderly men both pulling along shopping carts. Not in London, nor in Toronto have I seen men pulling carts for some serious shopping. I hope the reason here wasn’t a sad one.
We set out to look at more fabric stores. A bust. In the centre of town there is a nice scenic pocket that we admired before setting off for the bus to San Salvario.
I was heading to pick up some matzo meal from a contact I had at the Chabad there. The price was ridiculous but I want to make matzo ball soup. On the way there are some nice buildings. One has a gorgeous painted ceiling in the entry way. It’s hard to guess why some buildings are so glorious while others are plain, even on the same street.
At the Chabad, which is one floor up some pretty steep stairs, I’m invited to dinner in ten days and given some candles to burn. My contact is actually not there but her husband is so kind.
We head off towards the museums that are free today but suddenly find ourselves facing a huge palace, Palazza de Valentino. It’s been turned into a school of architecture for the university. The grounds are lovely so we wander through briefly.
We almost get the tram home when we see it but decide instead to carry through with our plan to visit the museums. Google says they are just three mnutes away (She lies!).
But first another diversion. We find a small pocket of really good street art. One of them is a relief sculpture of a bear. I haven’t been able to capture it properly with my camera. It looks like a painting but it’s actually a 3D metal structure built against the wall. It’s remarkably made.
The museum looks creepy but we go in and up some marble stairs where we’re given some tickets for the Fruit and the Criminology museum. First the latter. It’s definitely creepy and there’s not much in English. There are rows and rows of skulls and knives in there. Also a very daunting model of a penitentiary at Filadelfia. It looks like the spokes of a wheel – cell blocks radiating out from a central watchtower. There’s also the model of a cell, surprisingly less austere than I’d imagined, with a bed and a desk and chair.
With little English explanation, it’s easy to get through the museum quickly. We move on to the other side – the fruit museum. Sounds odd but in fact there are two main rooms containing every species of apple (in wax) and every species of pear. Hundreds of each. We’re not allowed to take photos but I do sneak one anyway, of some of the pears.
We catch the tram back – the 16, which goes all the way. It’s a very interesting route.