Monday, 30 October (Day Forty-three)
Now the clocks have changed, I’m waking up at 5am. Nothing new there but hopefully I’ll get used to it. I have another time change to grapple with when we get back to London so we’ll see!
Today we decided to go to see some more Millo and then pick up some groceries. We have a map that shows where all the Millos are so we pick off four to the west of us and set off to the bus.
They are all in the Barriera di Milano, a mostly deprived area to the north west of us. The map shows them really clearly and in the end the four we’ve chosen are all within very close distance of each other. Excellent! I’m feeling lazy.
Milano is interesting. There are several ethnic communities. We find a market with many Africans selling. I buy some bits of lace and some white thread as it closes. I also find a Latin American store and come close to buying tamales but they are frozen and I don’t feel like carrying the large frozen package around.
I feel somewhat uncomfortable photographing neighbourhoods that are busy with people. Sometimes the camera is unwelcome, sometimes someone will get hostile and often I feel awkward and ugly photographing something that’s obviously downtrodden. Like a rich, disinterested voyeur/anthropologist.
We shop at Il Gigante but there’s not a lot of time so we focus. Some bread, broccoli, three potatoes, a roast chicken, a tiny jar of anchovies, and I find some stinky cheese (who knew Italians made this!) and some fish called ‘African perch’, which I suspect is basa or pangia (and it sadly is). For the most part, I despair at the prices, but it is what it is
Another snoozy evening.
An Interview With Italian Street Artist Millo: ‘My Characters Are The Purest Part Of Me’