My Strange Day in Milan

In early March one day before Italian government posed a ban on traveling inside the country, I met up with my university colleague and took a day trip from Bergamo to Milan. The viral situation in both cities was the same, and I had a feeling that we wouldn’t be able to travel for some time soon.

I bought a mask just in case — the cheapest useless kind to be sure because there were no others left — but felt quite stupid to wear it. Milan’s magnificent train station was not very busy, and very few people were wearing masks as well. A notice saying everyone should stay at least one meter away from one another was copied on every door, from the station to the gates of Duomo.

As we walked from the station to the center, I thought there could not be a better architectural style than Milanese to disguise lack of people on the streets. Milan is known for its wide avenues with head-bending passages, designed during the times of Mussolini, when everything had to be grand, tall and square in all senses. No matter how many people walk under these tall ceilings, they never look filled. Unlike Venice, where three people can create a crowd anywhere.

I’ve been in Milan a couple of times before, but don’t yet consider it the city that I know well. It took time to notice the difference between northern capital’s usual busy silence of the working hours and a strange…