In search of pleasures and treasures in Milan
Exploring the history of Milan and visiting Lake Como
They say the human brain is designed to always find the quickest and easiest way to do something. Whether we’re aware of it or not, our brain is constantly whirring in the background trying to find an easy way to save energy; it does feel great at first, filling us with immense pride and satisfaction but this can eventually make us become complacent and lazy. Simply put, there are no shortcuts to finding a treasure and we must always challenge ourselves.
If we don’t challenge ourselves, over time everything we do becomes a shortcut, making us stop thinking and engaging with clues around us and, unless we can at least change our perspective, we slowly become creatures of habit, people who do what they’ve always done because that’s what they’ve always been doing. That’s no mindset for a treasure hunter. If we’re surrounded with people who are also constantly finding the lazy way, we’ll become tangled up in a web of false clues set forth by the old masters, who hid their treasures so only the worthy ones can find them.
Finding the Antidote To Habits
The force of habit is the strongest and the sweetest force known to man. Habits make us complacent, idle and ultimately indifferent to finding our very own treasure. Think of yourself when you were a child – every day was filled with joy, everything was novel and the world seemed filled with treasures that you took a great pleasure searching for. You didn’t have any habits and that’s why you could discover tiny clues to lead you to your own treasure. That’s the kind of attitude a real treasure hunter needs. I think that, more than anything else, growing up narrows our perception and we stop paying attention to clues.
When I decided to travel, my mindset was that of discovering this childlike attention to clues, these small “Aha!” moments that only appear when we come in contact with clues that lead us to a treasure. Finding a clue will make kids celebrate when they discover it but an adult full of habits will think it feels trite and boring. For me, travel makes no sense unless it’s done with an openness to clues, since travel is a major opportunity to gather as many treasure clues as possible, especially if there’s a sidekick to help me out.
Treasure Hunting Sidekick
Finding the right company is essential to getting rid of habits and also rediscovering that squelched sense of childlike joy and novelty that comes with hunting for treasure. There is no rule who’s the perfect company for treasure hunting so we have to avoid assumptions and keep our mind open or we’ll never find the treasure alone.
This unassuming mentality allowed me to find a highly competent treasure hunter extraordinaire, Katerina. Together, we travel the world in search of clues that would point us to our very own treasures. There is something out there, something that to the natives feels completely ordinary because they have fallen in the trap of habitual living, but to the two of us, that would be the final piece of the puzzle that will unlock this huge secret on where to find our treasure.
Casting Off the Yoke of Boredom
The fact we live in a perpetual state of boredom is to me the most fascinating thing ever. There are so many treasures around us just begging to be found and claimed but we gloss over all the clues and thinking ourselves bored. For some reason, boredom becomes our nemesis and we have no idea how to defeat it.
To defeat boredom, we have to constantly stay vigilant and on the lookout for treasure clues. Unless we can do that, we’ll slip into this daze of doing the exact same things and making the same old conclusions until we’re drowning in boredom. The only way out of boredom is to constantly hunt for clue until we break our habits and find the real treasure in our lives.
Friendly, neighborly city
It’s in 2010 that I finally decided to break my habits and rediscover that childlike joy that only a treasure hunt can provide. At the time, I was studying for my master’s degree in Stockholm and realized I could do my master’s thesis anywhere I wanted. I was always fascinated with Italy and I have always wanted to experience their culture, history, elegance, lifestyle and anything else they have to offer so I contacted Politechnico di Milano, got approval from my university in Stockholm and moved to Milan, a monumental city that’s only 45 minutes away from Monza.
Spending 6 months in Milan in 2010 was not enough to find and hunt down all the treasures and pleasures it had to offer, so I went back the next four years in a row, trying to experience something different each time. In 2014, I felt that I started worrying that I was about to fall into a rut, which is why I wanted to wait for more promising conditions. My lucky break happened in 2017, when Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel were doing absolutely great in F1. Katerina and I looked at one another, spun the globe and pressed our finger on the same spot – Milan.
A Monumental City
Milan is a big city but not as huge as modern metropolises, giving it a quaint charm of a modern neighborhood brimming with history and culture you want to see on foot. Being in the center of Europe, Milan is a neighbor to all other European centers of activity, such as Florence, Rome, Monte Carlo, the Alpes, Zurich, Geneva, Paris and Maranello – the city of Ferrari. All of these are within 3 hours drive from Milan.
The city itself is full of monuments, such as Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a mid-19th century gallery that was meant to serve as the equivalent to a shopping mall for the citizens back then. The floor offers interesting mosaics that serve like a historical record of who built the gallery as the city changed owners. The roof of the gallery is glass and iron, which made it unique at the time and makes it feel like visitors are both indoors and outdoors at the same time.
Teattro alla Scala is a legendary 18th century theater that hosted famous singers and now hosts a ballet, stage performance and orchestra academies for budding talents. The theater’s auditorium didn’t have chairs at first but was also initially used as a brokerage area and a casino, making the stage performers forced to shout over cries of brokers and gamblers. The theater today can be an equally hostile place for performers, who can be booed and shouted down by the infamous “loggioneri”, the spiteful crowd seated in the wall lodges, which can grind a performance to a halt and lead to all sorts of funny scenes.
A Constellation of Details
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II resembles a man-made firmament and spending time under it definitely feels like being under a sky teeming with iron constellations. You can crane your neck all you want and you’ll still be hard-pressed to see all the tiny details hiding in nooks and crannies. It’s only with the help of an HD camera that you can capture all the details and dutifully strain your eyes when you come back home in search of some mystical clues pointing to a treasure.
As the eyes track lower, there’s an intricate web of reliefs clinging to the supporting buildings that make them appear like ancient temples hoarding gold or untold treasures from ages past. You can imagine the kind of savage, brazen rituals that went on here, with hooded figures worshipping these reliefs depicting pagan idols whose names were ground to dust by the relentless pendulum of the clock and scattered about by winds of change.
It’s no wonder Dan Brown set so many of his treasure-hunting books in Italy, since the vista abounds in these pagan art details that are at times mortifying and at times fascinating. The true intent of most of these pagan art details is lost to time, making it very easy to imagine it all being a part of some enormous jigsaw puzzle that needs to be pieced together to find a hoard of gold coins, ancient artifacts or mythical art.
Spinning On the Bull’s Eye Or Some Other Body Part
Spinning around on the bull that’s the centerpiece of the floor mosaic here is considered a tradition for good luck that a good writer would weave into a fantastic story. To be exact, you’re meant to do a pirouette on his testicles. Perhaps it was the initiation ritual for the hooded zealots worshipping some of the pagan idols and spinning on this spot enough times would let the initiate see the path to true enlightenment or just make him feel dizzy after a while to the great delight of the old masters. They did know how to have fun.
Milan is teeming with statues of all shapes and sizes, some apparently pointed at or gesturing with their hands at adjacent buildings. For a true treasure hunter, that’s an incontrovertible proof that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the imaginary line they indicate. Besides, Italians do like to express themselves with their hands so it makes sense. See? Incontrovertible proof!
If It Walks Like A Tourist And Quacks Like A Tourist
Tourists flock to massive ornate buildings in Milan city squares but don’t realize there’s a hidden geometric pattern in everything the old masters built. They were known for hiding gems of wisdom and their secret symbols in everything they made, including city square and building plans and reliefs. How about if we moved and changed the perspective just a little bit? Still nothing. Maybe I need a break and to then come back to the treasure hunt with a refreshed mind?
We visited the Monza Grand Prix, where we watched the race and the podium celebration afterwards; it felt great to be a part of the race. The red smoke engulfs the crowd that waves their flags in a frenzy, taking you with them. The exhilaration is palpable and you could feel yourself get carried away by the emotion.
At night, a whole another set of clues becomes apparent as the city starts to glisten. The quiet Milan streets beckon pleasure seekers to take another step and another peek – perhaps there’s something more just around the next unassuming corner? Known as “passeggiata”, this idea of leisurely strolling around to socialize and enjoy the evening together is a wonderful custom in all Italian-speaking regions. Step by step, the day comes to a close and the weary treasure hunter has to retire as the crowds of novice treasure hunters pour in and out of buildings.
Inside the Castle
Castello Sforzesco is a large, beautiful 14th century castle with a massive park inside. The walls are gigantic and up to 20 feet wide, capable of enduring sieges and the passage of time alike. Famous painters, including Leonardo da Vinci, worked on the interiors in Castello Sforzesco. Statues and museums abound inside the fortress but the place absolutely shines at night, with colored illumination giving a tinge of ethereal beauty to this ancient work of art that survived the ages.
Behind the fortress, a beautiful 95-acre park called Parco Sempione hides plenty of statues and a lake, with the idea to offer a historical overview of Milan in a couple leisurely strolls. Everything is placed strategically, and if you can piece the puzzle together, you’ll find some really interesting vistas. Come on, there’s got to be a clue in here as well. Wait, that’s it! “Come on” sounds just like Como and there’s a lake in here – we have to go to Lake Como for the next clue! Sometimes I astound myself with my treasure-hunting skills.
Back in 2010, I couldn’t visit Lake Como because a severe thunderstorm was ravaging the place, making the entire area feel dull and gloomy. I’ll give the same advice to you – if the weather is bad, don’t go there. Lucky for us two, the weather was fair, though overcast when we went there.
The fifth deepest and the third largest lake in Europe, Lake Como hosts prestigious villas and homes on its shores, such as Villa Melzi d’Eril. Known as a place of retreat and recuperation, Lake Como has been used for centuries by famous politicians and royalty to enjoy verdant gardens that boast exotic flowers thanks to the mild climate.
Conclusion
Life is all about having the kind of lifestyle that allows us to discover and rediscover joy in every single moment of the day. There’s no point in rushing to get elsewhere tomorrow because it’s right here and right now that matters in the long run. Once you connect the dots and realize there’s no rush, you’ll also start enjoying life and treasuring these tiny moments of joy.
When it came to the F1 race, Ferrari didn’t win and Vettel lost first place but we still had a blast watching it. We decided to come back again soon, and since we missed Turin, we decided to try and visit it next time.
We can go hunting for treasures and it’s really exhilarating to connect the dots and keep finding these tiny clues pointing us in what seems the right direction, as Dan Brown told and retold so many times in his books. For me, the treasure hunt is more about finding the pleasures along the way and discovering new vistas with a companion in tow. After all, it’s not the destination but the journey that matters as you begin your very own treasure hunt in search of pleasures and treasures.