All stories about "Milan"

Initially, the British film director Peter Greenaway's latest multimedia piece was meant to be projected over Da Vinci's Last Supper. When the Italian government vetoed the production somewhat late in the game, organizers instead substituted a high-res digital photo that was then mounted in the Palazzo Reale, near Milan's Duomo.

After the jump, a clip filmed by Nicole Martinelli of a portion of the experience. The show is running today through 4 May. (Image: Monsters and Critics)

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In a real-life "Italian Job" robbery, thieves have stolen millions of euros worth of jewelry from Damiani's showroom in Milan. "Luckily for the showroom, some of its most valuable pieces were on display at the Oscar ceremony in Lost Angeles" last night (including a bracelet worn by winner Tilda Swinton). The thieves--"seven men, unarmed and unmasked"--entered through an underground tunnel that had been dug leading into the cellar of the showroom, tied up the staff and walked off with a not-yet-known sum of jewels leaving "very little trace" behind. [BBC]

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If I don't get around to creating a roundup of photos from Milan Fashion Week, I just wanted to say: I love this hat.

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Why bother going all the way to Milan to examine Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper at Santa Maria delle Grazie? Now you can scrutinize the painting to an almost indecent level by way of The Last Supper in Detail. The 16-billion-pixel image allows you to zoom down to a millimeter square's worth of ancient paint; while super-cool, any intelligible shapes are pretty much lost beyond about 6% zoom. It's also unfortunate that the digitizing company, while commendable for their effort and skill, felt it necessary to plaster their ugly watermarks on the image. Still rather eerie to be so close to the cracks in Jesus' eyeballs.

The Last Supper in Detail [via VSL]

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Check out this MSNBC clip of young Italian rapscallions pickpocketing travelers in broad daylight, immediately after said travelers stagger out of a Milan airport train station. It's just like in Oliver Twist! Except rather than spending their ill-gotten gains on meat pies and a secondhand cravat, these kids are probably buying, you know, crack.

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Last month, former New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton explored the culinary landscape of fashion-centric Milan. Quite the toughie, Sheraton says Milan is not known for its food, but the area is teeming with excellent restaurants serving perfect Lombardy cuisine, from pancake-like risotto al salto to cottoletta Milanese (a breaded veal cutlet much like wienerschnitzel). Sheraton samples the goods, and in regular NYT fashion, reports back with all of the juicy details. Sheraton's picks -- plus a couple of our own -- after the jump.

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Milan designfest Salone Internazionale del Mobile will be wrapping up by Monday (April 23), but Regine Debatty at We Make Money Not Art has plenty of photos up already. Browsing these pics, you'll spend most of your time asking yourself, "OK, what is that supposed to be?" Not an incorrect impulse, but it nevertheless proves what a sad, sheltered person you are. What modern household can possibly do without a pigtailed hairy footstool?

First day at the Salone [We Make Money Not Art]

-- Chris Mohney

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Sure, my beat is Tokyo, and I rarely tread elsewhere for fear of getting the editing hatchet (I do love my editor so), but I think I can get away with contributing a post regarding next week's Milano Salone. Oh hell, let's just go ahead and give it its full and well-deserved title: Salone Internazionale del Mobile (April 18-23), which amounts to that city's version of a design week. Being the Japan cheerleader that I am, following is a rundown of a few Nippon-centric picks.

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The Chedi Milan in the city's Bovisa district is perhaps a little preciously zen, from the soothing pan-Asian design to the creamy earth tones to the signature "mandarin and green tea" fragrance. It is purdy in a W Hotel way, and one can see they're going for a more peaced-out than swank vibe. The hotel's restaurant, bar, spa, and small garden space are also on the quiet, relaxationary side. Rates begin at €198 per night.

Chedi Milan [via Design Hotels]

-- Chris Mohney

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Paolo Ventura's project War Souvenir recreates WWI scenes of Milan with paper dolls. Francine Prose's prose on Ventura remidns us why we don't read Aperture:

If, as Diane Arbus said, a photograph is a mystery about a mystery, Paolo Ventura's haunting and beautiful work makes the mysteries seem to multiply exponentially, like reflections captured in the infinite progression of a hall of mirrors. Looking at these photos creates a moment of suspension, a melancholy hush in which we almost imagine we can hear whispers about the riddles of life and death, time and age, childhood innocence and adult knowledge, art, war, history, and such questions as: What are we seeing? What do we think we are seeing? And what we are concluding about what we think we are seeing?

Paolo Ventura

Previous Pics of the Day: Magician We Think, Heads of State, Jeff Wall, Armory Show, Elevate Me Later, Final Resting Place, Don't Steal in Oaxaca, The Watchtower, On the Sixth Day , Liberal Library Slant, Paris is the New Pluto, Fat Kid

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With a restaurant, a bar and a store, Dolce and Gabbana are the Medici of 21st Century Milan, single-handedly keeping art alive. The latest contribution is an exhibit of provocative photographs that have a lot to do with Catholicism, sex, violence and homosexuality. I guess that's redundant. They have to do with Catholicism. The show has garnered a ton of press in Italy where the two are not only rock stars but where images such as the one above (Pope+buttocks) still can cause a scandal. Even more buzz was caused when Spain banned the photos. The show takes place at the Galleria Cardi, opens tonight, runs a while and then will collapse into a sweaty exhausted sexed-out puddle.

Galleria Cardi
CEremonia Segreta: Docle e Gabbana In Mostra [ANSA]

Previously: D+G Gold Store, Moscatelli Wine Bar, This Store Makes Me Want To Rolf, Hotel Spadari in Milan, Andres Serrano in Milan

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Dolce and Gabbana aren't known for their restraint. Their clothes usually contain what can only be termed haute flair, like a blinged out TGIF's uniform. But still, there's something to be said for glam, fake tan and giant logos. The duo recently opened up a Milan restaurant similarly blinged out. The place is called Gold and the interior is a tasteful mix of mother-of-pearl, subtle gold finishes and an understated airy design. We kid! We kid!

A complete report from the heart of mammon after the jump.

The Guardian recently ran a nice round up of the best flea markets in Europe. We strongly recommend you make like the owner of Fig a gem of a furniture store in the LES, which sells doodads and antique furniture the owner brings back from Europe for astoundingly high prices and a fat profit. Surprisingly 4 of the 11 top 10 markets listed are in Italy, one in Milan, Turin, Alba and Lake Maggiore while Spain and France have two a piece and Belgium has three. Admittedly carting back an antique baking table is a hairy prospect but selling it, like a recent one sold at Fig, for $3,000 is a hefty profit.

Top 10 European Flea Markets [Guardian]

[Photo: Guardian]

Previously: Culture and Travel Review, Sunday Market at Marche D'Aligre, Tis the Season of Vide-Greniers

Moscatelli bottiglierria is nothing special and that is, paradoxically, what makes it out of the ordinary. With Dolce and Gabbana largely determining Milan's sense of style, very little isn't overdone or, Missy Elliot might say, over did. Moscatelli's on the other hand, has been around since before Italy has and feels that way. The knowledge and list of Northern Italian wines is long and deep. with some super rare varietals making a cameo. The meats, procured from the local market (and this is also, happily, normal) are available in small plates that pair well with the selections. Open 'til midnight. Closed on Sunday.

Moscatelli Wine Bar

[Photo: Blog.it]

Previously: This Store Makes Me Want to Rolf, Hotel Spadari, Andres Serrano in MIlano, Grom Gelato: Better Than It Sounds

Milan's outpost of Dutch designers Viktor and Rolf store does everything most haute couture shops make us do: we want to puke a little in our mouths. This feeling of vertigo is less inspired by the price tag than the fact that the entire store is constructed inversely. The floor is the ceiling, the ceiling floor. Lamps hang upside down. The clothes, however, perhaps because they're so full of whimsy, rest on the inverted shelves.

Viktor & Rolf [Official site]

[Photo: Angelonki/Flickr]

Previously: Hotel Spadari in Milan, Andres Serrano in Milano, Grom Gelato: Better Than It Sounds, Straf Hotel in Milan

Milanese hotels range from the brocade-and-floral decadence of the Town House to the uberchic minimalism of the is a happy medium between luxury and hipness. The small hotel located near the Duomo is soothing and stripped down. There's no fancy fusion restaurant though there is a breakfast service and many nearby cafes. The hotel laid out for a slew of works by contemporary artists like the giant fireplace by Gio Pomodoro and sculptures by Ugo La Pietra. The overall color is a soothing (or overpowering, depending on your tolerance for monochromaticism) blue: blue walls, blue ceilings, blue floors. and the red white and blue of the American Bar in the lobby. Sadly wifi has yet to descend upon the Spadari Hotel. Rooms from €178.

Hotel Spadari [Official site]
Hotel Spadari [Tablet Hotels]

Previously: Andres Serrano in Milan, Grom Gelato: Better Than It Sounds, Italian Museums Put The Tour in Torture, Adopt A German

Andres Serrano has a taste for the macabre, the unseemly aspects of American culture often swept under our national carpet. His subjects have included KKK Granddragons, nudists and the dead. His latest show in Milan's Padiglione D'Arte includes 10 never-before exhibited works from a 1992 series entitled Morgue. Serrano's beautiful photographs are of things that aren't meant and perhaps shouldn't be so beautiful, like the above photograph entitled Knifed II. The exhibit runs until November 26th. After that, a show by Italian video artist Grazia Toderi takes over through February.

Padiglione D'Arte Contemporaneo
Andres Serrano
Great Review of the Show [We Make Money Not Art]

Previously: Grom Gelato: Better That It Sounds, Straf Hotel in Milano, 7 Star Luxury in Milan, Italian Museums Put the Tour in Torture

Admittedly GROM isn't an appetizing name recalling as it does the Polish Special Forces, also acronymically GROM and, for some reason, a mixture of grovelling and vomitting. But, don't judge a book by its cover or a gelateria by its name. GROM gelaterias are an Italian chain found in most major cities: Florence, Milan, Turin, Genoa, Padua and Parma. According to the website, Glom is planning to expand to New York. When? Chi sa. What makes this Gelato different from all other Gelati the youngest of you may ask? Well, first of all, Grom follows traditional recipes for gelato-making but perhaps more importantly, uses the freshest ingredients: San Bernando water as a base for sorbets, organic eggs, high-quality full fat milk and seasonal fruit and not much else. Instead of regular old lemon, Grom carries, the famed Sfusato di Amalfi, instead of hazelnut, la nocciola Tonda Gentile delle Langhe, an IGT hazelnut from Langhe, instead of peach, they give you La pesca di Leonforte, etc etc. This means little to me and probably less to you but, experientally, is immediately palpable. Such attention to detail has made the notoriously snobby Slow Food organization recognize and endorse Grom. Try that on for size Very Good! No bland cream-heavy goop here despite the name, grams of Grom are good and pints even better.

Grom Gelato

Previous: Very Good is Very Mediocre and Other Lessons in Florence, Italians Put the Tour in Torture, Europe For Tightwads, Milano Salone 2006

It's not often I go to hotel websites to listen to their music. Usually it is some variation on sultry crap lounge. But Milan's Straf Hotel has a nice little ditty, a rather haunting Sigur Ros-y melody with sad Japanese robot voices in the background. A song, in fact, that perfectly captures the hotels aesthetic. The 66 rooms manage to chip away a human space out of the technology and rough quarry rock that make up the wall. Designed by Vincenzo De Cotiis, the rooms have a monastic spirit though, since the place is popular with models and celebs, one could assume more earthly pleasures are often pursued within their confines. The fashionistas who frequent the Straf Bar perfectly match the austere aesthetic. And who cares if the Straf is Farts spelled backwards, it's Milanese for cool. Rooms start around US$200.

Straf Hotel

Previously: 7 Star Luxury in Milan, Italian Museums Put the Tour in Torture, The World's Tallest Sky Scrapers, Milano Salone, Boutique Airlines

Town House, an Italian luxury hotelier, is planning on opening a seven star hotel tentatively called Town House Galleria in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (pic above) later this year. Seven stars you ask, does that even exist? The answer is yes, kinda. Reuters has Dubai's Burj Al Arab, a hulking luxury sail-shaped tower rising from the Arab Gulf, billed as the only other 7 star hotel in the world. But, according to the hotel's own website it is technically only a "5 star deluxe." In comparison to Dubai's Burj Al Arab which has 202 duplex suites, Milan's 7 star is tiny. Though it has only 30 suites, it will boast it's own private "army of butlers, drivers and nannies." Perhaps maintained to wage battle with Dubai's special-ops "brigade of highly trained butlers." Though the company is keeping mum about the deets and digits, they've confirmed that many-a luxury brand is involved in the hotel (it does, after all, sit atop a Prada store). In terms of cost, if you have to ask, you probably can't afford it, and they're not saying anyhow. But a room in Dubai costs US$1,059 so I'd expect something comparable.

[Photo: Great Buildings]

7 Star Hotel in Milan
Town House [Offical site]
Burj Al Arab [Official site]

If art is dead, then dying is art and killing even more so. Italy has done its fair share of mangling and torturing its inhabitants. And what better way for a museum-happy culture to come to terms with its history than make a museum about it? Here is a quick catalogue of some of la bella Italia's museums of torture.

Siena
Housed in San Gimignano's former prison, the Museo della Tortura is one of the world's most well-known torture museums. Walking past the racks, the iron maidens and the other various devices used to inflict pain on heretic, blasphemers and, most of all, women, one is cowed by man's inhumanity to man, or rather, the work and genius that man puts into subjugating his own.

Siena's Museo Della Tortura [Vivifirenze]

Rome
Affectionately dubbed, MuCri, the Museo Criminologico is housed in the Palazzo Gonfalone in what was once a juvie for Pope Leo XII. The museum focuses on major Italian criminals of the 20th century, the prison systems of the 1800s and, most interestingly, punishment from the Middle Ages on. Among the collection's more spectacular samples is a model of some poor schmuck being drawn and quartered (pictured), a heinously malevolent Gossip's Bridle, and the Milazzo cage, which is as bad as it sounds.

MuCri

Milan
Milan's version of the museum includes not only torture devices but also antique arms. They've a guillotine, the wheel, a pillory and a stretching board. It seems a prerequisite that the torture museums be housed in imposing structures that at one point were the locus of torture and this one's no exception. I guess moving an Iron Maiden is a bitch.

Museum of Criminology and Antique Arms
Pusterla di Sant'Ambrogio
Piazza Sant'Ambrogio
Tel. 028053505

Previously: Another Morbid Museum in Italy, And More Dead Things in Philly, A Store With Dead Animals In Paris, Sex and Death and Museums

Gridskipper's farflung correspondents filed these reports from the field on the joy and agony of the FIFA final.

Azzurri fan Nicole Martinelli from Milan writes:

Italian blues Azzurri beat the smirk off French Les Bleus to take the World Cup. A nail-biter if there ever was one, the game came down to penalty kicks that had Italian fans hiding under their flags and mamma mia-ing in dismay. But for the first time in 24 years, the Azzurri brought home the cup. Here in Milan, traffic regulations were flouted. Articles of clothing were removed. A good time was had by all. And the entrepreneur with the bright idea of having "World Cup Champion" shirts made beforehand sold them like hotcakes, at 10 euro a pop. FORZA ITALIA!

While Melissa Phruksachart reports on the bleak scene in Paris:

Putain de merde. We were so close. The day started off on a bright note, with supporters of Zidane and Les Bleus (the French team's nickname) promenading along the Champs-Elysées all afternoon. Pit stops at St-Michel and Hôtel de Ville reinforced the sentiments: Paris Aime Les Bleus !
The bar crawl through Châtelet was tense, with no one speaking save for quick cries in moments of hope. The game was never-ending. Zidane's freakout and subsequent expulsion in the 110th minute brought shouts and tears, hands over mouths. The excruciating round of shootouts was over in several heartbeats. We had lost. People emptied out immediately and shuffled to the Métro. Others, still in shock, wandered silently through the streets. Leftover fireworks exploded in ours ears, angry and menacing. Attempts to celebrate second place, to rouse up "Allez Les Bleus ! Allez Les Bleus !" soon died.
Monday morning, things are quiet. The car horns have stopped honking. The broken beer bottles have been cleared away. While we may smoke a few more cigarettes today, life continues on as usual.

Italian Fans Rejoice [via flickr]

French Fans Suffer Malaise [via flickr]

[Nicole Martinelli]
[Meliisa Phruksachart]

$123 DC to NYC: Delta hawks a New York fare sale through Travelocity that features some decent deals, especially on short-hop regional routes like that from Washington DC. Too bad summer heat hath already arrived in NYC; but at least all the swells have begun decamping to the Hamptons on weekends. Availability's not too great on this sale, but book by June 7 for various travel dates through November 7.

$906 6-Night 3-City Swiss-Italy Air+Hotel: Not the best price for this deal, but a somewhat unusual itinerary: round-trip airfare from New York, then two nights' hotel each in Geneva, Milan, and Venice, with train transfers included. Better hotels (highly recommended) and different departure cities are available for price bumps. Travel times vary, but the best overall prices seem to cluster around late fall.

New York Flights Round-Trip From $123+ [Travelocity]
Geneva - Milan - Venice Train Package [European Destinations]
Top 25 [Shermans Travel]

Sports gear manufacturing concern Puma is mounting a World Cup publicity roadshow called Adopt a German. On view is a tour bus full of hottie hamsters, each with an assigned archetypal role ("The Free Spirit," "The Adventurer," "The Doctor," etc.). Each one also has a blog they'll be updating as their bus cruises around Europe (London right now, then Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Milan). It's sort of Road Rules cut to the chase, i.e. displaying the cuties and doing away with the soap-opera aspects. The blogs are naturally fluff (so far) but appear (so far) unedited, resulting in some charming malapropisms like "Later in the evening we go out to eat and drink something that was really funny." You may "adopt" your favorite German of them all, which results in ... what? Not sure, but I doubt you actually gain legal custody over their nubile selves. One assumes there will be further photo ops and World-Cup-related shenanigans.

Adopt a German [Official site]

Previously: Commiefest 2006 Tix on Sale, Ski Dubai More Cold than Cool, Beijing Declares War on Public Spitters, Mountaintop Luncheon via Chopper, Standings Sports Bar

I didn't even know they still made convicts wear them stripey shirts. Actually he's no jailbird, but rather a discount gondolier in Venice, as noted in the New York Times' 16-city colossus of budget Europe tips. Not to be left out, the Chicago Tribune rehashes a similar Paris-Rome-London article from a March Los Angeles Times, throwing in a very general Europe primer and some suggested places to go on the Internets. There, you're all set! Whoops, too bad you waited to buy your plane tickets -- so much for the cheap vacation. Maybe consider Branson?

Affordable Europe [NYT]
Paris London Rome [Chicago Tribune]
$weet dreams in the big 3 [LAT]
Be prepared: How to cope with Europe [Chicago Tribune]
Some new help for travelers bound for Europe [Chicago Tribune]

Previously: The Northern Paris Colette, Pigalle Club, Athens & Rome Guardian Podcasts, Amsterdam Audiotours, The World's Newest Skyscrapers

An interesting roundup of the world's newest skyscrapers comes courtesy of Slate architecture critic Wiltold Rybczynski. He calls the era of 1996-2006 a "golden age of skyscrapers," spurred by post-9/11 architectural concerns, and I'm inclined to agree thanks to all the architecture porn contained therein. On Rybczynski's hotlist:

· The Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur
· Norman Foster's new Hearst Building in New York
· The Swiss Re building in London, aka the "Crystal Phallus"
· Barcelona's 31-story experimental Toree Agbar
· Miami's 70-story Brickell Flatiron
· Dubai's 45-story Ali Rahim/Hina Jamelle's "seamless" residential tower
· Malmö's "Turning Torso"
· Louisville's 61-story Museum Plaza, aka the "Giant Chair" (Pictured)
· Frank Ghery's great exploration into skyscraper building, the upcoming New York Times Building
· The winner for the world's most experimental skyscrapers, Fiera Milano

The new age of the skyscraper [Slate]

[Neal Ungerleider]

Previously: How Hotels Got So Opulent, Top Seven World Hotels, Hotel Fasano, Shanghai Shortlist, EuroCheapo’s Guide to NYC Hotels, Sao Paulo Report

$435 NYC—Munich, $664 DC—Rome/Venice/Athens: Alitalia's offering specials that include discounted airfare to regional locations such as Firenze, Milan, Palermo, Athens and Bucharest from the States.

$199 R/T in the United States: This week's float of Travelocity specials includes $181 r/t Hartford to San Diego, $193 r/t Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco and $181 r/t Baltimore to San Diego.

$397 San Francisco Vacation w/ Airfare: Fly from LAX to SFO on United and stay at the downtown Hotel Nikko with packages starting at $397 per person.

The Milano Salone Internazionale del Mobile is one of the biggest events on the annual interior design calendar, and it starts today (until April 10). Expect to see the biggest names in the industry show off their latest works, as well as parties, parties, and yes, even more parties. Your chance of still finding accommodations at this late a date are probably next to none, but who needs a place to sleep when you can simply spend your nights celebrating with the design set!

Pictured in this post is a representation of designer Tokujin Yoshioka's collaboration exhibition with Lexus, "Tokujin Yoshioka x Lexus L-finesse -- Evolving Fiber Technology," being held at the Museo della Permanente (Via Filippo Turati 34).

Milano Salone Internazionale del Mobile [Official Site]

[Jean Snow]

An interesting article at Brandnoise examines the concept of boutique airlines: Small carriers only serving one or two routes, but with that extra bit of service and attention to detail that guarantees the filthy lucre keeps on coming in:

Business-jet provider Privatair began operating private-label flights for Lufthansa, Swiss and KLM four years ago, but the first full-fledged airline, Eos, took off last fall from New York City's J.F.K. to London's Stansted. Its customized Boeing 757s have just 48 "suites," including lie-flat bed seats. Eos partners with London-based concierge firm Quintessentially to offer services to passengers from boarding until 24 hours after returning home, and its frequent-flyer points have a fixed cash value. Eos will even book customers on other airlines, paying for tickets with points from their accounts--a first in the history of the business...

But leave it to the Italians to reinvent the cabin as a clubhouse. MiMa--an abbreviation of Milano-Manhattan--will soon begin service between Milan and New York City. Partly owned by Alitalia, MiMa will screen passengers for chic quotient as well as weapons, enrolling those who pass as "members." The $4,000 fare will include sleek transport to and from Milan's Linate Airport and concierge service in both cities.

Boutique Airlines [Brandnoise]

[Neal Ungerleider]

[Photo: Brandnoise]

Previously: Airport Lounge Triple Team, Delta: European Assault, Gamble with Delta, Cowboys, Indians in Air Deal