Posso provare il vestito, per favore?

A very short post I'm afraid as I'm off to a late night exhibition in the Natural History Museum.

On the day we got paid (of course!) I made my first proper Italian purchase... a beautiful blue dress from Moschino which I will wear for Becks's wedding, if I don't buy anything else in the meantime. You can see the dress here. Proper photos to follow.


Other points to note:

- I love the Milanese attitude to sunglasses, i.e. they are always allowed;
- the basic bocconcini in my local supermarket are no way near as nice as the ones in Carrefour;
- the high-end places (Armani Nobu, Moschino) are far more likely to speak to me in Italian than the lower end (newsagents, general cafes)

End of the first week

I have survived my first week. Not that I was expecting otherwise, of course, but the first week is always the most difficult.

I'd say that the highlight was probably being seated in the window at Fashion Cafe on casual Friday (a cafe which was full of The Beautiful People). Notable mentions ought to include understanding vague topics at the Finance Meeting, feeling like I will understand more Italian in a few months' time (and learning that the lunch there was so much better than the London office) and meeting up with a friend from uni who lives in Milan - including sitting outside at Bar Brera for an aperitivo. At one of the tables, there was an Italian who looked like Del Boy - brown leather jacket, signet ring, same face - who was sat with an Italian version of Jimmy Saville, complete with unlit cigar remaining in his mouth for a good hour and a half.

Things I have learnt/realised:

- there is a lot more use of the horn when driving;
- discussions can be a LOT more passionate - cf the Milan Office finance meeting, at which I did not understand much, other than the general subject matter. See also general telephone negotiations;
- spikes are in Milan fashion. Everywhere. My favourites were a pair of Louboutins with spikes of varying lengths on the toes and a clutch bag (also Louboutin) which looked as if it could double up as a weapon. I wonder if I could justify spending the equivalent of a month's rent (London) on it, citing my personal safety...
- queuing. It's not something they do. Particularly little old ladies who have no form of etiquette. Luckily I have sharp elbows and they will be used over the next few months;
- graffitti is EVERYWHERE;
- "Ciao bella/bello" seems mostly like a "hey girl/boy". Unless it's said to you by randoms in the street.



At present, the only plans I have for the day are to meet up with some of the other new trainees and test out aperitivi at Living in Parco Sempione. I might go for an explore around Porta Ticinese or even use the public transport system. Despite living on one of the tramlines, I've yet to set foot on the transport system, as Milan is quite small and I've walked everywhere. However, my legs are feeling achey from the two runs (albeit short) I've done in the past two days and from the 8 additional miles I walked yesterday. Ouch.






And in true fashion blogger style, below is what I ended up wearing for dress down Friday: maroon silk Kooples top, black skinnies, the Jacket and flat black boots. Awesome.

First day in the office

Note - I will not be updating every day!! But my first day in the Milan office ought to be documented, surely?

Overall, pretty good! The team are (as I was told) absolutely lovely. The partner said that things were quite quiet, I assume on an English-language side at least, since he and my office-mates seemed rather busy to me! I was taken out to lunch to a mozzarella bar to experience real Italian food - excellent. Haven't got any work yet, so I spent the day reading the Milan office guide (in Italian) and about securitisations (in English!).

On the language side, obviously I spent a lot of today speaking English but I did feel a lot better about understanding. I think it's probably easier to understand the better-educated Italians (similar to foreigners trying to understand the Queen's English compared with a cockney, or worse, a Northerner). But it did give me a certain amount of relief that my Italian lessons hadn't been totally wasted! I'll be getting more lessons throughout my time in the Milan office anyway.


Now, onwards, to chilling out and to figuring out why the below photo (of the National People's Congress, apparently) is mysteriously on my desktop.

I have arrived

"pure and simple as the girl I love"

A bar of Carrefour's finest hazelnut chocolate and a yowling cat outside the window set the scene for the first Italian post.

After a long, yet uneventful journey from Leeds-Bradford airport to Milan Malpensa, via Amsterdam, I arrived in Milan on Saturday evening. Grey skies, yet mild temperatures, I only felt able to explore as far as the nearest supermarket (a mere 1 minute's walk).

The flat itself is lovely - it is much larger than I was expecting, with a large bedroom, narrow kitchen, narrow bathroom and a massive dining/living area. Definitely large enough for lots of people to visit. Nick, one of the previous secondees, had said it was amazing, but I hadn't quite expected this! The flat is also very conveniently located. This morning, I was ready (after an espresso, of course) to explore areas of Milan, including the location of the office. As promised, the office is indeed a 15 minute walk from the flat. That's a walk which included a meander trying to *find* the office (there's not a massive sign at the entrance, which put me off).

After finding the office, itself conveniently located (extremely close proximity to the Armani "complex"), I wandered down the Via Monte Napoleone with its high-end boutiques towards the Duomo. As you can see from the photo below, there were adverts on its scaffolding - I was quite shocked by this! Lunch at the top of The Rinascente (like a not-as-fancy Selfridges, food average, view amazing), gelato from Grom near La Scala and further wanderings eventually lead me to my home-from-home, 10 Corso Como. An amazing place. It's a suite of shops (including a cafe, which I will have to sample with T) built into a palazzo with a verdant quad. Beautiful. Expensive. Deadly. But beautiful. 10 Corso Como (and its nearby outlet) will be the reason why I return to London with no money.

Overall, the first impression of Milan is a place of, prima facie, faded glamour. The buildings are in the Italian style but grafitti pervades the city. However, it is worth noting that the best places I've found so far, albeit in my one day of exploring, have been hidden - Corso Como itself and the outlet store are oases in the middle of a surrounding area of what feels like neglect. I found a huge store filled with interesting designs and quirky objets d'art, with a tiny entrance that I could easily have overlooked. The gelateria was amazing, and cheap, and it was just hidden around a corner from La Scala. I'm hoping that this means there ought to be plenty to keep discovering throughout my sejour here.

The other first impression has been one of uneven floors. Nearly stacked it TWICE (pre-celebratory Italian cocktail) due to a slight bump in the floor and a wonky step. I'm going to have to be careful, I'm definitely due a fall of epic proportions.

As for the Italian, we can only hope for improvement. At the moment, it's like I freeze when I speak with a real Italian person, using words which aren't entirely wrong but I kick myself afterwards for not using the correct word. And it is indeed really difficult to understand when spoken at typical speed by the Italians.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my big camera with me today, but I've put some iphone photos below.

Scaffolding at Cartier - classy leopard

There was an H&M advert on the other part...

The view from my lunch table - so close to the roof of the Duomo

I couldn't NOT have a retro photo of my Aperol Spritzer!

And now, onwards. I start in the Milan office at 9.30am tomorrow morning and, as ever with a new department, the usual feeling of anxiety is rearing its ugly head. Planning on combatting this with unpacking my boxes...

A brief update

Having had a somewhat tortuous time at home (mother in hospital, hence delaying the start of the secondment for 2 weeks), I am now itching to fly out there. Roll on Saturday morning! I've been in touch with some of the trainees from other firms who are in Milan already, apparently they are loving it and the weather is amazing (obviously, as an English girl, there is always going to be weather chat!).

Discovery of the fortnight in Yorkshire was definitely the only Kooples outlet in the world. Apparently, people even come up from Paris just to go to the outlet. I must say, it's particularly good on a quiet Wednesday morning. The chaps in the store were great, the clothes were set out as they would be in a non-outlet store (Jaeger, take note) and the discounts were also excellent. I know the plan was to buy clothes in Milan, but when dress-down Friday becomes dress-UP Friday, how can I resist some bargain tops?

Flying on Saturday morning via Amsterdam airport. Bring it on!