Overheard in Milan: trolley survivor

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October 27th 2005. Overheard in Milan: trolley survivor

Southern young girl on the 91 trolley bus, speaking on the phone: "...this city scares me. I was never scared by a city like this before. It was easier when I was in Paris, I mean, go figure. Maybe it is the season. ...No, you know, the people, the lousy places. I get out of the house in the morning and I feel already totally crushed, all by myself."

By this moment everybody at reach of her voice is already looking at her gravely. She seems to furtively realize it.

"All right, I am going to hang up now. I'll tell you later. If I survive."

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8 Responses to “Overheard in Milan: trolley survivor” :

sweetie said

poor girl…maybe milan is a meteoropathic city…

corpodibacco said

Milan is a very unfriendly unpleasant city on the surface. So I guess that’s the main shock for people coming from places were folks still is able to enjoy life a little.
Under the surface Milan is more sensitive, but it’s not easy to reach. Way too shy.

Trey Desolay said

You say that the other passengers looked at her “gravely.” Do you mean that they were disappointed or disapproving of her account of Milan?

You see, in New York people take pride in how the place crushes spirits. At least transplants to New York seem to take such pride.

corpodibacco said

Thanks for asking me that, trey (and by the way, your marriage sounded really wonderful. I’m so happy for you two, er, felonies).
I guess I could have found a more definite adjective here. I think they were disapproving.
Everybody in Milan one day or the other feels like the girl seemed to do, but since she patently sounded not from Milan, and was not a seasoned mute grumpy foreigner either, with her beautiful southern accent, her voice too loud; and since her story sounded too intense even under the surface of a phone chit-chat: I think people felt offended because of the alien force of the story, something stuck out that could judge them.
Milano buses are usually quiet and crabby, you know… and people here, as often happens, enjoys a good well-mannered hypocrite self-censorship.

And, you mean that the newcomers (this way I understand ‘transplants’) in New York feel the crushing of spirits like a sort of reasonable, say, initiation ritual? More than the long-term residents?

sweetie said

corpodibacco, where are you from? I mean, I live in Milan, but, where are you born? stupid question, indeed. but I see a mix of love e anger for this city …

sweetie said

sorry…YOU live in Milan (I live in milan too, but is not importantright now…;-)))

Trey Desolay said

Corpodibacco, yes, I meant to say that newcomers to New York are more likely to see life here as something to master or overcome in the Nietzschean sense.

That is perhaps unfair or inaccurate. In any case, it is a very simple matter in New York now. If you have a lot of money, life is easy. If you have little money, life is difficult.

Thank you for your kind wishes here and on our blog.

mac said

Milan is horrible, but the Milanese aren’t. There’s not many of them left though.

The city is in a down mood because all the immigrants find it not hospitable, grey, foggy.

The immigrants (mostly from the south of Italy) are Milan’s woe, not the locals. People move there from the South in search for better living, and somehow get stuck there.

It’s a city that most people leave as soon as they get the chance. As opposed to Rome, where people happily linger around and enjoy the time that the city has given them.

Today I’m poetic, must be the good weather. Now off for a sunset ride with my new Ducati.