Milan Surprises Me

Again and again, confirming to what rumour has it for a significant long time that Milan is a city of hidden beauty. It is not a gimmick for this business city and capital of design and fashion of Italy.

I won't call myself a traveler, because I'm not, but I'd rather describe myself as a wanderer instead. It's been a long time since I enjoy walking aimlessly to places and got surprised by what all of those places has to offer. Some people, some tourist, or even a traveler would say that walking aimlessly waste the time that most of them have limitation due their duration of existence in one place. As one may not find anything by doing that, or one can discover something that no one else has ever seen. To me, it is not a waste of time. Yes, it is so random, you might not know what you will find by wandering around aimlessly, to seek the hidden beauty of the place has to offer. The process of wandering and being exist in places that what I cherish of this-one-may-called 'travelling'.

I've been doing this since I was a kid back in Indonesia. I didn't travel to some remoted island or being on the top of mountain, but I just strolled through my closest surrounding. It surprised me of what I actually found. Then I moved to Milan, the capital of design and fashion in the most well-known traveler-tourist destination in the whole world, Italy. I came here for my master studies, and as it is a nature for me to wander around. I always do it everyday, or at least if I'm not busy, I do it every weekend.

This random exploration to what surrounds me makes me grateful that I am able to appreciate the beauty of a simple things. A composition of a cinque-cento parking with decaying leaves on a background, a door, or even an architecture of an industrial plant. Those things surprise me!

Again, it is a simple thing, it is not as majestic as Duomo or a sparkling turqois and white sand beach, but it cherish me, it feeds my visual hunger. 

Speaking of Milan with its hidden beauty, it is true that Milan is not a touristic city but once you can find the access, you will love this city. In the famous Piazza Duomo for example, I entered to some alley behind those squares and found a stall that sells vintage books with picturesque aesthetic. It just made me want to continue to explore more. Again, it is a simple thing, it is not as majestic as Duomo or a sparkling turqois and white sand beach, but it cherish me, it feeds my visual hunger. 

That book stall is not just the only example, there are tons of things that I discovered that is pleasing to the eye and soul. In other part of the town, I found an industrial plant with three chimneys over-layering the blue sky, producing little white smoke on top of each. It contradicts the fact that it produces pollution but at the same time you can appreciate the beauty out of it.

I sometime can easily get satisfied by some simple urban realm such as bridges. Near where I live, there is this bridge that is crossing over a railway. Just being in there, makes me feel nostalgic of something. It is an in-between space that can function some simple things that one might forgot to do that such as accepting your existence in this world. Then also this bridge got me more because after I crossed to another part, I found a small river with jogging and cycling tracks on its bank. More hidden beauty discovered.

It will come to no end if I keep mentioning the hidden beauty of Milan, one must experience it himself. It is not just courtyard that rumour has it for Milan's hidden beauty, but what behind those walls, behind those trees, behind those bridges, it is the hidden beauty. So while we're here, go make yourself a short trip to your surrounding, it will surprise you.

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