Will Around the World

We had a couple of hours to kill before catching a train to Milan, from where we would fly to Paris. We wanted to check out the Fortezza da Basso, thinking it was a castle or something. It turned out, though, to be a convention center, and that week it hosted Pitti Uomo, the most important men's fashion show in Europe. As we walked down the path to the main entrance, we were handed brochures and cheap giveaway bags by the most stunning women you'll ever see...doing this job. I wondered about the caliber of company reps manning the booths inside, but alas, we were bounced away before we could find out.

Milan may be the capital of Italian fashion, but Florence does not lag far behind in importance to the industry. The city's center is peppered with designer boutiques. Florentine men and women are fixated on their image to a degree that exceeds even Rome. Two days before, we saw a red carpet function in front of the Salvatore Ferragamo museum (that's right — a museum for the designer shoemaker). It seemed to be the kickoff event for the unveiling of the next season's fashions.

Party crashers who know how to dress for party-crashing

Florence is the most aloof city in Italy that we visited. There was a feeling of "look but don't touch": from the huge crowds who, pushed along by their tour guides, are barely able to cast a passing glance at the city's innumerable cultural treasures, to the shopping-bag-toting Florentines themselves, who seem so absorbed in looking cool that they wouldn't give a tourist the time of day. I doubt I have the patience to return to this city and try to peel back its skin.

# posted by billklee @ 15:14