Love And Designer Clothes Are All You Need

Italy

Italy was never at the top of my destination list. But having been to the country twice now, I have to admit it’s one of the most fascinating I’ve visited. Italy is about the size of Arizona (and slightly bigger than Rio Grande do Sul), but it’d be hard to find a place so small that left such a huge legacy, from law to religion to arts to food. Italy fascinates me because it’s hectic but welcoming, boisterous yet sophisticated, touristy but retains its local flavor. Italy was the stage for the rise and fall of many a great empire, and nowadays it arguably rules in the fashion world. Who hasn’t heard of Armani, Gucci, Prada, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana?

Nowhere is this more evident than in Milan’s Quadrilatero D’Oro (Golden Quad), the designer shopping district lined with flagship stores from all top designers. I’m no fashionista, but the sight of those windows one after the other made me want to go on a shopping spree. But I didn’t...way too expensive. Instead, I saved my splurging for something I regretted not getting on my first trip to Italy 10 years ago: a Venetian mask. The masks originally appeared in medieval times, a period of cultural and religious repression, and protected the wearer’s identity while engaging in decadent or promiscuous activities. Traditional Venetian masks are handmade with papier-mâché and when you see the real thing you have to marvel at the art and skill that went into them, very different from the ones made in China with resin or PVC. They’re things of beauty and I couldn’t resist getting one.

So this is definitely not going to be my last time in Italy as I still haven’t seen any place south of Rome: Naples & Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast, Sardinia, Sicily. In the meantime, I’ll keep in my memory one of the last images I saw on this trip, which in a way sums up perfectly what Italy is about: right in front of the main gate of the Duomo, two pigeons started to seriously make out (and if God really disapproved of sex, the two of them would have been fried by lightning for the audacity of making it in front of the cathedral!) while steps away three young models, skinny legs like stilts, were striking poses for a camera. Lust and fashion side by side…there couldn’t be a more representative picture of Italy.