Sports: 4 X 3

 We'll try a disciplined posting approach and see if it goes quicker and more concisely:  four sports leagues, and for each, a beef, a freak, and my personal fave. 

National Basketball Association:  We'll start with the one currently in the highlights.  The San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks are at this moment in a critical game 1--if the Knicks can pull off a win here, at San Antonio, it will give them an edge for the series.  I'm rooting for the New York team, though I basically gave up on them after their last Finals run, in 1999 (against the Spurs, also).  They haven't won the title since 1973, while the Spurs, rising again after a few brief years of a downturn, have had more than their share. 

Beef:  Tanking, of course.  An unacceptable phenomenon of recent years, where teams not in the running for the playoffs try to lose as many games as possible in order to gain better odds to pick up the best players turning pro.  I won't say the Spurs did it, when they got their Freak, a couple years ago, but it has become too obvious, and there are various disincentives being discussed.  

Freak:  Victor Wembanyama of the Spurs, of course.  He is not only ridiculously tall, but very skilled.  I wish him success, and above all, good health.  Players that tall often have fairly short careers because of recurring injuries to their legs.  I hope he can beat that rap. 

My guy:  Shea Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder.  I feel like he does everything right, including all skills on the court (passing, defense, the lost art of the midrange shot, and threes when he wants to) and a wonderful demeanor off it.  He faced off with Wemby in Game 7 of the recently-concluded Western Conference Finals, the matchup of the two best teams in the regular season.  SGA had the better game, but the Spurs had the better team on the night.  This rivalry is just taking off this season and will be one to watch in the coming years. 

FIFA World Cup:  Soccer/football's biggest event is coming up in a week.  The USA is singularly unimpressed and unimpressive as a host nation, so it's good there's two others helping out (Mexico and Canada).  There are several teams that could legitimately be considered favorites.  France has too many superstars, Spain and England are hungry and full of proven talent, but I like the defending champs, Argentina, with their incomparable captain, Leonel Messi, for the win. 

Beef:  They expanded the field from 32 to 48 nations (we'll call England a nation for this purpose, another beef to be explored someday), which is OK, I guess, though it would seem it makes it too easy to qualify (Italy somehow didn't).  The real beef is that it is now too easy to get through the first round to the knockout stages, which are now up to five rounds.  So, for example, France is in the toughest group by far, with tough first-round opponents in Senegal and Norway (see below), but they will get through anyhow because three of the four teams are likely to make it (Iraq is the unfortunate fourth).  So the pressure is not really that high for that round, which has a majority of the actual games (96 vs. 31 for the rest of the tourney, by my count). ***

Freak:  Erling Haaland, the super-tall, albino-looking center forward for Manchester City and Norway.  His opponents basically have to keep him from ever getting on the ball near the goal, where he hangs out, avoiding the offside calls, because he's next to unstoppable and very accurate when he gets it there.  In that regard, he's different from the classic advanced midfielders like Messi or the ageless Luka Modric, or the withdrawn centers like Kylian Mbappe, Mohammed Salah and Harry Kane, who go back and get it and then do their magic.

My guy:  Christian Pulisic, "Captain America" for the USA team (not named the team's captain, though).  His career has been up and down, with flashes of brilliance, frequent injuries, and prolonged dry spells.  He's another who goes back and gets it and charges toward the goal with fervor (another is Kevin De Bruyne, on Belgium, who's finally slowing down).  After a successful run in the German league, Pulisic flamed out on my team, Chelsea, a couple years ago, then regained brilliance with A.C. Milan in Italy for awhile, but he lost the flame late this season and the team will probably rebuild without him next year. If he can make some major contributions toward victories in the World Cup it will do a lot for his career and for the prestige of USA soccer, which is lagging a bit.  

 Major League Baseball:  They are coming up on about 40% of the regular season now, and it's clear who are the likely contenders, especially in the National League, the one I follow more closely:  the Dodgers, Brewers, Braves, and Padres.  My Reds are among the many teams looking to grab one of the two playoff berths available after those four. 

Beef:  The lack of parity is driven by the astronomical salary load of the Dodgers, and of lesser, wealthy franchises trying to keep up with them.  The modernized game--you can like the changes, or loathe them, but they have helped broaden fan interest, and the game is more global in its reach than ever--is in peril, with the possibility of a devastating lockout and strike after this season, the dispute being over the owners' proposed salary cap.  I take the players' side always in these disputes, but the owners' willingness to restrain themselves in this way is the correct viewpoint. ,

Freak:  That's Shohei Ohtani.  His ability to dominate in both hitting and pitching (this year, so far, especially the latter) is without rival in the modern game and brings fair comparisons only to the immortal Babe Ruth--Shohei's surpassing him in some ways (the homers and speed combination, longer pitching career), but the clock is ticking, and worshippers of the game give too much emphasis on longevity, which he can't match, unless you include his stats in Japan. 

My guy:  Elly de la Cruz, of my team, the Cincinnati Reds.  My fandom of the Reds is a very long story, and I hope Elly is able to have a long, successful career with my team, though as things stand now, he will likely go to a higher bidder in a couple years.  Elly can do it all--speed, fielding, power--though he hasn't tried pitching, as far as I know.  

Women's Tennis Association:  For this post, I will focus on the women's game** Tennis is the major sport in which women's participation is most fully comparable to the men's, in terms of money and talent.*  Yes, the men generally hit the ball harder, and they play best-of-five sets to the women's best-of-three, but there is the same high-profile, personality-driven excitement in this sport, which tests the individual like no other. 

Beef:  This year's French Open, the only one of the four Grand Slams played on clay, the more demanding in terms of stamina (not so easy to serve your way through matches), is close to killing players, due to the heat wave and the five-setters on the men's side.  They need to bring in one of the initiatives of the other Slams and give the players a fucking break once in a while.  They should also make the fifth set a brief one, like the super tiebreaker they have in doubles (for which longer matches would make much more sense). 

Freak:  Aryna Sabalenka is a big woman, tall and muscular.  Handsome, I'll say, and with an underrated sweet personality.  She has a big serve and a ferocious competitive temperament.  Though she ran out of gas the other day in her quarterfinal match (see above), she is hard to handle for everyone except the similarly tall, similarly powerful-serving Elena Rybakina.  Serena Williams is coming out of retirement at age 44, to take her shot at Sabalenka, I presume:  they have quite a bit in common, except the personality. 

My guy+:  Iga Swiatek was the top player for a couple of years, nearly unbeatable until the rise of the two giants I mention above.  Swiatek is a normal-sized woman player who does most everything right, except she strives so much it's scary. I hope her form can rise up again to her previous level, but I doubt it--the competition has gotten tougher.  

There are others in today's WTA for whom I have similar soft spots:  Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Elena Svitolina, to name three; they all have their challenges.  Coco's is her serve, which comes and goes, Osaka's is her mercurial mental state, and Svitolina's is her personal challenges as a mother, wife to a men's pro, and the stress of being Ukrainian. It's hard for me to choose when they face each other, but I quietly lean toward Iga most often. 

 

P.S.  The Knicks win Game 1.  Finished this one in less than hour--that's progress.  

**I've addressed the men's game often enough in other posts--at this moment, Sinner stands alone (though he also pooped out in the heat), until Alcaraz is back on the court.  For this tourney, I'm rooting for Zverev to win; he's worked long and hard and this is his best shot ever at a slam. 

*The other might be track and field, and the Olympics generally, which have given women a lot more competitive equality in recent decades, and have dealt pretty successfully with gender ambiguity issues. 

+"Guy" in the modern language meaning of person, without gender specified, to keep parallel in form with the other three sports' comments. 

*** I am not counting the abysmal 3rd-place game, which everyone knows should have been removed decades ago.  

 

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U.S. vs. The World

 That was the headline that the NBA, in its desperation to find a reason to create basketball involving its All-Stars in a way that would appeal, came up with for this year.  I think it was a lot better than recent efforts, because in fact there are a whole lot of All-Stars from countries other than the U.S., enough to make a team that is very credible--especially if you include Canada now as something foreign.*

 The NBA, like Major League Baseball, maintains a token presence outside our borders in Toronto, barely a couple hours drive beyond.  The NHL has maintained its traditional franchises in Canada but has overwhelmed their previous dominance with a host of US teams based in places like Arizona, Florida, Anaheim and Vegas. While in football, of course, Canadians have their own thing which is inferior to ours and we don't have to respect it. 

Baseball differs a little in that regard, though, because the source of its players is increasingly from various regions of the world, almost outnumbering those from the US.  Indeed, there is a World Baseball Classic coming up, with teams from countries all over competing with the US.  We are not the favorites, nor even the best American team--that would probably be the Dominican Republic.  Japan can also put a scare into us, with Shohei Ohtani perhaps playing both ways--maybe even in the same game!  

Snark:And what is this thing about Puerto Rico competing against the US? That should not be allowed.  Donald--speak up for the "ownership" of that territory, and let's seize their players.  The Venezuelans, too, since we're running that country; there's some significant players from both./s.

Not Quite Ideal 

I am a fan of the Olympics, and I watched a lot of these Winter Olympics just finished.  First, I want to commend the Italians for putting on a good show, giving the athletes the opportunity to do their things under the best conditions for their sports (they have the advantage that bad weather adds to the drama without stopping most events), for filling the arenas and locales safely, and for managing the local chaos which the event always produces.  The closing ceremony was intensely "bello"; that one, and the Japanese one from the '24 Tokyo Olympics have together set the bar very high for creativity to be supplied by future hosts. 

The Winter Olympics feature a bunch of sports about which I know relatively little, don't normally follow, and which I have no aptitude nor desire to participate in anymore.  That's okay, but I am a fan of most sports and these are a good change of pace to see different ones.  I feel the same way about most of the sports in the Summer Olympics, too.  The Olympic sports that I most follow--baseball and basketball--are there, but not particularly well represented by national teams.  Those sports, and others such as soccer, volleyball, ice hockey, field hockey, and Ultimate Frisbee,  I would put in a separate event for national team sports. It would be a major draw in itself and bring the rest of the games closer to the original idea. #

The nationality aspect is the worst problem with the games, with the TV coverage strategy the second worst.  Abolish the medal count; make the medal award ceremony private, without the anthems.  As for the TV coverage of the Olympics, I've watched it in other countries, and the problem is always the same. It's about "our" athletes and whether they win medals. If anything deeper is provided, it's usually not about the sport, but it's about life stories. To their credit, I suppose, they are still holding to the '70's Wide World of Sports approach:  "the human drama of athletics".  But if there's no patriotic interest, no special narrative, it's not worth showing, as it presumably won't draw ad revenue.   Less editing, more channels, please--nothing that hard to do.  All that patriotic gore and media hype detracts from the focus of the Olympics, which must be the games and the athletes' incredible devotion and skill.

The nexus of media fame and athlete sometimes resembles a car crash.  It's particularly intense for the US participants in figure skating, the only sport in the winter games that is a major draw. * US figure skater Ilia Malinin got T-boned by the intense expectations which got to him mentally, freezing him up extraordinarily. It's truly unfortunate that his greatest audience so far in his short career saw his worst--his skating ability is miraculous, as he's shown in the past.  Women's skater Alysa Liu, who had been through the wringer of the public eye years before, quit a few years ago in reaction, but then came back for the love of the sport and skated (a much less difficult program) with joy and won the gold medal.

There wasn't much anti-American sentiment (referring specifically to "USA!"), though there was a typical unhinged Italian riotous protest off-campus, generally against the expenditure and land-use decisions, but also specifically against the presence in Italy of the US paramilitary force called by the acronym "ICE".  What the hell they were doing there is unexplained and inexplicable:  I'm quite sure there were no undocumented immigrants to the US among the Olympians gone abroad, and if there were some in the support teams or the volunteers at the games who are self-deporting, fine.  I guess they want to take credit, if there are some units toward their quota to be accrued.  .

Terrible Tariff Mess  

We all knew that the tariff regime imposed by Trump in executive orders last spring relied on a legal basis which was unsound. The Supreme Court has done no less and no more than making that clear, without providing any remedy.  The money collected by importers following their perceived requirement to obey was until now paid to the Federal government's Treasury.  The expectation from the Court's decision is that the money, collected contrary to law, must be refunded by the government to those who paid it in.  What those importers are expected to do with it has not been seriously considered. 

I think that the amount they are going to see will be only a fraction of the number collected from those tariffs--I have heard that amount is $170 billion.  Trump immediately reimposed tariffs under a different shaky legal justification, uniformly at 15%, so almost as high as before.  My prediction is that those importers will only get the difference between the old tariffs and the new ones, and that the effort to get it will require piles of bureaucratic paper and/or lawsuits.  Instead, Trump will seek to distribute money in checks signed by him to every US citizen, which works out to about $500 per individual, minus the amounts he pays after short-changing the importers.  He will sell it to them that this way, they don't have to deal with the complexity of reimbursing consumers. He may not get away with it this time, though.   

Tariffs are the classic Us vs. World kind of policy, but the world outside the US doesn't have as much problem with them as one might think.  Consumers abroad don't have to pay for them.  The issue is mostly about the uncertainty, there and in financial markets, and this new tariff policy will not end that, and the mess will continue as Trump tries to layer in penalties above and beyond.  

 As for "Bomb Iran", Trump has boxed himself into a scenario in which he will end up having to act, to do what Bibi wants him to do, in spite of the Iran government's desperation to avoid getting bombed again--or worse.  Whatever concessions they can make, and they are willing to make some--essentially the same ones they agreed to long ago in the multi-lateral agreement Trump trashed in his first term--they will not be enough for Bibi, and therefore, for Trump.  What a dumbass loser!

 

 *The surprising thing is that the US won vs. The World in both semifinals and so played each other in the "So What?" finals.  I don't really know more than that, as I didn't watch any of it.   In general, though, if the US takes on the world, it will lose. Even in a nuclear war.

# I support most of the Olympic ideal, though I have to give the Moderns some credit for finally abolishing the myth of amateurism.  One interesting note is that I heard a podcaster saying they had heard there is an informal agreement among nations not to start wars during the Olympics. (see the timing of the Sochi Winter Olympics and the initial invasion of Ukraine) I didn't know there is such a thing, but I know that in the original (Greek) Olympics there was the tradition that the warring of city-states would cease for the period of the Games.  

 +I am intentionally dismissing ice hockey from that honor:  its following in the US is intense but not so huge, and it's not a sport that most TV viewers can take in.  I will say that the broadcasters in hockey have a special talent for following that puck and recognizing each player involved, made more difficult by the constant, unannounced substitutions. 

As for the US' ice hockey team's gold medal, I salute their devotion and skill, like all the other NHL athletes who showed up.  

The reason figure skating is so central is because of its many female (and gay) enthusiasts.  Men are dragged in, and sometimes we are amazed, often amused--because we men tend to think it's amusing when people fall on their butts.  

I am Furious (Yellow)*

 

 

King D------d  issued a threat yesterday in a conversation with another fascistic American President (Bukele of El Salvador), that "home-grown" US citizens would be captured and sent to Bukele's house of horrors prison there, with no recourse, as the Drumpfenreich has done with the asylum-seeking Maryland resident, the native Salvadorean Kilmar Abrego Garcia.  Just label his opponents as "terrorists", with or without any evidence, and make them disappear.

Do I find this threat credible?  No, in the sense that one cannot simply believe that anything Trump says is a) serious; or b) not a lie.  I have no doubt that he would like to be able to do it, if he felt that he could, but he's lacking the means to do such a thing to natural-born citizens, whose status and ability to block illegal arrest is different from those we are hosting as asylum-seekers or those foreigners who have no legal immigration documentation or have overstayed their visas.  If he continues to get his way with the Supreme Court, which so far seems to want to play ball with Trump in a mistaken belief he will abide by constraints they put upon him, the next step would be to try this stunt with naturalized citizens, or those whose citizenship comes from first-generation birthright within the nation's territory.  Creeping totalitarianism from the asshole contingent.

Still, a threat is a threat, and this is one of existential proportions, and in response all US citizens should consider their responses, and "nothing is off the table", as Trump himself likes to say.  Though I may be slightly optimistic in thinking this would not happen to me, I am laying down two red lines as regards myself and my dear ones.  The first is arbitrary application of the famous "no fly list" from the government  upon us, which would take away a fundamental liberty, and the second is his half-serious suggestion that he would seek a constitutionally-prohibited third term.  Sure, he could do the latter legally if he were to get a constitutional amendment--go for it!  Otherwise, rebellion in defense of our constitution is something I would be compelled to seek.  

The View from Italy

I'm in the second month of a long vacation from the US political maelstrom, my physical presence in which is intolerable to this person, at this time.  I wanted to be gone from the get-go of Drumpfenreich 2.0, but I was convinced to delay the trip a bit longer to get some of the beautiful spring weather springing out all over here.  It's about quality of life, and the 90-day limit of my visa.

Of course, one can't get away completely from it, and here it is all over the news:  the talk of the "dazi" (tariffs) and mention of "Tramp" (or, sometimes "Trampa")--Italians don't really have the short "u" vowel sound, and don't usually end words with a hard consonant, either.  There is something appropriate about calling our fraudster a tramp, or suggesting (in my mind) how he is "trampa-ling" over our republic.

Italy's current coalition government is in a unique position within the European Union, which is providing it certain advantages in the ongoing war--of words, more than actual economic warfare--between the US government and the EU.  The three parties that make up the government range from center-right (Forza Italia, the former Silvio Berlusconi party), xenophobic right (the Lega, which has successfully pivoted from a Northern Italian party hostile to Southern Italians--the Northern League-- to a nationalistic one hostile to all other nations not headed by authoritarians), to the hard-right Fratelli d'Italia (Fd'I in the local shorthand), headed by Giorgia Meloni, the head of the national government (the Council of Ministers, the parliamentary head, as opposed to the titular head of state, the non-partisan President of Italy).  The three parties are not aligned on everything:  a key example is with regard to Ukraine.  Forza Italia is very pro-Ukraine, the Lega's head, Salvini, is pro-Putin, while Meloni takes a moderate view, respecting the EU's support for Ukraine but opposed to any direct involvement of the Italian military.  They are pretty much aligned on hostility to illegal immigrants coming across the Mediterranean from Africa, and expecting the EU to back them up on preventing their assimilation into Italian society, which is probably the most important domestic issue apart from the economy.   They aren't having much trouble so far in beating down the disunited center-left and left nationally, or in several of the larger, more centrist regional and local governments.

In a lineup of the heads of European governments, or of the G7, Meloni is by far the shortest person in stature, but she is not short at all on ability.  She speaks well and has shown some agility in policy and in minimizing the obvious historical lineage of her party to the postwar neo-fascists and their nostalgia for Mussolini. She, among all the heads of European governments, has the best direct relationship with Trump, and thus she is more able to reason with the US (to the extent anyone can reason with these idiots) than the official EU representatives, whom Trump disparages and mistreats.  She can't really toe a separate line from the EU on trade, but her influence probably helped the EU getting the proposed 25% tariffs down to a more survivable 10%. Of course, the tariff rate is not reciprocal (yet), as the EU had very low tariffs with their ally and trading partner, the US, pre-Drumpf. (I am considering advising my non-governmental Italian friends to refer to him as that, which would be a good, insulting name-calling for him--it sounds, and is, German, and, though the Germans have come a long way forward, there is still some residual resentment among Italians.)

One last Italian-Trump note:  in Italian, there is a phrase called "prendere in giro" which is used very frequently.  The usage means joking, or teasing, and is only slightly aggressive.  It literally means "to take (someone) for a ride".  It applies perfectly to the Trump/Bukele disingenuity (is that a word?) about who can return poor, abducted Abrego Garcia and why neither one of them will do it.  Also, they literally took him for a ride, but not the circular one the phrase implies.

* I am quite serious about my fury, but I couldn't resist the Dad-like reference to the Swedish porno film of the '60's, "I am Curious (Yellow)".   Trump's administration is pornographic, in the worst sense of the word, but I admit to being somewhat physically a coward when it comes to frontal confrontation to it at this time.

Italian Elections 2018

What could be less interesting, right?  Wrong! I won't say that this is a world-history making event, since Western civilization's continuation or development no longer depends on the fate of  political struggles in Rome (OK it's been awhile since that was the case), but I find it to be a subject with important ramifications, for both Europe and the US, as well as a fascinating case study.

Modern Italian culture, in all its facets, has been a particular interest of mine, ever since I "discovered its existence"in plain sight, Christopher Columbus-like, about 40 years ago.   A little background on the national scene follows--please bear with me and I will try to be brief. Then I will go into more depth about the likely outcomes and the major personalities involved. 

Italy since World War II has prospered spectacularly, but unevenly.  By most measures, Northern and Central Italy are on par with the most developed countries of Europe, but the Southern part of the boot and Sicily have lagged.  This has been true much longer; one could say that the initial disparity present at the founding of the modern state (mid-19th century) has never been remedied.  The Parliamentary state has consistently disappointed people's expectations, but there is still strong support among the people for democratic ideals.  The Italian economy is recovering more strongly recently after a long, slow recovery from the Great Crater, but it is still a difficult place to do business, for many reasons.  The wealth of the people comes from their great assets:  land and people, and to a large extent, the interaction of the two. 

Why Does It Matter? 
I will make this quick.  It is a significant country in Europe, and if its election is won by the right--which has various Trumpian characteristics among its leaders, including xenophobia, corruption (though probably not with Russia so much), immigration, turning the economy to the favor of the wealthy, and clownish behavior--it will be very harmful for the European Union as we currently know it.  Many of the center-right coalition openly advocate going the Brexit route, and Italy, unlike Britain, is a core member of the EU initiative from its very earliest form in the postwar EEC.

If we think more narrowly, the result is also significant for the US, in the sense that it is yet another very relevant test of democracy and of the public desire, or lack of desire, to reject tribalist and ultra-nationalist thinking, and thus a possible portent of upcoming US political soundings.  Unlike the US, Italy has  a very real current immigration problem--poverty-stricken people coming over to Italy in boats from Libya (after migrating there from many other Third World countries), and there is also a general Italian view that the country has not been properly supported by the rest of Europe in handling this peaceful, but unwanted, burden of handling mass migration. 

The Scenarios and Their Chances
So, to the political structure (of the moment):  This parliamentary election will be conducted March 5 under different rules from the last one, five years ago.  (In a somewhat rare occurrence among Italian governments since the postwar republic replaced constitutional monarchy, the Parliament remained intact for the full five-year term.)  The new Parliament will be composed of a mixture of proportional representation and "first-by-the-post" election of individual districts by plurality (like the US House).  The distribution of seats among the parties for the proportional portion* is somewhat apparent from the opinion polling--opinion moves fairly slowly, in general. The wild card is how the individual seats may play out, as the balances are very fine.  There are a number of possible coalitions, in classic Italian fashion.

On this one, I have some small skin in the game (predicti.org); I will make some references to the market they have on this election:  "Who will be Prime Minister on July 31?"
Here is my list of  the possible outcomes, in order of likelihood:

1) Generally unclear, no coalition easily identifiable.    This has two major variations:
a) totally indecisive result, and everyone sees that it's so (no party or coalition above 30% or so)--the Parliament might seat, make some new rules, or not, but just call a new election.
b) no surprises in the outcomes, continuing discussions, no new outcome on the horizon.  This could go on for a very long time--the 7/31 deadline is a good reference point, as it is shortly before the midsummer break called "ferragosto" when everyone, and especially the politicians, shut it down and go on vacation.  In this case, there could be a continuation of the caretaker government that has been running since the collapse of the Renzi government (see below).  Paolo Gentiloni is the Prime Minister, from the Partito Democratico (yes, the Democratic Party, and it is very comparable to the US one).  He's a dignified, moderate techno-bureaucrat; few would regret the result, though it would be a defeat for: 

2) The Center-right coalition.  This is the only currently-announced coalition that has any chance to get close to a governing majority by itself. The leader of this combination of five parties is none other than Silvio Berlusconi, back for another run at it after his conviction and retreat from the scene.  His party is called Forza Italia (I would translate it as "Go, Italy!"), and it's the only one of the alliance that has meaningful national appeal.  The problem is, because of his conviction, he's supposed to be ineligible to actually serve in the new government.  So, there's a very interesting range of possible PM's.  My money (in predictit.org) for this scenario is on Antonio Tajani, the most respectable of the leaders of Forza (FI).  His odds have surged--I bought him at .14 a month ago and he's up to .33 (on a .01 to .99 scale, pre-election;  after it's decided 7/31, values will go to 0 to 1.000).  Good gains so far, and I may hang around to see if I can make more.

3) Center-left coalition.  There are two big parties in this (potential) space:  the PD (Dems), who had control of Parliament the last five years, and the one-of-a-kind Italian invention called Movimento Cinque Stelle ("Five Star Movement", abbreviated as M5S).  It just missed five years ago, when headed by a sharp-tongued comedian, Beppe Grillo; it has shown some staying power after some purges and other separations se and is now headed by an emergent 31-year-old talent, Luigi di Maio.  Its themes have been opposition to the Establishment and all the other parties, use of 21st-Century technology to create democracy, bloc voting, and eternal internal squabble.  If di Maio has conquered that last tendency then he would be truly deserving of leadership, but probably not as the PM this time around.
They (M5S) and the PD will be the leading single parties in the proportional vote (as they were in 2013) dividing 50-60% of the total.  The question is whether these two could get together; every early indication is no (M5S has sworn off all alliances), but that underestimates the Italian impulse to conspire:  I believe that if the PD and M5S both became convinced that their alliance (after the election, of course, first they have to attack each other all through the campaign) were necessary to prevent someone like Berlusconi winning, they might find a way. 
If there were to be an actual agreement, I would think the likely form would be to agree upon someone unexpected, neither Gentiloni nor di Maio (and not PD leader Matteo Renzi):  they could find some sap from another of the many tiny parties sprinkled through this range, maybe someone who won their district but whose party didn't reach the 3% threshold level for proportional representation.  (In predictit.org terms, all Yes bets would then lose;  if you liked this theory, you'd bet No on everyone and make a relatively small profit.)  More likely that M5S would fulfill their promise of non-participation by abstaining for some center-left variation of government formation, thus allowing it to happen. 

4) "La Truffa" - Somehow, the center-right find some tricky way to put Berlusconi at the head of the government (despite his not being in the Parliament):  they make a law to allow it? 

5) A PD-dominated government - This is a variation on #1 in which the PD does surprisingly well, such that they--and any smaller partners they can find--get to 40% or so of the Parliamentary seats.  Then, suddenly, a government headed by Renzi would become a possibility. 
The problem is Renzi, for my taste the best prominent politician--intelligent, honest, uncorrupted--that Italy has had for a long time. (At least since the deaths of Aldo Moro and Enrico Berlinguer, for those like me who've been following this stuff for decades.) Naturally, everyone hates him--except for his admirers, who have become a lot less numerous since he became a loser.  That happened with the electoral referendum last October.  He openly staked his career on it, a valiant but ultimately and totally unsuccessful crusade to make the company more governable by making it less democratic. 
Shards of his old support have since dropped off to various splinter groups (and the M5M) since then. He is now seen by the left as a would-be Napoleon who betrayed the working class; most of his remaining appeal is to the moderate left wing of the former Christian Democrat party, from whence he came.  I would say his game now is to let someone else try for a few years--and eventually fail.  He would hope to maintain his role until when he could then make a comeback.  He's still only 43. 

Additional Notes
It is rather unlikely that the scenario will present itself immediately from the electoral results (though we will not have to wait long to hear them--the polling is very efficient, as is the tabulation).  Instead, certainty that there will be no electoral majority, and the multiplicity of parties, will mean that the outcome will take weeks or months to emerge.  A recent article in The Economist suggests an obscure southern Italian party (Noi con l'italia--"we are with Italy"), recently formed, could get a surprising number of local district wins and become a critical factor.  In the respected Italian weekly magazine L'Espresso, a writer under the name of "corleone" (could he be from Sicily, perhaps?) points to the elections for the President of the two houses of Parliament (scheduled for March 23, or 18 days after the general election) to get a clue where this thing will be going. 

The other alternatives to Tajani or Berlusconi as PM for the center-right range from scary to laughable; the most noteworthy miscreant after Silvio is Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Lega Nord (Northern League), who leads a party popular in the North whose supporters are tired of the welfare queens and foreigners from Third World countries getting all their tax dollars.  You can see the appeal, right?  His party will be the second-largest in the center-right coalition, earning 13-15% and winning a number of constituencies. He is pretty much disqualified from being the PM because of the intense distaste everyone else has for him, but he would be a force* in the government if it happened:  I imagine he would then be able to lobby for sending the Italian navy down to patrol the Libyan shores, a provocative military stance that could either work--stopping the boatpeople, and their exploitative aggregators, at the Libyan ports--or start actual conflict.  (Libya was an Italian colony for decades, until the Fascists lost it during WWII.)

I have a lot of (very cheap) shares on Renzi, who is currently viewed as a longshot with no chance; a few on Gentiloni, hoping to average down sometime down the road; and a moderate bet on Tajani (another for which I will add more shares if his price drops).  I have No bets on Berlusconi, Salvini, and Di Maio.   The current polling--Wikipedia is maintaining an excellent graph which shows each data point for each party over time--indicates eight parties will make it past the 3% threshold (while several others will win seats through having localized strength.  If you'll permit me to use the TLA's (two-letter acronyms, or three-letter acronyms) I reviewed above, one gets, approximately, the following current values for those who name their choice:  M5S 28%, PD 23%,  FI 18%, LN 13%. Left Alliance 6%, 5% for a neo-Fascist remnant now called Fratelli d'Italia ("Brothers of Italy", a quote from the first line of the national anthem), and about 8% for others. 

*Sorry for the word, couldn't resist. 

Urgent Sports Post

Test of Champions
I must get something in before the kickoff of the biggest football game of the year:  the Champions League final game, between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, from Milan (Fox, 2:30 p.m. Eastern).

Spain's La Liga clearly has the best club competition in the world, with its teams dominating the European club championships for the last 2-3 years.  Beyond that, of course, Spain has won the last two European Championships and the World Cup before the last.

Real Madrid is an all-star team of some of the highest-paid players, and their fans and owners expect the best results, so this game is a must-win for the current squad and its management, as they have no other trophies this year (Barcelona won the league title and the domestic elimination cup championship).  Atletico has been right there in all of the competition, but the expectations of their long-suffering fans, who are at least as passionate as Real's, are more realistic.  In that sense, Atletico has already accomplished a great feat, eliminating the two teams I would have expected to meet in this Champions Cup final, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.  To provide an analogy to American sports, Real is the Yankees, Atletico the Mets.

This year's league contest went down to the final game before Barcelona won narrowly over Atletico and Real.  Barcelona had an unusual run of bad play for a few weeks this spring, which caused their lead in La Liga to shrink to the verge, and Atletico caught them during this period to eliminate them from the Champions League tournament.  Atletico then topped it of with a narrow victory over Bayern--which has the core of the world champion German team, plus others.

The match has galvanized Spain in a way that their long-lasting, unresolved political stalemate cannot.  In a possible foreshadowing of a problem the US could face in a few years, the two parties which controlled national politics since the end of the postwar Franco dictatorship have rotted away from the inside and are being steadily replaced by new ones:  Ciudadanos ("Citizens") has posed a good-government, free-market alternative to the corrupt, patronage-based "Christian" Popular Party which inherited the remnants of Franco's Falange party, and Podemos ("We Can") has been eating away the support of the Socialist party, which once posed a lively democratic alternative but has failed to be a successful governing party.  Podemos stands for rejection of austerity and has mobilized the disaffected, particularly the youth.

The resulting four-party division of support, complicated by the possibility of secessionist referendum for Catalonia, seems to be impossible to resolve with normal parliamentary methods, because none of the four parties trusts any of the others enough to govern with them (and particularly their party leaders do not).  Last December's general election created the mess, and June's new election seems unlikely to make any change to the situation.   Some kind of non-partisan technocratic solution seems the only likely outcome. to create a government of some kind.  In the meantime, it's good that the Battle of Madrid will be resolved in a neutral location--I'm thinking Milano will be relatively unscathed, but the home city may have some dangerous moments.

I hesitate to predict the outcome of the final--a single game is very unpredictable on its dynamics.  One likely result will be that one of the teams will show itself up to the occasion and the other will show nerves early, which could be disastrous (think of the Spain-Brazil World Cup final, which got out of hand early); another would be scoreless stalemate with both teams trying to avoid losing.  I'm hoping for a third, more exciting result:  a freewheeling, open contest that remains close but is decided in regulation time.  OK, I'll go with that, Real Madrid, 3-2.

Not to Exaggerate, But..
The Preakness Stakes last week was probably the best horse race I've ever seen in that classic, which , when there are any proven great horses competing, is usually the predictable intermission between the wild-and-woolly Kentucky Derby and the often-dramatic  test presented by the longer race in the Belmont Stakes. This year there are two great horses, as shown by the Derby result.  If I were advising Exaggerator's team, whose horse closed strongly late but came up short against the undefeated Nyquist in the Derby, I would've said to wait out the Preakness, rest your horse, and beat him in the endless homestretch of the Belmont.  They knew better:  the Desormeaux brothers, trainer and jockey for Exaggerator, who earned their stripes at the Preakness' Pimlico race track, went for it there and got a great break from the weather:  Nyquist had never raced in a sloppy track like Pimlico had last week, while Exaggerator's best win had been in an off track.

Exaggerator had a perfect ride, saving ground on the rail the whole way, and made a brilliant move coming around the final turn.  My congratulations to the Desormeaux family and the owners of their horse, who will now be favored in the Belmont, due to a fever that Nyquist came down with after the race.

Baseball
Not too many surprises so far, as major-league baseball reaches the one-third mark of the season this week.  The biggest positive surprise is Boston's Red Sox, who have surpassed division rival Toronto as having the most potent offense in the majors; the biggest negative surprise is my pick for 2016 World Series champs, the Houston Astros, for which everything (hitting, pitching, fielding) seems to be coming up snake eyes.  It is not too late for them, though, as their division has a fair degree of parity (all three American League divisions are still competitive, first-to-last).

The National League is different, with very clear winners and losers.  The biggest positive surprise are the expected losers from Philadelphia.  The Phillies' rebuilding program is proceeding faster than expected and they are at least mediocre.  The Cubs' rebuild is complete and they are close to total domination of the league, though they will have to prove it against tough postseason pitching.  The Dodgers are disappointing, while the Giants--winners of the World Series in the last three even-numbered years--seem to be rising to the top once again.

Basketball
Finally, to the NBA, where a huge game will be played today:  the big two of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, will have their big chance for postseason success take a final exam today.  They have a 3-2 advantage against the defending champions, the Golden State Warriors, who threatened, through their record-setting regular season, to change the nature of the game itself (small ball, 3-pointers), and the home game tonight in OKC could be viewed as the climax of the whole season.  Like Atletico Madrid, the Thunder has been earning their shot by toppling the favorites--first their dramatic victory over the Spurs, now, maybe, the Warriors.  If they do succeed, they will face Lebron James and the Cavaliers in a championship final that will be, like today's Champions League, difficult or impossible to predict because of the unlikely buildup.

OK, OKC over GSW (narrowly, tonight), and Cleveland over OKC, 4-2.

My Milano Pt. 1

Some of those who follow this site may have detected that I have been on assignment in Milan, Italy for most of the past 16 months. The city is having a big year in 2015--it is the site of a world's fair, Expo 2015.   In the January New York Times article in its Travel section listing 52 places to visit this year (one per week, a pretty aggressive timetable, even for affluent readers), Milano was listed as #1.

"Nourish the Planet, Energy for Life"
That would be my translation of the theme of Expo 2015 ('nutrire la pianeta, energia per la vita').  In other words, it's all about food--food production, agriculture, agricultural workers, food distribution, and, yes, there's going to be plenty to eat and drink there.  Here's the plan, for your (in)convenience:

I saw the opening ceremony yesterday--well attended, despite some rain.  The site looks quite beautiful.  All of the pavilions are open, though some are not quite finished inside; the one from Japan looked particularly good.  There are many national pavilions--there will be national days for many of the major nations, with the big political guys coming for theirs--but also some theme areas within which  nations can participate for smaller investments--there are 145 countries represented.   The emphasis seems to be on sustainable agriculture, and, architecturally, fancy prefab buildings that can be taken down after the expo ends (October 31). There's strong backing from the Pope, who reminds us all to keep the hungry in mind, and a cast of major corporate sponsors, private benefactors, etc.   For more information, here's a site for the Expo (it's in English, Italian, and French), and here's one for the B.I.E., the official sponsors of the big World's Fairs.   I will report more on this once I've been there.

Almost enough about that, though I should mention the political dimension.  This thing has been about 10 years in the making, and there has been plenty of controversy (as one would expect, in Italy). The timing is quite good, though, I think; the economy is beginning to recover from a prolonged, double-dip financial crisis and this has provided a shot in the arm, for the city, for tourism, and for the country as a whole.  Nevertheless, it has occasioned protests (including some imported anarchists to start riots), there were some arrests for corruption last year, and the more general question remains of what the long-term impact will be.

The city of Milan has been gearing up for this in a number of ways.  There was a lot of infrastructure development (among other things, new lines of the Metro going out to the Expo site), and a number of cultural events in town, both during the lead-up to the opening, and through the season.  We will come back to this.  First, though, a personal travelogue (for the Times' version--'36 Hours'--see here.)


Background
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy, after Rome. Milan dates back to Roman times, though, unlike Rome, few traces of that period remain.  It became an important city during the later Empire days--named "Mediolanum".  In those days, its approaches were navigable for ships going either to the Ligurian (western) coast of Italy or, via the Po River, to the Adriatic as well. Nowadays, the streams are suppressed, pushed underground or reduced to canals.

One analogy that might help Americans, in particular, is that Rome is a bigger version of Washington, older and even more spread out, while Milan is a smaller version of New York.  Milan is the financial and business hub, a major center for fashion, journalism, and sports.  It is close to the major manufacturing areas throughout Italy's North, though nowadays Milan is more likely to house the headquarters than the factories.   In its physical layout, though, Milan resembles London--also a Roman city in its origins--more than New York.  Instead of a rectilinear grid, it is a chaotic maze of streets going at all angles, changing names and angles frequently, and particularly of concentric rings.  I count four of them:

1) The innermost ring is quite small in area and probably corresponds to the original Roman walls (of which few, if any, remain).  It is the site of most, but not all, of the main attractions in the city proper.  Certain roads mark the edge of the ring, and there are a couple of wide ones (probably originaly canals or streams), but, apart from the cleared squares near the Duomo (the city's cathedral, the heart of the city), it's mostly a jumble. There are major bank headquarters here, the Cathedral (the Duomo), the famous opera house La Scala, and the stock market (La Borsa).
2) The second ring is still considered part of the city center.  The principal roads are either lines radiating from the first ring outward to "porte" (gates) that would have been in use during medieval times (though the walls, again, rarely remain), or the wide ones (where the walls were) that generally mark the boundary of the "zona limitada", the edge of the areas where cars can normally go (without special permission, which residents and others with pull can get).  It's not quite as crowded, and it has some nice parks, a very old university, and lots of old churches.
3) The third ring is a mix of residential neighborhoods, good and bad, old and new, along with some semi-industrial areas, large shopping complexes, etc. Particularly noteworthy are the new developments on the North side of town with modern high-rises both residential and commercial.  The third zone out is readily navigable by car, though there is also bus and tram service.
4) The outer ring is marked by the "autostrade" (the equivalent of the interstate highways), the airport closer to town, more industry, some office complexes which moved seeking lower rents, and some open areas, one of which will be the site of the Expo.  The big soccer stadium (San Siro) is out there as well (it also has a new Metro connection).  Some of it is technically within the city limits, some outside of it.  There are a lot of small towns and cities in every direction which feed into the city. 

All four rings have some nice residential areas and major offices, though the style differs:  the inner rings have imposing palaces, the third ring high-rises built from urban renewal land or postwar reconstruction, the outer rings sprawling campuses.  The inner ring's skyline is dominated by the Duomo and buildings are only a few stories high--a mix of postwar, older (1800's), or really old.

Getting Around
First, of course, you have to get to Milan.  If you're arriving by long-distance flight from abroad, you will almost inevitably come through Malpensa airport.  I am not a big fan--through some historical naming accident, the word literally would be translated as "Bad-Thinking"--it is some 45 minutes from the center of town by the best means of access (the "Malpensa Express" train, it costs 12 Euros, and make sure you "validate" your ticket!), while a taxi costs about 100 Euros.  There is a bus into town that is priced comparably to the train, but then you risk getting caught in traffic. It's basically out in the country, halfway to the Alps, and your airport experience will feature long lines (security, getting your passport stamped), long walks within the airport, and your general Sixties-era big-airport blues.  The one thing I like about it is the set of giant picture windows in the check-in area, from which you can see all the activity on the runways and service areas.

I am a proponent of arriving by train--high speed trains go to Milan from many other European cities, the one from Rome is particularly fast.  The Central Station is a huge Fascist-era edifice (third ring) where most of the trains arrive, though there are several other stations around the periphery, as the train lines generally don't run through the city (a couple of them are way underground, the topic for another post maybe).

 If you're flying from another European city, landing at the Linate airport, just outside the fourth ring, is the preferred destination.  Linate is small, really quick to get through, the taxi costs 10% as much, and if you're cheap or have plenty of time, you can take a bus to town for Euro 1.50.  Of course you could drive there from somewhere else, stay at a hotel/motel on the outer ring (probably there are several new, half-full ones near the Expo, or near Malpensa, which is in that general direction), or in one of the many nearby towns or cities, and avoid the Milan city center entirely, but I think that would be missing out on about 75% of the fun.

Within the city, there are lots of ways to get around, and locals use all of them.  In spite of the traffic limitations, cars are plentiful and allowed on most streets (if you have the right permit), motorcycles and motor scooters, taxis, bicycles (there is a popular bike exchange program for those who don't want to risk theirs getting stolen), streetcars (called "tram"), buses, and, my two favorite ones--walking, and the Metro.    I live, work, and spend 95% of my time in Milano within the first two rings:  the first one is less than a mile in diameter and the second some 2-3 miles (4 km).

First, a few comments about all the other modes of transportation:

Cars:  You don't actually need a permit to drive into the center of the city in the off-hours, outside the workday, but you're still going to need to park somewhere (it's all permit on the streets, and the parking lots are expensive), and there's all the one-way streets to deal with.  It's OK if you're going to a specific destination, have a place to park, and don't get lost.  The locals generally go for tiny cars (Smart cars, and even smaller ones) which are easy to maneuver and park, or have a place to park inside the gates of their building, or both.
Tram: They go lots of places, but you need to know the routes, and--most important--buy the ticket ahead of time, in a tobacco shop or at a newsstand.  If you research, sometimes it will be the best way to get to certain destinations distant from any Metro stops, especially in the third ring. Some of them are really cute, I must say.
Bikes:  There are a lot of them, and a fair number of bike lanes.  I don't think it's a good biking town, though, except in the parks and on the bike paths separated from the main part of the roads. Many of the roads are old paving stones and very treacherous when wet, and the motorized vehicles drive fairly aggressively. To use the "bike Mi" service you need a monthly subscription; then you can pick one up for an hour or so for practically nothing at one of the many stations in town and leave it at the same, or a different one.
Motorbikes:  Same general comments as for bicycles (except the Bike Mi part)--obviously they are faster and more dangerous.  I've seen many near-misses, and only a few accidents.
Taxis:  They are expensive to use.  The quality of the rolling stock is very good (a lot of Prius, some good vans and station wagons).  Generally you have to go to one of the Taxi stations (big orange sign that says "Taxi" near most principal squares); they won't stop for you on the street often (even if the light on top is lit, meaning available), and depending on the time and location, there may not be any taxis at the stand.  A lot of the taxi service is arranged by cellphone (there is usually a sign at the stand with a number you  can call, if you have cellphone service).  Their big new challenge is Uber, and the taxi drivers are not happy about the competition. They don't all take all cards, and may grumble if you ask.  Tipping is optional, as is giving you a receipt.  I have had drivers just give me a receipt and tell me to put in whatever I want.
Buses:  See above for "Tram", except you can do something when leaving the Metro to have your ticket work on the buses, if you're attentive and know where you want to go with the bus.  There don't seem to be as many bus routes as the Tram service in the center of the city; I think they are used a lot to come in from the periphery. 

Tram along via Turati

well-chosen parking spot for a Fiat 500

This leaves my two main modes.  The Metro system is a very good one, in general.  It doesn't go everywhere, but there are five main routes that dissect the city in different directions, so it's very good to go between points within the center if it's a longer trip or you're in a hurry--generally with no more than one change of lines.  It costs Euro 1.50 per ride (except to the Expo, that's a longer ride and costs Euro 2.50).  It's not open 24 hours, but it's open until late and starts early.  It's safe, clean, and only crowded at the peak of the rush hours. And if it doesn't go exactly where you want....then I recommend walking.

Having gone on a bit long, the next section with my favorite walking routes (Part 1A) will be posted separately, but it's the best part.

Sciopero
A final introductory note:  any visitor to Milan, to Italy for that matter, needs to be aware of the possibility of a "sciopero" (strike).  The labor unions are strong, and they may call a strike, with little advance warning, at any time.  The general theory of how these work is to maximize disruption, while minimizing inconvenience to the working population.  So, often the strike will start at 9 a.m. and end at the beginning of the evening rush hour, shutting down as much as possible all the public means of transport in the meantime.  Before counting too much on any intra-day travel plans, make sure there is not a 'sciopero', by checking newspaper, Google, International advisories, etc.  I got stuck arriving from Malpensa the other day and had to walk two miles, with my bags, to get to the office.

My Milano, Part 1A - Walking Routes

I love walking in Milan--I do it every day, weather permitting (and it usually does, as long as you bring an umbrella and have appropriate shoes).

Top Walking Routes
A couple of notes--these are continuous routes, more-or-less straight, but changing names frequently. These are not the main thoroughfares of cars; on most of these roads, cars are limited or blocked from using them, or they are one-way streets which it is difficult to enter.  Obviously, since we're talking walking, you can go the other way from what I have here (I had to pick a direction), reversing the side of the turns and the landmarks.

Milan has installed a number of new neighborhood maps at key intersections in the popular areas, which should help a lot. It can be quite difficult to navigate, even with GPS apps. There isn't that much danger if one makes a wrong turn, though; the tough part will be to decide whether to continue on to unknown parts, or turn around and go back to the last known landmark.

1) Piazza Castello to Piazza San Babila.  Via Dante/Via Orefici/Piazza Duomo/Corso Vittorio Emmanuele II.  This one has to be listed first, not that it is the best route of all, but it's a good starting point, hitting several of the high points and linking up with the other routes.  This one describes a rough East-West arc across the center of the inner ring, beginning at the Castello Sforzesco (the in-town temporary Expo pavilion can be the starting point), heading southeast along wide pedestrian-only Via Dante.  At Piazza Cordusio, either veer right to stay on Via Dante or veer left to Via dei Mercanti--each brings you into the impressive Piazza Duomo, which you cross along its length, staying to the left of the Cathedral (unless, of course, you want to go in).  On the right is Palazzo Reale, on the left the famous Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II (more about both in Pt. 2). Leaving Piazza Duomo to the northwest (left of the Cathedral), you go along Corso Vittorio Emmanuele II, like Via Dante wide and pedestrian only.  Depending on the daty of the week, time of day, and the weather, this whole route could be packed with people and street performers, or it could be totally deserted.  In any case, it is surely lined with commercial establishments, particularly the less-elegant clothing stores, restaurants catering to tourists, and (in the Piazza Duomo and the Galeria V.E. II), major department stores and book/music stores. .

2) Piazza Della Scala to Porta Nuova. Via Verdi/via Brera/via Solferino.  This route goes South to North, through the top half of the inner two rings.  From the Duomo, pass straight through the Galleria V.E II under its great arched Victorian roof.--you may have to wade through sizable crowds--exiting into a large square with a fountain and a statue of Leonardo (usually with some street musician; the acoustics are good there).  On the opposite side of this Piazza is the front entrance to the La Scala opera house.  Cross the busy cross-street and pass La Scala on the right to enter via Verdi; after a couple of blocks and some monumental bank offices, the street becomes via Brera, pedestrian-only, broad, quiet, and lined with landmarks buildings and monuments.  Via Brera ends at a major East-west thoroughfare (via Pontaccio/via Fatebenefratelli--the edge of the first ring); cross it and continue onto via Solferino.  (Just before that intersection  is an east-west pedestrian route--via Fiori Chiari to the left/via Fiori Oscuri to the right--with Bar Brera at the corner.  This one can be useful at night--the East-West routes are generally more problematic--but it is narrow, crowded and a little too touristy otherwise.) Via Solferino is a fairly long street, with some parts more interesting (nice restaurants) and a fairly long stretch in which you pass the offices of Corriere della Sera, the New York Times of Italy.  At the end of the road, where you reach the busy road at the edge of the second ring, is the remains of an old canal, where there is a nice beer hall on the left, and one block to the left (via Milazzo) is the nicest art cinema in town (though I warn you that even there, 90% of the movies will either be Italian or dubbed into Italian).

piazza Duomo
and Galleria V.Emmanuele II

pocket park and Hayez statue - via Brera

3)  Stazione Garibaldi to Piazza Cordusio.  Corso Como/Corso Garibaldi/via Mercato/via Ponte Vetero/via Broletto.  Garibaldi (inner part of the third ring) is the second-most significant train station of general use (routes to the north and northwest, also a major linkage point for the Metro), thus an easy starting point.  Corso Como is a fairly short, but busy route, with some limited traffic and a couple of the most popular disco clubs; then you cross the Piazza XXV Aprile (April 25th is the date celebrating the end of WWII in Italy)  continuing onto Corso Garibaldi. This street is long, wide with a narrow, limited car lane, and lined on both sides with shops and restaurants in low-rise buildings.  It continues through a busy intersection (via della Moscova), after which it only gets nicer.  At the next major intersection (it's a bit messy; you have to cross the Tram tracks)  the road continues on in the same manner, under the names of via Mercato and then via Ponte Vetero.  There is finally a major intersection (cross street is via Cusani to the right, via dell'Orso to the left), at which you can decide:  turn right to Castello Sforzesco, turn left toward via Monte di Pieta and the Fashion District (see #4), or straight onto via Broletto.  Broletto is a less pleasing street, with a busy tram line in the middle, but it feeds into Piazza Cordusio at its end (see route #1).

At this point, I must mention a key linkage between routes #2 and #3.  At via Ancona and via Solferino (if going North), or just past Piazza San Simpliciano on Corso Garibaldi (major church on the left, if going South), you can find my favorite side street.  The entrance is called via dello Tessa from Corso Garibaldi (though San Simpliciano also feeds into it beside the church).  This interior, pedestrian-only street runs by the seminary and Piazza Paolo VI, and is called  via dei Cavalleri del Santo Sepolcro ("Knights of the Holy Sepulchre", doubtlessly a Crusader-era gang).  It's only 100m or so in length, but is lined with flowering trees, and beautiful buildings--it's also one without motorized traffic.

4) Stazione Centrale to Piazza San Babila.  Via Pisani/Piazza della Repubblica/via Turati/via Principe Amedeo/via Marco dei Marchi/via Giardini/via Montenapoleone.  This is a long but rewarding route going roughly North-South down the Northeastern corner of the city center, starting at the principal train station (middle third ring)..  Via Pisani, which runs from the station to Piazza della Repubblica, is a busy street, but extremely wide with broad sidewalks and lots of office entrances, sidewalk cafes, etc.  You cross Piazza della Repubblica, which is oriented at a right angle to your direction, and I have to say it can be difficult, with lots of cross traffic:  better obey the pedestrian street signals in this case.  Via Turati is a another busy street but not difficult to walk; at a major cross-street (via della Moscova, at the Piazza Stati Uniti d'America--that's right; the intersection of Moscow and the USA!), bear right (the American consulate will then be on the left).  The road gets really nice then, with some of the most beautiful residences in the city center, and a lovely, largely unused park (Giardini Perego) on the right.  At via Pisoni (not to be confused with via Pisani), you must decide whether you want the full or partial Armani exposure.  If the former, turn at Pisoni, go one block, and turn right on via Manzoni (super-busy street) for one block.  You will walk by the entrances of the Hotel Armani.  Otherwise, continue one more block on via dei Giardini, turn left at Via Croce Rosso (walking behind the Hotel) and cross Manzoni onto via Montenapoleone.

Via Montenapoleone is probably the most famous street in Milan, it has a lightly-traveled car lane, but it is basically all about the fabulous shop windows of dozens of major fashion houses, on both sides of the street, and other luxury items (Tiffany, Chopard; there are usually a couple of Ferraris or Lamborghinis around; Four Seasons is on a side street to the left, etc.)  Take your time and observe Milan's elite out for a stroll or trying to do the high-fashion business.  The street is even nicer at night, when it's not so crowded.  It will end at the mouth of Piazza San Babila (see #1).

To make it a bit more complicated still, there are a couple of alternatives.  At via della Moscova, if you bear to the left of the building with the American consulate, you stay on via Turati.  Cross over at some point before the arch and square which you see ahead, at the end (thus avoiding having to cross messy Piazza Cavour).  Go under the arch, immediately cross the street, and you will be at the entrance of Via della Spiga, which is like via Montenapoleone, only better.  The same line of (different) fabulous fashion shop windows, but a pedestrian-only street (technically, a couple parts allow cars).  I give it my highest recommendation.  At its end, you take a right on Corso Venezia for a short distance and you get to San Babila.   Finally, if walking through all the luxury of via Montenapoleone/via della Spiga offends you, just stay on via Manzoni, and it will take you back to Piazza della Scala (see #1, #2).

(At left, Via della Spiga, at night).


5) Duomo to Porta Ticinese.  via Torino/corso di Porta Ticinese.  Clearly, this route has the advantage of being a lot simpler than the last one.  We move from the elite/bourgeois attractions of the first four routes to the more popular routes of the everyday folks.  Exit the Piazza Duomo from its Southwest corner onto via Torino.  It's a busy street, with a tram running down the middle, so somewhat difficult to cross.  Shops and cafes and street food run continuously on both sides, and there are a number of interesting side streets going off in both directions--just don't get too far off the main drag, though, or you will get lost quickly.  Eventually, you arrive at the Corso di Porta Ticinese; turning left, you head due South.  It's a fairly normal big city street for awhile, but with parks and churches off to both sides, and plenty of bars in sight.  Near the arch of the Porta Ticinese, there's a large square with several more bars.  Lots of young people will be found on any evening with reasonable weather or a good soccer game.

6) The Navigli. If Porta Ticinese only whetted your appetite for partying, then continue on through the arch.  There is a small lagoon to traverse, bearing to the right, and there will be two different canals heading South and Southwest.  Both canals are lined with restaurants and club; the one further to the right (toward the Southwest) is the wider one, Naviglio (Canal) Grande, the other is the Naviglio Pavese (it goes toward the town of Pavia).  The Naviglio Grande has to be crossed through one of several pedestrian bridges; there is also a boat which goes up and down the canal when the conditions are right.   The water flows fairly well on the canals, but there are some side ditches which tend to breed mosquitoes during the summer.  This lively area goes on for quite a while--in distance, and into the night.

7) Via Guastalla/Via della Commenda.  Finally (!), a route I discovered recently.  It's a quiet, beautiful, straight path in the North-South direction which cuts a great deal of distance off the other routes in the Southeast direction, between the first ring (marked by the Via Larga) and the second (ending at Porta Romana). It basically avoids the interruptions of the roads for the complexes of the old hospital and the Universita degli Studi (though that ancient college complex is also worth a visit).  It's mostly pedestrian-only, passing by some beautiful residential buildings, a synagogue (guarded 24 hours a day) and a park (Giardino della Guastalla) which faces on the back of the university complex. There are entrances to the public hospital, the remnants of what appears to be a 19th-century asylum, and the road gives way to shops, restaurants, and a high school on via della Commenda.  At the road's South end (via Orti), turn right for a short distance and turn left on Corso di Porta Romana, if the Porta (which has some old Spanish walls and a Roman ceremonial arch at the center of the square, along with a refurbished old spa) is your destination.

The only trick is finding the beginning of via Guastalla on its North end.  From the Duomo or Corso VE II, go South, passing through Piazza Fontana, and continuing on until Via Larga (the "Wide Road"--probably was once a canal, I imagine), turning left onto Verzieres, then onto Largo Augusto, staying to the right.  You need to cross a wide street (via Francesco Sforza to the right/via Uberto Visconti di Modrone to the left) , which leads to the beginning of a wide avenue, the Corso di Porta Vittoria--looking down that wide avenue, you can see a large pedestal and statue at its end.  Instead, go one short block, in front of an old building (the Biblioteca Comunale, or public library), and turn right on the dark, empty street.  That is via Guastalla--at most you will see a pedestrian or two coming out of it, as it's practically impossible to enter the last stretch of the road by car.  And then you can breathe easier, walking relaxedly and safely.