Milan-zana

The Milanese journey south for their holidays and return to Milan on one particular day. This is apparently pretty famous, but no-one told me before I went. So. My journey from Umbria to Milan took ten hours. At least my presence seemed to have been entertaining for the crowds of traffic. It seems that the Italians are amazed by the sight of a girl, alone, in a small jeep, with right hand drive, singing and practising the ukulele in an Italian traffic jam. Children pointed, people waved.

I arrived and met with SST (on the left), who is to be my co-pilot and co-conspirator for the next eleven days. SST’s amazing friend Lucia  took us through the city, first to the Duomo and then to the area of Navigli, where we set about finding a place to sing for supper. 

Along the way we met with SJ and HD, who had spontaneously arranged a trip to Milan to watch my performance – and to eat immense Italian ice creams…

Unfortunately, in Italy, there is a performance tax called the Siae, which means that an impromptu concert is almost impossible. Almost, but not quite. Along the canal, we found Bar Straripa, and it’s charismatic owner, Marco. Marco is a musician himself and loved the idea of the project, but had his hands bound by the tax. If only you had a guitar, he said, you could play outside and then you just have to sign a paper saying you were passing by. Even though there was a beautifully tuned piano in the bar, apparently you can’t claim to be a by-passing pianist, as that would just be too logical for the authorities. 

Undefeated, Marco had another option. A quick phone call later, I was chatting to Cesare, who agreed to come and be my accompanist for the evening.

Cesare grew up with a love of music from his father, who throughout his life amassed a treasured collection of records so precious that as a youngster, Cesare was never allowed to touch them. Cesare has made his living for years in Milan as a blues and soul guitarist. He has long had a love affair with England, which began with music and grew into ‘fifteen days of terror and love’, where he met a ‘crazy, beautiful, British woman’, and accompanied her to London, only to find that her crazy ways were beautiful, but just too much.

Having eaten our fill of zucchini, prosciutto, ricotta, patatinas, carciofi, pollo  and melanzana, Cesare and I played to the Navigli evening crowd. We played blues, soul and jazz, we harmonised, we had so much fun – playing with such a good musician is always great. 

SST and HD joined us for a never-before-rehearsed-and-actually-surprisingly-really-bloomin-great-four-part-harmony-version of ‘My Girl’. The crowd loved it. 

At the end of the night, we snuck into the bar with Marco and played and sang on the piano (DON’T TELL THE AUTHORITIES!) before wending our way home to Lucia’s, singing all the way.

At lunch the next day with some more gorgeous friends of SST, I conceived the idea for the ‘sing for your supper cookbook’. At the end of the trip, I shall put up the recipes for all my favourite dishes, in order of the journey. If you decide to make any – just remember that Alberto and Vale’s ‘Milan-zane’ is the dish that started the idea.

In general, I didn’t love Milan as a city. Mainly, it is industrial and not entirely beautiful. But if you want to meet the amiable, enigmatic Cesare and the joyfully enthusiastic Marco, and to eat great food, drink cocktails and listen to music - go to Straripa and say I sent you.