I like wandering around Milan for no particular reason. I think it’s the best way to notice all those little delights that otherwise go unnoticed as we race to catch the bus or march to the supermarket.
You need to train your eyes. Train them and feed them. With colour, new perspectives and microscopic caresses. It is very important and thus it requires great care and attention, as it is something that helps us to change our approach towards life and towards life’s unexpected wonders.

In the third entry of IN MY SHOES (here are the first and second), I have decided to take you to one of the areas I love the most: ‘Ortica’, today the undisputed design centre of the city (part of Fuori Salone is set right in the middle of Ortica!) but, at least up until yesterday, still a delightful little town in the city outskirts.

What I love about Ortica are its simplicity, its balconies overflowing with flowers, the church bell tower, the delicious slices of pizza with onions, and the pistachio dispensing machine.

Another thing that I adore about this area is stopping off to chat the whole afternoon with Cecilia, the lovely owner of 20134 Lambrate, a vintage clothes shop (vintage again!) near via Ventura.
We met in her shop one day and we became friends.

The shop used to be a ladies’ hairdressing salon, so I always imagine the queues of women with enormous beehives, wearing clothes like the ones Cecilia sells. Clothes full of colour and, once again, full of tales to tell.

One of the things I like about this shop is the light, especially as the sun goes down. On summer evenings, it is filled with a warm orange glow that seems to weave its way through the crinoline slips, the stripes and the polka dots.
In these moments, I like to get out my beloved Mrs Canon (my camera) and photograph interesting or tiny refractions of light, born of the embrace between the sun and the mirrors.

What about you? Do you happen to have a favourite place in which you spend afternoons of chatter and laughter?

Camilla
xxx