More Dogwalks than Catwalks (Milan)

Member Name: Briandun

Product:	Milan
Date:	17/12/01 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Language, Mountains, lakes

Disadvantages: dirt, pollution, mosquitoes

If people are expecting to find the catwalk on every street corner in Milan they will be more likely to bump into a fur coated Italian Signora walking her poodle.

It is also easy to trace the footsteps of "La Signora" as the dogs seem to be quite incredibly capable of leaving there droppings at reasonably regular intervals.

It is said that Milanese buy more shoes than any other Italian person, this is quite understandable given that you ruin a pair about once a week. What you will find is that it is primarily the non italians that are the poop carriers, I took no notice in the begining as i was convinced it was some sort of hip and cosmopolitan "yeah, I'm foreign and living in Milan thing". However not being one to follow the trends too much I decided to work out why the italians did not seem to suffer the same embarrasments.

First of all the dog is a fashion item and maybe even a symbol of social status in Milan. Milan is also almost completely without parks and what parks are there are not the most hospitable of places after a certain hour. This leads to the multitudes walking their dogs on the footpaths with the obvious consequents. It is the law in Milan to clean it up with the "Comune (council)supplied poop buster but as is often the case the case in Italy for most things the general opinion is that the reason they pay tax is so that someone can be paid to do that.

It is of course inportant to consider that you will have less accidents with time as the tendancy is to learn to look slightly downward rather than eye level, this I believe is how the Milanese seem to be almost completely clean shodden.

If you are here keeps your eyes to the ground!

Summary: