Transportation and More

Just learned a new Italian word from one of my bosses, abbonamento "subscription". We were talking about transportation in Milan. There's buses, street cars, subway, and ferro passante/commuter rail in Milan. If your trip stays within Milan, all these modes are covered under one ticket or one pass issued by ATM, the transit authority. The single trip pass (1.5 hours of transit) is 1.5 Euro, the monthly pass is only 30 Euros. So it is a way better deal than in Boston! The downside is that to get a pass, you have to go to one of the manned stations, and they take your picture and put it on your pass. Like the pass in Boston, you can put any kind of pass, weekly or monthly, or just pay-as-you go money on it, at any time. It's not like a subscription thing. Not sure why you have to have a picture... it's a pain to have to go to one of the major facilities (there are like 6) to get a pass.

Another thing in the category of Transportation... I had lunch on Friday with Professor Tolio. We walked to a museum near the campus, I am going to have to head back there later to take another look. There were some awesome concept car models outside in the courtyard. Here's a picture of me with one of the fun cars.



This one had a hilarious hood ornament!



This week's vocab:

Abbonamento - subscription/pass
Carta Credito - credit card
Bancomat - this name is used for both the ATM and the bank card
Ammorbidente - fabric softener: I had been using it as laundry detergent for a while since it took me some time to figure out that's what it was. Maybe the fluffy towels on the bottle should have tipped me off... Durrrrr.
Cavatappi - corkscrew, both the shape and the device for opening wine