Yesterday an Earthquake, Tomorrow a Strike

Yesterday there was a small earthquake in Italy! (About magnitude 5.) I was getting ready to leave the house, sitting at the table, when it came on. It lasted a good 30 seconds or so. I've had a lot of earthquakes lately, what with the one on the East Coast last year! The one here in Italy was pretty mild, though, the initial news reports said that there were no deaths and little property damage.

Tomorrow there's a transit strike, which doesn't really affect me, since I walk to work, but I am sure it will be awful for a lot of my co-workers. We were debating whether or not they will let you off of the congestion traffic charge for Area C. They recently implemented a new scheme for the charges. I'm impressed that they do the tariffs entirely using cameras. You don't have to enroll. And, you can just pay on line. Seriously, you just go online with your license plate number, it shows how much you owe, and you pay. That's it. (This is amazingly easy for anything Italian!)

And now some pictures from around the Duomo, smack in the middle of Area C... One street right off the square had these retractable pillars. They're triggered electronically using some sort of tag inside the car. It can't be many, I think since it's a little dead end area. I mean, completely passable by foot, but only about 100 feet for a car.



The Chocolat gelateria is on this street, past the "dead end" zone. It's one of the most famous gelaterias in Milan. Its specialty is of course chocolate flavors, but also chocolate lined cones. It's a big place, this is one of the window displays.