Page 30 - Milano Periferia

comfortable lodging; the "Dormitori popolari " (Popular Dormitories) -
among which the famous one covering 3.000 square metres off Porta
Romana in Via Colletta - for men and women separately, with baths,
showers, laundry and disinfection equipment; the "Asili notturni Lorenzo e
Teresa" (Lorenzo and Teresa Night Shelters) for the unemployed and the
needy (155.037 people were housed in only one year, 1924); the "Ricoveri
notturni gratuiti" (Free Night Shelters) aimed at facing, if not af solving,
some problems of pauperism, of settlement of the homeless, of suburban
vagrants, "magûtt ", wandering "bòsin".

Not to forget also the "Ristoranti economici" (Cheap Restaurants) and
the "Cucine popolari", (Popular Kitchens) of the "Società A. Coop. per
cucine popolari" (Popular Kitchens Coop. Society), subsidized by the
Municipality and by other Bodies. The recollection of these one-plate
restaurants with a weekly menu is very agreeable and of great interest
today, when the consuming civilization has spread the expensive habit of
the fashionable restaurant which empties our already exhausted wallets.
These fixed-price menu restaurants are still to be found in richer foreign
towns, not here: we still dine à la carte, in a princely way.

Together with the "Cucine economiche" (Cheap Kitchens) - where, as a
youth, I safely consumed my meals - in Milan there were also the "So-
cietà del pane quotidiano" (Daily Bread Society) - 250 grams per head
to all those who applied there -, and the Capuchin Fathers of Via Vercel-
lese who distributed the soup and a piece of bread; "Bagni" (Bathes)
of popular type such as the Argelati, the Nazionale, the Ticino on the Boni-
forti canal, the Castelfidardo on the Naviglio Grande canal still ploughed
by the "barchètt (little boats) de Buffalora".

To go bathing off from the town at Ticinese, quietly riding a racing or a
trip bicycle, instead of - as it happens today - being swirled away robot-
like in a motor-car, was wonderful. The bicycle was the favourite vehicle
of the outskirts. When we were children we took a sharp pleasure in
comparing the trade-marks and boasting of the speedy efficiency: Bianchi
or Legnano, Maino or U. Dei, which was the best? But there was also the
cart whose characteristic noise accompanied all day long the repose of
the outskirts. Strange noise, never alternating or shrilly like that of a car,
which rose grating from the paved roads (rissade) not yet covered by the
"macadan", softer and stickier where the two "trottoirs" had already
been laid.

The incessant noise of the building undertakings truck (the two big iron
wheels of "Marnon " are still pictured in my mind) and of the waggons
carrying blocks of ice (four small wheels) accompanied in the morning the
life of the outskirts, when the shepherd still drew near the home door to
milk one of his goats, handing over the milk to you, preciously, in the
quarter or half-a-litre can.

In the background of this picture just sketched I seem to see the nume-
rous depots or "sôstre", where wood and charcoal were sold for the