I decided to attended the the Salone del Mobile at Rho during my first day in Milan. I wanted to get it out of the way and cross it off the list of things to do.

Having been there once before, I knew what I was dealing with – it can be quite difficult to imagine the size of the fair until you’ve experienced it for yourself. The sheer volume of people and “stuff” on show is beyond comprehension. It is enormous. Epic. Overwhelming…

Man, I have to be the slowest blogger ever to report on Milan Design Week! Sorry guys – my jet-lag is a complete shocker and I’m really struggling with beating my cold. But enough with excuses. I will do my best to make your wait worth while, so I decided to kick off my report by telling you about my favourite Milan moment(s).
Spazio Rossana Orlandi was on top of my list during this trip to Milan. I remember that it came on my radar just after I last visited the city in 2007, and I was annoyed that I hadn’t heard about it earlier and that I didn’t get to visit it back then. Since that time, many other people have recommended it and I’ve also seen it mentioned in a few design guides and books. I figured – all this fuss couldn’t be for nothing…

Hello pumpkins. I’m back! Seriously, for a couple of days there I thought I was going to be stuck in Europe forever! Those damn volcanos. If you’ve been following my tweets, you probably already know that my volcation included a “slight detour” and I never made it to London as originally planned. Having said that, I wouldn’t change my trip for one second, as a little group of us got to experience an amazing drive from Milan to Hildesheim in northern Germany, via the Swiss alps. Wow. What an amazing road trip, even if six of us had to jam ourselves into a people-mover with all our luggage {I had the back shelf stuck to my cheek for about 8 hours – nice}.

As for Milan, the fair, and all the design events… Well… What can I say… Gee… Let me think… Oh yeah, it was friggin’ AWESOME!! Seriously, I had such a brilliant, brilliant time. There was so much inspiration and talent around, my head was exploding from all the cleverness, awesomeness and attractiveness. Oh yes, Milan is one spunky city people. I took just over 2,500 photos during my 4 days… oh hang on… make that 7 days in Milan thanks to the Icelandic eruption. My experience during this time included more design than you can poke a stick at, zero sleep, running around, talking to designers, taking notes and photos, phone calls to family and travel agents trying to sort out flights, new friendships, lots of laughs, amazing food, excellent wine and a few too many drinks. I’ve been left with no time to go through any of my photos or do any writing, so please be patient as I sort through all the information I’ve gathered…

Enough said!

Excitement! I found another excellent little online resource called VT Wonen. Unfortunately it is 100% in Dutch, and since I don’t speak it – this post is going to be fairly light on in the commentary department. But we can still enjoy the pretty pictures, right?! Judging by some of the pricing and looking at the photos, I’ve decided that VT Wonen is a magazine dedicated to affordable living – similar to the local Real Living Magazine. Am I right? Does anyone know for sure?

I’m sorry to include so many images in this post, but I honestly had trouble editing them any more. I always have such a hard time culling images because I’m a hard-core visual junkie. Guilty as charged…