Zero Tolerance

I watched an interesting fly on the wall type documentary the other day entitled ‘Tolleranza Zero’ – ‘Zero Tolerance’ (Yes, at times Italian and English are extremely similar).

This program was shown on La7, one of Italy’s public TV channels, and was about, as you might expect, how the Italian police are dealing with crime in and around Milan in Italy.

What came across to me was the high level of professionalism exhibited by the sometimes maligned Italian ‘polizia’.  The ‘polizia’ is not the same as the para-military ‘carabinieri’, by the way, although the polizia does have a similar function. For more information on Italy’s many police type bodies, you might like my old post called ‘They Got Guns‘.

Certainly the Milanese polizia appear to be doing their job, and doing it rather well. Indeed, the recent proposals to put soldiers on the streets in Italy appear to be something of a slap in the face for this organisation, which is something of a shame.

Still, politicians who don’t interfere wouldn’t be good politicians, now would they?!

As an aside, the few documentaries which appear on Italian TV, usually far too late in the evening, are, for the most part, very well made.

Exclusive! Full English Breakfast in Milan, Italy!

Yes, it’s finally here! As you can see from the (not wonderful) camera phone shot I took this very evening, the full English breakfast down at the 442 pub here in wet old Milan is about to go live!

Tomorrow, from midday on, this scrumptious brekkie will be ready to be ordered and eaten. And you can pick up a plate of these goodies from noon until two in the morning on both Saturday, tomorrow and Sunday. This probably means that this will be the longest English style breakfast ever! And I will be down there with my wee one, and we shall be tucking in.

Tonight’s trial run was tried and tasted by Chris, all round good bloke, and English 442 regular. His verdict: ‘It’s the best full English breakfast I’ve had outside the UK!‘ – High praise indeed and I agreed with him. Wonderful!

Finally an ex-pat can find a decent breakfast that is a wee bit more substantial, and enticing, than the cappuccino and cake that is the usual offering here. Cholesterol overload, here I come.

The cost of this extravaganza? A mere 10 Euros, and this special offer price, includes coffee, tea, and toast. After Xmas you will still get the same, but the price will be 12 Euros. Still not an exaggeration when you consider that brunches in Milan can cost from 16 Euros up.

And you can blame me for the sausages. Check them out, I don’t think you will regret it.

Be there, or be hungry!

Here’s to the 442 and extended British Breakfast euphoria!

Desperately seeking sausages!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find 100 good quality vacuum-packed Cumberland sausages and export them asap to the 4-4-2 pub here in Milan, Italy. This blog post will self-destruct within 15 seconds.

Yep, finding English sausages has poor Alessandro down at the 4-4-2 pub banging his head against a brick wall. The search for these elusive sausages really is proving a ‘mission impossible’. So, if any of my English readers out there know where to get vacuum packed Cumberland bangers and can DHL, TNT, UPS or FedEx them over to Milan in Italy, Alessandro, and I, will be eternally grateful and all expenses will be paid.  If the sausages prove to be a success, then this could well turn into a fixed weekly order for 100 or so of these things. Sorry to bang on about this, but one would not imagine that in the 21st century getting something as banal as British bangers over to Italy could be so darned difficult. This is an SOS – Save Our Sausages!