Goodmorning Manhattan!!!
The first scheduled stop is St . Patrick’s Cathedral, and to get there we begin to face the labyrinth of the subway with its stops that are numbers on numbers, mind-boggling.
And in fact getting to the church was half a feat, because we went out to the stop inside the Rockefeller Center which is a labyrinth of corridors, getting out is not as obvious as you might think.
Here we meet the first homeless man of our trip, he did not ask for alms but walked in circles without stopping.
It hurt my heart to pass in front of so much misery that coexists with men in suits and ties, just a few metro stops away.
Leaving the twenties building we look towards the skating rink. But in passing because we are literally flooded by wind and water, the climate certainly does not welcome us.
In a corner we put the trouser covers, also called garbage bags for me, and somehow, with Matteo holding my umbrella, I start taking pictures of the track and the main building with his wonderful bright tree underneath.
The Rockefeller Center
That tree is majestic, colored with a thousand lights, green and leafy, just a beautiful symbol of joy during the Christmas holidays.
Under the tree, in the track, some daredevils brave cold, rain and wind, skating alone.
Behind the track, Rockefeller Center stands out, imposing and majestic.
History Tips: In fact, what I call Rockefeller Center is just one of the 19 buildings that make up the complex.
In the late twenties, oil magnate John D. Rockefeller Jr., saw in the land owned by Columbia University the right opportunity to build a huge shopping complex.
Work began in 1930 and ended 9 years later.
Just think that only a year before the start of the work, in 1929, there had been the collapse of the Wall Street stock exchange!
Imagine what it must have been like at the time, to see these wonderful buildings built.
It was seen as a bulwark of innovation and progress, as the beginning of a new era of well-being.
The idea behind the complex was to create a “city within a city”, combining offices with entertainment and cultural centers (such as Radio City Music Hall).
The style is that of Art Deco (which in Europe ended in 1930 while in America it lasted for another ten years).
Its main feature is the use of new materials such as: aluminum, stainless steel, lacquer, wood and even shark skin!
You can’t go wrong when you admire new York skyscrapers; if you see shiny metal buildings, decorated with geometric patterns such as zig-zags and rays, you are in front of an example of Art Deco.
Metropolitan Cathedral of St.Patrick
So let us go to the church, but not without greeting the announcing angels, with their golden clarines.
At the entrance of the church there are two gentlemen with rods who check our bags, as we will later discover it is a habitual safety practice in places of great crowding.
While outside there are a few degrees inside we find large fires that keep it warm.
The mass is about to end, we listen to the Our Father in English as we walk in the aisles.
Let’s say that as a cathedral it did not particularly impress us, but it makes its beautiful figure in the middle of the great skyscrapers of Manhattan.
It was built between 1853 and 1878 in neo-Gothic style in the place where there was an orphanage.
At the exit I ask a policeman where I can smoke (on the internet I had read that it was forbidden even on the street) but from his strange look I understand that there is no problem.
It is true that you can not smoke in parks and pedestrian squares, but on the street no one comes to tell you anything.
It continues to rain, but we do not let ourselves be knocked down and like us neither do the shacks that sell hamburgers, hotdogs, drinks and sweets on the street.
We saw some workers and passers-by stop, so we queued ourselves too, dropping $ 3.5 for a hot-dog that did not satiate us much.
But one thing must be clarified, the flesh is infinitely better than ours. We are not sure but we think that the ones we ate were beef, other than pork and chicken!
Times Square
We then head to Times Square, in the end we were ahead of schedule and allowed ourselves a walk, to which comment:
Look at it well because it is up to us that then we do not go through it again.
Giulia
how wrong I was, involuntarily we were always there!
The square honestly does not tell us much, semi-deserted because it is early in the morning and with the rain; it’s much smaller than I thought. However, it has its own why, it is something we are not used to, with all the big screens that show off a lot of advertising.
The thing that surprises me the most is the vague silence that is in the air; let’s be clear, talking about silence in New York is a blasphemy but I can say that there was more silence than in other streets or squares.
We walk in the middle of smoking manholes, wrapping the buildings with a foggy and vague aura, another scenario that populated my imagination.
We enter the Disney Store.
Since there is the release of Frozen 2 the store is decorated with a theme, the thing that impresses me the most (apart from the three thousand puppets and the beautiful decorative balls for the Christmas tree) is the Rapunzel themed escalator with the music and all the floating lamps, really magical.
Let’s move on to Hard Rock, which is not far away: it is very beautiful, large and with a wall covered entirely with guitar parts, large concert stage and lots of seating; after the hard ride to get out, it is not a door that but a wall!
A pinch of art
And off to the MoMa, to the first major art museum we will visit.
It’s still raining but it doesn’t bother me at all; I’m so thrilled to wander among those immense skyscrapers; stealing with my eyes the lives of people I may never see again, seeing a side of their life that I ignore. I know I’ve probably seen more tourists than real New Yorkers but I don’t care either, I’m in America!
This is the museum where we first use our Explorer Pass.
I chose to buy the one that allows access to 7 attractions, a choice made according to the budget and the time available.
Here you will find the official website from which to buy your pass.
This is not the only option, there are 4 passes offered by different companies, each with its own strengths.
It all depends on the style with which you want to live your experience in the Big Apple.
Our Explorer pass allowed us to choose from 57 attractions and was activated as soon as we visited the first one, to last 30 days.
The other most famous options are:
The MoMa is large and well managed, there are the right spaces and you can breathe between one work and another, relaxing and clean.
One of the first rooms is a section of works by an African who denounces the tortures and abuses made by the great dictators.
This is followed by a room dedicated to new technologies where we find an innovative idea about a deminer.
We go up; I can’t miss Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, Pollock’s Action paintings, Warhol and Mirò’s soups, Frida… many masterpieces.
We also find bizarre shapes composed of hundreds of bells, female tights filled with sand, packets of cigarettes crushed and strung as if to form a necklace, houses on chairs made of candles and huge metal cubes.
We see a personal section dedicated to Betye Saar, an interesting woman, I really liked her delicate works, they induce dreaming and reflection.
We have a lot of fun and as usual we lose track of time.
We also find some paintings by Hopper that Matteo really likes and I’m happy about it; even some Picasso (I had forgotten that the Mademoiselle de Avignon were here!) and a Munch, really a nice find.
The sun is going down, but the night will not stop us
At the exit we continue towards the National Library passing in front of the Rockefeller Center and we stop to watch an amazing light show on the façade of a building.
The library is beautiful, at the back there is a park where There are Christmas markets that look a little too expensive for our pockets.
Inside the library is festively decorated, there is a huge tree full of lights (other than the Italian decorations) also there are similar trees in all the bank buildings (which are many!).
We pass in the room where you can pick up the books, room that is filmed in the John Wick movie 3; in front there is the reading room with the frescoed ceiling.
I had read that there was a huge collection of maps but in reality they are more like encyclopedias than actual maps.
I immediately went in search of the children’s section, where Winnie Pooh is located!!!
It’s a very old teddy bear even slightly disturbing, but I really liked to have found it, it’s exciting to see where some famous stories come from.
In the building there are also old telephone booths, they still seem to be working.
Leaving the library we head towards central station, its huge blue vault is a wonder for the eyes, all decorated with constellations and zodiac signs.
It is a building to which you would not give two lire if you look at it from the outside, a bit like an oyster, inside you find the pearl!
After a bit of effort we also find the Whisper Room.
Thanks to its particular architecture, if you put yourself at opposite corners and talk against the wall you can hear the voice of the other person very well!
Before completing the long day at the Empire we stop at the Oyster Bar to eat a delicate crab soup; expensive (like everything) but very good with oyster croutons.
I just regretted not going back to eat some natural oysters.
Finally at nine o’clock we arrive at the Empire State Building.
Explaining that Matteo works for a company based there we manage to get the Passes and go up to the office, which we find empty.
Too bad because I would have liked to exchange a few words with someone, however we went around the office browsing on the desks of others and admiring the view.
On the way back I was a little scared, my first time on the metro at night; it was a useless fifa, there is so full of people that the phrase:
“The Big Apple never sleeps”, does not lie.
If you do not know where we started and where we will end, click below!
