ROYALS IN MILANO. SACRIFICE AND PRIDE

“It was a weekend journey. You can ask for Friday off work, but no more than that, so you have to be back by Sunday. Technically, we only had Friday and Saturday to hunt down spots to paint.”

“The plan was that the Valencian crew would get in on Friday morning to rent a van, find a place to sleep (no matter how many friends you have, no one’s going to let so many people sleep in their house), buy the paint, find the first spot, and then head to the airport to pick up the rest of the group.”

“As soon as we arrive we see that there’s snow everywhere, with more on the way. It’s freezing cold, and you can’t drive quickly, so we take longer than usual to get to the hostel to finish sorting out the reservation. After we confirm our place to stay, we head to the paint shop but it closes at midday, so we grab something to eat on the same street.”

“First mission: find a spot to start at dusk. We spend a while rambling the streets, and by the time we get to the spot, our feet are already soaked. We paint, with the cold being our only setback; by the time we leave it’s already night time and the cold is even more evident.”

“Driving towards the airport, the rest of the group calls us to say that their flight is canceled because Milan airport had been closed due to the snow, so we turn back around and head off to look at things by ourselves, with little luck. We end up, hours later, in the outskirts of the city, painting a ‘bilevel’ with frozen hands, switching between hands to fill in the color. When we finish, we draw straws to see who’ll be the first have a hot shower before going to sleep.”

“On Saturday, we get up early and, with our shoes still wet, head to a metro spot. We get there and, once inside, right before starting to paint, we hear something at our backs. We turn around, thinking it’s security, but instead we see another writer who’s equally as surprised to see us. We go up to talk to him; we don’t know each other but we have a few friends in common, and after 5 minutes we see lots of other writers arrive, so we agree on time slots, and then begin. It’s incredible to paint during the day, with the light of the sun flooding the hangar. Everything turns out well, we get some good photos, and then head off to eat something.”

“The guys let us know that the metro carriages won’t be in circulation till Monday, and that they’ll take care of taking the photos of when the metro first goes out. It’s now Saturday afternoon and we have to wait till the circulation ends before trying to do something on the private line. Later on, we head off with lots of time to spare, since we don’t know the spot nor if the roads will be blocked off. The thermometer reads minus 11 when we arrive. The worst moment is when you open the car door and put on your wet shoes, knowing that you’ve still a while to go before you get to the train. The up side of it is that hopefully the guard will be thinking the same thing and will stay in his control post.”

“We get in, paint, take photos, and run back to the car. We blast the heating once we’re inside, and then head to the airport. The whole thing went well.”

Special thanks to Vino and Royals Crew for the chronicle. Photographs by DHOS.

* More pictures clicking right here.