So the M4 – or Blue Line – has opened in Milan, connecting the city center to Linate, Milan’s third international airport.
As I was watching the inauguration video featuring the spotless and driverless train pulling in, I overheard the recorded voice on the PA system informing passengers – in Italian – that they had arrived at Linate Aeroporto. Then, the same Italian recorded voice went on to repeat the information in English, leaving Linate Aeroporto untranslated in Italian. So much for all the trouble and ribbon-cutting Mr. Sala, the mayor of Milan, had gone to – virtually minutes earlier – when he proudly announced at a press conference that this new metro line would open up Milan to the many international travelers flying into town.
The same trumpet fanfare sounded when engineers explained how the M4 line stations were fully accessible to disabled people. Which prompted me to take a look at their bilingual signage. And, lo and behold, what a fine piece of work that is. This hodgepodge of confusing messages and mistranslations is only made worse by the annoying Italian habit of turning the most straightforward information into highly abstract and grand-sounding language.
Let’s break down this blue sign (below) to better understand why the Artful Translator’s nose was seriously put out of joint when he saw this:
- Bus stop ATM? > read ATM bus stop.
- Altra mappa/ Other map > meaning there’s a different one? Or perhaps ‘Map location/Map’?
- What’s an ‘arresto pericolo’. Surely these are two different, albeit related concepts’. Do they mean ‘Stop/Danger’? Missing slash? Who knows.
- Pericolo valicabile? > Surmountable danger? Baffling. An obstacle can be ‘valicabile’, i.e., overcome or surmounted. Surely not a danger. And a surmountable danger is risible at best. So what exactly is meant by it? Judging by the symbol and where it’s located, would the Artful Translator be right in assuming we’re talking about a step? A barrier? Or perhaps a gap?
It is indeed astonishing that, in 2022, this is the best they could have come up with. The layout is reminiscent of an engineering blueprint rather than a user-friendly map for the differently abled.
For the sake of comparison, below is an example of a more straightforward tactile wayfinding map.
As I was researching this topic, I came to realize that there seems to be a standardized way of creating these signs for the differently abled in Italy. Below is another similar example from the Vicenza Courthouse. Here we go again: crammed information in three languages and the eyebrow-raising pericolo valicabile lurking amidst the jumble.
The Artful Translator rests his case.
Note. The Italian press keeps referring to Linate as a ‘city airport’, likely to distinguish it from the other two more remotely located airports. The Artful Translator couldn’t find any evidence that this phrase is used in English to refer to airports that are located closer to the city center (e.g. Love Field in Dallas, National Airport in DC). London City Airport refers to the City of London so that rules it out. A coinage of the Milanese press?