Free Day

What a perfect day for a free day! The temperature was about 80 all day and delightfully sunny. Sarah and I went to the Duomo and surrounding shops in the Piazza del Duomo. It was much less crowded compared to yesterday, which is probably due to the lax attitude that Italians have about Sundays. A lot of the smaller shops don't open on Sundays, though the chain stores in the area we were at were open. Nothing was bought either today or yesterday while shopping, but it's still really fun to see all of the styles. We went into a 4 story store that had nothing but high end designers in it. The Tiffany & Co. was what drew us in initially. After the shopping, we came back to the apartment and then went out into the neighborhood to look for WiFi. It's been a little rough without it, even if I do only use it for an hour or so a day usually. We were stopping at restaurants and gelato shops along the main road asking if anyone had wifi and luckily we were able to connect at a gelato shop for a little while. The gelato we got was sooo good. I had Nutella for only 2€.  After we had our Internet fill, we went to the park outside of the apartment. It was fun! We laid out and enjoyed the abundance of dogs and kids running around. We've been writing in our journals since then and are headed out soon to a Chinese restaurant that has wifi (that's what we hear, at least). I don't think I'll buy any food there, though seeing as I have food I can cook at the apartment. Hopefully I can post this tonight! We're leaving for Venice bright and early tomorrow morning. 6:15! 

Park we were at today

Miss this boy 

Sleepy Saturday

This morning, after being out pretty late the night before, we had our first class. At 8:30! Needless to say, it was a little rough. The class itself is going to be a breeze, though. We have 10 more while we're here, all lasting from 8:30-11:30. We have 8 question quizzes at the end of every class, two assignments that won't take more than an hour combined,and a  simple case study to present to the class with a partner. After class, I took a nice nap before venturing out in Milan with Sarah and Olivia. We got off at the Ghirabildi stop and from there, encountered a wide variety of styles in the buildings. Mixed in with each other were the old and colorful and the new and sleek buildings. It was pretty fun to explore it. We came across a grocery store that had only frozen foods in it. Included were: octopus, pre-prepared cheeseburgers, and champagne flavored gelato. It was quite the contrast from really all of Italy's other food, which is very fresh. The olive oil is actually too fresh for my taste. Though I like it at home, it's too bitter here. One of our more frequent discussions is what food we're going to enjoy at home first. I can say that in 100% having Mexican food withdrawals. Reed, we WILL be going to Don Pablo's first chance we get (hope the drivers license is treating you well btw). After wandering in the area of diverse architecture known as Corso Como, we got on the metro and went to the Duomo. The area surrounding it was significantly more crowded today than it was either of the past two. It has a lot of shopping and things to see down there so it's understandable that it would fill up on the weekends. We left there at like 7 and took the metro home. Sarah and I had pasta and scrambled eggs for dinner. Rather filling! This no WiFi thing is driving me insane. It'll be nice to go to Venice on Monday and not even worry about whether I have WiFi or not. 

Awesome apartments

Office building in Corso Como

Rather new looking section of an old building

The frozen supermarket

Quite the contrast in buildings. Also noted in Corso Como was the abundance of cobblestone, something we've been missing in Milan!

Friday 6-28

Well the WiFi has ceased to function, so ill be posting this as well as ones for Saturday and Sunday when it's available. No one works in the office at the apartment on the weekend so it will be Monday at the earliest when it's working again. Yesterday, Friday, we took a bus tour of the rest of the city that we didn't see on Thursday. A couple of my favorite parts of the trip included seeing a fountain shaped like a wedding cake in front of the Castello Sforzesco, St. Mark's Basilica, which hosted Mozart as a teen, and San Siro Stadium. The stadium is host to mostly soccer matches, holding about 60 a year for the home teams AC Milan and Inter Milan. Voted the 2nd most beautiful stadium by the NY Times, the largest stadium in Italy holds 80,000 people. We're going to try and catch a game there while we're here. I also got more information on the Duomo. Behind St. Peter's Basilica, it's Italy's second largest cathedral and can hold 40,000 people. We drove down Buenos Aires, a shipping stretch that's 2KM long, the longest in Europe. It has designers such as Gucci and Prada as well as more affordable options. After the tour, Sarah and I made pasta for dinner. It wasn't the best I've ever had but at least I didn't have to go out for another meal. Around 10:30, 6 of us went out to checkout the nightlife. We took the metro to the Castello Sforzesco and found a fun bar in the massive park. It was all outside, had fun music, and the drinks were tasty. The weather was slightly on the chilly side but there was a good amount of people there so we kept warm. It'll be fun to go back there and to others nearby in the park. 

View from the bus

Milan's first skyscraper. Built in the 50s due to WWII destruction. Milan is so modern for the most part due to the destruction incurred in WWII. 

San Siro Stadium

Really long wall filled with graffiti done by graffiti artists from all over Europe. It was on the way to the stadium and had a lot of soccer illustrations. 

First Italian-made meal

Olivia, me, Sam 

Settling In

Milan day two has come to a close! It was a pretty fun day that included both time in the city and time spent hanging out at the apartment. We started at 10 this morning and headed into the city. It was actually a really comfortable day whether wise; even a little chilly at times. We rode a sightseeing bus that allowed us to get off and on when we wished to see the sights. Along the ride, we could listen in our headphones to facts about sights as we came across them. Our first stop was per the request of Dr. Adler. He swore by The Bagel Factory so he treated us to an early lunch there. From there, we saw a lot of the older city and got off again at the heart of the city. The older city had a couple of canals and buildings from the medieval and renaissance times. It was mentioned that Leonardo Da Vinci helped construct and revive the canal system and the process that is still used today that is raising and lowering boats within the canal. The heart of the city included the Duomo and a lot of the fashion stores. We had about an hour and a half to explore on our own and during that time, Sarah and I went into a few stores and enjoyed the sights. We came across several men dressed to the 9s (welcome to Milan) as well as a ton of clothing stores. I got a shirt at this store called Mango. We also saw a Magnum brand ice cream shop that, for €4, allows you to build your own ice cream bar. Looked delicious! After we finished, we rode the bus back to the metro and began our trek home (15 minute walk from when we get off of the metro). We stopped for drinks and food at a smaller supermarket on the way home and thank God we got out of there in a timely manner because the heavens opened up shortly after we got back to the apartment. A few of the people in our group and back literally dripping wet. For he rest of the evening, we hung out, cooked dinner, and drank a little. We ran into a girl that's been living here for four months and she gave us a list of things to do during our free time and at night. She mentioned that day tripping to Verona was fun so we may have to look into that. Another thing that id like to do while I'm here is go to a fußball game. Milan and Inter both play here on alternating Sundays so it definitely seems do-able. We're going on a tour of different party's of the city tomorrow on the same bus. 

Castle

Needle, thread, and knot symbolizes Milan's importance of fashion and industry. 

 Since its more developed, a lot of my pictures have these ugly train car cables in them 

Canal

Useful graffiti 

The Duomo. Made of granite and marble, It has 3,400 statues on it! Construction began in 1386. 

Trying on a €170 hat

Just a small sample of the men in Milan. All of the men are dressed sharply and women have such a distinct style

Duomo (church) 

Milano

We're in Milan! It's definitely differing from both Florence and Rome in many ways. It's very modern and has a completely different feel to it. The buildings aren't cute and colorful but instead tall and recently built. The streets actually have order to them with lines and stoplights! This also means no more wandering in the cobblestone streets :( we arrived by train around noon and were given a few hours to get settled into our rooms. We're two to a room now, so that's nice to have more space and be able to move things out of the suitcases. From now on when we travel to different cities, we'll just be taking what we need for the few days were gone because we can leave everything else here. Traveling should be much less stressful thank God. Once we were settled in, we went as a big group to the super market. To get there, we walked like 15 minutes to the metro then a few more minutes after we got off to the super center. Inside was a grocery store (comparable to Walmart), food court, and stores with electronics, clothes, and various utensils. It was a pretty cool setup, actually. I got this new lipstick at a makeup store. Pretty excited about it. One of the weird quirks about Italian grocery shopping is in the checkout process. Instead of getting a plastic bag for free, I instead had to pay €0.10 per bag. I guess this is good for various reasons such as the environment and cutting store costs, but it was kind of annoying. At the grocery, I got bread, cereal, lotion, apples, a salad, pasta, and sauce. All for €18! Not bad I thought. After the store, we all came back and got familiar with the place. I wish it were in a more central location, but oh well! The rooms are nice and there's a big area outside with a bar, grass, and plenty of seating. Tomorrow will be the first time we don't get breakfast included with our housing. Good thing I have delish new cereal!

Last night in Florence with Sarah

The Duomo

Didn't want to leave! 

Train ride

Not even all of the fresh meat at the grocery 

Sunset from the apartment 

The Tuscan Countryside

Monday was our day at Castello Banfi, one of the largest wine producers in the world. We were taken on a tour and during, saw a massive wine barrel. It contained enough wine for one person to have a bottle a day, 6 days out of the week, for 50 years. After the tour, we went to a tasting in the castle. I didn't like all of the analysis that went into each wine, but I did thoroughly enjoy the wine itself. After the tasting, we had a fancy meal. Accompanied with several glasses of wine, we had two dishes and a dessert. The starter was spaghetti with a meat sauce and the main dish was olive crusted veal, roasted potatoes, and palenta. For dessert, we had biscotti and espresso. That main meal was sooooo good. The veal was so tender and palenta may just be one of my new favorite dishes. After lunch, we bussed over to Siena. We were only there for about 45 minutes, but we were able to soak in the hilly town. Here, I got my first gift for my family! We got back into Florence at like 8:30 (left at 10AM) and went out to the Lions Fountain around 10 for a fun night out. I actually like beer now! What a milestone lol. Whether it be the foreign taste or the cheapness compared to mixed drinks, I guess it's good to have acquired the taste?  Probably not ha. 

Today was our free day. We got up early  to see a museum but ended up leaving due to the excessively long wait. There were 7 girls out and about so we instead went to the main part of town. I had gelato from the Lindt store (hazelnut and white chocolate hazelnut) and then we went to the river to soak up the sun on the bridge. After an hour, we went to the shopping market where I got the rest of my gifts! I'm so excited about them. After that, we went back to the hostel where I'm still parked on the terrace. We've been writing in our required daily journals (they also have been neglected while in Florence) since then. It actually just finished raining but the clouds are still looking ominous. Sarah and I are headed out later on for our last night in our beloved city. 

I've made a few comparisons between Rome and Florence, mostly in favor of Florence. Though Rome was rich in the history I love, Florence was much more manageable to navigate, cleaner, had fewer cars, less graffiti, wider streets, and nicer, more safe people. If I were more interested in art, I would have loved it completely, but I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. Since the Medici family was so in love with Renaissance art, the city is covered in it in both it's tangible pieces and also the style of the buildings. The whole appearance of Florence is just what you would imagine Italy to be; warm, colorful, and rustic. 

Sunset Sunday night 

Crepes we made Sunday

Main dish

Asparagus dish

Tiramisu

Last day in Rome

Eating the meal we made (me, Taylor, Meghan, Sarah) 

Tuscany- on the way to Banfi

Before

After

Siena

Siena

Got rained on :(

My perfect gelato

Lounging today