Sunday, December 9, 2012

Milan pt. 1

On a side note, before I begin my recap, I have realized, while being abroad, I am completely terrible at making reservations/plans with European time. It confuses the HELL out of me. If you tell me, you have class at 16:00, I can be there, with no problem, at 4pm. But when it comes to booking planes and trains, I get so flustered and confused! This explains why I booked a train from the airport into London at 3:15pm...and my flight gets in at 5:30pm....oops.

Thursday night I flew into Milan and for a girl who is not a huge fan of flying, I have now taken 4 too many flights this trip ;) I was picked up by Nicki and her boyfriend and whisked off to a delicious pizza dinner. (FYI - Nicki was an exchange student we had about 16 years ago and have kept in touch with every since. Love her!) 
While eating dinner, I realized one of the best things you get out of studying abroad and traveling and that is learning about another country's culture and their way of life. Yeah, pretty profound thoughts over a pizza dinner. But in Italy, most dinners aren't started with bread and butter. No. They are started with many types of prosciutto. Yes there is bread on the table, but don't even think to ask for butter. Not necessary. So we started with a plate of prosciutto and the best Parmesan cheese EVER. Then it was time for pizza...and French fries. The Italians, like most Europeans, love their French fries...with mayo. I looked at the table next to us and they also had prosciutto and fries as a starter.
The pizza was delicious and I left a satisfied customer. We headed to Nicki's apartment in Bergamo and I passed out immediately.
Fun fact: you have to cross a bridge to get to Nicki's town and that bridge spans the valley that serves as the backdrop for the Mona Lisa!
Friday morning it was off to Milan for the day. But first we had to stop to have a traditional Italian breakfast - cappuccino and croissant. Fresh squeezed orange juice was also consumed and it was delicious.  It was then a short drive/subway ride into town. We started off by walking around some Christmas-type markets near Sforzesco castle and then wandered around the courtyard. After some more browsing, we headed to the il Duomo, which was sooo magnificent. It made me stop in my tracks and gawk. Tourist alert!!
One of my favorite things about art history is learning about a painting/sculpture/building and then getting to see it in person. It is soo satisfying and I have been extremely lucky because it seems like I make a trip to Europe every summer after I take an art history class.
Anyways, tourist pictures were taken, pigeons attacked and we left to go shopping in some stores nearby.
For lunch, I had my first ever kabab. (Lan, aren't you proud?!). It was good going in, but my stomach didn't quite agree with it later, which led to one of the most horrifying experiences involving a subway bathroom that was more like a hell hole, but don't worry my lovely readers, I shall spare you any more details.
After that, we browsed the city a bit more and then headed back to the apartment to rest up before dinner. While shopping it started to snow!!! It was probably the third time in my life I have actually seen it snow. It did not stop until around 8pm and there was a beautiful white blanket over Italy.
Dinner was had with Nicki, her mom and two of their friends. The conversation was 99% Italian, 1% English....but I still highly enjoyed myself. Of course dinner was started with prosciutto, then came pasta and then lemon sorbetto. Lets just say I did not go hungry this trip.
Dinner was had with Nicki, her mom and two of their friends. The conversation was 99% Italian, 1% English....but I still highly enjoyed myself. Of course dinner was started with prosciutto, then came pasta and then lemon sorbetto. Lets just say I did not go hungry this trip.
















Stay tuned for part 2 ;)

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