Milano's Greatest Hits

This has been an incredible journey, full of self-discovery, growth, and expansion.  I thought I would address this last blog post to the future students who might have the opportunity to take this trip with UNK.  Here are some words of advice, some must-sees, and cultural differences.

1) You will walk.  Everywhere.  My iPhone has my steps per day hovering somewhere between 15,000 and 26,000 for this entire trip!  I'm used to driving even short distances at home, so this was a bit of a change but once I got used to it I realized I enjoyed walking all the time and hope to keep that habit up at home.  Also, you will see tennis shoes everywhere!  Even the most fashionable Italians will be wearing runners with their couture.  In a city this mobile, you have to be comfortable!

2) Go to Mass at the Duomo, even if you aren't Catholic (like me).  I am so glad that I got up early one morning and made the trek to the Duomo to attend Mass.  You get in for free and see parts of the building that are closed off to normal tourists.  The environment in the cathedral during Mass was incredible as well.  The service I attended was behind the altar itself, so I was looking at the Duomo from the front back.  It was an incredible view and, combined with the incense and the sonorous voice of the Italian priest, quite a spiritual moment, no matter what religion you practice.  There are several different times to attend Mass and even a Latin Mass held in the Crypt below the altar (that's on my to-do list for next time).  There are no pictures allowed during services, so this is just a time to soak in the beauty and history surrounding you.  Also, unless you are Catholic, don't take the Eucharist!  

Inside the Duomo

3) Window shop.  Milan isn't the fashion capital of the world for nothing.  Whether you're gazing at ridiculously expensive dresses at Dolce and Gabbana or gorgeous jewelry at Cartier, you can't go wrong checking out Via Monte Napoleone.  The Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle also has some amazing, iconic fashion houses, but also holds more economic choices such as H&M, Zara, and Kiko (an amazingly inexpensive makeup store).  La Rinascente is a great department store that takes up 8 floors and holds every single item one could imagine.

4) Give yourself some time before and after the program.  Margaret and I got to Italy about 5 days before the program started and we are leaving 8 days after it ended.  I am so glad that we planned in that extra time for several reasons.  First of all, we were over our jet lag by the time class started!  We also had enough time to really explore and settle into Italy.  The time after the program has been a perfect little vacation, time to recover from exams and relax before heading home.  

5) Get out of the city.  You will have 2 free weekends during the program and you should take advantage of those!  Milan is amazing, but so is the rest of Italy!  Milan is very centrally located to some great places, such as Cinque Terre, Lake Como, Florence, Venice, and Rome and train tickets are, for the most part, very inexpensive (Florence and Rome are not the cheapest destinations: it is 4 euro for a train ticket to Lake Como and 89 for a ticket to Rome).

6) Go to Navigli!  If you stay where we stayed, you will be a 20 minute walk or 1 metro stop or a short bus ride from an amazing part of Milan!  The Navigli area is a long stretch of canal lined with restaurants and bars.  It is extremely popular for aperitivo, starting around 7 pm and going until 10.  It's also a great place to grab a gelato, watch the World Cup, or even do some shopping.  

This time in Milan has been absolutely amazing and I can't wait to return to this amazing city.  There are so many more things that I could talk about, but go experience it for yourself! 

Eataly is Italy

Anyone who knows me at all knows I love food.  I absolutely adore cooking and at one point was even considering going to culinary school!  And of all the food in the world to love, Italian food is my absolute favorite (Mexican food is a close second!).  So imagine my delight when I found out that we were taking a class trip to Eataly!  I've heard about this place through some of my favorite magazines like Bon Appetit and Food and Wine, but to experience it in person was amazing.

By the time we got there, all of us were starving so we immediately went to the second floor to order pasta.  I got a delicious fresh pasta dish with pomodoro (tomato) sauce and mozzarella.  I definitely was not expecting the dish that came to my seat, but it was incredible.

The whole ball of mozzarella was possibly the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.

Once dinner was done, I wandered around the store for a very long time, but I could have stayed for hours.  On the ground floor were fresh fruits and veggies, a bakery, chocolate, gelato, tea, and natural home goods.  Upon taking the escalator to the second floor, you found meat, eggs, fresh cheese, yogurt, and other assorted dairy products. 

This is the cheese case with fresh ricotta, burrata, mozzarella, and so much more.  HEAVEN!

The yogurt selection was crazy!  This is only about 1/4 of it and it all had fresh fruit.  Fun fact - European yogurt is much more runny than what we are used to back in the States.

The third and final floor had a crazy huge selection of wine, beer, and spirits, as well as an amazing view of the entire store.  Almost all multi-story buildings that I have gone to have escalators instead of stairs or elevators.

View from the top

Visiting Eataly was the perfect excuse for me to go crazy buying presents for everyone back home.  I wish there was some way I could bring back fresh pasta without it getting crushed!  After living and eating in Italy for a month, I'm not sure how I can go back to anything else!

About Last Night...

I've always loved music.  Some of my first memories are either playing the violin or wanting to play the violin.  We were able to tour La Scala last Saturday and when I walked into a box and looked out onto the stage, the history, art, and unbearable beauty of it all brought a few tears to my eyes.  I know, I'm a wimp. When we found out about the ticket lottery line, we knew it was going on our Milano To Do list.

Yesterday was the only day this week where it worked with our school schedule to follow the complicated process to get these super cheap tickets (14 Euros!).  We had to wait in line at 1:00 to get our ticket number, be back at 4:00 to stand in line for our actual ticket, and back again at 6:30 to find our seat and wait for the curtain to lift.  If you're counting, that means 3 metro rides to and from the Duomo station!

But, oh was it worth it.

The view from our seats.

We started out with the worst seats in the house.  Crazy, that they don't give you a beautiful box seat with a perfect view of the stage for just 15 euros!  But these were awful.  La Scala was built with a famous horseshoe shape, which, as our tour guide pointed out, makes for excellent people watching but not so great stage watching!  Once the lights went down, we noticed people in the upper galleries moving around to find the best available view.  I spent the entire first act (this was a Strauss opera, so that's about an hour and a half!) holding on to a brass rail above my head, leaning out over the poor souls sitting in front of us.  They must have gotten tired of that, so when the lights dimmed for the second act, we noticed those seats were free.  Margaret and I spent the next two acts sitting front row, foreheads resting on the rail as we gazed at the stage.  This really reinforced one of the most important things I've learned from this trip as a whole: no matter what your original circumstances are; you can always change things for the better.  

            

               The orchestra pit, which naturally was one of my favorite parts!

This three act opera lasted a solid 5 1/2 hours, with intermissions!  There was a bar on our floor so we would go grab water and free peanuts during intermission and be back in our seats with plenty of time to spare.  So many people were socializing and it was clear that many of the gallery members were frequent patrons of La Scala.  No one sits in the upper galleries of La Scala for any reason other than the sheer love of music.  (If you reference the first picture I posted, the very top two rows are the galleries and they are crowded and hot and uncomfortable.). Everyone was leaning forward in their chairs, or standing up for a better view, looks of wonder and awe on their faces.  When the stars came out for their bows, shouts of "Brava!" and "Bravo!" came from the upper galleries.  

                               

       There were two snapchat filters specifically for La Scala, so obviously we used them both! 

I'm not exactly sure what my favorite part was.  I loved leaning over the edge to watch the concertmaster during his solos.  I loved trying to look down at the little screen provided at each seat with the translation of the opera and looking back up to capture both the action and the meaning.  I loved giving up on understanding the words and just letting the emotion of the music wash over me.  I loved being surrounded by people who love music.  I love the live nature of theater, and knowing that I only had one chance to see this opera performed exactly as it was.  I loved trying to hold onto every single breath, not wanting to release it and move onto the next moment.  It's hard to live in the moment when you're trying so hard to remember exactly what that moment feels and sounds and looks like.  

  

I'm in Love with the Como

We were fortunate enough to have the time this weekend to take a short trip up to Lake Como and it was beyond incredible.  I think every other sentence I uttered was “wow…look at this place. This is where we are guys!  We are HERE! In this beautiful place! HERREEE!!!!”  Just ask my long-suffering travel companions – they will verify my extra-ness.  Six of us took the trip:

Roughly from left to right: me, Margaret, Jordan, Lindsey, Mandy, and Zach  

We had an absolute blast! Lake Como is actually a very long, skinny lake that splits in the middle, so it looks kind of like a stick man.  It’s a glacier-formed lake that is the third largest lake in Italy and, at 1300 feet, the deepest lake!  Coming from Johnson’s Lake, where the depth is 30 feet in a really wet summer, it's kind of scary to think about just how deep that is!  People have been coming to the lake since Roman times for summer recreation, so it was really cool to continue that tradition ourselves.

The lakeside town of Varenna,

We took a train from Milan and arrived in Varenna in an hour.  About 20 minutes outside of Milan the landscape changed and we travelled along the lake for the remainder of our journey, faces pressed against the glass and phone cameras active.  The mountains surrounding the lake give it the feeling of total seclusion, even though it’s quite a busy area – especially on Sunday.

You can see the top of the mountain is obscured by clouds!

From Varenna we took a ferry across the lake to Bellagio and spent the rest of the day wandering around, eating gelato, and for 4 blissful hours, swimming and sunning ourselves.  It was so wonderful not to have to worry about the clock after a really, really, really long week of difficult school classes, late nights, and early mornings.  The water was shockingly cold but the sun was hot and we were able to lie on a warm, floating dock, diving into the crystal clear water as soon as we warmed up again.

The view from our swimming location.

On our way back, the sun ducked behind some clouds and we felt a few rain drops.  It was such a beautiful place and so hard to leave.  Even still, I can feel the rocking motion of the dock and the sun on my face.  While we had just a short time there, this magical lago will remain in my heart forever.

Pre-Departure Thoughts

Tomorrow, I'll be boarding a plane with my mother and sister and flying off to Italy for a month.  So naturally, I decided to write a blog post instead of packing.  My room is in a grand state of disarray and my color-coded packing list is only half-completed.  But I always love reading people's expectations and plans for their travels on the eve of their departure, so I thought I would contribute my small portion.

Upon our arrival at 12:15 in Milan, we are headed straight to Milano Centrale to board a train for Firenze, where we will spend the next three days.  We absolutely loved Florence the last time we were there and hope to go to the Uffizi and the Boboli Gardens, as well as trying all the gelato and pasta we can.  

Back in Milan by Sunday evening to start off the school week and start to explore the city we will call home for the next three weeks.  Mom leaves on Wednesday, and it's just Margaret and me for the rest of the month.  While we are in Milan, we would love to see the Last Supper (if at all possible), window shop at some of the most legendary stores in the world, and get to Lake Como for a relaxing Sunday.

At the end of our trip, we have planned out a little 8 day tour of Italy and Switzerland.  I'm excited to share all of these experiences with the world, as well as enjoying them myself. :)

Ciao for now!