Our last city in Italy was quite a treat. The Duomo was absolutely beautiful and I
enjoyed being able to apply everything I’ve learned from The History of
Interior Design and actually see it in person.
I was able to point out the Gothic arches, crockets, and tercets. Milan is the fashion capital in the
world. With my small amount of money I
felt almost unworthy to be there! Our
group actually walked into a Prada store and I found the world’s tackiest pair
of sneakers for 1200 euros. I don’t care
how great a brand is supposed to be, I’m not going to buy a pair of shoes that
look like I could have made them from crafts at the dollar store.
We
tried a food called panzerotti, which was this wonderful piece of deep fried
dough with cheese and meat inside. They
were cheap and absolutely delicious! I
also finally had some gelato I was happy with.
It was rich and different from ice cream (which was my original stance
on gelato). I had the opportunity to be
the Leader of the Day for the day we went into Milan to see The Last Supper by
Leonardo da Vinci. The stress of being
the leader and attempting to get 40 people to Milan and back made my anxiety go
through the roof the day before. Our
hotel was about 50 minutes away from the city by car and an hour and a half by
public transportation. It was quite an
effort to figure it all out. Luckily, I
had Spencer (a guy on our study abroad) to help me figure it all out. He called the hotel the day before and worked
out all the options with them. We
settled on a shuttle that would take us all the way to the city right near the
church we needed to go to. I can’t tell
you what a relief it was when we got to the city all together like we needed
to. Everything worked out! I’m just a crazy worry wart about everything.
The
Last Supper was amazing! I was under the
impression it was very faded and hard to see.
Though it is faded, it was clear and wonderful to look at. Our tour was short and sweet and we learned a
lot about the fresco. Turns out it was
built over a kitchen door so the humidity is one reason the painting has
faded. They also extended the door so
they got rid of Jesus’ feet. How rude
right? ;)
One
thing I had problems with in Milan were the salesman. They were much more aggressive in Milan than
they were in Rome. They shove roses in
your face. There were some people
talking about Africa and had some bracelets.
One of them grabbed my arm and tied a bracelet on my wrist before I even
knew what was happening. My group didn’t
notice and continued ahead of me so I was stuck with this guy! He asked for money and I told him it wasn’t
fair because I didn’t have any say in the matter and he didn’t give me a
choice. I tried to walk away but he
followed me. I pulled out 10 cents and
he said he wanted more. So in order to
get him to leave me alone, I gave him a euro and ran off. I was so frustrated! But it provides a rather silly memory, right?
We
stumbled upon a beautiful park right in the middle of the city and played on
some swings and the small playground we found.
I absolutely love swinging so I jumped at the chance to grab a few
pictures. I also practiced doing
handstands on some raised logs. Much
harder than a balance beam because they were round, but fun nonetheless.
Though our time in Milan was short, we walked a lot and saw
a lot! I was tired by the end of the day
and slept very well. J
Sorry my pictures are still not in the text of the blog
post, my tablet and phone don’t give me the ability to add them like I want,
but I hope you enjoy them nonetheless!
Ciao!!
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