Lake Como and Milan

*Disclaimer: This is a lot longer than I was expecting, but I had a packed few days.* 

As I sit here looking out on the St. Regis with blue skies and sunshine with John Mayer playing in the background I realize just how truly blessed I am. I am in an absolutely beautiful country for four months- the world is my oyster. I wouldn’t say this is my “aaha!” moment because I haven’t experienced the “Wait. I’m in Italy.” thing yet, but hopefully that’s coming soon. I know I am in Italy, like hello this isn’t Columbia, but I don’t know I just haven’t had that feeling yet.

I’ll tell you about the rest of my classes before my weekend…

Wednesday, I had my Wine Exploration class and we drank Prosecco to celebrate the first day! I could get used to this class. This was my first run in with Prosecco, and it definitely won’t be my last. We did basic introductions and had to tell our favorite drink. I said “Diet Coke and this Coca Cola Light stuff is not the same.” My teacher, Massimo who is absolutely precious, agreed. Point one for the boys back home. Marketing was the same basic introductions and a little introduction into marketing and what we will be doing this semester. We are going to be working with a Florentine business which I think is going to be awesome.  I really love all the hands on, real life experience I’m going to get this semester.

Thursday, I finally went to the doctor. Dr. Kerr is probably sick of me by now, but does he prescribe the right drugs. I got a Z-pack, codon cough syrup and a decongestant. Once that Z-pack started working Saturday (I started Friday) I felt so much better. I’m almost back to myself again but still have a little cough. I went to my Special Event Planning class after the doctor and dropping my Sustainable Tourism (sorry mom). I’m already in love. A little awkward because my teacher is the one who planned the dinner I was complaining about last time. Nevertheless, it’s going to be a super fun class. We are planning two dinners at the student-run restaurant, going on site visits and attending/working events FUA puts on. More really world experience. I. LOVE. IT. Thursday night the roommates and I ventured out for some Mexican food. We found this really cool margarita bar that served dillas (amen). The margarita was as big as my head and the chicken and veggie dilla I had was supa good.

Let me tell you about my rainy and cold, yet beautiful, weekend in Lake Como and Milan…

Friday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn, aka 7 am, for our 9:45 am meeting time at the train station. Okay, I know like almost 3 hours early. It’s a thing I have- whatever. I knew exactly where I was going, but I was still scared I was going to go to the wrong place. So I leave the apartment at 9 for the 15 minute walk to the train station. Trips and packing are the only time my Type A side comes out… Anyways, I get there first and I’m just chillin’ meet the next girl who walks up, but I can’t remember her name. She was really nice and I hope I see her again. Then my new pal Emily P comes up (shoutout the Sarahj again love you) and we get some coffee and a muffin from the McDonald’s in the train station. Now the McDonald’s here are not like American ones at all they have like a full dessert/bakery side that sells baked goods. Heaven. We meet up with the others from my building (Jake, Julia, Reagan, and Lindsey) who are also going on the trip. And we’re off the the busses! I stay awake long enough to talk to Emily for awhile (like 45 minutes) and then fall asleep. Hard. I’m awoken by the announcement that we are not stopping in Parma because the snow had knocked the power out in the cheese factory so we were doing it Sunday on our way home. Cool. We stop in an Autogrill on the side of the road which is kind of like a truck stop but in stead of like a Wendy’s there’s a salad bar or a hot line or a sandwich shop. I opted for a prosciutto baguette and a Coca Cola Light *eye roll*. I don’t know what the man at the cash register did but all I know is I paid 5 euro for the sandwich, drink, and a sweet treat (which should have cost like 8 or so euro). Thank you random Italian man. We get back on the bus play a few round of Head’s Up- always a crowd pleaser, and hit the road. Then, It starts snowing. Y’all, I was absolutely amazed. Like it was coming down like rain and it wasn’t stopping. I was watching out the window and took a few pictures…

We had to sign up for the hotel rooms- there were triples, doubles, and singles. Well, we were at the back of the bus so everything was taken except singles and rooms with randos, so Emily and I both took a single. I thought I wouldn’t like it at first, but I walked into the room and decided that I loved it. When we got to Como we had about an hour we could walk around and explore before dinner. Emily, Jake and I went to the lake and took a few pics then found a cafe and I had my first capachino! It was really good- a lot of foam but really good. While walking back to our meeting spot we passed a store and a skirt caught my eye. I wasn’t going to go in but the doors opened as I past so fate. It was only 13 euro so Emily and Jake “convince” me to buy it. Like I needed much convincing. We went to dinner at a “birreria” they make they’re own beer in house, so like a brewery. They served some kind of risotto for the appetizer and it was amazing. I think it was rosemary and champaign but I’m not 100% sure. And pizza for the main course! They serve their pizza by coming around with it on a pizza stone and you tell them if you want it or not. All you can eat pizza without leaving the table. Genius- get behind this America. The beer I had tasted like Shock Top so I was completely satisfied. We went back to the hotel and went to bed because 6:30 breakfast. 

Saturday I woke up at 5:30 because like I said 6:30 breakfast. Today is the day we go to MILAN! AHHH! I was so excited I didn’t care about 5:30 am. We had an 8 am appointment to see Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. This was by far my favorite part of the entire day. I felt God’s presences as soon as I walked into the room. The way they did it was a bit odd though. We got broken up into groups of 30, understandable there were like 100 of us, and they huddled us into this small, glass room before going to see the painting. Then you can only spend 15 minutes in with the painting. The guide was talking the entire 15 minutes, which I appreciated because I wanted to know about the painting, but I wish I could have had a few minutes to just take it all in myself. You couldn’t take pictures of the painting, so I don’t have any. But the guide told us when the building was a monastery the monks wanted to make the kitchen door bigger, so they took out Jesus’ feet. Like could you not have taken out something else? So Jesus is now footless. After we did a walking tour of Milan. In the freezing rain. #Grool. It was miserable to be honest. I’ll post the pictures I took from the tour on Facebook. We had 5 hours of free time in Milan so we had lunch, shopped and did a little people watching. Oh, we did go into the Prada flagship store which was so beautiful. What I’d give to be rich. Us girls decided that we were going to play and win the lottery together move back, marry rich and shop at all the good stores. I was really disappointed by Milan. I had really high expectations of there being fashion everywhere. Like everyone dressed in next season’s lines. No. It was just like another city. Womp. We left Milan and went back to the hotel and I took an hour nap before dinner. We had a 4 course meal. Thank you SAI. First course was caprese, then asparagus risotto, then veal and potatoes, finally tiramisu. It was lovely to have some meat and potatoes. I was more excited about the potatoes of course. I’m normally not a tiramisu person but that one was really good. Emily, Reagan, Julia and I found a wine bar that we went to before going back to the hotel. It was a really cool place. They serve food, like sandwiches, with the drinks and it just kept coming. Milan was playing soccer (football? no.) so there were locals in there.

Sunday, we had a little later wake up call, 8 am, for our boat tour of Lake Como. Lake Como is absolutely beautiful I don’t even know how to describe it. No wonder Mr. Clooney has a place there. I liked it better than Milan. I’ll also post those pictures on Facebook. There are mountains that separate Italy with Switzerland and Sweden, so that was cool. We saw the balcony that the final scene of Ocean’s 12 was filmed on. George picked it himself because he has a place there duh. We also did a walking tour of Como and learned about its history. On the way home we stopped in Parma for our Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese factory tour and tasting. My group got the tour by the owner (#score) who was this very attractive, older Italian man who told us the history of the family business. Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is only legit if it comes from this small area of Italy (kinda like champs and France) because of the grass in the area. The cheese is aged for two years in this room what hold thousands and thousands wheels of cheese. It smelled amazing. I heart cheese.

It’s nice to be back in Florence. I no longer have classes on Mondays, so today I went to the store. Allison (a girl in my building) and I found a bakery and a fresh food market on our street so that was super exciting! I now have fresh fruit and veggies!

Again I’m really sorry this was so long, but I hope you enjoyed my weekend as much as I did! Until next time…

One Direction is on tour again, so I’m geeking out. 

xo