Back from Milan

Well this weekend was a great learning experience for all of us that traveled to Milan. Seven of us (4 girls and 3 guys) found a relatively cheap flight to Milan for 2 nights. We booked the hotel online and had everything ready for a great weekend in Italy. We arrived at the hotel only to find our "room" wasn't quite ready yet. We went to the McDonalds near the hotel and had some spinach and cheese filled fried cakes, toast, and fries to pass some time. We went back to the hotel an hour later and walked up the stairs to our room. We walked in expecting the worse, and we were correct. So the walls were lavender, the beds were small, the pillow was almost non-existent, and the creepy door didn't lock without a security box in the room... but for $11 a night, we should have seen this coming. This left most of us pretty uneasy and we were quick to use our resources that can always fix everything, our parents. One of our parents found a room at Doubletree by Hilton not too far away and went ahead and booked 2 rooms for us. We walk in and were amazed at the difference from where we came from. The hotel was big, the doors locked, the beds were comfortable, and it was a brand new hotel (as well as the first Doubletree in Europe). Once we got settled in and slept for a little bit (we left for Madrid airport at 4:30am, and didn't sleep well on the plane) we decided to head to downtown Milan.

It was late in the day, we were tired, and we were experiencing a bit of culture shock as none of us had the slightest clue how to speak any Italian. But when we saw the Duomo for the first time all of that went away. Words cannot describe how beautiful this structure is. The architecture and detail that go into the building was incredible. To the left of the Duomo was Milan's city center which included many upscale restaurants, stores, and touristy stuff. It was a huge entrance with large rounded painted ceilings. Naturally, we decided to eat at one of those expensive restaurants inside to have an authentic Italian meal... when in Rome right? (or in our case Milan). All of our food was fantastic and believe it or not, some of the best Italian food I have ever had.. sorry Olive Garden, it’s not the same.

After the meal we walked around downtown a little more. They are not lying when they say Milan is the fashion capital of world because they have huge stores everywhere. But by this time it was getting late and some of the girls were getting tired from the long day. Two of them went back to the hotel and the rest of us had a hard time finding a bar just to serve us drinks because it seemed like everything closed at 9pm. In Madrid, bars do not open until 9 and you can find a beer everywhere you look, on almost any given street. We ended up finding an Irish pub and had a few drinks there. Our plan was to meet up with a friend who is studying in Milan and go out to a club. We finally met her around 11:30 and headed out to the club she was telling us about. We got there and had a really good time until we left around 3:00am to head back to the hotel.

We woke up the next morning with the day planned full of eating, museums, and some shopping. We start by heading towards the Duomo area and found a pizzeria. I can honestly say this was the best pizza I have ever had. I just don't understand why we can't do what they do to cook their food in the states. After that we headed off to see the Last Super by Da Vinci. We entered the Cathedral where it was located and saw all of the other art works there but the Last Supper was in a separate locked room that needed tickets. When we went around the other side of the Cathedral to purchase tickets, they told us they were all sold out. We were majorly bummed because that would have been the highlight of our trip. On the way back wanted to stop at the Ambrosiana Gallery where they had a collection of some other famous pieces of art. We couldn't find the entrance right away so the girls went to go shop and the guys went into the gallery. The Ambrosiana has famous works like the preliminary cartoon of Rafael's "School of Athens," Da Vinci's "The Musician," and other works by Carvaggio, Giovanni, and Botticelli. I never thought my Art History elective at Purdue would ever be relevant, but it was incredible to see all of these paintings in person that we would talk about in class.

After the Ambrosiana we walked around the shopping area. The girls seem to have pretty good luck (it was Valentine’s Day so some of them went all out) but all I could find were 4 pairs of socks for 6 Euros. Around 8:00 we headed back to the hotel and took a nap. All of us woke up and were still too tired to go back into the city so we ordered room service and just watched TV until we fell back asleep.

Milan was defiantly a great learning experience for all of us. It was our first weekend trip we planned on our own and now we know sort of the "dos and dont's" of what to do when planning for these trips. I am looking forward to this next weekend as we are going to Northern Spain to San Sebastian and Bilbao to the Basque area.