Day 121!

We are in Milan! Yesterday was the first day of our Krazee Xmaz Adventure. Erin and I left Bologna around 11 in the morning and got to Milan around noon. Getting to the hotel was quite a task! Erin and I are both really good at overpacking, so dragging our suitcases from the train station to the hotel was a good workout. My arms are still sore! Erin’s friend Alex (a boy Alex, not the girl one who is joining us for Christmas in Novara) was waiting for us at the hotel. The hotel is pretty nice and the man at the front desk is super friendly and really funny. I love Italians! We got settled in then headed out to see Milan! We went to the Duomo and just walked around Milan. It was snowing the whole time! It felt like we trekked around the entire city in a blizzard! But it made for a beautiful winter wonderland, so I’m not complaining. We went back to the hotel, grabbed some food from a supermarket for a quick dinner, then got ready to go out on the town for the evening. What an evening! We wanted to go out to a club or a discoteca or something fun, but ended up getting lost in the snow and wandering around, across town from our hotel. We finally found one bar that was open, so we stopped there, but then they started closing up, so we had to leave. We needed to get back to our hotel, but the metro closes at 12:30, so we ran to the metro stop and just BARELY made the LAST train! Erin and I jumped the turnstile and Alex held the doors open for us as we ran onto the train screaming. A real adventure! But we finally made it back to the hotel. It was a really great dayJ

Today we slept in then got up and got ready for a full day of sightseeing. First, we went to the Palazzo Reale and saw an exhibit of the artwork of Edward Hopper. It was really cool because I had only ever seen one of his works before (Nighthawks) so I didn’t really know who he was, but now I know that I love his work! It’s so great to broaden my artistic as well as cultural horizons while I’m hereJ Next we headed to the Triennale to see and exhibit on the architect Frank Gehery, which was also very interesting. Our last big event of the day was walking down the famous Via Monte Napoleone, the home of high fashion! This, of course, was my favorite part…well it would have been if I could afford ANYTHING! We saw all my loves: Gucci, Armani, D&G, Versace, Prada, etc. We only went in a couple stores (Prada and Armani) because it was just too sad to see all the beautiful things that I will never be able to have! Nonetheless, it was really cool just to be there. Tired and hungry, we headed back to the hotel and had dinner at the little osteria right underneath. I had pizza with mozzarella, gorgonzola, and speck—delicious as usualJ

I like Milan a lot, especially with the Christmas decorations both manmade (beautiful lights!) and natural (soooo much snow!). On to Novara tomorrow!

xoxo