Freezing adventures in Milan and getting sick... again...

The Duomo

Ciao! So, as most of you know, I spent some of my vacation in Milan. I went with MC, Van, and Carl. I was so happy that I'd been sick the week beforehand so that I could still go on the trip. As it happened, it was only a brief reprieve from being sick. But anyways, we left Thursday night and got into Milan around 11:30pm. It was snowing and quite cold. A very nice girl showed us where the metro was and we had to hurry because the metro stops at 12pm. We took the metro and then got off to try and find our hostel. It took us probably about 30 minutes to find it because we walked the wrong way multiple times. Just when we were all starting to despair, we found it. We stayed at a nice hostel, but the location was quite a distance from the city center.

The beautiful shopping complex right next to the Duomo

The next morning, we went into the city center and stopped first at the Duomo. It is the major landmark of Milan. It is this beautiful Gothic-looking cathedral that reminded me quite a bit of Notre Dame, although the Duomo seemed to be a little big bigger, although definitely not taller. Inside, it had some beautiful mosaics and stained glass. I didn't take any pictures inside, but once MC puts some up, I will steal a few of hers. There were three deceased cardinals who were on display inside, which was really bizarre for me. I hadn't really read up on the Duomo before we went, so I was shocked when I saw the first one.

Castello Sforza with MC and Carl

After that, we went and got some food at one of the American coffee places nearby. That night at dinner, we went to a local restaurant close to our hostel and had really cheap, but delicious pizza. I also had some of the best gelato ever. I got chocolate and it tasted like frozen chocolate mousse. Yum! I had so much good food in Italy. That was probably one of my favorite aspects about visiting. I think I had gelato three different times while I was there. I also tried risotto for the first time, which was amazing. So cheesy and creamy and just delicious.

Cool armor at the castello

The next day, we went and explored some vintage places. Milan, as the capital of fashion, has sooo many shops and boutiques, it is ridiculous. A lot of the second-hand places carry Prada and Gucci items, which results in some severe sticker shock. I picked up this one pair of shoes in the first store we went in and they were 200euros, about the same price as one month's rent. Milan takes their second-hand stores seriously. One of the day's we went looking for this one street that has a bunch of antique stores and they were all stores that sold, like, 14th century gilded mirrors and authentic Rubens paintings. WAY above all of our budgets. The one store on the whole block that looked like a reasonable store was closed, which kinda sucked.

One of many beautifully decorated ceilings in the Castello

We went to a few great museums in Milan. My favorite was the Castello Sforza. It is just down the street from the Duomo and it is this beautiful, fortified old castle that has about 12 different museums inside. For the price of 1 ticket, you can get into all of them, which I think is just so cool. We went first to the more ancient history, starting with some Roman artifacts and then getting into the Medieval period. I especially like all the beautiful ceilings the castle offered. I took so many pictures of ceilings in Italy, it is kinda ridiculous. At this museum, I also found a tiny door, perfect size for me! There are a lot of short Italians, so a small door makes sense.

my favorite item ever- I want this in my house

We then went upstairs to look at the furniture and personal effects of the many generations of people who lived at the Castello. Some of the items were just so intricately detailed. My favorite was this one table that was a black marble base and had this beautiful glass mosaic. It was stunning. There were these really cool conch shell goblets that I liked as well. The items were so decorated and ornate that it was really hard to imagine those being used in everyday life.

I covet these chandeliers

Since the Castello was so big, we actually only went to a fraction of the place. At the time we went, it was Fashion Week and we actually saw one of the big tents where the runways take place. It was in the courtyard of the castello. I saw a lot of very dressed up people, including a few models and probably important people. This one girl I saw was wearing this white jacket/dress thingy that was made up of all white feathers. It looked like she killed all the muppets to make it.







The other museum we went to was more classic art, starting around the 1200s maybe and working up to the 1900s. I liked this museum a lot. The chandeliers were breathtaking. I saw some stuff by Henri Toulouse-Latrec, which was pretty awesome. I always think of Moulin Rouge when I think of him. I especially liked one statue that had a guy with angel wings and a girl with butterfly wings. For some reason, that one really stuck with me.

The altar of the basilica

MC and I also found this amazing, old basilica. It was originally built in the 4th century. I loved the ancient frescoes that decorated the walls. The sense of being in a place sacred and ancient permeated the entire building. I also nerded out a bit when I found a statue of St. Lucy. When I went to private school, I had to a saint's report in 4th grade and I picked St. Lucy. It was really cool to see a statue of her in this amazing church.

Ancient fresco

Although I had a good time in Milan, my experience was not quite as fun as I'd hoped because I got sick. Again. Van was the first one to not feel well and then a day later, I got sick. Once again, I got hit the worst out of everyone. My poor body had just gotten over the stomach flu and then, bam, sick again. We actually ended up leaving quite a few days earlier than expected because most of us were under the weather. When I go back to Italy, I definitely want to go to Florence, Herculaneum and Pompeii, Pisa, Rome, and more.

I start classes again Monday. This upcoming week, I have an API excursion to Dijon (where they created the mustard) and Beaune. I am sure I will have plenty of pictures to put up and a new blog post after the trip. A bientot!