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Published: February 6th 2012
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As you may already know, I traveled to Milan, Italy this past weekend. This trip was definitely an experience, to say the least.
First of all, Milan is normally much cooler than Seville. We are used to temperatures with a high of mid-sixties, and most of us had left our really warm winter weather, such as boots, winter coats, goves, etc., at home in the U.S. We did check the weather forecast for Milan before we went and saw that it was only supposed to be in the twenties during the weekend. So we packed as many layers as we could but when we got there we realized that thin peacoats and many sweatshirts weren't enough. We still froze our butts off. Milan is a beautiful city, with the main attractions being the duomo (the 4th largest cathedral in the world, and DaVincii's last supper) a big castle, and of course, shopping. However, when you're walking around the city in very cold weather with not enough clothing it's just not that fun.
So anyway, we got there safe and sound and made our way to our hostel. We got to the hostel and we were actually pleasantly surprised. When
we had booked it online we saw that it only had one star, but it was cheap and close to the city center so we booked it anyway. The place was as old and drafty as we pictured, but other than that we all really liked it. It had character and was relatively clean. The man at the front desk spoke some english and was extremely helpful and accomodating. We had only booked 8 beds for 9 people but he found us a 9th bed right away. He answered all of our questions about where to go to eat, shop, etc. When we checked out he let us keep our bags in the cleaning closet so that we didn't have to walk around with them all day. Overall, he was just a very nice guy. I wish I could say that about the rest of the Italians we encountered. We even felt the need to tip him when we left even though it isn't customary to tip in Italy.
Once we checked into the hostel, we set out to explore the city. We found the duomo first, and when we first saw it our mouths just dropped. It's huge,
and absolutely goregeous. I guess it took about 500 years to build. After taking pictures outside, we went inside and were stunned again. I wish I could describe how large and beautiful it was. Words and pictures just don't do it justice. We spent a good hour just walking around inside and looking at everything.
After the duomo, we went shopping for a big in the shopping center next to the duomo. The prices were waaaaaaaayyyyyyy our of our range, but it was still fun to look around.
We dediced to go back to the hostel and get ready to go out after shopping. We went to this Italian restaurant that the man at the front desk recommended to us. It was a long, cold 25 minute walk to get there but in the end it was well worth it. I had a pizza called the "Fantasia" which was easily the best pizza I've ever had in my life, if not the best meal I've ever had in my life. It was only 7 euros, and it was absolutely enormous. In addition, Jenny and I shared a bottle of Reisling, which was also delicious. Jenny ended up getting
mad at me because I drank a lot more of it than she did, but it was just so good -- I couldn't stop myself!
We tried going bar hopping after dinner but kind of gave up once we realized that prices for alcohol are a lot higher in Milan than in Seville. We knew it was time to go home when we got kicked out of a bar by this guy who was angry because only 1 person of the 9 of us ordered a drink. The rest of us were still going through the drink menu but we decided to just high tail it out of there.
Back at the hostel we decided it would be a good idea to have a slumber party instead of all sleeping in our individual beds in different rooms like we were supposed to. We pushed together 3 twin beds in one of the rooms and 3 guys and 3 girls ended up squishing together and sleeping. It was a little cramped but it was worth it to be warm in that cold room.
The next morning we woke to a big breakfast that was included with the stay.
It was really nice to have something other than just bread and milk to eat in the morning. On top of that, when we went to check out we discovered that the price was 12.5 per person instead of the 25 euros per night that was advertised on the website. We were very happy about this, as you can imagine.
On Saturday we did some more sightseeing and saw this nifty castle called Castle Sforezco. We walked around the city and did some shopping, but in the end ended up sitting in a McDonald's near the Duomo. It was just too cold to enjoy being outside for very long. I wouldn't have chosen to spend 3 hours in McDonald's when in Italy, but what can you do?
We originally planned to go out clubbing Saturday night and then take a bus to the train station on Sunday morning, but we were all too cold and tired to want to go out. We also didn't want to walk around the city with our bags, so instead we took a bus to the airport Saturday night and ended up spending the night there.
But before we went to the
airport, we decided to get some dinner. We sat down at a restaurant near the airport and took a look at the menu. I immediately wanted to leave as prices were pretty high and the waiters seemed really overbearing and creepy. But the others wanted to just order one 10 euro pizza and then go. The pizza ended up taking 45 minutes to be delivered because the waiter forgot to put our order in. When we finally did eat and asked for the bill, we were dismayed to find that the the bill was 25 euros instead of 10 because they charged an extra 3 euro service fee per person at the table. We told them that we didn't want to pay this much because not only had our food been extremely late, but the service fee was more than the food. The Italians were not happy to hear that we weren't going to pay and started yelling loudly at us in front of everyone in the restaurant. The Italian man behind us told us that they were saying "Americans are pieces of shit" and other things along those lines. We ended up paying 15 euros and then getting out
of there. I was honestly really scared; I thought they were going to pull out a gun or something. The last thing I want is the Italian mafia after me, so I was ready to just pay and get out.
We did end up eating at this kebab place which was cheap yet still delicious. The Indians who served us were very polite and even gave us a free pizza when they put an extra one in by mistake. Best of all, there was no service fee just for sitting down!
Back at the airport, we realized that getting any sleep was futile as the floor was freezing and it was quite noisy. At one point the floor cleaning men came by on their machines and shooed us all away. I've never felt so homeless in my life. But at least I was with friends. Nothing is that bad when you're with good friends.
I wouldn't say that going to Milan was a bad experience, but it isn't a city I'm dying to get back to either. I would definitely still want to visit other Italian cities and other European countries, but not until after February. The
rest of Europe is too cold, and I didn't bring the winter clothing to go traipsing through any snow or really cold weather. So far, any other city I've been too has just made me realize how much I really like Seville. I'm so glad I chose to study abroad here!
Well, I suppose I should take a nap now or something.
Ciao!
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