Proceeding my previous post, I had a weekend to chill in Konstanz and get to know more of the international students, as well as plan the following weekend's trip to Milan to meet Abby. It is easy to forget that we are here to study at HTWG, being in a foreign country and all, surrounded by so many new places to discover, which is why if I were to write more frequently about my time here, it might get redundant. Now that my last class has started, I currently have 10.5 hours of class per week spread over five different classes, two of which are business/management classes. On weekends I am not traveling, I will most likely also attend another 1.5 hrs (but not take the exam) of a water systems class that I only just discovered was happening. One could say that I appreciate how organized WPI's administration is now.
Anyways, this past weekend I spent three nights and three and a half days exploring Milan with Abby, who met up with me amongst her travels around other various Italian cities. She is arriving tomorrow in Konstanz to spend a week learning about my temporary home before we spend Easter break in... Prague!
Milan is a huge, sprawling city - the distance between some of the different attractions we visited was close to three miles. The population is 1.3 million which is just a bit less than that of San Diego. Being the capital of fashion and design, Milan is known as one of the most expensive Italian cities. We visited the most obvious spots, like the Duomo, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (which is the oldest active shopping mall in Milan, containing only the highest end stores like Louis Vitton, Prada, Versace, Gucci, etc.), and Sforza Castle and it's various museums. We stumbled upon a market in the morning before getting the obligatory espresso and croissant. A quaint botanical garden, the Museo delle Culture, the Museo del Novecento (20th century art), the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, and Chinatown were all hit up. We spent an hour or two at arguably the largest street market in Milan on Via Sant'Agostino. Half the time we spent working up the courage to ask crazy enthusiastic Italian vendors for the ingredients we needed to make a fresh caprese salad for dinner, and the other half was spent rummaging through factory seconds and cheap knockoff goods and clothing, which is honestly a must-do if you ever visit any Italian city.
Most memorable, as with any experience in Italy I believe, was the food we sought out. I had a craving for lasagna since leaving Konstanz so that was imperative. We had risotto, classic pasta with ragu, focaccia, arancini, deliciously flavorful gelato, salami di cioccolato (which tastes like a combination of fudge and chocolate cookie dough with shortbread chunks), our caprese salad along with sweet market fruits, and of course lots of coffee and croissants. I'll miss the cheap coffee but not the intimidating Italian shop owners and market vendors.
I had PTSD for the whole first half of the bus ride back, and you can learn about why from my post in the Random section - quite an adventure, and the reason I had 3 1/2 days in Milan instead of four.
( And as always, see the gallery for more pictures!)
