Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Milan

The last day of our weekend trip found us in Milan. Since it was Sunday, the city was pretty dead because most stores were closed, but there was still a decent amount of people walking around downtown which made it more fun.

I have to say that of all the places I've been to so far in Italy, Milan was my least favorite. I don't know if it was because it was a Sunday like I said, so I didn't get the full 'feel' of the real atmosphere, but Milan is not a very pretty city, and it is rather industrial and extremely urban. Not to mention, it's hard to navigate! Even with our map, Courtney and I got lost a few times because of the way the streets split and the names change.

Even still though, I would say that Milan is worth a visit, definitely. The things that are considered 'fashion' and sell for many many Euros amaze me:



The famed Via Della Spiga, aka one of the streets of the fashion mecca




Mecca street number two - Via Monte Napoleone


and number three - Via Manzoni


I passed by all of the places below in about ten minutes...I was feeling fashionably inferior at this point :)

Valentino


Dolce & Gabbana


Cavalli


Tiffany!


Fendi


Juicy


Michael Kors


Chanel


Versace


Gucci


Burberry


Dior


Louis Vuitton


Valentino


Milan loves to plant their trees in these cute little cars...very interesting.


After we walked around all of the shops and went into a few (and walked out empty handed, obviously :)) our feet were killing us but we still had about two hours until our train home to Rome left. We decided to check out the Pinacoteca di Brera museum, which wasn't far from the shopping area. We decided on this museum because it supposedly housed Carvaggio's "Dead Christ" painting which Courtney and I both studied in our Art History class back at TCNJ, and we really wanted to see it in person. However, when we got inside it wasn't there...turns out it was moved somewhere else, or into a private collection, or something like that. It was kind of a bummer, but we got over it and enjoyed looking at everything else...everything there was really nice.

After we wandered around the museum, we walked back to the train station, grabbed something to eat for dinner on the way home, and boarded our train back to Rome.

It was a great weekend, to say the least! I especially loved Bologna - it was such a lively, fun city with awesome food.:)

This week starts crunch time - midterms are next week! I had the oral portion of my Italian midterm today and it went really well, my professor was pleased with how much I've progressed. I just had to sit down with her and she would give me situations that I'd have to role play, and then she asked me some questions about my life and about my past so I could practice speaking in the past tense.

This Friday I have a day trip to Assisi with my program which I am really excited about. We're leaving early in the morning and we'll have a tour when we get there followed by free time. Saturday I have free and I will most definitely have to study for midterms because on Sunday I'm going on a trip that AUR is running to Perugia for its annual, famous chocolate festival. Needless to say, that should be an awesome trip too!

1 comments:

linanne said...

I'm enjoying looking at all these places so much, its sorta like reading a good book and I can't wait to read your next page!