A fellow YAGM and I are both Oles and were both itching to go traveling a few weeks ago. I mentioned that I wanted to meet another Ole, Danielle Lovaas, in Seville, Spain, where she is teaching English. Well, no cheap flights could be found to Seville, but I stumbled upon a very reasonable ticket to Milan so off we went! Seeing Danielle at the Bergamo airport was definitely a tearful. joyful, overdue event. It was so amazing to see her again!
Danielle then came up with a brilliant idea: Why not go to the Lake District of Italy? Oh, ok. So we went. I don't thinks words to it justice, so just look at some pictures.
During our day in Como, we were approached by three girls who asked for our permission to take our pictures. They were putting together an advertisement, the theme of which was "Beautiful." Well, since we were severely lacking in modesty we of course said yes. Here's their final product :)
By far our favorite part of the trip was eating Italian food, specifically gelato and drinking espresso. In fact, one day we ate only espresso and gelato. We realized this around dinner time when we found everything hilarious and couldn't understand why. The obvious remedy for sugar high in Italy is "eat more pizza" so that is what we did.
Another favorite anecdote of the trip was Saturday night's dinner. Coming back from Lake Como we were all exhausted and prepared to stuff ourselves with pasta and wine, so we wet the first wonderful Italian restaurant we stumbled upon and settled ourselves in for a 2 1/2 hour meal filled with laughter and stories of "the glory days" at college. Throughout the meal our waiter would tell us jokes and dote upon us as only Italian waiters do, as well as make fun of me for eating very slowly. All was well in the end though, for after all the teasing he brought us dessert "alla casa"!
Milan is a truly amazing city, its Duomo is the fourth largest church in the world and lives up to the standard of elegance that that implies. We visited the Duomo on a Sunday, which meant that upon entering the church we were engulfed in incense and chanting. I was pretty sure we had stepped back in time. We also explored the famous opera house, the Renaissance era Castello Sforzesco, and St Ambrose's Basilica, which was founded in 387 AD. No big deal.
Il Duomo
Basilica of St Ambrose
My wonderful, wonderful friends!!!
Now I am mourning the loss of authentic Italian food and the comfort of Oles. But adventures abroad are still to be had! It was an absolutely incredible weekend, I can't wait to go back to Italy!
Dani, I miss you.
Love and peace, ciao!
Erin
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