Back in Milano

Last time I was in Milan I was severely jet-lagged and cranky, but this time was much nicer.

On Tuesday we had an organized day-trip to Milan to get into some art history shenanigans. We arrived in Milan around 9:30, sun shining, and essentially no snow on the ground, which made me super jealous. Our program bought us Metro passes for the day, which we first used to go to Castello Sforsezco, the castle of the Visconti family ruled Milan during the 14-15th centuries.

As we walked in we realized Fashion Week was currently in session in Milan, and there was a huge, closed off tent in the middle of the Castello’s grounds. The Castello was filled with ancient artifacts ranging back hundreds of years. A lot of it was sculpture-based, but there was also a great armory we got to peek into.

We didn’t get a chance to see absolutely everything, but the big event was seeing Michaelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini up close and personal. He started the sculpture in the early 1550s but died before its completion. You can definitely see the incompleteness in the sculpture – some parts look extremely completed and polished while other parts are still rough.

Best tomb ever

 After we finished our appointment at the Castello, we were given 4 hours (11:00-15:00) to explore Milan. Most of us decided to go to the Duomo via the Metro. Milano’s Duomo makes Parma’s look tiny and insignificant. Between the Piazza with the statue of Vittorio Emanuele II, the Duomo’s architecture, and the handful of preserved bodies inside, our little Parmigiano Duomo didn’t stand much of a chance. We weren’t allowed to take any photos inside unless we paid, but many people still did.

Il Duomo!

Look at the fading

After we finished inside, we wanted to find Teatro Farnese, but first, we popped into La Galleria di Vittorio Emanuele II, which was right next to the Duomo. There was some fun shops there with some quasi-recognizable names. 

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Next, we went to have lunch in a small local restaurant, which had a quasi-pasticcera downstairs and tables for eating upstairs. I had the locally famous Risotto Milanese with the cheapest glass of wine, and it was awesome. Risotto is one of my favorite Italian dishes and with saffron? Yum. Apologies because I didn’t have my iPhone to take any obnoxious Instagram photos. After lunch we found the Quadrilatero, which is a four-street intersection of some of the most expensive shopping in Milan. We also did some climbing up this cool sculpture we found.

At 3, we met up with our program directors for the big event of the day: to see da Vinci’s Last Supper at La Chiesa della Santa Maria. Appointments have to be booked months in advance and can be extremely expensive and the best part? The appointments are only fifteen minutes long. We waited to enter into a humidity-controlled chamber before entering the convent next to the Church. The Last Supper was located inside the convent’s dining hall – appropriate, but thanks to the humidity from the kitchen, who shared a wall with da Vinci’s supper, a lot of it is already fading.

The grounds of the church

Obviously, we weren’t allowed to take any photos inside, but our guide gave us a lecture on da Vinci’s piece along with the other fresco on the opposite wall. I thought we’d have some time at least be on the balcony by the Last Supper to observe it closer, but within 30 seconds of the lecture being over so was our appointment. I stayed for a little longer until security barked at us to get out.

Just in case you want/need a reference point - it doesn't really resemble this anymore :(

I still don’t understand why we had to have a guide who talked for 14 MINUTES OF OUR 15 MINUTE APPOINTMENT when there were PLENTY of signs for us to read on our own. I just wanted time to look at it!

Of course, they led us to the bookstore after the appointment was over…and of course, I bought 2 postcards.

Our official events for the day were over, so we had freedom to stay in Milan a little longer or head back to Parma. About half of us stayed behind. I arranged to meet up with a friend of mine who’s in Milan for the semester, and we grabbed some coffee and caught up with each other. He was even nice enough to take me to Milano Centrale, and I made the 6:15 back to Parma.

Our week didn’t stop there – We saw an opera yesterday at Parma’s Teatro Reggio. We saw Nabucco (click here to learn a bit about it). It was great, albeit long. Having some background knowledge on the opera definitely helped with my comprehension, especially since any comprehension I might normally have was drowned out by the singing or ancient Italian – the subtitles helped.

Currently in Mantova but will update the blog once I'm back in good 'ol Parma!

Lots of Leaning and Confetti

My luck with good travelling weather just seems to continue! I went to Pisa and Viareggio for a weekend with 4 and 2 other students, respectively, and both cities were absolutely beautiful.

Excitement on the train!

Our trip to Pisa started on Saturday the 16^th.  When we arrived it was about 50 degrees (F) and sunny. We walked to our hotel, which was about 15 minutes away from Pisa Centrale and dumped our stuff before heading out to the Leaning Tower, Baptistery, and Duomo. (The hostel was called Lumiere, and I definitely recommend it if you’re headed to Pisa, but be warned – they claim to be a B&B but don’t actually serve breakfast).

Super content to be eating food

We hopped on a bus back to the train station but walked the rest of the way to the north side of the city. We stopped by a small supermercato (which seems counter-intuitive but there you go). I bought some bread, prosciutto, and a mango juice (!!!!!) for lunch and we ate as we walked.

We stopped by Piazza Cavour on the way, which was in the midst of some construction, and we also went into the church right there.  

Cavour

My first words upon seeing the Tower were “It’s not that lean-y” because I am clearly too arrogant from my own good and the angle I was looking wasn’t the best. I was also incredibly surprised to see how incredibly white it was; I expected it to be more dingy since, after all, it is 800+ years old. We asked how much it was to go up the Tower — 18 euro, so we didn’t. To be honest, I’m a little regretful about that, but I also know it would’ve been terribly exhausting and probably ruined Sunday’s day trip.

Il Duomo di Pisa

Il Battistero

You don't need a caption for this 

Super Tourist

We more or less spent the rest of the afternoon basking in the Tower’s glory and took an obscene amount of pictures in front of the Duomo, Battistero, and Tower.

On the way back to our hostel we came across La Chiesa di Santa Maria. Unforutnately, it was closed, but the view was great, and it was right on the river.

We also ran into some kind of protest, but we still aren’t entirely sure what it was about. Next, of course, was gelato. The place we found had gluten-free cones too so one of the girls I was traveling with was able to have her first official coned gelato, which was super exciting :)

That night two of our group headed back to Parma, the rest of us raided a small market and ate bread, salame Toscana, and had a simple night in before our travels to Viareggio.

The next morning we got up, got dressed, only to realize that our B&B didn’t actually provide a breakfast, but instead we could use their kitchen to prepare food. After settling with the owners we walked to the train station and found DIRT cheap tickets to Viareggio – less than 4 euro! We bought some breakfast foods nearby, and I got a souvenir for my dad before going to Viareggio.

Once we arrived we essentially followed a crowd of people to the edge of the small town and found the Carnevale event. It almost resembled a fair — you bought an entry ticket, couldn’t leave, and spent the day wandering inside. There was also the nice surprise of being able to see the Mediterranean. Long story short, Viareggio was amazing for its Carnevale festivities and the floats were INSANE. I’ve uploaded all of my pictures to Facebook, but here are my absolute favorite floats: 

Bologna!

According to my host mother, north of Bologna is considered to be "Emilia" while south of Bologna is considered to be "Romagna." It's no surprise that Bologna is the capital of Emilia-Romagna; it encompasses characteristics of both sides of this large region I find myself in for three and a half months.

Things I learned in Bologna:

1. Planning has a weird way of working itself out.
2. Many Italians have small bears (not DOGS) as pets.
3. Don't be afraid of being touristy.
4. Stairs are the WORST.
5. PIGEONS ARE WORSE THAN STAIRS.

This post is long, and I would apologize for talking your ear off, but this is my blog and I'm not your clown.

#sorryimnotsorry

Today's trip was my first time outside of Parma since arriving in Italy, and it went pretty well, I think. I had a croissant and some coffee before hitching a ride with my host mom to the train station as she thoroughly explained the importance of validating my train ticket, which is technically valid for a period of 2 months, by putting into a small machine that would date-stamp it, effectively rendering it useless after my trip from Parma Centrale to Bologna Centrale.

Parma Centrale was the station I arrived at over 2 weeks ago, but that day was so hectic and tiring I barely remembered being at the station. We hopped on our train at 8:28 and arrived in Bologna about an hour later.

Our initial reason for visiting Bologna was for a large Saturday market that my friend's host mother had told her about. From the station, we should have been able to see it, but, of course, we went in the opposite direction and ended up on the far side of the city. We stopped by a few churches on the way and took some great pictures. After only two weeks in Parma I'm already feeling bias towards my little city and think our Duomo is much more impressive than some of the places we saw.

Inside the church of San Francesco

A typical street in Bologna - lots of arches!

1 of the 342384729 palazzos 

We eventually landed in downtown Bologna as we fruitlessly attempted to find Piazza Maggiore, the main piazza in Bologna. We ended up finding Piazza Nettuno, which had a large statue of Neptune. The sunlight was ridiculous again today, but we were all thankful for the heat it provided.

Piazza Nettuno - casually naked Neptune, nbd

Family crests of Bolognese families

It was stupidly difficult to locate Piazza Maggiore, which was, more or less literally, right next to Piazza Nettuno. While Piazza Maggiore was large it didn't have a specific statue/landmark, which is probably why its name pales in comparison to some of the other piazzas I've already visited in Italy. Next, my friend suggested we make our way towards the local gardens. At this point we were starving so we were also trying to find a restaurant that A.) was open already (most places are either closed for lunch so workers can go home to eat with their families AND b/c we wanted to eat earlier than most Italian places allow) B.) had tortellini alla bolognese, which is a delicacy in Bologna.

Piazza Maggiore

Piazza Maggiore

We found another fun piazza with an overbearing bust, but sadly, the restaurant across the street was out of tortellini. Eventually, we found an open pizzeria WITH tortellini. Our lunch was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. Sorry Grinnell DHall, I'm boycotting you. I had tortellini with ragù while my friends had tortelloni, which has cheese and no meat, and steak (ini vs. oni - who knew, right?). I paid 10 euro for a rather smallish portion of tortellini and 3 euro for a coke, but I was totally satisfied at the end of the meal. We were all happy until we got the check with the 7.50 euro service/sitting charge. Welp tourist moment. We split it between the three of us, but that was still crappy to deal with. We've definitely learned our lesson - next week in Pisa I am buying a slice of pizza from a pizzeria and eating it outside.

A bust of Camillo di Cavour

 

After our overpriced lunch, we visited another church that was exceptionally beautiful - La Chiesa di San Domenico before heading over to the gardens. We found Vittorio Emanuele on the way and I got his facial hair confused with Garibaldi's — sorry, world.We also found a lovely little antique flea market outside of another church we wanted to see but, but the name is currently escaping me and I'm too tired to both looking for it. The market was nice and had some particularly....interesting memorabilia. I really want to buy some antiques before I leave Italy, but I'm extremely paranoid about buying a "fake" antique and wasting my time, money, and luggage space to take it back to the States.

The church of San Domenico

S. Petronio

The vintage market!

FINALLY, the biggest highlight of the trip. First, you need to know: I hate heights. So did Rachel. 2/3 of our group hated heights. Second, this shenanigan cost money. A small cost, but still. Third, it involved 300+ stairs. Fourth, I have a crappy knee that hurts when it's about to rain/is raining***. So, what did we do? Rachel, Elena, and I climbed 300+ stairs at Bologna's Two Towers***, or specifically, the taller tower, Torra Asinelli.

The two towers. Naturally, we went up the taller one

After 2343423890 stairs 

 During those millions of STEEP stairs of up, I would've probably scowled/swore in your general direction while deeply regretting the number of layers I was wearing, but damn, if that climb wasn't worth it. I got the most AMAZING shots of Bologna. After spending some time way higher than I'd prefer, we headed down these 300+ stairs, and I demanded gelato and/or a large cookie. My friends obliged my sweet tooth and thanks to Lonely Planet's guidebook, we found a famous, award-winning gelateria on the south side of the city. 18+ flavors. I got the third largest size with 3 types of gelato***.

My favorite picture!

After indulging in my third gelato since arriving in Italy we decided it would be best to start heading back to the north of the city, towards the train station. Our walk back was extremely fortuitous. We found 3 great things: a pretty fountain, ROMAN RUINS, and the market we'd originally been searching for. I bought a new bag for class! This market was MASSIVE in comparison to the flea market we saw earlier in the day. You could buy an entire outfit here from underwear, to dresses, to shoes, to make up, accessories, a coat/scarf/gloves, etc. You get my point. I ended up buying a purse to use as a school bag for the semester. As much as I love my Jansport I could transport a toddler in that thing, so it's best for traveling, not so much for daily use...at least in Italy.

A pretty fountain!

Roman ruins, nbd

What a nice dude parking next to ROMAN RUINS

My host family tried to convince me to go out for Carnevale with them after I got back, but I had no costume/mask and was hella tired. But next week? Pisa and Viareggio, anyone?

lolcoolthanksbye

Parma - Week 2!

The week started off wonderfully. On Monday, we had a walking tour of Parma. We went to see Piazza Garibaldi (which we've obviously visited already) and received a small lecture about the history of the Piazza.

Next, we stopped by one of the oldest streets in Parma: La Strada Al Duomo. This street contained the Baptistery and the Parma Cathedral.

Il Duomo (with construction happening on the bell tower)

 Il Battistero di Parma

A lion guarding Il Duomo

First view after walking inside the cathedral

One of many alters

I'll definitely have to make a visit back to Il Duomo to examine everything more carefully and to take more pictures of Correggio's fresco (below).

Deposition by Benedetto Antelami

A fresco by Parmigiani painter Antonio da Correggio 

99.9% sure I heard angels singing

The tour finished early around 11:00. Most of us opted to stay in the center of town (as we had to register at the University's library in the afternoon) and we had lunch there. We got gelato (again) and did some walking around/shopping.

Rachel with my new beautiful purse~

The day was ridiculously pretty (again)

The walking tour was the big highlight of the week. Class continued and we have our first history exam on Monday. BUT before all of that is the Carnevale festivities that are taking place throughout Italy. A bunch of people on my program are heading to Venice for Carnevale while I am heading to Bologna with some others for a gorgeous open market and sight seeing. 

Next week I'm planning to go to Pisa and Viareggio in Tuscany to see their Carnevale celebrations. Carnevale varies in each city, so I'm going to try to steal as many pictures from my Venice-going friends and compare them to my Viareggio pictures. 

Ciao!