Milan. Where Wine Pairs Nicely with Great Friends.

This past weekend I went to Milan with Eleanor and Alessandra. Both are freshmen at Edinburgh from the states. Additionally, Alessandra has family in Italy, and she speaks a little bit of Italian, so this trip was for her.

The trip was from Saturday-Monday afternoon, and honestly, everything went super well. Actually even better than expected, with us seeing more sites than we planned on seeing, and people going out of their way to help us. It was also more organized than some of my other trips because we had created a google doc that we had been editing for the past 6 weeks which had all the places in Milan that we wanted to go see.

Saturday

It started at 3 in the morning…

Our flight was at 6:30, so we had to wake up that early in order to bus to the airport in time. unlike every single other time that I have flown, NO ONE was pulled over at the airport security. The plane ride there was relatively uneventful, except for the fact that paramedics were called. But don’t start worrying. The reason they were called is because a lady believed that her head was exploding. As heard from directly from the girl who was sitting next to this lady, apparently, she had never flown on a plane before, so she did not know how to handle the change in cabin pressure and the subsequent feelings of head pain. A doctor on board checked her himself and informed her that she was fine, however she insisted the paramedics be called.

We landed at the Bergamo Airport which is about an hours drive outside of Milan. We then took a bus for 5 euro that drove us into Milan to the Central station, which is very beautiful.

On the bus, Eleanor ran into a friend of hers from class, Rebecca. We invited her to join us because she was travelling alone, which turned out to be a great decision.

Milan

The central station is in the Northeast part of Milan, whereas our AirBNB was in the southwest part of town. So we got to the central station around 11am, and planed to wander our way through the city towards our AirBNB. Along the way, we accidentally walked upon a bunch of the places which we had put on our list of things to see.

We also walked through a nice park, grabbed coffee ( really good), and WE WERE ATTACKED BY PIGEONS AT THE DUOMO.

After the Duomo and beautiful outdoor mall, we went and grabbed pizza (of course, it is italy is it not?) to satisfy our hunger. Honestly SUCH GOOD PIZZA

After getting there we relaxed for a bit before going out to walk around the Nivigli–the canal district of Milan. By the time we got there it was already getting dark , and we were already getting hungry again, so we all got some Italian food snacks (a canolli, chocolate roll, and a panzarotte), and explored the place–especially lit up for Christmas time.

We then went and grabbed diner with Rebecca in the center of the city. On the way we ran into THE Starbucks–the nicest Starbucks I have ever seen, and one of the only few in Italy. WE did not go in this night, but made plans to go back the next day.

Fun Stories from Saturday:

I almost broke the airbnb bed in the middle of the night by getting up to go pee and apparently standing on it too hard?
tiny doggos everywhere
“skinny doggo” “tall doggo” “short doggo” “long doggo” there were a million dogs everywhere

Quotes from Saturday:

“They’re dirty nasty creatures” – Wayne Crawford, about the pigeon photos
“Let’s just use the Holy Water” when debating how to clean ourselves of the pigeons so we do not get bird flu while in a church… don’t worry, we were just joking, we did not do this
“everything is FINE”
“I’m sure he wouldn’t steal these [toiletries]” -Me, sorry Andrea you’re a very nice man

Sunday

We allowed ourselves to sleep in until 9:30 and we relaxed for a bit before running down to Auchan (pronounces Ocean which was really confusing when we were informed that we could see “the ocean from our window”). We then planned out an entire day where we would walk in a big loop around the city and see all the places/sites we had left to check off our list.

First was Bar Luce–the cafe designed by director Wes Andersen

This cafe was attached to the Fondazione Prada which we had never heard of. Turns out it is a giant modern art museum. We were allowed to walk around the campus for free, but all the exhibits cost money. However, at one point we saw people going up these weird stairs and we assumed we were allowed to go up them. However, as we started up the stair we saw a sign saying it led to the “Sangue” (Blood) exhibit… not ominous at all. And about half way up the stairs (which were outdoors) the air got weirdly warm. At the top there was no door, just a very thick black curtain… we spent a couple minutes debating if we were allowed to go through them. We kept peering through it and realized there was an art exhibit on the other side, but concluded that this must be a back entrance because it appeared as if the curtain we were standing behind was the backdrop to an art piece. WE were about to leave but then a couple came up behind us and just walked through the curtain. So we shrugged and followed behind them. Apparently it WAS an entrance to this exhibit. However, we were stopped by a worker and informed that we did not have ticket to enter. Anyways. it was a trip.

We tried to go to the Ossuary, a bone church, but on the way we stumbled upon a cool crypt, but couldn’t stop laughing because the name of the exhibit was “He burned the path of secrets”, or as it was written out in Italian for us, “ARSE il percorso dei segreti”. And us being children couldn’t stop laughing at the “Arse” part. For the rest of the trip we called it the butt crypt.

We then changed destinations and walked to the Castle, which has to be the most gorgeous Castle I have seen in all my trips so far and ate some roasted chestnuts (delicious)

At the castle we got to see the last piece of work Michelangelo was working on before he died

We then went to the Arco della Pace– the Peace Arch, where of course I had to do a handstand. On the way to the peace arch we ate a lunch of store bought apple crumble

And finally, the Monumental Cemetery, which I am sure would have been GORGEOUS in the daylight, but was still stunning at night.

After this, we walked back and finally entered the fanciest Starbucks I have ever seen (and quite possibly in the world…

After Starbucks we got dinner at a cute Italian place. Alessandra did a great job ordering food and drinks for us in Italia, and so we cheered to a great weekend, ate good pizza and drank a good glass of wine. On the way out the waiter even yelled ” Goodbye California!”

Quotes:

“Hear me out…” – Me whenever I am about to make a bad suggestion
“Can you just get a mild photograph” -Alessandra, we still are not sure what she means by this
“Cool. Lets leave” – Alessandra
“Flo drinking is like pouring wine onto a rock” – Alessandra
“Wait till I have pants on” – Eleanor, this sounds funny being taken out of context and when told that it was said right after Eleanor broke the bed for a SECOND time
In the Ossuary, “idk how I feel about this…” – Alessandra, “I know how I feel about this and it’s not good” – Eleanor

Monday morning

We dragged ourselves out of our beds at 7am. Shout out to Eleanor who slept in between Alessandra and I. In the middle of the night Alessandra stole all the blankets and I stole all the pillows and Eleanor did not complain.

After we finally got up, we first went to the Ossuary (the bone church) as it was the last place on our list.

We then went and got a delicious breakfast at a local cafe, treating ourselves to fresh squeezed orange juice, pastries, and fruit/yogurt bowls

Then we had to get onto a bus back to the airport around noon. At the airport we got our final food checked off our list: Gelato

Overall, such a great trip. For Eleanor and Alessandra it was their one big trip of their semester (since they are actually being good students unlike myself), and it was really nice getting to spend more time with them.

Back in Scotland

When we arrived back to Pollocks, our amazing friends Kate, Flo, Michaela, Adam, and Claire were waiting there with signs, again. Gosh I’m going to miss these people.