We really did make ravioli. From scratch. For 10 people.
It was a lot of dough, and we all felt like we had gotten a pretty good work-out by the time we were done (you have to roll the dough out very thin in order to keep the pasta from getting too chewy) but we thought it was worth it.
After about two hours of preparing the ravioli, we left them sitting on those two, very full plates and headed over two Grace, Natalie and Christine's apartment. We started with bruschetta and wine and got really excited about the upcoming courses.
Then we all put our jackets on, brought the remaining wine with us, and headed back to Monique, Angela and Molly's apartment. We cooked the pasta and served it with delicious tomato sauce Angela prepared for us.
Needless to say, we were pretty proud of the final product.
Lastly, we walked very enthusiastically over to Sam and Dana's apartment for dessert. Dessert is really important, obviously, and there was a lot of build up to it. They decided (not surprisingly) to prepare tiramisu, which was a perfect ending to the evening. Their roommate, Guisi, had taught them a few weeks ago how to make tiramisu, and we were not disappointed. It was delicious.
All in all, it was an extremely successful evening...one that ended with some very hasty packing for Milano.
Oh, also, I made Camilla take a selfie with me.
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The next morning, all 14 girls in my program met Camilla and Chia at 7:40am to walk to the train station to go to Milan. It was raining, and the walk was long, but we were excited for the adventure that was to come.
Once we reached the train station, and were all safely on the train, we all promptly fell asleep, or at least did some serious resting.
I'll skip over the rest of the traveling details, because they're really not very exciting, and jump straight to lunch. We only had about an hour and a half to eat before we had to meet up for our next activity, and we were all super hungry, so we decided we would walk in any direction for 4 minutes to see if we could find anything to eat, and if not, we would go to the restaurant right in the hotel. We ended up having Chinese food for lunch.
It wasn't bad, but we all commented afterwards about the portion sizes. In America, we're used to Chinese food served in large portions that we usually reserve for when it's necessary. Italians are a little bit more reasonable about the whole thing, although, I'll admit, I wasn't completely satisfied at the end of the meal.
Milano is one of the fashion hubs of the world. While, I'm glad I went on this trip and experienced a new place, fashion goes way over my head. It was still interesting going to the different exhibits though. Definitely a new cultural experience.
We went to see a temporary exhibition about Coco Chanel, and then to a museum that used to be someone's home. They clearly had quite a bit of money, but I'll admit I don't remember a lot of the details of the tour.
I did enjoy the architecture quite a bit. Our tour guide stopped at a number of different buildings and they were all super pretty. Milan is a much more modern city that the other places we have visited in Italy, but there are still a lot of really cool buildings that are still older than what you'll find in America.
I think one of the things I appreciated most about this trip, was that they planned breakfast and dinner for us. Thursday night we went to a restaurant and had an (almost) full Italian meal. We skipped the appetizer course but we had the first plate, second plate, and dessert. In Italy, first plate is usually the pasta course, and they you have meat. It's delicious.
By the end of dinner, I was pretty ready to have some quiet time back in the hotel. I headed back in anticipation of another busy day.
But we did see this on the way back...
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Friday (I was confused about what day it was the entire time) was filled up with a walking tour in the morning and a visit to The Last Supper in the afternoon. We started at the Duomo, definitely one of the highlights of the trip.
I don't know how much you know about architecture, but this is a Gothic Cathedral if I've ever seen one. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was pretty spectacular. Picture a really really big church, and then double it because you're probably underestimating the vastness of it.
Later we climbed up to the top of the Duomo.
We visited this adorable little gem, tucked away somewhere in Milano. The disadvantage of having a tour guide the whole time, was that I rarely had a sense of where I was. We learned the subway system pretty well, and I was really impressed with the 14 of us for traveling so well together, but we visited a number of places in Milan that I wouldn't be able to find again.
From here, it looks like a curved back, right? The architect who built this, wanted to create the illusion of a shape that didn't actually exist. I thought he did a pretty good job!
This is what it looks like up close. I thought that the illusion was super interesting, and a cool tidbit about the church. Also, it's just pretty, so there's that.
I want to talk about food a little bit more. Food was definitely one of the highlights. For lunch on Friday, we went with Christine's friend to this pizza place that was definitely the best pizza I've ever had. Alessandra studies in Milan right now so she knows all the best places to go.
Isn't that a beauty? I love that in Italy it's socially acceptable to eat pizza on a daily basis. I don't eat it every day but it's certainly a much more common occurrence than at home. But come on, it's beautiful and delicious so who wouldn't want to eat it everyday?
Also, while we're on the subject of food, we had some truly spectacular gelato in Milan. I didn't photograph it because it was too anxious to devour it, but we found places with some super fun flavors. I tried both salted chocolate and chocolate with orange gelato. They were awesome.
Also, while we're on the subject of food, we had some truly spectacular gelato in Milan. I didn't photograph it because it was too anxious to devour it, but we found places with some super fun flavors. I tried both salted chocolate and chocolate with orange gelato. They were awesome.
After re-carbing, we went over to see The Last Supper. We couldn't take pictures inside and we had to schedule a 15 minute slot to go see it, but I'll tell you, it was so worth it. I didn't expect it to be such a powerful experience, but it really was. For some reason, seeing this particular painting in person was so much more amazing than the other famous pieces that I have seen in other places.
I think part of it was the sheer size. We were moved as a group into one big room. You could tell that at one point, the entirety of it was covered in paintings, but only The Last Supper and the painting on the opposite wall were preserved. We had fifteen minutes to look at the painting, and I spent all fifteen of those minutes staring at it. I can't really explain all the thoughts and emotions that I experienced during those fifteen minutes, but it was amazing.
Ok, I'm realizing how long this post is getting so I'll try to wrap it up.
That night, dinner was amazing....obviously...
And then Saturday morning we had another walking tour before we had to hop back on the train to return to Siena.
We visited a really amazing cemetery. Even though cemeteries can be kind of sad sometimes, I actually find them really peaceful. And you can learn a lot about a culture and a society from them, so that part of it is really interesting. I'm gonna pick a couple of pictures from this part and leave you on that note.
Pay attention to the photograph of the sculpture depicting The Last Supper. I couldn't photograph the actual painting for you, but it was neat to see this sculpture in the cemetery.
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