So I was in Milan for the past four days, and I had an absolutely great time. I arrived late Wednesday night, and my friend Stephanie picked me up where the buses dropped us off from the airport. I stayed in her apartment for the weekend, and it was really great to not spend money on a hostel. She's studying in Milan for the semester doing a music program, and she has five other roommates in her apartment. It was huge, and I had a really comfortable bed and pillows.

Thursday morning, we walked down Corso Buenos Aires to the Duomo, which is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world. It was absolutely amazing. It was so finely decorated and sculpted. There are 3400 sculptures on the outside. It's totally crazy. Inside was also a sensory overload. From the floor patterns to the ceiling designs, everything was so ornate. It was incredible.



Then we walked into the galleria, which is an indoor shopping area with such brands as Prada and lots of other ridiculous designer brands. The floor is also a cool mosaic, and apparently if you spin three times on the balls of the bull, you get good luck! So I certainly did that.



Then we got tickets to La Scala! Cheap ones, mind you. We stood in line the day of, and we got tickets for 12 euros! Woot! It was for 3 Puccini operas.



Then Stephanie fed me this amazing food called Panzerotti. It was deliciously scrumptious fried food. Who doesn't want that, eh? Then she went to class, and I went to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. It has lots of really cool old Italian paintings, like the first ever still life, Caravaggio's Basket of Fruit and the sketch for Raphael's School of Athens. And other cool stuff that I'm sure I'm forgetting. Then I went back to the Duomo, and I climbed the stairs up to the top. It really wasn't that far, but I got to wander around on the roof, and it was such a nice day that I could see the Alps!


Then I walked all the way across town to the church next to where The Last Supper is. Apparently, you need reservations one to two weeks in advance to see that. Whoops. Too bad. Oh well, I'm sure I'll be back. Then I went inside the museum of La Scala. It was kinda interesting. There was an exposition on Maria Callas, so that was pretty cool.

Then I met back up with Stephanie, and we picked up our tickets for the evening with her roommate Jamie. Then we met a man named Billy Ray, who is about 24, wearing a spiffy Italian suit, who was a math major from Colorado, and now works as an engineer in Siberia. He bought us dinner! It was amazing! Then we went to La Scala, and it was absolutely wonderful. I missed singing so much. It was three one-act operas by Puccini, and I can't get over how great it was to be in La Scala seeing Puccini! We were in the very top and back, and we had to stand the whole time to see anything, but it was sooo worth it! I gasped during the first, cried during the second, and laughed during the third. They were so fantastic. Even though they were really long, and we were there for four hours, it was still uber-cool. Then we met up with our buddy again, and we went out for gelato and then dancing! It was awesome... again. Great first night in Milan.



Friday, we slept a lot. Necessary after such a long day. We went back to La Scala to get 10 euro tickets for the ballet Romeo and Juliet! Ahh!!! Then we went to a castle, and we went inside it's museums. They were cool, especially the museum of musical instruments. There were sooo many old instruments, and they were all so cool and interesting. I was amazed with their collection. Then Stephanie fed me the most amazing cannoli ever in the world. I don't know how I'm going to survive without them in France. I'm sure I'll be able to find them. Then we showered, also very necessary, and we went to the ballet! It was just as gorgeous, and it made me miss dancing. It was also dramatic and sad and funny. I loved it so much. I was so happy to go to La Scala twice for 22 euros total and see such amazing works. Now I'm jealous of Stephanie for being in Milan. I'm gonna have to get down to the Paris Opera and see something cool.

Saturday we decided to take a day trip, since there's not as much to do in Milan. I randomly decided to go to Mantua (Mantova). It was actually quite fun, and it was an adorable little Italian town. Round trip train tickets were only 17 euros, but it was 2 hours each way. We slept a lot. The town was soooo old, the palaces and cathedrals were all from like before the 10th century. Everything was brick and falling apart. But there were small remnants of the beautiful frescoes, and it was really great that we went. We also tried this Mantovian delicacy called a chocolate tart, but it definitely didn't look like one. It looked like the amazingness of the top of an apple crumble, but it did not taste nearly as good. Not that it wasn't good at all, but we were expecting more. Furthermore, everytime we ate it, people stared at us. So we wondered if we were eating it wrong or something. Oh well.

Then today, Sunday, we finished up Milan by eating pizza in the canal area. It was nice, but the canal seemed really low on water for some reason. Then we went to Basilica Sant'Ambrogio. It was equally as old as other stuff, and it was very cool to see. Then we had another cannoli, and we walked through the Golden Rectangle, where all the designer shops are. And that was basically it. It took me forever to get home, cuz the Paris metro sucks late at night on Sundays. Oh well, I survived.

Now I'm home. I really will post pictures soon. It was a great trip, but I'm really happy to be back home in Paris!