Milan

A few days after returning to Geneva for some much needed rest I departed on my first solo adventure to Milan! I took the train for a 5 hour trip to Italy. It ended up being an hour late getting me into town around 1230am so instead of walking to my hostel I got a cab. Once I reached my hostel (and after a rather confusing conversation with the receptionist) I set my alarm and went to sleep. Unfortunately, my alarm was still on London time so I woke up 55 minutes after I would have liked. This was very unfortunate since I had to be at my tour in 50 minutes and didn't know exactly where it was. So after quickly getting ready I rushed to the metro in hopes of getting on the right one. Unfortunately my hopes didn't help in navigating and I got on a train instead of a metro and had to try to find someone who spoke English to navigate me back to where I needed to go. Eventually I got to the right place but now I had to find my tour group and hope (since I was 10 minutes late) that they hadn't left already. After asking another person where a certain street was I was able to quickly find my group and hop on the bus 2 minutes before they departed. Relief does not fully describe how I felt since it was an expensive tour and I wouldn't know what to do that morning had I missed it.Our first stop was La Scala, the Milan Opera house. It was a beautiful building where many Italian opera composers have stepped foot in and had their operas performed. It was truly great to be in the same place as composers such as Verdi, Rossini and Bellini.
The next stop was the Duomo which is the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world! The other two are in Rome and Spain. It was such a magnificent building to see! It took 600 years to build! Can you imagine building it and knowing that your grandchildren wouldn't even be alive to see the finished building! It was surely the most detailed Cathedral I have ever seen with a statue or carved picture in every corner!
Next we went to see the Castello Sforzesco, which is a large Palace where many of Leonardo Da Vince's paintings are housed. Speaking of Da Vince, after the Palace we went to where the Last Supper is painted! This was what I had been looking forward to all day! Only half of our group could be let in at once so I waited for the second group. Once I first saw the painting it was truly breathtaking. It gives one a whole new appreciation for art and the presence of God. The church it's painted in is very plain and modest but it fits with the painting somehow. Each disciple in the painting had it's own personality and details that made the painting so lifelike! It was truly wonderful seeing this painting and if you ever have the opportunity I recommend going to see it!
After the tour I went out to lunch with a girl I met on my tour. We both got pizza... and I ate it all. It was delicious! Then we went and got gelato which was quite possibly the best I have had! After doing some wonderful shopping (I got a new dress, sweatpants, tank top, long sleeve shirt and my usual postcards) I went back to my hostel to shower before going out to dinner.

I ended up going to dinner by myself which was actually quite wonderful. I started off with some Bruschetta and wine and then asked the waiter what he recommended for dinner. I had a pasta with mushrooms and a delicious creamy red sauce. I did bring a book and read it for quite a while to let my dinner settle in before dessert :-) I ended up getting a cream ice gelato with fruit on top that was sooo good. :-) It was a nice evening alone and I realized that traveling by ones self isn't really all that lonely since one can do as she pleases and with someone who knows everything about you, yourself. The next day I planned to go to Genoa to see the Mediterranean for the first time!

- B