The World Is My Runway (Week 6)

This week was pretty relaxed as far as classes go. We had our genetics exam last week, so not too much happening there. I did have my first final writing assignment for my biomedical narrative course. My goal for that assignment was to finish it and turn it in before Friday, when I left for Milan, but that didn't happen.

Two big events did happen this week: an enmodes meeting and a trip to Uniklinik. The enmodes meeting wasn't too bad, since we were just presenting some really basic ideas for solutions to the problem we chose to concentrate on, which was hemocompatibility. Our presentations all seemed to go pretty well and the people from enmodes were helpful pointing out areas to focus on. And the lunch that we had afterwards was super tasty. They brought in soups and one of them had this mashed potato base that you put in the bowl first, before adding the beef soup. I wish I knew where the soup was from, because I would totally go for more on my own time. 

The Uniklinik trip was pretty cool and interesting because we got to observe different surgeries. We were split up into BMEN and BIMS and visited on different days. What was nice about that is whichever group wasn't going to the hospital had the day off of class. Honestly, I wasn't very productive on my day off. I did a bit of studying and a little bit of work on my writing assignment, but no significant progress was made. Since BIMS had Wednesday off, I still had my genetics lecture at 1945, which was the only annoying part of the day. Thursday, when I got to go to Uniklinik, I had to get up earlier than normal and we took a long bus ride to the outskirts of Bonn. 

When we got to the hospital, we dropped off our stuff, got split up into groups, and went through a dressing room to get scrubs, hair nets, etc. before passing over to the "clean" side of the hospital, where the surgeries took place. The surgery I watched first was where this old man was getting a colostomy bag. It was hard to get a good look at what was going on because of the surgeons and nurses working on the guy, but I was still able to watch some of what was going on. I talked to the anesthesiologist for a bit about the patient and the kinds of things he has track. He told me about the brain waves that are monitored so the patient isn't sedated too deeply but also so they don't wake up during surgery. I also learned about this tool that the surgeon used, which utilized an electrical current to basically cauterize the incisions, so the patient doesn't bleed all over the place. I also learned a bit about the patient himself. He was older, in his 60s, and had very poor heart health. The anestesiologist told me that his heart output was about 30% of what is normal and throughout the surgery, he had multiple arythmias that set off alarms on the monitors. 

The second surgery I saw was quite similar, but it was a much younger patient getting a colostomy bag removed. She had been in the ICU for around six months after developing a severe infection throughout her abdominal cavity. I guess that she had recovered enough for her bag to be removed, which is really good for her. It's also really nice for people such as this woman, who are in the hospital long-term, that Germany has the health care system it does. I don't even want to think about how much that kind of care would cost someone in the US. What was really weird was that when the bag was first removed, there was a little piece of the woman's intestine sticking out of her abdomen. I could see it pulsing with her heart beat as it was outside of her body. For this surgery, I had a better vantage point, so I could see the different layers of tissue the surgeon cut through- the skin, fat, and muscle- to get to the intestine. I left before the surgery was over because our time as a group at the hospital was up. We could have stayed longer individually, but I wasn't positive that I'd be able to find my way back on my own, so I left with the others. Before we left, while we were waiting for everyone to meet up, I also got the chance to peak in on an open-heart surgery. That was pretty amazing, to clearly see someone's exposed heart. I saw the beating of the heart during the second surgery I watched, but that was through the diaphragm. Seeing the open-heart surgery was definitely the hightlight of the day. 

On the personal side of things, this weekend I was in Milan. To be honest, despite the title of the post, I wasn't able to see any fashion shows while in Milan for the end of Fashion Week. Only one show was open to the public and it was for a brand I'd never heard of and on Sunday evening, so that wasn't going to work with my plans. But I did pass by/through a photo shoot, saw some interesting street styles, and can still say I've been in Milan for Fashion Week, so I'm satisfied with how things went. For now.

There was actually a group of us, but we were all staying in different places and everybody wanted to see something different than I did, so I ended up by myself for the trip, until we were getting on the plane at the airport. We got in to Milan Friday night and ran into a girl from Florida who was there for fashion week. She had been to Milan before and told us about this great little family-run place, Ristorante Da Oscar. The group of us went with her to the restaurant and were lucky enough to get the last table with room for the six of us. Pretty much everyone got one of the pastas with the Sauce de Oscar, which was super yummy. Definitely would recommend this place for anyone visiting Milan. 

After we split up to go to our respective accomodations, I didn't see anyone the rest of the weekend. Mostly because the others wanted to see Lake Como on Saturday and Sunday and I wanted to see Milan, Turin and Bergamo. I had and itinerary planned that would have let me split Saturday between Milan and Turn and then spend Sunday in Bergamo, but I planned it based on when everything opened in Milan. Come Saturday morning, I found out that everything actually opened up later than what I had found online and once I was told I wouldn't be able to see the Last Supper until 1630, I knew my plan was completely shot and Turin wouldn't be happening. That was pretty disappointing since Turin is supposed to be the chocolate capital of Italy and there's a church there that has the supposed burial shroud of Jesus, which has the image of his face basically scanned on to it. I say scanned because I saw in a documentary that a scan, as with a copy machine, is the only kind of light exposure that would produce the image that is on the cloth. 

Since I had the whole day in Milan, though, I was able to take my time seeing everything, which really wasn't much, and do a few extra things. I ended up going back and forth across the city just because I wanted to see some sites before other places opened and then found out I'd be there the whole day, and revisted most of what I saw in the morning. I went to Santa Maria delle Grazie, found out they opened much later than I thought, then walked into town to see other sites while I killed time. I went to Sforza Castle, which also opened later than I thought, then the Cathedral and Palazzo Reale, and the Basilica di San Lorenzo Maggiore before returning to Santa Maria delle Grazie. Buying the ticket from Santa Maria delle Grazie was my priority for the morning, since I didn't want them to sell out, and I made sure to get to the church when the ticket office opened. Even then, the only single ticket that was available for Saturday was for the 1630 tour. The tours are only 15 minutes, in an effort to preserve The Last Supper, since it's not a typical fresco and was already deteriorating during da Vinci's lifetime. 

Realizing that Turin wasn't happening, I went back to Sforza Castle to see their museums. It was actually really interesting because I got to see Michelangelo's Pietà. Even unfinished, it still holds a lot of meaning due it's portrayal of suffering and is a unique portrayal of many moments of Jesus' life. There's also work by da Vinci at the castle, in the Sala delle Asse, but it's been undergoing restoration since 2013 and is not open to the public. 

The Egyptian museum was also closed for renovations, which was disappointing, but there was still a lot of medieval and renaissance works to see, along with Roman ruins, an armory, and an interesting book display that taught about how various forms of damage occur to books, such as water damage, rats eating pages, cuttings of illustrations, and the effects of some inks. 

Next, I walked through Parco Sempione to see the Arco delle Pace, which was impressive. After a few photos there, I walked to Brera, a smaller neighborhood on the NE side of the city with a bunch of cute shops, restaurants, and lots of charm. I got a pizza for lunch, because it's Italy, at a place called El Beverin. Best pizza I've ever had thus far in my life. Everything about it was absolutely delicious. 

After lunch, I still had about 2.5 hours before my tour to see The Last Supper. I hit up the Teatro Alla Scala next and went into the museum. The most impressive thing about the museum, for me, was all of the old instruments and the history of the building itself. Apparently, the theatre burned down multiple times and pretty much every time it was rebuilt, it was financed by wealthy patrons in exchange for ownership of the boxes. I also found out that they had matinee seats for €18. I had to put my name on a list (#119, A-WHOOP!) and then come back at 1730 for them to go through the list and give tickets to the people who were there. The opera that night was Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's Cenerentolla, which is basically another version of the Cinderella story. For €18, I couldn't not see it. 

With still more time to kill, I went into the Palazzo Reale, a super high-end shopping mall by the Milan Cathedral (the Duomo). I just walked through it though, since I'm not bougie enough to be able to afford anything from the stores there. After that, I went to the cathedral again and got a ticket to go inside the cathedral and museum and up to the roof. I didn't end up going into the museum, unfortunately, because I ran out of time. As the third largest cathedral in Europe, the Duomo is an impressive feat of architecture. On both the outside and the inside, there is so much detail in the columns, glass, etc. that it's hard to absorb. After almost 200 stairs, the views from the roof were amazing too, since you could see most of Milan by walking around the cathedral. I couldn't go up any of the spires, so it wasn't the panoramic view that we got at the Cologne Cathedral, but still quite breathtaking. 

This picture is from the morning, when there weren't many people out because of how cold it was.

And, finally, it was time for me to go back to Santa Maria delle Grazie to see the famous Last Supper mural. Unfortunately, when I got there, I discovered that at some point in the day I had lost my ticket. I was almost crying at the desk to the church, digging through my purse and bag of souvenirs and receipts. Since I didn't buy it online, there was no way for them to look up my ticket. But the guy at the front had mercy on me and said that if I bought another ticket, he would still let me in with my group. That was really amazing of him because he also said that tickets for the next few weeks were sold out. So I ran over to the ticket office and bought another €10 ticket, ran back to the museum entrance where the guy wrote 1630 over the time printed on the ticket, and then caught up with the tour group in the room where the mural is. Since I was late, I didn't get a headset from the tour guide and had to stick by her the whole time we were in there. She was an excellent guide though and pointed out so many details that I wouldn't have noticed or thought about and explained each of their meanings. After she explained some of the details, I had a better appreciation for the movement and emotion of the work. And I'll say that the mural is much larger than I expected it to be, spanning the entire wall of one end of the dining room in which it is located. There is also another mural in the dining room, on the opposite wall. It's by a different master artist of a completely different style. That fresco took 6 months to finish, compared to the 4 years it took to complete The Last Supper, but is a flat, traditional renaissance style. The Last Supper, by comparison, is much more life-like and impressive. Leonardo da Vinci's use of light and perspective was truly masterful. 

Once that short, 15-minute tour was over, I headed back to the Teatro alla Scala to secure my ticket for the opera. Just a few minutes into my walk though, I accidently walked through a photo shoot. There was a guy on the side walk who tried to talk to me but he was speaking Italian and I was in a hurry, so I just kept going. There was an asian woman modelling a dress and a photographer and a few other people were standing around a car parked by the sidewalk. I didn't notice until I was already in their way, since the street was curved. But at least they got a picture of my good side.

I arrived at the theatre about ten minutes before they started calling numbers. I met this really nice woman from Lebanon, Zineb, and we talked while we waited. She was in town for fashion week too but wasn't able to see any of the shows. Both of us were able to get a ticket and when we lined up to pay, we started talking to the group in front of us. It was a daughter, mother, and grandmother from the US. The daughter, Mia, is actually studying abroad in France but her mom and grandmother surprised her by coming to Europe to visit and they were all vacationing for a bit in Florence, before ending their trip in Milan. They were all really nice and funny. It took forever to pay for our tickets, so we only had about half an hour before the theater opened for the show. I went with my fellow Americans to a little restaurant/café by the theater for a light dinner and then we said our goodbyes when we had to split up to find our seats. 

The theater itself is gorgeous and the opera was entertaining, even though I had no idea what was being said. The opera was in Italian and the supertitles were also in Italian, so that was helpful. The opera itself, La Cenerentola, was a different take on the Cinderella story than I am familiar with. In this story, the prince disguises himself as his own valet and his valet pretends to be the prince. This way, in his search for a bride, he can observe the aspiring brides and figure out their true intentions and personalities. Instead of a cruel stepmother, Cenerentola/Angelina has a cruel stepfather, which was unexpected but her stepsisters are the same vain and arrogant girls as the Disney story. Basically, the prince falls in love with Cenerentola as soon as he sees her, when delivering the invitation to the ball disguised as a valet. Cenerentola's stepfather doesn't take her to the ball with her stepsisters, but she is accompanied by the prince's tutor, who Cenerentola treated well when he pretended to be a beggar in order to inspect her stepfather's palace. At the ball, the prince suspects the beautiful lady who arrives late to be Cenerentola, which it is, of course. His valet, still pretending to be the prince, proposes to Cenerentola, but she declines and says she loves the fake prince's valet. When the real prince hears, he reveals his identity and Cenerentola gives him one of her bracelets before running off, I guess agreeing to marry him if he can find her. When the prince searches for the mysterious lady, a storm causes his carraige to breakdown outside of Cenerentola's stepfather's castle, where he seeks refuge. While there, he sees the matching bracelet of the one given to him at the ball on Cenerentola's wrist and declares his love and reveals his identity. The last act is the wedding, where I think Angelina also asked for the prince to forgive her family. 

The cast all had impressive voices, of course, but my one complaint was that the leading male actor, the prince, didn't project his voice very well. It was so hard to hear him from my seat any time he had a part to sing. And if other people were singing too, he was just completely drowned out. Besides that, the entire show was quite impressive. The stage design and costumes were both unique and beautiful and the story was entertaining, even without me knowing exactly what was being said. All in all, I'm very glad that I ended up spending the whole day in Milan and got to experience the opera at Teatro alla Scala. 

Cenerentola/Angelina's entrace at the ball.

The wedding at the end of the opera.

The last thing I did in Milan was walk back to the Palazzo Reale and spin on my heel three times on top of the bull. According to Mia, it's supposed to be good luck and, sure enough, when I went there was a little line of people taking turns spinning around on their heels. So many people have done this that there is actually an indent in the floor! Honestly, I'm just hoping for a good GPA this semester. 

Come Sunday, I left Milan and caught a bus back to the Bergamo airport, where we were flying out of. From the airport, I bought an all-day pass for the bus to Bergamo and transportation in the city. Since I only had my one Nomatic backpack, I decided not to worry about finding a luggage storage place and just carried it around with me during the day. I spent all day in Upper Bergamo (Città Alta) and it was exactly what I imagined an old city in Italy to be. There was cobblestone everywhere, narrow streets, lots of hills, and even Roman ruins. I got off the bus at the Funiculare station in Lower Bergamo (Città Bassa), which is where you catch the funicular coach up 85 meters to Città Alta, passing through Bergamo's ancient Venetian walls on the way to the upper station. At first, I just walked around the upper city, exploring pretty leisurely. There was one shop I found, Trattoria da Ornella, that had pizzas bought by the slice, but the slices were rectangular and quite large and made to be carried out. They also had a bakery, but I didn't buy anything sweet to go with my pizza because I don't have three arms to hold everything. This pizza was not quite as good as the one I had in Milan, but it was still one of the best pizzas I've ever had the pleasure of consuming. 

As I ate, I walked around some more and I ended up going all the way over to the northern gate, Porta San Lorenzo, and then working my way back around the outer edge of the walls to southern gate, Porta San Giacomo. After that, I headed back to the main part of the city to see the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, which dates back to 1137 when it was built on the ruins of a church (also dedicated to St Mary) from the 8th century, which was built over a Roman temple. Adjacent to the church is the Cappella Colleoni, the personal church and mausoleum of Bartolomeo Colleoni and his daughter, Medea, who were part of one of Bergamo's most outstanding families. I couldn't take pictures inside of the chapel, but I was allowed to take photos of the basilica's interior. The amount of detail in nearly every inch of the basilica blew my mind. The ceilings are incredibly intricate, there are statues everywhere, and large paintings and/or tapestries are on every wall. On another side of the same plaza is the Duomo di Bergamo, or Cattedrale di Sant'Alessandro. This is another impressive, neo-classical church that is apparently the seat of the Bishop of Bergamo. It is built on the site of an older cathedral dedicated to St Vincent but was dedicated to St Alexander (the patron saint of Bergamo) when the cathedral was rebuilt. 

Next, I went across the plaza, to where there was a special exhibit going on at the museum. The exhibit was super interesting because it was all about how Bergamo came to be. People have pretty much always lived in the area but, as a city, Bergamo started off as a Roman outpost and developed further due to its central location for trade, fertile land, and defensible position. The exhibit had a lot of Roman artifacts on display, which was pretty cool, in addition to an enlarged replica of an ancient map of the Roman empire that included Bergamo. 

Of course, one of the things on my list of things to do in Italy was to have gelato. So that's what I did next, as a snack before dinner. I went to Gelateria Cherubino and got a cone with three different flavors: Kinder, Fragola (strawberry), and Nocciola (hazelnut). I haven't had gelato in Germany yet, since most of the shops are still closed for the season, so I don't have another European location with which to compare my Italian gelato, but I will confirm that gelato in Italy is exquisite. 

While enjoying my gelato, I made way to Torre del Gombito, a 52-meter-tall medieval tower. The corner on which the tower is located is part of the intersection of the ancient Roman streets il cardo and il decumano, which is super cool. Next, I went to an archaeological site where archeaologists have unearthed remains of civilizations, including Roman, going back to prehistory. 

The last site that I saw in Bergamo was Rocca, a 15th century bastion that houses the Museo del Risorgimento, which was closed because it was Sunday. It would have been interesting to see the museum because it's all about the struggle for Italian independence from Austria. Anyway, since Rocca is at the top of a hill, views of Bergamo cover a full 360 degrees. The city from up there was beautiful, especially with the sun starting to set. 

To finish out my day in Bergamo, I decided to have dinner at Da Mimmo. The restaurant has existed since 1956 and is famous for pizza, since it's one of the first pizzarias in Bergamo. But, since I had already had pizza twice while in Italy, I decided to balance the pizza out with a second pasta dinner. I ordered the slow-cooked tagliatelle in a cheese sauce and it was so delicious. There really wasn't too much to it, but this was absolutely one of the best pastas I've ever had in my life. The house wine was quite nice as well, not as amazing as the pasta but still good. Although, thinking about it, I think the wine at Oscar's from Friday night was better. The downside of the restaurant, for me, was the service. I was seated next to where they kept the little bags of bread and small plates for appetizers. The waitress wouldn't look at me and never took my order. Instead, I grabbed my own bag of bread and plate and the host from the front is the one who took my order and interacted with me. When I was full, I finally got the waitress to talk to me and asked for a take-away box, so it wasn't as if she couldn't understand any English to the point where she couldn't have served me. And when she took my plate to put it in a container, she didn't even let me keep the last full piece of bread that I had left. Nope, just the pasta in my little box, which was frustrating. I'll just say that, at least for Americans, service will probably not be the best at this restaurant and the food, while amazing, doesn't hide that fact. So my last impression of Italy was a mixed bag: great food but difficult people.

After dinner, I headed back down the funicular and caught the bus to the airport, and got there around 2100. The airport was another bad impression to leave with because I waited in the security line for half an hour, only to be told I couldn't check in until 0300 since my flight wasn't until 0600. The airport also had no outlets, only charging stations that you had pay for. I was wandering around, trying to figure out how I was going to spend the next nine hours and was lucky to find that the chapel in the airport had no less than four outlets for me to choose from. Unfortunately, they apparently close the chapel, along with most of the airport at eleven. I was actually yelled at to get out of the chapel and then when I found an open seat that I could sleep in, I was kicked out of that too because it was apparently in the area of the airport being closed. Once again, I was blessed to find an open few seats, where I tried to lay out. It wasn't very comfortable though and I don't think I ever really fell asleep. At 0300, I was at the roped-off section of the airport waiting to be let in so I could go through security but they only let people through on an earlier flight and didn't actually let me or anyone else through until 0400. So now, after about 20 minutes spent getting through security, I'm finally at the gate I wanted to be at 7.5 hours ago. But it's fine. I'm fine. 

Class is going to be extremely hard to get through today.