After class on Friday, I hopped on a bus to catch my flight to Milan. Unfortunately, since I had a Physiology test coming up the next Wednesday, I had to use every opportunity possible to study if I wanted to do well. This meant studying at the airport and working the whole flight. If there is a motto I’ve taken on for my time abroad, its most definitely “work hard, play hard.”
On our first night in Milan, we were searching near the central train station for some ~authentic~Italian food. Lucky for us, we met a lady (literally) in the middle of the street who was on her way to her favorite local restaurant in Milan, “Ristorante da Oscar,” and invited us to join her for dinner. I will admit, it was a very odd way to meet someone, but no complaints because I ate the best pasta of my life that night.
After checking into the hotel, we were exhausted, but still wanted to explore. We headed to the Navigli, which is an area of Milan with canals and cool bars. We made friends with some people from Sweden and Norway while dancing in the street. They were an absolute riot, so we hung out with them for a while and I even learned an Italian pickup line, “Ti solo man cata,” or “Did you miss me?”. Once it was time to head home, we had a fiasco upon finding the metro had closed at midnight and since there no wifi to call an uber, we determined that we had to walk. We stopped at Duomo and found that 4 am is actually the ideal time to visit and beat the crowds.
The next morning, we walked around town and saw some fashion week action. I killed some time before heading over to Santa Marie di Grazie, where the other highlight of my Milan trip was housed: Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” I learned that it is actually NOT a fresco, but rather a failed experimental technique of painting over plaster. Being in the presence of such a masterpiece was some of the most surreal 15 minutes of my life. After, I headed over to the Brera district and had some delicious pizza and wine.
That evening, we got on a train to Bellano, a small town along Lake Como. We arrived once it was dark outside, so I just did some work and went down to the beach outside the Airbnb for a little. The next morning, we didn’t even consider that everything, even the grocery stores, would be closed since it was a Sunday. I determined that if we were going to eat, we were going to have to a larger neighboring town called Varenna.
The walk took about 2 hours, but it was so worth it because the whole road was along the edge of the lake and it was a nice cool day. Across the lake, we also saw the other large towns, Mennagio and Bellagio (the inspiration for the Las Vegas hotel). After that, I’m definitely starting to think that I am the “we can walk there” friend. In Varenna, I enjoyed eating delicious food and wandering along the small windy cobblestone streets. It was such a romantic place I would absolutely dream of going back to!
Fast forward to that evening, where we took a train to Bergamo, which is the small town we were flying out of. Since our flight was at 6 am the next morning, we were planning on just spending the night in the airport since it wouldn’t be worth it to pay for a hotel and taxi. I had never spent the night in the airport before, but I was up for the adventure and saving some dough. I read a guide to sleeping in the Bergamo airport before though, so I felt prepared, but I quickly learned that NOTHING could prepare me for the night ahead.
We got there around 9 pm and were luckily able to secure a spot in a café with the actual only plugs in the airport. I studied until 1 am, but were then told to move. It was a little difficult to find a place to sleep since there were people in the chairs and all along the walls. It seemed like a totally normal thing for people to sleep in the airport, and I was quite impressed by the people who prepared and brought sleeping bags. We found an empty space along the wall, but our time there was brief, because we were woken up by the sound of police banging their keys on the metal on the wall above us at 4 am. Also, I think I should mention that they were carrying huge guns while doing so. Fortunately, we could go through security at this point and we napped in a booth at Mickey D’s until it was time to board the flight back to Germany.
All in all, it was quite the miracle I made it to my 10 am class. The rest of the week was pretty short- we only had class Monday through Wednesday, with the grand finale being the physiology test Wesnesday night.
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