First Few Weekends in Italy
After taking a long overnight plane from New York, I arrived in Milan, Italy. I was a little surprised to see the whole city in a hazy fog, but I soon found out (and was relieved) that is actually normal weather in Nothern Italy in January! From there I took a cab to my dormitory just south of the main city of Milan. I immediately took a five-hour nap to catch up on some much-needed sleep! After waking up, I met some other students from my dorm who are from Ireland! We became friends very quickly and went out to explore the city of Milan a little.
After a few days, I eventually met up with some of the other Ohio State students on this study abroad with me! Two of those students are Ben and John, whom I have gotten to know really well throughout this study abroad. There were about 10 days before classes started, so we had a lot of time to get to know each other, different students, and the city of Milan. We experienced the Piazza del Duomo, the main cathedral here in Milan, and went on top of it to see the whole city! It was absolutely breathtaking and I still get excited every time I pass the Duomo today. We also visited some museums, such as the Leonardo Di Vinci Museum, the Museo del Novecento, and the Brera Art Gallery, all of which were fantastic.
After getting acclimated for two weeks or so, my friends and I begin seeing more of Italy than just Milan! During the second weekend here, we decided to take a train to Florence, Italy. There we visited the Uffizi, a famous art museum home to many Roman sculptures and paintings. I highly recommend the Uffizi as it is one of the best and most well-preserved museums in Italy, and quite frankly, the world. One aspect we liked about Florence is that it had this very "Italian" city feel to it. By this I mean it had colorful buildings, twisty and narrow alleyways, and a more traditional look. This is in contrast to Milan's very large, busy feel. Also in Florence, we visited the beautiful Boboli Gardens, pictured above. It was one of my favorite places we have been to so far. The gardens are massive and offer a lot to see, including giant fountains, amphitheaters, vineyards, and an amazing view of the whole city. In addition to the great views and artwork, we had some pretty darn good food as well. We stopped at this famous sandwich shop in the street and while simple, the sandwich was amazing. You cannot get fresher prosciutto and mozzarella than in Italy. On our last day in Florence, we took an hour or so train ride to Pisa on the coast. There we went directly to the famous leaning tower, which was actually a little smaller than I expected. Nevertheless, it was very cool. Despite the uniqueness of the tower, we quickly found out that there is not much else to do in Pisa other than see the tower, so we went back to Florence after a few hours.
The very next weekend, some friends of mine from back in Minnesota who were also studying abroad in Italy came to visit me in Milan! That Saturday, we ended up taking a train to Lake Como, which is about forty minutes outside the city near the mountains. Lake Como has got to be one of the most charming places in the world. The water is clear and calm, and there are so many little cities that you can get to via ferry across the lake. We even took a tramcar up the face of one of the mountains and saw the lake from the peak. I cannot explain to you in words how pretty it was, especially at sunset. We had dinner on a balcony and just took it all in! It is an absolute must-see in Northern Italy, and they have filmed quite a few movies there as well including Star Wars. The very next day we went to an AC Milan Soccer game! This was a great experience as I have never been to a European Soccer (or football) game before. The stadium of San Siro is awesome and the crowd was very rowdy. It was a crazy atmosphere and I cannot wait to go back to another game soon.
Overall Milan and Italy, in general, have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and experience that I cannot say enough good things about. I look forward to sharing more exciting stories and experiences as the semester goes on. Hopefully, I can get outside the country more and see other places and cultures outside of Italy! Traveling via plane or train here is very inexpensive so I will be on the lookout for that!
