Day Trip- Venice for Carnivale!

Ever since I've arrived in Milan I've been besieged on every side by the Milanese's ferverish anticipation of Carnivale- pastries, streamers, masks in windows. I couldn't help but understand that Carnivale was an event not to be missed, so obviously I found myself making plans to head across to Venice. Despite every reasonable plan being thwarted (aka hostels booked out, busses filled, etc), my roommates and I came up with a plan: head to Venice on the earliest train (leaving at 7:30 am, costing a mere 14 euros), explore all day, play all night, and leave on the earliest train back to Milano the next morning (5 am, once again, 14 euros).

Saturday morning we hustled over to the station, bought our tickets, raced past the throngs of American students, found seats on the last car and watched as the remaining seats filled, the space between the cars filled, and all standing room in the aisle ways filled. People were literally leaning against the bathroom doors. Despite the train being filled past any reasonable sense of capacity, the conductors found it somehow necessary to stop and open the doors at the next few stops. The fully costumed Carnivale-goers were not in the slightest bit amused that they weren't going to get a seat on the train they already paid for, and in full Italian style screamed and gestured and made their displeasure clear. All excitement aside, we ended up in fantastically sunny Venice by lunchtime.

We headed into the sea of people (literally, look at the crowds behind our head in the first picture), funneled down alleyways until we could break out of the crowds and find a spot for a quick lunch. Full of the cheapest and most delicious thing on the menu (Margarita Pizza, of course), we braved the crowds and headed back into the maze. As we headed down the alleys, jostled on all side by masked partiers, we ran into a parade. I swear, it is becoming a tradition, running into random serenades in random Italian cities.

After much hapless wandering and gawking, we each found the perfect masks and shortly thereafter found ourselves in the heart of the party in Piazza San Marco.

The Piazza was just as crowded as every bit of Venice we had seen so far. The three of us took a few minute to gawk and get our bearings. The costumes ranged from intricately classical-

to flamboyantly whimsical-

to delightfully clever.

After getting our fill of crazy costumes we decided to break away from main events and do some exploring. We stumbled upon the most charming piazza that embodied everything stereotypically Italian. The buildings were colorful, old and charming, the ground covered in cobblestones, and the vendors selling tables of overflowing, mouthwatering treats.

We indulged a little (or maybe a lot), and ducked into a cafe/bar for an espresso/clean bathroom. By that time it was getting dark and we headed back to San Marco for dancing and general revelry. And incredibly, by complete chance, I met up with some girls from Puget Sound that are studying this semester in Rome!

Eventually we crossed back over all the bridges, ducked into every open (read warm) cafe and coffee shop along the way, and claimed a spot on the train-station floor among the fading revelers. The station was lined with people in various states of sobriety and sleep. As soon as we saw our train, we rushed on and claimed spots as people once again pushed on to fill every spare space.

All things considered we had a wonderful adventure, full of excitement and ended up back home in Milano around 9 am, ready to comb the confetti out of our hair and collapse into bed.

Love and Ciao,

Katie

Day Trip- Abbeys of Lombardy

Today was the IES coordinated field trip to the abbeys of Lombardy. We started out our day walking through a heavy ploppy rainfall. As we made our way out of the city via a enormous charter-bus, the rain turned into snow, and the endless rows of building turned into fields and trees.

I loved the first church, the Certosa di Pavia. It was started in 1396 by the omnipresent Visconti family as a tribute to the Virgin Mary for answering their prayers of intercession for male heirs. Upon the birth of said sons, the Visconti's called up the Carthusian monks to build and inhabit a beautiful cathedral. The late-gothic style construction was continued by the Sforza family, as most beautiful buildings of the 1400's are in and around Milan. The nave was finished in 1465, and by then the Renaissance was in full swing and the facade was redesigned in the current style and was completely completed by

1507. The interior was done by the main architect of Milano's Duomo, with beautiful vaulting and an atypical amount of natural light. The ceiling patterns were blue starry skies and tiles, the painting were light and vivid. The blue color was all from the semi-precious stone blue lapiz and retained its beautiful vivid color un-restored after all these years. It was refreshing to see such a whimsical natural theme! After a full tour of the cathedral, the small and grand cloisters, and the dining room by a practicing monk, we headed out for lunch.

Lunch was at a fabulous pizza shop in the nearby town of Vigevano. Vigevano's claim to fame is in being a successful and thriving city strategically located in between Pavia and Milano therefore attracting attention and capture from the likes of the Visconis and (surprise) Sforzas. We got to see the charming snow-covered Ducal square- supposedly the most beautiful piazza in Italy.

Filled to the brim with culture and pizza, we re-boarded our giant, flamingly touristy charter bus with the intention of heading off to the Chiaravalle Abbey. By this point, the snow started dumping in large sticky clumps. At this point I made another cultural discovery- the Milanese handle snow about as well as Portlanders. Long story made short, our bus didn't make very rapid progress. Somewhere around 2 hours behind schedule and still miles away from our destination, the director decided to cut our losses and dump us at the nearest metro station instead of continuing on to see the final abbey. Somehow after being seated on a bus for a few hours it didn't seem like too much of a tragedy!

We trudged through the slippery, grimy slush that non-charmingly coated the streets and arrived home to find our Italian housemate/RA making lasagna for a family dinner! Our day of Cultural adventuring ended in cultural education. What a fabulous day!

Ciao for now!

Day Trip- Torino

Now that I'm settling into my new home in Milano, I decided it was time to start exploring the surrounding area. My roomies, some other girls from the program, and I took a little trip out of Milano on Saturday. We took a train 2 hours, 9.20 euros out to Torino. The more classic architecture and cobbled streets were a nice break from the modern city life and architecture of Milan. By the time we arrived, everyone was absolutely starving, so we ducked into a charming little ristorante that seemed very much like a mom-and-pop joint. The previously mentioned mom came bursting out of the kitchen and started jabbering at us in Italian, apparently taking our orders. After a fair bit of uncertain gesturing, we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. And out it came in the form of gnocchi with tomato sauce and a side of veggies.

The whole town seemed to be putting on a show for us. Within the first few blocks we ran into a quartet serenading the people on the street.

With the music resounding through the air and bouncing down alleys, we wandered around seeing all the palaces various rulers have put around the town to celebrate their power and glory.

Then we went and visited one of the town's claims to fame- one of the top Egyptian museums in the world. Though it was incredible to see the ancient artifacts, mummies, sarcophagi, statues of gods and goddesses, entire temples and tombs, I felt a terrible sense of wrongness. Being able to share artifacts and ancient knowledge is one thing, but permanently removing literally entire temples out of their original location seems tragically disrespectful. All in all I left the museum feeling strange.

Thankfully on our way out we ran into a smile inducing parade with saucy little baton twirlers and four different bands. One of the bands seemed to be made up of former rock-and-rollers, some of the members were rocking out as they wound their way through the cobblestone streets of Torino. It made the day feel like a big party.

We watched the sun set from a bridge overlooking the river running along the edge of town framed by the alps. Once we could no longer deny the effects of the frigid alps air on our fingers and noses, we ducked into Cafe Roberto and tried out the local drink, bacerin, layers of hot chocolat, caffe and whipped cream. We wandered back to the train station munching on roasted chestnuts purchased from a street vendor. All in all, it was a wonderful adventure.

Ciao for now!