Milan

Pictures: 1) Maurizio, Ariana, me, Marco, and "Mr. Mojito" in front - the guy who was leaving, ) 2) some other woman, Massimo, Maurizio, 3) The Galleria, 4) the Duomo, 5) prayer candles inside, 6) the castle with fountain in front, 7) in the gardens (see castle behind me), 8) the Duomo from farther away, 9) beautiful as I climbed up, 10) looking down on the square from the top of the Duomo

My first night in Milan (after I took a nap) Maurizio, Demiteris (a friend of his), Ariana (another friend who stayed there that night), and I all drove to another CS friend’s house. They were throwing a party there for a CS guy who was moving away from Milan. The CS community here is very strong and they are basically just a huge network of friends who hang out all the time, thus it was a sad time to loose one of their most active members. I was the only “surfer” there (the rest were all Milanians lol). The party was on the balcony of the top floor of a woman (Esther)’s flat and it was perfect weather - not too hot, not too cold. They were playing music by Queen and singing along and everyone spoke English (though they would only speak it if I was in a particular conversation). I met one girl, Marren, from D.C. who was living in Milan as an actress for children’s shows (trying to teach them English). It was nice to talk to an American, but all the Italians were wonderful too. Many people brought home-made food - I had canolies (like little pastries with ricotta cheese or chocolate inside), some sort of spinach stuff that was really good, and an AMAZING fruit dessert (basically a pastry bottom with all sorts of wonderful fruit on top, and held together with a sugary jelly-like stuff).

The people who were going to stay at Maurizio’s that night were: Ariana (31 and a very sweet, beautiful woman), Marco and Sylvia (a couple who lived about an hour away), Alessandro and Saara (another couple living about an hour away) and me. They were all in town for the party. From the party I went with Marco, Sylvia, Ariana, and Demiteris to a kebab place for some real food while Maurizio (who had gone home earlier) was taking a nap. He met us about 10 pm at Frida’s, which was a bar where about 80 CSers had gathered for the public going-away party (the first was supposed to just be close friends).

At Frida’s I met so many people and had great conversations. Notably, I met a guy who is a good friend of Maurizio’s named Massimo who loves to salsa dance. He explained many Italian gestures to me while I tried to think of American ones. The Italians have so many they practically speak sign language. Haha I also met a guy named Marc from Barcelona who lives in Milan now. We talked a little bit in Spanish, which was cool.

We didn’t end up going back to Maurizio’s until around 1:30 am. I had to sleep on the couch, but it was no problem I was so tired. However, in the morning I kept waking up because Maurizio woke up with Marco and Sylvia who had to leave very early in the morning and they were sitting in the attached dining-room and smoking (of course). My allergies were already bad from all the flower stuff floating in the air, but the smoke just makes it so much worse.

About 1 pm, Alessandro, Saara, Ariana, Maurizio and I all met other CSers at a Japanese restaurant for lunch. Massimo (the sign language guy) was there, and talked about how he’d gotten up that morning and salsa danced with the 2 friends who were staying at his place. I said, “You salsa dance?” And he said “yes” very excitedly, and I said “I teach salsa” and he was like “Oh my god, really? Oh my, we have to go dancing! When do you leave?” He was so cute, like a little child. He may be gay, I’m not sure, but either way, he is very enthusiastic and such a fun person to be around. He always tried to include me in the conversations when everyone would be talking Italian and I would be looking around curiously.

After we got back to Maurizio’s I worked on the computer and everyone left except Maurizio who took a nap. He got up about 7:30, made us pasta for dinner, and then Massimo called to see if I wanted to go salsa dancing. I said “yes!” He picked me up at 10 and we went to this AMAZING place that had three big dance floors with different music on each (bachata, merengue, salsa). We danced for about 1.5 hours and then he took me back (he had to work the next day). I was surprised how good he was, and I think he was surprised at me in return. He kept saying “Mama Mia! You’re so good!”

On the way home he told me different stories about when he used to work on an ambulance team. He saw some really scary things, like when a crazed husband locked him and his co-workers in a bathroom while he stabbed his wife to death before they could break down the door. The man then tried to kill himself, but it didn’t work and then the police arrived and they took him to the hospital.

I got my own room at Maurizio’s that night since everyone else was gone, and that was so good because I could open the window and shut the door and not smell the smoke. Maurizio gave me a set of keys so I could get up whenever I wanted and gave me a map to show me what sights to see the next day. Oh, and he let me do 2 loads of laundry earlier in the day, which was so good since I had practically no clean clothes left! Haha

The next day I took my time getting ready and got out about 12:30. First I went to the Duomo of Milan which is SO beautiful. I went inside but couldn’t climb it yet since climbing to the top was closed from 12 to 2. From there I walked through the Galleria (the area where all the high end stores are like Prada and Louis Vitton). I passed a gelato shop that had a long line of Italians in it and a menu only in Itlain, so I knew it had to be good. I got extra dark chocolate and mint. It was heaven.

From there I walked to the castle, looked around its outdoor courtyards a bit then to the huge park behind it. I saw turtles and ponds and couples making out in broad daylight. Haha It reminded me of the gardens mom, dad, and I went to in Munich.

As I walked along the street back toward the Duomo, I couldn’t help but smile - the day was soo beautiful, there were less tourists than in Florence or Rome so the streets were less crowded, the buildings were so amazing, and the trolley system was so quaint. It was an all around great day.
Back at the Duomo I paid 5 euros to climb up and WoW - the architecture is out of this world. I think Maurizio said it is the third biggest church in the world or something. I was bummed I didn’t have anyone with me to take pictures for me, but I think I got some artistic shots (I was inspired by ones Maurizio had taken and showed me the night before). He is an amateur photographer, and his photos are so beautiful!

From there I went to this area where you can see the canals Leonardo DiVinci built. They used to go all the way into the center by the Duomo and that is how they transported the stones to build the Duomo. Now there isn’t as much left, but the whole town loves DiVinci (there are statues everywhere) and it was cool seeing it knowing he’d designed it.

I got back to Maurizio’s about 5:45, and Anya (a CSer from Poland who had stayed with Maurizio several other times) had arrived. She smoked more than Maurizio, but was a very sweet girl.

At 7:30 we met other CSers at a bar where you pay for one drink (I got a virgin fruit drink) and then get a free buffet dinner. How cool! Marc from Barcelona was there again and I talked to him quite a bit, as well as others around us about movies and TV shows mostly. Marc loves Friends, and we discussed Dawson’s Creek and all sorts of other movies. Marc said that when he first saw Friends it was with subtitles, but now that he has the DVDs he watches them in English and he said it is so much better because so much is lost in translation with subtitles.

We left there around 10:30 and Marc and another guy came back with Anya, Maurizio and me for ice cream. In the car Maurizio was playing a Phil Collins CD and it was so funny because a song we all knew came on and everyone started singing along. It struck me as funny since in America if a guy was singing along to Phil Collins people would probably think it a bit strange (well, unless it was my father of course lol). When we got home, we sat around watching funny YouTube videos about Italians vs. Europeans and eating ice cream.

I am now on a train on my way to Verona where I will stay in a hostel one night before staying with Tiziano in Padua (he is a friend of the Milan group). It is sort of sad leaving Milan since everyone there was so nice and I made so many new friends. I will get to see Marc again when I got to Barcelona because he’ll be visiting that weekend, but other than that, who knows when I’ll see anyone else again.