A Weekend of Celebratory Acts

The reason to celebrate: I gave my 10-15 minute presentation in class on Thursday (and held an individual celebration by buying a cannoli) and our Intensive Language Program course officially finished on Friday with our oral finals.

The sunset over Bologna from the top of a tower we climbed with our class.

Part #1: A bunch of us Californians got together for a picnic with some other Erasmus friends in the Giardini Margherita (the park near my apartment) on Friday afternoon. We drank wine, ate chips, played soccer (!!), and generally frolicked around for a few hours.

At the picnic! (Me, Maia, Karol, Serena, Daniela, and Larissa)

Part #2: My friends Allison and Maia came over to my apartment and we cooked gnocchi with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella--molto buono! And we split a bottle of wine to celebrate the completion of our ILP course.

Buon appetito!

Part #3: Allison, Maia, and I headed to the center of town (while splitting another bottle of wine) to meet up with the same picnic crew. We danced and socialized at a bar/club for a few hours and then returned home around 3am (I went to bed at 4am after a shower).

Part #4: Woke up at 6am to get ready for our weekend trip to Milan, met Maia in Piazza Maggiore at 7:15am, and woke up Allison with a phone call to see where she was. She got ready in 10 minutes flat and we rushed to grab a taxi to head to the train station. We ate a breakfast of bread and brie on the train and tried to snooze a bit on the 3-hour train ride.

Allison with our bread and brie on the train!

Part #5: Arrived in Milan around 11am (and paid 1 euro to use the train station bathroom)! Walked to our hostel (Zebra Hostel, which seemed to be half hostel/half club) and got settled into our new communal bedroom we were sharing with 5 other people (we knew we wouldn't be showering, but were thankful the bathroom seemed relatively clean). Thank you dorm life for building up my immune system and for habituating me to living in close-quarters with people!

Part #6: Maia, Allison, and I grabbed lunch to reboot at a restaurant near the Duomo (the huge cathedral) in Milan (about a 15-minute walk from our hostel).

Part #7: Ate gelato. (This action obviously requires a whole "Part" for itself.)

Part #8: A) First rejection from entering the Duomo. Allison and Maia were wearing shorts and tank tops (we needed to cover our knees and our shoulders to enter), and I was wearing a dress that didn't cover my shoulders. Time to go shopping!
B) Returned to the Duomo with scarves for our shoulders and Allison and Maia had bought and put on pants. I was rejected because my dress hit JUST above my knees (I guess they're actually serious about the knee thing)...so time to shop again! I bought a long skirt to pull on and we finally made it into the gorgeous church.

The Duomo was HUGE! (3rd largest in Europe according to Rick Steves) 

Pretty marble floor and stained glass windows.

Part #9: Climbed the stairs to get to the roof of the Duomo--amazing view from the top! It was so fun to be among the spires on TOP of the Duomo, rather than only looking up at them from the ground. We hung out for a little while on the roof since we were running on about 3 hours of sleep and our feet were tired. Apparently it's quite the hang-out (for 6 euros) for high school couples.

Spires on the roof!

Allison, Maia, and me on the roof.

Part #10: We headed back to the Zebra Hostel around 5:30 to take a nap. It's slightly disruptive when the walls are paper-thin, there are no doors in the door frames, and people are talking very loudly in the next room. But it was a much-needed rest!

Part #11: We treated ourselves to a nice dinner near the Duomo around 9pm (a very European time!); we ordered pasta and wine, and enjoyed people watching since it was part of Fashion Week in Milan!

Pasta with pesto and vino!

Part #12: After dinner, we grabbed the 2nd gelato of the day and sat on the steps in front of the Duomo. As usual, some weird guys approached us and were talking to us until we told them to go away. Then a young Ukrainian guy who was sitting behind us (and who spoke perfect Italian and a few words of English) starting chatting and joking around with us. He became our mini tour-guide for an hour or so and he showed us some of the things we hadn't explored near the Duomo: the Galleria (a shopping mall right next to the Duomo) and the Castello (a castle a few blocks away from the Duomo). He walked us back to the hostel around 2am and we parted ways. It was great to practice our Italian with him!

Me with the Duomo.

Part #13: We slept! Finally. Of course, our drunk roommates decided to come back at 6am and talk loudly, but we slept until 9:30 and then got up to eat breakfast. The hostel provided breakfast, but it consisted of toast with jam (not bad, but good luck finding a plate) and cold coffee (without sugar). Needless to say, we at lunch soon thereafter. But hey, the hostel was an interesting experience, and we were only there for 1 night, so it wasn't too bad!

Part #14: We ate lunch at a cafe next to the Duomo (we ordered coffees and panini!). We were finally ready to explore a bit before heading back to the train station.

Part #15: After lunch, we headed to a Ferrari shop we had seen the night before and wandered around looking at all the expensive souvenirs. Our Ukrainian friend had told us that inside the Castle walls there was a big garden/lawn area, so we made our way over to the Castel and rested on the lawn for about 15 minutes (I realize in writing this down that it seems like we rested more than we did things, but it had been a long weekend and we did A LOT of walking around Milan).

Part #16: We forced ourselves to get up and walk to the train station (took about 45 minutes), got on our train, and headed back to Bologna!

Inside the castle wall.

And thus concludes our 48-hour celebration of finishing our ILP course! It was such a fun weekend with my girls and we were the perfect travel companions for each other! :)