In the latest installment of Logan's Italian Adventures, I went on my first weekend trip this past weekend! I have a couple more of these trips during my time here, so it was good to finally experience one! I like traveling a lot, I can't wait to see what other cool places I get to go see! Also, I'm sorry if the font gets super weird. It looks all the same when I am composing this, but it sometimes gets weird when I publish it. Technology is sometimes good, sometimes not. Speaking of which, let me just reiterate how much I miss clothes dryers. I will never take mine back home for granted ever, ever again. Go hug yours, right now. Did you? Okay, you may now continue reading. Heads up, this is a long post <3
-Early friday morning we had to meet at a bus that was waiting across town. This trip was supposed to be with two of my roommates, but unfortunately one fell sick right before we left and she had to stay behind. At least she didn't pay for the trip, it was paid for by our school. So then we rode on the bus, which is always pretty because we drive right through the tuscan countryside, and sometimes through the Italian alps, depending on which way we are going.
-It was a long bus ride, but we finally get to Parma... The land of magical Parmesan cheese!!!! :) we stopped at a dairy farm of sorts where we learned how this specific factory makes their Parmigiano-Feggiano formaggio. First, we got to taste different kinds of cheesy breads, little appetizers avec fromage, and Parmesan aged 12, 24 and 36 months. The darker the cheese, the older and harder it's going to be, but richer the flavor. My favorite was the 24, right in between. On the tour we got to see their inner workings They have their own land, their own cows/goats, their own factory, their own distribution plant, the works. They rely on nobody but the postal service, which I found amazing. Also, it ages for at least 12 months to even be considered "parmigiano-reggiano"! There was about 7,000 wheels of cheese stored in their warehouse curing, and it was so cool! Smelled weird, but I've never seen so much cheese in my life. We had to wear the little plastic booties over our shoes and everything. It was legit.
-More bus riding brought us to Como, which is where our hotel was. I thought we were going to stay in Milan, but since the next week (beginning the 25th) is Milan fashion week, I'm assuming no places were available and not affordable. So we went to our little hotel, then onto dinner at a restaurant called Birrificio di Como, which essentially was a brew house that had a brewery on site, and it is also a pizza house. Because, Italians NEVER drink wine with pizza (I learned this from the tour guide in Assisi) they drink beer, and here they make some of the best. Here was our menu:
Risotto with Prosecco and Rosemary
“Giro Pizza”, a different selection of Pizza
Homemade Jam Pie
So, I actually ordered a beer! It was very exciting because I personally don't like it, but when it's a) free and b) recommended by the restaurant, then I will try it for sure. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible lol. I gave the rest of it to one of my friends that came on the trip, lol. The risotto though.... Dat risotto.... So good. I ate way more than I care to admit I did. Same thing with this pizza-- okay so we had no idea what a "different selection of pizza" was because that was verbatim on our itinerary. No one had any idea what that meant, and past people that had gone on the trip wouldn't ruin the surprise for us. After they clear the risotto mess, out from the kitchen people just start carrying pizza after pizza out to us, Brazilian steakhouse style. You know, where they carry around the slabs of meat on huge skewers? Yeah, like that. These pizzas are LARGE and they come around to each table offering slices to us, and each pizza is something different. Margherita, pesto, prosciutto and pineapple, spinach and potato, arugula and cheese, geez we tried so many I literally don't remember them all. We figure out after the first two that we cannot eat whole slices ourselves so we start cutting the slices in halves and fourths to share with the table so we can taste, because there must have been around 12 or 15 different kinds of pizzas. I don't even know, I didn't count. They were all so good, and I went into a food coma that night. Way worse than Chipotle food comas, which are legendary. Sometimes I miss Chipotle while I'm here, but then I go get a delicious panino and gelato and then I feel better ;)
-The next morning, Saturday, we had another early call time and we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel, then on a bus for about an hour to Milan. We began with a guided tour of the Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci at Cenacolo Vinciano, Duomo, Scala. I was a bad art major and COMPLETELY forgot from last semester that Da Vinci's last supper was literally in Milan until I saw the itinerary and freaked out. I was all excited to hang out with my roommate, but there wasn't enough tickets for both of us to be in the same tour group so we had to split up. But I had friends in the second grouping so it luckily worked out. Anyway, this "dry fresco" is on a wall inside a monastery's refectory (now turned museum). So every day the monks would eat in the same room as this gorgeous painting, no big deal. The refectory has these really intense doors that close only when the door on the other side opens, so it keeps air, humidity and the elements out as much as humanly possible. They only allow groups in there for 15 minutes, so we had a guy quickly describe it and then we were ushered out. This painting is so cool in person though, because Da Vinci made all of the faces different, which was new for that time. And when you're up close you can see all the textures and colors, although they are faded. Each person is reacting differently to Jesus's words of "one of you will betray me". Thomas is pointing his finger up (foreshadowing when Christ returns in front of him and he must physically put his finger in his wound to believe he is real), Peter has a knife in his hand (foreshadowing what he will do to a soldier when they come to arrest Jesus), Judas is leaning away from Jesus as if to try to hide his guilt. And even though in the Da Vinci code they say that Mary Magdalene was present at the time of the last supper, she's not. That person in the corner with the smooth face is John the evangelist, who in all Renaissance art was depicted as super young by having him clean shaven and with long hair. Hmm I know there is more religious symbolism but that's all I can think of for now. Art history is so interesting! :) we weren't allowed to take pictures of the real thing, but I did take a picture of a replica inside the bookshop.
-We then went on a walking tour of the city while the other group did something else. It was cold and rainy so that wasn't opportune. I forgot my gloves back in the hotel because we had to be up so early and my brain wasn't awake, and so my hands were wet and freezing, so I was struggling trying to take pictures and walk and not get run over. But besides the sucky weather, the city is so cool! We passed old buildings, a medieval castle owned by the Visconti family, and saw shopping centers after shopping centers. The galleria- which is basically their really high-end mall- was so beautiful. There were only designer stores in the shopping center so it was all top notch stuff. Gucci, Prada, Louie, Armani, Hermes, the usual. It is a fashion capital for a reason, and it was so cool. Everyone was dressed nice too, that was cool. Despite the weather, everyone had a look of chicness, whereas I felt unfashionable but at least I was somewhat dry. My friends and I just mainly walked around when we had free time. We went inside the Milan cathedral and it was gorgeous!!! The is a pope and Cardinal buried there, and the inner nave and aisles are humongous. Many pictures were taken, and I'm not sorry about it. We found this DELICIOUS burger joint called Mama's Burgers, and that was our lunch. I know... I'm sorry I caved and got american food, but it was soooo worth it. It came in a little box!!! :) We then popped in some stores, just to see what kind of clothes some of the ready to wear/ cheaper stores had. My hands were literally blood-red, and I couldn't move them. So I bought mittens for 2 euros. And that is pretty much it! We unfortunately didn't have that much time to see anything, or else we would have gone into the Van Gogh exhibit or some other art museums.
-Dinner that night back in Como was again quite good. We had to walk to our hotel in the rain, ugh, but we passed through the non-sketchy part of town and saw cute little stores and bakeries just like in Assisi. Our dinner was at a ristorante called L'Orologio, and this was our menu:
-Dinner that night back in Como was again quite good. We had to walk to our hotel in the rain, ugh, but we passed through the non-sketchy part of town and saw cute little stores and bakeries just like in Assisi. Our dinner was at a ristorante called L'Orologio, and this was our menu:
Caprese salad with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella
Risotto with asparagus and parmesan cheese
Pasta with pesto
Veal escalope with roasted potatoes
Tiramisu
Yes, you read that right, that's 5 courses. And yes, it was delicious. I know it sounds like a lot, but the portions here (disregard the menu the night before) are all really good sizes and you (most of the time) don't eat too much (again, pay no attention to the one last night, that was a fluke). Sorry I've been talking about food so much, but that's something I want to remember. All of the things I write on here are what I want to remember about my experiences here. So, after all this food, we again just went straight to bed.
-The next morning, Sunday, was our last day in Como, so we had to pack up our things and then head out to breakfast. We again split up into the tour groups we had yesterday, so while we went on a walking tour of the old part of Como, the other group went on the boat ride. The tour was nice, I was excited to see all of the historical buildings. Sounds lame, but in Como all of the buildings are different colors. Pinks, greens, oranges, blues, all pastel colors and very pretty. See all of the pictures that I posted because I took a ton of course. (side note, I'm almost up to 1,000 photos and I haven't even been here a full month yet... I have a problem) Their main cathedral was also quite gorgeous, and there were apparently medieval tapestries inside. Mass was going on at the time so we unfortunately couldn't go in. But after the walking tour we got to ride on the boat!! It was about a 45 minute ride, all over Lago di Como. It was beautiful! Although I picked the worst seat on the boat and kept getting splashed and I had all the wind in my face, and although it was cold and rainy, I was able to get good photos and still hear our guide. She showed us prominent buildings owned by the government, farmers, just plain wealthy locals and famous people. She pointed out how close Switzerland was (only a few miles, I have great shots of the Swiss Alps) and all of the little villages right next to Como. She even showed us areas where movies have been shot like Casino Royale, Oceans 12, music videos like John Legend's All of Me and the site where he got married, and pointed the general area of where George Clooney's house is. It isn't lakefront, so we couldn't see if from the boat. But right after we got off the boat and into a cute little restaurant for lunch, the sun came out! We hurried up and ate, and took pictures outside. It's like the entire city came alive when the sun came out, it was insane! It was 10x as beautiful as it had been earlier. I can see why it is so popular in the spring and summer, and for vacation... It's GORGEOUS.
-And then we got on the bus to go home :) It was a fun trip all in all, despite the weather. I'm glad I got to go and see two more places! Returning to normalcy, this week I have ceramics to do, I'm sculpting an acorn; and painting to do, we have to paint a building and finish one that we started painting on-site last class. That was cool, we got to paint outside during class. People kept taking pictures of us, and it was uncomfortable, but also kind of really cool. Also, Monday night I did a cooking class! It was so fun! We made ravioli from scratch, this potato thing and a chocolate souffle! I hope they post pictures from it so we can see it, but it was so much fun. Oh, and I have to do some laundry, ew.
In other news, I got an internship for the summer! A few weeks ago I applied to a whole bunch of places, including a boutique called JBT close to my house. It was founded by a local woman who has written some books, done some directing and she's now an entrepreneur expanding into fashion. She has a children's line called Kinsley Kouture, named after her daughter, and they make upscale yet durable children's clothes for the fashionable youngsters of the 21st century. From my current understanding, I believe I'm interning in the pattern making/ sewing department, so I'll be working on the actual construction of the garments which is really cool! I will get more information later, when I return to the states. Praise the lord I was able to get an internship, especially with me starting the application process a little later than most, and from a tiny laptop over 5,000 miles away. Jesus is always Good!!! :)
So that is all I got right now! The future looks bright! I have a mandatory field trip to Pienza and Montepulciano on saturday for my architecture class, because those are two medieval cities like florence that have similar architecture that we can compare. Ohh, and theres a wine tasting. I mean, it isn't a trip to the Tuscan valley without that, right? Lol :) but that's about it, pretty chill weekend. Oh, and my wonderful boyfriend comes to visit me in 10 days time for his spring break *cue tears*, i'm so excited. And my aunt and uncle come a few weeks after that for MY spring break, even more excitement... This semester is going by so fast!
P.S., I miss everyone back home, hope everyone is doing good! Facebook message me if you want to Skype sometime, I'm 7 hours ahead of central time!
Life is good, la vita รจ bella <3
Ciao tutti! xx
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