Milano

I'm in Greece! I love it but our internet here has been lame, so I'll just catch you up through Italy. The last city we visited was Milan, where Ale and I met up with Brenna and her study-abroad-buddy Devin! Sadly, I think this is the only picture I have with all of us.

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Ale and I were so excited to pick up Brenna at the train station! I have been looking forward to this moment since December when it became a reality that we could be in Europe together.

The 3 of us were roommates a few years ago and this was a fun reunion! And it was great to meet Brenna's new friend, Devin who happened to be staying in Milan for the same amount of time as Brenna. I'm so glad he came because Milan was boring until he was there to tell us where to go and what to do. Also he's really funny so we were never bored.

We happened to dress alike one day.

Castle Museum
This is an old castle that is now a museum. It's like a two in one attraction, and it was really cheap to get into!

It was fun to be with art history people who could lead me to stuff like this:

It's an unfinished statue of Michelangelo! He was working on it right before he died. I wish I could see the finished product, but I also LOVE this statue just how it is! 

See the name!? So coo!

Coolest Park
Right next to the castle museum is this awesome park.

People can play basketball,

sit in this cool amphitheater,

listen to local musicians in the cool amphitheater,

hang out with their family,

fight with their friends,

play freestyle frisbee with random people (LOOK THIS UP ON YOUTUBE. Freestye frisbee is so mesmerizing that we watched it for about an hour.),

and ride bikes. Brenna, Devin and I loved this park. It was filled with people of all ages, nationalities and interests.

Triumphal Arch
The park stands between the castle and a triumphal arch. Brenna composed a song here, entitles "I love triumphal arches." We sang it often during our time in Milan.

This is called a "relief" because it's coming out of a flat surface. I love art historians!

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Venice in Milan

Leonardo Da Vinci helped plan this canal. There are only a couple in Milan, and they are not nearly as cool as the canals in Venice and Amsterdam, but it was fun to visit them. We called this area of town Venice. FYI, Milan has the best graffiti I've seen in Europe.

Waiting for the Pope
The Pope happened to be in town for the first time since 1984. It was a big deal and most of the things we wanted to see were shut down because of it. Since we couldn't execute our plans, we decided that we might as well wait and see the Pope.

We waited for a long time and then heard that the Pope had just gotten to the airport. We decided to go eat dinner. By the time we came back, the Pope was about to leave town, so we waited a little longer to see him drive past. Lots of people joined us in the wait.

There he is! I can't imagine my religious leaders being applauded as the drive down the street in a vehicle like this. It was an interesting experience.

Food
I just can't eat food without taking a picture of it.  

...say what?

I love these people so much!

The best spaghetti I've had in my life. Ragu simply doesn't reach this level of culinary mastery.

Yes, this is a egg on a pizza.

Devin found this Milano-exclusive restaurant. We all fell in love.

Duomo
This church is gorgeous. It reminds me of Vienna's Stephansdom because I can't stop taking pictures of it!

It's huge!

I love how people just hang out here all the time.

The current Pope is not the only Pope we saw...

There were 3 or 4 bodies of past Popes inside the Duomo, resting for the world to see.

The faces were covered by masks, but you could see hair sticking out from the masks, and the hands were not covered!

Cool, but gross at the same time!

This is a creepy Byzantine sculpture in a contraposto stance. Booyah!

 Some guys came and forced seeds in our hands and this is what happened:

Then they asked Devin for money and he just looked at them as if he were confused. Haha!

We love the Duomo!

 

Opera House
Bren, Dev and I went on a tour of Milan's opera house. It was very similar to Vienna's.

Miscellaneous

Nothing runs like a Deere, even in Italy.

We went to church! And the elders from the Metro were there!

 

We found this guy named Soltanto singing in a train station. We stayed for a while because he's so good.

I make the price? Ok. I'll take volumes 1 and 2 of your CD. Thank you very much!

Brenna and I are listening to his CD right now. We love it.

So much has happened this week! Every day is packed with tons of activities. I'm so happy to be here! I'm happy that Ale and I were able to do all we did. Our time together was an adventure to be remembered forever. She left for Utah on Saturday, and Devin left for Utah on Monday. Now Brenna and I are having our own adventure in Greece and so far we have loved every minute.