Erica in Italy

Monday, September 26, 2011

Milan Fashion Week

On Saturday 9/24 I went to Milan for the day to experience Fashion Week.

The whole day was a little choatic & unorganized but nonetheless I had a good time!

The first stop of the day was at the Milan Duomo. I think this is the most beautiful church I have ever seen. And it's HUGE! It's the 4th biggest church in the world (The Duomo in Florence is the 6th). I love the Gothic style.

The only downside to the church was that we didn't know we would be able to go inside of it & we weren't dressed properly (In Italy you have to have both your shoulders & knees covered to enter a church). A bunch of girls had to wait outside (since we were on a tour) for about a half an hour until the rest of the group was done looking inside.

Just after the church we walked around the Galleria which supposedly is the oldest mall in the world. It was gorgeous with glass ceilings and stores way out of my price range.

Afterward we had some free time & lunch. And guess where we had lunch at? Some fabulous pasta restaurant? A delicious pizzeria? No...... McDonalds. I know. It's terrible. But seriously everywhere we went was packed. Even McDonalds was! But we had no other choice. The menu is pretty different then in the states. I tried to get a photo..

I just ordered chicken nuggets & french fries. It was disappointing that we didn't have a better meal while in Milan but we were crunched for time and every restaurant had a long wait.

After our FABULOUS lunch we were able to attend a fashion show. Which was AMAZING!! I have never been to one before and I loved the designs of the show we saw. It was in a tent and the designer was Nenette.

As you can see the designs were very feminine, floral and flowy. I loved them, definitely something I would wear.

I tried to get a video..

After the show we walked around the fashion district and saw all the major fashion houses like Gucci, Prada, Miu Miu, Chanel. Seriously every high end designer you can think of.

After that we took the 4 hour bus ride home. All in all it was a good day.

A few more things I liked about Milan..

Elephants must be the city's symbol because there were statues of elephants ALL over the city.

Also, there were cute dogs EVERYWHERE & dogs in Italy can go anywhere a human can!! Restaurants, grocery stores, shopping malls, you name it.

I took a picture of these 2 specifically because they looked the most like Howie :)

Thanks for reading :)

Ciao, Erica xo

Friday, September 23, 2011

Italian Hospitality!

Most Italians are SO friendly! Karyssa & I just went to the gym at school & on our way back we stopped at a Pinini shop called The Oil Shop. It was seriously DELICIOUS! Only one problem.. I got the "spicy" sauce on my sandwich, thinking it would be like a spicy buffalo, but instead it was seriously jalapeno seeds all over my sandwich. It was SO SPICY I couldn't eat the whole thing. I made it through half, and just that was a struggle. As we were about to leave, the owner of the shop, a really nice older man noticed that I didn't eat all of my pinini & he asked me why. I told him that it was a little too spicy for me & next time I was going to ask for a different sauce. He felt bad that I didn't eat all of my meal that HE MADE ME A WHOLE NEW SANDWICH! I kept insisting that he didn't have to, but he was persistent & said that I could save it for later. So he made me a whole new pinini with pesto on it, for free. It was so nice & I fell like something like that would never happen in the states. I can't wait to eat there more, not only because the food is REALLY good but also because the service was so good!! And it was also so cheap! I had a huge pinini, fries & a water and it was under 4 euros.

Most Italians are so friendly! And some Italians are TOO Friendly!!! ;)

Ciao, Erica xo

Fiesole

Today a few people from ISA took a 20 minute bus ride to a town just outside of Florence called Fiesole. The bus ticket there & back only cost 2,40 euros so Karyssa & I took advantage of the public buses & went up to Fiesole, and I'm so glad we did. It was gorgeous. It's a tiny town where you can hike up and see ALL of Florence. The pictures I got doesn't do the view justice.

We then walked a little further & there was a monastery that is no longer used that is there to tour and look at. It was pretty cool to see.

The next few pictures are all of bedrooms that Monks would stay in. They were tiny and barely had anything in them.

We then walked back down to the center of the city & waited for the bus to bring us back into the city.

It was a really quick, little trip. We left Florence at 3:45 & were back back 6:15 but I loved the town & I'm so happy I took advantage of the cheap bus ticket to see a very different part if Tuscany. I cannot wait to explore more. On Saturday, I'm going to Milan during Fashion Week. SO EXCITED!!

Ciao, Erica xo