This past weekend I was able to take a quick day trip to Milan, and by quick I mean a 20 hour trip where we left around 8AM and did not get back until 9:30 the following morning (the only good part about waking up this early was that you could see the alps at sunrise for the entire way there) . You may be wondering, why on earth we thought this would be a good idea, and at 4:30 Sunday morning we felt the same way. Regardless of the amount of sleep I had, it was still a blast exploring a new nearby city.
The first thing we did when we got to Milan was head over to the Duomo. The Duomo was breathtakingly beautiful. We took the escalator up from the metro and I'm pretty sure my mouth dropped because I wasn't expecting to see it right away. The buliding itself is extremely detailed, every inch of the outside was crafted so elegantly. I wasn't expecting to see so many pigeons out in the piazza
though. I'm not a huge fan of birds at all so the fact that there were so many swarmed around me kind of freaked me out. A few of my friends got some seeds from a random guy on the streets and these birds would sit on their shoulder or arm while they ate the seeds out of their hands. I was honestly waiting for a pigeoen to poop on me becaus that's the kind of luck I have haha. Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside, but it was nonetheless amazing.
After staring at the Duomo for what seemed like 10 minutes, we went to go grab some food. We were on a mission to find bottomless mimosas, and thought we found the perfect place right in front of the river. Since it was a nice day, we decided to walk the 2 miles there. After about 40 minutes of walking we made it, but there were no bottomless mimosas (must be an American thing). The walk there was beautiful so in retrospect it was totally worth it. We ended up finding a pub closeby and sat there for a while to let our feet rest and wait for our friend who missed the train that morning.
Once we had ourselves a much needed break, we headed over to the Sforza Castle. The Sforza castle was huge. We walked around a lot of it and I thought it was gorgeous. Before going to Milan, I had no idea it existed. I'm kind of a history nerd, so I read most of the signs. We walked around the whole castle and the whole area surrounding it was so pretty. There was a park right outside of the castle and it had a little pond that we walked around. We think we saw some famous Italian singer filiming a music video while we were over in that area because there was this film crew and people were everywhere (maybe in a few months you'll catch me in a music video).
My friend's roommate went to Milan the weekend before and recommended this rooftop bar that overlooks some of downtown Milan. The place ended up being right next to the Duomo, and the views were incredible at night. Though the drinks were kind of expensive, it was 1000% worth it to get those kind of views.
We had a lot of time to kill at night so we all decided to hang out at a restaraunt before going to the clubs. The club we went to ended up being kind of a drag, but we found a spanish dancing club nearby and that was so much fun. We danced practically all night and my feet were killing me, but I had such an amazing time. I'm finding myself really liking the clubs in Italy way more than the bars in America because people are actually dancing and not just standing around. The club played a sbunch of songs I knew and it was refreshing to be able to sing along since most clubs in Torino play techno/hosue music.
I've got blisters all over my feet and I spent all of Sunday sleeping/lounging around so overall I'd say my trip to Milan was a success! I cannot wait to start to travel more and see more of Europe. If I learned anything from this trip, it would be to wear comfortable shoes always and to never let a bump in the road ruin your mood for the whole day. Milan had its ups and downs, and sometimes I felt a little frustrated not having a specific plan to follow. It's okay to not have a plan or to not stick to a plan sometimes. We ended up still having a great time, and it set our first travel expereince off the right way. This weekend I am headed up to a local ski town called bardonnecchia and I can't wait to see the alps more up close and in person.
Ciao! ~Haley