Lights in Milano!

Last night at the Duomo there was a light show, with different lights and images being projected onto the centre of the building. Just a few pictures here for you all to enjoy :)

 

 

A visit to Torino

Going to post quite a few updates today, get Mum off my back about not updating (hi Mum!).

Last Friday I headed over to Torino to meet up with Sandy and Rupert who have been doing a bit of Europe. It was one of Sandy's last days in Europe so was nice to be able to see her and get a farewell that we both missed back home!

Clearly I am to be plagued by disasters as I travel through Europe (or maybe just in Italy, and for those who this comment doesn't make sense please read the previous post)! I thought I would be smart and catch an early train to ensure we could have plenty of time to hang out in Torino and to see this city, but this idea was trampled about an hour into the train trip. While I could not understand the announcement, I did recognise that the voice mentioned "trenta minuti," meaning that we would be waiting for 30 minutes, giving me plenty of time to view the lovely scenery in the middle of nowhere that we had stopped. After about an hour of sitting there doing nothing, the train proceeded to continue onto Torino, molto lentamente (very slowly) and I arrived an hour late. All was good in the end as we managed to meet up and visit some beautiful palaces and ruins. Torino is such a lovely city, so old and well preserved I just wanted to stare at every building that we passed!


We spent the day wandering through museums, palaces, churches- just relaxing. There was an amazing photographic exhibit inside the Palazzo Reale showcasing images of Italy and Italians in the modern era. For a country so focused on their history, it was nice to be able to see them promoting their modern culture. One of the other major attractions of Torino is the Shroud of Jesus. Kept locked up in the Duomo di Torino, there is a smaller model on display that people can look at. Much controversy surrounds the actuality of the shroud, but nevertheless it was to the Duomo we headed to have a peek. 

With so much history in the town, we headed on a bit of a Roman-ruins hunt. The Porta Palatina (Roman Gate) has been really well conserved, and stands alone near the Duomo. We didn't get right up close to the gate, with the ground still covered in snow and ice it was a bit difficult to walk through it. All around the area there are a variety of ruins and sites that have been uncovered, with the remains of the Roman theatre being repaired right near the Duomo. Many ruins have been incorporated into other buildings in Torino so it was really interesting to be able to see some parts of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque spread throughout the city. 

After a long day and a rush to catch the train home, I almost fell asleep during the ride! It was nice to escape from Milano for a day, but also good to return home. While Milano is by no means a big city compared to Sydney, it is so much bigger and busier than other cities in Italy that visiting anywhere outside of it feels like a temporary vacation. Hopefully more of them to occur soon!

No-one ever said living away from home was easy!

Sorry I have been a bit slack on the blogging lately, I have gotten caught up with the dramas of our lovely apartment, meeting up with friends and just generally enjoying being on exchange! Now to elaborate for those who haven't a clue what I am talking about!

For the last two weeks, our apartment has steadily been falling apart. It started off with the internet not working (which I fixed by purchasing a private internet modem to use in my room), but it is still temperamental in the living room! We originally thought that was bad, until the pipes in the kitchen went! Unsure of why the kitchen sink was blocked, we proceeded to use a cleaning liquid- which did not work, attempted to clean out the drain- which did not work, and finally went up to our landlady and asked her to come down and look at it- which originally worked while she was here but as soon as she left it was back to problems! We are still waiting for them to come fix (and hopefully replace) the system, but for now we are struggling with washing dishes in the bathroom and are unable to do washing- it pays that in winter you wear layers but I am beginning to run out of clean clothes! I wont put up pictures of the lovely sink, unfortunately it does look quite disgusting and I am sure most of you would prefer not to have to see what we are dealing with!

Next up in the saga was the power... We spent a lovely evening cooking and eating by candlelight as we waiting for our landlady to respond to our message. Turns out she was out of town for a few days and when we eventually got in contact with her she explained to us where the fuse box down in the basement was. Having no power wasn't all bad, I reckon I made an awesome spag-bol in the dark and it was followed up with a pancake dessert! The final straw in the disasters of living-out-of-home this week comes in the form of no hot water. While yes the weather has been much better this week and it is heating up, 17C is still not warm enough to have a cold shower! The pilot light on our lovely ancient hot-water system had gone out, and after about 15mins of fiddling around with the buttons, and some sneaky googling for instructions it eventually was re-lit. Needless to say, the instruction page has been bookmarked in case a need for further usage arises.

Hopefully everything will be sorted out soon, looking forward to the day when I can wash dishes and clothing, have a hot shower and use the internet without worrying about when it will all fall apart!

A Venezia per il Carnavale!

And to Venice we went!

On Saturday (yesterday) I went to Venezia as a part of an ESN Carnavale tour. Was a crazy 24hrs with us leaving Milano at 7am and returning the same time this morning. Being sick made the tour a little un-enjoyable, but there was no way I was missing out on such an amazing tour!

After eventually leaving the bus station, and a couple hours of driving, we finally made our way to the ferry port. In our tour group were not only students from IULM, but other universities in Milano and some of the cities near by- we made for quite a large group. Once we managed to cross the canal and head towards Piazza San Marco we had hours of free time to explore. This was made quite difficult by the enormous crowds and stalls all around us, but from the parts of the city I was able to see I am definitely in love- such a beautiful place and I can't wait to return and explore and get lost amongst the canals.


First order of the day was to ensure I had a mask to walk around wearing. Anyone without a mask or a costume or face-paint was certainly out of place. The whole city was so colourful and alive with everyone dressed up, it was such a fun atmosphere! After the shopping was out of the way (more masks and figurines to add to my collection back home) it was on to exploring! Every where you went there were people dressed up in costumes, posing for photos and talking to tourists. Even at the entrances to the museums and churches they were there keeping the people in line entertained (and queue we did). With so many people around it took quite a long time to get into anywhere, but I love people watching and there was plenty to see and photograph around me.

As the rest of my group went off to do some more shopping, I did a bit of sight-seeing and went inside and up the Basilica di San Marco. The church is constantly being repaired but I was able to go up to the terrace and catch a view of Venezia and the Piazza, as well as take a walk through the museum and the church itself. One thing that I have found a bit odd here is that they still let tourists into the churches when there are services on- a visit to the Duomo in Milano on a Sunday was made up of our group of about 20 walking through a full Sunday church service. Not at all what I would have expected!

After sight-seeing and taking a bit of a break I attempted to unsuccessfully meet up with some friends from Bologna who were also in Venezia for the day. We got so close but with the force of the crowds I was pushed away and unable to return to meet them in time. Oh well, another weekend I will definitely see them! The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around and by-chance bumping into other friends, and finally making it back to our ferry to head off to Padova for dinner and an ESN party.

The party was for all the ESN groups from around Italy, so apparently there were about 2000 students there. It was huge! By this point in the night (in Italy if you are at a club or a party before 12 you are too eager and early) I was feeling rather ill again, so a few of us took it easy and spent the night chatting and relaxing, before heading on the long-awaited bus back home.

It felt like forever, but we finally got here and in the end it was a fantastic 24hours. Can't wait for more explorations now that I finally have my timetable sorted Italy (and Europe) better watch out!

The never-ending-round-the-world 21st

For a first time celebrating my birthday in winter, it wasn't half-bad. While yes I did miss the beautiful hot day and pool party that tends to accompany my traditional birthday celebrations, being able to run around and play with some freshly fallen snow does have its benefits. I will however say that my love for snow and winter is coming to an end, I cannot wait to be able to walk around without a jacket on and different shoes to my boots! A shout-out and a thanks needs to go towards everyone who pitched in for my present, I have invested in a lovely pair of thick boots and a nice coat to wear, which I am sure I will get a lot of use out of as the cold weather does not seem to be leaving (however, the temperature hit 0 today- a sign of it heating up!)

We have had a lot of birthday celebrations and visitors around over the last few weeks, so celebrations have been on-going. There were a lot of aperitivi (9euro cocktails and free food for those who didn't already know), pre-drinking birthday celebrations, big-birthday meals eaten at cute cafes this week, and I am certainly loving the feel of a home cooked meal right now! I have slowly started to eat more than just pasta for every meal... and pizza isn't even my staple either :) 

As mentioned before, there was fresh snow the night before my birthday, so I spent my birthday walking around Milan with Shira and playing around in the snow... After a bit more exploring and touristy stuff we were definitely ready for some warmth, so to food and more shopping we headed! I came home to some lovely flowers sent from Australia, so even though I was over here on the other side of the world, there were still bits of home with me throughout my birthday- thanks everyone! 

The rest of the weekend was again filled with exploring. There were some awesome markets that went on for ages, but we were pretty frozen by the time that was all done and headed to the Armani Caffe for coffees, very EXPENSIVE coffees! They were pretty good, but even the warmth of the caffe was worth it. The rest of the day was pretty much spent wandering around seeing Milano in its frozen state, as well as doing a bit more shopping. There really isn't that much to do in the city other than shop, but by the time you walk inside, find something you like, you then have to take off about a million layers to try it on and its simply not worth the money- I am pretty sure my bank account is loving it being so cold here... The money can stay warm in there!

Now that all the celebrations are over I have to actually start trying to work out classes. I have managed to find some that look quite interesting (and that I can sort-of understand) so with those and my language classes I am beginning to find a routine. More updates to follow soon, maybe next time I will write about my attempts at cooking (so far only one cooking-related-injury) and then off to Venice for CARNIVALE! But until then, next task- getting fingerprinted by the police for my permesso di soggiorno!

Mi dispiace... Non capisco!

So I am beginning to assume that I am just not meant to attend university while I am here. The saga of attempting to work out classes continues, and after just over a week and a half I am no closer to finalising my timetable than I was when I arrived!

While there are a number of different classes that I am interested in, most of them do not seem to work on any timetable I try to create. I tried attending the storia delle citta subject, and while so far it seems like the most interesting one I have attended, now that I have the time of my Italian language class it won't work. Other problems I have had deciding involve the fact that I do not actually understand most of the classes, the lecturer speaks too fast (for anyone reading this, think Mrs Jackson fast- but in another language), classes being cancelled or my favourite- the one class I was seriously interested in is now being run at the time of my language class. I was really looking forward to doing storia del cinema Italiano. I am just really glad to be starting the language classes, as I can't actually choose a class yet because I have no clue what they are about- today I was asked a question by a professor and completely blanked on all my Italian and responded in English "sorry I am not from Italy, I don't understand what you just asked me!" Molto embarrassing when the rest of the class starts giggling at your misfortune!

On the plus side, I have found a few other classes that sound a bit interesting, history of modern and ancient cultures, comparative culture and literature (apparently they look at culture and identity through food in literature- yumm!) and creativity and advertising. Going to give those ones a shot next week and hopefully then I will have finalised my classes! Just got to plan a timetable that gives me maximum time off- right now I have language on Mondays and Wednesdays, so trying to find classes around the beginning of the week is quite difficult. Got to run to class, more to come soon.

Woke up to a winter wonderland...

It started snowing on Tuesday night, so when I woke up it was beautiful! Snow everywhere- so exciting. All the Europeans can't understand my obsession, but once I have explained a few hundred or so times that snow doesn't ever fall in Sydney, or really very much in Australia I think they have it down-pat. All the snow does make it a bit difficult to get around, with buses running a little slower today than they have in the past and me slipping and sliding all over the floor- but on Wednesday I went out with the aim of finding myself a good set of sturdy boots to stop this from happening and I think I succeed!

Everything is so much prettier when it is snowing!

IULM in the snow

IULM gives us until the end of February to which to choose which classes we want to take, so yesterday I tried out my first class- 'storia delle citta' (history of the city). It is all about learning the background of Italian cities, with an emphasis on Milan so should hopefully be interesting, and work with my timetable once I work that out. Of the 3 hour lecture, I understood the first 45minutes, then zoned out a little and by the time I came back around, I was completely lost. Definitely needing to do that language course in order to actually understand what is going on! Unfortunately I think that if I want to maximise travel time I might have to choose another subject! We also discovered that two-years of Italian classes doesn't really help very much, but I think I did alright in my Italian Language test which I took on Tuesday so they can grade me into my class- the sooner the better! I am getting sick of talking to people in Italian and them responding to me in English- although I have started to ignore the English and respond again in Italian, that seems to be getting their attention!

Most of this week has been taken up with ESN activities- on Tuesday night there was a huge welcome party at a club, on Wednesday we went for aperitivo at another bar and last night Felicitas and I officially became the IULM ESN Beer Pong Champions- watch out people, we are on a roll! The uni is also organising a trip to Venice for Carnivale on the 18th of Feb, so that is looking like a crazy 24hrs to look forward to!

We are having lots of guest around this weekend, and it is Laura's birthday on Monday so the birthday (and farewell) celebrations are going to last all week, very exciting.

CHAMPIONS!!!!