Winter Voyage: Part 7 of 8: Italy

I love Italy so much. There's something about it. Ever since I first visited when I was 14 or 15 I felt attracted to the country in a special way. Although this was my first time in Milan, it had the same pull I felt in other towns. I also hadn't expected Milan to be so overtly beautiful, just because I hear it talked about in terms of its contributions to fashion more often than its contributions to architecture. This is one of the things I love about Italy. There are these millennia-old Roman columns, just hanging out on the street. They've been there for so. long. And then you turn the corner and see this:

This was the duomo of Milan. I fell in love with it. I really wish I could have spent more time just to ogle the exterior walls. You can't see it in this picture but its covered with rich and interesting details, people holding up the columns and so on. To the left of the duomo is a big beautiful archway leading to a vaulted passage. This was lined with all kinds of designers. The center, where two arched passages crossed, was cornered by:

...and:
...and:

...and...wait hold up......

Designer status? Really?

Caitlin, Ivy and I did a bit of self-touring, just walking around the city. This is the palace/castle:

We stayed in a hostel while here, but again made good use of Caitlin's connections to hang out with her friend Matteo. He was really lovely, a bit shy and apparently a true adventurer who loves rock climbing, parkour, and anything else that involves extreme outdoor activity. He showed us around, brought us to a fantastic restaurant, and took us out a couple nights. The last night we went out with him and several of his friends to a club. It was really a local scene, though, which was really fun. The music was crazy, some alternative, some reggae, and then they played the original orchestral Can-Can towards the end. It was a really great time, although some Italian men were making an effort to support certain unfortunate stereotypes of theirs :P That night we went back to Matteo's house, chatted for a bit, and fell asleep around 6 or 7 in the morning. Oof.

So originally we thought we would only be in Milan for a few hours, since it was cheaper to return to Istanbul from Switzerland via Milan. Originally, we thought we would spend the entirety of those few hours in an unabating immersion of Italian cuisine. As it turned out, our changes in plans allowed those few hours to stretch into a few days. I ate pesto fusilli. And spaghetti carbonara. And some kind of incredible gnocchi. And Ivy's leftover pizza. And Matteo made us bolognese. And we had enough gelato to battle global warming. Every gustatory experience was transcendental. There's only one type of Italian food that I'm not upset about having missed: