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On the boat to the islands
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Fun. Fun. Fun. So I have left out some very important details of a few highlights in the last week and a half that I am going to try to bring you up to speed on starting with the eventful last Wednesday.
Last Wednesday, we didn't have an in-class lecture, rather we went to Lake Maggiore which is one of the lakes that separates Italy from Switzerland. It's funny because these lakes remind me of what I imagine the Great Lakes to be which separate the U.S. from Canada. But anyway, we got on a train to Lake Maggoiore to visit some pretty famous places. We took a boat ride to two separate islands. Both hosted castles from famous families of Italy. Not only were these castles on the Islands, but the Islands were homes of beautiful botanical gardens. We spent a majority of the day in the castles and gardens of the two islands. On the second island, there was a watercolor painter who was painting a scene of the day (might I add it was gorgeous). He was also selling previous scenes of the area that he had done. After watching him paint for an hour or so, I decided that I was going to get one of the paintings. Let me tell you, I absolutely love it. Below are a select few pictures from the day.
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| A close up of one of the really interesting plants |
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| Pretty flowers from the gardens |
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| There were peacocks on the island everywhere |
On Thursday night, we all got dressed up in our nicest dresses and went to a real Milan symphony. It was absolutely fantastic. They played a Star Wars melody of all the Star Wars songs, they played a sad song from Schindler's List, they play Somewhere over the Rainbow and Fantasia. It was absolutely beautiful and mesmerizing. We were in the orchestra seating seventh row and although we couldn't understand anything the conductor was saying between pieces, we were still able to appreciate the music and the time and effort these talented people had put into the show. I absolutely enjoyed it. Following the symphony, the whole group (including D. Wright) went out to dinner as a Mexican restaurant (Mexican-Italian?) which was quite the experience. We all ordered delicious food (not Italian) and had drinks. I loved their pina coladas. Absolutely amazing! Also, one of the girls on the program, Sagan turned 22, so we all celebrated her birthday with complimentary (on the house, oh yeah) shots of tequila! We each only had one, which was good, but it was so fun that finally as a group we were all doing something! I don't have any pictures from the night, but I will be posting some of my friends' pictures.
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Stephanie and I before the symphony
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| The Bella Suite at dinner |
Annnd finally, yesterday, La Scalla. Again, no pictures because they are very particular here about taking pictures of the important museums and exhibits and paintings and stuff, so the famous opera house is off limits. This opera house was awesome though. It reminded me of something you would see out of Phantom of the Opera. They show approximately 12 shows a year in this theater (one a month). And when you walk into the theater, you have boxes that different families own. When i say boxes, they are like on the walls, looking down into the theater at the stage. It's hard to explain, but think of old time theater where people had their own private rooms surrounding the walls of the stage that open out into the theater, that's basically what it was. Really neat.
So, in general, other than writing the papers and traveling the country, this is what I have been doing during the weekdays. Tonight we are going to see the Famous "Last Supper" painting by Da Vinci. We can only see it for 15 minutes because they only allow in 25 people at a time. I guess it's pretty tight security. We will see.
That's all for now! Ciao!
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