Another Splendid Day

Milano is one of my favorite cities. When I say this to Italians, they chuckle and say "but you haven't been to Rome yet!" or something to that effect. But really, I love Milan, and I go as often as I can.



Yesterday evening, there was a Rotary get-together in Milan. Seeing as I had nothing of importance going on at school, I skipped (with permission, of course) and hopped a train first thing in the morning. Upon arriving at the metro station, I accidentally took the metro in the wrong direction. I was a little concerned, because Taylor was waiting for me at Duomo, and I'd hate to make him wait. Thankfully, I actually arrived at Duomo earlier than we had planned.



Everything seemed to be working for me yesterday: the train I took was clean and fast, I arrived at Duomo on time dispite taking the wrong metro, and when I got to Duomo, there was hardly any line for confession.



Confessionals in the Duomo are a little unusual: there is no little room for the confessee (the priest is called the confessor, so is the sinner the confessee?) you simply walk up to the priest, who is sitting in a little box with a window, and start your confession. There's no place to kneel, and it feels strange to tell someone your sins while standing. The priest I went to didn't speak English, so I did my best in Italian. When the priest asked if I was finished confessing, I told him I couldn't figure out how to explain other things in Italian. He said "That's alright! God sees all, and He knows!" Then he murmured the absolution to himself, and said something like "I've absolved you! You can go now, in peace!" I thought it was strange that he was so jolly.



After Taylor and I left the Duomo, we had absolutly no idea what to do with the rest of our day. It wasn't even 10 in the morning, and the Rotary get-together didn't start until six. We decided to go find one of Milan's planetariums, to see if anything interesting was playing.



We had walked a good part of Milan by then, and I was famished. It was 11, which I consider late enough for lunch. Taylor and I went to Luini's, a panzerotti place. Panzerotti are pieces of dough, with fresh mozzerella and tomatoes inside, deep-fried. Kind of like a calzone, only way more fattening and delicious. We sat on a curb, eating our panzerotti, thinking about what to do next.



Taylor wanted me to see Milan's canals, which I had never even heard of. Those were quite a ways away, and we walked. The sky was blue, the sun was out, but there was no springy breeze. Thus, it got downright hot. On the walk back to Duomo from the canals, I developed a headache, most likely from squinting. Taylor and I had walked quite a distance, and we decided some gelato was in order. Seeing as it's Lent, I got a small frozen yogurt, instead. Yogurt in Italy is not like yogurt in the U.S. I don't think they put sugar in it, and it reminds me a little bit of runny sour cream. Even though nowhere near as good as gelato, the yogurt was quite refreshing and after sitting in the shade for a while, I felt much better. By then it was past one, and school had gotten out, so we called David to see if he wanted to hang out.



We met David at San Babila, where he was trying to find a place to fax a document to his parents. We strolled around, looking for a place with a fax machine, and after asking several people for directions, we found a print shop. David faxed the document, but it cost nine euro. I've never faxed anything before, but I don't think faxing costs that much! We strolled around for a bit, when David said he needed to go home for lunch. Taylor needed to go home to take care of a few things too, so I went to David's house.



His host father is a Greek artist, so his host mother explained some of his artwork to me while David was eating. After lunch, David and I sat on the couch, having a friendly discussion about religion. Before leaving to go back out in the city, we went to his upstairs neighbor's house to listen to him play the piano. I haven't played in months, and when I tried one of my easier pieces, my fingers stumbled and felt out of shape. I was a little sad; I never realized how much being able to play meant to me. We talked to the neighbor, who was an older Italian gentleman, then hopped a bus to the metro station.



We decided to meet Taylor at Castello, but by the time we got there, we only had a few minutes before we needed to start heading towards Sant'Ambrogio, where the Rotary get-together was. After grabbing a snack, we hopped the metro to Sant'Ambrogio, where we met all of the other Rotary exchangees. Over the past month, many of the other student's families have come to visit and most of us have gone on school trips, so there was a lot to talk about. After everyone got there, we began our tour of the Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio. Everyone was shocked by the "relics" or Sant'Ambrogio's skeleton. Remember those? I've written about them before, in one of my previous posts!

After the tour of the Basilica and University, we took the metro to a restaurant. Generally, when we go out with Rotary, the meals are good. This particular meal, however, was fantastic. We went into the restaurant, which had about 2 or 3 small tables on the first floor, then went down a flight of steps into a really amazing restaurant. The whole place was brick and wood, with candles on every table. We walked over to the table that was obviously for us, being the biggest table in the place, and were astounded by the amount of appetizers. There were numerous platters of meats: prosciutto crudo and cotto, several types of salami, bologna, bresaola, and pancetta. There were also platters of cheese, and we discovered that one of the cheeses tasted similar to cheddar. There was fruit, tomatoes, several types of warmed bread, and these lovely things called fried gnocchi, which I'm sure I gained a pound from eating. We all would have been satisfied simply from the appetizers, but there was a second course, too: choice between pizza and pasta. I split a calzone with one of my friends, and was stuffed. Some of the other kids ate a whole pizza! And after the second course, there was dessert! I didn't get anything, but most of the kids got banana splits. We were all completely satisfied, and we had a fantastic evening.

After dinner I found out that Misko, who was taking me home, was also taking 3 other students home too. We walked back to the metro station, and waited 15 minutes for the metro. By then the excitement of the evening had worn off a bit, and we were all getting tired. We took the metro to centrale, walked to Misko's car, and began the journey to Monza. After dropping the 3 other people off, we started towards Cassano. I didn't get home until 1:30 in the morning, and I had school the next day. But boy, was it worth it!