The minute I stepped off the train at Milano Porta Garibaldi Station, my overly heavy suitcase and guitar in tow, I was met with italian-style hugs and kisses from my host mum, Chiara, and host sister, Alice. The "welcome weather" Milano provided was 3º and foggy, but nonetheless, driving through the city of Milano and out to the open countryside to Noviglio, past fashionable stores, trams, parks, a castle and then fields of rice crops, was beyond beautiful.
On our arrival to the beautiful Massetti home I was greeted by my host dad Massimo, host brother Filippo, host nonna Lydia, host cousin Matteo and their excitable german shepherd x black labrador, Louise. For lunch Alice and Chiara had prepared my favourite dish; Lasagne! The meal was lovely, not only thanks to the incredible italian cooking, but also their warm and welcoming nature. And I laughed a lot as Lydia excitedly spoke to me in English, overjoyed to use the language she has been taking a class in recently - note that she is in her mid 80s!
That night there was to be a party in the house to celebrate that a family friend was moving to Russia, so after I had unpacked and settled in we went to the "small local mall" (which just so happens to be about three times the size of my local mall in Morayfield) to get supplies. Alice showed me to many clothing stores; my first taste of Milanese fashion :)
At the party I met many of the family's friends who were very kind and interested to meet me. The Italians also lived up to their stereotype and fed me to the absolute brim with what felt like a million different foods that I had never seen or heard of before! Unfortunately though, in all of the excitement, I took only one photo on my first day in Milano - a panorama of my new room.
On day two I awoke to the most beautiful weather; there wasn't the slightest bit of fog and from the windows of the house I could very clearly see the nearby snow-covered mountains!
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| Snow-topped mountains that are only about half an hour's drive away! |
Those who know me will also be pleased to hear that I was in Milan less than 24 hours when I managed to injure myself while preparing some carrots for lunch.
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| My first italian injury; obtained appropriately, cooking. |
After lunch, Alice needed to go into Milano to study with a friend. So after travelling on my first Milanese tram and purchasing my first Milanese Gelato, she went to study and I was given a tour of the city by Filippo.
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| My first Milanese Gelato was purchased from a place called "Grom" |
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| We enjoyed it outside on the street in the crisp 9º weather |
To go to the Duomo we walked to the subway and Filippo taught me about how the underground system works. And it's incredible. There are only 3 lines (kidding, they are opening a forth line halfway through the week!) and it is so user-friendly, even using my next-to-none Italian language skills I can easily suss out which direction each train is travelling in and which line I need to get to a different destination, which is incredibly helpful.
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| The map of the underground I will be soon spending a lot of time with |
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| Waiting for a train on the green line |
When the train arrived at the stop entitled, simply, "Duomo" I assumed that we would exit and take a bus to the main square and Cathedral. So you can imagine how my jaw almost dropped through the floor and I actually tripped up the stairs when, exiting the subway, I looked up and found the cathedral no more than 20 metres infront of me.
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| Duomo! |
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| Duomo! |
After about half an hour of me squealing with excitement over how big and beautiful both the square and the Cathedral are, Filippo was able to coax me into seeing some other parts of Milan. He showed me first into an incredible book/stationary/technology/reading store which was four stories high. We then walked up one of the most renowned shopping streets in Milan "via Torino" and then onto a number of streets I could never have recognised. I found that the city is much more old and beautiful than I had imagined from many people exaggerating to me how "metropolitan" it is.
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| A terrible photo of "via Torino" taken from the Duomo Square |
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| One of the streets we walked on |
My tour concluded in a place called "Naviglio" (yes, different from "Noviglio") and it was here that I discovered a most interesting fact about Milan. As it turns out, once upon a time Milano was a city of rivers and canals, much like Venice. The canals were designed by Leonardo da Vinci as a way for the materials to build the Duomo Cathedral to be easily transported. However years later the most part of the city was built on top of the rivers and now only three rivers remain visible; Naviglio being one of them.
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| Naviglio river |
Now I am settled back at home, again very well fed, attempting to remember as many italian introductory-phrases as possible, preparing for my first day of school tomorrow. Wish me luck!
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