Madeline In Italy!: Spring, Primavera, Printemps

6/4 to 14/4
After all of the walking we had done around Florence in those two short days I was overjoyed to spend Saturday with my feet up doing nothing but Skyping home and watching TV. That night, Francesca was going to a friend's 18th birthday in Milano so Alice and I went out too, although honestly spent more time eating than partying.

My first Italian crêpe!

On the Naviglio (Milan's Venice-style rivers), where most of the crowds spend their Friday and Saturday nights

As it turns out, sometimes for night times there are Trams available to hire for parties!

Gelato. There's always gelato.

Sunday, then, was yet another day of resting until in the afternoon the sun came out and I decided it was finally time for me to start doing some exercise in this country, and went for a run around Noviglio. As it turns out, there are many more paths you can take in this area than I thought, and I even stopped by to have a peek into the little town's church.

On Monday it was back to school yet again, although this week was a little different. In the same way that Alice's class went to Belfort weeks before, in this week my class went to Paris for the week, although unfortunately I wasn't allowed to go with them because I don't speak French. Which left me to stay in Alice's class on Monday, mostly doing my own practice of verb conjugations.

However this week wasn't set out to be completely boring in the absence of my class as our school was also welcoming a number of guests; a class from Paris, in exchange for my class going there, and a large group of Australians! As it turns out, my school is paired with an all-girls school in Melbourne, who were to spend the week at our school here in Milan. So, naturally, we thought the most entertaining thing to do would be to see how long we could convince the Australians that I was Italian. The real test came when the Australians came to Alice's class to do an English class with us.

Our English teacher, Prof. Dendi, was quick to overhear us talking and get in on the joke, so began the lesson with "Welcome to our class, to start I'm going to ask to of our students, Margherita and Maddalena (my Italian alter-ego), to get up and explain to you what we're doing today". The laughing started here.

Margherita began and spoke for about 5 minutes, explaining exactly what we would be doing in the lesson. When she was finished, Prof. Dendi said "Thank you for that Margherita. Maddalena, do you have something to add to that?". Naturally, the whole class fell apart laughing, me included. Dendi explained to the Australians, "You'll have to excuse our Maddalena, she has a bit of trouble speaking English.", which didn't particularly help the situation but I managed to pull it together and began speaking, saying a word in Italian, then asking Margherita in Italian how the word is said in English, and repeating the word with probably the most fake Italian accents anyone has ever heard, but somehow managed to convince the Australians as when after almost two minutes of this I fell apart laughing and announced "Okay, cat's out of the bag, I'm from Brisbane" and they were actually completely shocked! Ho ho ho ho ho, success!

Wednesday was then a lot of fun as at the start of the day a few students from Alice's class were giving the Parisians a tour of Milan and I asked to tag along. It was great because it was a historical tour where the kids from Alice's class explained the history of the places we went, namely two of Milan's most famous Churches/Cathedrals.

This particular church is from the period of time in which is was believed that churches should not be over-decorated because it would distract one from praying, so it was the most empty and plain church I have yet seen in Italy. It was also a lot of fun spending some time with the Parisians who tried to speak English to me with their extremely strong Manu-like accents and who tried to teach me how to properly do the French "r" sound; an impossible task! Although they managed to teach me how to say Salu, je m'appelle Madeline et je suis Australienne which means "Hi, my name is Madeline and I am Australia"!

Rule number 1: It's not REALLY a place of worship until there's a dead saint inside.

Going down underneath the church

Underneath the church! Ruins from many, many years ago

Gaia and Nadia

Gaia, Nadia, me and some of the Parisians

6 Italians, 02348290384 Parisians and 1 Australian

In celebration of this week's French theme I would like you all to meet my French alter-ego, The Madel-Lisa

We arrived back at school at midday and as we were heading back to class I ran into the Australians who were headed to do a session of Latin and Greek basics, so I decided to join them. The session was a lot of fun as, unlike the normal classes where they study difficult texts and I've never been able to understand anything, this session was made for the Australians and hence the teacher explain some of the basics of Ancient Greek, tried to teach us the Greek alphabet and read us aloud a poem in Ancient Greek!

After the session, the Australians went down to have lunch, an hour before everyone else, so, naturally, I followed them for that. It was so nice yet so strange to have lunch here at my Italian school with a group of Australians, especially as they spoke about things I would have spoken about with my friends in Australia and kept using words of Australian slang that I stopped using when I got to Italy as no one here understood me!

After lunch it was time for the Australians to leave and so I went back to Alice's class who were...headed to lunch! Yep, I scored two lunches! Although I did choose not to eat the second time around hahahaha.

The afternoon in class was then spent doing some exercises of Italian comprehension the French teacher has decided to start giving me, before going with Alice to get a gelato after school.

On Thursday, poor poor poor Alice had to get her wisdom teeth out. So I stayed home with her, in the morning I took her breakfast in bed and then we went for a jog before heading into Milan. We stopped to have lunch with Chiara at a small restaurant near her office before I had an Italian lesson with Eugenio and Alice went to the dentist.

Well, lunch certainly wasn't too shabby

Before: Happy, normal-sized-cheeks Alice

After: Significantly sadder and bigger-cheeked Alice

Judging by that face, I think we can all tell Alice needed a friend, and plus there was another strike un public transport in Milan so on Friday I stayed home with Alice, mostly catching up on episodes of The Voice Australia.

Friday pajama day!

Although I haven't yet had my wisdom teeth out, I imagine the process is less painful in Italy where your only meal becomes Italian Gelato
I mean, what else could anyone want?

Saturday we woke up to the most beautiful weather Milan has seen in a while, so I went with Chiara and Lydia to take Louise for a walk around Noviglio and the nearby towns, through the rice fields.

Italian Saturday-morning breakfast

A piazza we passed through in Tainate where a group of boys were playing soccer; Italy just keeps ticking off stereotypes

On the corner of one of the little streets we found this little shrine, as you find very very often in Italy

"Those that pass through this street will turn to look at the Virgin Mary"

After lunch it was time to go into Milan for Alice to do a Latin and Greek tutoring with Eugenio, so Chiara, Fra, Filo and I went for a gelato and some shopping.

We stopped to look in a fabric store and as Chiara and I recently bought some dress patterns we finally bought the fabric for my first dress, so Sunday morning I spent cutting out the pattern pieces and cutting out the fabric, with a quick Skype call to my group of friends in Australia who were out to dinner together (funnily enough at in Italian restaurant), before around lunch time people started arriving in our backyard for Ceci's 12th Birthday Party!

The yard Sunday morning just before Massimo mowed; Spring really had sprung!

Daisies EVERYWHERE

Spring-time version of the view from my bedroom window

Ceci's party!

Italian-style BBQ

ALTHOUGH I know that this photo is not even slightly flattering, I just had to mention how amazing this way. As Fra is from Genova, and in Genova they invented Pesto, for special occasions Fra makes Pesto Lasagne. Lasagne being my favourite food in the first place I was surprised that I honestly didn't know such a plate existed before this day, but Oh. My. God. It. Is. In. Cred. I. Ble.