First Abbey

IES kids trekking to the first abbey.

Starting on Thursday, it started snowing in Milan. By the end of Friday, it snowed 12 inches. Apparently, this is the largest snowfall Milan has seen since the early 80s. Giuseppe said it hardly ever snows here, and this amount of snow here seemed apocalyptic. Everything shut down, and the normally crazy drivers just didn't know what to do with themselves. It started melting on Saturday, though, and now it is all gone. That was an interesting experience.

Thursday night I went to the symphony at the Consevatorio di Verdi. IES has 4 season tickets that cost them an arm and a leg, and the music students get preference to them. So...free professional concert. The orchestra played a Schubert concerto and it was absolutely amazing. I have never before heard a live group of this quality. It was here that I realized how lucky I am to have 5 months in this incredible music capital.

On Friday, IES sponsored a trip to the gothic abbeys of Lombardy. We braved the snow and a tour bus took us around our area to see two different abbeys. The monks gave us tours and they were really pretty with the snow and all, but it was freezing and I was happy to return to our apartment at the end of the day.

Saturday I took a daytrip to Verona with Mike, Anne, and Lindsay. The train ride is about 90 minutes, so it's not too far away, but there was absolutely no snow there and it was 50 degrees! The town itself is small and quaint. We climbed to the top of the Arena di Verona, an amphitheatre built in the first century. Now, they use it for a huge opera festival each summer. From there, we went to the Capulet house that inspired Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Commonly referred to as la Casa di Giulietta, it is a huge tourist attraction and people go through the house and stand on her balcony. We spent the rest of the day just exploring the city and experiencing the wines of the locality.

I've been to a couple aperitivos this week that have been pretty fun. I am starting to plan trips I want to take during the semester. Charlie and I just booked a hotel in Venice for Carnevale at the end of February. Carnevale is the Italian equivalent of Marti Gras, only it is a much bigger deal and everyone gathers in Venice for a few days of revelry before Lent begins. People get dressed up and wear masks and the whole nine yards. Most of the professors say it is absolutely beautiful, so a lot of IES kids are going.

Some people on this program are just traveling every weekend. They seem to have buckets of money to burn on a semester-long European travel spree. I don't really have the kind of cash to do that, but I'm fine with that. I really want to feel as if I live in Milan, and I want to get to know the city really well. So, I'm going to try to limit my trips to maybe one or two a month.

Apparently, Brad & Angelina are getting married at George Clooney's villa in Lake Como (about an hour away) this weekend. The town's abuzz....