Wednesday, May 22, 2013

La Fine a Milano

Too much has happened in the last few weeks for me to be able to explain it all. I will definitely do my best. Well I am writing to you from the train station in Prague and will attempt to detail what I have done in the past two or three weeks. Last time I wrote about my experience in the French Riviera. The following week was filled with lots of work- presenting a number of projects, getting ready for exams, and beginning to pack. Trying to fit in spending time with everyone, doing everything we had wanted to do before we left, and eating everything for the last time was particularly stressful. That weekend was very busy. Usually during exam week, I hibernate in my room to prepare for exams. Well that was not really possible this time. On Friday, my Italian Fascism class held a field trip. I had actually been looking forward to this field trip all semester. A 6:30am wake-up call was not pretty. Several hours later we arrived in Carpi, in the Province of Modena, Emilia-Romagna. In Carpi, we met a tour guide who gave us a tour of Holocaust Museum. There is a Holocaust museum there in Carpi because Fossoli, the major deportation camp of Italy is just outside the city. The museum was really nice, filled with a lot of symbolism (the colors, the materials, etc)- there were beautiful quotes on the walls from famous Holocaust writers like Primo Levi. After the museum, we went to where the Jewish ghetto used to stand in Carpi and what used to be a synogogue there. Now it is just offices, but it was interesting to see what used to have been. That really is the theme for Jewish-ness in Europe- what used to have been. After the synagogue, we drove to Fossoli, one of the major concentration and then deportation camps in Italy. Primo Levi stayed in Fossoli before going to Auschwitz. Most deportees went from Fossoli to Auschwitz. I had learned a great deal about Fossoli in the class and also in my studies of Levi for a presentation, so I was particularly interested in seeing Fossoli. All of us in the class I think were a bit disappointed in our visit to Fossoli. I think we expected more evidence of what happened there, but it wasn't so obvious. The only evidence were these cabins/bunks around us, which were destroyed in this major earthquake that had hit the region. So we saw these ruined bunks, but were not able to go inside and see living conditions or anything like that. In any case it was interesting to see, and I think the tour guide planned it well: she had each of us read a quote from a famous holocaust writer who had stayed in Fossoli. We read a quote that explained some element of their life there in Fossoli, whether it was the check-in process, the line-ups or leaving to go to Auschwitz. The last part of our trip was the best though. After leaving Fossoli, we drove to this fast food restaurant. We grabbed a bite to eat and sat there for a long time. We weren't sure what we were waiting for- since we were up since 6:30am we were itching to get back home. Well, our teacher had a little "surprise" for us. At the Holocaust Museum in Fossoli, we learned about a man, whose name I forget I apologize, who risked his life during the Fascist era and ended up saving many many Jews. He hit people in his house and in his office. It was a really inspiring story. Well this man's granddaughter came to speak to us, she was a close friend of our teacher. She had devoted her life to studying the Holocaust and people like her grandfather who saved the Jews. It was a beautiful experience- to hear her talk about her grandfather's story and how it inspired her. That really made the trip.
The next day, on Saturday, I went to Lake Como with Brent. Living in Milan, only 30 minutes away from Lake Como, I couldn't not visit it and time was getting crunched so I had to go on Saturday. Well it worked out well because we had the most beautiful weather! Shiny sun and blue sky! When we got to Como, we visited the Como Duomo and then walked to get some breakfast. Afterwards, we luckily made it in perfect time to get on the ferry boat that takes you from town to town on the Lake. We were heading to Bellagio, a small and beautiful town on Lake Como- perhaps you've heard of the Bellagio in Vegas?? Well that's named after this town. The ferry took 2 hours to get from Como to Bellagio! Took a lot longer than we expected but totally worth it because we got to see the beautiful lake, the snow-capped mountains and all the giant beautiful houses on the water. In case you've never heard of Lake Como, George Clooney has a house on the lake which made it quite popular. A number of Bond movies were shot at some of the beautiful villas along the water also. Lake Como is famous for its silk. So when we got to Bellagio, there wasn't that much to do other than to walk in the little alleyways and to buy lots of silk :) In general, the lake was just so beautiful and the town was hopping with tourists. Several hours later, after some shopping and gelato, we headed on an express boat back Como and then on a train (which took about 3x as long- about 1.5 hours and was 1/3 the price= 5 euros!) back to Milano. A nice slow-paced day in a beautiful place!
Well that brings us to Sunday. Sunday = the only day I have to study for exams. lol. 2 exams Monday, 2 presentations and 3 short essays due Tuesday, nothing on Wednesday and 2 exams Thursday and saying goodbye to everyone on Thursday = one hell of a crazy week. All my exams went well I think. I spent my free day on Wednesday packing and studying. On Thursday, after my exams, I took my normal after-exams week-nap and then went to the IES final concert. There were a number of amazing music students in my IES program and they held a final concert for us. EVERYONE WAS AMAZING. Chris was amazing on the saxophone, Anna B. and Joe T. had amazing opera voices and sang solos. These three each only had one song. Erin A. and Anna L. each had a solo opera song and 2 duets. THEY WERE FABULOUS. They were so animated and were really putting on a show. All the songs were in Italian of course- SO IMPRESSED. Lindsey (playing the violin) and Julie (on the viola) each had a solo song and played 2 duets as well. SO FABULOUS! They were both so amazing! We were able to hear them practicing all semester while they were in the practice rooms, but we had never heard any of them play/sing so it was so nice to actually hear them perform. After the concert, we went to the Farewell dinner. Sounds exactly what you think it would be - a major bawling experience. The dinner was at a place called Da Willy's- food was fabulous- bruschetta, pizza, pesto pasta, lasagna- everything we could possibly want. Many classes showcased papers or presentations- my photo class showed each of our final projects which was a multimedia project (I did mine on the poem by Robert Frost "Fire and Ice"). Afterwards they showed pictures from the semester and everyone started saying goodbye to each other and crying and taking pictures and then crying even more. The whole experience didn't really feel real- it wasn't sinking in that I wasn't seeing these people again. A large group of us, after dinner, walked to the Cologne, which is this really old square with like old columns where a lot of local italians come and drink and hang out. We had wanted to go there all semester, but never had the opportunity so I am glad I made it there before I left. It was nice, it was a good social setting- able to see and talk to everyone. I was there about an hour and then had to say officially say all my goodbyes to everyone. That's when I started crying. It was my last time with these people and it really started to feel real then :( Well I got no sleep that night, I was up being sad and anxious about packing and stuff.
At 6am on Friday, Anna, my roommate left. Ugh more tears. I spent the next few hours cleaning the apartment and then I had to say goodbye to Hannah, one of my housemates who left then too. After finishing packing, I met up with Arturo to get Luini (the most amazing panzerotti, remember?... from the first week) for the last time. We chilled in Piazza Duomo in disbelief this would be our last time staring at the Milano Duomo. AHHH! We walked to our favorite gelato place, Shokolat, to get gelato for the last time. AHHH! And then relaxed in Parc Sempione. It was such a nice day and it was a perfect end to my time in Milano. An hour later, I gathered my things (umm... I have 5 bags- 1 major suitcase weighing 80 pounds, my smaller roller carry-on size suitcase, one backpack, and 2 totebags!... and I am schlepping this all over Europe for the next two weeks... oh and lets not forget that I am stupid enough to try to schlep around my Parmesan cheese and pesto pasta in a cooler so that I can take it home!) and had a teary goodbye to my Italian CA (RA/housemate), Alessandra. I met Zoe at Centrale and we had Rossopomodoro for dinner before we boarded our overnight train to Vienna (more about that in the next blog post).
Just a recap on two pizzas that I had that I hadn't gotten to explain to you about. Rossopomodoro. O.M.G. Best pizza I had in Milano. Gusta Pizza in Florence was still the best but Rossopomodoro. Heaven on a plate. I got the La Verace, which was basically sauce with Bufala Mozzarella (too much yumm for one word) and basil and then they sprinkle olive oil on top. Crust was so amazing. Just it was all fabulous. Sadie and I had gotten Rossopomodoro- we ordered a liter of their house wine which was just TOO good and then had fabulous dessert there too- it was these donuts drizzled with Nutella. Best meal ever. Ok.... Pizza Ok. Pizza Ok was good. The sauce was fabulous and they really threw on a TON of Bufala Mozzarella, so that made it amazing. Unforutnately, the crust is kind of weird- it was super thin and flat- kind of like a tortilla. So, overall not my favorite, but I can't get enough of mozzarella so still ranks high in my book!
Ok well, I guess that about wraps up my time in Milano. CRY! HOW IS MY 4 MONTH SEMESTER IN MILANO ALREADY OVER!? An amazing experience...great people...great place. I am SO sad it's over, I am going to miss Italy so much. I won't miss not having dryers, not having free water in restaurants, not having ice, the crappy teaching and educational process. I will miss... everything. I will miss all the super cute dogs everywhere, I will miss standing in the metro and not really understanding anything that is said around me and getting excited if I understand something, I will miss walking everywhere and using public transportation. I will miss mozzarella (I ate a ball of mozzarella every day!), I will miss my teachers- they were all such great people, and I will miss EVERYTHING.
Ok. Well, several more blog posts to come before this experience is officially over. :(
Ci Vediamo (which means like see you- which is actually true, see you in a few short weeks!)
~E

1 comment:

  1. Good to know that you had great experience.
    What was that one thing you thought was exceptional about Prague

    Start-ups

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