Sabato a Milano!

This has been an excellent Saturday! So wonderful in fact that I had to blog about it right away!

Photos are on facebook (I tried to load them, but the loader failed and it's 1:05am. My patience has run out.): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150285935158763.335583.551278762&l=0a9c0e73c0&type=1



This morning began with an adventure. Myself, my CA's sister Francesca, and my DU gal pal Nicole decided to go find a street market! Now I must tell you about the reputation of these street markets: good food, good shoes, good clothes, cheap prices. Naturally I was excited to try it out! My lovely CA, Annalisa, helped us to plan out trip to the mercato; we were to take the metro to Cadorna then take the 1 tram to the Domodossola stop. Easy right? Hahaha, maybe not so much. We got on the 1 tram just fine, unfortunately we got on the 1 tram heading the WRONG DIRECTION! Meanwhile, we are all chatting in broken Italian (well on Nicole's and my part at least) and not really paying close attention. Finally I realize that we have been on this tram for a very, very long time. Much longer than nine stops! I quickly convey this to Francesca and Nicole and we abandon ship! We quickly realized that yes, we were going the wrong way, and hopped on the correct 1 tram heading to Castello. Although we now had to go 19 stops (!), it was a wonderful way to see the city!!

Around noon we finally get off at the Domodossola stop and make our way over several blocks to the street market. It was packed!! There were venders selling everything from fresh flowers to vera pelle (real leather) shoes, with a few octopus thrown in for good measure. The sights and sounds were something out of a movie, it was colorful beyond belief with the widest assortment of Italians. Everyone was pawing through the piles of merchandise and haggling over fresh fruit. It was AWESOME!! I purchased some nectarines (which are delicious!!) and Nicole bought me an awesome purse as a belated birthday gift :). We spent about two hours making our up and then back the street. It was excellent.

After our adventuring through the market, Nicole and I split off to go get some panzerotti from Luini's near the Galleria. If you don't know what a panzerotti is, I'm sorry for you. They are Italian fast food, very similar to calzones. Essentially a pizza turned inside out and then lightly fried. So I got a pomodoro e mozzerella and Nicole got a prosciutto e mozzerella. We then parked ourselves on a nearby curb (don't worry, it isn't a faux pas there, everyone does it at Luini's) and proceeded to gab about boys, Italy, travel plans, and life in general. Poi, we grabbed some gelato from this exquisite chocolate/gelato shop right next door! It was fabulous. When we felt that we had rested and refueled sufficiently, we made our way to a purse shop called Carpisa.

On our way to Carpisa we come across an Indian parade! There were gigantic cows, loud music, and people dancing in the street! And it was all followed by a giant cart from which people were throwing macaroons!! Definitely didn't expect that in Milan!! Hahaha! We made our way from there to Carpisa and I was in heaven! I love my purses, and this shop was nothing but! I found something I loved, as did Nicole, and then we split ways and I had some down time at home before meeting up with Nicole, my friend Maya, and my housemate Qianning for the Italian Gospel Choir!

At 9:00pm we were standing alongside hundreds of people, watching a 450 person gospel choir, made up of Italians, singing American gospel tunes! It was bellissimo!! We were dancing and singing along, I couldn't get the grin off my face :D. The concert was held on the front steps of the Duomo, and the entire piazza was full of people watching the performance! We definitely had a great time. Which was of course followed by grabbing gelato from a nearby vender. May I say that I am getting quite good at ordering una coppetta piccola al....geltao perfavore?

Well it's now going on 1:00am, so buona notte tutti! A domani!

Cassidy