We flew RyanAir out of Bremen. I've heard a lot of crap about RyanAir, but honestly it's a good deal. We paid 50 euros EACH round trip, so I'm not about to complain that they walk down the aisle every 15 minutes with something else to sell. You get accosted by ads on the bus and in the subway, don't you? Well they're just trying to make air travel as cheap and easily accessible, and to do that you've got to get rid of the idea of flying as a luxury item.
So as long as you don't expect anything special, it's a solid deal.
Flying over the Alps. Or Germany. Or somewhere.
THOSE are the Alps
Our first challenge in Italian was buying a ticket to get from our hostel to the center city. It started out as all English, but by Sunday I could say, "Due Biglietti al Aeroporto, per favore"
No idea how grammatically correct that is, but the people at the ticket stand understood me. =)
The view from the back of the tram.
First stop was obviously the Duomo, which is one of the largest (the largest?) Gothic Cathedrals in the world.
I thought I'd take a picture of one of the insane pieces of detail for you.
I would once again like to give a shot-out to Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, because I feel that I appreciate cathedrals a little more from that book.
Sorry I don't have a better camera to capture the insane detail
Wouldn't it be cool to be baptized in that baptismal font?
Definitely one of the coolest aspects of the Duomo is that you can go on the roof! It gives a really up-close view of the some 3,000+ statues
After the Duomo we wandered around the city with our guide book, taking turns to choose a new location and explore it. One of my choices was this awesome church which was decorated with...
paintings...
And HUMAN BONES!!!!
The book mentioned the bones so we paid a euro to go inside. At first the church was a total let-down: don't get me wrong, it was pretty, but after the Duomo everything is kind of a let-down. I was just starting to think we had wasted a euro when we found the side hallway that led to the attached chapel.
Best euro ever spent!
One of many Roman ruins around the city. We could've done a self-guided walking tour to see all of these, but we never got around to it.
Day 1 ended with a dinner with wine and tiramisu at a restaurant recommended by our hostel. Then we hit the hay because we were TIRED from walking all over that city.
Day two started with a trip to the castle! The Sofrza Castle, according to Wikipedia, "was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the remains of a 14th-century fortification." The castle passed through many hands as the ruling power in Milan changed, but it really is a fortress. We read about secret tunnels and inner courtyards that could be barricaded in the case of a siege.
There are quite a few museums in the castle, and normally I'm really not a museum person. But it was only 1.50 with our student cards to access ALL of the museums for the day. Who could pass that up?!?
Old mirror selfie!
This one feels like a centuries-old Instagram. "Ugh, studying."
I liked this one because it made me think of the Schneider clan: nine kids, all musical. Not sure if the genders line up though.
This is the courtyard that was a last line of defense if the castle came under siege. Man for scale under the arches.
There were kitties all over the castle! Conny hoped someone fed them regularly. I said they probably lived off of the mice.
Castle over the old moat.
Right next to the castle is just about the biggest park in the inner city. It's also super pretty.
Story time: we were chilling, eating lunch, when a man approached us out of nowhere. He pointed at Conny's Nikes and said, "You know, European girls don't usually wear the American brands because of the political implications associated with them." (CLEARLY he's never been to Germany, where it's Nikes, Vans, and Converse everywhere you turn) "Where are you from?"
He then proceeded to read our auras and our palms. He told Conny to be sure to go to Mexico in July 2015, because property prices are dropping and now is the good time to go. Also, she will be very lucky if she goes to Monaco at the end of this year. I, meanwhile, have a "bisexual line" on my hand that I of course should not be afraid of, and there is some connection to both Australia and Israel in my palm. He insisted that it would be very beneficial to read my fortune, because I'm a little more difficult... people are apparently stealing my energy. Conny, meanwhile, is a strong German woman who is easy to read and therefore doesn't need her palm read.
He gave us some good laughs. We also had fun trying to figure out how he knew some things, such as the fact that Conny has a cat, or that I'm from Southern California (Without even talking to me he pin-pointed two places from which I could be: Miami or Santa Barbara). Needless to say, we did NOT pay for a palm reading, and we were careful to keep one hand on our bags the whole time, in case he was trying to distract us enough to pick pocket us.
Conny, I'm still waiting to hear about your wealthy relative who died of cancer!
After lunch we went back into the museums, and visited my favorite of the day: the history of musical instruments!
A piano forte with ivory inlaid in the keys.
Super old and cool mandalins.
We also managed to find our way into the walls of the castle. It was awesome and I actually jumped up and down and clapped my hands in excitement.
Gelato #2 of the weekend. The three gelatos and half a dozen pastries are the reasons my face is now a lovely landscape of breakouts.
Just another in a string of beautiful churches. This sounds kind of snobbish, but they start to lose their charm after a while. It's like when you go on a safari: the first zebra is UNBELIEVABLE and the rest are like the neighborhood tomcat.
Palazzo di Brera, with super old libraries and a Pinacoteca. Other information I do not have. sorry.
More cool old building mirror selfies.
Our hostel was actually crap for several reasons: breakfast was only cookies, things seemed to randomly break all over, it was generally unorganized, and we had to move rooms mid-stay. But the redeeming factor was the fact that our second room had a balcony. The third night we bought pizza to-go at a local restaurant and ate it on the balcony while drinking an entire bottle of wine and eating a whole packet of cookies. And I thought, "THIS is the life"
Can I just point out that I'm wearing only a light blouse and shorts in this picture? Having grown up in a place where the temperature always drops at night regardless of the season, I always find it strange when I can hang out in a warm evening. Strange, but awesome and beautiful.
The view from our balcony.
Day 3 started with a really awesome trip to Cimitero Monumentale, or Monument Cemetery. This was probably my favorite site of the trip, and I could've spent a whole day there. It was so huge that I saw only about a quarter in the hour we were there. There was so much more to see.
Enjoy this following string of really ridiculous family crypts. Imagine how much money you have to have to basically build a miniature cathedral for your family to lie in!
This one depicts the laying of Jesus's body in the tomb.
I particularly liked the ones that depicted mourning. Here, a woman is offering a crucifix to an effigy of the man who died.
Please notice the gold mosaic in the dome of this crypt.
Does this remind anyone else of the "Magic is Might" statue in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?
A smiley selfie felt wildly inappropriate.
We also stumbled upon the Universita Cattolica, because that's where Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio is (pictures to come). I love visiting universities. They just have this energy about them, like you can feel the ambition and passion of the people who walk the halls.
Next stop: Naviglio Grande! This is the grand canal in Milan. In all honesty, it struck me as the city's attempt to draw tourism by looking like Venice. Milan is NOT known for canals (I think it has two), and the whole area was distinctly touristy. But pretty, I must say. And it was nice to have a break in the buildings.
And THE. HIGHLIGHT. of my day, Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio, aka the inspiration for Royce Hall!! It seriously felt like meeting a celebrity.
My parents really wanted me to film myself doing the 8-Clap for the "8-Clap Heard 'Round the World" video, but that just felt a little disrespectful. It's ok, these pictures are still fun.
And later in the evening, on our last night in Italy, we headed back to Piazza di Duomo. With gelato in hand, of course. I got Strawberry and something that we guessed was a combo of hazelnut and chocolate. The way I see it, that's like getting two flavors for the price of one!
Day 4: we were tired of Milan. The two other girls in our room happened to be German (actually not that rare. I run into Germans everywhere when I travel), and they told us that Bergamo, the city with the RyanAir airport, is supposed to be pretty. And it was in the guidebook. So we figured, why not? Let's just go back early, drop our luggage in storage, and explore Bergamo until our flight.
It was a GOOD decision.
For those of you who don't know (like we didn't), Bergamo is a medieval Italian city in the foothills on the southern edge of the Alps. It started as a trading city at the confluence of two valleys and over the centuries it also went under several different controlling powers. It's absolutely adorable and enchanting.
The old citadel.
So THIS place. So many different kinds of pizza, and you paid by weight. At this point we were actually thoroughly done with carbs, but how could we pass this up?
This building is interesting. The decorated one is actually a crypt built into the side of the Basilica. Some wealthy dude decided he wanted his own fancy resting place, so he ordered a wing of the Basilica demolished and then built his own fancy establishment.
The Duomo. These buildings are so deceptive! From the outside they look like nothing special, and then the inside takes your breath away.
Those different colors were created by using different stone.
And now I invite you to enjoy these pictures of the beautiful Duomo. Again, I wish I had a camera to do it justice.
And Italy's true religion: pastries.
The Basilica from the outside. More interior pictures to come.
Wandering the streets.
THOSE are the Italian hillsides I wanted to see! I need to go back sometime just for the countryside, I know.
One of the four gates to the medieval town.
Below is Lower Bergamo. The city was actually planned out well so that Lower Bergamo was a functioning extension of Upper Bergamo. Just another way that it reminded me of Edinburgh.
The old road that those men are walking on connects to Lower Bergamo via a series of stairs.
More adorable medieval streets. This is the only picture I got that didn't have a car in the middle, ruining the ambiance.
And now, I present to you: THE BASILICA. Unbelievably breathtaking. Italy is full of gorgeous churches like this, and like I mentioned before, despite my efforts to find the originality in each one, I kind of become de-sensitized to their beauty. Not this one. There are centuries of art on the walls and ceilings, actually layered one on top of the other. And the best part is that from the outside it looks like nothing special. Remember that crazy tomb from earlier? Attached to those boring brick walls? Yeah, those boring brick walls house this:
Basilica selfie!
Those glowing squares in the background are actually wood artwork carvings. Lots of old artwork that I wasn't entirely interested in, tbh. Old artwork isn't my thing unless it's super impressive.
And after Bergamo, we headed home! Those are the Alps in the background, picture taken at about 8:20 PM. Summer is coming!
And with matching bug bites to boot.
You know what, several people have told me that I only like Germany because I haven't seen other parts of Europe. But I must say that I was so happy to come back. I got off the plane and the air was 15 degrees C cooler, but it was clean and fresh and familiar. The road signs were familiar, people obeyed street signs, and conversations were held at quiet inside voices. At this point I'm far too accustomed to the German way of doing things. So, while I love traveling and exploring new people and places, it was nice to sleep in my own bed in my own little corner of Hamburg.
"La vita รจ bella" and I'm loving every minute of mine.
