After a day of traveling, we finally arrived in Milan! We departed from Pittsburgh International Airport and arrived in Newark, where we had a 3 hour layover. From there, we embarked on an 8 hour flight to Milan-Malpensa Airport. The plane ride wasn't too bad, it was just hard to find a comfortable sleeping position.
We arrived in Italy at 8am local time, whereas it was 2am back in the States. I thought I was gonna be super jetlagged because of the six hour time difference, but I was wide awake, probably because I was excited to be in Italy! After we got our luggage, we were met by our study abroad program directors, Diego and Luca, who escorted us to the hotel. On our bus ride to the hotel, I eagerly stared out the window to take in as much as I could. One funny thing that happened is that I forgot that almost every country aside from the US uses the metric system, so when I saw a speed limit sign that said "90" I was really confused and a bit concerned for a second lol.
We got to the hotel around 10, but we couldn't check in til 3pm, so we dropped off our luggage and then Luca gave us a short walking tour of the neighborhood around the hotel. First he took us to the ATM to get Euros. Then we walked through a nearby park, popular for walking dogs, jogging, picnicking, or just relaxing. There was even a carousel and bumper cars for little kids to play on. As we walked through the park, Luca pointed out the Gucci house, where Mr. Gucci, head of the world famous fashion line, was murdered by a hitman. The hitman had been hired by Mr. Gucci's ex wife, who wasn't taking the divorce very well. She is currently doing time in prison for this crime.
After the short stroll through the neighborhood, most of us went back to the hotel to eat lunch. Many of us chose to get a glass of wine with our meals, which we learned was very common in Italy and part of the experience. For lunch, I had a Margarita pizza and it was delicious. Then, we all went back to the room where we had put our luggage for a "Welcome" presentation from Diego and Luca. They talked to us about all the places we were going to visit over the next couple of weeks and what we were going to see. They also touched upon things we had to be aware of while we were in Italy, such as protecting ourselves from pickpocketers and being smart with alcohol consumption. It was important to have all of this, because the last thing any of us want is to have someone be caught in a bad situation.
After the meeting, we could finally check into our rooms. We were all so relieved, because the jetlag had caught up to us and we all wanted to shower and nap before dinner. I had originally planned to nap for only 20 minutes, but it quickly turned into an hour long nap (whoops). I would've slept through dinner if it wasn't for my roommate who woke me up just in time for me to put on my shoes and meet everyone else downstairs. Diego and Luca took us to a quaint little restaurant, where they had already pre ordered all our meals. I'm grateful that they did, because I was still a little overwhelmed by everything that I wouldn't have been able to decide on what to get. Our appetizer was literally a plate of four different kinds of meat, which took me by surprise, but Diego assured us that this was not the norm for all restaurants. Our entree was two different kinds of pasta, both of which were very good. For desert, we had vanilla ice cream with strawberries, and maybe I was just psyching myself out because I was in a foreign country, but I think it was the best vanilla ice cream I've ever had.
After dinner, some people went back to the hotel to turn for the night, but a group of us went exploring in the city. The first few streets were almost deserted, but the shopping center we walked through was full of bustling people. We walked around to check out the shops and bars in the area, and a few of us even got gelato. Then, we started to make our way back to the hotel. We may have made a few circles trying to navigate through the streets, but we eventually made it to our hotel, safe and sound. Overall, it was a great first day in Italy, and I can't wait to see what else is in store.
