Day 6: First Day in Florence

Today was our first day in Florence! We hopped on a train to get there. My first impression of it was that it was a lot more tourist-y than Milan was. It was really crowded and there was always someone trying to sell you something. Walking to our hotel was miserable, because it was down pouring. I swear, the rain follows us whenever we go outside, because when we were on the train, there was no rain. As soon as we got off the train, it started to rain. And once we were inside our hotel, the rain stopped.

Anyways, we dropped off our luggage in our rooms then headed out for a walking tour of the city. It was raining the whole time, so our tour guide made out so we were inside for most of the tour. Our first stop was Florence's Duomo, where we could only walk in specially roped areas to preserve the marble in the middle of the building. The dome was the most beautiful part of the building, because it was completely covered in paintings like the Sistine Chapel, known as a fresco. There were scenes of angels, saints, and Jesus Christ. The walls were covered in beautiful frescos of saints as well.

After the Duomo, our tour guide took us to the Florentine Leather School, which I think is one of the coolest places we've been so far. We got to watch artisans and students cut and style different types of leather into bags, wallets, belts, etc. The types of leather used included cow, deer, ostrich, lamb, crocodile, and python. But the coolest part was watching one of the artisans, Francesco, put gold designs on leather by engraving them with heat stamps. He put a very thin, delicate piece of 22 carat gold foil on a leather coaster, then imprinted designs on it with stamps that were heated by fire. When he removed the excess gold, the design remained and it looked amazing. After our tour of the leather school finished, we all excitedly went to the gift shop to get leather goods to take home, which Francesco engraved for free. I got presents for my family members here. Then we got dinner at a small restaurant, where I had gnocchi (my third time having it, because it's so good).

After dinner, a group of us went out to explore the night life in Florence. We went to a karaoke bar where we totally rocked, and by "rocked" I mean "completely butchered," Thrift Shop. Then, after we left the club, the unthinkable happened: one of us got their pone pickpocketed. Said person realized it right away and we tried to get it back for a few minutes, but we soon realized that it would be a fruitless effort and we decided to walk away. We all got back to the hotel safely but we were all shook up. It's funny, you never think that something will happen to you but then it does and you can't believe it. I'm definitely holding my purse a little tighter from now on.

Day 5: Fashion and Costume Museum and Shopping in the City

Today we went to the Fashion and Costume in Milan. The rooms were absolutely stunning. The walls and ceilings were completely covered in paintings of people and landscapes. Although, I don't really understand why it was called the Fashion and Costume Museum because there were only like 3 outfits on display. We were told that the clothes couldn't be kept out for long periods of time because they would get damanged and lose their shape. One of the clothing displays was typical women's wear from back in the day. The dress covered the body from head to toe and looked very tight and restricting. It was interesting to see how modest the women of the olden days had to be.

After the museum, we went to Ermegildo Zegna, a menswear store and tailor. The manager, when asked about the company, said “We used to sell wool. Now we sell lifestyles.” He walked us through the 4 levels of te store, where you could buy and customize anything from a shirt, jacket, pants, belt, shoes, tie, and more. You could choose the fabric, color, pattern, cut, fit, and buttons. One multicolored leather jacket on display cost 7000 euros! It seemed crazy that someone would buy that. The manager told us that the company utilized vertical integration, meaning that they own every step of the process. This typically adds to the profits of a company because they don't have to go another company to do some of the work.

After the visit to the tailor, we had lunch at the UNA Hotel Restaurant. We all had two courses. I had lasagna and grilled beef. The beef was probably the most American thing I've had since I arrived in Italy; it even came with fries on the side. After lunch, we were supposed to hear a lecture about business customs in Italy from a manager at the Italian Chamber of Commerce, but he got sick and cancelled, so we had the rest of the day to ourselves! Some of the girls and I decided to use this time to shop. We went to a bunch of outlet shops in the streets near the Duomo. I bought two shirts and a necklace for myself. For dinner, we went to a restaurant near the Duomo where I had delicious bruchetta.

Day 4: Rainy Day in Como

It was harder to get out of bed today for two reasons: one, it was raining, and two, we had to get up a little earlier than usual because we were traveling to another town. We took a train to Como, a small town outside Milan, for our first company visit to the Como Textile Lab Center. They specialize in supplying services for the support and development of textiles. They can perform over 350 tests in technology, physical qualities, mechanics, flammability, chemical properties, and dyes. We watched a multitude of videos of the machines performing the tests. The company has over 450 active clients at the moment, many within the Como area, since it has a very large textile industry, silk in particular due to the abundance of mulberry leaves, which silkworms feed on.. The company was basically created to allow other companies to find out the quality of their textiles and learn how to make them better. The even have their own trademark, Seri.co, that guarantees the silk products to safe, high quality, sustainable, and made in Italy.

One very interesting thing that Como has developed is a machine to electronically inspect silk. Usually, silk is inspected manually by someone who loops the silk around a board and inspects the strand for impurities like knots, tangles, and splits. But with the machine, the silk can be inspected by sensors that find impurities electronically. This is much more efficient than doing it by hand because a person can only inspect 10 bundles of silk a day, whereas the machine does 12 an hour. Overall, it was cool to see the machines used by the Textile Center to inspect the quality of the textiles and how they can even create a new machine to be more efficient.

After our visit to the Lab, all of us went to lunch together at Numeronove, a local pizzeria. The name translates to "Number Nine," which refers to the business being in the family for nine generations. The owner was so nice and so excited to have us. He looked up Pitt on Google after we told him we all studied there. For lunch, I chose to have the lasagna, which was delicious. Everyone else got different kinds of pizza, which I also happily tasted. For desset, I had the most delicious creme brulee.

After lunch, we had a short tour of Como. Our first stop was the lake, where we all got on a boat to see all the villas on the lake. It was a little hard to see though, because the windows on the boat were covered in water from the rain, but it was still beautiful. Sadly, George Clooney's was too far out for us to see. We also unfortunately couldn't see the Alps, because the fog was too dense. After that, we saw yet another cathedral, this one with pagan and Christian gods on the outside. The funniest thing about this cathedral is that the bell tower has random holes all over it. Old buildings have holes due to scaffolding, but the architect who built the tower didn't know that but was trying to mimic the aesthetic, so he they just put holes in random places.

We would've toured Como for a little longer, but it was still raining so we had to cut the tour short. In our spare time, we all went shopping. many people bought silk ties, a staple of the area. After shopping, we traveled back to Milan. Once we got back to the hotel, some friends and I ate dinner in the hotel restaurant, then we all went to a club with the Italian college students we had met the night before for a fun night out.