Italy and Switzerland

This is coming to you all a little late, but the past week has been pretty busy....

On February 28th, my friend Ben and I embarked on what would be my first time EVER on European soil (the continent that is). I have two friends who are studying in Milan, Italy from Boston College, Dan and Pier, so we would be going down and staying with them from Friday to the following Wednesday. This happened to be the same week that BC is on spring break, so my roommate Matt who is still at BC for the semester made the trip across to the pond as well. Also in attendance was another roommate from home, Sean, who is studying in Paris for the weekend. All in all, it was one giant reunion.

Ben and I arrived Friday afternoon to Milan to weather that was far better than anything we have yet experienced in Glasgow. It was sunny and warm making the hour ride from the airport to the city center relatively scenic (although the outskirts of Milan are no better than the worst parts of an industrial US city). Dan met us at Centrale, the main train station, and we were off to his apartment. We took the underground, which was remarkably similar to the tube system in London, to his apartment which was only a 20 minute ride. Upon climbing the steps above ground, this was my first official view of the city of Milan....



This is the Duomo, or Milan Cathedral, which is the second largest Cathedral in the world. It is also virtually in the backyard of Dan and Pier's apartment... awesome.

For the afternoon we did a little sight seeing, however we were still waiting for Sean and Matt to arrive to do the major stuff so we got a good chance to rest up for the weekend ahead of us. Sean arrived around 8 that night, and before we made it back to the apartment we stopped for dinner at a place called Iguana's. In Italy they have a tradition called "apertivos" where you buy one HUGE drink and with it comes a massive buffet of Italian food. Generally Itlians will buy their drink and grab a plate with some finger food, but being the Americans we are we bought our drinks, stuffed as much food as possible onto three plates and fully enjoyed ourselves.

Saturday morning Matt arrived from Boston and once he had settled in and unpacked his things we were off for a full day in Milan. We started at the Piazza Duomo which on Saturday was PACKED with thousands of people celebrating "carnivale". While it was a fun atmosphere to be a part of, I didn't appreciate getting nailed in the head with shaving cream which is apparently something that the Italian youth love to do during carnivale, even to the unsuspecting foreigner. We got a chance to climb to the top of the Duomo which offered a great, albeit hazy, view of the city. From here you could see the castle, the spires of countless other cathedrals, and the red clay roofs stretching out the horizon. Apparently on a clear day its possible to see the Alps from the Duomo, but we were not so lucky.





From the Duomo we walked a bit through the city to the Castello Sforzesco which is a massive structure which dominates the surrounding neighborhood. Unfortunately we arrived right at 6 when it was closing to the public, but it was still great to see from the outside.



Being that we were in Milan, the fashion capital of the world, we thought it was important to drop by our friends at Gucci, Versace and Armani.... I swear I could buy a small country with the money we saw people spending at these stores. What was also ironic about our walk through the "golden rectangle" was that in front of Versace's flagship store was parked a 2009 Lamborghini, directly behind a Bentley. As I knelt down to take a picture of this uncontested show of wealth, a 2009 Ferrari slowly drove by in the background. In that moment, I saw my college tuition, a beachfront house on Drakes, and a life supply of Maine Diner pancakes roll by me in the form of three cars. Ridiculous.

Saturday night Dan made reservations at his favorite restuarant, which of course I can't remember because it was in Italian, but I can definitely see why it was his favorite. Walking into the restaurant itself you think its a cheap bar, but after about a three minute walk through several corridors you're brought into what I later learned was the open-air backyard of the building, covered with tents and seasonal structures in the winter to protect from the snow and rain. We had a great time at dinner, and I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to visit with good friends who I haven't seen since December.

Sunday afternoon we met up with two of Dan's friends at Milan's central station for a two day trip to Zermatt, Switzerland for some skiing at it's best. Also with us was our friend Lauren who is studying in Parma, Italy and had come down for the big BC reunion in Milan and Zermatt. To preface our trip I have to say that I have been to Colorado once before to ski, and couldn't imagine any mountain in the world comparing to the back bowls of Vail... but then I found Switzerland. By the time we got to Zermatt it was completely dark out, leaving the mountains towering above us a mystery for the morning.

Monday morning I woke up to a great view of the village of Zermatt from our hostel's window, but I still had no idea for what was about to hit us as we ventured down to the rental shop to get our skis.



Towering above Zermatt and all the other peaks in the area is the Matterhorn, easily the most charismatic mountain I have ever seen. We collectively decided Doctor Suess must have based Mt. Crumpet off of the Matterhorn, for right at its peak it almost seems to curl over itself. Honestly speaking, I think I took upwards of 30 pictures JUST of the Matterhorn... here's a sample of some of the better ones.





After renting our skis and buying passes, we were off to do what would turn out the be the best day of skiing of my life. From the village we had to take about three seperate Gondola's to get up the mountain, but it was easily worth it. Every trail we went down had character of its own; some tucked between some of the worldest tallest peaks, others hanging over cliffs with thousand-foot drops, and still others that were simply sloped fields hundreds of feet wide covered in powder begging to be carved up. I can honestly say those 6 hours of skiing were some of the best of my life. Here are some pictures from throughout the day:



By the end of Monday we were all beat, and after a dinner at the bar on the first floor of our hostel we got to bed pretty early. The original plan for Tuesday was to get up relatively early, check out and make our way back to Milan by the early afternoon. However, the night before we had all decided we couldn't pass up another day skiing in the Alps and our plan was to do another day. Unfortunately Dan was pretty sick in the morning foiling our hopes of one more day in paradise. Instead we decided we'd do a little exploring around the village of Zermatt, and head back to Milan later in the day. Like any other ski resort town, Zermatt is very expensive, but that didn't prevent any of us from buying some Swiss chocolates, souveniers and for Matt, a pretzel from every bakery we walked by... But really, I think he ate about 6 big doughy pretzels, kid's a champ. At 1:30 we caught a train from Zermatt down to Brig, and from Brig we made a connection to Zermatt. The train ride between Zermatt and Brig fully made up for our lack of skiing on Tuesday. The ride was about an hour long, with the train snaking through a valley thousands of feet below mountains, cliffs and glaciers like I have never seen before in my life. Even if you don't ski, I would highly reccomend taking a train through Switzerland at some point in your life, you won't be disappointed.

By the time we arrived in Milan it was pretty late, and with my early flight back to Glasgow on Wednesday morning, I decided to call it a weekend and pack it in early. When all was said and done, my weekend in Milan and Zermatt couldn't have been any better. Not only did I get a chance to visit Italy and Switzerland for the first time in my life, I got to do it with great friends and had an awesome time along the way. It was by far one of the best times I've had since I've been here in Europe.

As for now, I must head off to bed. Tomorrow afternoon I'm off to Stockholm with some friends from Glasgow to celebrate my 21st, hope I make it back in one peice!

Hope you're all doing well where ever you're reading this from!