Flashback to last Wednesday...I feel like I have been starting to leave stories of Florence out of my blog. On Wednesday it was beautiful out! Since I only have one class on Wednesdays Taylor, Olivia and I decided to not be lazy for a day and go for a run. We had passed a park close to our apartment before that has this beautiful fountain in the middle of it so it seemed like the perfect place to run... and it was! The park was packed...a little weird there were many homeless people sleeping on benches and couples laying on the grass but it wasn't scary to be in. After a 3 mile run around we laid in the grass to bask in the sun. A few hours later we thought it would be a good night to finally check out Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the sunset. Piazzale Michelangelo looks over the entire city of Florence! It is beautiful! The walk there and the steps may have slightly killed us after all the running we had done but it was worth it. As per usual we also got gelato at Piazzale Michelangelo. I will definitely be making more trips up there before the end of the semester!
Our study tour this weekend Friday-Saturday was to the city of Milan and Lake Como! I have heard many people speak negatively of Milan but honestly I thought it was a pretty cool city! So here we go...
Our study tour this weekend Friday-Saturday was to the city of Milan and Lake Como! I have heard many people speak negatively of Milan but honestly I thought it was a pretty cool city! So here we go...
Friday we departed for Milan at 6am...a rough wake up call for all but surprisingly everyone made it to the bus on time! It was a 5 hour bus ride but another shocking fact I was able to sleep most of the ride. As soon as we arrived in Milan we were dumped off the bus at the Ratti Silk Printing Factory. In the silk factory we were first taken to the "outlet" where you could purchase designer scarves, ties, and hats made in the factory for a reasonable price. After we got a tour of the factory. The company was founded by Antonio Ratti in 1945 and is currently run by his daughter. It is one of the leading companies in the international luxury textiles industry. Our tour guide was a cute old man who has been working for the factory for quite some time. He only spoke Italian so our teacher had to translate for him. He was so passionate and proud of what he does and the company he works for. I am starting to get that vibe off many Italians. They truly love what they are doing and have pride in their work. This is something I hope to take away from the culture and find a job where I can have that same attitude. The tour was over an hour and we saw the silk making and printing processes. Soon enough it was time to leave and get lunch at Lake Como.
Since the museum time had ran over we only had about an hour to eat as opposed to the 2 hours our itinerary originally planned for. We quickly hustled into the nearest restaurant to try and grab a quick bite to eat in our small time frame. The restaurant was a disaster!! They brought out half our tables food in the first 20 minutes, than another one of us got their food about an additional 20 min. Time was running out for us to even eat/get our food period. There were a good 15 of us throughout the restaurant still waiting for food after an hour and it was time to go. Our teacher Pat walked into the restaurant and made us leave because we had a scheduled tour to get to. So Taylor, Olivia, and I left food-less and hungry.
On empty bellies none of us were in the mood for this second silk factory tour. The tour was of Taroni S.p.A silk weaving mill, which is one of the oldest silk weaving mills in Como. We had the amazing privilege of having owner Michele Canepa as our tour guide for the mill. He is an incredibly powerful man in the fashion industry as my teacher Barbra described. It was a quick tour, a simple walk through of the mill with brief explinations. Michele Canepa had a time cap on our tour because he had to rush off to a meeting in Switzerland immediately after. What I found most interesting about the tour was that he told us that many designers don't pay him for production. I was mind blown by this and didn't understand how someone who makes so much money could just not pay the person who produces the product. Apparently many designers do get away with this he spoke of Oscar De La Renta specifically as a customer who rarely pays him for production and gets away with it. This brings up the problem of ethical fashion which my teacher Barbra works so hard on to fix. I agree with Barbra 100% that ethical fashion is so important and there needs to be people working hard to fix the problems like producers not getting paid for their work.
After the tour it was back on the bus and to the hotel...which was more like a motel. The "hotel" reminded me of the place I stayed in for after prom if that says anything at all. It was dingy but each room did have their own bathroom and shower which was a nice change from the shared bathroom hostels. Starving a group of us went out to go get dinner/lunch for those of us who hadn't eaten all day. We ended up at a restaurant called "Pizza Pasta." You could only guess what the menu consisted of from that name! The portions were massive!! I got a half pizza, half calzone and it was amazing! I ate almost the entire thing! We also each got a half liter of wine. At the restaurant we lived up to the stereotypical loud americans as we talked and laughed till we cried. There were Italians in the restaurant looking at us like we were insane and were probably annoyed at our volume. The restaurant was perfect! After we headed two places down to a mixology bar. The bar was empty so our rowdy Kent State group decided to take over. The bartender was a little overwhelmed but was nice enough to put up with us all. Mixology drinks are extremely good but also are a bit pricy. We spent a few hours there bothering the bartender with 5 billion questions and asking him to do an impression of an American accent which was hilarious! After the bar we decided to make our way home...but clearly the night wasn't over yet because we found a McDonalds and as full as Taylor and I were, we made everyone stop because we felt milkshakes were completely necessary for the rest of the walk home. We sang Mia Mia and finally made it back to the hotel and passed out.
The next morning we were feeling well rested and got up to go get our free breakfast. The free breakfast was the usual croissant, juice and coffee option. After breakfast we decided to go to a bagel place we had passed the previous night...it was the first time we found bagels!! The bagel place was AMAZING! They had all different kind of bagels and all different bagel sandwiches. We decided to get lunch for later on there. Best idea ever! I got a vegan bagel that had hummus and veggies on it. I have been so hummus and bagel deprived that I became the happiest girl on the planet! We had them put the bagels in a bag and sucked up the torturous wait till lunch to eat them.
The day was then spent in the city of Milan. We walked around first and took pictures of street style for our project and saw a lot of stray cats. We also got chased around by persistent Africans trying to sell these string bracelets. When I say these bracelet salesmen were everyone...I mean they were EVERYWHERE! They also had a very hard time taking no for an answer. After walking around for an hour it was time for our tour of the Triennale Design museum. The museum was awesome! It was constructed to be used as a source of inspiration and to show past innovative product developers. We weren't allowed to take pictures and there is no accurate way to describe how different and cool this museum was so everyone reading this blog I guess you have to take a trip to Milan for this one!
On empty bellies none of us were in the mood for this second silk factory tour. The tour was of Taroni S.p.A silk weaving mill, which is one of the oldest silk weaving mills in Como. We had the amazing privilege of having owner Michele Canepa as our tour guide for the mill. He is an incredibly powerful man in the fashion industry as my teacher Barbra described. It was a quick tour, a simple walk through of the mill with brief explinations. Michele Canepa had a time cap on our tour because he had to rush off to a meeting in Switzerland immediately after. What I found most interesting about the tour was that he told us that many designers don't pay him for production. I was mind blown by this and didn't understand how someone who makes so much money could just not pay the person who produces the product. Apparently many designers do get away with this he spoke of Oscar De La Renta specifically as a customer who rarely pays him for production and gets away with it. This brings up the problem of ethical fashion which my teacher Barbra works so hard on to fix. I agree with Barbra 100% that ethical fashion is so important and there needs to be people working hard to fix the problems like producers not getting paid for their work.
After the tour it was back on the bus and to the hotel...which was more like a motel. The "hotel" reminded me of the place I stayed in for after prom if that says anything at all. It was dingy but each room did have their own bathroom and shower which was a nice change from the shared bathroom hostels. Starving a group of us went out to go get dinner/lunch for those of us who hadn't eaten all day. We ended up at a restaurant called "Pizza Pasta." You could only guess what the menu consisted of from that name! The portions were massive!! I got a half pizza, half calzone and it was amazing! I ate almost the entire thing! We also each got a half liter of wine. At the restaurant we lived up to the stereotypical loud americans as we talked and laughed till we cried. There were Italians in the restaurant looking at us like we were insane and were probably annoyed at our volume. The restaurant was perfect! After we headed two places down to a mixology bar. The bar was empty so our rowdy Kent State group decided to take over. The bartender was a little overwhelmed but was nice enough to put up with us all. Mixology drinks are extremely good but also are a bit pricy. We spent a few hours there bothering the bartender with 5 billion questions and asking him to do an impression of an American accent which was hilarious! After the bar we decided to make our way home...but clearly the night wasn't over yet because we found a McDonalds and as full as Taylor and I were, we made everyone stop because we felt milkshakes were completely necessary for the rest of the walk home. We sang Mia Mia and finally made it back to the hotel and passed out.
The next morning we were feeling well rested and got up to go get our free breakfast. The free breakfast was the usual croissant, juice and coffee option. After breakfast we decided to go to a bagel place we had passed the previous night...it was the first time we found bagels!! The bagel place was AMAZING! They had all different kind of bagels and all different bagel sandwiches. We decided to get lunch for later on there. Best idea ever! I got a vegan bagel that had hummus and veggies on it. I have been so hummus and bagel deprived that I became the happiest girl on the planet! We had them put the bagels in a bag and sucked up the torturous wait till lunch to eat them.
The day was then spent in the city of Milan. We walked around first and took pictures of street style for our project and saw a lot of stray cats. We also got chased around by persistent Africans trying to sell these string bracelets. When I say these bracelet salesmen were everyone...I mean they were EVERYWHERE! They also had a very hard time taking no for an answer. After walking around for an hour it was time for our tour of the Triennale Design museum. The museum was awesome! It was constructed to be used as a source of inspiration and to show past innovative product developers. We weren't allowed to take pictures and there is no accurate way to describe how different and cool this museum was so everyone reading this blog I guess you have to take a trip to Milan for this one!
When the musuem tour was finished we went on the metro to visit a concept store called "Corso Como". Corso Como was a really cool store as all concept stores our but it was obnoxiously expensive so you can only do so much browsing before you want to punch the store for having such beautiful clothes, accessories, and beauty products that are so completely out of your price range.
I ate my bagel as we waited for everyone to leave the concept store. I will leave a short portion to tell you just how amazing this bagel was. Mouthwatering. I could eat 50 more! I've missed hummus and bagels soooo much!!!! okay...I'll stop.
We took the metro to the Piazzo Duomo area of Milan. There we had the rest of the day to explore, work on our street style project, and do whatever our hearts desired. We visited the Marc by Marc Jacobs store which was awesome!! Marc by Marc Jacobs always has affordable items which makes me a very happy lady! I bought something for my sister and I in that store (spoiler alert). We browsed other stores than tried to get into the massive church in the Piazzo Duomo area. Taylor and I quickly got denied from the museum for what we were wearing. This was a little ridiculous because we both had on just above the knee skirts and tights on! They told us our skirts were too short...so we waited outside and people watched and took street style photos which was actually fun. Milan has some of the best street style! Exhaustion was hitting us but we still had a few more hours in the city. We continued to browse until it was time to head on the bus back to Florence.
All and all another amazing study tour trip! I could not be happier with my choice to study abroad and more grateful to my parents! I LOVEEEE TRAVELING!!!!
Ciao!!!
The Park...
Silk Mills...
Out in Milan...
BAGEL!!!
Concept Store...
More Milan...
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