10 TO DO's

Spending half a year in the same city means that there is a good reason for digging deeper into it and explore what it offers.

So living in Milano - Italy for 6 months should help us to understand Italian people better, their culture and language, so that we will feel a little bit italian :)

Our mission can be summed up in 10 points, our personal to-do list before going back north:

1

The most famous piece of architecture in Milano is the Cathedral, or Duomo. Therefore we must investigate it at its fullest. This would give us a good excuse to get up in the tower and enjoy the Milanesian cityscape.

2We are living in a land where opera has some big solid roots. Many operas are Italian, so even if we don’t particularly fancy operas we should go to see one just for the spirit. Furhermore, Milano can brag about the Teatro La Scala, which is one of the most prestigious and worldwide recognized stages for opera. According to some rumors prices can be very low if you are a student and if you buy a ticket on the same day as the opera is shown. So no excuses for not going!

3Italy is also a country that has a long tradition with football. The national team has lifted the world cup four times and Italian football teams used to play an important role in the European football scene. Milan has two teams, AC Milan and FC Inter and the local derby is considered the event of the year for their fans. It would be extremely cool to be part of the crowd and feel the atmosphere. However, probably it is not gonna happen since none of us are really football fans, so we don’t see the appealing of queuing for hours for having the privilege of paying a ridiculous amount of money for a ticket. But since football has to be experienced we should buy ourselves a cheap ticket for a cheap match between some non-famous teams! Just so we can brag of being inside the stadium:)

4When you say Italy, you say espresso. We need to drink a really good and strong espresso for breakfast. It’s what Italians do and normally it’s the only thing they take for breakfast. Just to wake up and be fresh. According to the experts in the field, there are few places that are contending the title of best espresso of the city. So we will try and see if they are correct!

5Hand signs: if you have ever seen a movie with Italians most likely you have noticed the extensive use of hand signs or gestures. We are coming from a country where body language is limited to the necessary, so it is interesting to see Italians in action and we must learn a few very useful ones:)

6Next to the Duomo is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele located and underneath the Galleria there is a picture showing a bull. Some time ago, someone, probably in order to attract tourists, spread the rumor that by spinning your heel on the balls of the bull you would ensure yourself luck for the time to come. As a result, tourists are actually queuing for smashing the balls of the bull and the city of Milan has to periodically replace the tiles because of the extensive spinning that wears the tiles. And we off course should go as tourists and have our milanesian luck.

7

When living abroad it's both useful, but also polite towards the people to have a basic knowledge for the new language. So we must learn the most useful Italian phrases, words and idioms and maybe even attend italian classes so we can eventually pass an Italian course. 

8Enjoy and participate in some of the various festivals taking place in the autumn.

9

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most famous Italian painters and one of his most notable pieces the fresco painting "the Last Supper" is located in the center of Milan. Funny enough, only a limited group of people can have the privilege to access simultaneously to the fresco, so we will have to book a few months in advance.

10

The main reason for us to stay a long time in Milano is off course an Erasmus study abroad. Therefore its a definite must to pass our 5th semester in Politecnico even when considering Italian standards and methods for exams which are quite different from the Danish system. This is off course our main goal, so we should hopefully succeed in that :) 

Some are easier than other, but lets see in february if we actually made it to this list!

//Louise

The milanesian cityscape

 

 

From the rooftop of the building where I live in the center of Milan, there is a very beautiful panorama view of the entire city. The skyline is composed by different types of buildings in every direction and among them prominent church towers, newly build skyscrapers and bank headquarters are rising high from the other buildings. Milan has many green structures as parks but especially terasses on top of residential buildings.

//Louise

Visit # 2

My brother Jacob (right) and his friend Mark just passed 6 days here in warm Milano. The two teenage guys that loves to party the danish way had to find out how the italian way of going out works. African bars, a secret party in some kind of ruins and drinking on rooftops were some of the lively experiences. Now they are back in Denmark. It was great to have them around but now I have to start preparing to enter school for real. Damn, this vacation is about to end!! Ciao!

//Louise

So this is my new home!

 So this is my home the next five/six months! I share it with a 36 year old psychologist who works at a university. The apartment has one empty room, so I'm probably getting a new room-mate soon. The apartment is located in (or at least VERY close to) Milan city-center near Missori Subway Station.

Arrivederci e buon fine settimana! :D

// Niklas

Venezia / Garda Lake

(Stupid) tourists feeding pigeons!

On one of the other islands you can find a good bunch of bikes. Not a transport you would associate with Venice and the islands!

We spend a few days in Venice followed by what was supposed to be a great hot trip at the beach around the Garda Lake. The weather was switching a bit between sun and rain but it could have been worse. So we managed to still get a few sunny days where we basically just enjoyed the seaside. 

Visiting Venice is always a pleasure. The atmosphere is great and it is so enormously charming and beautiful. And the fact that the maintenance of the houses and bridges are so bad, just makes the scenery even more beautiful. Although going to Venice should be outside of season as there are insanely many tourists around (see photos). Venice ended with a short stop at the Venice Film Festival seeing three movies. Unfortunately not the movie by Susanne Bier, but i heard it will be shown in Milano next week. Nice!

We are going to Venice again before the end of November as we are architecture students, and therefore MUST see the Venice Biennale that exhibits architecture this year! So this will be continued :)

//Louise