June 18th: Pastries, Pizza, & Pasta

Waking up in Milano, we arise to the sounds of our hostel suite mates shuffling their belongs and attempting to speak in low whispers—essentially getting us back for the way we came in last night.

“ ...It was a HOT one today and climbing the 250 stairs up to the top of the Duomo was a little tiring, but definitely worth it.... "

Exploring Piazza del Duomo ("Cathedral Square")

Making our way to the Duomo di Milano rooftop, we first stopped for our first Italian breakfast getting the classic assortment of pastries and espresso. It was a HOT one today and climbing the 250 stairs up to the top of the Duomo was a little tiring, but definitely worth it (not to mention an excellent view of the cathedral square and the sounds of echoing music from the streets below filling the stairwell). We admired the detailed aritecturial designs and compared the religious/artisitc expression to Sangrada Familia.

After taking in Milan from on top of the Duomo, we walked over to Galleria Vittorio Emsnuele II (also known as the Viktor-Emanuel Passage) to see another main attraction of Milan, of course making up fun dances and songs along the way. Post the Galleria Vittorio Emsnuele II, we continued on to explore Milan as we made our way to the thrift shopping district. Before we reached that destination, we spotted a collectible rubber duck store to which Viv and I learned that Jill has an extensive rubber duck collection back home in California (over 300 and counting)! How awesome to continue to discover such fun facts about each other.

We ventured through some vintage thrift stores and had the most success at this 90’s "American" inspired one, which had hand selected pieces by the store’s owner. After finding some cool pieces, we made our way to lunch in this summer's crazy heat.

For our first Italian pizza we went to Piz, I mean duh of course we were going to get pizza as fast as possible after arriving in Italy. At Piz, we dined on margarita pizzas and had free shot number four. However, this was a pistachio liqueur shot which Viv and Jill were totally yucked out about (I surprisingly was okay with the after taste, initial taste was no bueno). Definitely interesting to try new flavors...LOL

“ Italians are defiantly build different if they’re breathing in mosquito poison all summer. "

Journey to Florence

After only a short stay in Milan, we meandered back to our hostel to collect our bags and walk to the train station (literally three minutes away). We took the train from Milan directly to Florence, and walked from the train station to our Florence airbnb (only about 15 minute walk away).

At our airbnb, we were greeted and warmly welcomed by the host, a funny Italian woman with a little sass and a lot of charm, and she offered great local recommendations for things to do in Florence and places to eat. Our airbnb was a lovely home attic space that had a window facing the Duomo (which was about a three minute walk away from our airbnb). At one point the host gave us a plugin for the wall in case the mosquitoes got bad—when asked how it works, she said it releases poison into the air! Italians are defiantly build different if they’re breathing in mosquito poison all summer. With a big exhale, we pumped the AC up and once again felt so lucky to have our own space out of the hostel environment.

First Pasta in Italy!

Pastries, pizza, and pasta…sounds like quite the complete Italian food experience. For dinner we explored the area around our airbnb, and Jill found a beautiful outdoor restaurant where we had pasta dinner and a show. A show meaning that at one point during our meal, while the three of us were engaged in deep emotional conversation, a 6 or 7 year old boy stood up on his chair and serenaded the restaurant was a 2 minute song.

Today, while it was crazy packed with activities and travel, was such an adventure. We shopped, we walked a lot (13,728 steps to be exact) and ate delicious Italian dishes made by the chefs that do it best <3

Overall, incredible day.