I officially began my journey to Milan approximately 48 hours ago when I left my house in Allentown, PA. Since then we took two flights to get here; one to Newark, NJ and then finally a 7.5 hour flight to Milan. I personally enjoy flying and have never really had many problems with it, however, today was a little bit different. I felt as though we had somewhat of a rocky landing due to the turbulence while descending and the quick drops in altitude, leaving many of us feeling a little uneasy as we took our first steps off the plane into Italy.
Despite the lack of sleep from travel, I was determined to stay awake on the drive to our hotel in order to start taking in the surrounding environment of Italy. While looking outside of the coach’s window I was slightly taken aback. I had expected to see many old and colorful buildings covered with vines. Instead, I primarily saw modernized buildings with somewhat neutral colors and large windows. I guess from what I’ve seen in pictures and on TV the Italy I knew was full of cobblestone roads and ancient, yet beautiful buildings. After our Milan crash course, I concluded that it is probably because Milan is known to be one of the “least Italian” cities in Italy due to the large amount of tourism in the area.
We wasted no time immersing ourselves into the Italian culture as we were led by Luca, our guide, on a walk to withdraw Euros and enjoy our first authentic Italian meal. This was probably my favorite part of the day to see what it’s actually like to dine as an Italian would. All I can say is bread, bread, and more bread. When our main dish of lasagna was placed in front of us I was in awe. When cutting through the noodles they seemed fluffier than the ones I buy in a box at home and the sauces seemed much creamier. All of this elevated the flavor of the dish. We concluded the meal with a lemon sorbet topped with fresh fruit. Initially, I was just excited because I’m a big fan of lemon desserts but didn’t really think there was a reasoning behind it. After dining with Frank at our table, he explained a dessert like this typically follows a heavy pasta course in order to help digesting the meal to prevent feeling incredibly full. It was also neat to acknowledge how no one was in a rush at the restaurant to get our food to us or push us out once we were finished with a dish. Compared to dining in America where everything is so fast paced, it was very different. I’m looking forward to all of the experiences that await in the upcoming days to continue to dive into this culture.