Buongiorno! The group touched down in Italy this morning—roughly 8:00 am in Milan time, but 2:00 am back at home—with a pretty rough landing, thanks to the winds at the airport. Milan greeted us with a chilly, misty morning, no sun in sight. On our way to our hotel, I found it hard to stay awake on the coach bus, after sleeping for only 4 hours on the plane (which is better than most actually). The Hotel Sempione will be our home for the next week, before we head off to Verona for a couple days. I’m looking forward to waking up to fresh air and sunlight from the Italian-esque terrace opened up to the quaint city street. After orienting the group to the local neighborhood, our tour guide, Luca, led us to our welcome lunch at Delicatessen L’Alto Adige, where I ate bread and meat appetizers, the best lasagna ever, and a lemon sorbet palate-cleanser. I learned to enjoy each bite and savor the foods, as Italians do. I think it’s fair to say that I am going to enjoy all Italian meals. The group had a short orientation, with very helpful dos and don’ts to assimilate us into Italian culture. For instance, it’s polite to greet the staff in any store or restaurant that you enter, and say either “Buongiorno!” if it’s before 5 pm or “Buona sera!” if it’s after 5 pm. Later, I went with several other students to check out the shopping district streets and mentally made a note of the stores I want to revisit. For dinner, we made our way to the place with the “best pizza of Milan,” according to our tour guide. I shared a pizza margherita con doppia (double) mozzarella, and it was great! Now, I’m ending the night with a nice hot shower after long days of travel and writing my blog post for the first day in Italy. Off to more adventures tomorrow!