Waking up this morning was a tough one, while still trying to overcome the jet lag. However, once I reminded myself of the schedule ahead of me for the day I was filled with joy. We started the day of with a crash course in Italian which has always been a dream of mine to learn. It was intriguing to learn how many Italian words us Americans were already familiar with. I was also pleasantly surprised with how quickly I was able to pick up certain words and sayings. Many say that Spanish is incredibly similar to Italian, and I agree to some extent, but I felt that it also made it a little confusing as far as sentence structures. To conclude our crash course, the other students and myself had to put on short skits to practice our newly learned conversation skills.

After finding a cute local ristorante to dine at for lunch, we made our way back to the hotel lobby. This is when we headed out on our walking tour of Milan. This whole afternoon was and will probably remain one of my favorite memories from this trip. We began the walking tour by walking throughout the hotel’s surrounding neighborhood and learning an immense amount of history about the city of Milan. After passing a handful of designer stores, local restaurants and taking several pictures, we made our way to Eatily. This is where I had my first taste of authentic Gelato made in Italy. I still kept to my typical order and indulged in strawberry and vanilla, but I have to admit that once returning home Gelato will really never be the same.

Approximately two hours later we arrived at the place I had been talking about for months leading up to this trip, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. This was a fashion lovers heaven. Once passing under the archway, I turned side to side to find the inside lined with several designer stores such as: Versace, Louis Vuitton, Prada and my personal favorite Gucci. I had always said if I was fortunate enough to be given this opportunity to study abroad in Milan, I would make a purchase from Gucci considering it was founded here in Italy. I ended up conforming to the popular trend of purchasing a Gucci belt. Finally we made our way to the widely known, Duomo to end our formal tour. I finished off my time by dining at an outdoor restaurant with a few other students. We were able to sit across from the Duomo and watch the sun set from our seats. To conclude the day I had my first experience on the Metro in order to return to our hotel. At the end of each day I continue to get more and more excited about what awaits tomorrow. Ciao for now!