Today we visited Starbucks and learned all about the roastery and how it works. This is the first Starbucks in Italy, which is a big deal because Italians take their coffee very seriously. The layout of the Starbucks was entirely different from any of the ones in the United States. It was really interesting to see just how much they changed to cater towards Italian culture. The interior of the building was so pretty, and seeing how they roaster all of the coffee beans themselves was fascinating. One major difference is that there was an entire bar section in the Starbuck, which you would never see in the United States, however it fits well the Italian culture. They also ship out the coffee beans made in that roastery to places all over Europe. The amount of changes made to this Starbucks so it could be accepted by the Italians shows how much thought was put into this store, and expanding Starbucks locations in Italy.
Once our group finished the tour we were set free to roam around the city and get lunch. I ended up at this castle that had a beautiful water feature in front of it. Being able to walk around freely was great because I was able to immerse myself into the culture even more and find cool areas that I otherwise never would have known existed. I have also noticed that my Italian is improving much faster than I thought it would, and overall my knowledge of the culture is growing exponentially. This experience has improved my confidence in connecting with people from other countries, and people who do not speak the same language as I do.
After exploring we toured the Armani museum. I did not know a lot about Giorgio Armani so it was interesting to learn about his childhood, and the fact that he built his company from basically nothing is very inspirational. They are also the only fashion company that has shared their secrets with the public as they have a full digital record of all of the clothing anyone can visit. The clothing was all stunning and it was cool that they only had the years listed for the pieces and not the celebrities that wore them because Armani never paid celebrities to wear his clothing, he always gave them a choice. The elegance of all of the outfits on display was mesmerizing especially since he designed a lot of new things that broke all of the rules and boundaries in fashion. His story is so inspirational because he did not care what other people thought, he did things his own way, never gave up and became a success. His hands on another thing that makes his company so unique.
Arrivederci!
