Our day kicked off in Montenapoleone where we visited the first Starbucks ever built in Milan. This visit is different from all of the others because it is the only American company that we tour. In addition, Italians value coffee very greatly in their culture and this makes it difficult for an American company with the reputation of having a cheap and quick product to succeed in the Italian market. In the words of our tour guide, “Italians care most about their football, coffee, and then everything else.” The challenge that Starbucks faces is that they need to convey to the Italian people that they have a quality product which can stand up to the stiff local competition and that is what our tour guide explained later.

When we walked into the store I felt like I was stepping into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. The store was about 20 times bigger than the average American Starbucks. There were copper pipes flowing across the store and in the middle stood a massive cylinder which housed the coffee beans to be roasted at a later time. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get a picture to completely encompass all the mesmerizing features of the store. That is why the pictures on Google do not do the store justice. You need to see it in person to get the full experience. That is something our tour guides for the Starbucks visit stressed frequently. They feel their competitive advantage is creating an experience and cozy environment in which people can purchase superior coffee and relax for hours on end. I agree that the store is very inviting, and the plentiful seating makes you want to sit and observe the chaos of Starbucks for hours. To conclude the tour we tasted one blend of coffee and learned the proper process for tasing coffee. I am not a coffee drinker but I thought the blend that we tried tasted good.

Next, we took the metro to the Armani museum. The museum had mostly dresses designed by Giorgio Armani and the employees were very strict about prohibiting flash photography and touching the dresses. Every 5 minutes through our tour, a large security guard dressed in a suit similar to James Bond closely observed us and made sure the rules were being followed. Based on the museum’s security, I can tell these dresses are priceless and it is really cool I had the opportunity to see them in person. I was interested in the tour, but overall the girls were much more interested in the dresses than the guys. Despite this, I still feel privileged to be able to see such beautiful pieces of art.

Tomorrow we have a busy day planned and I am excited to see what happens.