i cannot believe how fast time moves these days...i turn around and it has been two full months since my last post....but as most teachers know, and most parents, and most kids, the end of the school year is always insane...i think it is a bit more insane in the international setting, with all of the goodbyes to friends and students who are leaving the country you are living in, and therefore a bit more emotional...but the end of the year is always crazy....i got everything done, per normal, but it was a lot of work....and the craziness of the flooding in accra just before we ended, made the end of the year quite weird....but all is well and i think all folks i know who were effected did not suffer people loss....it was a crazy ending.....but now i am in the states and getting ready for my northeast roadtrip....i have already been to ireland and france, and will send out updates about them hopefully soon.....and now am doing the family and friends visits and such.....but first i need to still cover my easter, yes, easter trip, i took to milan, italy....reckless and jet-setting i know...i mean, who really goes to italy for a four day weekend....but i got a good deal and had to do it....so, on with the visit to a city in italy i had never been to.....milan....
one of the main reasons i went to milan was for their mass transit system...i know this sounds weird, but when you live in a city that does not have one, you miss it...it just makes life easier....and the place i stayed was on a tram line, as you can see from the shot above, and between two metro lines...simply perfect....i also went to milan because it was spring and in ghana we do not really have seasons....so i was missing some change...and of course, because the temperature was cooler.....i got to wear jeans and a fleece and a hat...it was great!!!!!
but milan is also one of those places that is small enough to wander around to see what you want and to hit up the different neighborhoods...and for most of the time i was there, that is exactly what i did...i wandered....this is la scala...with another one of those trams...this is the very famous opera building in milan...because i was there easter weekend and unfortunately everything was sold out...but it was a pretty building even from the outside....
just around the corner from la scala is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the oldest shopping malls in the world...i know i am not much a shopper...but just look at that ceiling....it's pretty funny to wander through here and see the different types of people...some are actually shopping at prada and gucci, but many are just there to gawk at the ceiling, the floor, the shops and the shoppers....it is all very elegant.....i loved the architecture....
this is what prada looks like....this mall has been open since 1877...prada has not been there the whole time :) and it was named for the first king of the kingdom of italy...after the roman rule of course....
and how about some versace....yep, all the places i would never be able to afford are here....with amazing fronts and glass above....and it was that crowded each time i wandered through to get between the duomo and la scala to start my trek home....a very cool structure....
when you came out of the mall area, you wandered into the square facing il duomo....this is the center of milan and all streets of this city radiate out from it...and man, it is an amazing structure...i was going to do a roof tour of this incredible cathedral, but it was raining the evening i wanted to go....next time....
everything about this cathedral is majestic....from the notorious red dome, to the bronze doors, like what you see above, to the gothic spires and the crazy facade, that is not seen anywhere else in the world....like most bronze doors of churches and temples, this one tells a story...and shows the stations of the cross from when jesus was crucified, according to christianity, in 3D....incredible sculpture....
i am always intrigued by the sculptures at the tops of the gothic churches....as they always have some sort of gargoyles and watchers of the building....crazy animals and important figureheads....and this cathedral was no exception.....i did wander around inside, but it was ridiculously crazy, remember i was there for easter weekend.....so i did not stay long....but the structure itself, on the inside and the outside....stunning....
another great thing i go to relive from being in europe in my past life was the roasting and therefore smell of chestnuts....these are not my favorite to eat, but boy do they smell good....and much of milan for me was about the smells and ease of life i remember from living in europe :)
milan is/was actually the host of the world expo for 2015...a month after i was there....i am not sure the airport was ready for this...but the streets had already been decked out in world flags....i saw the one for ghana and had to take a picture....it is the one on the left hand side of the picture....red, yellow, green stripes with a black star.....
to me, milan was a place of people doing their own things....and this guy sort of sums up the city for me....three piece suit, cigarillo hanging out of his mouth, no socks, expensive italian, leather shoes, on a vespa....ciao.....this is milan in a nutshell....
of course another reason i went to milan was for the food....and i was not disappointed...the coffee too...and it is everywhere.....this was my tasty caprese salad from my first night....it was just divine....
i have also learned that i really enjoy taking cooking classes in countries i visit...and this was no exception....i did a cooking class with chef aurora and her husband carlo.....funnily enough, the couple that was taking the class with me was from wilmington, delaware...just down the way from where i grew up....europe is where i tend to run into americans the most...in the class we did not make anything i had not made before.......but we did make some homemade ravioli, lasagna and risotto....finishing off with tiramisu....and of course to start the course we had some prosecco.....it was a lot of fun...and the chef and her husband were gracious hosts, who had lived in south africa, england, & chile and were fun to talk with....mangiare!!!!
one of the things i learned about milan was that it had canals...like venice....not as many, but it had them....the oldest canal....this one, the grande canal, was built in 1177....crazy that! the reason these canals were built were to facilitate the movement of enormous marble blocks that helped build the cathedral....they lead to the outside of the city....where they then are the waterworks for irrigating fields.....i wandered here for a bit, but not much was open....as it was the day before easter....but on these canals are locks designed by leonardo da vinci.....milan is his town....tons of things here by him....including the design of the duomo, the codex, and the last supper, which due to the crowded-ness of the city, i did not see....i did see some other things by him....not the codex though, as i have already seen that....he is one of my favorite scientists and and how could you not love a guy who wrote grocery lists as pictures for his illiterate housekeeper and chef to go get things from the market....plus, he could write with both his left and right hands, at the same time, in different different directions....simply incredible....
one morning i did wander to the main castle of milan....the sforza castle...i didn't go in, as it was way too crowded, but i did wander the lovely gardens that were just beginning to bloom....it was grey and a bit rainy, but that did not stop me, or the other folks from enjoying the green all around and chill in the air....
this was a cute little wishing bridge located in the back of the castle.....make a wish....cross....wish comes true....i did it, but no wish come true for me yet....we'll see...keep those fingers crossed ;)
milan is a place where fashion is king....and a bunch of their art deals with sewing...this is a needle and a thread located outside of the train station....they also has sewing machines all over the city, as a fundraiser....kind of like the pigs of seattle or the apples of new york....it was something about the art of sewing....there were definitely fashionable people in milan....but i was not overwhelmed by them....then again, they may have all been at their parent's places for easter.....who knows.....
i was given a tip by carlo and aurora to go visit a specific monastery, that most tourists did not know about....its called the san maurizio al monastero maggiore....it was once one of the most important monasteries for the catholics, specifically the benedictines, and was attached to the most important convent in milan....now it is a museum...and the frescoes and organ in this place are mind-blowing....i am not a huge church fan, but this one was different....it has a really cool fresco of noah's arc....but i could not do that justice in a picture...so here is the front of the church for your viewing pleasure....amazing....
the final picture this time is of me and aurora....what a fun morning and afternoon of italian cooking, prosecco drinking, international conversation and eating the creations we had made...i even got to take leftovers, as i had a fridge in my hotel.....yummy....i hope you have enjoyed the trip in pictures and words, as much as i enjoyed visiting there.....not so sure i will be such a jet-setter in the future, so i had to take the bull by the horns and visit milan....for the weekend...ciao!!!!
i am hoping to get another update out in the next few days of either ghana or ireland....i hope everyone in the northern hemisphere has had a great start to summer, and those in the southern have had a great start to winter....my summer vacation so far has been terrific....peace out.....
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