Thursday, June 28
The day started with my second exam at Audencia. Covering material from my European Background class, the exam took about 1 hour. Afterwards, Lindsey, Tiffany, and I left for the train station for our train from Nantes to Paris. We arrived in Paris around 2pm and had a few hours of down time before our overnight train would leave for Milan, Italy. In Paris, we visited a perfume factory (Lindsey had gone in high school and wanted to buy refills), walked to the Opera House, and ended up eating dinner at the cafe across from the Hotel Vendome (where I stayed with Alex and his parents the previous weekend). After dinner, we proceeded to the train station and barely made it on our overnight train to Milan.
My first time on the sleeper train was not as bad as I had imagined. There were 5 of us in one room (about 1/6 the size of a McDonald Hall room), with 3 beds on each side of the wall. Basically, you just had to lay down, put some music on, and fall asleep. There was little room to sit, stand, or do anything but sleep. However, before I knew it, train personnel were asking for our passports and we were getting off the train in Milan!
Friday, June 29
When we arrived in Italy, it was 6:30am. The sun was shining and the streets were starting to get busy. Knowing we only had about 12 hours in Milan, we locked our luggage in the train station's lockers and headed out to explore the city. We walked through a beautfiul park to get to the Duomo, one of the oldest cathedrals. We were able to go inside without any wait and view its amazing structure. After the Duomo, we walked to the Milan tourist office, hoping to get some information about a possible tour and viewing of Leonardo DaVinci's "The Last Supper". The tourist office offered us no hope, saying that we needed a reservation of at least two weeks for a tour/viewing. However, they told us we could walk over and if people didn't show up for their reserved tour, we could possibly get bumped into a group. So... we walked to Santa Maria delle Grazie, spoke with the tour coordinator, and he put us in the 10am guided tour and viewing!! We followed a guide through at least 3 security-sensored doors and when we got to the last one, we turned left and there it was! To my surprise, there was no painting hanging on the wall to be viewed. Instead, a giant fresco took up the entire wall. DaVinci's "Last Supper" was HUGE! I just could not get over the fact that the painted wall was his artwork! After listening to the audio guide (the actual tour guide spoke Italian), I learned about the meaning behind various portions of the painting, as well as why there is a portion missing (in the 1660s, someone widened the door on the wall, cutting out the bottom of the painting).
After spending 15 minutes in the Santa Maria delle Grazie (they only allow 25 people to look every 15 minutes), Tiffany, Lindsey, and I walked to the main shopping streets of Milan. We had fun shopping in the fashion-forward city and enjoyed Italian gelato in between. At 5pm, we headed to the train station to catch our departure from Milan to Bern, Switzerland.
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