Day 13: From the Duomo to Repubblica

May 11th, 2012 ---

Anita had to run over to school for an hour this morning because it was the first class and she wanted to make sure she was able to reserve a seat, as well as check out the course. Having known this before I fell asleep last night, I decided to set my alarm for 9, so that I could get up and shower and be ready to go tackle the day when she got back around 10:30.

She ended up coming home around 9:30, explaining that her class ended up being an "Italian day", and because she is one of the English speaking students at her school, she didnt even have to go! So we ended up getting ready and decided to head back to the Duomo!

Even though I had been the day before, we wanted to browse around the area some more, as well as go up the lift in the Duomo. When we arrived, there were two military men at the door asking for tickets. Anita trying to talk to them in half English and half Italian trying to explain we didn't have any but also asking where to get them. They told us we had to head to some little store around the corner.
I swear, they have the weirdest systems of doing things in this city.
We walked over to the store that was behind the Duomo around the corner and got our €12 tickets to go up the lift to the top of the Duomo.

We go back to the entrance, hand the guards our tickets and shoot up the elevator. We walk through a narrow corridor, make a left up two or three small steps and suddenly we're on the lower level of the roof!
Incredible! The view, amazing. We went back through the corridor, up some more steps and are now on the right side. We continue to walk to wear we go up more stairs, Anita beginning to freak out (she's not too good with heights) but we end up on the very tip top of the roof!

The sun is beating down on us, its about 80 degrees and humidity has begun to set in. Being atop the roof though, it didn't even matter! You could see the entire piazza below, as well as the beautiful galleria. You could see all the spectacular architecture, the carvings and details of all the small and large statues covering this cathedral. It was gorgeous! I love how much detail Europe put into their buildings and churches. They care so much about the appearance of their cities. Its really amazing and I can appreciate every bit of it! :)

We headed back down the lift and decided it was time to grab some lunch. Anita works as an assistant to a very wealthy family. One of the many things they own and run is a wine bar a few metro stops away. Anita's boss had told her that since I was in town, that she should take me there. So she found out the address and decided it would be cool to go check it out.

About 20 minutes and metro rides later, we were lost at a large round-about with streets coming off streets and trying to find the one that the wine bar was on. After asking someone, we found the street and the exact address she was given... But was there anything there? Nope. Of course not. Bummer.
We thought maybe it was closed and it was only a night place, so we went to a nearby restaurant and enjoyed some fantastic fazzoli, mine with broccoli, hers with tuna. We ordered wine with our meals, typical in Italy of course! And I ended up with a half litre of pinot grigo! Hahaha Cheers!! Oh Italy...
Part way through my meal, I decided to go use the restroom, to which I didn't realise the bathrooms were co-ed. So when I walked in, there was a man about one of the stall doors.
"oh! I'm sorry!"
He laughed, "No, no!" and he signalled for me to use it...
Uhh.. Okay...
Then when I came out, there was a man standing at the sink, oh you know, just doing up his belt, no big deal.
I was so confused. I had no idea if I really was in a co-ed bathroom or I managed to find myself in the men's bathroom but they were just okay with it. Haha So awkward!
I went back to my table, explaining what had happened and her just cracking up at my awkward bathroom encounter.
But this restaurant got even better.
In Italy, they typically have several plates throughout their meals. They start with bread and pasta, then meat, then salad, then dessert. When our waiter came over, he stood unusually close to the right of me, looking down. I shifted to the left, to give myself a bit of personal space and he asked "Second plate?"
I just laughed because not just 20 minutes ago, he apparently hadn't been able to understand anything we said in English when we were trying to order, and now he was speaking English and standing freakishly close to my arm. Haha weird guy.
So Anita and I laughed, refusing a second plate, the first being big enough. Then we paid and headed off to a small shopping area called De Angeli where Anita wanted to grab her hairspray and look through a few shops.

De Angeli wasn't anything too special. There were a few boutiques that we checked out, the clothing very unique, some a little odd. But it was cool to see none the less. Both of us totally wiped out from the sun, the heat and being out all day, we decided it would be a good idea to head home.

After taking the metro and tram back to her neighborhood, we stopped at a little wine store around the corner, picked up a few bottles and headed back to her studio apartment for a quick cat nap.

The nap turned out to be exactly what I needed! I still have this stupid cold and haven't had the greatest stamina the last few days, though it's nice to wear summer clothes, the heat hasn't really helped much either.
About an hour later, just as I was waking up, Bogdan returned from work and we were popping open a bottle of wine and listening to some great house music while getting ready for the night.
We decided to dress up a bit tonight and head to the lounges of Porta Sempione!

Porta Sempione is beeeaaautifullll! By far my favorite area of Milan! Anita was telling me that the area is part of the fashion district of Milano. Where big designers get their fabrics and have some of the fashion week parties. The street lined with big beautiful trees and unique, round street lamps, and the side walks lined with awnings from restaurants as well as tables and chairs under umbrellas. At the end of the street, you could see a large archway lit up and in the background and big park. The whole area was precious! It reminded me a little bit of Paris even.

We walked over to a place called Ama.Mi. Its funny that I began this trip and blog with a reference to Eat Pray Love because when I walked in, of all songs they could've been playing in this fantastic, brick-walled, candle lit lounge was a song from the movie. The song from when she goes to India and she's riding her bike through the street, her future husband messing with a cassette in his car and then runs her off the road. It's the same song that plays when they meet again at the bar. And here I am, walking into the lounge and on it comes! It made me a laugh, what a funny coincidence that I referenced this movie and now the soundtrack is officially apart of my trip.

We ordered drinks at the bar before sitting at a small white round table. The happy hours in Milan have free buffets when you order drinks, so there was a fantastic assortment of pastas, cheese, salad/ veggies and bread. It was sooo good! Gosh, Italy, you know how to do happy hour! Haha Mmm!

We were there for about a good hour and a half ordering drinks, having some munchies from the buffet (my personal favorite being the cucumbers in oil & vinegar) then headed off to our next spot!

I regularly check out this website called The Cool Hunter. It's a great blog-like website that has pictures of amazing places around the world, places such as bars & restaurants, natural wonders, incredible architecture or design; as well as great fashion, music, art, advertising, etc. It's a really neat site! (www.thecoolhunter.net)

A few months ago, while I was exploring this site, they did a piece on a new trend: Designer Bakeries. They are bakeries that are designed and built in some beautiful way and make incredible breads, pastries and the like. When looking at all of the pictures of bakeries around the world, two that I really liked I had bookmarked and "pinned" on my Pinterest board. (www.pinterest.com/jpond)

Well, one of those bakeries I had recalled was named Princi and in Milan! I was dying to see it and when Anita and I looked it up earlier in the day, we found out it was open till 2am! Perfect!

We set out to find Princi!

It turned out to be a bit farther than we expected but we ended up in a really cool area called Repubblica! It was in the more modern area of Milan, where these enormous glass buildings and condos were all being built up.
In the Piazza, there were tons of bars and clubs all filled with beautiful trendy people. The atmosphere was so fun! There were lots of promoters in the streets calling out to people passing by getting them to go into their clubs. One of the clubs was called Hollywood.
People selling stuff on the streets and promoters were coming up to us here and there, becoming really annoying. So as we walked by Hollywood, one promoter comes up to me and says, in his Italian accent: "Eh! Eh! Come check out Hollywood!"
I didn't miss a beat, and said "Sweetheart, I LIVE in Hollywood!" and just kept walking, him completely stuttering on what to say and Anita & Bogdan just laughing behind me.

We were on the hunt for this bakery, which we ended up getting lost finding it. We asked a few people, some not knowing what we were talking about and others leading us in circles. It didn't help there was some construction going on that made it all the more confusing.

Finally after getting out my iPhone and making a few turns I saw the sign for the place! I was so excited!

There was big glass windows at the store front and white awnings. We walked in, the place rather empty then I had imagined. It was long with a large dark wood wall on the left side - this was where the counter with baked goods was and on the right bar stools lined a long glass wall with wooden shelf to eat, also looking into an area where a baker was cutting up and weighing dough for bread.

Anita and I decided we were going to try a bunch of things since we'd come all that way! We ordered a doughnut, slice of cherry pie, cannoli, tiramasu and water to wash it down.

We sat down on what we noticed were actually ripped bar stools, sampled everything feeling a bit disappointed that none of it was all that extraordinary at all! It was quite the bummer since we had come all that way expecting greatness.

It was now 1am, we were pretty tired from a long day and disappointing bakery adventure. We headed back to the metro station.

When we arrived it turned out to be closed.
Nooooo! Not this again!!! How do we get home now?!

We all stand arguing about what to do when suddenly we see a bus pass by. Yes!!!
We try running for it and miss it, of course, and end up waiting about 15 minutes for the next one.
When we get off the bus, we still have to take the #9 tram back. As we're walking towards the tram stop, we see it approaching and we're along the tracks but we aren't very close to the stop. We're probably going to miss it. Noooooo!!!!
Bogdan runs toward the tram signaling at the tram operated that we want on as Anita and I are trying to catch up behind him. Note: I'm wearing huge wedge heels, running across rocky grass with bumps and holes, praying I don't break an ankle on the way.
Thankfully the tram operator actually was kind enough to wait for us. We jumped on, out of breath, and journeyed back to Anita's apartment where we all passed out almost instantly.

Atop the Duomo in Milan

Atop the Duomo

In Anita's courtyard, ready for happy hour!

Porta Sempione!

Anita & I at Ama.Mi

Ama.Mi in Porta Semione for happy hour!

The bakery: Princi

Our order at Princi: Cannoli, Tiramsu, Doughnut, and Slice of Cherry Pie

Day 12: Milano!

May 10th, 2012 ---

Mornings officially suck.

6am came very, very quickly. It was like I blinked and woke up again, this time with a cold and mini hangover that I believe was worse just because of said cold - either way, the combination made me want to curl up in a ball, blanket over head and give the world my middle finger.

Though, today was no day to flip off the world. I slowly dragged myself out of bed and to the shower, crossing my fingers I would feel a bit better by the end of it. I dressed and got ready only feeling slightly more awake but my eyes still feeling like they needed to close and my nose and head completely congested.
This sucked.

After returning my sheets to the front desk and checking out, I slowly walked my way over to the train station, grabbing an orange juice and a croissant for the ride. Luckily, on the train I had the entire face-to-face seating area (with table) to myself. *phew!*

I whipped out my iPod, began to blog and enjoyed the incredible journey from Switzerland to Milan through the Alps. (Even seeing a small but beautiful waterfall on the way!)

When I arrived, I went into the main area and began to look around for my friend, Anita.

---

Back when I was 16, I was working at this hardware store, called Canadian Tire, on Victoria St. in my hometown of Kitchener. I hated it. I mean it wasn't thaaaat bad, but it just wasn't where I wanted to be.

At the time, my best friend had been working at this clothing store, Urban Planet. She had encouraged me to apply and after finally deciding I wanted a change I applied. I was hired on the spot by the manager that
happened to be leaving to go work at corporate a few days later.

Within three months I was promoted to a part time management position and I loved my job. Shortly after my promotion a new assistant manager came to work at our store. It was Anita. She was a sassy little thing and like me, was also a Leo - so of course, initially we butt heads.

After a short while we ended up realising that we could be great friends. I began to so enjoy going to the store and working with her. She even introduced me to electro and house music, which now, I don't know if I could live without some days. She is awesome.

Eventually, both went our separate ways - she moved to Toronto, I worked at a new store, then off to San Diego and her to Milan to follow her dreams of being in fashion.

---

It's been almost eight years since I've seen Anita. We've facebooked each other here and there, but we were so excited to see each other after so long! I told her the dates I would be in Milano, she offered her home for me to stay in and said she would meet me at the train station.

As I wandered around Milano Centrale Station, I spotted a girl slowly walking and looking around. She had looked exactly how I remembered, long black hair, bangs, layered, fitted clothing and heels. Aa soon as we spotted each other we ran over and hugged each other. It was great!

We hopped on a tram and headed to her apartment that was about 10 minutes from the Duomo. It was a little studio with her bed, desk, kitchen and bathroom and a little courtyard outside her front yard. So adorable. She even keeps her water and wine on her window sill where it stays cold.

After dropping off my stuff, we headed down the street, through a little market with fruits and purses and jewellery to a little cafe, that apparently had just opened called Pandenus. We had some fococcaia bread and roast beef with sparkling water. I love Italian food, so much flavor! So good!

Following, we killed some time by having a glass of wine and a strawberry liqueur across the street before she had to go to work for a few hours.

When she left for work, I was hoping to go wander around the market for a while. Thought, sadly by the time I got back to the market it was closed with street cleaners disposing of all the leftover garbage on the streets. With nothing to do for a few hours, I googled the address of Zara, to see where the main area was, and started walking. It was approximately 15-20 minutes later, I found myself wandering around the main shopping and tourist area annnnnnnd a three-story Zara store! (Hell Yeahhhhh!!!!)

After doing a bit of window- shopping, as I'm walking down the main street, covered in people, I look up. All of a sudden I notice that only a few blocks from where I was standing was the Duomo! Ecstatic, I hurry on down the street. Staring up at it, it's incredible - i think almost more incredible than the Dom in Cologne. It was so large and every single part of it, so detailed. I somehow always seem to discover amazing landmarks whenever I'm not looking for them!

As I stood taking pictures, a man came up to me offering me popcorn kernels to feed to the pigeons. He offered to take a picture of me with my camera and the Duomo in the background. Reluctantly, I said okay and as he held my camera, he told me to bend over and then sprinkled kernels on the ground infront me then began to whistle for the birds. All of sudden, I'm close to the ground with a ton of pigeons all around me! I'm not usually afraid of birds but honestly, it totally freaked me out! I quickly sprung up, laughing and embarrassed by how freaked out I was from a hundred birds surrounding me at my ankles and after thanking him, went on my way.

I got in line for the entrance to the Duomo. I noticed a man that was working for the cathedral looking at everyone's attire.
What's going on?
In front of me, a girl wearing a dress stopping just above her knees and dark stockings underneath was stopped and told that her dress was too short and she would not be allowed in. Looking down at my small dress with crocheted top, I nervously used my pashmina to cover myself. The man looked me up and down, and miraculously let me pass. I was shocked. My dress was no longer than the girl before me, but he said nothing and I waltzed into the cathedral.

The cathedral was enormous! So tall! It reminded me a lot like the Dom in Cologne. Same type ceilings, same layout, just a bit larger in size. Quite incredible! I wandered around, cracking up when I saw a sign that claimed Jesus was on the web, an advertisement for their website I suppose. As I walked through I was approaching the exit when I noticed the outfit of a historic, now deceased, lying horizontally in a glass case that looked much like a coffin.
Hmm.. What's that?
As I get closer I notice that it is not just a costume in there... It's the actual dead body of a priest in his religious gown.
WHAT THE HELL?!
There is a silver mask on the face and covering the head so you can't see a skull, but his now flaky, dry green-colored dead hands rested on his torso. So gross.
Beside this coffin is another, but with this one the mask doesn't cover the entirety of his head so you can still see the side of his head covered in thin patchy white hair. Aghhhh... Soooo creepy!!!!! I was standing 4ft away from a dead body! I'm sorry but ewwwww...!

I leave the church and decide to head back to Anita's to get ready to go out when she got off work. She had given me the keys so I was good to go.

When I arrived at her apartment I had to pee so bad! I put down my stuff and walked into the bathroom, when suddenly I heard what sounded like someone opening the door. I had forgotten that Anita had informed me that her boyfriend would be over after he got off work, so when I opened the door - there he was, this short Romanian guy named Bogdan with an accent, saying hello and apologizing for possibily scaring me.

I got ready and we headed out to meet Anita at her work at 8pm. After meeting her we decided to head to a place called Le Trottoir, about a 10 minute tram ride away. It was a great little place with a happy and small free buffet looking on to a busy street, as well as a piazza with a giant archway in the center. We sat on the patio drinking our wine, eating and laughing/ catching up on everything that has happened in the last little while.

Following Le Trottoir, we walked over to this small Asian corner store where we were refused when trying to purchase some wine. Commmonnnnn! This is Italy!! Wine all day, wine all night! Cheers and vino for everyone! Haha

So we ended up walking some more and found another place where we grabbed a couple bottles and headed over to a place called the 'Columns'.

The Columns, well, its exactly as it sounds. A piazza with a church on one side, a statue in the middle, and a row of columns on the other. Bogdan and Anita explained that this area is a local hangout that everyone comes to. They sit on the ground of the benches (if you can get a spot) and they smoke, drink and socialise with everyone around them or with their group of friends while people come up to you trying to sell you roses or lighters, etc. It was a cool little spot, bustling with lots of different people. We sat and drank our two bottles of wine enjoying the stir of people around us.

On our way home, we passed a place selling crêpes that Anita informed me were the best! So we stopped for a chocolate-banana crêpe, crispy and covered with powdered sugar, which was pretty fantastic, then got on our way!

I was absolutely exhausted by the time we got home, but I wanted to see Anita's fashion designs! I've seen the work she's posted on Facebook and her sketches are incredible! She's very, very good! She came up with these white three-dimensional, geometric balls that are sooo freakin cool and she's going to include them in the collection she has to design for school. So neat! (below is a picture of the balls that I'm talking about)

After going through her sketchbook and showing me all her work, we decided to hit the light and get some sleep for another fun day! :)

The Duomo in Milan!

Accept my friend request on Facebook?

So creepy!

Galleria!

The Columns where we had our wine!

The design on Miss Anita Jax!