An Italian Weekend - Milan and Verona

Once upon a time, I studied abroad.  It was a fabulous adventure.  One that I will recap further at various points down the road, but today I want to focus on my weekend of Italian fun during that summer spent in mostly London.

A couple of my classmates and I decided we'd go to Italy for a weekend...Milan and Verona to be exact.  We flew into Milan from London.  I really wanted to try to go to Florence or Pisa or Rome, but those were all too far from Milan for a day trip so we settled on Verona.

None of us knew Italian making for a even more interesting adventure.  Melissa and I rode the tram for free because we never could figure out how to buy tickets.  We were completely astonished by the bathrooms at the restaurant.  Everything was just a little more confusing and complex.

But we did have fun touring the Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral).  Unfortunately, much of the exterior was covered in scaffolding while we were in town, but it was so intricate and simply amazing - inside and out.

Gorgeous stained glass window...

One other fabulous place we visited in Milan was the Sforza Castle which is now a museum.  It actually houses the Rondanini Pieta - Michelangelo's last sculpture.  (He did work on the Duomo as well.)  The museum was quite interesting with lots of ancient art and sculptures.

Sforza Castle and Michaelangelo's last sculpture

After we saw the highlights of Milan, we took a quick day trip over to Verona. The city seemed very quaint.  I really liked it a lot.  We wandered around just checking things out for awhile.  Then we tried to find the city centre to grab some lunch.  We didn't have much luck and just kept wandering and wandering...until we came upon a seemingly helpful man.  He knew just enough English for us to believe he would help direct us to the local hot spot in town.  In fact, he was so helpful that he offered to drive us there...and we obliged.  Thinking back on it now (especially after having seen Taken...and Taken 2), I can't believe we just got in his van and went along for the ride.  In the end, his very high pitched and wild opera singing did make him seem a tad bit less harmful, but still...NOT something I would do again should I ever find myself back in Verona.

Scenery of Verona during our "wanderings"...

When we finally made it to the Arena di Verona (which somewhat resembled the Colosseum), we found some yummy pizza and gelati!!  We relaxed and people watched in the square for a bit before we made our way back to the train station for Milan.

Our weekend in Italy was fun, but it definitely left me wanting to explore much, much more of Italy.  A few years down the road, I would find myself in Rome (which I'll recap soon!) falling even more in love with this fabulous country.  Italy is truly the ideal vacation spot if you want to relax.

Have you been to Italy?  Which city is your favorite?

Linking up with Helene for Travel Tuesdays!

Andrea :)