Author: Gioia Caponera

This week we went in saw a lot of furniture. Very interesting and confusing furniture. Some very functional, some not so functional.

I have been collecting what I call “stocker pictures” of people’s shoes for my sketchbook. I have had to be a little sneaky at taking pictures of shoes in order to sketch them. It’s easier to take the picture when the owner of the shoes is not moving away from the loud crazy Americans.

We also got to go to the Armani Museo. It was interesting to see how strange he is as a designer. He is very classic in all his silhouettes. Every single one (on all 3 floors) had a very similar silhouette than the next. He and I definitely have very different taste in style and fashion. It was nice to see fashion through his lens.

This week was back to back days with many things to see. I was able to leave a few marks of my own doodle art at ______

I finally learned how the metro system! This is truly amazing since I was completely lost coming here. It was honestly very simple to understand. One of the things that stood out to me this week was visiting the cemetery. It was very strange and somewhat dark, yet really beautiful. I enjoyed seeing the dramatic and extremely detailed tombstones. While walking around, I reminisced about the importance of life and how short it is. The cemetery honestly gave me the motivation to push through my dreams and struggles. Yes, it was eerie but also very refreshing.

Como is a beautiful city! It rained a little bit but we were still able to see the site. I spent most of my time with Linda, Karina, Pamela, and Baylea… it seems like I am going to make some lifelong friends. Stay tuned to see if Milan makes or breaks us…

This weekend I also went to Budapest. Somewhat similar to Milan in architecture but not in people or language. It was definitely my first time in Austria. They seemed to like alcohol a lot. I went with Karina, Kate, and Courtney. It was a nice 3 days weekend. We did go on a cruise which was very nice since we got to see all the touristy spots at night. We also went to see a castle and a palace.

 

The plane ride to Milan was pretty exhausting. There were times of discomfort. The second plane ride had a lot of turbulence which completely freaked me out but I did some prayers and gave my worries to the big guy upstairs. It was easier to bear knowing the city I was going to was the fashion capital of the world. Once I got to Milan, I had a rocky start at the airport. I could not find the proper queue where my luggage was supposed to be and the nice Italian guys at the airport only spoke Italian (which make sense but did not help my anxiety). I ended up taking a taxi home to a small but cozy apartment on Via Ausonio. I love how addresses work here. It’s really simple and I feel that America should have picked a similar way of making addresses. Inside my snug Italian apartment, I met Neesha and Celeste who will be my roommates on this trip. Throughout the week we ended up seeing the Duomo. That is where I met everyone on the trip. We had a dinner at Karina’s house with everyone and had amazing pasta made by Baylea and cheese bread made my Pamela. It was great! The whole group bonded pretty quickly. I also became a gelato addict… probably going to have one every day now.