Ciao! This first week in Milano has been nothing short of eventful, exhausting, exciting, rewarding, scary, and fascinating all at once. It was definitely very nerve-racking at first the thought of living in a different country for a few weeks, especially as I have never lived anywhere outside of Austin, having been born and raised there and then going on to attend UT. This has been a very big jump for me so far, but little by little I’ve gotten accustomed to the city while finding things that both it and Austin share, as well as new things that are different from back home and have surprised me. It’s definitely stood out to me how the new and old are blended together throughout the city, something so evident that it was pointed out to us during our tour of the Duomo. Back home in Austin I’ve definitely studied juxtaposition of older buildings or architectural styles with new, modern buildings in areas downtown or even on/close to campus, but here even in one building the new and old can come together to create something entirely new. This especially stood out to me with the different shades of marble in sections that have been replaced with replicas of the original carvings and sculptures and how despite their visual differences, they work in harmony to portray the history of this building while adding new stories at the same time.
