May 21: MY BIRTHDAY.

The day of my birthday was strange celebrating in a different country away from my family & friends, but I still had a great birthday! Later on in the morning, I met Kiara on the bus (she lives with her host family a couple stops before my stop) and we headed into Verona city centre for some lunch and drinks. We went to La Tradisiòn, which is right by the Arena! We went here because Aperol Spritz is only 2.50 euros, which is the cheapest I have seen thus far. Even though the weather forecast was calling for rain, the day turned out to be quite sunny and nice, so we sat on the cute little patio out back and drank our spritz. We also ordered a cheese & meat board that came with bread and some pickled veggies. Everything was delicious and it was a great way to celebrate turning 22! In the end we got 3 spritz each & the cheese and meat board and it only costed 23 euros all together. Oh how I love cheap restaurants in Italy! Afterwards we also got some gelato at L’Arte del Gelato, which is the best gelato that I have had in VERONA so far, it is delicious & they also have granita which is originally from Sicily. Afterwards, I headed back to the house later on in the afternoon and hungout for the rest of the evening. We had risotto for dinner and my host family baked me a yummy chocolate cake and sang happy birthday to me, which was really sweet and thoughtful.

Overall, I had a great birthday and celebrating my birthday in a different country truly made me realize that home is a feeling rather than an actual physical place. I’ve only been in Italy a month and I already feel at “home”, I am lucky to be living with a great host family and have found some great friends so quickly because they are what made my birthday special.

May 22:

Had a chill day and walked to the grocery store that is close by and bought some chicken nuggets & fries to make for lunch for the girls.

May 23:

Went to Adigeo Centro Commerciale mall in Verona with Julia and Kiara. This mall is so modern and massive, I was quite surprised. There was a lot of stores that I didn’t recognize but some I did. Primark, which is from the UK, is super popular here as well for cheap clothing & accessories. I bought a pair of slides for 4 euros, a bigger black purse (I just brought my small Matt & Nat one with me) that was 8 euros and a tank top from H&M.

May 24:

I last minute decided to go to Milan, even though I had originally planned to go to Bologna (changed my trains for a different weekend for free) to meet up with some au pair friends. I caught the train at 9:45am, it was quite busy and since I took the regional train it was an 1hr 50min train ride (the fast trains around an hour an 10mins). I arrived at Milano Centrale around 11:45am and began to explore before I could check into the Air BnB for 3pm. My first impressions of Milan was that it is very commercial and quite modern – this was not shocking though considering it is the fashion capital of the world. I walked around a park and sat down to enjoy the nice sunny and warm weather. After checking into the Air BnB, I walked into the city centre to the il Duomo which was about a 25 min walk. There was a concert going on in the square in front of the Duomo, not sure what it was for or who it was though😂 Got some pasta close by that was not that great and overpriced to be honest.. are you sensing my opinion about Milano already? Haha!

May 25:

Explored Milano today, didn’t really have much of a plan but just looked up some of the touristy places before heading out because I last min decided to come! Explored Castle Castello, Arco Della Pace, Santa Maria Del Grazie and then headed back back into the city centre to the Duomo again – it was a day of a lot of walking and I lucked out with the weather, because it was forecasted to rain but ended up being sunny majority of the day. For lunch I had pizza and a ginseng (something that I have only ever seen in Italy and I LOVE it) and then made pasta at the Air BnB for dinner, because there was a grocery store right across the street.

Later on in the evening, I met up with some other au pairs and we had drinks right beside the Duomo (super expensive, 12 euros for a Hugo Spritz) and then ventured to find a club, but I just went home because it was 25 euros to get in and ya girl is on somewhat of a budget. Luckily I didn’t go in because one of the girls got her purse stolen (with her phone in it) and the other got 200 euros stolen from her wallet. People are not lying when they say to be careful of pickpocketing! For the one girl that got her entire purse stolen, we think that the strap was cut at some point in the club and then somebody took it. Milan is crazy… I like small towns better haha.

May 26:

Had a slow morning because despite going home before the club, I didn’t get back to the Air BnB until around 2:30am… everything in Europe starts so much later in the night because the clubs and bars are open until 5-6am, it is crazy! Met the rest of them by the Duomo, where the girls were talking to police officers regarding getting her phone back (she was able to track it on Find My iPhone and it was only 4km away). Ultimately, the police said they couldn’t do anything, which wasn’t surprising to me at all… they probably do not give a crap about a foreigner getting their phone/money stolen! Overall, I thought that Milano was a beautiful city and if I go back I am looking forward to exploring more of the less touristy hours and perhaps even going to Lake Como.

I caught the train back to Verona at 1:25pm and arrived just after 3pm, where Elisa picked me up from the station to go to Ilaria’s musical. Even though the musical was in all Italian, besides maybe like 3 songs that were in English, I understood the basic plot of the musical. I thought it was very well done and Ilaria was fantastic!