Saturday/Sunday: Lago Como

Overlooking Lago Como

On Saturday, we paid something ridiculously cheap (like 3:60 euro or something like that) to take a train to Lago Como. It is only about an hour away from Milan and it as a beautiful lake next to a mountain...surrounded by a lot of shopping. Once we got to the lake, we stopped for a lovely lunch overlooking the lake. I had a Caprese salad, which was absolutely delicious, as usual!

After lunch, we took a tram up the mountain. Once we got up, we took a lot of pictures, and continued to go up further on the mountain by foot, which was interesting considering none of us had proper footwear to be hiking up this epic mountain. But we did anyway...

A beautiful house on the mountain!

There were a ton of beautiful houses up on this mountain and you could see over all of Milan. I wonder how the people who live up on the mountain get up and down. I saw some cars, but that would be quite the trek. But it really was a beautiful area so it might have been worth it. After we came down from the lake, we went shopping around the town. I got a gelato AND a cappuccino...so indulgent. But I figured I had earned it after climbing up a mountain...

That afternoon, we took the train and wandered back to Milan for a light dinner. We stopped at the Duomo in a big center that had a lot of little fast food restaurants. Where we went was very different from those fast food restaurants of the US. Instead of hamburgers and french fries, you can get paninis and cappuccinos! I got a caprese panini...that's 2 elements of caprese in one day! It's so good though...

On Sunday, my friend and I decided that we had had enough with all the staring at our American wardrobes...so we decided to go shopping! We went to the Duomo, which is surrounded by really high-end shopping and we walked around for a little while. There is this ENORMOUS department store near the Duomo called La Rinascente, which I think means 'rebirth.' I think it has something like 6 or 7 floors and has everything designer that you can imagine buying (except a hairdryer...something that I really needed!). In total, I bought some excellent pink towels, a sweater, a button up shirt, a blouse, and some boots (the Italians are really into boots). After returning to Collegio, I did my homework and practiced for my audition for the music program the next day!