My Erasmus friend came to visit me to Italy

As you probably know by now, last year I moved to Denmark to be a full-time student of Multimedia Design & Communication. That being said, I am still considered an international student (even though I am not on exchange). During my first semester, I met a girl from the Netherlands, Saskia, who was on her Erasmus. With her, I explored the city, tried different kinds of food, took pictures and partied. It was fun but she stayed in Denmark for just over four months. At the beginning of July, she texted me on Whatsapp and asked me if I was in Milan during Summer because she has been working for her internship for months and she felt like she deserved some time off and she thought of coming to Italy for a week. A week is too much for visiting Milan only since it is quite small, but I told her I was going to be here so she was more than welcome to come. I could show her around and catch up.

She sent me a text with the things she googled and wanted to see and do in Milan, and I promised her we were going to do them all:

• Take a handstand picture (and take a lot of pictures of the city);
• Send postcards back home;
• Visit Lake Como;
• Visit Milan and its most famous areas;
• Eat pizza and gelato;
• Observe the city from a View Point.

Day One of Seven

The day comes and I pick her up from her hostel, which is located near Navigli. On Monday, which was the first day, we walked a lot (I bet she felt like I was crazy). We saw Navigli, Porta Ticinese with the Colonne di San Lorenzo, Via Torino, the Duomo, Montenapoleone, Parco Sempione and the Castello Sforzesco and then we walked all the way back to the Hostel. She was exhausted (Sorry, Saskia! ).

Lake Como for the day

On Tuesday we decided to go to Lake Como. It takes only one hour by train so we got there around eleven in the morning. We walked around the lake, sat down near the small beach and sat down for lunch. I got a hamburger and she got Piadina, a flat Italian bread stuffed with ham, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. Our lunch was just about 10 euros, not too bad. Then we walked a bit more and she spotted a Gelateria and we got ice cream. I can’t blame her, it was very hot and we needed to cool down! Afterward, we decided to “hike” up. We wanted to see if we could look at the lake from above. We did not find a path but we succeeded in finding a View Spot. It was very nice, the water was an intense blue and you could also see the little harbor and the promenade. On our way back to Milan, there were some guys in front of us on the train. I heard they were speaking a hard language, mixed with Italian and English. Well, Saskia told me that it was Dutch so when we got off the train she told them something in their language and we found out that one of the guys was from Italy and he was showing the others around, just like I was doing with Saskia! Lol.

That night she got back to the hostel and she told me that a new girl arrived in her room. Prior to that day, she was sharing her room with girls from France, Spain, Argentina, Korea and places like these but this one was from the United States of America, New York City to be precise. I told Saskia that if she wanted to she could invite her to join us on Wednesday and I could also show her around. I love New York and I thought it would have been nice to get to know this girl!

Modern Milan and fashion

The girls had lunch together and I joined them at about two in the afternoon. We walked through Brera, arrived in Garibaldi, Piazza Gae Aulenti, Corso Como, and Moscova. During this time she told me all about NYC, I had a lot of questions, and I also tried to tell them a bit about Milan and what they were looking at. We got ice cream (yes again, but we are in Italy so we are allowed to be eating ice cream so much - especially because it is summer! ). As Hanna, the American girl, was so nice I invited both of them to have lunch at my place the day after, they accepted my invitation and came. They tried a different kind of pasta instead of the typical spaghetti with bolognese sauce, tried Cotoletta Alla Milanese and then my mom also made dessert, which was very good. Then, since Hanna works in fashion, she told us she wanted to check out the Armani museum and asked us if that was alright with us. I was down for it because I am Italian, I live in Milan and I never did this kind of things. It was really nice, so I bet that it was even more interesting for a person who knows a lot about fashion and works for it. Later that day, after a so needed shower, we went out again and had "Aperitivo" with some friends of mine. After getting to know them, the girls and I moved to a Hooka bar and started more serious conversations. We talked about respect, racism and things like that. Now that I think about it, it is great that hostels exist because they enable people to meet other people from different countries and yet with a similar mindset. Anyways, we left the bar and sat down in Darsena, where drunk hippies were happily dancing.

More fashion

The day after we wandered in Montenapoleone with another girl from Colombia. This girl studies in Munich, Germany, and came to Milan to spend some time with her friend who lives here. Hanna applied for a job at one of the famous brands, which has a couple of shops in the Quadrilatero Della Moda (Milan's Fashion District). After we entered some of the shops to look inside and she was satisfied with what she saw, we had lunch. Some panzerotti and pizza were our choices. But unfortunately we had to go back to the hostel because Hanna had to leave, she was headed to Paris for the weekend and then back to New York. Saskia spent the night with the girl from Colombia and her friends, and I celebrated my brother’s graduation.

Cheers to the weekend

Saturday was supposed to be a more relaxed day for Saskia and I but from Tre Torri, we ended up in Via Lincoln (close to Università Statale di Milano Sede San Babila). We were so exhausted that on our way back we stopped in a bar, which in my opinion was quite pricey, but we had then enough energy to walk back and take the metro. We barely made it home and it started to rain. It was perfect timing. We went to Via Lincoln because it is very famous because of its colorful houses. It was a bit disappointing because the trees in front were covering the buildings but it was nice because it felt like we were in a coast city and not in Milan anymore.

All there was left to do on Sunday was going to Palazzo Lombardia and observe Milan from the thirty-ninth floor of one of the highest buildings in the whole country. This space opened about two years and a half ago and I always bring people up there before they leave town because it seems like it is small but when you see it from above it looks way bigger. If you are lucky and the weather is nice, you can even see the mountains in the distance! Once that was done, Saskia and I took the bus back to my house, had lunch with my family and drove to the airport where she caught her flight to Amsterdam. It was very nice of her to spend her holidays with me, I really appreciated it and it was a lot of fun. I felt like a tourist in my home town!

- Cristian

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