23 years

On June 4th, 1988 at 12:03 pm my mom gave birth to a baby that weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces.  That baby was me.    To celebrate, I met my friend Lauren along with her brother in Milan, Italy.  It was a fantastic albeit rainy weekend.

I love Italy.  The people are happy there and enjoy themselves.  Plus, it's so pretty.  I chose our hotel's area because it was supposed to be nice and it was.  Little leather shops, and pastry shops and people walking their tiny dogs and everyone eating gelato, and people saying ciao 8 times when they hang up their phone.  Plus, on the bus on the way to the hotel I heard the most authentic "ciao bella" of my life and I loved it.

Milan kind of has a bad rap as being the financial center of Italy.  I had just spent one night there before this weekend about two years ago and I too wasn't impressed.  But this time, I did some research and we found some great spots.

We spent some time at the Duomo...

which has a gorgeous exterior and also apparently a brilliant tiled floor.

After that, we strolled through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which is a really beautiful glass covered double arcade with a lot of cafes & shops, named after the first king of united Italy.  Opened in 1867, its designer, Giuseppe Mengoni, created an incredible place filled with mosaics and murals.  I read somewhere that this place has actually come to be known as "il salotto di milano" - Milan's living room. We stopped for some chilled white wine in here (it was 80 degrees out) and got down to some serious people watching.

That night, we headed to eat in Corso Como,  a quaint pedestrian area in the northern part of the city.  Afterwards we got gelato (passionfruit & lemon for me- mmmm).  I believe we strolled through china town afterwards- slightly odd but interesting all the same.

The next day we headed out pretty early to Lake Como, even further north.  This is where George Clooney calls home and rightfully so because it is a great place.

We stared at the water for a while before it poured and then walked all through the streets of the town.  We listened to accordions and shopped a little.  Then we stopped by the cathedral to eat lunch where we had a FANTASTIC view.  We ate pizza, obviously.

On the train home, I was listening to all the buzzing Italian going on and thinking 1. wow, i understand nothing and 2. it's like music.

We relaxed at the hotel a bit and I skyped my dad and then we went out.  We got aperitivo at a fish market (best thing Italy ever did, happy hour where buying one drink = a bunch of great food).  The place was called Da Claudio and it was quite posh.  We each had a glass of prosecco with our sushi and it was delicious.

After dinner, we headed to Brera, an artsy area which surrounds one of the main art collections in Milan, Pinacoteca Brera.  Minus all of the guys trying to sell knock off handbags (WHO BUYS THOSE !?!), it was really pretty.  Lots of gorgeous boutiques and classy apartments with flowers overflowing off of the balconies.

To put the icing on the cake, Lauren gave me my first official piece of real art as a birthday gift.  A gorgeous painting of roses all the colors of the rainbow that she bought in Croatia. (love you!)

Mmm, yes. 23.  It feels different.  In a good way.

Oh, and Milan had some great street art.  I took a tour in Berlin and every since I have been super aware of it every place I go.  I really enjoy it when it is well done.