milan fashion week

 Inside the Duomo

Pretty last-minute, I decided to sign up to go on a trip to Milan during their fashion week. I didn’t know anyone going, but I figured I’d never forgive myself for not going simply because of that. So on Saturday, I woke up and got on the bus at 8-8:30 am. During the three-hour ride up, we watched The Devil Wears Prada (fitting) and The Holiday. I half wish I took pictures of the winter wonderland outside the bus windows, but I couldn’t justify it. It wouldn’t have looked nearly as special through a picture as it did in real life, and besides that, my eyes were glued to the scenery. It was thicker snow than I’ve seen in Colorado or anywhere else and it was breath-takingly beautiful. As I was taking it in, it dawned on me that I was wearing a skirt and that I probably should have checked the forecast. I expected similar weather to Florence where I would be chilly with a long maxi-skirt, but able to go about my day and not be in pain. This was not the case—Milan in February is COLD. They say beauty is pain but I think I would have preferred to just wear a snow-suit if only I’d have known.

We arrived between 11-12 pm and walked around the city center. The Duomo in Milan is so intricate! I love how all of the big cities in Italy have some kind of amazing architecture to them. We got to go inside, walk around and see stained glass covering the inside of this church. Next, we headed where Milan Fashion Week was taking place.

(For anyone who don’t know: Fashion Week is an event that takes place semi-annually in each of the four Fashion Capitals of the world: New York, London, Milan and Paris. Fashion houses and designers showcase their latest collections via catwalks and runway shows, and typically, only buyers and media are invited.)

Even though I couldn’t see any of the shows first hand, I got to breathe the atmosphere. And that is a start. There were all kinds of presentations going on, including a Clinique make-up tent, etc. A big screen displayed footage of some of the shows going on inside which was nice to be able to see. Someday I hope I’ll be invited inside where it’s warm and I can take photos of the shows instead of seeing them from a pixilated screen…that’s the goal!
Around 2, a few other girls and I went to pizza with our old-men tour guides. They showed us “where the Milanese eat”, which was a ritzy-yet-cute pizza parlor next to the Gucci Café. I had a margarita pizza and my tour guide told me about the history and origination of that flavor of pizza…good trivia information.
For the rest of the day, we toured the Fashion district of Milan and shopped around. They had the big-name stores that I can’t afford to even look at, and some little-people shopping (kidding) including some of my favorites: H&M, Zara and a few ma & pa boutiques.
When the snow started falling steadier, a new friend and I headed into a coffee shop where I ordered my new favorite Café Con Latte: an espresso in a glass of warm milk. I spoke Italian to the bartender and was able to hold a conversation about what I wanted to order, why I was in Milan, where I am studying and where I am from. The girl I was with didn’t speak any Italian, so the bartender spoke English with her. Then he would turn back to me and began speaking more Italian, which was the best feeling! As we left, the girl I was with asked me if I knew a lot of Italian before coming and told me she was jealous that I could speak that much. I feel like I talk about this in every post, but it really amazes me that I can hold conversations with people and it makes me so happy. I asked people on the streets if I could take their photographs in Italian, and practiced with my tour guides, too. I am trying so hard!
On the way back, our bus got stuck in a snow-storm. We were supposed to be back by 10:30 pm and didn’t end up making it back to Florence until almost 2 am. We had movies to keep us entertained and stopped at an Autogrill for “a pee-pee stop” as my bus driver would say, as well as goodies (hey, I’m working out religiously now. I can eat a bag of chips if I want to eat a bag of chips).
It was such a wonderful day and the terrible luck didn’t come until the following morning when I attempted to upload photos to my laptop. iPhoto crashed so I had to restart the computer—luckily it recovered them. I thought everything had uploaded, so I began manually deleting the pictures off my camera and afterwards realized that not everything had uploaded. I deleted at least 20 good street style photos…I have never been so mortified in my life. Most of my pictures that captured the style of the Milanese are totally gone and I am so sad that I’ll never get them back. Lesson learned I guess.

Sunday was reserved for catching up on sleep, relaxing, homework and working out.
Monday is here once again…time for another beautiful week! Ciao!