Milano and More...

It was another typical week of classes last week though we've become much busier lately as we are working on projects for finals and trying to fit in last minute visits and opportunities, so our evenings haven't been as relaxing as in the past. It's ok of course, we're enjoying ourselves immensely.

We have heard several recommendations for a pizzeria called "Gusta Pizza" from our classmates, so Thursday night we went with the girls to check it out. Since restaurants tend to open later - 7ish we showed up early which turned out to be a good plan because as soon as the doors opened the whole place was packed. It lived up to it's reputation and was quite delicious. We were hoping to spend the rest of the evening doing some Christmas shopping and strolling about - especially because there's a super cool Christmas festival going on near our school. But, of course, we leave the restaurant greeted by rain. All was not lost because we had a back up plan. We had a gelato and went back to our apartment where I threw out the idea that I really felt like playing Apples to Apples. So we proceeded to cut up pieces of paper and made up our own version which was completely hilarious and almost more fun because it involves the personality of the group in a new way. We also played a game where you write down a few sentences following the words, "most likely to..." and then everyone draws a few and writes down which member of the group is most likely to do that thing and then you read them all out loud without revealing who wrote who. It was also creative and hilarious. Maybe we could incorporate this into family Christmas party games somehow...

Saturday was my 22nd birthday and we planned a day to Milan to celebrate! It was kinda the last check mark on my list of major cities to see in Italy, so though we've been a little travel weary after a whole semester of mini-vacations, we were super excited to go! I was really hoping to see DaVinci's Last Supper, but we found out last week that you have to get reservations and Sat. was already booked! Shoot! oh well. Cody was excited to see Milan as this is where Augustine spent much of his ministry. Furthermore, one of Cody's friends for NWC was there for his vacation from teaching English in Spain. Brett had already been there for a day so it was almost like having a tour guide. He was able to show us in the write directions, navigate us through some of the Metro madness, and even suggest a good place for lunch! He is also spending part of his vacation in Florence so we are likely to see more of him this week. It was really nice for Cody and I to connect with a friend from school again. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself... We set off early in the morning and arrived in Milan at 8:30, which proved to be a fantastic choice because we nearly had the city to ourselves all morning. The crowds got to be insane after lunch. Once again we saw a taste of home while viewing the Italian countryside - empty fields covered in snow!! Milan is in the northern region of Lombardy, so it's definitely the farthest north we have been in Italy. It was soooo cold all day! But it's ok we tried to be spiffy and bundled at the same time. ;) So basically we checked out the gorgeous duomo, the street vendors, the fashion district, and then we headed to a couple sights relating to Augustine. To our disappointment, there wasn't much there. There was a beautiful church named for the man who baptized Augustine, and then we went looking for "Piazza di Augustine" and found that it was just kind of some plants and public restroom and the fresh market... hmmm. So that wasn't what we were hoping for. Otherwise it was a really beautiful and fun day!

Milan was our last trip out of the city. We were thinking and there are a couple other places we've learned of while here that we would have enjoyed visiting as well such as, Bologna, Sangia Miniano (Medieval city) and Siena (lots of Renaissance art). But we just run out of time really. We could think, "shoot we spent all the time near the beginning just sitting in our apartment all weekend doing nothing." But that's really not true, we loved our time just being in Florence and we've heard that most students regret how much they traveled elsewhere and then didn't get to spend much time staying and enjoying Florence more. Plus we realize that it took us a long time to get our museum passes and learn how to travel the country so we couldn't have fit in more sights etc. early on. We are quite content, and feel so blessed, really that we have seen the places in the world that we got to see. I mean, you really can't see EVERY city, I'm sure I won't see every city in my own country! We've learned some things from our travels here, that if we come back some day we'll stay in the countryside and visit more of the small towns/cities. They tend to be so much more relaxed and charming and we have loved our visits there perhaps more than the great sights of famous cities. We would love to go back to Castello di Verazzano some day. It's definitely one of our favorite sights/memories. The other thing we learned from visiting Venice, Rome and Milan is that we are REALLY thankful we go to school in Florence. Don't get me wrong, these cities are beautiful and filled with endless sights, activity and history, but Rome and Milan are just too big - to big to walk to class. And Venice is just such a maze! It would be a very interesting process trying to develop routes to classes.

This week's our last week of classes. What's really nice is that our school is printing portfolios for us in our art classes, so we'll be working on putting those together. We plan to spend a weekend doing study parties and maybe even making some Christmas goodies with the girls. I think we're making snow balls for Christmas cookies, since we don't feel like investing in cookie cutters or food coloring. haha. pretty clever right?

Prayer request: Pray for smooth finals, and preparation to leave, and especially safe and smooth travel, not only for us but for Brie, Megan and Carmel. We're a little nervous about how everything is going to go down. And I know the girls had some troubles with their flights changing schedules. So please pray that we all make it home to our families in one piece! Thanks!

Love Always,
Kait and Cody