Ciao, bella!

As I write this* I’m sitting outside on a beautiful spring day in Copenhagen. Yesterday I woke up in a German airport. The day before that I went on a run around Lake Como. And two days before that I was eating gelato in the Piazza Duomo in Milan. Needless to say I’ve had a whirlwind of cultural and travel experiences this week.

It all started off this past Monday when I embarked on a trip with 30 other DIS students to the city of Milan, Italy for a study tour on positive psychology. For a course on the “science of happiness” they certainly picked a good location to make us students happy.

Every day we had an academic visit where we visited professionals who use positive psychology on a daily basis. Most of them were researchers in the field – including the head of the European organization of positive psych – but others were anything from a meditation coach to a holistic health doctor. Besides hearing about the research and seeing positive psych in practice, it was enriching to see different and more local places in Milan than I would if I were only there as a tourist. How many people place universities and health care centers at the top of their list of places to see in Milan?

But believe me, when I wasn’t sitting in a lecture I was by all means being that tourist with a camera always in hand. I think I took over 600 pictures by the end of the trip - and eventually they’ll get posted. The first day we were divided into small groups, given a map and a list of things to see in Milan, and told to “have at it.” By far the best way to get acclimated to a new city. [Side note: my map reading and navigation skills grew exponentially during the week]. Highlight of the day was nothing related to what we were “supposed” to do: bumper cars. When we happened upon an all-but-deserted fairground and figured out that the bumper car employees were still there and willing to let us ram into each other for only a euro each, we couldn’t pass it up.

The next morning was (supposed to be) the day for me to see the famous Last Supper. This painting is pivotal in the art world because it’s the first time that any particular moment – capturing emotional responses and reactions from a very specific event – had been depicted. Prior to that a lot of art was stoic and stale. So way to go, Da Vinci! At any rate, I said “supposed to be” because we had a bit of a mishap getting there and arrived 15 minutes late. You might not think that’s a huge deal, except for the fact that we had a specific 15 minute time slot to enter the building. As much as I was bummed about the idea of not getting to see it, I have to admit I enjoyed the excitement of running through metro stations and down the streets (and the hot chocolate our tour leader bought us as a consolation – a warm cup of what was basically just pure melted chocolate). Before I leave you thinking that I didn’t get to see the Last Supper at all, though, I’ll add that by sheer providence another group cancelled and we were able to reschedule for the next day; normally it’s all booked up months in advance. So, yes, I did see it after all. And it was well worth it, too. Much larger and much more detailed than I’d imagined.

Speaking of things being large and detailed, the Duomo (cathedral) in Milan is incredible! There’s really no way to describe in words or even in a picture the feeling you get looking up at it. It’s massive, majestic, and magnificentally designed. I probably took a hundred pics of it alone. We also had tickets for rooftop access. Having grown up in the States where there’s so much concern about liability, I expected this to mean going up an elevator to something fairly enclosed. Besides the elevator part, I was happily wrong. We quite literally had free range of the roof of the Duomo and, since I went up there earlier than everyone else, I’m pretty sure I was the only one up there at one point. In other words there weren’t even employees up there keeping everyone safe or whatever. Mimicking Arnold from Magic School Bus, “this never would’ve happened in the States.”

And, after all that, I still have a few more things to share, prefaced by something I’ve learned: when traveling, unplanned and unexpected is always best so just go with the flow and see what happens!

1. A few friends and I were randomly invited to a local Italian event serving free wine and food. How could we say no? The best part was talking with two different Italian gentlemen. Hand gestures, basic use of Spanish, and even more basic knowledge of Italian apparently go a long way. (I didn’t understand everything they said but I did gather that one of them was 77 years old, had been to New York, liked to read newspapers, and knew a lot about China.) Whereas in Copenhagen everyone speaks English and you nearly forget that it’s not their first language, most people in Milan didn’t. But I enjoyed this fact. You get a much quicker understanding of a language when you’re forced to attempt to speak it. Also, I’ve decided that one of my life goals is to learn Italian; it’s a beautiful language and so much easier than Danish!

2. When I go to new places I’m a magnet to random brochures and newspapers. I enjoy trying my hand at reading in another language and looking at places to possibly go. Long story short, on an evening off, my friend and I ended up at a local performance that was essentially Cirque du Soleil meets hip-dance meets West Side Story. After braving our own way there and back across town and after seeing the fantastic show, I was in high spirits.

3. Lake Como. First, I have to say that Lake Como is a stunning place. I stayed there for just a weekend and didn’t want to leave! Nature was such a welcome site after being in a city all week (yeah I know I live in Copenhagen which is a city, too, but it's definitely not a city in the same sense). I could write an entire other entry about being in Como itself but I’ll save you the time in reading it by saying that the highlights were the railcar up to a smaller village on the mountain, doing paddle boats, having a spontaneous dance party in a park, and the simple fact of it being warm enough for trees to start blooming and not to wear a jacket. Also, I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I went on a run around Lake Como. There was something really special and memorable about it: the peace of the morning, the cool crisp air, the sun reflecting off the mountains – and most of all the fact that I felt bonded to the locals who were also out running. Even though we didn’t have a shared language, we could share the common view of the beauty of the morning and the satisfaction of a good run.

4. Last but by no means least, I had the joy of seeing a friend from Eastern while I was in Milan! It was such a strange (in a good way) experience to be able to say “Oh yeah we’re both gonna be in another country in the same city on the same afternoon so let’s do lunch. Ya know, no big deal. Happens all the time.” After organizing our rendezvous the old-fashioned way of saying “meet you at this place at this time” and finally getting there after my tram broke down, we had a great afternoon, and it was a much-needed time of catching up with a familiar friend.

Overall, what I found I enjoyed most about my time in Italy was 1. learning (on even a small scale) about their language and culture and 2. the excitement via challenges of traveling in a new place. Both of these things included making every effort to get away from the touristy hotspots and to explore places on my own whenever possible. And, by the end of the week, I can say that I’m geared up and ready for my next set of travel adventures: my upcoming 2 week break in April! 

P.S. Italian food = delicious. Need I say more?  

*I wrote half this post at the beginning of the week but didn’t get a chance to finish and post it until today. So as I write this now I’m sitting inside my house...