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hokieabroad · 13 years

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When in Rome...and Milan and Malpensa.

The journey to Italy started off with the usual 3:00am departure time from our wonderful student accommodations in the Islington borough of London. We caught a bus at King’s Cross station that took us to a train by London bridge which eventually landed us at Gatwick airport. We didn’t have a direct flight to Rome, but instead a long ass layover in Milan where the ladies and I took advantage of the day.

We got to the center of Milan where we took pictures of the duomo (an Italian cathedral), which of course was beauteous. However in the midst of taking pictures, some dude forced birdseed into my hand with the sole objective of getting me attacked by pigeons…I said F that and threw those seeds to the floor. He wasn’t too happy with me after that. We stared at each other for an uncomfortably long moment and I just walked away.

The ladies and I walked into some cool looking shopping area next to the duomo that housed stores such as Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and funnily enough, a MickeyD’s. Besides walking around that area for a bit that was all we did in Milan.

We headed back to the airport and caught our flight to Rome. We got to our hotel in Rome called ‘Hotel Acropoli’…by the end of our stay the ladies and I had renamed the place to “Hotel A-CRAP-oli’. Clever name I know, but if you had stayed in this place the name would have automatically popped into your head.

Professional tourists that we are, the ladies and I saw all the awesome sites in Rome. The Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Trevi Founatin, the Pantheon, the Vatican, The Sistine Chapel, the Spanish Steps…I could go on. I can’t even decide which of the following was the coolest…except I think I liked the Pantheon the best. I can’t really say why, only that I love that it’s a huge building with a hole in the roof (This hole is called an oculus)….that and the fact that it’s friggin’ old and beautiful. I only wish I could have been in there when it was raining.

It’s funny being in Rome with a group of girls because every one of them thinks they are Julia Roberts from “Eat, Pray, Love”. I didn’t mind following suit in their mission to devour the city. We ate pizza, pasta, and mozzarella for nearly every meal. I don’t understand how Italians stay skinny eating all those damn carbs.

I found love in Italy. Her name was banana gelato. It was the closest to heaven I’ve ever been. I hope someday we meet again.

We only had 2 and half days in Rome which really isn’t enough to do the city justice but alas we had to get back to London. On the bus ride to the airport we met two Australian guys around the age of the ladies and I. For an hour we all talked about kangaroos, American football, and European partying experiences. The bus ride was too short. We all exchanged names to find each other on facebook and then it was off to Milan to catch our connecting flight back to London.

This time around we didn’t have enough time to go into Milan but just enough time to be bored off our asses in the airport. We got there at about 2pm and our flight to London wasn’t until 9:30pm. After waiting around the airport all day playing card games and watching ‘The O.C.” in Italian, a little thunderstorm rolled right over the airport causing our flight to London to be cancelled. “No big deal, I’m sure they’ll put us on the next flight out in the morning”….haha no, no, no. That’s not how easyJet runs shit. We were at that airport in Milan on a Thursday night and the earliest the airline could get us all back to London was on MONDAY. There was a lot of cussing, tears and stress in the airport that night.

There was nothing we could do to get back earlier. Some of the ladies and I had a whole long weekend of activities planned for London, but we had to let all that excitement slip through our fingers and get on a bus headed to some hotel easyJet was putting the plane-load of people in. The hotel turned out to be the Ramada Malpensa. It was really hard to stay too disappointed when we were staying at a very swanky hotel with an awesome pool and a view of the Italian Alps. The saying “misery loves company” was so appropriate in the situation we were put in.

That ladies and I met so many awesome people by the pool and at dinner, and by the second night at the hotel a group comprised of Brits, Americans, and Italians all headed into the nearby town of Oleggio to get our drink on. We walked to the town and back, each way being a little under 2 miles…we just tried not to get hit by cars. We discovered after a while that the bar we were at was probably a gay bar…and when I was approached by a guy wearing a ‘for men only’ shirt, we knew for sure.

That night brought us all together so it was sad when people in the group had to leave the hotel to catch rescheduled flights. By the end of the stay, a couple of the ladies and I made plans to visit two of our new friends in Edinburgh the following week. The easyJet debacle reminded me that everything happens for a reason.

The reason for Sameea falling off her bike and cutting her ankle open to the bone? Who knows?! Maybe the work of the cursed Buddhist prayer bracelets the girls got in Rome or the effects of too much wine and sun. Either way I hopped into the ambulance with her for moral support and got to sit in the not so wonderful hospital waiting room in Novara, Italy. A tetanus shot and a few stitches and Sameea was good to go!

We eventually got back to London with only a day left until we were to part for Munich/Prague. I took advantage of the day and met up with my fellow Wolverine and great friend Kelly to catch up and eat some awesome Nando’s chicken.

It’s been quite a week and now I’m even more worn out after writing this. I must hop in the shower to meet yet another early departure time. It’s off to Munich and Prague next! Stay tuned for next week’s post! Lata!

-Eric

#Milan #Rome #Malpensa #Australia #BananaGelato #StudyAbroad #VirginiaTech #London

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