A Vagabond's Antics: Lucky Balls

With such incredible success on my last post, I thought I might give it another shot! Over 1500 views in just under 2 days. Oh, wait, no, I'm still dreaming, as seems to have become a habit with having to shift my body clock 10 hours back when it was already lacking back home... but hey. I didn't come here to whinge about how my whole brain wants to destroy the sun and curl up into an eternal ball of warm fuzzy cuddles and unicorns barfing sleep juice on to me. I came here to create linguistic art, and dammit that's what I'm going to do.

I think I left off somewhere around lunch the day I went to check out the Catholic mass. Onwards from there! Later that evening I went with Christina (the mother of the family) to check out the Castillo Sforzesco and The Duomo. The Castillo was a quick stop as it was bucketing down rain and the front gates had been closed (so I am going back to revisit it later today after I've finished with this little blog and eaten lunch!), but the Duomo, on the other hand, was not! We made our way through a few little side alleys and shopping strips built in to the old buildings and arrived at the Duomo. This thing was pretty much awesome. We went for a tour inside, checking out some of the old tombs where previous cardinals had been buried, and I spent some time listening to Angelo Scola, the standing Archbishop of Milan, as he shared a message from the pulpit. The whole atmosphere in the Duomo was awesome. A very quiet, reflective, revering kind of attitude from all the people coming in to listen and take some time off. Less so from majority of the tourists, but that's to be expected. Having spent a little time in there we moved on out to check out what has been consistently referred to as the *best* bakery in Milan- Luini's. At this point I was like, super hungry. I'm talking like I would totally go gollum style on a freshly caught salmon if it meant satisfying my rumblies. As we turned the corner I could almost taste this brilliant concoction of bread and cheese when all of a sudden, right before my eyes, the bakery closes. I fell to my knees, choking back wave upon wave of tears as I realised, right in that moment, there was no God. I tore my jacket off and wrapped myself in sack cloth, openly weeping in the streets at the indescribable loss I had just suffered. I knew, in that moment of emotional anguish, that these scars would never heal. Until I got to munch on some pasta. Then it was all good again.

Fast forward the most satisfying pasta ever and we were making our way to Galleria Vittoria Emanuele. This was quite cool. Between the light rain outside and the bright, golden lights illuminating this whole strip of shops, I was made whole. Until I saw the price tags. Outrageously priced hand bags and shoes aside, this whole place was incredible. The highlight would have had to have been the floor. Seriously. In the centre of this Galleria is an area of porcelain tiles that have been used to make up a few different cultural images (bearing in mind that they are coming up on 140 years old). Among of which was a little blue bull, with an indent where his wiggly bits would have been. Christina explained to me that you're meant to press your heel in to the indented wiggly bit for luck. I still fail to see how this could in *any* way promote good luck. I'm convinced sticking your foot into a bulls junk is going to get you hurt. But then again, bulls move in mysterious ways. Jokes aside though this was an awesome experience, going through the Duomo and the Galleria the first time. Rinse and repeat- yesterday I returned for another tour myself through the area and ended up managing to get totally lost in the city, for an excess of four or so hours. From a legitimate protest of 100+ Italians all wearing anonymous masks, to a Ferrari store which makes racing sounds every time you walk in and out of the door (much to my amusement, and the annoyance of anyone standing nearby for the 2-3 minutes I spent reveling in this). I quickly followed up this Ferrari racing experience with nearly being killed in a Ferrari racing experience. I'm still not totally used to traffic coming from the opposite direction. It's amazing how quickly an empty street can become the busiest street in the intersection, all because you weren't looking at the cars. The more you know. The sunset over the Duomo that evening was incredible. I didn't end up taking any photos. It was kind of one of those moments that you're so content just being there that you forget you even have a camera with you. It had been overcast all day and the sun only just peeked out towards the end and managed to illuminate parts of the Duomo, which was quite spectacular. I can't tell you how much I wanted to pull out a table with a glass of wine and just sit there- too bad all the restaurants literally charge you to even breath their air, let alone drink their wine!

I spent the rest of that evening getting to know a few of Pietro's friends. It's crazy how close everyone lives to eachother here. Said friends are now today speaking with their teachers to see if I can take over the role of their apparently not so good English teacher. Again, in retrospect, having been the one to promote this idea I am now feeling like I might be being made in to the head of a hostile take over. Which I don't really seem to mind, because if it's for the quest, I will do what needs to be done. I will keep you all posted on how my new role as the english teacher of Liceo Scientifico Francesco Severi goes! Ciao for now.