sooo train stations in italy list trains by their final destination and departure time. yesterday there were two trains leaving for milan at 9:24am, and i meant to take one of them to parma with laurel, but i picked incorrectly. after the train started moving, there was a PA announcement that said that the train was going to milan and should arrive at 10:20, NO INTERMEDIATE STOPS. i looked at laurel with absolute dread because picking the wrong train was 100% my doing, since she got there at the last minute and didn't have a chance to look at the boards. i've been wanting to go to milan, and fortunately laurel had been too, so we decided we'd spend the day there instead of parma!

i'm so glad i picked the wrong train, because there was a huuuge carnevale festival going on in milan when we got there. i definitely would not have enjoyed milan as much going any other day. we saw the outside of teatro alla scala. we walked through the markets and saw all the high fashion stores. we went to the duomo which had the most amazing stained glass i've ever seen. we went to a big castle but didn't go on the tour so i'm not really sure which castle it was. i think it started with an S (i'll look it up later). we stopped for lunch and i had INCREDIBLE gnocchi with saffron. we went to the church and museum where da vinci's last supper is, and the church was small and beautiful but all the tours to see the last supper were booked for the next week. we stopped for drinks and pastries at a little cafe with an awesome owner who chatted with us for a while. we watched a little bit of the parade going on, but it was too hard to see over the milanese horde so we peeked into another church nearby. we walked around for a little longer just peeking in shops, and then finally took the (correct) train home.

i loved seeing everyone in costume all over again, and i definitely saw batman and spiderman holding hands running down the street. i was SO covered in confetti by the time i got on the train that i left a little puddle of confetti behind when i got off the train. i thought carnevale was over, but apparently it's going on until this tuesday.

today is the first of march, and it's raining. :( we had a good run with the sun, it was only fair i suppose.

i finally figured out who that famous person i saw go into the hotel was. he's a player from the italian soccer team FORZA INTER. i've actually been following inter's games (soccer games are always playing here wherever you go), and they're a pretty sweet team. neat!

busy week:
-philosophy of music starts on tuesday
-history ends on wednesday
-program party wednesday night
-wine tasting lesson thing thursday night
-possible return to salsa night at the discoteca
-study for history in all the other free hours
-buy anthro and music books to start reading

i just realized one of the books i have to read for philosophy of music is written by the professor. gee i love it when they do that. -.-