October 7th

I woke up very early right when my alarm went off at 6:30 because I was SO excited to go see Catie for the weekend. I had breakfast of yogurt, cocoa puffs, and coffee and had a good morning of getting ready to go see her.

I made it to the train station with plenty of time to spare and so I waited until my train arrived so I could board. In my train cabin, I sat across from a fellow that looked exactly like Dave Navarro and he gave me the creeps. After a long time of him looking at me and then writing down on his pad of paper, he started to talk with me and he turned out to be actually a pretty nice guy. He helped to translate what the ticket collector was saying to me and I felt bad for feeling like he was going to suck out my soul. The train ride seemed so long and I was SO ready to see Catie by the time I arrived in Milano.

I met Catie on the platform and it was so perfect! I missed her so much and I am so thankful that we were took advantage of the opportunity to see each other. We walked around Milan a little bit and made our way over to a calzone shop and got some lunch. My calzones were ham and mozzarella and the calzone of the day which turned out to be mozzarella with corn kernels on the inside. I was expecting something a little bit more exciting than that, but it was still delicious.

We walked around a little more and went inside of their Duomo which is much different architecturally than Florence's Duomo. The Milan Duomo is very Gothic in style with its high peaks and dramatic details while the Firenze Duomo is more of a Mosque looking structure with its, wait for it, domes.

Catie got gelato and I got a gelato sandwich, which is obviously so much better than an ice cream sandwich! It had chocolate and vanilla gelato in it and one end was dipped in chocolate then dipped in candied, crunchy things. SO good. We walked and window shopped the rest of the afternoon and it was just such a fun time. I love window shopping and I haven't done it in so long, having Catie there made it even that much more enjoyable.

We made our way over to dinner and tried to find a place that our good friend Rick Steves suggested in his book but we were unable to find it. And obviously Italians know where nothing is in their own city so it is useless trying to ask someone where anything is. We ended up going to a place where it was fate we ended up. Why was it fate you might be asking yourself? Audrey baby was everywhere. They had pictures of here, mostly famous and some not so famous, everywhere. It was too perfect and I wish I had been able to buy one. There was no way I would have been able to get it back home though because a majority of the ones that I wanted were giant. We split a pizza that had ham, mushrooms, tomatoes, and artichokes on it and each got a glass of wine.

We made our way to the steps of the metro station and realized we didn't have any coins to get on the metro so naturally we had to get gelato in order to get change. The man at the gelato stand loved us and gave us huge chunks of chocolate on top of our straciatella. We finished our gelato and made our way to the metro. We realized that we were going to be late for our train to Lugano so we started to get a little worried. Once we made it to the station we literally ran to our train. And when I say run, I literally mean we sprinted through the entire station, me with my tourist's backpack, up the escalators, and made it to our train only for Catie to realize that she forgot to validate our ticket. I literally held the door hope with my body as she ran back to the little yellow box and punched our ticket. Luckily, she made it back on to the train as the doors were buzzing because something was blocking the doors from closing, gosh, what could that have been? We couldn't stop laughing and because we were both sick, we were coughing because our throats hurt which only caused us to laugh even harder. It was a great day in Milan.

It was a quick trip to Lugano because we were chatting and admiring the few things we had bought that day. I bought a dress that I will use for my new year's eve dress and my birthday dress. It is beautiful and I am in love with it. I also bought a shirt, which I like to call my flying squirrel shirt, and can't wait to bust that puppy out! It is a great fall shirt and will match my boots perfectly. Maddie, you will be so proud of me! Oh, ps, I call it my flying squirrel shirt because of the sleeves, not because it literally has a flying squirrel on it. Alex,  I know that disappoints you, but I am sorry.

When we got to Lugano we walked up to Catie's apartment and made tea and oatmeal. We watched the Wedding Date, one of our favorite movies, and then went to bed. It was a great first day and a wonderful little bit of home. I am so blessed to have her for one of my best friends.