Milan, Day 3
Our last day in Milan was a packed one. We spent the morning at Hearst Italia, which is a magazine publishing house in Milan. They publish magazines like the Italian editions of Elle, Cosmopolitan, and Marie Clare. We walked in, and Beth, Em, and I all simultaneously said to each other, “I feel like we’re in the Devil Wears Prada right now.”
We all lived our middle school Teen Vogue dreams this morning as we walked around, met different writers and editors, and got an inside look at exactly how magazines operate. These people work tirelessly at their jobs, day in and day out. It was fascinating to meet so many different people from so many different departments. We met people who work in advertising, others who write articles, Photoshop professionals (slight eye roll…), and editors. We even met the actual editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Italia. She was wearing 3 inch stilettos and called them her “comfy shoes, because I’m doing a lot of walking today.”
The magazine industry, particularly fashion, is not really an industry I am interested in, but of course it was fascinating to get a closer look at the inner-workings of it all. All of a sudden I felt extremely self-conscious about wearing chacos with my business casual attire (we do so much walking…my feet cannot afford to wear uncomfy shoes even if they are more professional. Sorry not sorry.)
After our visit with Hearst Italia, we had about four hours of free time before having to report back for a group meeting. Em, Beth, and I had a lovely but lengthy lunch at Mozzarella|Basilico. We celebrated that it would be the last time we’d have to pay for water at a restaurant, but suddenly became very aware of the fact that in the title of the Restaurant’s name was the word “basilico.”
We had just spent two weeks touring different “basilicas” in different cities, knowing that the term basilica meant a specific kind of a Roman Catholic church building. When we looked it up, we found that the word “basilico” translates to “basil.” How’s that for some Italian language oddities?
After lunch, we did some shopping and walking around. Beth and I may or may not have lost Emily in the giant H&M store at the city center…
On the way to the bus stop, I found literally an entire stretch where almost everything had my name in it…Palazzo de Reale was the street name, there was a “Banco de Reale,” and a building that belonged to “Mutua Reale.” Ha! I knew that my family comes from Sicily, so seeing this in Milan was a nice surprise. I had Em take a picture of me in front of the bank sign and I’m going to get it made into a magnet so my grandparents can put it on their fridge. Shh…it’s a surprise! We caught the bus, on which we found some other Point Park friends, and we all chatted about our days on the bus ride back to the hotel.
When we got back to the hotel, we changed for dinner and headed to our group meeting, where we all shared our highlights from the trip. It was nice to hear the highlights from other people, since we all kind of made this trip our own.
Dinner was DELICIOUS, but very hefty. We started off with our own platter of ham (yes, we each got our own plate, and it was delicious). Then, we each got a plate of amazing ravioli. We thought we’d be getting dessert next, but NOPE. We each got a glorious serving of steak, and it was cooked to perfection (which for me means not much). After the steak, we had a chocolate cake-like dessert. We left a couple pounds heavier, but it was a great way to end the trip.
The night consisted of lots and lots of packing. Shout out to our professor, Robin, for letting us use her luggage hand weight! We were all under 50 pounds, which was relieving. We leave for the airport at 6am tomorrow; it’ll be a very long day of traveling.
I am ready to go home, but I will really miss Italy and it’s natural beauty. There are some things I won’t miss, but I’ll post that in another blog. For now, ciao to Italy and ciao to America!
Peace + love,
Carrie
