friday: our morning started out at 4am when we had to wake up to catch the bus. if i weren't going somewhere cool, you couldn't pay me to get up that early. we made the walk to the bus station where we waited for almost an hour for our bus - leave it to the italians to never be on time. and yes, we are fully aware of how classy it is to show up to fashion week in a bus. we fell asleep for the next four hours and woke up in the beautiful city! unfortunately, where we pulled up wasn't so beautiful. we were slightly concerned about the station, but found our way into the center of the city and that's where the magic happened.
before heading to the hotel, we stopped at the duomo. it was unbelievable! so so pretty but pigeon infested. ew... there is also one of the oldest malls in the world right next to the duomo so naturally we went to see what it had to offer. it was lots of very high end designer stores and our favorite place of all - mcdonalds. judge us all you want but we needed a diet coke. they still aren't the same as home, but much better than the nasty bottles of coca cola light we've had to settle with. i was excited to find out it was monopoly time so it made me feel more at home! we headed to find our favorite treat - laduree, a famous french macaroon shop. when we got there, we noticed they had gelato with a macaroon on top! obviously we had to try it! i had the rose gelato with a rose macaroon and it may have been one of the best things i've ever eaten! i would highly, highly recommend it!
we got to our hotel, the westin palace, and chelsea and i went to check in. we thought it would be a good idea to sneak six people into a room that we said two people would be staying in.. chelsea and i went ahead of the group and went up to our room on the top floor to find a security guard at the beginning of the hallway.. oops. we pulled it off though, and now think that the security was for someone staying in the hotel, not actually for the hotel. we changed our clothes and got ready for the day then headed out to find our first show!
rachael had looked up all the shows online and we decided which ones we wanted to go look at. there was one designer she wanted to see so we headed off to find it and ended up in the sketchiest area. we got to the address and didn't see any big tents or anything.. we were so confused and disappointed! rachael looked on her phone again and realized this wasn't a fashion show, just an invite-only event for people to come into the workshop to see the clothes. after realizing how dumb we were, we headed out to the next show - versace. there was no chance of us getting in to that show, but we still tried and i'm sure looked ridiculous. stacie went up and pretended to be a photographer and almost got in but got turned away at the end. we had people coming up and taking our pictures and we watched as all the fashion icons walked into the show. rachael even saw her idol, anna wintour. she was within arms reach of her and started crying.
saturday: well we had planned on being out of the hotel by 830. that didn't happen. we didn't even wake up until probably 10 and left around 11. when we were in rome, the ladies at the vintage store told us about a famous vintage store in milan so we set out to find it that morning! we were sadly disappointed when there really wasn't anything that fantastic and it was very, very expensive! the only thing i liked was this super cute headband but it was 140 euros! and the owner still thought it was cheap! are you kidding me? it wasn't even vintage and i could make it myself! i was disappointed but snuck a ton of pictures so i could try to make it when i got home :)
we went to find lunch near the duomo and went to the "autogrill" based on chelsea's recommendation. she had been talking about how great it was for weeks and saying how she went there when she drove through italy a few years ago. well it really wasn't looking like anything great so we got pizza. of course we had to get another diet coke since we were close and then we headed off to laduree one more time. we wanted to get a bunch of macaroons to take home so we each got a huge box of them. i am obsessed with the rose and vanilla flavors! i will have them at my wedding no question. after we all bought our macaroons, we headed off to our fashion show.
we decided to pick a less known show in hopes of getting in. i asked the security if we could go in and look and all he said was "not possible" so i walked away and told the other girls. we decided to wait around just in case and someone who works for cosmopolitan italia came up and asked to take a picture of me for their website! i was so excited!! we didn't know if it was real, but we saw it on their instagram later that night and realized she was serious! we didn't ever get into the show, but we did manage to sneak a peek backstage and see the models running around during the show! it was pretty awesome!
on our way back to the hotel to get our bags, we stopped to get some post cards and a final diet coke before heading back to siena. we thought our bus was much earlier than it was so we were stuck waiting around for a few hours. not only were we there very early, our bus was an hour late! we finally saw our bus and got ready to board, then the driver came out and told us we couldn't get on and that he was taking a nap. is this some kind of joke? we were so mad. we had been attacked by mosquitos waiting for the bus to come and now we had to wait even longer because the driver wanted to take a freaking nap. UGH! we finally got on though and he was so grumpy and the drive home was absolutely miserable. i tried to sleep the whole time then we got back to our house and went to bed for the night!
i am so in love with the city of milan! i would definitely go back if i ever had the chance!! i highly recommend it to anyone traveling through europe! it is my second favorite city in europe behind paris. we are getting ready to go to florence again then cinque terre in a few weeks so i'll be sure to post about our experiences in both places!
arrivederci!
No comments:
Post a Comment