Venedi 23.01.09

We dragged through class, you could tell our teacher didn't even want to be there with the weekend just within reach. Before the fun could begin however, we had errands to run after school:

1st stop: Il Copione to make copies all of our important documents for the Permit of Stay Application. It was packed with students since we are all under the gun to get our paperwork turned in. Apparently, within 8 days of arrival you have to fill out this intimidating 15 page form (completely in Italian, obviously) and send in a big packet or you can be thrown out of the country. If you don't mind me saying, Italy's bureaucracy is utterly ridiculous. We all have visas for goodness sake!! Which means the embassy has already seen all of our stupid documents!!

2nd stop: La tabbacheria to purchase the 14 euro stamp needed to send in the $%&*@ packet!!

3rd stop: La Posta to mail the #$*%@ packet!! Except, when it was finally our turn in line, we were told, quite sweetly, that they have specific hours for accepting Permit of Stay packets. Well I was madder than a wet hen - I trekked about 20 blocks in the rain to be turned away and told "domani, domani"!! No sir, this is the post office and should be open in rain, sleet, snow, and on Fridays!! Don't worry, I didn't make scene in typical American fashion, but I sure wanted to...

4th stop: A nice Italian dinner to take the edge off our frustration. Ah, molto bene.

Then we jetted home to take naps before getting ready for the discoteca. Apparently, it's the style here to take the last tram/metro to the club, dance all night, and then take the first train home in the morning. Doors don't even open until midnight! Very hard core, we decided to take cabs home instead.

The dance club itself was fabulous; so much so that it caused extreme sensory overload for the first hour or so. It was a block long and had a couple different private balconies that opened up on to the main dance floor. The International Student Group had rented out the biggest one for us and it was wall-to-wall 20 somethings. They played house music and we rocked out, even getting up onto risers where you could dance and see the crowd (and vice versa)!

Sabato 24.01.09

Since we didn't get to bed until 6am, we decided to postpone the sightseeing we had planned until the afternoon. The number in attendance also declined. In the end, it was only Maricor and I that made it to our final destination of Castello Sforzesco which is a fortress-turned-palace-turned-museum. Aesthetically, the exterior reminded me of Carcassone, a walled city in France that Mom, Chris, and I visited in 2006. On the interior, there was a huge, grassy courtyard (I'm talking similar to the size of UMD's football stadium) and two side courtyards with porticoed walkways and reflecting pools.

The castle houses no less than 10 museums and we went up a few staircases to peek at the options. We were checking out the musuem of musical instruments (yes, they have a museum dedicated just to crazy/old instruments!!) when we noticed that they were setting up for a concert! Since you can't get in without buying a ticket and we had already decided to come back on a Friday when admission is free for students, we were loitering around the doorway so we could at least hear a snipet of the music. We were noticed by an employee, a distinguished yet warm southern Italian named Stefano, who chatted with us in broken Italian/English. Once he found out that we were students at Bocconi and planned to travel everywhere, including his hometown, he took us by the hand, and before we knew it, he had led us up past the guards to a balcony overlooking the string octet! He said we should enjoy the concert and come back and see him whenever we want! It was such an unbelieveable experience, I wa so grateful. It's not every day you get the chance to listen to Vivaldi from the balcony of a palace!