Nutella is possibly one of God's greatest gifts to humankind. And it is NOT appreciated enough in the U.S. of A. Really, the deliciousness of the hazelnut (avellano) with the chocolate is life-changing. And when I arrived in Spain, I immediately knew things were gonna be great when my host mom informed us that a jar of Mister Choc (off-brand, but still delish) would be available to us 24/7. I also knew I'd be fighting with an addiction. After a few weeks of struggling, I finally got to the point that I wasn't having it all the time...really for the most part, I don't even crave it any more.
But then I went to Milan. And thinks got out of hand. Nutella seems to be appreciated even more in Milan, if that's possible. On Friday morning, Kate, Meital, Livy, and I woke up and headed to il Duomo, but we had to first stop for breakfast. Our hostel was lame (and cold) and didn't have any. So we found a little place with pastries and bread. They had freshly baked croissants filled with nutella. This is not a joke. It was absolutely 100% as delicious as it sounds. And that's when I realized that Sevilla has a very limited supply of real pastries. They just aren't always fresh---always good, but never life changing. And this was.
The gelato places in Milan also almost always had a nutella flavor. One particular gelato shop really rocked my world. You go in, pay 2.50 euros, and are given a number. When it's your turn, you're asked to choose between dark, milk, or white chocolate. They literally have 3 different fountains of those flavors and stick a cone under the fountain, filling the bottom of the cone with (in my case) white chocolate. You then choose 2 flavors of gelato...and the chocolate flavor choices are incredible. I chose java, a rich chocolate--darker than milk, but not too dark--and some nutella something or another. The man helping me scooped out some vanilla gelato, then went over and dipped a spoon into the nutella jar. He proceeded to twirl nutella around the top of my gelato cone, leaving me with a cone filled with white chocolate, topped with one scoop of chocolate ice cream and one scoop of vanilla covered in nutella. Jay T. Lanners Jr. would have been in the same heaven I was in.
So needless to say, I ate well during my weekend in Milan. Pizza (bufalo being my favorite), pasta, foccacia, and nutella all over the place! And the touring wasn't too bad either!
Kate had a friend from Northwestern who showed us around the entire city. She was an awesome guide for us. We went to the Duomo, Milan's incredible cathedral, the castle, the park, the old theater museum (the theater where Alessandra Ferri was trained and danced for a decent number of years), and ate a ton. Meital and I also went to the little church that has Leonardo da Vinci's last supper. It was sooo frustrating to get those tickets. You have to get them months in advance, and despite help from mis padres, I thought I'd lost my chance. After a few calls to Italy, though, I made it happen! So Meital and I were able to go see the masterpiece! It was really cool to see it, and I'm definitely glad I did. It really is disintegrating though, which was intriguing. Apparently he used a new technique that allowed him to take his time painting it directly onto the plaster instead of having to hurry and do it before the plaster dried. That also meant that by 1517 (only a few years after da Vinci completed it), it was already starting to peel off the wall. In any case, lots of restoration attempts left the original painting covered by other layers of paint, so a 1999 restoration got rid of all of those layers, leaving you with da Vinci's work. In any case, it was cool, very cool.
So now I'm back in Sevilla and I'm here for a while! I officially have one weekend without travelling! So I will send my Thanksgiving love to the United States directly from Sevilla. And instead of running around in some other place, I'll run around here, right a paper or 2, and try to solve Davidson housing dilemmas (ohhhh, to be a homeless junior returning from abroad).
And my next trip? Well, my last trip will be an 11 day tour through the rest of Italy: Venice, Bologna, Florence, and Rome, with Meital, Joan, and Mori. Then finals, and then.........America.
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