Milan, Italy - July 13th

Worked on my paper until about 2 A.M. Then woke up at 7 and had to hurry to meet the group down in the lobby. Together we rode the metro to the train station where we had breakfast and some much needed espresso in a Chinese noodle restaurant. I waited for Ariel to finish her breakfast before going up to the platform to catch the train. We should not have taken so much time to eat and had to run through the station to get on board before it left.

On the train we all found seats and most either listened to music or slept on the hour and a half trip to Lago Maggiore. When we got there, we were upset to find out that the day we took a trip to the lake, it rained. Despite the weather, we walked through town to the edge of the lake and boarded our boat which took us to the first of two islands, Isola Madre.

The climate of these islands is such that many exotic plants are able to thrive. We were able to witness this first hand as we walked through a luscious garden around a giant mansion. In what I would imagine one would refer to as the back yard of the house, was a large bird coup containing chickens, quail, and a few peacocks. We played with the birds for a while and then entered the house. The house was owned by the Borromeo family during the mid-19th century. The interior of the house was astonishing. It was as you can imagine extremely wealthy homes were in the 19th century, but what stood out most to me was the marionettes. They had all kinds and plenty of them. Back outside, the group gathered in a small coffee shop while the rain continued to come down. Under the cover of our towels, we made our way back down to the dock and boarded our boat.

The next destination was the second island, Isola Bella. The first island was beautiful, but this island put it to shame with an even bigger, more impressive house and garden. Took us at least an hour to just walk through all of it. In the garden, we ate some cal zones and relaxed for a time while the rain held off. When it started back up again, we exited the garden into a shop district where traders used to come to sell to the Borromeo family. Some people bought souvenirs but I just ran for shelter back at the dock. There, I waited until the rest of the group gathered under an awning and watched the rain come down until our boat returned.

Back on the mainland, the rain had stopped and the sun began to come out so we jumped in the lake and swam around for a while. The mandatory part of the journey was over and half the group split off to get lunch in the town while the rest of us, myself included, went back to the train station so we could get back and work on our papers.

The trip back was pretty uneventful except that we got back to Milan at a different train station, but it worked out well because it was even closer to the dorms.

I bought some food at the Penny mart across the street from the dorm so I could have dinner without leaving the room. The rest of the afternoon and on into the night I researched and wrote my paper on Benito Mussolini's rise to power.