Milan, Italy - July 21st

This morning I woke up early so I could have breakfast downstairs for the first time in at least a week. Around 9, we boarded a charter bus outside our dorms which took us to Certova di Pavia, a monastery built in the 15th century located about 20 miles south of Milan. On the way, we had a great view of the snow-covered Alps way off in the distance.

A monk walked us through the ornately, marble-carved church in which no expenses were spared and not a square inch of the walls were not decorated with religious fresco or lapis lazuli. There were a couple tombs for the families which donated the funds used for construction, an alter piece carved entirely out of animal bone/ivory, and, in another section of the monastery, the living quarters of the monks. Each had his own house and was brought breakfast every morning.

After our tour, we returned to the bus which took us into the town of Pavia. There, we ate crepes and had wine followed by coconut gelato in a quaint restaurant. We wondered the streets until it was time to meet up with our Australian tour guide. He took us down to the river where the Romans had constructed the bridge used to invade Carthage during the war against Hannibal. From there, we went through the town to a church built by the Longobards, or "long beards" when they conquered the city after a 3 year siege. We then followed our guide to the main square of the city where a royal family's palace used to stand before it was burned down by the Pavian citizens during the war against the royal family of Milan. Our guide then took us through the Pavia University and ended the tour at a castle much like the one we had been to in Milan, where Vitruvius inspired Leonardo da Vinci to sketch the Vitruvian Man. After a quick bathroom break, we hopped back on the bus and back to Milan.

In Milan, we went to see the "Last Supper". It was in better condition than I thought it would be. We were only allowed 15 minutes to look at it. A guide gave us information on the history of it and how da Vinci studied biblical text to create personalities in the disciples. I was blown away, mostly because this painting is infamous.

After the "Last Supper", I met up Ashlee, and we headed back to the dorm where, once again, we pregamed before going out to karaoke. I did not sing even though I wanted to because the list of songs available was limited in English. Do not remember much after leaving the bar except that we bar hopped to a few other places, and apparently I was a dick for talking to some other girl for a few minutes. I vaguely remember not being able to catch a cab for a while, but eventually we did and managed to get back to the dorm.