Milan and Lake Como

The next day we wistfully left our beloved Venice to catch a train to Milan, where we met up with 2 other girls from our program. We wandered around the city and saw the Duomo, the insane and awesome cathedral there. It was really beautiful inside. We also saw the crazy shopping center that features all the designer stores, like Gucci and Armani etc. Needless to say, we couldn't afford any of them. The next morning we took a train to Lake Como, about an hour outside of Milan. It's beautiful! The lake is y shaped and around the outside you have a view of the snow covered Swiss Alps. George Clooney owns a house somewhere along Lake Como, but alas, we didn't see him. We had the BEST gelato here. At night, we had fun playing cards with the hostel manager, who was British but had been living in Italy for a while. The next day, we stayed for as long as we could, and just sat on the rocky beach before we caught the train back to Milan. The city of Milan was just like any other big city. It didn't have the charm of the other Italian cities we had seen. It was just like Madrid or New York. It was a cool urban atmosphere, and it had a really fashiony feel, but it was probably my least favorite. However, the hostel was a lot of fun. We ended up meeting a bunch of cool people, some from South Africa, and others that were Americans studying in Madrid. One of the girls studying in Madrid, actually was from New Hampshire and is friends with one of the girls on my Hartwick soccer team! These connections are crazy and make me wonder how many we never find out about. It's a small world after all.
The next day we flew out of Milan back to Valencia, where the weather was gorgeous. We spent Sunday, the day after our return from vacation, on the beach. Gotta love this.