Pics of the week: Milan, Italy

What was Giulia up to these days? In case you wondered, as I was kinda of away from Twitter and all, I was in Milan.

I was supposed to stay one day but then it turned into a 3 nights stay and I must say it was a lovely one.

For some reason I never loved this city but this time I really enjoyed it! And here’s why.

Day 1 – Charity dinner for Nepal children

I attended a charity dinner by the Italian Organization “ItaliaproNepal“ – they support Nepal and organized this dinner to collect funds for their projects down there, mainly related to children and their education.

Do you remember that song from the 90’s, that goes like “I, I wanna hmm hmm I…”? well I’m sure you do! This guy, a.k.a. The Lawyer, is Italian and is a friend of mine. He had a show at this dinner then he hosted me for 3 nights at his place.

Me and The Lawyer

Day 2 – Tweetup and city centre

I went out in the morning and met Simon (Twitter: @1step2theleft and @avventurosa) from Wild About Travel! It was a lovely Tweetup and we had a yummy lunch with typical tagliatelle and meat sauce (ragù), in a place she recommended… and she was right! A lot of nice talks mainly about travel of course! And I proudly added a new “M!” (that means I met a blogger) on My Cool Blogroll!

After lunch, I met a friend of mine (by the way I realized I know more people in Milan than in my own city, Genoa) and we had a long walk in the city centre, and I couldn’t miss the famous Duomo di Milano.

Duomo di Milano

It took almost 600 years to build the Duomo. In fact, its construction began on 1386 and ended in 1965! Can you believe it?

I’ve been there before many times, but never stopped to take a photo. But now that I have a blog, well everything changes! They were setting up a stage in front of the Duomo, not sure why, so it’s not the best picture but the wide angle makes the rest!

Day 3 – Working with immigrants

My friend, the one who was hosting me, is a volunteer in an association called Associazione Arcobaleno (“rainbow”, in Italian). They have many activities including teaching Italian language to immigrants, for free. He had a class that day so I joined him to the school and because of the large number of people that came, I ended up working as a secretary, taking registrations for the newcomers.

I had the chance of talking to people from many countries, including Ukraine, Philippines, China, Morocco, Egypt (and I spoke some Arabic!) and Lybia too. Most of them arrived illegally with boats to Lampedusa (Sicily); these landings of illegal immigrants have been on the news every day lately here in Italy.

Landing of illegal immigrants in Lampedusa, Italy

It was definitely a very interesting experience and I wish I will have the chance of working in such an environment soon!

After the class I finally saw an area of Milan I didn’t see before: the Navigli (“ships”, in Italian). This is an area with water canals, surrounded by nice promenades with restaurants and bars. Definitely one of the nicest areas of Milan I ever saw!

Milano Navigli

Day 4 – Time to leave!

Milano Central Station

Bye bye Milano! It was nice seeing you, this time.