-G.K. Chesterton.
I live in an incredibly touristy city. That's not to say it's in any way overpowered by the sightseeing masses, but merely to state the fact that Rome is beautiful and people flock here with a packed itinerary and often only two or three days to completely check off their 'To-Do' List.
This week I went wandering in the north and caught up with a couple of friends from Warwick and they gave me a glimpse into their lives and showed off what their towns had to offer. I found myself in both Milan and Pavia and, I must say, I really enjoyed the freedom of not having any notion of what one 'has to' see in either place. Obviously Milan is famous for fashion (and general fabulousness), so of course Laurelle and I did go shopping... mostly gawping after all the labelled loveliness (which a student budget just doesn't happily lend itself to) as well as going for sushi (which seems to be Milan's culinary favourite, judging by the sheer number of restaurants). The only really touristy thing we did was going up on the roof of the Duomo.
It was lovely, partly because our sole motivation was how stunning the cathedral is. We didn't even go inside or read any of the information about it. Sometimes it's just really nice to remain ignorant and appreciate beauty in somewhat awestruck silence... in the sunshine... on a roof... with an incredible view.
My entire weekend with Laurelle was really peaceful and and chilled as we just gave ourselves loads of time to talk and catch up and not make any real effort. That being said, we did have two big nights out, go on funfair rides, play in a children's park and ride bicycles all over the city. It's actually really funny how much fun we had when we weren't even trying!
I arrived on Thursday, which happened to be Festa della Donna, a day of appreciating women and making them feel special. Ironically, we ended up at a Playboy bunny themed party in a club called La Banque, which luckily was not as cringey as it sounded! Friday consisted of the Duomo, shopping and dinner down by the Navigli canal and Saturday was the action packed bicycling, fun fair riding, sushi and swings adventure. It was brilliant.
On Sunday I jumped on the train and headed over to Pavia, which is a smaller city about which I knew absolutely nothing. It was charming, however, and I'm glad I've learnt the joys of an Erasmus tour as I don't think I'd ever have thought to explore that little corner of the world otherwise. Agata and I again spent a lot of time just wandering around. We did get the train out to a pretty monastery but, this is being Italy, it was closed for absolutely no reason! She took me to a cool live music club and again, it was just lovely to catch up with a friend and take in the sights that I didn't even know there were to be seen. For example, her university is much prettier than mine and get a load of this view...
Well, I'm back in Rome now which means back to work and back to play The weather's not turned, as it would have in England after a week of sunshine, and so Anna and I have started taking our Kindles to the park and happily ignoring each other. Which is lovely. I'm reading Elizabeth Gaskell's 'Wives and Daughters', it's not a bad shout. You've got to love it when a nineteenth century author's favourite word is 'banter'!
Now, just to make the title of this post almost make sense, here's a little 80s flashback.
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