Missing: Fashion Week.

This weekend Maria, Hilliary, Cameron, and I planned a trip to Milan during fashion week. As most shows are invite-only, we were simply content roaming the streets, experiencing the fervor, doing a little shopping, and perhaps crashing an industry after-party or two. In honor of Milan fashion week, we also decided to indulge a bit and booked a 4-star hotel with plans of using their spa. (my mind was dead set on a hot stone massage)

This was the plan. A simple weekend of effortless glamour.

(*please see reference at the bottom for details)

Saturday

7ish AM: Quick burst of cardio to give us energy for the day (1*)

8:30 AM: board our Eurostar train to Milan.

10:50 AM: Each our Baci chocolate then arrive in Milan (2*)

11ish AM: take a taxi to a beautiful part of Milan (3*)

11:30ish AM: take a taxi to our hotel. Decide that we don't have time for the spa (4*)

Afternoon: take a taxi to the center(5*)/Duomo. Take some photos. Walk around(6*). Buy a skirt. walk around. Go inside the Duomo. Buy wine(7*). Take a taxi back to the hotel. Shower (8*). Read (9*)

Night: get ready. Have a glass of wine. Take a taxi to a fashionable area in Milan recommended by the receptionist (10*). Eat at an Argentinean restaurant (11*). Exhausted (12*). Get Grom (13*). See really cute shops (14*).Take a taxi back to the hotel. Read. Pass out (15*)

Sunday

9:30 AM: wake up refreshed

10:00 AM: Eat breakfast in the restaurant (16*)

10:30 AM: get dressed (17*)

12:30 PM: decide against cardio. Board our train.

2:50 PM: return safely and decide on Zoe for apertivo

REFERENCE

1*- In light of fashion week, we were 15 minutes fashionably later to the train station than intended. After hastily purchasing tickets, we realized our platform was at the opposite end of where we were. So we sprinted. In this lengthy moment of unbearable heat, I was met with an epiphany: chunky boots and a silk sheath dress should not be worn for any future athletic activity. 1) Regardless of how much you need it, silk ignore the need for air circulation. 2) thick-soled footwear + heavy shoulder bag continuously falling off/hitting your back = waddle-jog. Once at the platform, we realized the train was late. When Maria point out that we were the only one's waiting for the "late" train to Milan, we exchanged our tickets for the later Eurostar.

2*- Inside each Baci chocolate wrapper is a quote. While the rest of us had cheesy metaphors about love, Hilliary's quote stated "Bigamy is the product of having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same". Due to Hil's view on marriage and love, we found this quite fitting.

3*- When we got to the taxi line, no one seemed to know of MiHotel, our fabulous hotel. When I mentioned the name of the street, they scoffed and denied this road existed. Finally, one of the drivers said he did know of our hotel. It was brand new, and in a very nice part of Milan. So off we went...to the wrong hotel. Fun fact of the day: Mia Hotel is not MiHotel. Realizing we had the number, our taxi driver called the hotel and told us 1) it was on the opposite side of the city he took us to 2)it was on the street I though it was, I just pronounced it wrong 3) he wouldn't refund us for taking us far away from where we needed. So we got out and had Mia Hotel call us a cab to MiHotel.

4*-Upon arrival we were given complimentary cappuccinos and given early check-in. Tired and ready for a little pampering I asked if there was any availability for 4 massages. No. why? -because our hotel was incredibly modern...in every sense. Not only is the furniture very contemporary, Mihotel is a newborn, 2 months to be exact. Ergo, massage appointments were quite hard to come by, as the spa was currently a construction site. Dating a business major, I should have been more attentive to the fact that all the images (including the ones of the spa, obviously) on MiHotel were "stock photos". Nevertheless, to make up for their t.b.d. spa, MiHotel boasts the most incredible complimentary buffet from 7-11. Smoked salmon, freshly sliced fruit, pound cake, cheeses, breads, juice, granola...UH the list just goes and goes. Although we arrived after 11, MiHotel kindly let us dig in anyway.

5*- ask the taxi to take us to the fashion center. He takes us to the city center. But we get to see the Duomo, which is breathtaking.

6*-Curious to find the show tents, we ask a saleswoman in UCB where to go. First, we are told Milan is far different from London and NY and that shows are scattered. There are no tents, but rather unmarked locations strewn about. Second, the blog I read online and prayed was wrong...was true: the fashion week sched. has changed and it was over.

7*- Best wine I've ever tasted. I wrote down the producer on a piece of paper at MiHotel. Forgot to take it. Shocking.

8*- Oh the shower. Excuse me, the massage shower. High pressure (not to mention consistent), with multiple shower heads: 1 above, 1 handheld, and many tiny ones that went all the way down. My 50 minute shower at MiHotel definitely made up for my 0 minute massage.

9*- Clad in an over-sized MiHotel robe, of course

10*- hipster hangout. Ripped jeans, leather, bedhead hair, and a constant lingering of cigarette fumes. It was definitely a cool place...if perhaps I had dressed accordingly and brought a Machiavelli novel and blanket. But instead, I walked out of the cab looking pretentious in a strapless vibrant multi-colored maxi dress.

11*- Famished and turned away from a sushi restaurant for not having an appointment, we decided upon an Argentinean restaurant. It only served meat. Hil is a vegetarian. We decide to stay anyway and have 3 veggie apps and a bottle of wine.

12*- Realize we only want to go out because it was what we planned. We didn't know where to go. We were stuck in indie-ville. We were tired. We decided to go home

13*- The best gelato shop EVER. Get Crema di Grom ("crunchy crunchy" as we call it) in in a cone. delish!

14*- Realized how much we loved the area we were in (minus our uptown party garb) decided we wanted to come back and peek into some of the stores. Found out everything there is closed on Sunday.

15*- set the AC to freezing, and melted into the pillow top mattress and down comforter

16*-best breakfast EVER. SO SO SO good, and FO FREE!!

In writing, this weekend was a disaster. But if I was disappointed about anything, it was that I didn't take another 50 minute shower before we checked out.

Milan was crazy, and everything I didn't expect. But I loved it. We have decided that our life is one big comedy.

Milan was definitely one of the funniest episodes yet.

CIAO,

Jenna