The beginning — A European odyssey
By: Shraddha Shenoy
Tags: Exchange, Italy, Milano, Travel, Europe

Often times I find writing about my experiences the most difficult of all tasks. Sure, it’s easy in that there’s plenty of things to write about, no fact checking, and it’s always nice to be able to re-live experiences. But what I find daunting is the burden of doing justice to the experience per se. I’m terrified of underselling what has been the most out of the world experience as yet another semester abroad experience. And that is me exactly at this hour as I try to write about my time in Italy as an exchange student to Bocconi University in Milan.

When I first got to Italy, in the chill of December, I was welcomed by an empty cold city. Well, who was to blame — I booked myself a flight on the day after Christmas. As I got to the mainland from the airport, I noticed two things — well-dressed people, and coffee. And I’m not complaining about either. To this day, whenever someone asks me to describe Milan, I always begin with ‘..such good looking, well dressed people’. I admire people who strive to be their best versions, and Milan is the homeland of such people. I believe it’s in the Italian culture to dress well, and boy do they dress well!

I took the opportunity to go around the city visiting some Christmas markets, and my bread fantasies were coming to life (Note: They call me a BREAD FIEND). In the middle of winter, I found myself walking around Duomo Di Milano (the famous Cathedral of Milan). It is by far the most iconic and underrated man-made structure I have ever seen. I think there’s no way to describe the aura surrounding the Duomo in the chill of winters. It’s either that, or I was severely jetlagged. I choose to believe in the former.

I couldn’t understand anything that was written. I’d read some Visiting Italy articles beforehand, so I was familiar with Ciao and Grazie. However, it was impossible to get by without knowing some of the language — and I knew none. By the way, that’s a great segue for me to talk about it for a second. Italian - such a beautiful language. In its own way, you don’t need to know the language to understand it. Only one half of the language is words, the rest of it is signalling and hand movements (jk). One of the first words I learnt by accident was ‘Capisco’, meaning ‘understand?’ and also ‘I understand’. It’s how I would signal my understanding even if I understood nothing but got the point. As fate would have it, the first few months I only bumped into people who didn’t speak any English whatsoever. By the time I understood the language and spoke a decent amount, it was almost like all of Italy had taken group English lessons, and people around me looked at me like I was some idiot holding up queues conversing in broken Italian, for no reason. Because of course, by now all of Milan spoke fluent English. Life, I tell you! Then there’s ‘Allora’, which is by far the most multifunctional word I have come across. It fits into every situation, is quite unnecessary but very pleasant to the ears. Not to mention Ciao, that has forever ruined Hello and Goodbye for me. Oh, what a beautiful language.

I was to leave to visit a friend in Austria the day after, so that was all of my initial days in Milan, and I liked what I saw.