All off, last stop!
Our last destination was Milan. On the bus ride over from Venice, we stopped at Belvast which was such an interesting experience! At first I was just anxious o get to Milan, however I'm so glad we made this stop! Belvast produces Hermes suits and alot of other high-end brand suits for men and women. We toured the entire factory and it was so lovely to see the owners so passionate about what they do. We learned that there are about 300 workers and about 300 full suits are produced everyday. Ha, the factory reminded me of what FIT looks like during term garment week ! Oh the good memories. Anyway, as we were passing through I was marveling over the special machinery that was used for everything like hemming, making belt loops, setting in zippers, linings, interfacings,etc. I wish I had access to these! The suits were so beautifully made that I was drooling and melting over them . I wanted this orange plaid one with elbow patches , ugh, True love! It was a really pleasurable and informative visit, and they even gave us books on the History of Mens Fashion. We all piled back on the bus, hit the truck stop for some vittles and went on our merry way.
We arrived at the Hotel Serena and were impressed at the chic lobby and glass spiral staircase. Also, we had a little cafe right next door and a nice little Italian restaurant across the way. Our first night we wandered around and stumbled upon a sushi place. The girls got me to like sushi while I was there! Yaydiscoveringnewfood! When we sit down, of course I sat in front of this waterfall, leaned back and got a nice rinsing !
Although alot of the girls were catching colds, getting congested etc ( including me) , we stuck it out and made the best of it!
My favorite appointments in Milan included Ratti( the silk factory), Zibetti Orsini, and Columba Leddi.We also visited some beautiful costume galleries and museums as well. Some times the tour guides were a little bit TOO informative , but I guess it's better than getting an unmotivated slacker!
At Ratti, the first interesting thing we noticed was the robot grass cutter. So cool! I guess it would be called a Lawnba or a Grassba instead of a Roomba. Oh the little things.
I was not expecting this place to be so amazing! We saw the whole process of silk-goods production from weaving the fabric, to finishing processes, printing, dyeing etc. This was especially exciting to me because I was able to see machines that in saw pictured in my Textile Science Textbook in action! It really makes a difference when you are exposed to these things! I witnessed Louis Vuitton fabric being woven- So cool! Another fascinating part was the printing area with the screen printing and digital printing machines. We were seeing Ferragamo and Louis Vuitton fabrics literally hot off the press.
At Zibetti Orsini, we saw more fabulous embroidery. Unlike Lesage in Paris, all of the embroidery was done by machine and not by hand. It was still breathtaking though! It is family owned and the owners were so sweet. They even gave us 2 huge bundles of excess fabric they had . I would've loved to take more of it home,but all of us were concerned about the weight of our luggage to begin with.
Lastly, one of our last appointments of the trip was Columba Leddi . What she does is truly unique. She scans nature ( I.e leaves, rocks, flowers) and also fabrics at the same time to get a textural effect, but she prints on nylon! Again, I wanted to buy something
from her store, but I was suffering from a case of Fundsarelow.
Since there was not much nightlife in Milan surprisingly , the girls and I had some movie nights where we stocked up on snacks and other things of the nom nom variety , so you know, we don't starve or anything.
I finally dissevered something in Italy that was close to iced coffee. It's called shaken espresso and it's prepared just like an alcoholic beverage. They take shots of espresso
, throw it in a shaker with ice and shake away. Then, asking for whipped cream was such a job! I literally had to describe it with a visual of me " pressing the nozzle down in a circular fashion " with the matching sound effect of. " qqqqqquuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuueeeee" , you know, the whipped cream sound.
Oh the highlights of Milan.
The last night , we all went out for a nice group dinner. It was then that it set in thatni have had the best time of my life and I really made life-long friendships with such wonderful ladies. We shared so much and grew so close, I feel like I've known them for years. Of course after dinner, we had to hit up one more chic bar. As per usual, we attracted a creeper named Marco ( go figure, everyone's name is Marco). Mind you, I was wearing wedges and I was probably about 6'3" . This man was like barely pushing 5 feet. Anyway, that was the highlight of the last evening. In the subway station, there is espresso machines and vending machines, and they usually have European brands. BUT behold, we found peanut M&ms in this one ( the Duomo stop) . At this pointnin the trip we were beginning to miss our good old American brands, so we were overly excited. Then as usual, natives were looking at us thinking " those crazy American girls, definitely from New York" . So predicable we all are.
