Austin was feeling a bit under the weather, but Greg, Jacob, and I jetted off to the ward Jacob attends, about 45 minutes away by bus, metro, and a brief walk. The church building was small and unlike most I'd been in before. The chapel itself was the tear-down kind which can be converted to a cultural hall.
I was surprised that I was able to understand probably most of what was said. My Spanish helped, for sure, and the month of Italian lessons I'd listened to in my car certainly didn't hurt.
The Sunday school teacher was a fireball. She seemed very fun, very blunt. Sacrament meeting was good. It was apparently the anniversary of the founding of the Relief Society, so several sisters spoke. I was proud of myself for noticing a word Jacob didn't know, but we confirmed its meaning with a sister in front of us, and we practiced saying it, mostly unsuccessfully, which we found really funny, so it caused some mild irreverance among the three of us. Oh, in case you're curious, the word was inamovibile = steadfast.
When the bishop spoke, there was a moment when he said something about how grateful he was for his wife and something about his kids, and there was a bunch of chuckling throughout the chapel. I thought there must be a back-story, or he made some comment I didn't fully understand, but after church, I learned that when he had been expressing his gratitude for his wife and how wonderful she is with their children, she was, right as he said that, in the middle of chasing down their young daughter and sternly grabbing her by the ear to drag her back to her seat while scolding her. I'm sorry I missed that. They seem like a fun couple.
After church, I started playing a few hymns on the piano, and the musical coordinator came over and started requesting songs, and a few of us sang the parts. I think Greg and I did pretty well for singing in a language we don't exactly speak, thank you very much. Then Greg started playing because I didn't know the hymns they were requesting. Long story short, we had fun singing around the piano with the fun/crazy Italian sisters. I had a lot of fun meeting everyone there. Monica and her mom are from Ecuador, so they were fun to talk to in Spanish for a bit. All the sisters had been given roses for the Relief Society celebration, and after church, a sister was passing out bookmarks. When she came to Monica's mom, a typical assertive little Hispanic matriarchal woman, she held up her flopping, slightly wilted rosebud and quickly and frankly quipped, in Spanish-accented Italian: "No thank-you. They gave me a dead rose." Greg and I busted up and kept laughing about that all day.
We went back and rested a bit at Jacob's place, then Greg and I set out to find The Last Supper. Turns out the guidebook means it when it says you have to make reservations to see it. 1-2 weeks in advance. Don't try to get around it. Italians mean business when it comes to rules. But I got a picture of the Santa Maria Delle Grazie, the church in which the painting is kept.
So then we met up with Jacob and Austin, who was now feeling better. We went to the church with the bones. But it was closed already. So I took a picture of a very distressed-looking gargoyle face instead.
We also walked down via Montenapoleone, which is Milan's Rodeo drive...or should I say Rodeo Drive is Beverly Hills' Montenapoleone? Since it was late, we just window shopped.
Then we took some pics while waiting in the metro station.
After meeting up with Wildon, who Jacob knew from a Milan ward when he was serving his mission here, we all went to dinner at an aperitivos bar. Now, a "bar" in Italy is basically just a restaurant/cafe thing. We had been to one the night before with live music, but this one was much better food and swankier ambience. Aperitivos are basically appetizers or hors d'oeuvres. They're served during Happy Hour, which usually ends between 9 and 10 pm. You order a drink (alcoholic or not, we opted for not, of course) and eat all the food you want. It seems like 7 euro was a fairly typical price for the better places, and while that's not totally cheap, it's a good deal for all-you-can-eat, fresh Italian appetizers and a drink. I ordered a virgin mojito. Why didn't anyone tell me that drink was so stinkin' good? SO good.
So after pigging out and visiting for far shorter than is customary (Europeans generally linger a bit longer and actually interact when they eat out), we were on our way, but not before our server handed Jacob a note from another server asking him for his number. Which is funny, because he hadn't really indicated any interest. Those Italians really are forward people when it comes to expressing interest, which can be fun sometimes and uncomfortable other times. But hey, it's all part of the experience, right?
After aperitivos, we met up with Barbara and Alessia, some girls Jacob met during one of his train rides. We took the time to walk through a few neighborhoods of Milan to find Chocolat, a gelateria we'd heard about. We passed through a very wealthy neighborhood (which seemed not as much opulent as understated), some cool churches (as always), and a section of Corinthian columns which are apparently a remnant from a 2nd- or 3rd-century Roman building and were moved to their current location in front of the San Lorenzo Basilica in the 4th century.
The highlight of the evening: the best @#$% gelato I've ever had. Oh my gosh. I must return one day to partake again. And next time, I'll buy some of the chocolate tort they had, too. It looked amazing. Great finish to a great day.
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