Milan 2025

BEFORE the rain. Natalie, me, Abby, Kourtney, Bruce, and Ashley. I love these kids!

Natalie and I grabbed dinner at a fancy outdoor shopping area

Look at that sky!

The rain!!!!

My beautiful group of 5 - Ashley Berges, me, Lily Anderson, Piper Barron, and Alea Budge. I love these kids so much. 

Our TA Ashley was awesome. 

Look at that! It's beautiful. 

The little nativity I bought. It has a shepherd boy on the back. 

Inside the Duomo

On top of the Duomo

Maddie Clark, one of our fantastic students. Such a spiritual giant. 

Some of us went to a bone church. The walls are covered with artwork made of bones. Some of the skulls have teeth. 

Natalie and I walked a long way to see the vertical forest. 

One day I bought dinner sandwich fixins for me, Ashley, and Bruce. Natalie joined us in the outdoor eating area with her dinner.  

Me and Kourtney. She's one of my most hard-working TAs and really connects with students. 

Silk Museum

Posters promoting silk

Kamiko's winning tie. It looks so good on him. 

Lake Como

I finally put my foot down and ate dinner at McDonald's. I got the Nutella McFlurry and it was fantastic. 

I'd never been to Milan. I didn't know what to expect. Besides seeing the Last Supper, there wasn't much I was excited about. Boy, was I wrong. Milan was stunning. We got settled after an afternoon train and Natalie wanted to go to the Duomo (church) at night. I was tired and wanted to stay put, but I'm glad I went. You get above ground and see the biggest, most majestic church I've ever seen. It lights up at dark and it was incredible. A few students were also in the square to see the church. It started to sprinkle, then rain. There was lightning and thunder. We took pictures and headed back to the hotel. We ended up walking back to the hotel in an absolute DOWNPOUR!

We took a bus to Como to visit a silk museum. We then went to Bellagio on Lake Como and had a couple of hours to shop, but first we treated the students to lunch. We lucked out and found a restaurant right on the water. Their pizza was fantastic. While shopping, I was lucky and got to FaceTime with Kamiko. He was able to pick out his own tie and helped me pick out a scarf for Bekki. She wanted BYU blue. I was able to get navy with white flowers. We got some fun photos on the water. It's a beautiful place. Derek has a friend with a villa on Lake Como. I hope he gets to go there someday. 

Milan miracle: The reason I've written miracles about every city is because of our Milan miracle. It's extremely difficult to get tickets to see DaVinci's Last Supper in Milan. EXTREMELY DIFFICULT! We put in for the lottery a couple of months ago, but didn't get tickets. Our only other option for the group was to attempt to get tickets the week BEFORE we planned on going. I didn't even want to plan on that, so I bought a $90 ticket for a guided tour. 5 of us bought that advanced ticket. We knew our schedule in Milan was tight and tickets sell fast. Anyway, on the appointed day, 6 of us (Chad, Natalie, and I and Kourtney, Ashley, and Maddie) found a place in a mall with good WiFi and hunkered down, prepared to get our tickets. There is a limit of 5 tickets, so I had typed lists for everyone. We had to provide names for each ticket. We had each created an account. At noon, we each logged in. I got my 5 tickets. Natalie got her 5 tickets. The rest of the people only got 1. OH NO! Because the tickets had names on them, I now had 2 tickets. Natalie had 2 tickets. Ashley had 2 tickets. This was not going as planned. Julia had come to help us. I pulled out a printed class roll and we began taking notes of who had tickets. Everyone created more accounts, refreshed their browsers, and kept trying. Little by little, we got more tickets. We put out a message to all the students to try to get tickets. A pair of students had success. We were getting closer. After about 2 hours, we had tickets for all but 4 of our group. Our entrance times were all over the place, with 2-5 students together, and some solo. That was going to require some logistical workings on the day of the visit to the Last Supper. I was sick about the 4 that we didn't have tickets for, then I had a thought. I called the 3rd party company with whom I had my tour to see if I could change the name. I could! So, I sent an email requesting a name change. Once I got that, I asked the others to change the name on their tickets. I had bought the tickets for our FCS Ambassadors, so it wasn't hard to tell them that we had to change plans. I got reimbursed for the tickets, but I also had to come clean that I had bought them. Ooops. There is no rule against it, but I think it's unusual. Little by little, one by one, we were able to notify the remaining students that they had a ticket to see the Last Supper. On the appointed day, we worked that scheduling puzzle. Everyone made it there. Some who got to go alone said it was very meaningful to not be with the group, but alone with their thoughts. It was such a miracle. I consider that absolute proof that the Lord is in the details of our lives. He watches over us. It was a very special experience. Additionally, when I was there for the second time, I was killing time in the adjoining church. While there, I went into the courtyard and found a little gift shop. I found a special little nativity set that I bought to remember our miracle. Natalie, Chad, and I had talked about getting a gift for our Kennedy Center people, so we bought some for them, too. I had them all in my bag, and was denied access to the duomo because of the number of ceramic items. I was so upset and tired. Had we each carried 2 nativities, we would have gotten in. I almost didn't go in, but I decided to find a nearby bag drop area. I paid 7 Euro to store my bag of nativity sets while I went into the church, which was absolutely stunning. We got to go up to the roof and see the view. Wow. 

I'd say Milan was a huge success. Off to Paris.