Day 1:      After much anticipation, a lot of excitement and a little nervousness the day to fly out and head to Italy had finally come. Emotions rushed me as my family drove me to the airport. This was going to be my first trip out of the continent and also the longest I’d ever been away from home. Once arriving to the airport I met with the group as planned and I was greeted by Milene. This was the first time I actually ever held a conversation with her, but I was very happy to meet her and I was comforted by her calm and easy going demeanor that showed even while trying to round up eighteen college students. As students began to show up we broke off into small groups of about six and made our way through the security check. All was going well, until we got news that one of our classmates was having trouble getting through security due to a name misprint on the ticket. This was then followed by a flight delay that really jeopardized our ability to make our connecting flight in NYC. Needless to say a rough start, but Milene was on it and got our classmate through security and after speaking with the Delta staff she was even able to perform a miracle and got our connecting flight to delay its take off a bit so that we could make our connection to Milan.

Upon making our connection in New York everyone settled down and we were all glad to be back on track. I had not slept the night before since I am a serious procrastinator and therefor this plane ride made for a perfect chance to catch up on some sleep. I slept most of the plane ride, but when I woke up about an hour before landing I had the most beautiful view of The Alps. They were majestic and  the peaks covered every inch of my line of sight.

After passing over The Alps we began to see what I believe was the Italian countryside, and not long after we finally touched down in Milan…or should I say, Milano. We were greeted by our guide, Andrea, and he gave us a very informative run down of they city as we made our way to the hotel. A point that stood out to me was the fact that Milan was actually the home of Alfa Romeo, and the Emblem of Alfa Romeo is almost identical to the crest of the city.

Once we finally arrived at our hotel, Ibis Milano, everyone got settled, changed from our comfy sweats and threw on our business casual looks. We then went for a great meal a traditional Italian restaurant and we had a five course meal. I tried a little of everything and can honestly say there was nothing I didn’t like. I even had my first shot of espresso and Limoncello. A very interesting combination that you really couldn’t get anywhere but here in Italy. 

After such a great meal everyone was just about ready to call it a day, go back to the hotel and crawl back into bed, but our day continued. We met with the Coca-Cola Manager of operations who is in charge of Italy and also a few other neighboring countries. It was very interesting to see first hand how our Atlanta company has entered another market and really made its home here. I found it crazy that our speaker mentioned that Coke was made using the same ingredients where ever its produced, and yet went on to say that they have about three different sweetness that are used throughout the world.

We then concluded the longest day ever with a quick tour of the city. We caught a quick glimpse of some of the cities highlights like the Duomo, the opera house, the Milan castle and the galleria. Overall it was a very tiring day,but we got so much done and we used every minute that the day couldn’t help but be great.