Day 3:     On our final day in Milan we had two company visits. We visited Cimbali, one of the largest producers of coffee machines in the world, and Leo Burnett, a very successful marketing firm. Leo Burnett was a great experience and really opened my eyes to the type of advertising I’m exposed to everyday. Our speaker, Alessandro Antonini, spoke to us about emotion based targeting and how they pick out specific attributes of their target market in order to make the most effective ad possible. For example, he presented a commercial for an app by Always, that targeted women and promoted their safety by sticking together. This type of strategy was successful because it triggers your senses without you even knowing. Even as a male I felt as if the idea was genius and would definitely help many woman stay safe.

After leaving Leo Burnett we had the rest of the day to ourselves, and this went on to become the best day in Milan. The plan for today was to visit The Duomo and get a great view of the city. Eduardo and I met up with Evan 1, Evan 2, Katherine, Isamar and Ayla and we all made our way to The Duomo together. We spotted a small restaurant named La Provision on our way and stopped by to eat. The food was amazing. They served the best macaroni and cheese that I have had in my life. It was perfectly toasted on the top and had a great texture. Then to top it off it was served with a the best bacon. I can not even explain how good this dish was, but it was so good that everyone at the table had to try it! It would have been a sin to not share such a delicious mac and cheese. After our meal we continued to The Duomo, we purchased our ticket and then waited a little over 30 minutes to go inside.  I would have gladly waited another hour in the hot son of Milan because once we got inside it felt like nothing before. Being in such a massive Church gave me goosebumps, and the air inside even felt holy. Even though other tourist were busily snapping pictures of everything they could get their camera to focus on, I still felt an immense peace come over me. I sat down for a few minutes and prayed. I gave thanks for the opportunity I was given on this trip and for my family who supported and helped make this trip possible. The emotions were so intense that my eyes even began to tear up. I lit inside, said another quick prayer, and then continued through the church and made my way to the top.The climb to the top was long, but after seeing the view every step was worth it. From the top we could see over the entire city, and the whole scenery provided the perfect moment. We all hung out at the top for about an hour just taking in the city and enjoying each others company.

Several laughs and pictures later we made our way back down, and walked around the neighboring shops. We split up and let the girls do some shopping while we, the guys, just hung out around the square. We then got back together and ended our night with a great dinner. On our walk back to the hotel we found a great tapas style spot. They spoke very little English here, and of course we spoke about two words of Italian our selves, so communicating was nearly impossible. We were all confused on the menus and ordering, and quite frankly we didn’t even know it was a tapas spot until our food was brought out. When our food was brought out we were all in amazement. A huge cutting board was placed in the center of our table and had all sorts of good food. There was fresh fruit, goat cheese, slices of meats, vegetables, breads and just about everything. We all explored the different foods, not really even knowing what we were eating, but that didn’t stop us. We had a great meal that was a great way to end the great day we had had together.