Il mio appartamento a Milano!

My apartment in Milan is cute and cozy. It's very small but it has character.  It's a 2 bedroom with a kitchen and a bathroom.  I share my apartment with 3 other women, V, M, and A, and they are all from America.  I was a little skeptical about this at first because I haven't had a roommate since Freshman year, but they are all as fun, quirky, and outgoing as I am.  So it worked out.

Our apartment is on the top floor of the building, so in a way, you can say we have the penthouse suite.  The following picture is the view of my apartment from the door.

From the door, the bathroom and my room are on the right, while the kitchen and the other bedroom are on the left.

Our bathroom is quite large for such a cozy apartment.  It has a nice sized tub, a toilette, a bidet, a sink, and a washing machine.  My favorite thing about our bathroom is it's European touches.  If you remember my post about the first differences I saw between Australia and America, you will remember how I spoke about the different way that Australians flush their toilets. In Australia  there are two buttons. One of the buttons has a circle that is colored in half way and the other button has a circle that is fully colored in.  This saves water because you only use the full colored button when you have more to flush. Most bathrooms in Italy are the same, but the toilet in my apartment has a handle.  But, instead of yanking on the handle once, you have to turn it in a full counter clock wise circle, wait for everything to flush, then turn it back.  Then because some Europeans don't believe in toilet paper, the bidet next to the toilet is used instead. It's pretty much a separate sink for your bum.

My bedroom is my favorite place in our apartment for two reasons one of which I'll explain later.  But the other is because it has very nice closet space.  I share my room with V and we both have a wall of 4 fairly large shelf/closet spaces for our own use. The beds are jailhouse beds, very skinny and not so long.  At night I have to remind myself of that fact whenever I turn over.  M and A share the other bedroom.

The kitchen looks just like any kitchen you would see in the states.  It is fully furnished with a table, chairs, refrigerator, stove, microwave, and even a dish washer.  Plus it has all the cooking and eating utensils we could need.  For the first week and a half, we didn't know how to use our stove, so we would use a lighter to light it ourselves.  But in the middle of making tacos, because I miss Taco Bell already, I discovered a button that lights the stove without the need of a hand held lighter.

My favorite part of our apartment is the views.  That other reason why I love my room so much is because it is the room with the balcony. Just look at this view:

Every room in the house has it's own beautiful view. From the Kitchen:

From the Bathroom:

They aren't spectacular views of rolling hills and water, but they are those postcard/desktop views that you never thought you would see in person. That's why I love them so much.  Every morning, I have a cup of yogurt on the balcony. It's so relaxing.

Other than that, our apartment is located in a pretty safe neighborhood. Even if it wasn't, you would need a funky ( I say funky because it really is a funky looking key) key to get into the gate, than another key to get into the building, then another key to get into our apartment.  So it's pretty much locked in tight.  Plus, we have everything we can possibly need within a few hundred meters.  There are 3 grocery stores 5 minutes a way in different directions.  There is a pizza joint and the best place in Milan to get Paninis minutes away.  If you take our street towards the city you will hit one of the major shopping streets in Milan. I'm talking 3 different H&Ms, Hillfiger, Guess, Gucci, Prada, and everything in between.  There is even a McDonalds for when I feel like I need a little America in my life.

I love my apartment and I couldn't be more happier with my roommates. Life in Milan is bliss, and just wait until you hear about the food.  Mmm mmm mmmm.  Stay tuned.

Italian phrase for this post:
A dove sei? Where are you from?
Dove abiti? Where do you live?

Ciao and thank you for sharing in this blessing with me.

Forever yours,
~Ms. JasmineMaree