While traveling through Salzburg, Austria, we had the opportunity to visit the largest system of ice caves in the world. Eisriesenwelt made a great day trip and gave us a chance to do something that was not typical or on the itinerary for our group.

It was fast and convenient to get to the caves from Salzburg. We took a cable railway and got there in about half an hour. The cable was incredibly full of people but we were pretty used to crowded transport by this point in our trip. When we got to Eisrieswelt, we didn’t have to wait long for a tour guide to be available because a tour starts roughly every six minutes.

When we reached the entrance to the caves, we were given a lamp. During our guided tour there was additional lighting inside the caves that highlighted the ice sculptures and gave them a cool effect. It was frigid, however, and I’m very glad I had my warmest coat on as the temperatures were below freezing even though it was June.

The tour through the caves was interesting and informative. Our guide was excellent and very knowledgeable. He told us how the ice caves are made completely out of ice and rock. The caves are like a labyrinth and make up an area of over 40 km. And, even though the caves’ formation started over 100 million years ago, they are still developing today.

The only disappointing part of the tour was that we were not allowed to take any pictures. The caves were so beautiful I would’ve wanted to take some pictures. Instead I opted to purchase a postcard of the cave in the gift shop. At least I have something to remember it by.

Last summer I took a month long trip to Italy. I used a car hire italy service. We managed to visit Rome, Florence, Capri, and Venice before having to go back home. Florence was my favourite stop. Even though every city had its own fabulous attractions, Florence was just so beautiful and had so many architectural and historical landmarks to see.

While in Florence, our incredibly long, and sight-seeing filled, days took place during the incredible heat of a warmer than usual July. On one such day we had planned to see the magnificent Gothic Duomo. Before we could think any better of it, we decided that the only way to properly experience the Duomo was to climb up to the top so we could look out on the city.

However, about halfway up the 463 steps it wasn’t looking like such a great idea anymore. The heat alone inside the stuffy stairwell was suffocating; but it was the tiny steep staircase that really put me over the edge. It was so narrow that even if I wanted to turn around and go back down, I couldn’t. There were so many people below me waiting for me to keep climbing that I started to feel claustrophobic inside the stairwell. I never realized how terrifying climbing up stairs could be.

When we did finally reach the top, though, the view was fabulous. It was almost worth the agony of getting there. You get the opportunity to see Florence from a bird’s eye view and you can see the whole city in a way that you wouldn’t get to if you hadn’t climbed to the top of a cathedral. I also remembered to take about a hundred pictures while I was up there because I knew I would never be climbing back up. The only thing that ruined the moment was the realization that I was going to have to climb back down the 463 stairs.

I am the last person you would expect to be a lover of Milan. I am not a great shopper, am not particularly fashion conscious, have a fairly minimal understanding of Italian art and to top it off my spoken Italian is fairly atrocious. So, in superficial ways at least, Milan and I are not a match made in heaven. But due entirely to some unexpected and incredible circumstances I suspect that I will continue to make pilgrimages there for the rest of my life.

It all began one excellent October night during my year abroad in Spain. I was studying at a local café while waiting for a friend. To be honest, the studying was a mere pretense– I was really just moping. I had been in the country since August but I had no real friends and was battling miserably to communicate in Spanish. Back in Iowa I had had big dreams of a wild year full of parties but instead I was just heart achingly homesick. That’s when into the life of this study abroad Cinderella barged Arabella, Gina, Marcella and Aloysius, four vacationing students. Aloysius – tall, handsome and regretfully gay – set events in motion when, in a spontaneous vacation-high induced gesture of gallantry; he bought me a shot of espresso and invited me to an empty chair at their table. I accepted. Several hours, several clubs and several gallons of sangria later, me, a pokey American Midwesterner, had been officially adopted into a group of glamorous Europeans- from the capital of glamour, Milan. It didn’t take much for them to convince me to transfer to the University of Milan to share an apartment with Arabella and Gina. And thus began my love affair with the most sensational of all cities.

Arabella, a fashion student, took me window-shopping along Via Montenapoleone and Quadrilatero d’Oro. Under her tutelage I learned to appreciate Cavalli, Max Mara, and Dolce and Gabbana. She even brought me to one of the prestigious Milan Fashion Weeks. I once got up the courage to ask her how she got her clothes to fit so well and was shocked to learn that most Milanese get their clothes tailored!

Don’t think that my time in Milan turned me into a fashionista; even Milan and Arabella can’t work miracles like that. Instead I found parts of Milan where I felt at home- the markets. For second-hand but still-trendy clothes there is the market in the Ticinese/Navigli district and the Viale Fauché; for food there is the Viale Papiniano and for antiques the Via Fiori Chiari market in the Brera district. But my absolute favorite is the Fiera di Sinigaglia, the flea market, held every Sunday morning. It has books, furniture, records and many other mysterious and fascinating objects. I befriended one of the booksellers who would save any English language books that came his way for me.

While I am still not up to Milanese fashion standards, my friends don’t mind, and let me tell you to my own amazement I am now the best-dressed person around.

Guest Written by my friend Mary. She is going to make a blog and just wanted to see the reaction here. I’m too busy to write as you can tell by the lack of updates!

Are you interested in Milan? I went there too but unlike Mary, I wasn’t a student. Milan can be an expensive city (all that high fashion and all). When I went, I found the hotels to be a bit pricey. I’m a budget traveler and normally stay in hostels. However, it took me awhile but I eventually found a good deal on a Milan Hotel from Hotelscombined. I hadn’t heard of them before so I recommend them!