Milano, Pt. 1

My first leg of couchsurfing is underway. Friday morning I said goodbye to my aunt, uncle, cousins and their kids then again to my parents at the trainstation at Camucia-Cortona. I spent the afternoon in Firenze, walking around, admiring the Duomo again, and eating delicious gelato at Perche No! There, I bumped into two girls from Wesleyan who, when I asked what I should do with the remaining 75 minutes before my train left, advised me to go to a library around there. It was really nice, for one thing, it was AIRCONDITIONED. For another, there was a beautiful terrace with a view of the Duomo.
I left Florence an hour late after missing my train :-/ and arrived in Milano at about 730. I took the metro almost to the end of the line, where my gracious host Daniele picked me up on his motorbike. We spent the evening in with some of his friends eating pizza. It was fun, but I certainly felt the foreigner as they were mostly speaking Italian, and I was thus oblivious. There was also one tense interaction in which I got into a verbal tiff with one of Daniele's friends. I brought in a bottle of Prosecco as a gift for my host, when Daniele was not in the room, and he made some comment, in English, to the effect of 'oh you are trying to poison us with that stuff, gross.' Needless to say, I was rather taken aback that he had insulted my gift. What insued, I did not expect; we ended up having a veritable battle of wine knowledge in which we debated good versus bad Italian wines, and whether or not DOCG appelation controls mean anything. In the end, he backed off from his insult, without actually conceding that I was right, and we never came to blows, so that was good! Ha, one night here, and already got into an argument with someone from Milano, hope today is a bit more relaxed....though I doubt there will be more English spoken.
Unfortunately, I know have to get going for lunch, but will write more soon!
Ciao