A day in Milan before a tearful goodbye

We arrived in Milan and took the metro to our family friend's apartment. He didn't tell us which buzzer it was so we stood puzzled outside his apartment before, just by coincidence, his landlady came home and opened the door for us. We trudged up the stairs and were greeted by a smiling Pietro! We dropped our stuff off in the apartment and were given a small tour of his fantastic apartment before heading out to get drinks and dinner.
Kindly Pietro treated us to drinks and dinner at two of his favorite places. First, he took is to his favorite bar to get drinks and a small aperitivo. It had a fantastic view of the Duomo as it was directly next to it. Abbe tried a spritzer for the first time and did not enjoy it but she did like the aperitivo. Once we finished our drinks, Pietro took us to a famous restaurant around the corner from the Duomo and ordered a bunch of traditional Italian and Milano dishes we just had to try. We all shared and they were all very yummy! Tired and it was quickly creeping up on midnight, we walked back to his apartment. Once we arrived he told us he was driving to his other apartment as to let us have his whole apartment to ourselves. We were extremely shocked. I assumed we'd have the spare bedroom and one of us would sleep on the couch but not the whole apartment. We thanked him, we said our goodbyes, and he left for his other apartment. All very tired, we quickly got ready for bed and crashed.
Friday Erinn and I let Abbe pick our entire itinerary for the day. She wanted to sleep in so we left the apartment around noon and went to a pizza place recommended to us by my roommates. It was so delicious! We devoured our pizza and then made our way to the castle. We walked around the castle before making our way into the park behind it. In the middle of the park was a pond full of turtles and ducks. They were so cute! We should and watched the turtles for probably about half an hour. Abbe and I picked out which turtle was each of our family members.

We headed back through the castle and began to walk back to the Duomo. Along the way we stopped in an American book store and Lush. I got a book in the bookstore as I've almost finished all the books I brought with me. In Lush, we smelt everything and we skeptical of the toothpaste they had. It as a small chalky pill you would chew up and then brush your teeth with the crushed bits. Triumphantly, we all walked out of there with off purchasing anything.
Our next stop was to get gelato because when in Italy, get gelato! We found a place with a long line and flat gelato which are always good signs. Side note, don't eat at a gelato place if it's gelato is mounded in huge piles. It means the gelato is not quality, true Italian gelato. It was very yummy!
We walked around and ended up at the Duomo where there was a huge sign saying the pope would be there and they were setting up for a speech. We decided to wait and see the Pope since Abbe hasn't seen him. We waited for almost 2 hours before we looked it up and found out that the Pope was going to be speaking the next day.
With Erinn needing to do homework and Abbe exhausted and needed to make sure she was all ready to go home the next day, we headed back to the apartment for the night and had dinner there.
This morning, we all reluctantly woke up and got ourselves to the train station by 7:50 for Abbe to catch the bus to the airport. The whole way I help back tears, and writing this is making be tear up again. Abbe bought her bus ticket and turned around and we both broke down in tears. Her bus was leaving in 3 minute so we didn't have long to stand hugging and crying. She got on the bus and waved goodbye. It was so nice to have my best friend/sister here in Italy with me for a week. It was undoubtedly the best week I've had and will have this whole trip. The only thing that could have made it better was if Ellie came with her as well. I'm missing her so much already and it's only been 30 minutes. To Abbe and Ellie, I love you so much and can't wait to see you in May. 
Knowing I would need an adventure so I didn't mope around all day, Erinn and I are sitting on a train to Lake Como right now. I'm so excited to see Lake Como but bummed Abbe's at the airport going home and not here with me.