What a whirlwind week. I’ll start from the beginning though and give you a play by play.
Saturday-Venice
As I have said in previous blogs, our program here in Rome is set up where we take classes through Catholic at St. John’s University, but our Italian classes are taught at a school by the Spanish Steps that specialize in teaching Italian to students abroad. As a part of our enrollment there, they plan special events, one of which was this whirlwind of a trip to Venice for Carnivale. For those of you who don’t know, Carnivale is the European version of Mardi Gras (Think Mardi Gras in the 1800s/Marscerade)
I woke up at 6:30 in order to make it to the Roma Termini train station for our fast train to leave toward Venice. We arrived in Venice at 12:30 where it was a balmy 28 degrees. Holey Moley, it was freezing. We had a complete blast in Venice, but one of the distinct aspects we were immediately introduced to was the wind. Because Venice is set up around the water and canals, all of the windy walkways turn into wind tunnels. So it was cold to begin with, but the wind made it unbearable. We still had a blast though!
When we arrived, we left the train station as a big group of 60 students, but a group of four of us bought a map and broke off from the rest of the group to find our own lunch. We figured part of Venice was getting lost and finding our own way through the city, so we found a little restaurant to grab a quick lunch.
After eating lunch, we headed to San Marco’s Square. San Marco’s is a huge piazza bordering the sea where all of the Carnivale festivities were based around. On our way to the square we stopped in shops to warm up, but also to check a Venice to-do off the list: buy a mask. As I said, one of the big things of Carnivale is that it’s like a huge masquerade. We purchased our masks from a vendor and then went to the parade.
Holy wow, talk about something out of the Travel Channel. The parade was out of this world. Combine a Fourth of July parade, Halloween, a circus, and thousands of people and you will have Carnivale in San Marco’s Square. We made our way to the middle of the Square to take it all in, but only stayed for a short while because of the temperatures.
After this, we were frozen. So, to thaw out, we found an Italian equivalent of a mom and pop coffee shop and decided to stop and thaw out for a few hours. We ordered wine, Irish Coffee, hot chocolate, and humus over a few hours time. Great people, great conversation, and warmth. It was great.
We had a few hours left, so we found a cozy Italian restaurant for dinner and then made our way back to the train station after getting gelato on the way. (The golden rule about Italy: It can be freezing outside (literally), but it is NEVER too cold for gelato. Never)
[Italian Countryside somewhere in between Rome and Venice]
[A vendor selling masks in the streets of Venice]
[A close up of a mask]
[I didn't have time to go in and get this, but it looks amazing]
[One of the many canals in Venice]
[Even though it was freezing, people still paid through the roof for a gondola ride]
[Myself, Kaleigh, and Erin with our masks on in San Marco's Square]
[Part of the parade in the Square]
[More people]
[...and even more people]
[Myself on top of one of the main bridges]
[An extremely cool church in the middle of Venice]
Sunday-Venice/Rome/Siena/Arezzo
Our train left Venice at 12:30 and arrived back in Rome at 7:00 am. One of the things I will constantly thank my parents for is my ability to sleep on transportation. As soon as I get onto a bus/plane/train, I pass out immediately, it’s great. The other three in my sleeper car had troubles falling asleep—not me.
Anyways, we arrived in Rome and I had a two hour window, to leave the train station, go home, regroup, pack up for Tuscany, and then meet back at school by nine when our bus was going to leave…talk about a bad way to wake up.
I regrouped myself (grabbed breakfast on the way to school) and was on the bus ready to fall back asleep again. The great thing about this trip was that the Catholic was footing the bill. It was going to be an action-packed weekend, filled with bus rides, tours, and wine, but lived up to be so much more.
[The Roman countryside on the way to Siena]
The first stop on the weekend getaway was Siena. A quaint little town in the Tuscan countryside, Siena is placed on a hill and looks like it is stuck in the middle ages. One of the really cool things is that Siena is where the beginning of the most recent James Bond movie was filmed (link below). They are famous for a horse race (that we were not there for), but we stood in the same square that it takes place in.
Things accomplished in Tuscany:
· Toured a museum of Art right off the main piazza. I wasn’t extremely interested in the art, but Siena was extremely interesting politically. During Midieval times, they combined church and state, so this tour was of the main governmental building of the time. The chamber where they debated laws was right next to a chapel. It was pretty cool being able to see how they coincided and the way in which it affected their political system.
· I had the best Italian meal so far in my time in Italy. I would have taken a picture of it, but I ate it too quickly. Spaghetti with meat sauce…YUM. I ordered two. The waiter thought I was crazy, but I didn’t care
· Ordered hot chocolate while waiting on the bus. The hot chocolate in Italy tastes like a melted Hershey bar. I don’t know what they do to make it taste magnificent, but whatever it is, it works.
[The view of Siena when we got off the bus]
[Siena from the balcony of a museum]
[More Siena]
We left Siena a bit before dinner time, trekked to Arezzo where we checked into our hotel, had a well-deserved warm meal, and crashed into bed. The coolest part of the hotel? The towel warmers. So clutch.
Monday-Arezzo
On Monday we woke up and toured Arezzo. Arezzo is a lot like Siena in that it is a small mideaval town in Tuscany. We toured around the city, and it was beautiful, but the highlight of the day for me was the wine tasting tor we did later that day.
We boarded the bus (yet again), and made our way deeper into the Tuscan countryside. We got off at this picturesque castle that has been turned into a winery. We were able to tour the old castle (that is NOT heated) and then the winery in the basement of the building. Our tour guide absolutely loved his job, so it made our tour 100x better.
After the tour, we went across the street to their restaurant where we sampled the wines that they talked about on their tour. That in conjunction with a great dinner convinced almost everyone in the group to buy a few bottles of wine from them. I walked away with: three wines (one white, two red), a full stomach, and an odd desire to be a vineyard maker.
[The view from the Duomo in Arezzo]
[The view from the Duomo in Arezzo]
[A piazza near the duomo in Arezzo]
[Another view of the Italian countryside]
[The view from the front doors of the castle]
[A few of many of the barrels in the basement of the castle]
[Very old bottles of wine bordering the walls]
[The four different kinds of wine we tasted]
Tuesday-Pienza/Orvieto/Rome
Tuesday morning we woke up, packed up, and headed back towards Rome. On the way we stopped in two stunning cities: Pienza and Orvieto.
Pienza is a super tiny town built on top of a hill (you seeing a pattern yet?) that was the hometown of Pope Pius. We were there for less than an hour, but were able to see duomo, get a few pictures of the Italian countryside, have a impromptu snowball fight, and load up on Peanut M&Ms.
Our last stop before arriving back in Rome was in Orvieto, which is about an hour and a half drive outside of the Metro area. My favorite city out of the four on the trip from the weekend, it was unlike any of the other three. We parked the bus in a large parking lot in at the bottom of the city and had to take a tram up the side of the mountain to reach the city. Once inside, we scattered to find individual restaurants to have lunch at before meeting back at the duomo for a tour of the cathedral.
Orvieto was just so cool because, yes it is built up on a hill, but the old walls still support the city today. Before going down to the bus, we walked around on the old walls, took many pictures of the Italian countryside, and traied to take it all in before leaving.
We finally arrived back in Rome around dinner time, where we were able to go back home and have dinner with our hosts. It was great to be back home, but I had a mountain of homework waiting for me upon my return.
This weekend has been very dull compared to last, yet just what I needed. I’ve been writing cover letters for internships over the summer, prepping for my Italian midterm on Monday, and starting on papers due in a few weeks.
What’s coming up for me:
· Italian Midterm on Monday
· A friend studying abroad in London (Armaine Decastro) is coming to visit this weekend
· Midterms are the week of the 27th. They shouldn’t be too tough, but I’m worried most about my Italian final which is the Friday of that week.
· Once I finish all of that though, I’m on Spring break!
Highs:
Weather
It’s finally warm! If you have been following my blog at all, you know that I have been complaining about the cold, so its great that it is finally warm!
Food
I’ve had really good food lately. As mentioned earlier, I had multiple dishes of Spaghetti in Siena that were GREAT. Also a new food that I have experienced this week is called Souple (I know I’m spelling it wrong). Imagine a mozzarella stick that is the size of your palm with rice and tomato sauce inside of it. It is absolutely great, I’ve had like 17 in the past few days. Also on another note, I found an international grocery store that sells food form all over the world. I obviously got Oreos, Peanut butter, and chips and queso. I’m a happy camper.
Italian
I’m almost done! I have a few tough weeks ahead of me, but once Spring Break hits, I’m done and go down to three classes a week!
Lows:
Diet Coke
I still have not found Diet Coke here and I’m starting to hit a wall. My body is beginning to shut down, so I’m going to need to find some soon. Luckily, Armaine is coming from London this weekend so I think she is bringing me a bottle from there. Supposedly it is the same as the States, so that will be a daymaker.
