Carnevale in Viareggio!

This is a bit out of order, but so much happened the past few weeks that it's hard to keep everything in chronological order! When Keenan visited Italy for about a week, we decided to take a day trip to Viareggio for Carnevele. The trip was planned the morning we left, so we had to sprint to the train station and barely made it in time. The ride was about an hour and a half. We exited the station into a small beach town, with a view of snow covered mountains behind us. Everywhere was decorated with bright colors, and confetti flew threw the air at every corner. Children and adults alike were dressed up in a wide variety of costumes, and everyone seemed in the mood to celebrate. After sitting down at a pizzeria, we all found a small shop with funny wigs, scarves, and other costume accessories. We all found the perfect pieces to look just the right amount of strange, and found the entrance to the parade area. We bought tickets, and spent the next couple hours walking around, observing the crazy people and all the floats. The parade was unlike anything I've ever been to. The floats were a bit creepy, and were often commenting on politicians, politics, or social issues. Every float was blasting music and was fun of a crowd of costumed, dancing people.

After the parade, we enjoyed the rest of the late afternoon on the beach. It wasn't warm enough to be in shorts, but the sand and the water were still relaxing. It was strange but incredible to be able to turn around and see snow covered mountains while standing in the sea.

Exhausted but refreshed from our beach time, we took the train back to Florence right before dinner.

Venice!

For the last weekend of my family's visit, we traveled to Venice. It worked out well since my program was also traveling there that weekend, so I was able to spend the last half of the weekend with them. Venice is a beautiful city, and is probably my favorite city in Italy so far, apart from Florence.

The day I arrived with my family via train, we checked into our hotel right near the Grand Canal, and met a driver who was taking us on a day trip to Vicenza, a town in northern Italy about an hour from Venice. A collector of WWII memorabilia found parts of my grandfather's P-38 engine from years ago when he crashed in the mountains, and it is housed in a small museum in the city. This was the reason we were taking a trip to this area. Unfortunately, we were only able to get in touch with this man about an hour before reaching Venice, and he was out of town. Additionally, the museum was in the process of being moved. We were a bit bummed to not be able to see the display, but Vicenza turned out to be a fun city to visit anyway. We took a tour of the small town, which is historically known for it's gold and other jewelry. It is also home to palladian architecture, and we learned from our guide that Thomas Jefferson modeled his estate after some of the works in this area that were written about in Palladio's book.

The next day, we took our time getting up and then walked around the city after breakfast to see the famous Bridge of Sighs and take a gondola ride. The gondola ride took us through the narrow water-streets of Venice as well as through the Grand Canal, and pointed out significant churches and the home of Marco Polo. It was beautiful, peaceful, and one of my favorite activities in Venice! Following the gondola ride, we stopped for lunch at Harry's Bar, which is the home of the original Bellini, and was also a favorite of Ernest Hemingway's. The meal was incredible, even down to the bread. The Bellini's were amazing too! Now we can say we've had the original.

That evening, after a very nice dinner at a restaurant frequented by locals, my family dropped me off at my hotel to meet the program. They left early the next morning, and it was sad to say goodbye! However, spending Sunday with my friends in Venice was fun, and it was a beautiful day. We took another gondola ride, shopped, and got wraps on the side of the road for lunch before heading home on a bus. I already miss the water in Venice! If only ever taxi and bus were a boat.

Vicenza

Old theater in Vicenza

A class Palladian villa

Gondola ride!

Bellinis at Harry's Bar

Roma

It's been a over a month since I've had a spare minute to write a post, but that's only because my days have been packed with more great experiences and visits from even better people! In the past month, I've taken two weekend visits to Rome, one to Venice, and a day trip to Viareggio for Carnevale! I will write about Venice and Viareggio shortly, but here I'll do my best to combine both my Rome experiences into one explanation.

The first weekend I went to Rome was a trip planned through my program. We stayed in a very basic and inexpensive hotel on the very edge of the city, and had to take the metro to get anywhere close to the center. We had many planned tours of the city, churches, the Vatican, the pantheon, and the colosseum. It was incredible to see such renowned works and ruins, and it seemed surreal to be standing where such ancient stories took place. On Sunday, we were able to attend mass at the Vatican in front of St. Peter's Basilica. Because he had just chosen the new Cardinals, it was a special occasion and mass in the church was open to the public. Because of the long lines and pre-arranged tickets, we didn't make it inside, but we sat outside in folding chairs watching it on a large screen. The service was all in Italian, but certain verses or readings were read in other languages once in a while, which was a very nice touch. After mass, we were also able to see the blessing of the Pope from his office window. It was fun to pick up the bits and pieces of the blessing I was able to understand. He made a point of blessing all study abroad students, which definitely stood out to me.



One of my favorite spots that we went for dinner was called Tony's. It is well known among all study abroad students, and is a friendly atmosphere with good, reasonably priced food. The owner, Tony, with very friendly and is known to bring large groups free wine, appetizers, and dessert. Another one of the highlights was finding a Sushi restaurant! After 2 months of eating Italian food, I had been craving sushi. For 15 euros, we found an "all you can eat" deal, and it was so great. Mediocre sushi never tasted so good!

I came back to Rome two weekends later with my family and my boyfriend, Keenan. Keenan was only there for a day after visiting Florence for a week, but it still fun to show him another city before he left the country. Although the tours were a bit redundant, I very much enjoyed my time with my family in Rome. We had some beautiful roof top meals and stayed at a nice hotel, right in the center of Rome by the Pantheon. With my family, I was able to see the Roman forum and the catacombs, which I was unable to get to on my previous visit. My favorite was the forum. The history was incredible, and it was a beautiful day to walk around such ancient roads.

All in all, Rome was a fun city to visit, but felt much more overwhelming and larger than Florence. I'm happy to be living where I am, but the history and Roman experience is definitely worthwhile.