Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Carnivale in Venice!



Last weekend Christina, Jessie, Molly, Lauren and I went to Venice and it was so awesome! Jessie decided to fly because she found a cheap flight and so she arrived a few hours before the rest of us. We took the train which is a 4:30 hour ride but it really doesn't feel that long. For some reason airplanes seem to take forever, but not the trains. I think it's because the seating is set up differently and you can see the countryside through the windows, it's beautiful. Right as we walked out of the train station, we walked into Carnivale. We saw the canal, boats, face painters, musicians and tons of people. People were dressed in the most amazing costumes and masks. Some had really elaborate renaissance era costumes and they just walked around and pose so we could take pictures of them.



Other people were dressed up in funny outfits, we saw teletubbies, clowns, school supplies and little kids dressed up, they were so cute! We got a little lost trying to find our studio apartment that we rented for the weekend, luckly we found Jessie and she took us there. For some reason none of us could open the door, we all tried a million times and even asked our neighbor. We finally had to call the lady we rented the place from so she could come back and open it. She had to grease the door, I guess it sticks? It was weird... Molly and Jessie hung back to nap while the rest of us went exploring. One of the best part about Venice is that there are no cars! Walking around in Italy, you always have to watch out for cars, they tend to not stop...We wandered around, took pictures of everything and bought masks! Later in the evening we met up with the other girls and headed to St. Marc's Square to see the drag queen competition. It was pretty entertaining but once the sun went down it got really cold so we headed home.

Saturday we took the ferry to the glass blowing island of Murano. The ferry ride was pretty short but I really enjoyed it, you know how much I love boats! Unfortunately the glass blowing factories were closed so we couldn't see any being made, but we still had a really nice time strolling along the canal and going into all the shops. They also had really cool glass sculptures around the island.



When we got back to the main island of Venice, we all got our faces painted! It was so fun to feel like a little kid again at a carnival lol.



I had been trying to get in touch with my friend Kendall from SD who was in Venice the same weekend, but we were having phone issues. I only ended up seeing her for about 5 seconds when she was in line to go into the Basillica. I was bummed I didn't get to spend more time with her, but a quick hug and a hello was better than nothing! The girls and I had a delicious dinner together and went looking for a bar/club to hang out in. Venice doesn't have much of a nightlife, even during Carnivale so we headed home and had our own dance party in our room haha.

Sunday we packed up and did some more sightseeing. We went to the Jewish Ghetto and it was so nice to be away from the crowds and just enjoy a walk. After lunch and more wandering it was time to head to the train station. There was bumper to bumper traffic of people along the main streets, which you have to take to the train station.



It was a little stressful and annoying trying to navigate through all those people with our stuff, but we managed and got to the station just in time. I unfortunately didn't have a seat on the train, although I had a ticket. So basically how that works is I just hope that someone doesn't show up so I can take the empty seat. I wasn't so lucky and I had to sit on the floor the whole ride, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore"

This week hasn't been too eventful, just an average week in Rome. We've been having some interesting weather though, a lot of rain and thunderstorms. It even hailed one day even though the sun was out, weird. It's been raining so much that the Tiber river is getting really high and might flood again if this keeps up. This weekend was a much needed break of the rain and we had some sunny days but it's REALLY cold and windy; no fun for walking.

Last night a bunch of us went out and ended up walking all over the heart of Rome. Our original plan was to go on an organized pub crawl that started at the Colosseum but we were running late so we ditched that and went to Campo de Fiori for apertivo and drinks. We decided we needed to go to a club and dance so after getting a little lost and changing our plans a bit, we ended up at Gilda's, a discotecha! I had a good time but I would have had more fun if we didn't do so much wandering a before; cobblestone streets+heals=no bueno. They played really fun hip hop and techno music and there were so many JCU students there it was ridiculous. We met some interesting Italians that were really excited that we were American haha.

Today is Valentine's day! Me and some of the girls went to see Sleeping Beauty the ballet at this gorgeous Opera house in Rome. We had box seats, one just for us to sit in and we felt so classy. After the ballet we went to dinner and I decided to order something besides pasta; I got the steak and potatoes. It was a nice change, even though they gave me french fries instead of roasted potatoes (I think they did it because we're Americans lol) and even better was the chocolate cake and tiramisu for dessert!


At the ballet

I think I'm getting sick again, booo so I am being responsible and staying in to rest up. I don't want to be sick next week in Venice for Carnivale!!!! I'm so excited!!

p.s. I have yet to be serenaded "That's Amore" by an Italian, I'm workin on it hahaha

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Things I love about Italy (in no particular order)

1. The tram in Rome- It takes me close to campus and various bars, there is almost always some musical entertainment and you can get away with riding without paying, although I'm bound to get a ticket sometime...oh well I like to live on the edge haha

2. Cappuccino's- They're waayyy better than home and cheaper

3. Gelato- Same as above.

4. Wine- The same price as water and socially expected to be drank at every meal.

5. The pubs/bars when they play throwback American music- they love our old school pop/rock. My favorite pub would definitely be Scholar's, always a good time.

6. The cheese ball Italian music video's, especially Italian Zac Efron and the high school musical song remake.

7. My favorite Italian word "Cinque" (pronounced cheen-kway) which means 5, It just sounds cool!

8. Copious amounts of Pasta and Pizza- 2 of my all time favorite foods.

9. Eurostar- They are way more comfortable and easier than flying (although way more time consuming if you're leaving Italy).

10. Going to the market- it's always an adventure finding new foods to try out seeing as all the labels are in Italian, and the funny guy that always rings up our food is awesome, he's so nice (and trust me customer service is not common in Italy).

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Florence and Pisa

This weekend my roomie Christina and I went to Florence to stay with my Aunt Therese and Uncle Gabriele. The train ride was only about an hour and a half and was actually really nice. When we arrived we all had lunch and then did some sightseeing. A bunch of other people from our study abroad program came to Florence this weekend also and we kept running into them. Florence is so cute and small, all the main sights are only a few minutes from each other. It is much easier to take a stroll in Florence then Rome because there are less cars, and more areas that cars can't drive. The city doesn't feel as old as Rome though, you don't run into ancient ruins, which is one of the things that amazes me most about Rome. It was very cold and windy the first day so walking around wasn't the greatest.



On Saturday Christina and I went to Pisa, which is about an hour away on the slower trains. Some of the guys that live in our building met up with us and ended up being on our same train! Pisa is very small, you don't even need a whole day to see the main sights. The weather couldn't have been better for January, it was cool but the sky was so blue and there were no clouds (which makes for amazing pictures!) We had a lot of fun playing tourist and taking pictures holding up and knocking over the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We went back to Florence that evening to have dinner with Therese and Gabriele and to relax.

Sunday morning we had some sightseeing left to do, we went to the Uffizi where some of the most famous Renaissance art is displayed and the Duomo (a cathedral). Overall it was a great weekend, it was really nice to have home cooked meals and to be with family (even though this was really my first time to get to know them). I really liked Florence, I definitely need to go back and see other parts of Tuscany, but I think I would prefer to live in Rome. There is still so much to do and explore and I've been here over 3 weeks! I like living in a big city because there is always something exciting going on but there are also quieter areas to get away from it all.