After two weeks of traveling Eurafrica, I finally made it back to Paris at 8 p.m. this evening. I was supposed to leave at noon and be home by three, but there was a five hour flight delay out of Italy and I spent many many hours in the Bologna airport with lots of Italians and my European Union notes. Aside from a not-so-fun ending, Italy was amazing.
BB and I arrived in Venice at 5 last Thursday, completely exhausted from Morocco and ready to do nothing but pass out. Except we had arrived in Venice, one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to. We took a taxi from the airport, which then dropped us at the water to get on a water taxi. Turns out all the Venetians get around using water taxis or their own boats...a very cool way of transportation. We were starving when we got there, and immediately sought out pizza. Upon arriving at the restaurant, BB and I realized it was the first time this semester that we had traveled to a place where we couldn't speak the language at all and had no one with us who did. Luckily for us, Venice is very touristy and most people (at least waiters and shopkeepers) speak English. It was a sad feeling though not knowing how to say the simplest phrases like please and good evening to the people we met. We vowed to start learning Italian as soon as we met Adam and Kevin.
After spending Thursday night in an enormous dorm-style hostel with a million French teenagers (we ran into tons of French school groups) and getting very little sleep, we set off to discover Venice. We didn’t prepare for this trip, but a quick Google search the night gave us a basic idea of what to look for. We desperately wanted to take a gondola ride, but the 100 euro cost was slightly more than we were willing to spare. We went to St. Mark’s cathedral, possibly the most beautiful church I have seen, went to the top of the tower and had an amazing view of the entire city and the big square, saw an exhibit of ancient string instruments and walked through an old painting school. And we walked and walked and walked over lots of picturesque bridges. There’s not a ton to do there, but you could walk forever through the cute streets and canals. It’s a really neat city, because one minute you’re in a lively, touristy square and then two streets later you’re alone standing under a family’s laundry. The ability to get away from the crowds was wonderful. For lunch, we had our first Italian pasta, which was delicious even though the waiter was super-snooty. After lunch we souvenir-shopped and gawked at the beautiful, colorful glasswork until we hopped on a train to Ferrara.
We stayed in Ferrara for three nights with Adam and Kevin, friends from Midd. Ferrara is a small city between Venice and Florence that has more bicycles than people (I think the ratio is about 170.000 bikes to 130.000 people) and an ancient wall enclosing the whole city. It was super cute but very small. I spent two nights and one full day there, and I pretty much did the city. It was great to spend time with friends and live in someone’s home instead of hotel/hostel-jumping. Adam and Kevin have a cute little apartment and our first night they made us pasta with pesto. We also got to experience Nutella Americans-in-Italy style, meaning in excess and in all its glory. The Middkids in Ferrara once went through a 3 kilo (6.6 pound) jar of Nutella in 8 days. Very impressive. They’ve chilled out a bit since then, but we still enjoyed tons of Nutella and Italian cookies and gelato. Very tasty gelato. They invented the Nutella smore, which consists of two cookies, a glob of gelato and a glob of Nutella. Delicious.
Saturday morning we got up and headed to Florence, a treat for me since I thought it was too far to do in one day. The train ride down through Tuscany was incredible, and it allowed me to envision my life if it happened like Under the Tuscan Sun. Dreams. First thing in Florence we found a really cute restaurant and I ate the Italian version of mac and cheese, which definitely tops Kraft. We walked through the Duomo and then decided to forgo the two-hour line to see the David. We did however see the exact replica outside the building, which was quite satisfying. Afterwards, Adam had a “surprise” for us, which consisted of hiking up a massive hill. The sweaty trek in the sun up the cobblestones was totally worth it however, since we looked out over the entire city and all of Tuscany from the top. I took a million pictures, none of which do Tuscany justice, but the view from the hill was by far the coolest thing about Florence. By the time we trekked up and down we were hot and sweaty and exhausted and decided to call it a day in Florence (Adam’s been there a million times and BB & I were still wiped out from Morocco). I’m really glad I got to see the city, and I think I will definitely need to come back to Italy.
I know I totally skipped over writing about Morocco, but I wanted to write about Italy while it’s fresh in my mind, and I promise I’m going to spend this week backlogging about Morocco, since I have lots of amazing stories. I also have over three hundred pictures, plus all the ones I’m planning on stealing from my friends, and I’m working on posting those. By the end of the week, for sure.
Overall, absolutely amazing spring break. I got tan, spoke Spanish, fell in the love with Africa, ate pasta in Italy, and hung out with awesome LC and Midd friends. Best spring break yet.
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