One of many churches in Lucca... I'm fairly certain that there may have been more churches than people at one point in Lucca.
Lucca's claim to fame: birthplace of Giacomo Puccini
Venice during Carnevale.
Calcio!
Tanti genti in Venezia (but a pretty church, no?)
Blizzard at the Colosseum.
Pretending to be happy about the snow outside.
The wolf= the symbol of the birth of Rome. Please note the two little bodies being nursed by the wolf aka Romulus and Remus (Roman mythology anyone??)
Sophia Loren's apartment.... no sign of Sophia Loren though.
So today marks being in Florence for 1 month and things have been totally crazy and I have completely failed at updating regularly. Basically there was some room dramz in my apartment-- we are now over it (i hope!) so things will now start to chill out and I can start to focus on why I am here, etc etc.
Since my last update I've done a bit of traveling- specifically to Lucca, Venice, and Rome. I'm kind of thinking that I will mostly be traveling around Italy and getting to know this place rather than doing the typical study abroad student's escapades across Europe (but that's not to say one way is better than the other!) The way I see it... I'll be saving moneyz while also getting to know this amazing country with a fantastically rich culture and history :)
So to recap:
2nd weekend in Italy we went to Lucca. It was sooo long ago I don't have much to say. It was a cute little Medieval town and the birth place of Giacomo Puccini. We had a tour for about 1.5 hours and then they gave us free time. To be honest, we saw all we wanted to see on the tour so the free time was a bit much. However, I do have to say the churches were pretty amazing. At the Cattedrale di San Martino holds the Volto Santo di Lucca (Holy Face). It's a wooden crucifix that Medieval legend says was built by Nicodemus (the same guy who helped bring Jesus off the cross). Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures but it was AMAZING and I have a postcard with the image of Volto Santo so I'll have to show everyone when we get home. Oh yes and I should mention that I've decided to buy postcards in every city I visit. I'm trying to get ones that I have a specific memory of that place. I'm a dork I know haha.
Then the following weekend was during the room dramz so a few of my roommates were staying on campus while things settled down (I tried that for a night and hated it.... so I spent the weekend at my family's apartment in northern Florence). I'm not sure if I mentioned my dad's cousin (and my 2nd cousins: Paola and Rosemarie) who live in Florence. They're awesome and super hospitable (and plus I get home cooked meals- can't really complain haha). I was able to catch up on school work and I also got to see Paola do some air gun shooting (they offered to let me try but knowing me and my lack of hand-eye coordination I didn't really want to hurt myself or anyone else haha). That Sunday I left Ernestina and Gino's early to meet with 3 of my roommates to head off to Venice for carnevale!
It has now become tradition among my roommates and I to stop by Mcdonald's (there is 1 in the train station and one across the street). I was in need of caffeine and they had a breakfast consisting of chicken mcnuggets and milk shakes. It makes me laugh because it has been YEARS since I've eaten fast food (with the exception of the 30 hour bus drive to and from New Orleans) and yet I have eaten at the Italian mcdonald's like 3 times already haha. I have to say though European mcdonald's are way classier than the American ones. Seriously the mccafe is a pretty swanky/ classy place- they even have dimmed lighting and leather couches haha.
So anyways, onto the adventures in Venice- we got to our train car and found our seats. This Chinese couple who seemed to not understand neither English nor Italian did not realize they were sitting in Joanna and Allie's seats. Then this Italian person told them off,. I should mention that unlike Amtrak where you sit wherever you want, in trenitalia you have assigned seating. And the guy who sold us the tickets put us in the same row but in random seats, but we made it work. Sarah taught me how to play Gin and Rummy and I officially suck at playing cards. So anyways, then this Italian grandma and her 5 year old grandson sat across from us at the stop before Venice San Lucia. They thought we were british which has happened several times already... interesting.
We arrived in Venice and then Allie and I were attacked with shaving cream by an evil 3 year old dressed like an elf the moment we stepped out of the train station. Good times. We then tried to make our way to Piazza San Marco which is where most of the carnevale activities would be taking place, so we just decided to follow the crowd and all of the signs that said "per san marco". There were signs on every corner so we kept thinking we were almost there but no it took probably 45 minutes, especially considering the ridiculous amount of people in venice that weekend. Then by the time we finally got there we were all starving so we then kept walking to find a decently priced place to eat. we ate at this place called "le caffe", it seemed cute since all of the seating was outside. it was pretty overpriced though, and not at all what we expected it to be. the pigeons and the people smoking were out of control. After grabbing some sustenance, we explored Venice a bit and returned to san marco to see all of the costumes.... Jack Sparrow as well as the Smurfs were there. Oh and a giant blow up bottle of Bellini was there. Not sure what that has to do with Carnevale but whatever.
The following Tuesday my sociology of consumerism class had a field trip to the Mukkilatte factory in northern Florence. There were no cows there which was a bummer but we did get free stuff!! The entire presentation was in Italian and the representative who showed us around only understood English so my professor had to translate (and she already speaks with a heavy accent and also very softly so that was fun to try and take notes for my site report). They gave us free smuthies which were interesting, but we now have a mukki latte colorful calendar in our apartment.
Since my last update I've done a bit of traveling- specifically to Lucca, Venice, and Rome. I'm kind of thinking that I will mostly be traveling around Italy and getting to know this place rather than doing the typical study abroad student's escapades across Europe (but that's not to say one way is better than the other!) The way I see it... I'll be saving moneyz while also getting to know this amazing country with a fantastically rich culture and history :)
So to recap:
2nd weekend in Italy we went to Lucca. It was sooo long ago I don't have much to say. It was a cute little Medieval town and the birth place of Giacomo Puccini. We had a tour for about 1.5 hours and then they gave us free time. To be honest, we saw all we wanted to see on the tour so the free time was a bit much. However, I do have to say the churches were pretty amazing. At the Cattedrale di San Martino holds the Volto Santo di Lucca (Holy Face). It's a wooden crucifix that Medieval legend says was built by Nicodemus (the same guy who helped bring Jesus off the cross). Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures but it was AMAZING and I have a postcard with the image of Volto Santo so I'll have to show everyone when we get home. Oh yes and I should mention that I've decided to buy postcards in every city I visit. I'm trying to get ones that I have a specific memory of that place. I'm a dork I know haha.
Then the following weekend was during the room dramz so a few of my roommates were staying on campus while things settled down (I tried that for a night and hated it.... so I spent the weekend at my family's apartment in northern Florence). I'm not sure if I mentioned my dad's cousin (and my 2nd cousins: Paola and Rosemarie) who live in Florence. They're awesome and super hospitable (and plus I get home cooked meals- can't really complain haha). I was able to catch up on school work and I also got to see Paola do some air gun shooting (they offered to let me try but knowing me and my lack of hand-eye coordination I didn't really want to hurt myself or anyone else haha). That Sunday I left Ernestina and Gino's early to meet with 3 of my roommates to head off to Venice for carnevale!
It has now become tradition among my roommates and I to stop by Mcdonald's (there is 1 in the train station and one across the street). I was in need of caffeine and they had a breakfast consisting of chicken mcnuggets and milk shakes. It makes me laugh because it has been YEARS since I've eaten fast food (with the exception of the 30 hour bus drive to and from New Orleans) and yet I have eaten at the Italian mcdonald's like 3 times already haha. I have to say though European mcdonald's are way classier than the American ones. Seriously the mccafe is a pretty swanky/ classy place- they even have dimmed lighting and leather couches haha.
So anyways, onto the adventures in Venice- we got to our train car and found our seats. This Chinese couple who seemed to not understand neither English nor Italian did not realize they were sitting in Joanna and Allie's seats. Then this Italian person told them off,. I should mention that unlike Amtrak where you sit wherever you want, in trenitalia you have assigned seating. And the guy who sold us the tickets put us in the same row but in random seats, but we made it work. Sarah taught me how to play Gin and Rummy and I officially suck at playing cards. So anyways, then this Italian grandma and her 5 year old grandson sat across from us at the stop before Venice San Lucia. They thought we were british which has happened several times already... interesting.
We arrived in Venice and then Allie and I were attacked with shaving cream by an evil 3 year old dressed like an elf the moment we stepped out of the train station. Good times. We then tried to make our way to Piazza San Marco which is where most of the carnevale activities would be taking place, so we just decided to follow the crowd and all of the signs that said "per san marco". There were signs on every corner so we kept thinking we were almost there but no it took probably 45 minutes, especially considering the ridiculous amount of people in venice that weekend. Then by the time we finally got there we were all starving so we then kept walking to find a decently priced place to eat. we ate at this place called "le caffe", it seemed cute since all of the seating was outside. it was pretty overpriced though, and not at all what we expected it to be. the pigeons and the people smoking were out of control. After grabbing some sustenance, we explored Venice a bit and returned to san marco to see all of the costumes.... Jack Sparrow as well as the Smurfs were there. Oh and a giant blow up bottle of Bellini was there. Not sure what that has to do with Carnevale but whatever.
The following Tuesday my sociology of consumerism class had a field trip to the Mukkilatte factory in northern Florence. There were no cows there which was a bummer but we did get free stuff!! The entire presentation was in Italian and the representative who showed us around only understood English so my professor had to translate (and she already speaks with a heavy accent and also very softly so that was fun to try and take notes for my site report). They gave us free smuthies which were interesting, but we now have a mukki latte colorful calendar in our apartment.
Then this past Friday we went to Rome for my Etruscans class.... I was super excited for this considering the last time I was in Rome I was like 3 or 4 and remember nothing about it. When we got off the metro at the Colosseum it was snowing-- definitely fun to look at, not so much to walk around in for the whole day. This was apparently the first time in snowed in almost 25 years, and they shut down the first 2 places we were supposed to visit because they don't know how to deal with snow in Italy because it happens so rarely further south. So we decided to head over to the Trevi fountain, the Pantheon and finally the Villa Giulia museum. I couldn't even appreciate the fact that we were in Rome because it went from snowy slush to rain to sun bck to rain all day so I was wet, cold, and hungry all morning and afternoon- not a good combination. I did get to throw some coins in the Trevi fountain for my grandmother which made me super happy. Then half of our class was staying in Rome for the weekend and the other half (including myself) decided to head to the train station early where the field trip assistant tried to see if she could get earlier tickets back to Florence. That didn't happen so we hung out at the train station for like 3 hours. We then get on our express 6:15 train and 15 minutes into the ride we get stuck in the middle of nowhere. We were there for 85 minutes because again Italians not sure what to do with snow. We finally got back to Florence around 9 and then all Joanna (my roommate who is also in my Etruscans class) and I wanted to do was crash- and we ate mcdonald's for dinner haha, but we went to get gelato with Sarah (which was fun- apparently the gelato place has a student discount- pretty sure the guy made it up or it's new because I've been there before and there was no discount but hey- I'll take a discount when offered).
And that basically takes us up until now... I had a very unproductive and relaxing weekend with Joanna and Sarah. We went to mass in English at the Duomo. It was my first English mass in Italy and I finally felt at home during mass haha. I'm not sure yet what my plans are for this weekend but perhaps a day trip to a nearby city. One of my friends went to Verona last weekend and had a lot of fun so that has now been added to the agenda. I also joined a gym today which I'm really excited about. It was a bit expensive but I figured it's an investment and they have classes there- like Pilates and SPINNING (although it costs extra but whatevs). Anyways, hope everyone is doing well!! I'll try to update sooner rather than later.
Much love,
mtc
