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When in Rome…Florence…and Venice…

December 10th, 2009 ajmcgr11

The word for long weekend in Spanish is “puente” (actually, it means “bridge” but i guess it could make sense if you really analyze it). This word can be used to mean anything from a  three day weekend to  a 5 day mini vacation. Either way, puentes are AWESOME and gratefully welcomed in any culture. The past weekend in Spain fell into the rare “6-day-mini-vacation” category of puente and obviously I took advantage of it by traveling to one of the most popular study abroad destinations in Europe: ITALIA! The richness of history and culture that still exists in this country is unmatched by most others and the plethora of indescribable sites that it contains is truly mind-boggling.

We, Jenny, Liz and I, started our journey last Wednesday, December 3rd, by flying from Palma to Barcelona and then Barcelona to Venice, Italy. Upon arrival in Marco Polo Airport (sweet name) we were directed to take the Vaporetti, or “water bus” to get to our hostel. In case any of you live under rocks, Venice is a city in Northern Italy that was built on a grouping of over 100 tiny islands in a shallow area of water, all connected by over 400 bridges. For this reason, many of the streets in Venice actually aren’t streets–they’re canals. The popular modes of transportation in the city are boat, water taxi or, famously, the gondola. During our stay in Venice, we were lucky enough to experience what’s known as “Acqua Alta” or, “high water” which are periods of low-level floods in accordance with the tides. So as we walked through the streets of Venice and got closer to the shores of the canals and the brinks of the rivers, several inches of water began to flood the streets up. The added rain raised the water-level ever more deeper. Catwalks were set up for the crowds to navigate through the flo0ded streets. It was the weirdest yet most interesting thing I had ever witnessed. Since it was raining on the only day that we were in Venice, we weren’t able to take a ride in a gondola but that didn’t stop us from experiencing all of the other interesting things that Venice had to offer. We toured the Piazza San Marco, St. Mark’s Basilica, il Palazzo Dogo, and we got to see all of the unique Carnaval masks that filled the stores. Venice was one of the most beautiful and unique cities I have ever visited.

After a full day in Venice, the girls and I took a train to Florence to meet up with Nolan and check out what his life was like studying abroad in Italy. Florence is a quaint city that is the perfect setting for Study Abroad. It’s small enough that you can get to know it easily but it’s big enough to have variety. It also has a lot of culture and beauty. On our first full day in Florence, Nolan brought us around to all of the important sites: the Duomo and the Baptistery, the Ponte Vecchio, the Santa Croce Basilica and (just as important) a cool Christmas market. Let me just take the time to say that Italy is not the place to go if you are on a diet or you’re following some sort of strict food regimen. Literally every meal that I ate in Italy, from the cheapest pizzeria to the nicest ristorante, was delicious. If I were to study abroad there, I would return probably 50 pounds heavier. No lie. I was in heaven. Pizza, pasta, gelato, paninis–everything that could keep me happy forever, Italy provided. After a fun night of barhopping and discotecas, we woke up the next day and met Nolan and some of his college friends and went to a soccer match between Florence and Atalanta. Though the teams weren’t the best in the league, we still had an awesome time and Florence ended up winning 2-0! Definitely a good time. After the game, we left Nolan and his friends and booked it to the train station to catch our train to Rome.

The first night in Rome was low-key because we arrived there late. We got dinner in a local restaurant (oh man, what a ridiculous experience…but it was fine…i swear it was fine), used the internet and went to bed so we would be ready for an early morning start at the Vatican. The next morning, we got ready and took a very crowded metro ride to the Vatican where we were greeted with a line that was literally a 4-hour long wait just to enter the Vatican museum. This didn’t sit well with the three of us so we decided to invest 40 euros into a guided tour of the Vatican. What a payoff. Not only did we skip straight to the head of the 4 hour line, but we also got a tour by a ridiculously smart old American man named David. He brought us through the Vatican museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica and we learned a lot of really interesting information about the unbelievable sites we were seeing. The three of us agreed that it was 40 euros well spent. I really can’t describe all of the things that we saw in the Vatican in writing because it really is impossible to do so. You need to go there and witness it for yourself. The Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica are truly jaw-dropping. I’m so glad that I was lucky enough to witness this awesome place.

After our time in the Vatican, we headed out towards the other sites of the city. We walked past the Mausoleum of Hadrian a.k.a. the Castel Sant’Angelo to the Palazzo di Giustizia, crossed a bridge there and walked to the Piazza Navona, a square that was built upon the ruins of the ancient Stadium of Domitian. After walking through the Christmas fair that was being held in the Piazza, we walked to the Pantheon, an ancient pagan temple that was converted to a Catholic church, and ate pizza outside of its steps. From there we walked to the Trevi Fountain, an awesome and immense stone fountain, and ate huge cones of gelato. Next, we saw the Roman Forum, the ruins of the ancient city of Rome and we ended up at the Coloseum just as the sun was setting. The name definitely fits the structure: the thing is HUGE! But what an awesome site to see. As I said before, Rome is huge and there is so much to get to but what’s good is that you can literally spend all day walking and you will see so many different sites. I think my favorite out of them all was either the Coloseum or the Vatican.

After our long day of walking, we took the bus to a district known for its food/bar scene. We ended up getting great food for free in one of the bars and the three of us had a great night chatting about life as we barhopped. We finished the night with a canoli…and then an unnecessary slice of pizza…content with all that we had seen over the long day. The next morning we left Rome early to Frankfurt, Germany, where we waited for our connecting flight to Palma. But we never stopped thinking about the awesome memories we made on our Italian adventure…and of course all of the new inside jokes we had (“just slip it in any way and it’ll pop out, like toast” -thanks David).

So that brings the blog to an end. I’m so excited because all of the Christmas lights are lit up now in Palma. It finally feels like the Christmas season. Can’t wait for my favorite holiday! I’ll post again after Christmas. Here are some pics from Italy for ya in the mean time:

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