This blog was supposed to be posted last week (the week of the 28th of September). Sadly, I am terribly behind. But I will be posting both this and my blog about Pomei one right after another so do not fear.
The picture entitled “View from the Top” was taken by my roommate Samantha. I decided I needed an inspirational photograph and I think that one will do very nicely. It was taken in Montecasale.
I must apologize for disregarding my blog these past few days. It has been extremely and excruciatingly busy. Yes, even in Italy, there are hell weeks. To make a long story short and in order to not repeat what all of my friends have written on their blogs, I will paraphrase:
Massive Cleaning of Palazzo/Visit High School/Check Test In Italian: Friday (the 2nd). Trustees, Alumni and President Arrived: Saturday (the 3rd). Grand Opening: Sunday (the 4th). Term Paper Due: Monday (which got moved to Tuesday, thank sweet baby James). Florence With Trustees, Alumni, and President: Tuesday (the 6th). Midterm for Italian and Art History Final Exam: Wednesday (the 7th).
Samantha and I have transported a good southern phrase for all of this: Trespassers will be shot, survivors will be shot again. Fortunately, every single one of the Meredith folks were an absolute joy to be around and we truly had a hard time saying goodbye when they left.
Now I've managed to get all depressing and that's silly. So a new and happier topic: Verona and Venice last weekend (the 25th through the 27th). I promised to write about them and now I am.
To begin, we had the hardest time finding a hotel. We were originally going to stay on Venice but when we found it impossible to find a place to stay I found a very cheap hostel in Verona: 17 euro a night and breakfast was included. Point for me. I have never booked a hotel in my life so needless to say I was exceedingly excited about my find. Unfortunately, said hostel was a good 20 to 30 minute walk from the train station. This is not horrible if you don't plan on using the train a lot but we did. Point to naive travel planner mishaps. Score is now tied.
Chelsea, Jenna, and I left for Verona early Friday morning. We arrived there (after paying 40 euro apiece for the train tickets...ugh) at about noon. We then proceeded to take one of the longest walks known to man in order to get to the hostel. I had packed a duffel bag instead of a backpack because I didn't know if we needed sheets. We didn't. They were provided. Extra weight brought for nothing. Point two goes to planner mishaps. I'm behind. After finally getting to the hotel, we went out to get some much needed food (silly us didn't bring a single crumb...another point to naivete...that makes three). Then we pretty much wandered around Verona. We managed to find a garden which was on of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It was called the Giardino Giusti and even though it was 6 euro to get in, it was completely worth it. The views, the hedge maze, and the general ambiance were to die for. I recommend it with all of my heart to anyone planning on traveling to Verona. We then went back to the hostel for dinner (only 8 euro, point for me. 2-3) Amanda met up with us later that night (after an eventful night in which she went to the wrong hostel, among other things) and we slept quite nicely.
The next day we traveled to Venice. I can't describe Venice. It's a place to experience. I know that many people have a hard time enjoying it because it is filled to the brim with tourists but I can't bring myself to dislike it. It's just a magical place for me. We got to go to the island of Murano, where they make glass and I got quite a few nice gifts. We just generally enjoyed ourselves just wandering around and a going into a bunch of shops. I even got to see some of the glass blowers at work, which is one of my favorite things. I could sit and watch those people for hours. One in particular specialized in making spiders. As creepy as that sounds, his spiders were truly beautiful. They were so delicate looking that you would think breathing on them would make them break. In truth, I’m sure they could last through quite a bit of wear and tear.
Unfortunately, we had an early train out of Verona so we didn’t get to see everything we wanted to but in the end this just means that I have something to come back to. We managed to get back to Sansepolcro in one piece so another point to me. Tied game. Not bad, but practice makes perfection.
martedì 6 ottobre 2009
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