Florence-Verona-Venice

We left for Florence early Monday morning on the train. It was a really quick train ride. After we got there we checked into the hotel and got right out there to see the city. Romolo’s lectures were insanely intense and I couldn’t follow half of them. While we were in Florence our safe haven was that we found this amazing outdoor market that I did a lot of shopping at. We ate with Matt and Nathaniel our first night and had pizza. The next day we climbed up to the dome which had an amazing view. I also was able to talk our way into the Lorentian library to see the stairs done by Michangelo. Later that night we walked up to a church on the other side of the river. We were there once it got dark and got to site through a mass sung entirely in Italian by monks. It wad really cool and so weird because it was cold and dark and just really different experience.

On the way to Venice we first stopped at Verona. We went to a museum designed in an old castle by Carlo Scarpa. The art work was boring but all the architecture was really interesting. Then during our lunch break Danielle and I wandered over to the Juliet balcony. After that we got back on the bus and drove some more to a town right at the edge of the Alps. There we visited a cemetery also designed by Scarpa. He was actually buried there too so it was neat to see his grave inside his architecture.

Then we got to Venice which is like another planet. It seemed like some small city Disney had erected! We went to our hotel and then went out to dinner, all 19 of us plus Romolo. We had pizza and drank beer and took Limón cello shots with him afterwards. The next day began a marathon of walking through the lagoon. We went to St. Mark’s square and it was so flooded they had these sidewalks that were elevated about three feet above the real piazza. Later that day when we went back the water was all gone and you could walk right through the piazza. That day we did some shopping and also took a 50 cent commuter ride across the canal on a gondola! That was really fun and something I’m glad I can say I did. Also while we were in Venice, about 20 minutes away from the city center, there was a huge architecture exhibit. We went there two days and saw competition entries from countries all over the world. The coolest thing that we saw was a room with a man made cloud. There was a huge bridge that brought you to the ceiling and back down and through this you could feel the temperature and humidity change as well as see the actual cloud. We then headed to the airport to go back to Rome and then see Brock the next day!!!