Here in Spain and other predominately Catholic southern European countries in place of the typical spring break, they celebrate what is called Semana Santa (Holy Week). Which is the week of Good Friday and Easter. A group of friends and I decided to spend the week traveling around northern Italia (Italy)for the 10 day break. The route was as follows: Milan (1 night) ---> Lake Como (1 night) ---> Venice (1 night) ---> Florence (3 nights) ---> La Spezia 2 nights) ---> Milan (1 night) ---> Linate Airport in Milan(1night).
I did almost all of my traveling solo, meeting up with the group in the different cities. It made for a great experience though. In a foreign country where you REALLY don't know the language makes you that much more independent and self reliant. And although it is so much fun to travel with a group, it's also fun to be solo at times, because you are free to do as you please and go at your own pace. It also opens you up to meeting so many more people! Just about every day I met someone new.
I arrived in the Milan-Linate Airport at 2100hrs, and so my adventure started. As soon as I exited the airport in search of a taxi, I was approached by a man in a black suit asking if I needed a taxi. Yes, it was indeed as sketchy as it sounds...and yes...my first thought was MAFIA! What?! It's Italy. At any rate, he asked for the address and went over to the kiosk of other men with black suits and name tags that said DRIVER. I watched them argue in Italian for a minute, and then one of the men walked over told me and simply said, "I'm driver. I take you. 25 euro. Outside Milan in [some Italian town name I could not pronounce] flat rate. We go now." Part of was me thinking that this was very sketch, but the other half was thinking that if I said I'll take a different taxi the mafia would come for me. Too many episodes of the Sopranos etc. I suppose. He grabbed my suitcase and we walked to the taxi area. A fleet black Mercedes-Benz taxis. I asked him why didn't these taxis look like the others, and I got the same response, "Flat rate. Special taxi." So I got in, and then asked where the meter was. Same response. Then I asked how long it would take, and he told me 10 - 15 minutes. I decided that if didn't arrive within 20 minutes I would ninja-roll out of the taxi. It didn't come to that. The next morning I discovered that this was indeed a very popular taxi service. The hotel recommended it to us when we were trying to figure out how to get from the hotel to Stazione Centrale (the Central Train Station). We called for the same taxi service, and our driver who spoke a bit of English and Spanish was so kind and answered all of our questions about Italy.
I took the train from Milan to Lago di Como (Lake Como). We stayed in a hostel in Menaggio that had a gorgeous view of the lake. After arriving we took a ferry over to Belaggio (not the hotel in Vegas) and spent the day in this charming little town.
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| My first meal in Italy. YUM! Lasagna. |
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| My first Gelato! Stracciatella and Chocolate. |
The town was gorgeous. We wandered around and people watched. Took a nap in the sun and relaxed. Later we had dinner: Lasagna! And desert: GELATO!!! Stracciatella is my favorite. I had gelato every day I was in Italy. And each day I would try 2 different flavors, but number 3 was always Stracciatella. After food, we walked around more and then took the ferry back to Menaggio. We hung out at the hostel, meeting different people from all over the world. Joanna and I decided to head to bed early, and when we went up to the dorm, we discovered that we were sharing the dorm with a woman and her daughter. Joanna and I were speaking to each other in Spanish so as not to let our skills slip on our trip away from Spain. After Joanna left to go shower, the woman asked me in Spanish where I was from. I told her the U.S. and she asked if I spoke English, when I said yes we switched to English, and she told me that she was from Switzerland. Her and her daughter decide to come to Lake Como for the weekend, since Switzerland is very close. They lived in the southern region where the language is Swiss-German,which sounds much lighter and less harsh than the German language we think of typically. We wound up talking well into the night until everyone fell asleep. The next morning I headed out early to catch the bus back to the Como train station -an hour away by bus. I missed the first of the 2 buses that run on Sundays. The next one didn't come until 11:30 and my train left at 10:17. I went back to the hostel to meet the rest of the girls and told them what happened (they were taking a later train). The Swiss woman piped in and said that they were passing through Como on their way to France to have crepes and that she would take me! Thanks to the traffic, I missed the train, but didn't care at that point, because the conversation I had with Leah and her daughter Elena was wonderful. We talked about everything from racism in the U.S. to the 5 languages that she speaks. It was a gorgeous ride too. That was definitely the highlight of my time in Como.
When we arrived at the train station, we exchanged contact information and I promised her that I would visit Switzerland some day. She promised the same of Texas, and we parted ways.
I caught the next train to Venezia (Venicia in Spanish), and a few hours later I was walking along the banks of the Grand Canal of Venice.
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| Water Ambulance! How cool would it be to work as a Venetian medic?! |
I spent the day wandering through the canals of Venice. It was filled with tourists! The city is very crowed with or without tourists, because it is very compact with narrow streets and canals. It took a water-bus from the train station to the hotel. No gondola rides for me thought -they were extremely expensive! Venice is definitely one the most interesting cities I've visited, but I wouldn't want to live there. There simply aren't enough open spaces. After spending the day in the maze of Venice, I hit the sack early to get a quick start on the journey to Florence.
I traveled between the cities via train. High speed trains are so cool! I could never stay awake on them though. The ride was so relaxing that I always fell asleep -especially if I was sitting in the backward facing seats.
Firenze(Florencia in Spanish)was my favorite city. The bed and breakfast I stayed in was fantastic! Sicilian pastries for breakfast, yum! The first day I visited the Duomo and Bell tower. I had learned about the Duomo of Firenze in my art history class, and to see it brought everything together. I took a tour of the interior in Spanish because the couple I was with didn't speak English. It was very interesting, all the details of the interior.
Fun fact about the bread in Florence. It lacks a very important ingredient: SALT! In the war between Florence and Pisa, Pisa blocked Florence's river access and left them salt-less for a long period of time. Although Florence, of course, has salt, they stuck with the salt-less bread tradition. I was not a fan. Bread needs salt.
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| The duomo designed by Brunelleschi. |
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| Just before this a pigeon left a "present" on my shoulder...... |
Later in the day, I met up with my friends and we walked around and had dinner. The next day we took a tour of Tuscany that took us through Siena, San Gimignano, and Pisa. We saw the duomo of Siena, had lunch and wine tasting at a vineyard just outside of San Gimignano, and gawked at the leaning tower on Pisa.
SIENA
The Vineyard of San Gimignano
I had the best olive oil of my life here! We also tasted DOCG Chianti wine, and learned the proper wine tasting technique and analysis as well as some of the history of the vineyard and the types of wine and olive oil they produce.
SAN GIMIGNANO
YES, the Leaning Tower is Leaning....
It's actually funny, the tower isn't leaning, because it was poorly constructed. The ground on which it is built is very marshy and soft. In fact, the guide told us that the church and baptistery are leaning as well. It's almost impossible to tell, because they aren't as tall as the tower of Pisa. I was shocked to see the multitude of annoying vendors who yell at you in any language they think you speak to get you to buy counterfeit goods. That was rather annoying, but seeing the tower was still really cool. If you give them a stank look they'll leave you alone.
Here are a few more pictures from Florence. Ponte Veccio is the famous bridge that was the only one to survive the bombings of World War II. It's filled with high-end jewelry shops.
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| The view of other bridges from Ponte Veccio |
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| Precious!!! |
The next day in Florence I went to the Uffizi Art Museum where I saw Botticelli's Primavera and Birth of Venus. My favorites! Along with the replica statue of Laocoon and sons. The original is in the Vatican. The highlight of the day was seeing The Statue of David at L'Accademia Art Museum. I got a bit emotional. David is my favorite statue of all time, and to see it was absolutely amazing. I knew it was huge, but I didn't know it was THAT huge!
Afterwords I went to dinner with my friend Casey (who I met 5 years ago at a summer program at UW-Wisconsin) and some other friends from their university who I met when they came to visit Madrid. It was crazy that after not seeing each other for 5 years that would have a mini-reunion in Europe...TWICE!
The next day, before I left Florence for La Spezia/Cinque Terre Casey took me to the villa where they studied for the semester. They lived IN A VILLA for 4 months.
Next stop was La Spezia on the northwestern coast of Italy. I spent the day there and had dinner solo - my friends were staying in the next town over. The next morning we met up and took a bus to Lerici which was the town that Lauren's grandfather had immigrated to Chile from. It was a small town in the Golfo di Poeti (Bay of Poets).
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| I decided to take a break from Gelatoooo! Yum popsicle! |
We spent the day in Lerici, and had lunch on the dock. Pesto, cheese, bread, wine, and salami. At sunset we headed back to our respective lodgings and met up again the next morning to hike the Cinque Terre (Pronounced: Ch-eenk-way Teh-rr-eh)
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| I love old people! So I creep on them and take pictures. |
There are 5 cities only accessible by train, ferry, or hiking. We started at the fifth and hiked to the fourth. This was my only hike. It took two and half hours, and I being the most clumsy thing on two legs, I praised God that I made it to the next one. Needless to say, I took the train to the other 5! And enjoyed the views from the windows of the train.
Later that day I took the train back to Milan and spent a day and night there exploring the city. I wasn't a fan of Milan, it's basically only good for shopping. The city gave me quite creepy vibes, but the duomo at the center was gorgeous. I spent the night in the Linate Airport solo. I wouldn't advise that. It was sooooooo sketch, but at least there were other Spanish people there too doing the same thing. My flight left at 0700 so there was no point in staying in a hostel only to leave so early.
I was quite relieved to be back in Madrid. I missed my city! Ironically the only time I felt homesick during my time here in Europe was when I was in Italy, and I was homesick for Madrid!
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I have 12 days left in Madrid. Time for final exams, final adventures, and not-so-final goodbyes. I WILL be back. This is my third to last entry. I will post one more the night before I leave about my last days here in my city and then one when I get home about the transition back and final thoughts about my experience here. I hope I haven't bored y'all and that you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing this.
Ciao and hasta luegoooo,
Asha!
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