a week in italia

I realize I haven’t written in a long long time. This semester has sped up and my days are full of classes, homework, meetings, tapas and travel. I am enjoying learning and living here, dreading leaving and trying to enjoy every minute. I figure I should update on my last trip because it was a bigger deal. Since I last updated I have been to the pueblos blancos, Madrid, Portugal, Toledo, Gibraltar and all around Seville and the area. We had a week off for travels this past week though and 4 friends and me took off to Italy with a backpack and Eurail pass…

I arrived home in Spain this morning (Sunday) around 10Am. Last night there was a strike in Italy for train employees…they either did not inform us or informed us in Italian which means we didn’t really understand. Ha. This kind of screwed up our plans to get home… not that we made very good/concrete plans at all. BUT our plan to sleep in the airport was changed to traveling all-night, waiting for trains and connecting a million times between trains/busses/taxis/walking/planes. But I am glad to be back to shower and rest. When I walked in the door my Senora Isabel just laughed. Ha. I guess I looked pretty bad… she quickly went to work with all her medicine for my cough and cold (a week in rainy Italy with cold and wet feet will do that to me). She shoved pills and tea in my face and let me devour food from the fridge as we caught up. The other girls I live with were a mess too. So funny. Anyway.. how was Italy…

AMAIZNG. I have been waiting forever for this week… waiting to throw a backpack on with a few essential items and run around Europe. It was what I expected and better minus Italian November weather. We started in Rome and did the touristy stuff… Coliseum, Pantheon, Roman Ruins, Trevi Fountain, Vatican/Sistine Chapel, GELATO, food, walking, etc. I liked Rome, I liked seeing all the sights but I was a little sad about not knowing the language and I don’t feel like the city had a lot of character outside the tourism stuff. The culture was not very thick and I was ready for Venice.. our next city. We took a night train after 2 and a half days in Rome… the night train got us to Venice at 5:15AM though… uhhh…bad planning. We slept in a rainy/cold train station for a couple hours waiting for Venice to wake up. The boys kept guard/kept us warm by blocking the wind and cold and Chenoa and I slept on our backpacks. We were homeless. We didn’t have a hostel in Venice cause we were just there for the day to save money. I appreciate this experience completely. At the time I was practically screaming how I hated Italy but after the rain slowed down to a drizzle and I had some Italian espresso I was happy. More then happy. Venice is amazing. Most beautiful place. We walked around all day and ate A LOT. Italian food is at the top of its game in Venice. Gelato/pizza/pasta/PASTRY. So good. I was glad there were no museums to see and fully enjoyed people watching and walking around seeing the city. The city was fully flooded for the first half of the day and it was amazing…the put up all these ramps through the streets to talk above the water and all the locals had on high rain boots wading through the water. We were soaked but it was fun. That night we caught another train to Florence…in good moods from our beautiful day in Venice (the sun came out eventually) and ready to see Michelangelo’s David and the city were Renaissance was born. Our two days in Florence was filled with sightseeing/shopping/eating and walking. We had some good chill time and enjoyed the best gelato in Italy. The guys tried to get into a soccer game and Chenoa and I went out to find some real authentic Italian food. We found the cutest little restaurant and filled up on homemade pasta and pesto and bread, cheese. Florence was great, Tuscany is beautiful and we loved the local markets and people there. From Florence our next site was Cinque Terre… 5 towns on the Mediterranean Coast. These little towns are precious, on cliffs overlooking the blue water. They are all colorful and stacked on the mountainside (see pics) and the people are great. In the train station arriving in Cinque Terre I realized the Italians are not just super forceful and strong personalities but sooo kind and genuine. First of all, we had an old man helping us the whole way from Florence to CT with our connections and trains. He was sooo sweet. The Spanish/Italian languages translate pretty well too. :- ) When we got to CT it was late and we didn’t not realize ahead of time that booking a taxi was necessary. There was no one around in this small town except a bar worker who laughed at us and tried to help with our phone call to the taxi driver who told us he was sleeping.. haha. Finally an old Italian couple and a young guy offered to drive us all the way to our apartment… for no reason other then we looked pretty desperate. Great people. We spent the next 2 days hiking around the towns.. There is a trail that runs through all five of them and trains to get back and forth. It was gorgeous landscape and sights and we fully appreciated the small town feel of the villages.

The trip was perfect… I was a little sick but besides that I am so grateful for every experience… from sleeping in train stations to eating 4 servings of gelato a day I am satisfied with the taste of Italy I have from this week. I hope to someday return to CT or Venice and have said my goodbyes to Florence and Rome. I am not a big city girl unless I can communicate and enjoy finding the culture in it like I can in Spain. Sorry that the update is brief, so much happened and so many great memories were made but I am tired and have homework before classes tomorrow… check out my pics on facebook!