Venezia, Ti Amo!

This past weekend I made it to Venice, and I don't think my words will do it justice so I will be sure and include lots of pictures! I don't think I knew quite what to expect, but I think it was almost better having few expectations because I really enjoyed traveling to what felt like another Italy.

Well, I was totally sold on the city since the first thing I did after a short 2hour train ride was take a water taxi/vaporretto along the Grand Canal to my hotel. I made sure to take the slower boat that took more stops so that I could really get more of a feel of the city. I felt like a crazy person taking as many pictures as I did, but so many people around me were just as shutter happy as I was. Here are some of my first glimpses of Venice:

















It truly is a city of elegant decay!

One expectation I did have upon arriving in Venice was that I must accept that I would get lost, but after getting off at Accademia stop to cross over into the Dorsoduro district, I really didn't have much trouble finding my hotel. My hotel was great! It was an old 16th century building with lots of staircases, and windows looking out over the water.





Shortly after dropping my stuff off, I decided to walk around and make it to some of the major sites. I had my map all ready in case I got lost, but to tell you the truth I didn't end up using it at all. My new friend Rick Steves, said that it is sometimes better just to follow the signs for the major landmarks to orient yourself instead of worrying about all the particular street names.it seemed to work really well for me!









I first went to San Marco's Plaza where there were several large cafes with competing bands playing all the Italian classics.



There were people feeding pigeons, and tons of street sellers offering you purses, gondola attire, masks, scarves, and other souvenirs. While I found this city to be extremely touristy (where I heard more English spoken than anywhere else I've been in Italy), I still found Venice wonderful, and especially at night almost magical! I went inside the St. Mark's Basilica, where I saw more Byzantine mosaics then I have ever seen in my life (the first time I saw mosaics like this were in the Haggia Sofia, but there were only two large ones uncovered). The entire ceiling was covered with mosaics, and I can only show you what the outside ones looked like because we couldn't take pictures inside.











For the rest of the evening, I went exploring and window shopping at all the little shops near the Rialto Bridge before finally grabbing some food to eat and taking it to enjoy by the water just as the sun was setting. And I thought I liked Venice in the daytime...

















Venice felt very safe to me, and even at night as I was walking around there were the sounds of many people chatting, the waves slowly coming in, and the boats going past. There is nothing like a city where your only options of transportation are either by water taxi, boat, on foot, or on a gondola (I heard many gondola "drivers" singing as they took people around haha).

The next morning, I awoke again to the sounds of the water rolling in, and opened my window to discover the beautiful sun already out! Here are some views from my window.











After having breakfast in the hotel, I went to the Gallerie dell'Accademia. When I got my ticket, I asked the lady if they had any student discounts for art students (since I still have my student ID), and she told me that they aren't really supposed to do that unless you are a student in the EU, but that if I didn't say anything that she would let me in for half off! Sweet! The museum was nice (obviously not as amazing as the Uffizzi...that would be hard to beat), but it brought me back to thoughts I had when I first started my art history courses about how many different ways artists interpreted what the Baby Jesus should look like. Let's look at a few shall we...some of them are just plain strange to me:























Which one do you think looks most like the Baby Jesus?

After the museum, I wandered and then decided to take the boat over to the island of Murano, where they make the famous Venetian glass. The boat ride was a good 45 mins. with all the stops, but well worth it! When you get on the island, you can watch a glass blowing demonstration, which I think is just so amazing.











Then you can explore the many shops with more of the Mirano glass. Upon returning from the island, I took the boat back to the train station to head back to Florence!

What a fantastic weekend! I got many gifts for people back home:) I think everyone should go to Venice at least once in their lives!

Well, only two more weeks in Italy and I plan on some day trips to Reggio Emilia, Cinque Terre, Lucca, Siena, and then a few days at the end of my adventure in Rome!

Ciao,
Rachel

Milano e Ertugrul :)

Let the excursions outside of Florence begin (although I think I will consider Florence now as my second home)!

For the past two days I went to Milan because my dear friend Ertugrul was there for a training. How this even came about was kind of a funny story. I met Ertu back in 2005, during my senior year of high school when I went to Istanbul, Turkey to visit my sister.








We ended up staying at his apartment for the few weeks that I was there, and we seemed to get along almost instantly! Since then, I have been keeping in contact with him via facebook, but I hadn't seen him since then...until now! I randomly messaged him, as sort of a joke about a month ago, letting him know that I was at least going to be a little closer to Turkey, and would be in Italy for a month. I was then surprised to find out in his message back that he, too coincidentally was going to be in Italy for a training during one of the weeks I was there. This started a long email exchange back and forth that basically led to my great trip to Milan!

I decided to make the trip to visit him on Wednesday, and this marked another first...I got to figure out the Italian train station! I luckily had scouted out where the station was after visiting the Santa Maria Novella church last weekend, since the station is right across the street. I then got my ticket, and watched about 10 different people validate their tickets before I figured it out and felt like I could act like I knew what I was doing. The trains to Milan are big and really nice, but I was at first worried because they showed the train as going to Bologna, but the train conductor assured me that that was only the first stop. I was further reassured when I got on the train, and it showed all the stops including the one for Milano Centrale. The train ride was a nice 2hour journey where we passed by many farms and beautiful views of the Italian countryside.








It is amazing when you catch your first glimpse of Milan, however, because it moves drastically from countryside to skyscrapers and other tall buildings. I could already tell that this city was going to be different than Florence. It has a very big city feel compared to Florence, which while still large in size feels more like a small town.

Ertu and I had made plans to meet in the center of the city by the Duomo of Milano. Here are some of my first glimpses of the city (you can probably see how different it was from Florence):

















As I walked to the Duomo, I was intimidated by all the tall buildings even though I knew from the guidebooks that it is a large banking city, as well as, being the fashion capital of Italy (obvious from the amount of women I saw wearing leather pants and 3inch heels)! I loved all the parks I came across, though because they seemed like little hidden treasures that I would just come across after walking by so many tall buildings.








Upon arriving at the center, I was greeted by the extremely Gothic structure that of the Duomo of Milano (I found out later that this is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world)!








Milan's center seemed to have many more people fascinated by the pigeons, with numerous venders going around selling feed for the birds. I did not join in this activity, but instead watched from the outside. People had pigeons flying everywhere, and climbing all over their bodies from their heads to their shoulders (to be honest I was scared that one of those pigeons was going to fly by and poop on me, but I was lucky).

As our meeting time approached, I found myself thinking "what if I don't recognize him?" which was silly because Ertu has a very distinguishable look with his crazy curly hair and sure enough we spotted one another immediately! It was so fun to meet up with him after almost 6 years! Since we were both hungry, we decided to grab dinner in the spectacular Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.








If you have never been, it is this covered double archway opening up into this octagon, which was fully decked out like most of Italy still is in green, white, and red left over from the 150 year birthday celebration of Italy.








This was an especially fun place to eat because as it starts to get later in the evening the lights make you feel like you are dining in a palace.

















I had the amazing vegetarian ravioli, while Ertu had the lasagna and we split the risotto Milanese, which was supposed to be one of the dishes Milan is known for. It was really good! We had a lot to catch up on, not realizing how much had happened over the past 6years. We talked about our lives since then since I was only 17 when we met, and he was only 21. After eating our delicious dinner, and sipping our espressos (as our dessert), we decided to take a night walk, where we stumbled on Milan's castle, and another park...which was much creeper at night, needless to say we only stayed there for 10minutes before catching the train to go to the golf resort (haha) where he was staying. We talked until pretty early in the morning, coming up with more Ertu and Rachel jokes that I'm sure we would only find funny so I will spare you the curtesy laugh.


















The next day, Ertu went in for his training, and I hung out in this huge and stunning park in Milan before taking the train back to Florence. It was a great trip where I got to see another city in Italy, and meet up with a great friend!

Off to Venice tomorrow for the weekend! I wonder what awaits me there?
Ciao,
Rachel

Escursioni e Fuga!

Hiking and escaping is the title of my blog today... Let's begin with the hiking part first:)





I woke up early this morning to hike across the Arno river to climb up to the Piazzale Michelangelo! I first walked for thirty minutes into the center, which I have grown very accustomed to since I've made this walk every day since I got here. Then I started across the bridge over the Arno river to go to the other side of Florence. It was quiet anyways since it was 8:30 am, but this side of Florence is in general a little quieter than it is by the Duomo, which was a nice change of pace. When you first start to make the hike, you are confronted by some extremely steep steps leading to the top of a hill. I began climbing, glad I had had such a great nights sleep the night before! Part way up the steps, I met a new companion, a cat who was basking in the sun!





She decided to then follow me all the way up to the top (with very little effort on her part I might add...), which was fun since we were the only two on the steps together:) We parted ways once I reached the top, and when I turned around I saw this breathtaking view of Florence that made the whole hike worth it!




The guidebooks are not kidding when they tell you that if you make it up the hill, you will see panoramic views of beautiful Florence. Here are a few of the dozens of pictures I took at the top.





















I explored the rest of the area for the rest of the morning/afternoon, including two beautiful churches up on the hill, before heading back down.







Okay, now for the "escaping" part of the day. Today, I switched rooms in the apartment to Marco's old room because I think there are two new roommates who will be arriving soon. It is equally nice with a double bed instead of two twin beds!




After coming back from my hike to switch rooms, I decided that I'd go back out to the center to hear my favorite street band who play everyday in the center, but I did not expect what transpired. So, I made it to the center, and I was just sitting and listening to the group play like many others when this man started playing ball with his dog. The man then threw the ball in my direction where it proceeded to land directly in my lap. The dog then comes running over to me, waiting for me to throw the ball to him, and the man/owner of the dog comes running over saying what sounded like a whole bunch of apologies in Italian. After several seconds of him talking, I tell him that I don't speak italian. He then asks in Italian if I speak English, and I tell him yes. He then starts talking to me in English, and asks where I'm from. I tell him I'm from America, and he looks at me surprised because he said that he assumed from my red hair that I was Irish. Ha! He then insists that I allow him to buy me a cappuccino because of the whole dog incident. I say okay since the place was a few feet away. As we were sipping our coffees outside, he begins telling me his whole life story about how he is originally from Brazil, but has lived in Florence for the past 10 years, and that he owns the mobile scarf cart just around the corner. He then proceeds to tell me about everywhere I should go in Italy, and what I shouldn't miss (which was actually helpful), but as I am getting ready to leave, he tells me about some very Italian/Florentine dinner thing where you basically go on this food/bar crawl in one part of Florence. He asks me if I've ever tried it, and that if I hadn't that WE should go...tonight... I promptly tell him that I already have dinner plans with my roommates, and say a brief goodbye. I am glad I declined his offer(haha) for a couple of reasons 1) I have a great boyfriend back home and 2) while I know I talked about taking risks yesterday...this was not what I was talking about because this was definitely one I wasn't willing to take!

Oh Italia! Already so many adventures:)
Rachel

Chi non risica- Non rosica

Chi non risica, non rosica. Or nothing ventured, nothing gained is partially what this trip has been about. I have realized within the past week of traveling by myself that if I was not willing to take certain risks in my life, I probably would not achieve anything or gain anything from the experience. While I was planning my trip to Italy, there were many people who were shocked to find out that I was going to another country where I didn't speak the language for a month. I totally understand where they were coming from, but it was a risk that I wanted to take, and I can already tell it is paying off!

The past three days have been a whirlwind of good food, meeting new people, and embracing all the art (and there is A LOT of it)! Friday, was a particularly beautiful day here in Florence, where I set out to the Uffizi gallery bright and early.





Since I reserved my ticket in advance (I would suggest doing this if anyone plans on visiting the museum!), I had some time to spare so I decided to play around with my camera, and take pictures of some of the sites by looking at their reflection in the puddles...very fun!











Then I waited in line to enter the museum...to say I was excited would be a gross understatement! I have been wanting to go since I took my first art history class my senior year of high school, and even more so after I took the Artist in the Renaissance class in college.





When I made it in, and walked up the 4 long flights of stairs you must take to even enter the gallery, I was overwhelmed by the amount of pieces! I mean, the first room I walked into had the 3 famous Madonna Enthroned pieces (Cimibue's, Giotto's, and the untitled earlier piece) that are a part of any beginning art history class. Incredible! My overall impressions other than the collection itself being completely overwhelming and the view of the Duomo and Arno river from the museum being spectacular











was that many of the pieces I studied in class were so much larger than I thought! This is why it is important (when you can) to see the actual works in person because the slides and pictures did not begin to do it justice, obviously!

On Saturday, I first woke up to say goodbye to my flatmate, Marco who was returning to her home in Switzerland. When I first met her, I didn't think she spoke much English, and that she only spoke Italian because that was the only way she would communicate with me, but I discovered the next day that she is from the French part of Switzerland, so we were able to communicate in both French and English from then on. I'm sad that she left so soon after I got here because we were starting to become fast friends. My Belgian flatmate Kevin, a friend of Marco's from school, Marco, and myself all were able to share a few bottles of wine though luckily the night before she left (it is interesting Trevor-the other American flatmate- doesn't really interact with anyone else, but stays a good portion of the time in his room? I kind of want to shake him, and be like dude you are in Florence!). Anyway, after Marco left my day was surrounded with food:) I decided to make a trip to the supermercato, which was a fun experience! There were rows upon rows of fresh bread,





two whole sections with JUST pasta,





and a gigantic section for cheese.





This is my kind of country! I picked up a few things then headed to the center where the Saturday market was going on with more venders selling more cheese, wine, and olive oil! There were also the best street musicians I've heard playing in the center, and I recorded them to share with others when I return home. (The violinist was the best!)





Today, Sunday, I decided to attend a mass! I did some research last night on churches to go to in Florence, and this one couple went here so I decided to try it out, as well:





For those of you who don't know, this is the Basillica of Santa Maria Novella, Florence's principal Dominican church. It's famous facade was designed by none other than Alberti! I guess technically tourists are not supposed to attend mass (as it says on a sign before you enter), but I played dumb and followed everyone else into the church. This rule did not seem to be very enforced, however because there were people who came in with suitcases...so I didn't feel that bad about crashing. Actually, I didn't at all because it was incredible! You are not allowed to take pictures of the interior, but it displays paintings and frescoes by famous artists including the classic art history example of Renaissance painting The Holy Trinity by Masaccio. While I had no idea really what was said, especially in what I would guess was the sermon, I followed along sitting and standing with everyone else. It was amazing to be in a church that size, and filled with such amazing artwork!

Well, my friend from Turkey gets into Italy tomorrow, so I'll be planning a trip to Milan this week to visit him:)
Ciao,
Rachel