Venice and the weekend after (Feb 13)

Ugh there's too much to say about Venice and not enough time to write all of it. I'm gonna try to keep it brief. So there were six of us going to Venice...me, Jenah, Kristina, Trish, Lindsay, and Elaine. We all reserved a hostel several weeks in advance. but when we got there (mind you it was Fri the 13th) it turned out that we reserved for March instead of Feb by accident. Carnivale is the busiest time of the year so all the hostels were completely booked. We all started freaking out and coming up with places we could possibly sleep at...like the train station or the boats. Then the guy, Gustavo, who works at the hostel, was being extremely nice to us, and told us that we could have one room. We agreed even though we knew it would be extremely uncomfortable. We had one big mattress for six people to sleep on. That mattress may have been big enough for three people to comfortably fit, but definitely not 6! So we were all spooning for two nights. We didn't have any space to even shift an arm...but at least it was nice and warm. Btw, Gustavo charged us the full price, 27 euro (which is more expensive than most nice hostels charge). But we were just happy to have something...he could have easily told us to get lost.

Usually me, Jenah, and Elaine would split up from the other three girls because it's too hard to walk around with 6 people. I did more walking in one day than i have ever done. We literally walked from 9 am to 1 am without even returning to our hostel. The first day (Fri) was beautiful because it wasn't carnivale yet, so it wasn't as crowded as the next two days. We were able to walk around and enjoy ourselves without being bothered by thousands of tourists. Jenah and I separated from the other three girls after lunch and we went to the main piazza (San Marco). There we went to the church, which was incredible, but a bit overdone. There was sooo much detail on it...sculptures and gold all over the place, and all the columns were extremely intricate. Then we just walked around and got lost a bunch of times. Jenah is great to travel with. She's very entertaining, funny, and easy going. We met up with the other girls for dinner and had some 5 euro pizza (we each had a whole pie). It was amazing! I dont think authentic Italian food exists in Venice. Everything was way too touristy and overpriced. It took us about an hr just to find that one pizza place that was decently priced. Then Elaine joined us after dinner (she arrived in Venice much later because she took the wrong train twice!). Venice doesnt really have any nightlife as well. We went to a pub in Piazza Margherita but everyone in the piazza was just chillin outside even though it was like 30 degrees outside.




The next day was Carnivale and it was crazy, and touristy, and so much fun. Jenah, Elaine, and I walked around some more. There were thousands of people EVERYWHERE. you could not escape the crowds, even in the tiny little streets. I got some hot vino on the street but it was kind of weird. Jenah got some coffee, and the woman put salt in it by accident, instead of sugar. It tasted soooo nasty. Jenah went back and told the woman, and she didn't believe her until she tried it herself. The theme of Carnivale was 6 senses, so all around Venice they would have an area that focused on one of the senses. The one we were concerned about was Taste of course. However, by the time we made it to that area, all the free food was gone. They were giving out free wine and a bunch of other stuff, but we missed all of it because we arrived literally twenty minutes after it started. I purchased a bag of confetti (that's an italian word btw...i never knew that). We were hanging out in San Marco, drinking wine, taking pictures with people in crazy costumes, and throwing confetti everywhere. After we used up our whole bag of confetti, we just collected a bunch from the ground and reused it. THen at night, there was a crazy dance party outside in one of the smaller piazzas. A lot of people were dressed in costume and they were dancing to techno beats. Obviously we joined them and it was so much fun!




On Sunday, it was even more crowded than Sat, so we just walked around and barely took any pictures. Jenah and I took the local train back, where we had to transfer in Balogna. The train was really packed and Jenah ran in to find seats. She found two, but this old man told her in Italian that they were taken, and she told him that he's not allowed to save seats on the train. So we sat down there anyway. The two people who he was with sat down across from us, and he stood because there were not enough seats. So then Jenah and I felt really guilty and awkward for making an old man stand. After debating for a few min, we finally got up and told him to sit down. From Venice to Balogna we had to stand the whole time (over 2 hrs). At least our conscience was clear. We thought we would be able to take a nap on the train since we got very little sleep that whole weekend, but that didn't happen.

This weekend was kind of blah. I didn't travel anywhere. Friday I had a site visit to Siena with my Masterpieces of Art class. It was ok...we went to a few churches as always and just walked around a bit. Siena is really beautiful, and I'm sure it would have been a great trip if I had friends going with me. I don't really know anyone in that class except for this girl Emily, so it wasn't as fun as it could have been. Then Saturday I just relaxed, Skyped, and went to the painting studio to get some work done. Sunday I wanted to go do some site seeing but my roommates have been sleeping in the whole weekend so I couldn't count on them to go with me. Yesterday, Katelin woke up at like 2:30 pm and today she was still sleeping when I left at almost 1 pm. So I decided to hang out with Emily (not the one who is in my masterpieces class...but she is Jackie's good friend from home). It was the first time we hung out outside of class and we had a really fun time! We went to the Pitti Palace, which is the palace where the Medicis and the Grand Dukes used to live. It had a bunch of really beautiful artwork that they collected over many generations. The palace was huge and each room was crazy decorated with beautiful frescoes and gold sculptures on the ceilings. Emily and I then went to the Boboli Gardens, which are right outside of the palace. They also belonged to the Medicis. The gardens were beautiful but I could only imagine how much nicer they will look in the spring time when everything is blooming. The second we entered, it got gray outside, so that was really disappointing. I'll definitely have to come back next month, especially because it's free to get in. On our way back there was a carnival going on in Piazza Signorina. there were so many people, and confetti everywhere! There were also these performers doing some crazy tribal dances on stage.

Romaaaa

2/12/09 Sorry I haven't updated in such a long time! Last weekend I was in Rome for my painting class/All School Trip. A bunch of my friends went including Casey, Gina, and Elena. Our school trip was only for 2 days, one night, but those girls and I decided to extend for an extra day. So we booked a cheap hostel all together. We took the train to get to Rome at about 7:30 am, and it took about 2 hrs to get there. We had a very tough day on Fri. From the train station, we drove directly to the Vatican museums. We walked around the museums, which were absolutely stunning. I saw works by Rafael, Carravagio, and of course Michelangelo. There was a room filled with Raphael paintings and I was blown away by them. You could really see how his style developed over the years (he died in his late 30s). Our tour guide told us very interesting facts about the works. I didn't know that Raphael pretty much developed the sfumato technique. He was so good that Michelangelo was threatened by him. He was also very well liked..unlike Michelangelo, and a huge womanizer (his death was caused by excessive sex one night and caused him to develop a fever!). The last piece that he painted, The Transfiguration, which was in the Raphael Room, was sooo beautiful and inspiring because of the lighting and the emotional quality. Our tour guide started with the Middle Ages, then to the Renaissance, and then moved onto Carravagio's work. Carravagio's figures look like they could actually be real people unlike Michelangelo's very ideal looking figures. Mary was always portrayed as a young woman even when her son was in his late 30s...but Carravagio used realism and made her look an appropriate age. Carravagio was dirt poor all of his life and constantly used homeless people as his models.
And then of course there was the Sistine Chapel. When we walked in, it took me a few moments to realize that we were actually standing in the Chapel because it was so small! I imagined it to be much bigger. The entire room was packed and so many people were taking pictures, which really made me upset. Our tour guide went through most of the biblical stories on the ceiling. There is a tiny rectangular section on the ceiling which shows a piece of the fresco before it has been restored, and it is almost black. I found it interesting that Michelangelo tried to reconcile the Old Testament with the new one...on one side of the wall there were images from the Old Testament, and on the other wall there were images from New Testament. He did not portray the Jews in a negative way like they were usually portrayed at the time.

Then after the Vatican, we were supposed to go to St Peter's but our painting teacher decided to take 8 of the painting students to a contemporary art museum. I was very pissed that I did not get to see St. Peter's. The art museum turned out to be very un-impressive (compared to the MOMA of course).

We had a very chill night. Me and a few other people had a very nice dinner around the area where the Pantheon was. Then we just went back to our hotel. I stayed with Gina, who also goes to Syracuse..I didn't know who she was before Florence but we became pretty good friends.

The next day we went to the ancient Roman ruins and the Coliseum. One thing that I loved about Rome is you walk around this thriving metropolis and all of a sudden you come across ancient ruins right in the middle of the city where people live in modern buildings. It's just sooo weird and I had no idea that it was like that. The Coliseum was very impressive of course, and I learned a lot about the ancient Romans from our tour guide. Did you know that the Romans had over 100 holidays a year and people would come to the coliseum for entertainment for the whole entire day for these holidays. When there were games going on at the coliseum, the city was completely dead (this was almost every other day...crazy!).

We also saw the arch of Titus, which commemorated the seizure of Jerusalem, expulsion of all the Jews, and the beginning of the Diaspora. We still see the effects of Ancient Rome in the Middle East conflict! We were walking around for several hours and it was raining pretty much the whole time. Then we went to the Pantheon, which is considered to be one of the most perfect architectural structures ever built. The huge dome has a big opening, and since it was raining, all of the rain was falling into the Pantheon. It was incredible! I wish my camera could have captured the rain falling from the dome. After the Roman ruins, we went to the Burguise Gallery where Gina, Casey, Emily and I decided to stay extra to sketch. The gallery had incredible sculptures and other classical Renaissance art.



Then we went to check into our hostel...we had no idea what to expect. We only paid about 12 euro to stay the night. At the hostel we had to split up into two since us 5 could not fit into one room for some reason. I ended up staying with Casey and Gina, and there were 3 random girls in our room. Two of them were from Siberia and came to study architecture in Rome. One of those girls was Korean, but living in Russia. They both spoke Russian and a tiny bit of English. So I was speaking to them in Russian the whole time. They were both asking me why I moved to America. They didn't understand why I would do such a thing, and they are completely in love with Putin.

That night everyone was really tired but I decided to drag everyone out (well not Emily) since this is the only weekend I'm gonna be in Rome and I wanted to experience the night life. We had no idea where to go so we asked the young girl at the front desk of the hostel. Gina and I made sure to tell her that we want to go to a place that doesn't have tourists or Americans...just Italians. So the girl suggested this block that has several really popular clubs and bars (they are supposed to be the best in the city) where young Italians like to hang out. We had to figure out how to take the subway at night which was very exciting. We got off at the stop that we were supposed to but then we didn't know where to go from there. so we followed a random group of young Italians because we just assumed they were going there. And as it turns out we got to the right place after all!

We saw this discoteque that the girl at the desk was talking about so we decided to check it out. Some random Italian guys came and started talking to us in Italian as we were waiting to go in. They wanted us to get them into the discoteque because apparently it's too hard for guys to get in if they don't have any girls with them haha. The club had a 15 euro cover, but that included one drink. It was like 12:30 when we entered and it was still kinda dead on a sat...no one was even dancing yet! Then i remembered someone told me before that Romans only go out at like 1 am, and that's when places really get started. And it was so true! By 1:30ish it got really packed and everyone was dancing. We were seriously the only Americans there which was pretty awesome. I never seen guys at a club that were soooo well dressed and had such great style. they were wearing either suits, really tight button down shirts, vests, ties, nice pants and shoes, or a combination of these. In the U.S. they would look really gay. Casey and Gina decided to go home early but Elena and I stayed. The whole entire night those guys that we got into the club kept on following us around. We kept on running into them, being followed by them, and running away from them. Then we finally got away and started dancing among really good looking people haha. There were these two really cute boys dancing right next to us, but not with us. So I grabbed one of them, and Elena then grabbed the other and we started dancing with them. As we were dancing the guy (giovanni) started asking me questions in italian, like where are you from and how old are you. I told him that i was from Florence, but since I was only able to keep up with 3 or 4 questions it became obvious that I was not Italian. Turns out both of them literally knew like 3 words in English so you could only imagine how funny our conversation must have been. Then Elena and I realized that it was like 3:30 in the morning and we didn't really know how to get home. Giovanni offered us a ride (we know that it's not very smart to get a ride from random guys that we just met, but they were geniunely nice and we were too broke for a cab so we agreed..plus Giovanni wasn't drinking). We were driving for a while and it clearly seemed like the wrong way. Giovanni stopped the car in some random area which seemed to be overlooking the whole city. We got out of the car and sat on the ledge where we could see all of Rome at night. It was sooo romantic! Then we got back into the car and he drove us back to our hostel. They asked us if we wanted to hang out with them the next day and we agreed (but then the next day we realized it might not be such a good idea so we didn't). It was around 4:30 in the morning by the time we got back. Then the next day Giovanni sent me really funny, dramatic messages in Italian. this is part of one of the messages he sent me..."buona notte angelo caduto dal cielo" (good night angel that fell from heaven) hahahaha.

The next day was basically a day we could do whatever we wanted because we were on our own. All five of us decided to go our separate ways. I decided to check out the Jewish ghetto and the big synogogue that was there, Elena went to the central fountain, and the other girls just walked around. I took the city bus on my own to get to the ghetto and got around the city by using a map (how touristy). The weather finally cleared up and it was so beautiful and sunny out! finally. I had such a good time exploring the city on my own. I went to an area with all these Jewish shops/restaurants and there were a bunch of Jewish kids playing in the middle of the street. It was so cute! I decided to get lunch at one of the Jewish shops, and I just sat outside and watched the kids play.

The synogogue was beautiful and it had a rainbow dome on the inside, to symbolize peace. After, Elena and I met up and we had to walk back all the way to the hostel to pick up our bags and run to the train. On our way back we passed by some very beautiful sites, and I wanted to explore them but there was not enough time. I wish I could go back to Rome again because there is so much more to see!