Tons of Travel: First Stop, Northern Italy

Baptistery, cathedral, tower, and Duomo

It has been a little while since I've blogged. For the past two weeks, we've essentially been constantly traveling with limited wifi/computer access. The first week of travel, from the 14th to the 18th, was our Northern Field Trip, which included visiting Florence, Verona, San Vito di Altivole, and Venice. Our first stop was Florence for the first two days of our trip. The first church we went to was called Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, which was a combination of medieval and Renaissance architecture. The inside was based upon the concept of heaven, hell, and purgatory, and it had some nice stained glass windows. Florence is actually a lot smaller than I thought it was; its like a tenth of the size of Rome. There wasn't as much there as I originally assumed. However, there was still a lot of Renaissance architecture there, and a lot of it we have learned about in our art history classes. It was nice to finally be able to see some of it. The Medici family was the main source of money for most of the architecture built in Florence, and you can tell because their crest is everywhere.

Florence from above

The main attraction in Florence is the Duomo, designed by Michelangelo. The church, tower, dome, and baptistery were all in the same area of town, right by our hotel. The inside was pretty awesome, especially the dome. Its a huge egg shape, and can be seen everywhere in Florence. We went up in the tower, and saw the Dome and the rest of Florence from above. It was beautiful, and it was also really interesting seeing the density of Florence. All of the buildings are fairly low to the ground other than the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, and a few other churches. Its really easy to see the important monuments. In the two days we were there, we also saw the Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio. Palazzo Vecchio is essentially Florence's city hall, and we've learned about both buildings extensively in our classes. We also were able to see all of our Jamie Cooper drawings in real life. We were also able to go to the Galleria all'Academia, which houses the famous David, among other interesting paintings and sculptures. The David was a much larger sculpture than I was expecting, and the level of detail was pretty phenomenal. It was good to finally be able to see it, even if I wasn't able to take a picture.

Cemetary of Santa Croce with Florence in background

Later at night, Florence as a city seemed pretty quiet as a whole. The first night Cait, Clarissa, Rose, Naeemah, Kyle, Justin and I all went to a little bar far from the city center with a friend of Kyle's that lives in Florence. It was called Kitsch American Bar, though apparently not a lot of Americans go there (a bit misleading, if you ask me). They had a pretty cheap aperitivo dinner that was better than any typical bar food I've ever eaten. We also got a free drink with it, and we discovered the existence of Aperol sours (Aperol + blood orange juice), Europe's version of triple sec and orange juice. On our second night, we found a little panini place that sold really unique sandwiches. The first sandwich I had was pumpkin cream and ricotta cheese - absolutely delicious! It was such a strange combination, but it was delicious. The five of us - Clarissa, Kyle, Justin, Cait, and I - all got a different sandwich, twice. We literally ordered ten paninis in total at this place, and used the rest of the guy's bread. It was entertaining, and so delicious. We also had scotch with our director, Romolo, while in Florence to talk about the awful situation going on at Penn State. He gave us some perspective in regards to the situation, and it was actually really comforting talking to him.

We also visited both Santa Croce and the "first" Santa Croce that was all the way on top of a hill away from the city center of Florence. Romolo's wife, Helena, took us up there, and we were able to see the interior of the church and its extensive cemetary. Though it seems a bit morbid to be fascinated by a cemetary, each of the graves, tombs, or whatever were so different, and were clearly individual according to the family. It was really interesting looking through them and being able to understand parts of a person's life even after they've already passed. The cemetary and church also offered a gorgeous view of Florence, which happened to be when the sun was setting.

Museo Castelvecchio

After our few days in Florence, we hopped on a bus to Verona. Once we got there, we all had tickets to the Museo Castelvecchio, which is the only museum in Verona. We weren't really there to see what was in the museum, but to look at the design of the museum itself. The museum had additions that were designed by Carlo Scarpa, which essentially were a juxtaposition to the much older existing structure. Some of the details were pretty cool really, especially since his color and material choice started to blend with the existing building. We spent some time in the museum, and after that, we ended up just wandering around Verona. Verona isn't very large, and we only had a few hours there. We saw their "colosseum," which is essentially very similar in design to Rome's Colosseum, but its of Verona's pink marble and is much smaller. Its concerned the Colosseum's baby sister. We had some of the tourist-y gladiator guys following us, and the one quacked in my face (I know, random, right?) while the others just tried to get us to pose with them. Then Becca, Naeemah and I decided that we wanted to see Juliet's house (Casa di Giulietta), as in from Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet aren't actually real people, but apparently they're based on actual people, and the town of Verona is renowned for bloody family feuds. Shakespeare was truly a genius, I guess.

We walked further into Verona, mostly through the shopping streets. We also saw the Piazza Erbe on the way, which is one of the larger piazze in Verona, and it has a pretty cool looking clock tower. Just down the road, there was Juliet's house. It was small, and started with an archway that had writings from people who have visited, most of them wishing for love, relationships, etc. The actual house was a museum, but we didn't really have enough time or money to go in. You could see her balcony, which was really quite small, and a statue of Juliet. The rumor/legend is that if you hold her right hand and touch her boob, you'll have good luck in life and love. Of course, being tourists and silly, we all did it and took pictures. There was also a door behind the statue (can be seen in the picture) that was covered in locks, all from couples who have "locked their love" in Juliet's house. Very cheesy, but also very cute. There was also a gift shop that was filled with Romeo and Juliet merchandise. All of it was very cheesy, but it was fun to look. It was fun to see Verona, even if it was only for a little bit. I've always wondered if the scenery in plays and stories we read was actually anything like the actual place. In this case, it seemed to be. Later, we went to a place called Hippopotamus (ippopatami) which sold essentially what I would consider American food. I got some nice curly fries (missed these so much!) and a burger. Rachel and some of the boys all got crowns with their pizza, so for the rest of the day we were all having fun crowning people.

Before going to Venice, we made a stop in San Vito in Altivole, which is where the Brion Cemetary is. The actual cemetary itself was pretty ordinary, but Carlo Scarpa designed an addition in the back which is what we were there to see. He is also buried there because the town is where he grew up. Scarpa is very good with interesting and unique architectural details, like rolling stone doors and movable windows. Even the graves themselves (of the people who asked him to design it) were designed, even down to the Murano glass tiling and lettering all throughout the tomb. It was interesting to see something that can be so depressing transformed into something that can be experienced in a different way. I've also never seen an Italian town that wasn't a main tourist attraction. Altivole was kind of the opposite though - it was essentially a ghost town. It was a really small town, and there was no one around at all. The main attraction of the town seemed to be the cemetary. Big difference than in Rome.

Piazza San Marco

After an hour or so of bus travel, we arrived in Venice, our final destination for our Northern Field Trip. We had to take a tram over the water to get into the actual city, as there is no vehicular traffic in the city of Venice. It was really interesting seeing all of the canals, gondolas, and water taxis (yes, that's what they're called) all around in the everyday life of the city. Venice was very confusing to navigate because of the waterways, but we got around. The only piazza in the entire city is Piazza San Marco, while the rest of the open spaces are designated as Campo or other titles. Most of the buildings in Venice are very horizontal instead of vertical because of the type of soil in Venice, and they are all constructed so the individual members have room to move because of the instability of the soil. It was really interesting being in Venice because it is a truly different city than anywhere else we've been in Italy, and its one of the more famous tourist destinations that you hear about and see.

Murano - a glassblower's studio

There aren't a lot of people who live in Venice; most are tourists visiting or the rich coming to go shopping. A lot of the stores are very expensive items, like clothing and glassware. Venice is especially known for Venetian masks, usually handmade out of porcelain or papier mache right in Venice, and glassblowing, made at their own island dedicated to glassblowing called Murano. We went searching for a real Venetian mask, apparently those with a stamp or sticker on the back, and finally found some. They're all really beautiful, and it would be awesome to visit Venice for Carnivale when people are actually wearing them.
We also visited Murano, which is about a 15-minute water taxi ride to the island. We passed by Venice's only cemetary, as they have trouble with traditional burials because of the soil. Murano was a very small island, but we were able to see one of the shops still making glass in their shop. It was really amazing watching them mold the glass, and watching how many times they have to heat and cool it to get it to the shape they want. It was truly awesome to watch, especially since some of the pieces only took them minutes to make.

The rest of our time in Venice included us visiting Romolo's favorite pizza place, where I had pizza carbonara, which is just ham and egg. It was pretty delicious, almost like breakfast pizza. Most of Friday, our last day in Venice, was spent shopping and preparing for the our next week of traveling - to Dublin and London. We took a train out of Venice around 6pm that night to Bergamo, and 12 hours later, finally, a plane to Dublin.

I will be blogging later about Dublin and London, as this post is already extremely long. I think I'll also talk about the possible collapse of the euro and European Union, but we'll get to that later. I have a lot to talk about, and very little time as we now have tons of assignments due in the next two weeks. I'll eventually get to it, I promise. Its only 17 (almost 16 in Rome time) days left until I'm back in America. Ciao for now, everyone.