Pisa
We
flew from Cork to Milan, Italy on May 29th, starting off bright and
early. After landing in the Milan airport, we took a bus into the city to the
train station, where we caught a train straight to Pisa. We had a few hours to
kill at the train station, so we went for our first Italian pizza. It was
absolutely delicious! I think I’ve been converted. We also sampled our first
Gelato as well, I went with Chocolate (Cho-co-latte) and it was scrumptious J Not only was the food
great, but there was constant sunshine. Do you know how much I’ve missed that?
We just sat in the sun until we caught the train to Pisa. After 4 hours on the
train, we made it to Pisa and found our hostel. We finished off the night with
spaghetti and white wine. Another great Italian meal.
The
way we split up our traveling in Italy was in two big chunks. We had 3 days in
the Pisa area and 3 days in Venice. Since Pisa really doesn’t have much to do
besides the tower, we decided to do a day in Pisa, a day trip to Florence, and
a day on the beach. Our first day was dedicated to sightseeing in Pisa, which
means the leaning tower of Pisa. When we got there, we took the obligatory
“holding up the tower” photos and we got a great group pic as well. It really
was an incredible sight to see. After meandering through the stalls of
souvenirs we found a spot on the lawn in front of the Duomo (basilica) and the
tower. We did some more lying in the sun while soaking in the sights. That
night we got dressed up and went out to dinner. Our pattern of food in Italy
quickly became apparent: pizza or pasta, splitting the house wine and finishing
with gelato. By the end of the week I was a bit tired of Italian food, but it
was so good that there was no way I would have eaten anything else.
Firenze (Florence)
Our
second full day in Italy was dedicated to time in Florence, or Firenze as they
say. After a little over an hour on the train, we arrived in Florence just in
time for lunch. We found a cute little café that had a great view of the huge
Duomo in the middle of Florence. After lunch, we wanted to climb the tower to
get an amazing view of Florence, but it was 15€ and the line was ridiculously
long. Instead we walked all the way around it and admired the architecture :P
About halfway around, Rochelle got pulled into a shoe store and I ended up
getting the most wonderful sandals. They’re built for support, and they’re
Italian leather, so I’m hoping they’ll last me a long time. I wore them for the
rest of the day and they felt great the whole time. After our shopping, we
headed to the Galleria Del Academia, the museum that houses the statue of
David. We waited in line for a while, but it was totally worth it. I mean, he is accepted to be the perfect male form
:P I was surprised by how big the statue was. I imagined him to be much more
life sized. Instead I saw this huge statue surrounded by instruments measuring
the humidity and temperature of the room (meaning it was the real one, not the
replica). I was sneaky and took a couple snapshots even though we’re not
supposed to. Actually, I’m glad I got them when I did cuz after I had put my
camera away, a man yelled “NO PHOTOS” from across the room at a woman near me
sneaking a picture. The guy wasn’t even in uniform. His whole job was to stand
around and look at David wearing civilian clothes to catch picture thieves.
Yikes. 
After David, we walked to the Palazzo Vecchio, which is a big plaza with statues all over and restaurants lining the square. And after that, we made our way to the Ponte Vecchio which is a pedestrian bridge with houses on it. It was super crowded and lined with shops way out of our price range, but the coolest part about it was the way it looked from down the river. It just seemed very…Italian. It was beautiful and different. After sitting in from of the Palazzo Pitti (a big palace that we couldn’t see much of because of the wall) we made our way back to the Palazzo Vecchio for dinner and then back to Pisa for the night. The most incredible part about Florence was just the amount of art. Every corner you turn there are artists, or a statue, or an incredible building. We had a great day in Florence J
Our
third full day in Pisa was very chill. Katie and I started off the day by
heading to mass. If you’ve calculated it, you may recall that it was Palm
Sunday. We worked our way over to the Duomo by the leaning tower of Pisa for
Palm Sunday mass. No big deal. When we got there we received olive branches
upon entering the church. Since we were there early, we got seats. And good
thing too, because it was a long mass, and we didn’t understand any of it,
except “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” because it was repeated so
many times. There were two really remarkable things about the mass. The passion
was said from the huge ambo in the middle of the church. It was one of the most
ornate lecturns I had ever seen; with intricate carvings surrounding the whole
thing. There was also a choir of about 40 people and they did music for a full
mass. It was quite the change from Irish masses, which tend to have no music at
all. So although it was long and boring at times, the mass was still really
cool, and how many people can say they walked out of Sunday mass and were
greeted by the leaning tower of Pisa? After mass, Katie and I swung by the
hostel to pick up Julia and Rochelle and we caught a bus to the beach. The bus
was hot and smelly, and we were standing for the 20 minute ride. We also
weren’t sure when we were supposed to get off. But we weren’t alone; there were
3 other American students on the bus aiming for the same place as us. Sydney,
Emily and Mike were studying in London and we ended up next to them on the
beach, when we finally got there. The beach itself was small and sort of shut
off from the actual ocean by a ring of rocks, but the sand was soft and the sun
was warm, so it was great. I had bought sunscreen the day before and we
slathered it on and lay in the sun for a few hours. It was so great to just
relax and be warm. After figuring out the bus back into town, we found another
yummy pizzeria for our last dinner in Pisa, amazed that we were already done
with our first city.
Venezia
(Venice)
After
two uneventful train rides, we arrived in Venice. My first thought as the train
pulled in and I saw the canals was that this was my city. A city built on water?
Yes please J Our hostel was a bit hidden, but once we found it,
and climbed the 5 long flights of stairs, it was totally worth it. It was set
up like a hotel: nice beds, full bedding, a good shower, complimentary soaps
and room service. And it had a great view of the rooftops of Venice. We
definitely chose right with that one J Since we got there in the
afternoon, we put our stuff down and went to explore and eat an early dinner.
It was really cool just walking around the tiny streets, coming up on random
canals and not really knowing where we were. There’s really no rhyme or reason
to the streets there, and I didn’t even try to use the map most of the time. But
even when you’re lost, you’ll eventually hit the Grande Canal and can find your
way from there. Once it got dark, we walked the other direction searching for a
glass of wine on the water, which we found J It was a great first day in
Venice.
Our
second day in Venice was the day we saw the most in Venice and also killed a
lot of time as well. Venice is actually a pretty small city and we gave
ourselves a lot of time to get to places that we really didn’t need. We started
off trying to get information about the Gondolas, which is the thing that took
the longest that day. Our plan was to book a Gondola ride and see San Marco
Square that day. We headed out around noon after booking the Gondola, on our
way to San Marco Square, which was across the island from us. We just pointed
ourselves in the right direction and followed the flow of traffic. A cool thing
(and annoying at times) about the Venice streets is that there seems to be one
main way that everyone takes to get places, so it’s easy to follow the flow,
even when you feel lost. But there are also a lot of dead ends, and a couple
times we were walking for a long time and ended up almost in the exact same
place as we started. The square itself was very impressive. One whole side of
the square was made up of a huge domed church that I assume was San Marco
church. The other three sides were buildings with rows of columns lining the
front. We took our pictures and walked along the shops around the whole square.
At the other end of the square were the two pillars that I recognized from one
of my favorite movies, The Italian Job. “Fine- Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic,
and Emotional.” (definitely watched it as soon as I got back )
My last day in Venice was another day that included lots of aimless walking. While that sounds like it might be boring, it wasn’t because of the setting we were in. I still can’t wrap my mind around a city existing on water even after having been there for three days. We did a lot of shopping and I bought another pair of sandals. I know I don’t need them, but they were only 10 euro and I absolutely love them J Some of my favorite souvenirs of the whole trip were in Venice. The Venetian masks were everywhere! And they were so brightly colored and beautiful that I wanted to buy them all. I ended up not getting any because I didn’t have a way to carry them for the rest of my trip, but I’ll never forget all the masks. The other thing that really drew me was the Murano glass. Murano is a nearby island in Italy where they are known worldwide for their glasswork. Just about every other shop was selling glass jewelry and other things. I loved just going into the shops and admiring the artwork. I’ve decided that if I ever 1) have lots of money and 2) am decorating a home, I’m going to come back to Venice and buy masks and glass to decorate my home. Besides shopping on my last day, we went to the Pointe Rialto, which is another bridge with shops along the whole bride.
In this way, it is similar to the one in Florence, but beside the fact that there were buildings on the bridge, it was very different. It was definitely not as colorful and it was mostly souvenirs rather than high priced jewelry, but it had a beautiful façade on the front of it. For my last dinner in Italy, we went back to a restaurant that we had passed the night before just after eating. The man out front was very good at his job and had held a full conversation with us trying to get us to eat even though we told him we’d just eaten. We promised to return the next day and he said we’d get a free round of drinks if we did. So, we came back J It was my last dinner in Italy and I decided to try something different. Julia, Rochelle and Katie had gotten used to me ordering pretty simple dishes, like salami pizza and spaghetti, so when I ordered the seafood pizza they were very impressed. I was impressed myself :P When I got it, it had the shells of mussels and clams still on it and the shape of a small octopus was still discernable in one place. Surprisingly, I actually liked it and ate almost all of it J I’m not planning on making that my new go-to dish, but I’m glad I tried it, and now I can say I’ve eaten Octopus :P After dinner we headed back and I packed up, getting ready for my 6:30 am departure from the Venice train station to begin my long day of travels. I was splitting off from the girls and meeting up with Choral Society. But that’s another blog post. I hope you enjoyed my Italian escapades as much as I did J
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