Northern Italy 1

So I am just over two weeks behind on blogging. I think today I could catch up to the present. Yes, I have really only updating about my travels and not my day to day life, but seriously, day to day life is just that. It really doesn’t change too much from Cornell to Santander. I go to class. The classes are sometimes interesting. The classes are sometimes excruciating. I go home. I eat. I study. I procrastinate. I catch up on the goings on of the world (to some extent). I repeat. Sometimes interesting events punctuate life in Cantabria, but that is usually the travelling.

For example, second semester started this past Monday. I missed that day as I was still travelling, but apparently a lot of other students did too. The next day I found a few new students in our class. Two kids from Poland, Michael and Kasha, and John from the UK. We had them over for chicken parm, cornbread and apple pie and brought them around Santander a little bit. They are really interesting people and I look forward to getting to know them better. Kasha told me she likes how we Americans speak. She said that she feels like she is in the movies when we talk around her. The longer I stay in Europe, the more I realize that Europeans pretty much base most of what they think about Americans on what they see in movies and TV shows. I am commonly asked if the college frat parties are anything like Animal House or if we all have our own houses like they show in the movies. When I think about it, although movies are usually exaggerated, they are sometimes a good example of American culture.

Well, back to adventure updates.

Italy

The first two days that Hill and I (and later Caitlyn) were in Venice we actually stayed off the island in Mestre (or Margherita?) and took day trips to nearby cities. The first day we headed off to Verona, home of Romeo and Juliet.

Verona, Italy

Well, as I just said, Verona is the setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Hill and I thought it would be a great place to start our travels in Italy, saving our site seeing of Venice for when Cailtyn joined us. To our amazement, train travel in Italy was surprisingly straight forward and relatively cheap (way better than France as far as I could tell). We hopped on one of the many frequent trains to Verona and made it there in just an hour and a half. Then we hit a snag. We were kept on the train for what seemed like an eternity and what ended up verging on half an hour. They just kept the doors closed, without a single announcement about why we were being detained (not that it would have helped as it would have most surely been only in Italian). We finally were allowed off the train and overheard that somebody had jumped into the tracks and taken their life. We couldn’t confirm this, but that definitely shook us up a little bit.

After our anticipation grew while waiting to exit the train, we realized we had no idea where we were heading, but like in most Italian cities, we eventually happened upon some Roman ruins and found some tourist information. While walking aimlessly we saw (in my mind) the quintessential Italian countryside: the rolling hills, the slender evergreens, the blue skies and Mediterranean architecture. It really was quite astounding and picturesque. Eventually we made it to the historic center and purchased a guide book to help us know what we were seeing and guide us to the things we needed to see.

I was actually surprised by the number of things there were to see. I had only been expecting perhaps a monument to Romeo and Juliet and some quaint streets. Instead we were directed to the “Juliet House” (Hillary liked to point out that she did not exist and therefore there she did not have a house), a Roman arena second in size and importance to only the Coliseum, and some pretty incredible piazzas.

Juliet’s house apparently used to belong to a family that is said to have inspired the Capulets, at least as far as name derivation goes. This is hands down the main attraction of Verona. Tourists flocked to the house to either look up at the balcony and pretend to serenade sweet Juliet or to grope Juliet’s statue down in the courtyard. Yes, the popular thing to do is to grope Juliet’s statue. Her chest is shiny and smooth from all the extra loving and attention she has received over the years. On the walls leading into the courtyard is graffiti from thousands of star crossed lovers who have come to see one of the most famous couples in history.

I was more impressed with the Roman arena. It was still very intact, and apparently is still put to use quite often. They perform musicals, operas, and other events in the structure, and have for over one thousand years. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

Luckily the trains were back up and functioning when we decided to head back to Mestre. We were hoping to go back to the hostel and settle in for some Super Bowl watching. No dice. The TV that was in the common room didn’t work. Even if it did work, it probably would not have had any station showing the game. Disappointed, we decided to head into Venice to see if there was a better chance of catching the game in the city. We saw some Erasmus posters up advertising various parties and hoped they were perhaps hosting a viewing of the big game. Still, no luck. Instead we lost ourselves in the winding streets, happening upon the famous Rialto Bridge and San Marco’s square. Eventually we exited the city on our way back to Mestre without finding a place to watch the game.

Padova, Italy

The next day we headed to Padova, another old city located perhaps half an hour from Venice. Again, it had some Roman ruins of an old arena, but was obviously much more modern than Verona. We had to dodge trams and passed modern buildings as we made it to the historic center. The main attraction in Padova is Saint Anthony’s Basilica, this gigantic and beautiful cathedral with big blue domes imposing over the city.

Neither of us being particularly religious and knowing that Caitlyn would be arriving in Venice soon, we didn’t stay too long in Padova. But we did make one stop before departing the city. Wikitravel recommended Il Rei de Kebab as a great falafel joint. For some reason, we all have become obsessed with falafel since being in Europe resulting in seeking it out in every country we visit and holding falafel Fridays (in conjunction with flannel Fridays). Well Wikitravel, you win this round. That falafel sandwich was arguably the best I have had here in Europe. Kudos Il Rei de Kebab, we salute you and your gigantic pitas filled with delicious fried chickpeas, sauces and vegetable salads.

After our feast we picked up Caitlyn from the train station and went shopping for some dinner. Fresh Italian mozzarella, focaccia bread, cherry tomatoes and a tub of chocolate hazelnut gelato. True bliss.