Venice was like nothing I had seen before! It was a city without roads!! They just use the canals and walk to get around. We LOVED being in Venice. You could just wander around with no particular destination and always find your way back home, enjoying the entire time wandering. It was weird that pretty much everyone spoke English, but also nice because their Italian is very different from that in Rome. It really is like it's just frozen in time. Instead of city buses, they have boats, which we road all the way down the Grand Canal because the city is supposed to be seen from the water. We talked about how weird it would be to grow up there and never see a car. We went on tours all over the city with our professors. My favorite might have been the Ghost Tour with Flusche (the most amazing art history professor ever). It was probably the first city I actually didn't want to leave. [My camera also died here, so I don't have pictures after Venice.]
We moved to Florence next to immerse ourselves in a world of sculpture and art. Florence was also interesting, but it was not as beautiful as Venice or Assisi. We went through some museums and did that sort of thing (including the David and the Uffizi). Florence also gave us the chance to split up a bit and wander independent of a group of 15 people, which was a nice feeling after about 4 months of constantly being with people.
On Sunday, we made our way to Assisi and saw everything Francis. Dr. Stibora took us all over the city (which is actually built on a hillside--like, every time you want to go anywhere, you have to walk up a hill). Assisi was incredible from a distance and from inside. It looked like a picture of an Italian town that you see in the movies or something like that, but don't think actually could exist.
It was a great last trip away from Rome. It was a really interesting taste of Italy beyond just Rome and the slums of southern Italy. Rome is still my favorite city in Europe, but Venice is definitely a close second. Now we just have a little over 3 weeks of tests and papers until we finally get to come back to the States!! When we were in our hotel in Venice, we were talking about how the room looked like it should be in a horror film and how we should be able to turn a lamp and a hole would "open into a magical paradise, like America!!" That was when we realized that it must suck to be someone who wants to immigrate to America, but can't. Oh, and we decided that the girl who haunted our room was named Jennifer. The terrible smell that actually made my room mate throw up was her perfume. (Yeah, we loved Venice despite Jennifer. That's how amazing it was!)
Pictures will come later. I need to upload my few and steal peoples' pictures from the rest of the trip.
1 comment:
I am quite jealous of your experiences Kath. I so long to go to Europe sometime - but with my life I know it will have to be a short 1-2 week trip. You have had the joy of being a part of it all.
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