I just spent the weekend at perhaps the most picturesque place in the world! On Saturday morning, I went early to the train station to board a coach bus to travel north to Verona with the entire ISA group. This planned excursion was included in our trip expenses so we definitely weren’t going to miss this awesome opportunity! The drive there was pretty long but we slept the first leg of the journey, stopped at a rest stop for lunch, then I looked out the window the second half of the way there. The rest stops here are so funny! Stopping is at least a 30-minute ordeal because all the stops are the equivalent of a Buckee’s so that means a full meal, some gelato or candy, and lots of bathrooms to accommodate large groups. Once we got to Verona, our group was divided up into 3 hotels – I stayed at the Hotel Trento with Riley and her roommates in one room. Four people to a hotel room was kinda cramped, but we weren’t going to be spending much time there anyway! We had some free time before our scheduled walking tour at 4pm, so the Holliday, Melissa, Riley, Ellen and I walked a short 5 minutes to the historic district and onto this shopping street. WE browsed through a few stores and ended up the Piazza Erbe at a produce and souvenir market that still sells fresh fruit and veggies like it did in Renaissance times. After that, we walked back up the shopping street to the piazza where the Verona amphitheater (the third largest one, after Rome’s Colosseum and the theater at Padua) for a cappuccino. At 4 we went back to the hotel and boarded a bus for a site seeing tour of the city from the suburbs and hilltops. The buses winded up a tall mountain to a church where we got out and took in the scene below. We could see the entire city and it was an awesome view! Once we got down the mountain, which was one in a chain called the “Pre Alps” by our tour guide, we started a walking tour. Some highlights that we saw on this were Romeo’s alleged house, Juliet’s balcony, some really cool tombs of the reining family of Venice and Verona, a wedding at Santa Anastasia church, and another Roman theater that now hosts an archeological museum. We ended the tour and the 5 of us went for sushi at a place near our hotel – we needed a break from all the bread and cheese!! After dinner we got some gelato and sat in a cute little park to people watch. The main difference between Verona and Florence is that Verona is at an even slower pace than Florentine life. There are many more places to sit and relax and a lot more people out just to enjoy life. Verona had an astonishing amount of PDA couples (well it is the city of love) and little children! We saw the cutest little thing ever: a little boy walked up to a girl and held her hand and together they walked around the large fountain in the middle of the park, not just once but twice! They hadn’t known each other before but we new friends at once – I guess Verona has that effect on everyone! Their parents and almost everyone in the park was laughing at the cute little spectacle. After the sun set, we went back to the hotel and went to sleep early to prepare for our day at the lake the following morning.
Lake Garda lived up to our high expectations, to say the least! We really didn’t know what to expect but we wanted to lay in the sun all day on a beach and we did just that! We checked out of the hotel room at 10 and we’re cruising into the town of Sirmione by 11. Sirmione is a little resort area on a skinny peninsula that goes out into the lake. It is filled with little hotels, vacation houses, and gelaterias and cafes. We got into medium sized motorboats (4 for our entire group) and had a quick tour of the lake. We saw ruins of a Roman villa, a spa resort that hosts sulfur baths from the hot springs of the lake, and the Renaissance fortress that goes into the water. After the boat trip around the tip of the peninsula, we went into the town and onto the public beach where we spent the afternoon laying out on the rocky shores and dipping into the freezing cold lake water. When we had had enough sun, we got gelato and an Italian cocktail that everyone was drinking - it was a combination of sparkling wine, bitter orange, and club soda. It was refreshing! We left Sirmione at 4:30 and arrived back at the train station in Florence by 7:30. It was an amazing and relaxing weekend away from Florence.
When we got back to Florence we all showered and got ready for dinner because Aly Smith and Caroline Johnson came in town to visit us from Barcelona! We met at Santa Croce church and ate at this restaurant in its Piazza. It was so good catching up with them! We all shared our stories over a late and long dinner that was very tasty. After that we went for the infamous dragon beer at Kukuya bar where we tried to convince some tourists from Belgium that Texans weren’t all Republicans that carried guns everywhere. It was entertaining and I think they believed us. When we started talking out Obama vs. Bush, I checked out of the conversation and we eventually changed bars to Lion’s Fountain. We got home by 1:30 – it was a great Sunday Funday! They are staying again tonight (Monday) and we have a fun evening planned – a hike up to Piazzale Michaelangelo where you can see a view on the entire city, a picnic dinner of vino and Gusta’s pizza (the best in Florence), and then hanging out at a club called Flo at the top of the hike! Should be a fun night! I’ve got to go to class now…Mondays aren’t any better abroad! Let you know how the hike goes tomorrow! Ciao ciao!
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