Venice/ Arezzo

7 febbraio:

VENICE!!! We were not told where we were going, only that we needed rain boots and to be ready to leave at 5 in the morning. Extremely early and a bit suspicious if you ask me, but we all agreed to stay in the dark and just do as we were told. We awoke and were ready to leave at 5 on Sunday morning; we walked to the Porta Fiorentina, the gate of the city closest to us and waited for a bus to come. When the bus arrived, I was shocked to see that it was a Mercedes bus and I have never seen one, but it must exist, I suppose. We were all so curious at find out where we were going, but leave it to John Rose to inform the bus driver that he is not to tell us. At this point we are all on the bus and situated, the bus seats are quite small so we got as comfortable as one could get. I was still tired from staying up late the night before so I decide to take a nap. The next thing I know we were stopping for breakfast at a small rest area type of place. While we were driving, Shannon had seen the signs for Venezia, and the cat was out of the bag. I feel so bad for Hilary and Kim on these trips because they always seem to get motion sickness from the long rides. I thank my lucky stars that I do not have any issues with that at all. As we begin to arrive in Venice, it was still very early, around 9:30. After a lot of discussion of where we were allowed to park, we got off of the bus and loaded onto a boat that was to take us to the boat dock closest to St. Marks square. There were so many people, it made me really nervous. I did not think I would be but when we got off of the boat and I saw the masses, and as funny as it sounds, I clutched my purse. As we moved around, there were so many colorful and elaborate costumes. It was as if around every corner there were 10 more people festively celebrating the day. In our Italy today class we learned about the Carnevale and about the traditions, costumes and foods. Sara took us out on a walk and bought us some tasty traditional treats of the Carnevale. It was really amusing to be able to say “Oh ya we learned about that in class, Wow!” There were people dressed in the traditional Carnevale costumes and then there were some that were just elaborately dressed for the fun of it.

The day moved quickly, and we must have walked in circles a hundred times. I do remember letting Kayley lead the group and trying to cut through the crowd, there were so many people talking all around us and then suddenly someone starts yelling at Kayley in Italian. I have no idea what he was saying but he was very insistent that she should not pass; we later realized that they were leaving room for the entertainers to dance. I imagine that if he hadn’t stopped us we would have walked right into someone that would not have been happy.

After that we walked around trying to find something cheap to eat. We happened upon a surprisingly tasty sandwich shop. Although after that, it took us another 30 minutes to find a suitable place to sit to eat our sandwiches. Once we finally found somewhere to sit, we were so excited to sit that we did not even know where we were. As we sat there, we realized that we had the best seat in the house. We were sitting on the edge of the canal and we had a perfect view of all of the gondolas floating by as the sun shined on the opposite side of the canal.

As the day was coming to a close, we all met back up by the docks and headed for the bus. Once on the bus, there was a wave of silence, it was as if everyone had gone to sleep. Arriving home late, we all retired to our bedrooms and the day ended.

13 febbraio:

Today was the much anticipated trip to Arezzo. This was quite an important place for us to visit, as this would be the place to depart from for every trip we take. It was important for us to be familiar with the city and the ways of transportation in the city. Arezzo has the closest train station to Sansepolcro. The bus ride to Arezzo was an extremely beautiful one. The day before had been snowing and the trees were covered in layers of white. It was a winter wonderland, white and pure. I am sure that we all looked like extreme tourists as we were trading seats multiple times so that all of us could capture pictures of the view. The bus ride lasted about 50 minutes and then we were there, as we got off of the bus we were given a mini lesson on the city. Kayley, Hilary, Kelsey, Bekah and I set off to wonder the streets. After walking up hill for what seemed a half hour, we arrived at a large park. The snow was still on the ground and there were many young people of all ages playing in the snow and chasing each other. We walked to the edge of the park; it was set up, and overlooked the city. As we walked the snow on the trees was melting and huge chunks of snow were falling and landing on me and all of the other girls. At first I thought that Kayley threw snow at me, but she was off on her own. She seems to do that a lot, I think it is her adventurous side coming out, however sometimes I cannot find her for a while. When we got to the ledge, we saw an impeccable view. It was breathtaking; the fog had begun to lift itself from the city below and everything was beginning to move again.

After that we all began to get hungry, and we decided to stop into a nice, but small, restaurant. There were only about 6 tables in the whole place. I ordered the ravioli with lemon and basil, it was simple and delicious. All of us thoroughly enjoyed our lunch and it was nice to stop and enjoy it, instead of grabbing something quick. After finishing lunch, we all walked with Hilary back to the train station to meet up with her boyfriend, who was coming to spend some time with her for Valentines. At this point it is around 2 o’clock and we are exhausted, so we decide to head back to Sansepolcro for a nap. We successfully made it back to the palazzo in one piece and luckily for me I did not fall once that day. The streets were still very icy and I was sure that I would fall on my butt at some point. The rest of the day went by lounging and catching up on homework.