I have been so busy this weekend that I haven't gotten a chance to blog! On Saturday and Sunday I was in Venice. I went with a group of people from two different programs by CEA. I took the train on Saturday early in the morning and we arrived in Venice at around 10 am. Once we arrived we took the boat down the main river to our hotel. The hotel we stayed at was actually a convent. You could tell because it was a very creepy looking church.
After we put out bags away we went on a group tour of Venice. We saw the Piazza San Marco, the Grand Canal, Saint Mark's Basilica, and another church. We climbed to the top of the tower in Piazza San Marco which had a beautiful view. For dinner on Saturday I found a pizza place that made pizzas to go. It was delicious!
On Sunday we woke up and toured with the group again. This time we saw the Jewish Ghetto, a Franciscan Friar church, and visited the Murano glass museum. This was my favorite part of the whole trip. We saw a demonstration of the glass blowing which was very interesting. It supposedly takes ten years to master the art of glass blowing.
Venice was beautiful overall, but it was extremely got and crowded. This definitely is the season that most people go. It got annoying with all the tourists. Also, I was not a fan of doing the group tour. I would much rather explore for myself instead of having to wait on other people. These were the negatives of the trip, but overall I was glad that I went to Venice. It was nice to be near the ocean and the city is so beautiful. We took the train back Sunday night, and I was very happy to be back in Florence after a long weekend of touring. Plus, the food in Florence is much better and a lot cheaper! I was exhausted so I fell right asleep when we got back.
On Monday, I woke up and went to thd San Ambrogio market right next to the apartment and got some delicious fruit. Then, I had class as usual. We learned how to draw a face for fashion. This was difficult! Then we created a "trend forecast" page in our portfolios. We created two outfits out of magazine clippings and fabric that we thought would be a trend for the next season. This was a lot of fun! When I got back to my apartment, I went to get a salad at a really good fruit and vegetable place. I was able to make my own salad and bring it home to eat. It was delicious! After my salad, my roommate and I went to get gelato at "Grom" right near our apartment. This was the best gelato I have had in Italy!! I will definitely be going back regularly. Later that night my roommates and I went to a disco to see what they were like. The discos are like clubs in the U.S. Surprisingly, it was not fun! The inside of the place was very cool, but the music was bad and everyone there was under 19 years old. Now that I am 21 I have found that I am not interested in going out anymore. I'm becoming a homebody!
My roommate luckily wanted to leave too, so we walked back to the apartment together and then went to sleep. The Americans that study abroad in Florence normally go out almost every night until 4 am. I'm not sure how they do it! The U.S. has gotten an extremely bad reputation because of people's excessive drinking when they get to Italy. In the Italian culture they have wine with food to enjoy, not to get drunk, so they are mortified when they see drunk Americans wandering the streets at 3am. It is also not safe, so Is safe to say that I don't think I will be back at a disco anytime soon.
Sorry for not blogging the last few days! I will update later about my day today! XOXO