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This weekend I went on a trip with my study abroad program to Verona and Venice. Saturday morning we left at 7am for Verona and it was about a 3.5 hour bus ride. When we got there we went on a 2 hour tour or Verona. The tour guide was awesome! She was the best one I've had on any tour in Italy so far. On the tour I learned that Romeo and Juliet might be a true story. There were 2 families in Verona that were very similar to the ones in the Shakespeare play that had the same names. Thus we got to see Romeo's house (from the outside only because someone actually owns it). We also got to see Juliet's Balcony. To get to the balcony you have to go through a small arch. Both sides of the arch are covered with notes stuck to the wall and writing on the wall full of love notes or couples initials in a heart etc. Also there is a metal statue of Juliet under her balcony. It is said if you rub her right breast 3 times with your left hand you will be successful in love/find love. When I got near the balcony it was crazy! Tons of people come to see the balcony and rub the statue so there was someone constantly getting their picture with Juliet. After the tour we got some time to get lunch and then left on the bus to a vineyard about 30 minutes away. My study abroad program had organized a wine tasting for us (at a different vineyard than last time). The area of Verona is famous for certain wines and we got to taste 3. We also got a tour of the facilities where they make the wine and got to see the vineyards. It was very interesting! They had these very cool machines that took all the stems and extra stuff off the grapes. The vineyards were also gorgeous and there was a good view overlooking the country side where you could see tons of other vineyards. For the wine tasting we got 3 types of wine plus a little cheese and bread. It was good but I enjoyed the other wine tasting better. Still, it was fun to go to a different area of Italy to see the vineyards and taste different varieties of wine. After that we headed to the hotel where we had dinner which was pretty good(free food is always good!). After dinner the study abroad program offered to take anyone who wanted to a nearby town on a lake. The hotel wasn't near much which is why they organized the trip. It was about a 20 minute bus ride away and we just walked around. It was very pretty and really quiet so it was very relaxing. We went for about 2 hours and then headed back and went to bed.
The next morning we left at 8 to head to Venice. It was another 1.5 hour bus trip and then a 30 minute boat ride to get to Venice. I didn't realize this but Venice is not actually connected to Italy. You have to take a boat to get there. Venice is also 118 different islands with 150 water canals and over 400 bridges that connect them all. There are absolutely no cars or vehicles in Venice. Taxis are boats, the police are on boats. Firemen are on boats etc. We arrived in Venice and got a 2 hour tour. The tour guide was a bit boring but it was fun to walk around and see all the sights. Our first stop was San Marco's square. It was huge and packed with people plus TONS of pigeons! Recently they passed a law that people can't feed the pigeons anymore but some people still do and either way the pigeons are still there. They practically fly into you or sometimes land right on you (they are definitely used to people). If you feed them they will jump right into your hand and eat the food out of it! After the tour we got the rest of the time to walk around on our own. The tour ended around 1 and we didn't have to meet back until 6. First I got some pizza for lunch and after that did some shopping. There are tons of stores and a market. After I went shopping and walked around, 6 of us went on a gondola ride. They were a bit expensive. The first gondola man (not sure what you call them?) we found told us 20 euro a person (which would have been 120 euros because there were 6 of us). We had heard it should be way less than that so we kept looking and then found another person who said 80 euro for 30 minutes. That is the going rate so with 6 of us it was only 13 euro per person which wasn't too bad. It was very relaxing and fun to go on it. The boats seem very hard to steer but they were very good at it. I couldn't believe the corners they were able to maneuver. Often they came within inches of the sides of the canals but never hit them. After the gondola ride we met back at 6 to take the boat back to the bus and rode about 3.5 hours back to Florence.
Overall it was a really fun weekend and perfect weather both days! It has been unusually warm for October here but I'm not complaining! I still have not gone to the secret bakery but I hope to soon. Now I hear that there are possibly 3 or 4 secret bakeries. Also the soccer game I went to on Wednesday was a lot of fun! It was a group of 5 of us that went. The crowd was yelling a bunch of chants in Italian and they were very into the game. Since it was a benefit people were not very serious about it so I am excited to go to another (real) game later in November to see the difference. So this week I am taking a pizza and gelato cooking class on Wednesday with my roomate. On Saturday I am going to a chocolate festival in Perugia a small city 2 hours from Florence as a field trip for my cooking classes. (how awesome is that!) Otherwise it will be a normal week except that because I have a field trip I don't have cooking class during the week. (which is a little disappointing!) Also Friday night I am going to the opera through my study abroad program so I am excited about that! Should be a good week!
I try to cover everything I can think of about my trips and living in Italy but if anyone is wondering about other stuff didn't mention just ask! Love and miss you all, I'll write again soon!
Ciao!
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