The Italy Chapter

I think it's about time I do a short rewind of my trip to Italy. The majority of this post is just going to be pictures and explanations to go along with them instead of a fully detailed day to day experience. Here we go!

Here we have the classic airplane photo. I am BEYOND thrilled to report that there were no airport mishaps leaving or returning from Barcelona and I mean nothing! No delays, no forgotten passports, no security run through's NOTHING so that was pretty exciting for me! That night I was picked up at the airport by my cousin Daniela who I thought was going to be difficult to recognize (seeing as I hadn't seen here in person in  6 years or so) but nope! I step into the waiting room area and see a blonde wearing a hot pink coat and somehow I just knew it was her!

Fast forward to the next day and another cousin, Gianpaolo, drove in for a visit to Milan.

In Milan, in front of the famous Duomo (Cathedral) of Milan I met up with Feli, an Italian exchange student who was living in New York and good friends with Emma last year so that was really, really cool to be able to meet up with her again!

After our short trip to Milan, there is actually not too much to see there besides the Duomo and loads of over priced clothing, GP and I said goodbye to Daniela and were off to Trentino (a district kind of like Catalunya or Dutchess County) where we would visit some more towns like Trento and Stenico.

Now we have already established that I am no photographer so this picture was borrowed from the internet and isn't exactly where I was staying, but this is the kind of scenery that I was surrounded by the whole time there. It was such a refreshing change from the city like scenery that I have been living in for the past eight months, which don't get me wrong is nice too, but deep down I think I will always be a mountains and fresh water lakes person just like home! 

The next day we were up for a road trip 'round the mountain!

First was a walk along this river and crossing paths with a massive water fall.

Then we bought sandwiches and ate lunch on some park benches in front of these bad boys! Then one last short hike to a hidden mountain church overlooking another river. There we saw a bear (in captivity) because the story of the church was that "It was built by a man who just wanted to worship alone and in peace. For his trip he carried the things he needed on the back of a donkey. At one point during the trip a bear came along and ate the donkey so the dude just harnessed up the bear and brought him along to first of all carry his things and second of all protect the place from visitors." SO NATURALLY there was a bear there like a massive biggest-damn-bear-I-have-ever-seen-in-my-entire-life there, not doing such a great job keeping away all the visitors since we were all standing there gawking at it anyway.

After that little adventure it was back to the house for some down time then dinner. 

The next day we went for a walk around a local park with this view! 

So ya just a casual stroll there eating Gelato until it was time to head back to eat lunch, which was real Italian lasagna (it was just as good if not better than you are imagining right now) and I got to meet another cousin, Silvia, whom I became really close with throughout the rest of the trip!

After lunch we headed out to Riva, a touristy town with lots of little shops and a big lake!

(Silvia left, Lia right)

The following day GP and I did a bit more exploring in the morning then we picked up Silvia from school, ate lunch, then drove to Verona!

Some random street in Verona.  

This is the famous balcony of Romeo and Juliet. If you look closely at the bottom right side of this picture you can see the statue of a woman (Juliet? Maybe? I'm not sure.). Apparently it is good luck to go up and touch the poor girls boobs. Unfortunately I did not go up to experience the umm phenomenon because there were a lot of people waiting around so I didn't want to ruin their chances of touching the golden boobs themselves when I simply could have cared less.

This, also in the plaza of Romeo and Juliet, was a wall COVERED in chewing gum. At first we were completely grossed out until I realized that there were flakes of paper stuck to the gum as well so I think the wall was used to stick love letters to the wall... we can only hope. Also to the right (in reality, not the picture) there was a wall of locks ya know to lock in your love or something I don't know!

Here, the entry / exit walk way to the Romeo and Juliet plaza were two walls covered floor to ceiling in hearts with names written in them. Instead of getting creative and writing something clever, Silvia and I decided on just writing our two names together in a heart in the middle of the madness.

Next was a short walk along a canal, caught a bus, returned to the car and headed back home.

The following day Silvia skipped school so we could all go on a family trip to Venice! This was by far my favorite day of the whole trip! 

Venice is famous for their elaborate face masks and you literally can't escape these things. They are EVERYWHERE! There is Venice they have Carnival, similar to Spain, and everyone dresses up in fancy dresses and wheres one of these for the event. How freaking cool and completely terrifying at the same time!

Here we have the famous cathedral of Venice and to the right is where the Duke of Venice makes speeches. If you look really carefully about four or five windows to the right of the churchy part there is one reddish orange window which is only for the Duke. Legit, like royal king mine and only mine mentality going on there!

That orange brick building in the background is actually a tower where you can see all of Venice from. We didn't go up for two reasons. One the line was a bit long and two it was getting close to the top of the hour, which according to Silvia if you get stuck up there at the top of the hour when the bell chimes you will basically want to throw yourself out the window because it's so damn loud! 

Another fun fact about this tower is that way back when in some year that no one knew BUT SURELY EXISTED, the tower fell down like London Bridge is Falling Down style! Right there in the square. All throughout the plaza you can find pictures of people sitting at tables in the square having lunch with the tower just crumbled around the square in the background. So ya, that was a thing!

Next we have the entry to the main canal of Venice. In case you didn't know there are no cars in Venice, literally none. You either have a boat or walk your ass where you want to go. Here we have some gondolas which we didn't actually go in because they cost something crazy like 80 euros which is equal to 100 dollars or maybe a little more. Plus there were like seven of us so we probably would have had to take two. FUN FACT gondola drivers actually do wear striped shirts! They stand in the middle of busy squares and if you want a ride you just walk up to them, tell them you wanna go, and they take you to their "ship". 

And here we are, Silvia and I after stepping off our ferry we took up the main canal right before heading home. That night we went over to her house for dinner then played Just Dance after dinner for the whole families entertainment. At about ten or so Silvia and I walked back to her grandparents house where I was staying, since I stayed late after dinner to play. (The schedule change time wise like calling ten o'clock late for a school night was really strange to me! Spain has got my times all mixed up! OH and I eat slower now! Literally I was the last to finish every time! Readjustment may feel stranger than I thought!) After we got to her grandparents house we said our final goodbyes since I wouldn't be seeing her in the morning before I left. 

The next day we went to Trento for lunch before heading to Burgamo, a very rich city close to the airport were I would be flying out of. 

While there we got caught in a thunderstorm, which after I thought about it was my first thunderstorm in eight months! Ya it rains here in Barcelona, but there is never thunder or lightening, another thing I miss about living in New York. 

While in Burgamo we saw a few churches which you can see in the background above. They were super impressive, just as you would expect Italian churches to be. There I learned that the holy water thing I saw in Santiago is in fact a common thing because there were about three of the metal water holders in each church, goes to show how much I know thinking it was a one time thing!

Finally after a final dinner together of pizza *Side Note: In Italy you eat your own pizza. Like a full freaking medium sized pizza SOLO. I couldn't handle it, meanwhile the respectfully seventy something year old grandmother I was with could finish off her own in the time I ate a half... Safe to say us Americans are in fact NOT the biggest eaters in the world. After spending a week with them I can safely say it is hands down the Italians who win that prize? Moving on...* we went off to the airport where I said my last goodbye and boarded my flight home without a problem!

The plane was under booked so the flight attendant told me I could sit in the very spacious emergency exit zone all to myself! Let me tell you, you have never lived until you have had two full plane arm rests to yourself for a full plane ride! 

Then there I was back in Barcelona with a sense of home, which was such a refreshing feeling. Barcelona is truly my home away from home where I have a family whom I truly consider to be my own! Finding Roman went without a problem this time (unlike after El Camino...) and I was home by 1 AM in bed for 6 hours before going off to school the following day! 

So there it is! Italy in a nutshell for you! A big fat thank you to everyone who made this trip possible for me, you guys are the best! That's all for now I guess! Have a nice week! Ciao!