Getting lost in Venice

Venice, Italy at 7am in the morning before the crowd

My Daily Cappuccino 

            Good Morning America! I cannot believe it is already the end of week three here in Firenze! More and more everyday I feel like Florence is home. I am starting to understand the locals more, understand where I am going, and I am starting to become a regular at my favorite places. It is nice to have locals see you as a local and not so much as tourist. It is amazing how much differently they treat you when they know they will be seeing you again.  I am starting to go to the same places and do the same things, and even though I am starting to get into a routine, the adventures never get mundane. For example, twice a week I will go to the central market for lunch and sit and have a cappuccino while I do my homework. The lady who I order my drinks from use to be short with me, however now she is very friendly, asks me how my day is and knows my order. Everyday I fall more in love with my life here in Florence and I am excited for the next three months. 

Dinner at Franco's

            This week Meg and I decided to take our six roommates to meet Franco. It had been about 10 days since we had last seen him, but we did not want to come off too strong since we had visited him 2 times in less than 24 hours the first time we met him. When we walked in Franco, was so excited to see us. He asked us where we had been and if we were trying to ignore him. He was offended that we had not come by too see him more often. Apparently in Italy, you could stop by Franco’s everyday and it would not be considered imposing. Italians love casual conversation and spending time getting to know people.  For dinner at Franco’s I had an amazing seafood pasta with calms, mussels, calamari, and shrimp on top of penne pasta with a red sauce. For desert, once again, Franco gave us complementary dessert, which for me of course was tiramisu. After dinner, Franco told Meg and that we need to come by and see him more often. We came back both Thursday morning and Sunday night, and he gave us complimentary tiramisu and cappuccinos each time. I think it is Franco’s goal to make me fat by the end of the semester.

Venice, Itlay

           Thursday, five of the roommates and myself traveled to Venice, Italy for Carnivale. Carnivale is like Marti Gras in America, except a little classier and a lot more extravagant. When we arrived, we took a waterbus (which is a boat that takes people from place to place on the main channel) to the apartment we rented for the weekend in San Polo. San Polo is about a 15-minute walk through Venice from the main plaza, which is in San Marco. The next morning, Meg, Erin and I woke up early in the morning to watch the sunrise and look at the city before it was flooded by thousands of tourists. Once you get of over the strange smell of fish and other things, the city of Venice is beautiful. It is unlike anything I have ever seen before. The buildings appear to be floating on top of these canals. The buildings are all different colors and each have a unique look. I am glad we woke up early to see the city a little because once the sun came up, the streets were filled with tourists. The best was to describe Carnivale, Venice is that it is like Halloween, but the locals spend hundreds of dollars on their costumes. Everyone is wearing hand painted masks with elaborate costumes. The six of us decided that we all needed to find masks before we went to the Plaza San Marco for the festival. Finding a mask was like finding a wedding dress. Each one was different, and everyone wanted one that was completely different from one another.  They cost anywhere from 2 Euro to 80 euro. As each of us found our masks, we all put them on, one by one, until everyone found theirs. Shopping for masks was fun because there were so many store and so many different masks to choose from. When we got to the plaza each of us had a different colored mask. The costumes of the locals were incredible. No one who was dressed up talked and they all had their faces painted black so that all you saw were the colors of their eyes behind the mask. Some of the costumes were comical, where some of them were creepy and disturbing. A lot of times, the men would dress up like women and the women would dress up like men. Especially when it was a bride and groom costume. Because each of us had a different colored mask, we decided that anytime we found someone with a costume that matched the color of our masks we would run in front of them and take a picture with them. Getting a picture with them was extremely difficult, because many times they did not want there picture taken, or 100 other people wanted to take their picture with them so you had to jump in front of them, smile, and get out of the way. All of us had fun finding someone that matched our masks.  Of course, the lady with the costume that matched mine did not want to take her picture with me so I had to run after her for 5 minutes until she would stop. 

Dinner at La Porta D'Acqua

            Before we left, Franco warned Meg and I of the high prices in Florence, especially the prices of food. Meg and I decided to save money by packing food and making PB&J’s for breakfast and lunch each day. Our roommates would make fun of us, but we knew it was just because they were jealous. For dinner Friday night we went to this fancy restaurant called La Porta D’Acqua. Our roommates said it was top ranked on Trip Advisor, and since Meg and I had been saving money on food by making PB&J’s, we decided to spurge and go out. Meg and I split two pasta dishes; Paccheri Pasta With Spider Crab And Tomatoes Confit Sauce and Home made Tagliatelle In Sauce Of Tomato, Eggplant And Smoked Buffalo Mozzarella. The food was outstanding. Our waiter had a very dry sense of humor, however Erin thought he was serious so naturally she became the butt of all his jokes. After a 3 hour dinner, Sal, our waiter gave us two complementary bottles of wine and took away the cover charge. He told us that, "Although we were his loudest group of Americans, we were his favorite group so far". He might say that to everyone, but we will take it. 

Chocolate Everything!

            On Saturday we spent half of the day in Venice, then took at train home mid-day so that we could spend Valentines day in Florence. Right outside of the train station and our apartment in Florence there was a small chocolate festival. After an hour of exploring, we determined that we had seen every type of chocolate. Hot chocolate, chocolate bars, chocolate truffles, chocolate fondue, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate covered waffles, chocolate in the shape of animals, chocolate cover nuts, fudge, chocolate spreads, any type of chocolate you could think of was there.  Using extreme will power, I walked away with only five Euros in chocolate, unlike some of my roommates who spent about 30 euros.

            Overall, it was amazing to see another part of Italy. Venice was beautiful, but because of all the narrow alleys and winding canals, it is almost impossible not to get lost in the city. However, getting lost in Venice is not the worst thing that could happen to you. You are surrounded by beauty everywhere you look. I would love to revisit Venice in the Spring when it is a little warmer and there is not so many tourists. As always, this week I learned a few things about Italy. I learned that while abroad, Google Translate is your best friend, because when in doubt you can type it out and all the locals will know what you are saying.nI also learned that there are no gyms in Florence, with all the pasta consumption around here I have no idea how they all stay so skinny. Also, in Italy no matter where you go you have to pay cover charge to sit down at a table, it is like you are renting out the table while you eat so you might as well sit there for as long as possible. Meg and I learned that their is no shame in packing PB&J’s when exploring Europe on a college budget. I learned that when exploring Venice, if you did not get lost, you didn’t really explore because getting lost is all part of the journey. Lastly, I learned a fun fact in my marketing class today. On average americans consumer over a billion pounds of peanut butter a year, where one European, on average, consume less than a tablespoon of peanut butter a year...No wonder it cost 6 Euros for a small container of peanut butter here! 

            Well…. That’s about all for this week. Meg and I are still deciding where we are going to go this weekend. It is between Madrid, Spain and London, England. Read next Monday to find out where our adventures take us! Miss everyone and hope all is well in America! P.S Don't take Girl Scout cookies for granted...You don't realize how much you miss them until you are 2,500 miles away from them.

The Coast of Venice