Two weeks ago I had a free weekend and decided on a whim to go visit my friends Diane and Clarice who were studying abroad in Ascoli, Italy. I took a train ride to San Benedetto, and met up with them at the beach. I got to swim in the Adriatic sea! After a few hours of enjoying the beautiful water we went to Ascoli which is a really cute town with no tourists. It is a medieval town, so it has old buildings and picturesque scenery. At night there was a dance competition with all of the locals at the piazza which we got to watch part of. Then we went to this bar called Murphy’s which the kids in their program go to every night and it had all locals, which is different from the bars in Florence which have lots of international students.
When I got back to Florence that weekend I went to “white night” in Florence which was a festival celebrating the first night of summer. I went with some friends and had an amazing time looking at all of the tents set up selling items and food. There were also a bunch of musicians in that whole area by the Ponte Vecchio, so we did some dancing to Italian music. Another night that week was San Giovanni day, so they set off fireworks by the Arno. The whole river was lined with people watching them and eating gelatos. My favorite gelato combination (after trying almost all of the flavors at my favorite place, La Carraia) is fondente and cocco (dark chocolate and coconut).
My last week in Florence I did a bunch of tourist type things that we had left until the last minute, like seeing Michelangelo’s “David” at the Accademia. This 17 ft tall sculpture is absolutely amazing all the way down to the detailed veins in his hands. Then our class went to the Uffizi and saw “La Primavera” and “The Birth of Venus,” two famous paintings by Botticelli. That week I also went to Piazzalle Michelangelo which has a beautiful view overlooking Florence, as well as climbing the Duomo and the belltower. A couple of friends and I went to an Apertivo, which is something that the Italians do. You go to a restaurant and pay a flat fee and get an alcoholic beverage and unlimited appetizers. I’m glad I got to experience a local tradition.
That about sums up my study abroad experience. I’m really happy that I had the opportunity to experience everything in Italy this summer, and meet all of the great people I became friends with. I have had the time of my life! Now I’ll talk about when my family came over.
I was excited to meet up with my family in Venice after not seeing them for 6 weeks. Something really funny that happened in Venice was when we were riding a gondola. We were about to go under a really low bridge, so our gondolier (or whatever you call him) told us to all lean onto one side of the boat so that the tips of the gondola would be low enough to go under. However, the back side of the gondola got stuck on bridge. Our whole family had to go to the back side of the boat to lower it enough to fit under. Luckily, I got this all on video!
Then we went off to Roma! The first day we got to see Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain (which is beautiful), and the Pantheon. That night I went on a bar crawl with my friends Katie and Ekta (friends from my Florence program) who were also in Rome, which was a really fun time. If you are like my mom and don’t know what a bar crawl is, it is when you go to three different bars and then a club. I’m glad I did it, and I even got a free t-shirt! The next day my family and I went to the Vatican. It was scorching hot in Rome and makes it hard walking around the huge city and to all of the places of interest. We did St. Peter’s Basilica first, and Christie decides to get sick in one of the most sacred places on Earth. She throws up on the marble floor with tons of tourists everywhere, right where everyone lines up to rub the foot of the famous sculpture of St. Peter…it was pretty gross but humorous at the same time. Luckily the guards handled the situation well and didn’t seem too upset about it. Then we went to the Vatican museum and got to see lots of artwork by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. At the end of the never-ending museum, we got to see the Sistine Chapel! I find it amazing to think about how Michelangelo painted for four years lying on his back up at that height.
Another extremely hot day followed, and that is the day we went to the Colosseum. I was really excited to see this in person after learning about it in all of my history classes. Then we went to the Roman forum, which is where the center of Roman life used to be. It was neat to see all of the ancient ruins and broken columns on the ground. That night we got to see the Trevi Fountain at night, which was really cool because the water was all lit up. It was the 4th of July, so I pretended that this was similar to fireworks, since I was feeling Independence Day deprived.
The following day we departed Rome in our rental car. Now, let me just say this trip has been my worst rental car experience ever. First of all, the van we rented was a standard which makes things difficult (Thank goodness I didn’t have to drive). My dad tries to pull out of the parking spot in front of the rental place and drives into the table in front of us with people sitting on it (I wish I video taped it because it was pretty funny). An Italian man had to jump in our car and teach my dad how to reverse. Then after surviving getting out of Rome we realize that highway signs and street signs are way different than America. They are so confusing, and the people speeding down the autostrade (highway), without police enforcement, made things very interesting. Anyways, that day I revisited Sienna with my family. In the days that followed, I revisited Pisa, Lucca, Cinque Terre, and my favorite…Florence! I was able to be my family’s tour guide at these places. We have been staying at cute bed and breakfast houses in the rural parts of Italy, right outside of the cities. This has given me a better understanding for Italian local life.
Right now I am on my long flight home back to America! I am actually really excited to return home and see all of my friends and family that I miss so much (yes, that means you!). I will definitely miss Italy, but will always remember the wonderfully fun experiences that I had and things that I learned. Ciao!
