A weekend in Italy!

Why northern Italy in February?! Well, I have a friend from working at Watervale (my insane summer job in northern Michigan), who is studying abroad in Florence for the semester. Since my ISA group was taking off for Sevilla for the weekend, a city I have seen twice already, I decided to go and visit Sarah! It was Carnival in Venice, kind of like Mardigras in Louisiana, so we planned to spend Saturday night seeing what all the fuss was about. This is a recap of my weekend!

PISA: Thursday morning I woke up early, grabbed the 4 bocadillos (sandwiches) Montse had prepared for me and stuffed them in my backpack, caught a 6 a.m. train to Madrid (after mistakingly leaving my favorite hat at the ticket counter! Darn), then took the commuter train to the airport, then finally caught a RyanAir flight that brought to Pisa, Italy. Flying into Italy over the Mediterranean Sea,  I was shocked to wake up from my nap and see islands floating in the foggy horizon to my right, and purple mountains out the window to my left.  The landscape was absolutely breathtaking, and I wasn't even off the plane yet! I kept my head glued to the window just staring out until we were in the clouds and about to land.

Thankfully, the Pisa airport is tiny and quite easy to navigate (unlike Madrid!), so I easily caught a 2 euro bus to see the leaning tower of Pisa, a tourist destination that I could not pass up. It was much different than I thought it would be; for some reason, I imagined it to be in a grassy hill, surrounded by fields and Italian landscape, out in the middle of nowhere. Instead, the tower was simply a bus stop within the small city of Pisa, kept within a walled fortress, which is now crowded with vendors selling t-shirts and magnets and knock-off purses.  The tower itself was beautiful, and definitely had a lean to it, but in my opinion, only worth the hour or so I spent there relaxing in the grass... until the Italian security guards kicked me and all the other tourists off the lawn.

See the lean? It's real!

So touristy; I couldn't resist...

After that, I caught another bus to the train station, paid 7 euro for a train to Florence and was on my way.  I got on  what I hoped was the right train and figured that somehow, despite not being able to reach Sarah via cellphone all day, our plans would work out.  I surprisingly stayed calm the whole ride, enjoying the Tuscany landscape out my window, and snacking on a chocolate Kinder bar while listening to my ipod.  Even if I was headed in the wrong direction, I was at least seeing Italy.  (I was surprised to see that in the towns we went through people had their laundry hanging outside to dry; it was at most 40 degrees F outside, and about to snow.  Does nobody in this country own a dryer?! Very different).  About an hour into my ride, her mother called me from Kentucky, explaining that Sarah couldn't reach me without knowing my area code...whoops. Maybe we should have figured that out before I left!  Despite my doubts, the train finally stopped in the Florence train station an hour and half later.  Nobody had even checked my train ticket! Outside the station, I waited for Sarah, admiring at all the Italians running about. They looked quite similar to Spaniards, except a little bit taller and slightly different fashion. And a different language, obviously!

Finally reunited with Sarah, we spent the evening sharing study abroad stories and talking about the upcoming summer, when we will work together again as waitresses at a small resort in Michigan.

Tuscany landscape from the train

FLORENCE:The city of AMAZING FOOD and beautiful Italian men. Or is that all of Italy? No matter; this is the city where I stuffed my face with delicious pasta and rich gelato, without any hesitation or regret.  My first night in Florence, Sarah and 2 friends took me out to Dante's, a local Italian restaurant "across the river," where we were served free wine (since we are students), as much bread and olive oil as we could eat, pasta and pizza, and of course, dessert!

At dinner, I realized that even though I can't speak Italian and the Italians can't speak Spanish, we could still understand one another.  Tipsy off of wine, I engaged the chef in conversation about my studies in Salamanca; I could understand him just enough, and he could make out my Spanish so that we could have a basic conversation. How fun!  Even though most Italians can speak and understand English, I had more fun over the weekend speaking Spanish instead, pretending like I wasn't an American.

The Italian chef who served us free pizza dough! Yum.

The Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) by night

After our grand dinner, the four of us bundled up and made our way back across the river to go out to an Italian club, called "Twice," one of the most insane club experiences of my life. The dance floor was packed full of young people, mostly American study abroad students, and of course, Italian Men.  Inside, it was hot and sticky, the music deafening, and people were bumping and grinding, making it nearly impossible to move. Salamanca definitely has it's nightclubs and discoteca's...but Italy brought it to a whole other level! Needless to say, after about 30 minutes, I was ready to call it a night, tired from my day of traveling.  I was surprised that on our walk home, which only a few blocks away, we were followed by Italian men, and had to slam the apartment door in their face as we went inside. Apparently, creepy men are a common problem for study abroaders in Italy.  Sarah was surprised when I told her that I  almost always walk home by myself in Salamanca, and it' never an issue.

Friday, we slept in and enjoyed a breakfast of coffee and bread from the cafe downstairs.  We spent the day enjoying a HUGE lunch, shopping, and napping.  Outside was freezing cold and snowy, so we avoided being outside for very long.  How nice it was to enjoy the freedom of Sarah's small apartment, shared with 2 other American girls.  Freedom to use a kitchen, leave a mess, not make the bed, speak in English guilt-free; quite the opposite from my Spanish homestay!

Sarah with her pasta dinner

Yummmm; Italian vegetable soup!

Saturday, we were supposed to head up to Venice for Carnival, a weekend of crazy parties where everyone wears fancy masks.  Due to bad weather forecasts, and fear the trains would get snowed in, we decided to cancel our trip and stay in Florence.  Bummed because we still had to pay for our hostel, we made the most of it, sightseeing all day in Florence and reassuring ourselves that it was the more responsible decision. Sarah brought me to the market, where I proceeded to buy a new leather purse, a purple wool scarf, dried fruit, and a wafful+nutella+gelato dessert. Talk about Heaven on Earth...

GELATO: This Italian desert is something I THOUGHT I had experienced before in the states. Boy was I wrong.  I will try to do it justice through words: IT IS THE MOST DELICIOUS FROZEN DESSERT I HAVE EVER TASTED!  Initially mad because the tiny cups cost at least 2 euro, I was skeptical about paying so much for so little.  I mean, if I were in America, a cup that size wouldn't even be sufficient for a toddler-sized dessert!  But as soon as I dipped the little plastic spoon into the chocolatey goo, I soon understood that a little goes a long way. Rich and creamy and melts-in-your-mouth, there is nothing that could ever replace a cup of authentic Italian gelato. I probably had 5 cups in a matter of 3 days; I WISH I HAD SOME RIGHT NOW!

Sarah's apartment is right in the middle of Florence, around the corner from the Duomo, a big old church in the middle of the city, with one of the oldest domes in Europe, and the biggest brick dome in the world. Absolutely beautiful! (And yes Dad, I did take the time to go inside and check it out!). A gorgeous building, to say the least, even if it did create a wind tunnel as we had to walk around it, freezing any part of exposed skin to the icy wind.

VENICE (kind of...): Despite canceling our Venice trip, I planned on catching an early morning train on Sunday to the Venice, take look around, snap a few photos, and hop on a plane and head back to Spain. Unfortunately, due to bad weather and snow, my train was delayed, so I had to get off early and head for the airport without seeing Venice. Does it count that I saw Venice from the sky? It was still beautiful, and much smaller than I imagined it would be. Attached to the mainland by a bridge, it is an island that uses waterways instead of roads...oh how I would have loved to see the frozen rivers in the historical city! 

 Goodbye to the beautiful snowcapped mountains of Italy...

...and back home to the flat, dry landscape of central Spain:

To sum it all up, I LOVED Italy; the food, shopping, and long train rides made for a relaxing weekend.  And, it was so much fun seeing Sarah.  After a long day of traveling, I was relieved to make it back to Salamanca at 11pm Sunday night and head off to classes Monday morning. I'll never forget the rich food, interesting people, and beautiful landscape of northern Italy in mid-February. 

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!