100 Day Challenge - Day 72

Day 72 - A picture of you with unbelievable scenery.

 Venice, Italy. On the Rialto Bridge.

European Tour: Europe with Family - Riva and Bellinzona

After leaving Venice, we got on the train and headed towards Switzerland. I got off at the Riva stop and my parents continued on to Lugano, where they were staying. The next morning, I walked back to the train station to meet them and bring them to Riva.

Lake Lugano in the background

Me and my parents :)

I gave them the tour around Riva itself, showed them the 3 bars, ristorante, pharmacy, bank and stopped at the lake for a photo shoot. The lake is Lake Lugano, where we went during the warmer months to hang out and swim after class. They have a swing set and slide in the little "park" there.

After the park, we headed to the Casa where I showed them around, and we had another photo shoot in the garden. After being at the Casa for awhile, we walked back to the train station.

Bellinzona

This is when my dad had his infamous temper tantrum. He went to go buy the tickets for the train, but it wouldn't accept his credit card. It kept asking for a PIN, and my dad kept screaming at the machine that he didn't have a PIN. Then he didn't have enough Swiss Francs on him to pay for it all in cash, so I had to run back to the Casa (literally, run) and get my debit card to try it. I thought he was going to have a heart attack because his blood pressure was so high. After I bought the tickets, we got on the train and headed to Bellinzona.

With Bellinzona's castle's in the background

Castlegrande

At Castlegrande

Bellinzona is known for it's castles, there are 3 of them. Castlegrande, Sasso Corbaro, and Montebello.  We walked around the castles for a bit, inspecting the outside of the castles and enjoying the view. We then went inside to go through the museum and see the medieval artifacts and learn how Bellinzona has grown. It was cool to learn about how they dug through the Alps (Bellinzona sits at the foot of the Alps) in order to make the tunnel.

After touring the castles, we went down to the village to eat at a local cafe and get some really good pizza and wine.

Train ride back to Lugano

After lunch, we got back on the train to head towards Lugano. There were people smoking weed in the compartment in front of us, and I think we all might have gotten a contact high because we started giggling and could not stop. Uncle Joe went to stick his head out of the window to get a picture of the countryside and almost got in taken off as we whizzed into a tunnel...which set off more giggles.

After our train ride, we got back into Lugano, where we walked around the Casino and the Lake for a little bit and then went to dinner.

After dinner, it was time to say good-bye. My parents and Aunt and Uncle were off to Milan the next day and I had to start classes again. I had an amazing time with them, and got to experience some amazing stuff (thanks Dad for spoiling us!) and was sad to see them go. I just kept in mind that I would be back stateside in a few short weeks...

To be continued...Next Up: European Tour: The Casa

European Tour: Europe with Family - Venice

A two hour train ride from Florence, our next stop was Venice. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel, which was right off of San Marco's Square, and then headed to San Marco's Square. As I talked about in a previous post, Venice floods sometimes and one of the first places to flood is San Marco's Square. This time, there was evidence of the flooding. The puddles behind them in the picture aren't from rain, but from the standing water that was in the Square earlier.

Uncle Joe, Aunt Sue and parents in San Marco's Square

The first thing my mom wanted to check off her "bucket list" was feeding the pigeons. So she bought feed from the cart and the pigeons went to town. There she is, getting pecked on for food. Fortunately she didn't get pooped on, miraculously.

Mom, feeding the birds

The one-legged pigeon

With San Marco's behind us

As mom was finishing up feeding the pigeons, I noticed one pigeon who only had 1 leg. I felt sorry for it, snapped a picture of it (obviously) and let out an "Aww, look at that one" as I pointed it out to everyone else. As they were turning to see it, it literally dropped dead. We all laughed uncertainly, thinking that it was playing dead or something. But Dad nudged it with his toe and it was really dead. The animal lover in me felt so guilty...like I somehow had managed to kill the pigeon with just my glance. And seeing as how I almost killed someone's relative earlier in the trip (the candle incident as it's referred to in my family), it just wasn't working well for me. So Rest In Peace, you poor little bird :(

Typical scene on our sight-seeing tour

After San Marco's Square, we walked around for a little bit longer. My dad was in charge (as he was the whole time) of telling us what to do and when to do it. As you can see in the picture to the left...Dad is reading the map, the rest of us are waiting for him to tell us what to do and my mom was taking pictures of everything she could think of.

On the taxi boat to Murano

The next plan was to head over to Murano, to see the glass being blown and then made into something cool. We took the little "taxi" boats over to Murano, and walked around for a little bit after getting a demonstration.This is when my parents saw a fishbowl that was all glass and blown by the artists from that shop. I'll give it to them, it's a pretty cool decoration, its very intricate in it's design and looks like all the fish swimming in the bowl are real but they're indeed glass. I FREAKED out when they told me the price (isn't it supposed to be the other way around) and secretly wondered if they just traded the rest of my college education for a fishbowl...

Us, with the shop's cat

While we were waiting for the administrative part of the process to get going, Mom and I decided to walk around some more. We happened to come across the shop's pet cat. As I've explained before, I'm a HUGE animal lover and while both my parents enjoy animals, my mom has a soft spot for them...especially cats. So Mom and I spent a better half of an hour petting and playing with the kitty while my dad negotiated prices and shipping and all the fun stuff.

View from our room

After ordering the fishbowl, we got back on a water taxi and headed back to the main island of Venice. We walked around a little more, taking in the sights and then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Our hotel had two entrances/exits. One was from the street and you can access it by foot, the other was from the water. Gondola's or little water taxi's could pull up behind the hotel and deposit you and your belongings. One of the main disadvantage to taking a boat in Venice is you have to know when the tides are changing. If it is high tide, boats can't get under bridges and other things...so you're blocked in until the tide goes down. Just another thing to think about when you travel by water all the time.

Mom, Me, Aunt Sue and Uncle Joe on the gondola

Me at the Doge's Palace

After dinner, we decided to check the "take a ride in a gondola" off our bucket list. Once the gondolier got us all situated according to our weights and balanced the boat...we were off. Dad had to sit in the very front of the boat by himself (the same place I got put when I rode with my friends in the earlier trip), and he's responsible for the pictures that were taken...so needless to say, they're kind of blurry. There are many things my dad is very good at, taking really good pictures is not one of them. I'm trying to train him better...It was getting dark outside so most of the pictures from the ride didn't turn out well, but we did get some with the famous Rialto Bridge in the background. We circled around the whole island of Venice, navigating the canal waters.

Uncle Joe and  Aunt Sue

The next day we made a stop at the Doge's Palace before we had to get on the train to Switzerland. The Doge of Venice was the ruler of Venice at one point in time, and much like you were expect from a royal, his palace was lavish.

After our visit to the Doge's Palace, we went back to the hotel to finish packing and check out so we could head to Switzerland. We found Aunt Sue and Uncle Joe in the hotel bar, cheersing to Venice and Italy in general...a good way to leave the city. We got in a water taxi that would take us back to the "mainland" so we get to the train station. The last picture really shows just how small the water taxis are, Uncle Joe and my dad look super uncomfortable squished into the little boat. And keep in mind, there were 3 others of us, as well as all our luggage. It would've been nice if it wasn't raining, we could've stood out on the deck of the boat, but no such luck. We all crammed into the little inside of the boat...but it was definitely a fitting ending for our trip to Venice.

Crammed into the little water taxi

 To be continued...Next Up: European Tour: Europe with Family - Riva and Bellinzona

European Tour: Europe with Family - Florence

As we all know, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Europe...but seeing as how we were Americans, we got a few days off for "Thanksgiving Break." My family took that opportunity to come visit me.

My mom doesn't handle airplanes and flying very well. And at this point in time, she hadn't gotten on an airplane in a very long time. But this was her motivation to get on one, come see her favorite child...in Europe. It was definitely a no-brainer. So my mom, dad and Aunt Sue and Uncle Joe headed over to Italy for a visit. They flew into Rome and did their touristy thing there while I was still in class.

I met up with them in Florence after my midterm.Which was a journey in itself..it's supposed to be a 3 hour and 15 minute train ride from Riva to Florence. However, a person got hit while standing on the train tracks so we had to divert and it ended up taking 6 hours. Thank God for the nice man on the train who realized I understood none of the what the conductor was saying over the loud speaker and translated for me. After my 6 hour adventure, my dad met me at the train station and took me to our hotel. My parents got a room that had the master suite, a kitchen/dining/living room and then a room with a bathroom for me...definitely a big step up from the way I had been traveling with my group in Riva.

We went to a restaurant that their tour guide had recommended...where some people proceeded to drink the very good wine, and lots of it. After singing and dancing through the streets on our way back to the hotel...in our made up Italian no less, we all headed to bed because it was late.

Dad and Me

The next day we were up bright and early (on my Dad's schedule), ate breakfast in the hotel (traditional European breakfast) and then bundled up to head out. In the picture above, Dad and I are standing right outside of our hotel. The Arno River is right behind the wall we're standing in front of and that's the Ponte Vecchio to the right. We walked across the Ponte Vecchio, shopping and heading into shops that caught our fancy along the way. 

Pointing out the Hotel

With Mom and Aunt Sue

Once we got to the other side, Mom made me do the touristy thing and point out where our hotel was...the things I do to please my mother. We spent most of the day just lollygagging around Florence. They had done all the "touristy" stuff (The David, Il Duomo, etc.) the day before with a tour guide and I had already been to Florence with the group. So, there weren't any particular things we were dying to see...we made our way around Florence, stopping shops and buying things as we saw them.

Us at Lunch

We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch, I had a really good pizza...hard to mess up pizza when you're in Italy though. After lunch, we headed over to Santa Croce...another church. In every church that Uncle Joe went in during the trip, he would light a candle and pray that Navy would beat Notre Dame. I'm not exaggerating, in all of the 10 churches he went in, he lit one. And Navy ended up winning the next football season and the years since, so something must have worked. I wanted to light a candle, so I took an unused one and went to light it with an existing one (the way you're supposed to), the candle fell out of its holder and extinguished the lit candle. I hurriedly re-lit that candle, but felt guilty for giving someone's grandma a heart attack. But no worries, I re-lit her candle, so she should be good to go, just a minor scare.

Dad and Uncle Joe with Neptune

After lunch, we continued our tour de Florence on foot. Dad and Uncle Joe had to stop at the statue of Neptune...being in the Navy and all, they were really tight with the God of the Sea, at least, I think that was the reasoning they gave me...?

We also stopped by the fountain of the "Porcellino." Which is a statue of a wild boar. Legend has it that if you rub the snout of the boar, you are destined to come back to Florence. We all rubbed the snout, so it looks like Florence is on my places to visit again.

After our afternoon adventures, we went back to the hotel to rest for a little bit and get ready to go to dinner...once again the tourist of Europe has a motto of "walk, eat, walk, eat" and we were definitely sticking to that.

Aunt Sue with our wine bottle :)

Ponte Vecchio shop

Dinner that night was at a restaurant that was near our hotel. We were some of the only people in there. I managed to knock my full glass of red wine everywhere (I should learn to talk without my hands) but other than that it was a quiet and awesome meal. After dinner, I showed them the place we went to on our earlier trip for Gelato. Once again, the gelato was delicious.

We walked back across the Ponte Vecchio and went to the hotel to rest up for our trip to Venice the next morning.

To be continued...Next Up: European Tour: Europe with Family - Venice

European Tour: Milan, Italy

As many people know soccer, or futbol as the Europeans call it, is a big deal in Europe. It's kind of like American football in America...but even bigger. So, we decided it would be a good experience to go and see some European futbol live.

Katie and Me at dinner

Megan and Kathryn at Dinner

We chose the A.C. Milan vs. A.C. Roma game on November 11th. We took the hour long train ride down from Riva and made our way to a Pub for some dinner and drinks before the game. It was a Pub that was dedicated to Rugby, so there were games on and people getting rowdy already when we got there. From what I remember, it was good food, good drink and great company :)

After finishing dinner, we headed towards the stadium. The long road to the stadium is filled with vendors selling shirts, scarfs, noise makers, etc. Katie got an AC Milan jersey...the rest of us attempted to stay neutral. The crowd was already forming into packs, AC Milan fans and AC Roma fans. The police were out in full force, and we were just preparing ourselves. At this point, it was kind of like attending a Virginia Tech/UVA game...intense rivalry, people yelling profanity at the other side...nothing we hadn't seen before. Half of our group had bought tickets after us, so they were in a different section. We took a group picture before we broke off from them.

Group, before the game

Standing by our seats

Us, with the usher

We broke off from Katie, Jamie and Molly and headed towards our seats. Which, might I add, were actually really good seats. We were right behind a goal, so we got to see both teams play offense and defense. The usher in our section became our fast friend. He loved that we were American. He loved that we were girls. He loved that we were American girls at an AC Milan futbol game. He kept trying to converse with us...him, in broken English, us in broken Italian. He took the picture to the left for us...and then cornered someone to take the below picture with us. He gave me his email address and asked me to send it to him. Which is just a tad creepy, and I managed to lose him email address (whoops) so that never actually happened. But at least we have the documentation of our fan :)

After our photo-shoot the game started. As I have stated in previous posts, I love soccer. I used to play it as a kid, and watching it is very exciting. So, even though the action on the field was amazing to watch, the action in the stands just boggled my mind. Their fans are crazy with a capital C. They are loud (can ALMOST compare to Lane Stadium loud), they are fanatical and knowledgeable and most importantly, they light FIRES in the stand. That's not a smoke signal you're seeing, that is the actual fire the fans lit in the stands. And no one panics, they just cheer more for the fire...it was definitely one of the most nutso sports experiences I've ever had.

Yes, that is a real fire, purposefully lit...in the stands.

AC Roma ended up winning, our "hometown" team defeated...we attempted to make our way back to the train station. I say attempted because when you got to the exit of the stadium, cops lined the road. If you were an AC Milan fan, you went right...an AC Roma fan, you went left. No mixing, AT ALL. That didn't stop people from screaming over the line of cops...profanities, something about someone's mother, you get the deal.

We ended the night with a McDonald's run, and then got back on the train where we all took an hour nap on the way back to Riva.

Definitely a sporting event I will not soon forget, I'm glad I got to experience Futbol the European way.

To be continued...Next Up: European Tour: Europe with Family - Florence

European Tour: Florence, Italy

After making our way from the train station to Hotel Olympia, we were pretty worn out. The hotel was on the top floor of a building, and the elevator space was small (as already pointed out before: European elevators are not the same as American ones). So some of us were tired from lugging our bags up flights of stairs. People got unpacked and ready to go sight-seeing in Florence. 

Hotel Olympia in Florence

I'm not sure why I wait so long to get the idea to take pictures of the hotel rooms, but I did in Florence. The top picture is a view of our hotel from the square. In the top right is a picture of our bathroom. That's right, the shower head came directly out of the wall and you stood in the middle of the bathroom to take a shower...someone even bashed their head on the sink (attempting to get their shampoo) forgetting that it wasn't a normal shower. The first picture on the bottom is the set up of the beds, and the last picture is the rest of the room, a little desk and TV included. The only thing we ever really watched on TV with MTV (insert name of country we were in). The rest of the channels were in the national language of the country and at least MTV played music videos sometimes.

The David

After unpacking, G-Rod got us all together to head out to see Accademia di Belle Arti - Academy of Fine Arts. This is where Michelangelo's David is housed. You're technically not supposed to take pictures (so all the signs say) but I pretended to be a "stupid tourist" and was able to snap a picture before being told off by a guard. So here he is, David in all his glory. The building also housed some really weird paintings representing baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary. It wasn't the nice images you see in most Christian stories but gothic and skinny and creepy, really. So we quickly made our way out of there and decided to do some shopping.

Florence is known for its Mercato Centrale. Where vendors line up on either side of the road and offer you "the best price, just for you" on anything you could think to want. Leather jackets, boots, coats, knock off Coach purses and Ray Ban sunglasses. One of the most interesting things to watch is the tactics of the policemen as they try to sneak up on the African men who are trying to sell the illegal goods. It's a sight to see when 20 men all of a sudden realize they're about to be arrested. They throw everything in their suitcase and run...sometimes they miss something, and you'll see a passerby scoop up the extra pair of sunglasses and run away.

DSP

While we were walking through the market, we actually ran into a guy who was wearing a DSP sweatshirt. Delta Sigma Pi (DSP) is a co-ed business fraternity that Kathryn, Megan and I were a part of...and we got really excited to see another person all the way in Europe rocking the letters. So of course, we had to take a picture with him.

The next day, my little group of friends made our way to a famous sight in Florence. Il Duomo, another church...but a very pretty one at that. As you can see from the pictures, it has a pretty architectural design. We walked around inside for a bit, checking out all the famous dead people that are entombed here. There are a couple of Popes, and a few architects that have a resting place in Il Duomo.

After seeing the Il Duomo, we started to venture down towards the Ponte Vecchio.On our way there, we passed by a festival (there's always some reason to celebrate in Europe) where they were having re-enactments and people were dressed up in period costumes. We hung around for awhile, watching the festivities, but then not knowing what was going on, we finally made our way to the Ponte Vecchio.

The Ponte Vecchio is a famous bridge that was built during Medieval times. It has shops and stores as you walk across the bridge, you can see how the shops hang off the side of the bridge in the picture. There's a lot of jewelry stores, souvenir shops and art dealers that are on the bridge now. At the other side of the bridge is a great Gelato place, we may or may not have eaten there a few times during our 2 day stay :)
 

To be continued...Next Up: European Tour: Milan

European Tour: Rome, Italy

 A quick ride from Sorrento to Rome, drop stuff off at hotel, and then head to Colosseum.  Once again, I had heard about it and scene it in movies and pictures but you just don't really know what it's about until you're there. Personally, I love history. And being able to stand in the same spot where someone thousands of years ago made up this architecture plan for the building is amazing. The use of the Colosseum, slaughtering people, not so amazing. But it doesn't make it seem any less majestic. It's run down because the people in the dark ages stole the screws and nails to melt down the iron, and use the stone inside. Hence why half of the building is gone and the inside is a mess.

The Colosseum

The Roman Forum

After the Colosseum, our tour guide took us around the "old" part of Rome...you know, thousands of years old. First the Roman Forum, kind of like the town square for the ancient Romans. The Forum, and other ancient buildings look like they were built very low (compared to the modern city). This is because throughout the years, the modern city has been built on top of the rubble of the ancient city. This picture was taken from me standing at "ground level" in the Modern City. Looking down at the ancient city's "ground level."

Capitoline Wolf

We stopped by the statue of the Capitoline Wolf. It's the legend of the founding of Rome. Legend has it the the King was overthrown by his brother. His brother ordered the twins Romulus and Remus be thrown in the Tiber. But they were rescued by a she-wolf who cared for them until a human found them.

Me, watching the changing of the Swiss Guards

After this, a couple of decided that since the next day was All Saint's Day, we would try to get tickets for the service at the Vatican. While most of the group went to look at the Pantheon, the rest of us made our way to Vatican City. I don't remember how I got nominated, but only one of us could go into the Swiss Guards to ask for the tickets...and it happened to be me. As I'm walking up the stairs, one of them yelled something at me in another language (I don't know if it was Italian or Latin) and I followed the lead of the guy in front of me and stopped walking. It was the changing of the guards, and I was standing right front and center. Very cool to watch, but embarrassing for me because everyone was standing behind me, trying to watch but I was in the way. After the guard change, I walked through the office of the Swiss Guard (SO cool to say that) and got the tickets for the service the next day.

Halloween costumes

Halloween Costumes

That night happened to be Halloween, so Molly took full advantage of the masks her mom sent her in a care package. Also, Bassil and Maggie dressed up as each other for Halloween. Nothing like seeing a hairy man in a halter top and a skirt....the hotel lady behind him is definitely judging him.

The  next day we had to get up SUPER early to go stand in line at the Vatican. Although we already had tickets, we wanted to get good seats in St. Peter's Basilica. It was pouring down rain the entire time we were standing there. Good thing we thought to bring rain jackets on our trip, and we met a nice couple who were there with a group from their church. They shared their umbrellas with us when they saw that we were starting to look like drowned rats.

The funny thing about people is that even though they are in one of the most Holy cities in the world, getting ready to see the Pope...they still try to cut in line. The line wrapped around St. Peter's Square, and those of us in the front of the line had been there since the wee hours of the morning. People would try to nonchalantly walk past all of us and jump in front of someone, then someone would notice and in some language tell that person to get to the back of the line. People are just amazing sometimes.

Once they opened the church, we were able to get seats in the second row of the seats that were reserved for the "normal" people. Those who were special guests, or contributed lots of money to the church got to sit in the first pews.

I'm not Catholic, but seeing the Pope was definitely one of my cooler experiences in life. In pictures, he looks kind of mean and intimidating. But in real life, he's one of the cutest old men ever. We sat through mass (which was done in Latin), and I honestly had no idea what was going on...I just kind of looked around at the amazing church and sat in awe that I was getting this awesome opportunity, and made sure to pay enough attention so I stood up and sat down with everyone else.

Mass with the Pope at St. Peter's

When Mass was over and the Pope was walking back down the aisle, a nun that we were sitting near nudged me forward so I was standing at the front of the pew. It was just in time for the Pope to bless me and touch my hand :)

Colosseum in the background

After Mass was over, we went back to the hotel to change out of our "nice" clothes and into something more tourist appropriate. We then went back out into the city for more sight-seeing. Had to get another picture with the Colosseum. Since some of my pictures were lost, I'm missing a picture of me with "Roman" guards. People would dress up in, what looked like, Halloween costumes of Roman people and stand near the Colosseum. If you paid them (or they liked you) you could take a picture with them. I had a few of me and them, and they were really funny...how sad that technology can ruin things :(

Next stop was the Spanish Steps. I won't lie, I'm kind of confused as to what the big deal about these are. They looked like regular ol' steps to me...but then again, what do I know. We walked from the Spanish Steps over to Trevi Fountain (they're a little less than half a mile away from each other) so I could see it. The others had gone the previous day when I was in Vatican City getting the tickets...so kudos to them for going to see a fountain again, thanks guys! We all through coins in the fountain, which means that you will definitely return to Rome again...so here's to hoping that the old wives tale is true!

We did stop at the Hard Rock Cafe on our sight-seeing journey. It was nice to have some "American" food - French Fries and Ranch - and have some American culture after being without it for a few months. And of course, the ice in the drinks and the free refills. The things you miss when you don't have the option for them anymore.

After sight-seeing, we went back to the hotel to go to dinner and then rest up for our day at the Vatican.

The next day was a trip to Vatican City (for the whole group) and to the Vatican Museums. After waiting in line for an hour (and I already explained how Europeans don't really wait in line) we finally made it in to the museum. I think you could spend an entire month in that place and never fully see everything. It is HUGE! Because we knew there wasn't enough time to see everything, and we were a little worn out from other churches and art museums that we had been to, we decided to cover the big and important stuff. The biggest one of them all being the Sistine Chapel. It's a small room and they have about as many people as you can physically cram in there in the small space. You get a chance to stand on your little square of land, and look up for a few minutes before you're "politely" moved along. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the Chapel, and unlike what I did in Florence, I decided that breaking a rule in Church probably wasn't the best idea in the world. Hence, no pictures.

We spent the rest of the day walking around, stopping in a little cafe for lunch and enjoying the sights of Rome.

To be continued...Next Up: European Tour: Florence