Well, technically this is the "late winter vacation" in France because I have another break in April...when do the French go to school you ask? Yeah, I'm asking the same thing. But I'm not complaining! I've been in Italy since Sunday with my friend Amelia visiting family friends and this has been a wonderful break. Here's a few stories from my past couple of days.
On Monday, Amelia and I went to Venice with Mrs. Juliano and Tia for the day and after, we stayed the night in a hostel. We had lunch at Tia's favorite pizza place and there I tried a spritze for the first time (the drink of Venice). It's a very light drink made with local proseco wine, Aperol, and sparkling mineral water, garnished with an orange wedge and an olive. Typically it is also served with a bowl of potato chips (interesting but perfect combo) that is taken as an aperitif (appetizer). We slowly made our way to St. Marco's Square where we parted ways and Amelia and I had the true Venice experience of getting lost in the small streets. Seriously, it's a huge maze trying to get around that huge city, even with a map. It's very hard to find the names of streets and the smaller ones aren't noted on the map but we had a lot of fun because we weren't in a rush. We managed to find a great, clean, safe hostel less than a 5 minute walk from the square and from the coast for 26 euros a night! It was a private hostel room for just us two as well! What a SWEET deal. We had a pasta dinner and I tried tiramisu. It was great! We did some more walking around and went to bed after a long day of exploring and we didn't want to be out late at night in Venice, alone, with the high probability of getting lost if we ventured out into the streets.
The next morning we stopped by a bakery and bought some biscotti, which is not the "biscotti" that you imagine. Basically, they're just an assortment of small cookies. We walked to the Rialto Bridge and ordered a hot chocolate/cappuccino and ate our biscotti. Just so you know, hot chocolate here is literally melted chocolate. So it's extremely thick and rich. We then did some more walking around and met up with Becca, who's a WP cadet studying in Lille who was touring around Italy with some friends, at the square. It was so nice that our vacations matched up in Venice that day and I'm glad we were able to have a reunion! She was with four other girls and that was cool walking around and doing some shopping with the girls. We had a kebab for lunch (kebabs are everywhere in France/Italy) for 3.50 euros. All of us bought a few souvenirs and I got 2 really nice scarves for 10 euros and a few postcards. Had some gelato (it's a daily ritual) and it was the flavor of sweet white wine and nutella! It was amazing!! Venice is such a beautiful city. The combination of the history, the bright painted buildings, and the canals is phenomenal. There's no place like it. What an experience! The one thing I wasn't too much a fan of was how commercialized the city had become. Tourist traps everywhere you look with aggressive vendors who keep talking to you as you walk by their stores and come up to you with their products of mostly junk that I wasn't ever intending to buy. One guy literally tried to shove a stemmed rose into Amelia's arms to get her to buy it. Not really the way to get customers but at the same time, I undrestand they have to be proactive for their job--but don't block the top of every bridge with your products where I'd rather take a picture. Or let people walk around sightseeing attractions without being bombarded by cheap things made in China. :/
Just a little rant but that's the only thing that's been an issue during our time here. Great perks of the trip thusfar:
- being able to have long talks with close family friends
- introducing Amelia to the family
- having homemade meals
- having access to American food
- traveling to Venice and Verona for 8 euros roundtrip on the train.
- seeing Juliet Capulet's balcony
- tasting a new flavor of gelato everyday (only buying from the places where they actually make their own gelato right in the store!)
- having real Italian pizza
- walking through authentic shopping markets
- seeing the Vicenza Army base and feeling a piece of home here
- seeing Roman ruins and arenas
- talking to interested high schoolers about WP
- having homemade risotto
- eating baguettes with olive oil, salt, and fresh basil (yum!)
- seeing beautiful cathedrals with painted frescos
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