Current location: on a train, somewhere in between Bologna and Rome. It’s my first Thanksgiving not in Ithaca. But, I am so thankful to have Melissa and Bari here so I’m not alone on one of my favorite American holidays. So, instead of eating the greatest meal of the year in Ithaca with the fam, BAM spent Thanksgiving in the one and only city on the water- Venice. After spending a couple rainy days in my Perugia sweet Perugia, we somewhat spontaneously decided to take a trip to Venice. We were there for a perfect 24 hours. We arrived yesterday (Wednesday) around 4:30, took a water bus, and found our way to our FANTASTIC hostel off the Fondamente Nove waterbus stop just as the sun began to set. First, what a nice man at the desk at the hostel, and what a great room! We started walking towards St. Mark’s Square, and on the way we found some adorable shops, including the most memorable book store, The Most Beautiful Book Store in the World. Piazza San Marco was breathtaking upon it’s first appearance to us- everything has such a different charm and peace to them at night. It was just beautiful!! While standing in the empty square we called the family to wish them a happy thanksgiving and to tell them we were in Venice! What a surprise to them! Then we found ourselves a cute restaurant where I FINALLY got some good Italian profiteroles (an Italian dessert). I can’t believe it took me this long to get some, but they were worth the wait. Yummy.
On Thursday, we got breakfast delivered to our room from the guy who runs the hostel! And it was a legit full breakfast, with croissants, rolls, nutella, jams, tea, and orange juice! We were up and out by 9 and we went to go see St. Mark’s square by day. They had the platforms up because due to the crappy weather this week, the square was flooded. Fortunately, it cleared up later in the day and we were able to frolick with the famous pigeons in the square, but until then we did a super cool tour of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge Palace). It had some pretty fantastic rooms, including the enormous council room that had enormous frescoes on the wall and a giant clock that had 24 roman numeral digits and went counter clockwise. My favorite part of the palace, though, was the dungeons- we walked across the bridge of sighs (*siiigh*) and into the prison cells. And yeeesh. I am never committing a crime … in the 15th century … they were not at all comfortable. The coolest part of that section was in one cell they had an exhibit of drawings/sketches that one prisoner somehow managed to put on the wall of his cell. I don’t know how they got it in a display case … maybe it was plastered? I dunno, but it was pretty wild to see those. Then, we went inside St. Mark’s Basilica. Again … wow. I didn’t know that the entire ceiling as well as the design on the outside is actually a mosaic. The background color is gold, and it was seriously enchanting. I’m really glad we went inside. Then, our last sight-seeing destination was the bell tower. Once again, we timed things perfectly- we got to the top just in time to hear the bell ring at noon. So besides that exhilarating aspect, the view was incredible. We could see Venice and beyond, all the way to the Alps. So glad it was a clear (although cold) day.
After lunch and some more shopping, we rode back to Perugia and upon our return, made ourselves a pretty kick-butt Thanksgiving dinner (if I do say so myself) of gnocchi with pesto and salad. Happy Thanksgiving!
On Friday we went to Assisi, a small yet famous I guess? town an hour bus ride from Perugia. Before going, we read about St. Francis, for whom the big church there and other things are for. If you get a chance, go read about this guy. He was the MAN. Basically, he was the son of wealthy nobility, but he got a calling from god to lead a life of poverty, compassion, and equality. So one day, Francesco (his Italian name, and I figured out that the reason why so many Perugians are named Francesco is because they are named after this saint) stood in front of his father and his whole town and stipped naked, declaring his new life. He accepted everyone with equality, including women, and eventually gathered some followers. The monks who now live in Assisi (we saw them everywhere) are some of them. It was really interesting to read about. Seriously, if you have time, just look up some stuff on him on the internet. I found it very inspiring. Once again, I’ve never been a very spiritual person and do not feel a strong connection to Jesus (obviously), but the story and the history behind St. Francis of Assisi was really interesting to me. Oh italy, you sure are turning me into an art history, architect-noticin’, saint-lovin’ girl. Assisi is also an adorable town- we were only there for a couple hours but I would have no problem having another go at it, cuz there were a few things in the guide book that we missed.
The one last adventure that Italy provided for us was the bus home- somehow we missed something between the lines, because the bus that we got that was full of Italian middle schoolers apparently did not stop in Perugia, even though the info at the bus stop said it did. We dunno what happened, but the bus driver was on a very rainy highway not going towards Perugia and told me in Italian that that was the last stop. Umm, what? But he was very kind and called his other bus driver friend, dropped us in some ugly random town, and we waited for 20 minutes and another bus heading to Perugia picked us up. Hahaa, whoops.
What a BAM-ful week! I saw them off very early on Saturday morning. I was so thankful for them coming, again. Not only did it let me to re-discover Perugia for my self as I showed them around and give me an excuse to eat as much gelato as possible, but I got to be their tour guide in their first experience in Europe and have the company of people who have known me the longest. Yay family =)
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