Spring Break

Salve!

So this year's spring break definitely turned out to be an awesome one. In the beginning I had no idea where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do for spring break so I had a lot of trouble deciding. I kind of had a plan later on in the semester on what I wanted to do but I hadn't booked any flights until it was too late, so they ended up being a little too expensive.

A really neat row of houses along a canal.

I was a little worried that I wasn't going to have a very good break since I hadn't booked anything but in the end it turned out to be a lot of fun. Me and my roommate ended up finding some decent flights to Amsterdam so we decided that we were going to spend a few days there and then head back to Torino for the 150th anniversary of Italy. So, on our first day of spring break we flew out to Amsterdam which was actually my first time in a plane since I got here haha. When we got to Amsterdam we were pretty blown away. It was wayyy different from Torino and holy crap there were a lot of bikes! I've never seen so many bikes in my entire life and I could not believe it. Once we got there, we headed to the hostel and checked out the city. Ansterdam is definitely a unique place to say the least haha and I definitely saw some things that I can't really describe on the blog (most of these things being in the red light district of course). But it was nice to relax in one place for a few days instead of constantly be traveling around everywhere for spring break. One of the funnest things we did was rent bikes and ride around the city. It was a lot of fun, and it was pretty easy since they have bike paths everywhere. I heard that bike paths are all over the country so you can get just about anywhere on a bike. The city had some awesome architecture that was a lot different from a lot of the places I had been to so it was really nice to see that. Just about everything is made out of brick and a lot of the houses were connected to each other like town houses. There was also a number of canals that go throughout the city so it even reminded me a little of Venice, and that provided for some really good scenery.

The main shopping center!

We ended up riding our bikes to the Van Gogh Museum to check out some artwork and that was really neat. From there, we headed to the Ann Frank House. There was a bit of a line going into the Ann Frank House so we didn't end up going inside but being on the outside was still really cool. After that, we turned in the bikes and got some dinner. I would say the thing that I ate the most while we were there was the fries. They had some pretty amazing fries you can get and then choose from about 30 different kinds of sauce. All of the sauces I had were, of course, awesome. Each night we would meet up with another group of people we knew from the program who were also staying there and we would go out to check out some of the pubs, bars, etc. They all turned out to be pretty cool and I had a really good time while I was there. After we got back from Amsterdam we spent the rest of our spring break in Torino for the 150th anniversary of Italy. It was really cool to celebrate this in Torino because it was actually the first capital of Italy back in 1861 which also made the event pretty special. The night before the big day, we headed out to the biggest piazza in the city and they had a huge stage set up playing live music and it was PACKED. There were thousands of people crowding around for the firework show that was about to take place. I got a really good spot and when the fireworks started I was blown away. It was a really cool show and it went on for awhile. It reminded me of back home when we celebrate 4th of July. It was just really cool to see so many people out and celebrating the unification of their country, definitely a cool cultural experience for sure.

A unified Italy.

The next day, we went downtown again and checked out all of the stuff going on for the celebration. Every piazza was filled with people and there were a bunch of street performers putting on shows, live music, booths, etc. It was nice to see everyone out having a good time on this national holiday and I really enjoyed it. This took place on the same day as St. Patrick's day in Ireland so we did a little celebrating for that as well. That last weekend I finally got my first taste of an Italian "disco." Some friends and I went and we had a really good time. They played a lot of good music, including a bunch of music from the States! (It's really popular over here). We were there until 5:30am and people were still dancing when we left! It was crazy but I had a really good time. Other than that, we just relaxed most of the time in Torino and overall I had an awesome spring break. Until my next trip,

Arrivederci!

The Ivrea Carnival

Hello Everyone!

So yesterday, on Tuesday March 8th, 2011 I had one of the funnest experiences of my entire life. I had the opportunity to visit the Ivrea carnival. This trip was organized by my study abroad program and it was just a day trip since the town of Ivrea was only about an hour train ride away. I had seen videos of what the carnival was like, but I still wasn't exactly sure what to expect so I was kind of anxious. There is a lot of history behind this small town's carnival and it basically started in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But the main event of this carnival is an absolutely MASSIVE orange battle the takes place over the course of five days! This dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century when beans were originally used because "twice a year the feudal lord gave a pot of beans to the poor families who, out of disrespect, threw them into the streets. The same pulses were also used at carnival as fun ammunition to be thrown at the backs of unsuspecting adversaries. Around the thirties and sixties of last century, girls started to throw some oranges from their balconies onto the parade carriages together with confetti, lupins and flowers. The targets of these were the boys by whom the girls wanted to be noticed. From the carriages the boys started to answer in kind and little by little, the gesture of homage became first a duel and then a real fight between the throwers on the balconies and those in the streets. Only after the Second World War did the battle become the present contest following fixed rules." (There's a nice history lesson for you).

So, we took a train and got to Ivrea at around noon. We talked towards the city center and had time to eat because the battles started at around 2pm. After walking around the heart of the town you can definitely get an idea of how serious this battle was going to be. Tuesday was the last day of the 5 day-long battles and I was told that there was over 100 people hospitalized on Sunday! (the craziest day). So needless to say I was a little nervous. The way it's organized is there are basically 9 teams, each team is located in one of the several piazzas in the town, with most of the time multiple teams in one piazza. Now, to be on an official team you need to pay 100 euros and you get a uniform and you get to take from the large orange pile on the side of the piazza. You also get free food and drinks during the carnival events which is nice, and this is for all five days. But we did not have to pay this because you can still participate without being on a team, but you obviously don't get a uniform and you can only use the oranges from the ground and of course no free food or drinks. So, the teams are spread out throughout the piazza and when the carnival starts, there are carriages  of the other teams being pulled by horse that go through the piazza. On these carriages are members of the other teams who are covered in armor and wearing helmets. The point is to basically hit these guys as much as you can and as hard as you can as they are being pulled around on their carriage throughout the piazza. Now these guys also have oranges, a lot of oranges, and there's about 8 of them per carriage. So they are constantly throwing oranges at everyone else in the piazza, while everyone else is throwing oranges at them. Also, if you are wearing red, they cannot hit you, and there are also nets on the side of the piazza where people can stand behind if they do not want to participate. So I bought a small red bandana to whip out just in case it got too intense haha. And if you are a person in the piazza, and you start hitting people that are not in the carriage, then everyone else starts hitting you, even if you're on another team, so DONT DO IT haha. And if you want to be one of the guys on the carriage, then you have to pay 500 euros! 

So 2pm was approaching and we were in one of the piazzas with multiple teams. There were two teams in this one and at the beginning there was a cool parade-like presentation and then the carriage carrying the "Vezzosa Mugnaia," or the heroine of the carnival, was brought throughout the piazza, throwing flowers in the crowd as everyone cheered for her. There's a reason why people cheer for her too, she pays around 80,000 euros! So she basically pays for the whole carnival to take place! That was really neat, and as the parade ended, the carriages came out and the battle began. And OH MY GOD this was crazy. The first two carriages came out and oranges started flying everywhere. I could not believe it and I immediately grabbed the first orange I saw and started throwing, trying not to get hit and trying to hit the guys on the carriage. This was absolutely insane and after the first two carriages went through, there was a 3-5 minute break before the next ones came so we decided to go to one of the more intense piazzas to meet up with one of our program coordinators, Daniele, who comes here every year and says this is the funnest place to go during the battles. This was a much smaller piazza with a bridge leading up to it so you can tell you were a lot more vulnerable here. Once we got there, the carriages were on our way and we stood on the bridge. Once they came we started to throw as many oranges as we could. I was relatively clean for about the first hour (by the way, the battles didn't end until about 5:30 so they went on for over 3 hours!) but after that people decided to squeeze some oraanges over my head and get me covered haha. We also got "baptized" which is when we got down on our knees as people threw 9 oranges straight at us point blank and I gotta say, those things hurt! After that I got a little more confident and worked my way up to the walls of the carriage and unleashed. It was so much fun and I did this for the rest of the battles. There a couple headshots I received and one of them got me in the eye which definitely hurt but I guess it's all part of the experience haha. Anyways, like I said, it was definitely one of the funnest times of my entire life and I swear, I had never seen, and will never see, so many oranges in one place.  

I could not believe it. By the end of the battles I was nearly up to my shins in orange peels, and I was absolutely covered haha. At the very end, there was a point where everyone got down on the goround and they were pretty much swimming in orange peels haha. It was awesome, and after the battles there was a larger parade which was really neat. And again, the Magnaia would pass through and everyone would cheer her name. But I think the best part of the parade was something Daniele pointed out. Not one orange was thrown during the parade because people respected the rules, and they respected the tradition behind this event, and that is something that I loved the most about the carnival. It's so rich in tradition, and everyone who participates has so much respect for it. Honestly, this carnival made Venice look like nothing, and again, I am so thankful to have had this experience of authentic Italian culture and tradition and this is one event that I would be willing to visit each year, bringing as many friends as I can because this is something that NEEDS TO BE EXPERIENCED. After all, Daniele even has friends from America that come all the way here each year just to participate. It was truly an incredible experience that I will never forget and I'm so glad I went. Check the pics on Facebook!

Ciao!

Pisa and Florence

Hello!

They were lucky I was there to hold it up.

Time for another eventful weekend update! So this weekend I got the opportunity to go to Pisa and Florence! And I gotta say I probably saw more amazing sights in these two places than just about anywhere else so far. This was a really awesome trip and I cannot believe that I got the chance to see some of the amazing sights in these two cities. It all started on Friday morning when me and my roommate Felix hopped on a train at 8 in the morning and we were off to Pisa. We got to Pisa at around 1 in the afternoon and made our way to the most famous location in the town, the Leaning Tower of Pisa! It was across the town from the train station so it was a decent walk but on the way we stopped by a really small but cool church called the Santa Maria della Spina. This was a really small church but it had a ton of really cool little sculptures around it that made it really attractive on the outside. It was right on the River Arno too so it was a pretty scenic location which was nice. After checking out the little church we finally ended up at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And I'll be honest the first time I saw it the tower was a little smaller than I thought but still nothing short of amazing. I could not believe that I was actually looking at the tower. The tower is also situated near this really amazing cathedral and baptistry which provided for an incredible setting. Once we got there, we ate some lunch then got our tickets to go to the top of the tower! It was nice because there really wasn't much of a line and the weather was pretty clear and not too chilly. As soon as I approached the entrance I was so blown away I was about to enter the tower. The entrance was even leaning to the side and when you walk in you can even feel the lean as you're going up the stairs! The stairs led to a middle floor where you can go out on a surrounding balcony of the tower and walk all the way around and it was definitely a little scary! The lean made for a hesitant feeling when I stood on the outside of the tower but it was still really cool. We then proceeded up to the top balcony of the tower and the view was really nice. There were a number of really neat bells situated at the top and I was able to see the entire cathedral and baptistry which was awesome. From there, we were able to go to the very top of the tower where you had the best view of the town. You can pretty much see all of Pisa from up there since it's a relatively small town and you can also see the surrounding hillsides of Tuscany. This was a truly amazing point of the trip and I even made an attempt to call my parents when I was at the top just because I was so excited haha.

A view from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

After getting some really neat pictures at the top (check Facebook!) we headed back down and went inside the cathedral which was also pretty incredible (like just about every cathedral in Italy). After the cathedral, we walked back to the train station and hopped on one of the many trains to Florence. When we first got to Florence we headed to the hostel to check in and it turned out to be a pretty nice place. There was cool writing and artwork all over the walls from people that have stayed there before and it was just a really nice, modern facility. They offer free dinner and breakfast so I couldn't complain and there was free internet as well. We got there in the evening so we basically just hung out at the hostel for a bit and we ended up meeting some pretty cool guys from Nice, France. There were two of them and they were just staying for the night so we all went out and headed to a couple of discos. When we arrived at one of the discos it was still a little early so we walked around a little more, ended up getting some Kebab (best food item in the world) and then headed to another disco. Unfortunately, for some reason this disco was closed and by this time it was getting a little late, everyone wanted to head back to the hotel. I, however, wanted to check out the first disco we left before, so I went back out and checked it out for myself. When I got there it was a really cool venue.

The Duomo!

The club was called "Space" and it had two floors, the first floor had a neat bar and the second floor was the dance floor. Unfortunately it wasn't very crowded at the time so the club was a little slow but it was the first one I had been to in Europe so it was pretty cool. After checking that out I headed back to the hostel and got some sleep. The next day we woke up for some free breakfast where I had an awesome omelet and we got ready just in time for a free 2 hour tour of the main part of the city from the hostel. It was really cool and I learned some new things about the history of the city and we got to see a lot of the really cool sites. There were a lot of really nice little churches including the main attraction of Florence, the Duomo (main cathedral). This was by far the largest cathedral I have ever seen and one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. This thing absolutely blew me away and I could not believe what I was seeing. It was absolutely massive and it was really neat to see. After that, the group continued on to what was known as Dante's cathedral (named after Dante Alighieri, the major Italian poet). That was really neat to see and from there we went to a few more sites before stopping in a really cool area in front of the world famous Uffizi museum filled with replicas and some originals of some really cool statues. After the tour we ended up going nearby to check out the most famous bridge in Florence, the Ponte Vecchio, which was really neat. From there we headed back to the hostel, took a short break, then made our way to the Duomo. Once we got there we went inside and it was HUGE. I could not believe the size of it when I went inside, absolutely gigantic. After walking around inside we then took the challenge of ascending to the top of the Duomo. It was a total of about 460-something steps, definitely a bit of a hike but well worth it. On the way up there was a point where we actually got to walk around the inside of the Duomo, suspended on a protected walkway probably nearly 200ft. above the inside of the Duomo! It was nuts and I think the pictures speak for themselves. That was definitely the scariest part of the climb. After that, a few more stairways and we got to the top. The top of the Florence Duomo was quite possibly one of the coolest views I have ever seen. You can see the entire city from the top and it was truly incredible. Again, check the pics because it really is quite indescribable, you can basically see everything. We spent a good amount of time at the top of the Duomo, soaking in the view and then we headed back down. We were even higher up on the inside of the Duomo on the way down. At just about where the paintings on the inside of the Dome start! (check the pics it's crazy). After we got all the way down, looking back up at the Duomo, it really hit me, and I was just in shock for a good hour after that, I simply could not believe it. Right after that we headed over to the Galleria dell'Accademia where the original statue of David, carved by Michelangelo, is held. I'll be honest I'm not extremely into the whole art thing, and after seeing a replica of this statue at the end of the tour that day, I didn't think the original would be much different. But, when we got to where the original statue was, I was absolutely blown away.

A view from the top of the Duomo

This was truly a work of art and I think I really started to appreciate art a little more after I saw this. This thing was MUCH bigger than the replica and stood about 17 feet tall! It was huge, and the thought of me looking at an original work by Michelangelo made it that much cooler. Again, words can barely describe, and unfortunately they don't allow any pictures in the museum so you'll have to go see for yourselves! After seeing David we walked around a little more and basically just hung out for the rest of the evening, We were pretty beat so we didn't really go out that night. We were able to wake up relatively early the next morning on Sunday and the first place we went to was the Galileo Museum. This place was pretty cool but unfortunately we could not take pictures in here either. But they had a lot of old scientific tools here including the telescopes and tools that Galileo himself used. The coolest exhibits in this museum were the actual authentic telescopes that Galileo used as well as three of his preserved fingers! That was pretty crazy to see. And after that we went to the Santa Croce Church, which contains the tombs of Galileo and Michelangelo! I was pretty stoked to go in here and when I did, right inside on the left and right hand sides of the church were the tombs of Galileo and Michelangelo. Galileo on the left wall and Michelangelo on the right. I could not believe I was standing a few feet from the resting places of these two amazingly influential people. (Check Facebook for the pictures!). This was an awesome sight and after this, we walked around a little bit more, and made our way to the train station. From this point on an adventure in itself was created. To make a long story short, (since this post is already long enough) we basically missed our train in one of the transfer stations on the way back and instead of coming back to Torino at 9:47pm we got back at 12:40am haha. And we originally left Florence at 2:28pm! (we might as well have taken a flight back to San Francisco!) Oh well, I guess that's what long layovers will do after missing the train. But it's all part of the experience haha. All in all though this trip (like all the others) has proven to be quite an unforgettable experience that I will surely cherish for the rest of my life. I would have never thought that I would be standing at the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Duomo of Florence, but there I was, and I am forever grateful to have experienced it. Well, that about wraps it up for Pisa and Florence haha. I guess that there is enough to say and plenty to see about these two places so until my next trip,

PEACE

Venice Trip!

Salve!

So this past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Venice for the Carnival! And I must say it was a pretty incredible experience. This trip was put on by my study abroad program so all I had to do was pay a nice cheap price and they reserved the hotel and the bus to get there. It was really nice not to have to worry about where to stay or how to get there and since Venice can be an expensive city we were able to get a really good deal through the program. So on Saturday morning we all met up at the school and hopped on the bus to Venice. This was an optional trip that you can take with the program so most of the students in the program went. It was really cool to spend time with some of the people in the program that I didn't get a chance to hang out with normally so that was really cool. It was probably about a six hour total trip to Venice with a pit stop for food in the middle so it was a decent drive but well worth it. Once we got into Venice I was really excited. The bus dropped us off in Piazzale Roma and from there we had to cross a bridge to get into the city. In the actual city there are absolutely no roads or cars so we had to walk from the bus to the hotel which wasn't too far. As we were walking to the hotel I could not believe that I was actually here. We crossed the Grand Canal and I was pretty blown away at what I saw. We crossed a couple more canals taking multiple bridges everywhere and we got to the hotel. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and met back up to head into the main square, Piazza San Marco.
Since it was carnival the city was absolutely PACKED and it took us awhile to get to the Piazza but the views of the city kept me preoccupied. This place is definitely like a giant maze so it was very important that we stuck together as a group on our way to the Piazza. When we got to the Piazza there was an insane amount of people. The entire Piazza was packed and in the distance there was live music and a bunch of stuff going on. We met up with some tour guides and they gave us a nice 2 hour tour of some parts of the city. They also told us some interesting facts about the city and how Venice actually consists of 118 islands all connected by bridges and separated by canals. I could not believe that fact until I walked more around the city and saw all of the bridges I had to get across to get around haha. During the tour we would see a bunch of dressed up carnival characters and it was really neat. They would wear really elaborate costumes with really neat masks and I was able to get pictures of a few of them (check Facebook!). Once the tour was over the guides let us go and we were basically free to do whatever we wanted that evening. So me and a group of other students went to find a place to eat. We got through the crowds and ended up eating at a small place called Pizza 2000 haha and we got some pizza. Once we got some food we went back to the hotel for a quick stop and went back out to a bar in the city. The bar was a lot of fun and we were there for a little while until people ended up somehow getting split up. I ended up getting separated from our group and was left roaming the walkways of Venice trying to find my way back to the hotel. I didn't have a map so needless to say I was lost for quite awhile haha. But I couldn't complain because it was really neat walking around all of the canals. I knew our hotel was near the train station so I got there but had a lot of trouble finding it from there. I was finally able to find someone after a couple hours who actually located the hotel for me and then walked me there! That was really nice and I finally made it back to the hotel at around 4:30am after a few hours of being lost haha.The next day I woke up and went with a group to the islands of Burano and Murano (world famous for glass blowing).

We first made it to Burano and as our "tour guide/roommate" Felix said, "If Venice was black and white, Burano would be considered a rainbow." This place was extremely colorful with all of the buildings lined up and painted a different variety of really bright and attractive colors. It was really cool to see and of course they didn't have any roads or cars here either. There was also a really cool Duomo that appeared to be leaning and kind of resembled the leaning tower of Pisa haha. From Burano we went to another nearby island and saw a pretty neat church. After that we checked out the island of Murano which is world famous for their glass blowing. This island was really neat because there were a lot of really neat glass sculptures and objects you can buy. It really is an artwork here. We got some lunch where I had Spaghetti with Mussels which was delicious and then we had the opportunity to see a glass blowing demonstration. I'm not gonna lie this was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. they would heat up this rod with a ball of extremely hot glass at the end and then they would spin the rod, using numerous tools to shape the hot glass into the object they were making. This guy made a really cool vase looking object and then he made a glass horse! It was nuts and I'm really glad I saw that. And since the glass is so hot, they only have a minute or two to make they object they want before the glass cools down.

There were a lot of other glass stores that we checked out before heading back into Venice. When we got back to Venice I got myself a carnival mask and we stopped at the hotel for a quick break and then got some dinner and headed out. We had some Kebab for dinner and then I got some Gelato and we went back to the hotel, put on our masks, and got ready for our last night in Venice and went out to another bar. We were at the bar for a bit and unfortunately, since it was Sunday night there wasn't a ton of stuff to do after that. So the group of us went back to the hotel and everyone pretty much passed out. However, I was not ready to pass out at 2:30am in my last night in Venice and I proceeded to go back out into the city haha. As I was leaving the hotel I was talking outside with the guy that works at the front desk for a bit and then we heard some water hit the floor. That's when he told me that we had to stop talking because in Venice, if someone pours water out of their window, you need to shut up haha. I thought that was really interesting so after that I saw 2 other students that were also not done with the night yet and we ended up walking all the way to Piazza San Marco. At this time of the night it was nice because the Piazza was completely empty. It was really cool just to hang out there while it was completely empty and reflect on everything. We then took a boat (main mode of transportation) from Piazza San Marco to the train station on the Grand Canal. We then walked from the train station back to the hotel and got back at around 5:30am haha. I don't think my mask came off once that night. The next day I woke up, had breakfast, then we walked around for one last hour and headed back onto the bus. After about an hour and a half on the bus we stopped by a city called Verona where they have the third largest Roman "Arena" or Colosseum in the world so that was really cool. We then saw Juliets balcony which I think is where the famous "Where art thou Romeo" lines were said when Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet. That was neat to see, and after that we had some lunch, and apparently Verona is famous for their horse meat so I had the opportunity to try some horse which was quite interesting. We only spent about an hour and half in Verona bfore we had to head back to Torino. We got into Torino at around 7:30pm on Monday and that was the end of our trip. This trip was a truly incredible experience and I will never forget my time in Venice during carnival. This trip was definitely worthy of a nice long blog post haha so until next time.

Ciao!