Florence and Venice

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From Rome last Wednesday, I took the train from there to Florence to meet up with my sister, Ellen, there. I have to say that now I have been traveling in Italy for a bit now that the train system here is far superior to Turkey and Greece. They are much faster, much quieter, and much more comfortable. Really makes a difference when I spend so much of my time on them.

Florence was beautiful, much smaller than Rome, and near Tuscany so there are hills and trees all around the city. There are not nearly as many sights there compared to Rome as I typically don't love spending my days in art museums, but I did the Duomo (one of the world's largest cathedrals) and Michaelangelo's statue "David" which was amazing. The highlight of Florence was definitely spending time with my sister and her friends from her summer program. For a majority of the nights it was me and many attractive 20-ish year old college ladies ( the couple guys that were there were cool as well of course). It was a great time going out to dinner and bars with all of them. The food in Florence is fantastic for the most part. My sister and I spent Thursday afternoon walking around a part of the city she hadn't explored yet. We found some amazing views of the city and took a bunch of pictures of course. On Friday Ellen and her summer program had a trip to Venice that I decided to tag along on. I took the train seperately from them and stayed in a hotel about 10 minutes from them, but spent the days in Venice with all of them taking a few tours of the area.

Venice is ridiculously cool with all of the canals everywhere and the labyrinth of tiny streets.On Saturday we all went to a couple of islands around Venice: Murano, which is know for glass making, was cool. We got to see a master glass craftsman make amazing things out of glass in such a short amount of time it was hard to believe it could be done when you saw the finished product. On Saturday night (last night) the four of us (Sara, Jess, Ellen, and myself) went out to an interesting dinner with horrible service and a steak that was about as thin as a piece of cheesesteak meat (didn't taste too bad though). After dinner, six of us went on a gondola trip around the darkened canals of Venice, which was actually arranged by a guy on the trip, Zach, who basically auctioned off a trip with him on a gondola while they traveled to Venice by bus. The reason I was there (I didn't bid on Zach, ok) is that Jess was the highest bidder and she took Sara, Ellen, Hastings, and myself along for the ride. We got off the gondola at campo Santa Margherita (not sure about that spelling, but it's close) which is where most of the bars in the city are located. I can't remember what the name of the bar we were at was called, but I do remember drinking two shot of absinthe, which is interesting to watch being prepared, but tastes horrible and burns like almost nothing I have ever had before. I didn't see any green fairies or anything though, so I feel like it's reputaton may be a bit exaggerated. Today was the Venetian Ghetto, which is the area where Jewish people were forced to live starting in the 1500s. It was actually very interesting and the word "ghetto" actually originated there and spread around the world (definitely including Philadelphia).

I am off to Genova (or Genoa, it's spelled both ways) this afternoon/evening which is the home of pesto, focaccia, and is close to Cinque Terre (five small villages along the coast of northwestern Italy and somewhere I absolutely have to check out while here, it's supposed to be amazing). I'll be hiking through Cinque Terre tomorrow, back to Genova tomorrow night, and then on to Monaco and Monte Carlo. I'll get some more pictures up soon.

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Photos

a statue
that is actually a mime, I walked by him the first time thinking it was actually a statue...kinda creepy

Comments

[Liz]

Biotch
I'm very jealous. I LOVED Rome and thought the food in Florence was better. i would move to Italy but would probably gain a million pounds. Please bring me something back that's good....like a hot Italian man who make amazing sauce?!?!? Nate would probably NOT approve of the sauce...;)

[Ellen Scull]

Ciao Broseph!
It was so great to see you and experience a little of Italy with you. Hope the continuing adventure is going well despite some of your traveling hassles. Everyone here is still talking about how cool you are and Sara even named her facebook album after you, haha. Check out her profile to see some great pictures. Enjoy some relaxation in Nice and even out that tan! Talk to you soon, much love.