venice:
through the intense thunder, lightening and rain, all 40 of us trekked from our apartments to meet for the bus to venice. our weekend began on a wednesday, but we could still find a little room to complain because we sat on a 3 hour bus with wet clothes until about lunchtime. but thankfully...venice was sunny and warm upon our arrival! venice is surrounded by water...it was built in this ridiculously marshy area, and due to global warming and high tides, it's also known as a "sinking city." instead of buses and trains and subways, venice's public transportation relies on boats! in our huge mass, we got on the boat to take us to the heart of the city...actually we thought it was the boat, but instead it was just the holding area (that floats on water and is not very resistant to any wakes from other boats). we arrived at the stop "san marco" ...the center of town (st. mark's square). it kind of equates to siena's 'campo' where people go to socialize. around the square are many restaurants (but if you eat there/sit in the chairs outside, you'll wallet will not be happy). actually, we found venice to be pretty swanky...it's expensive everywhere (especially at the bars...which is why i went without money!) but it's so beautiful in venice, even the pigeons flock there!
...you don't even need to know me that well to know that i am not a pigeon fan (they're the bird form of rodents...2 things for which i have a very strong aversion)! caroline even touched one...on purpose. this made me really hesitant to continue to room with her! (kiddingggg....kinda). once we got to venice, it hit me: venetian glass! you could not walk on any of venice's cobbled, narrow streets without seeing beautiful, colorful glass everywhere. there are small statues of animals, clocks, cups, jewelry...you don't have to know me very well to know this either: i'm smitten by colors. bright, bold colors. so obviously this city grabbed my attention!
on our full day in venice, we took a boat to a nearby island called murano where we could see the glass demonstrations. for 2 euro, i watched as they made a vase and a horse statue as if it was no big deal. i took a video of it...so freaking amazing. we got back to venice and wandered around the streets. rick steves (what a guy) told us that we should just expect to get lost, and we did just that. after wandering through different stores and googling at all the glass, we had no clue where we were, until we happened to stumble upon st. mark's square. how lucky. i wasn't feeling a gondola ride. i actually wasn't feeling much of anything in venice because i think i was allergic to something in our hotel room. thursday night, i got in bed around 1:30, but didn't fall asleep until maybe 5...due to sneezing and blowing my nose far too much. i considered for a half-second sleeping outside... but friday morning came (after about 2 non-consecutive hours of sleeping) and we were off to our next town...milan:
in about 3ish hours on a train, emily, caroline, tommy & i arrived in milano (yes, i did think about the pepperidge farm cookies while i was there)! after a frustrating bout of finding our way through this city...we took a subway from the train to the bus station, where we got on a trolley which took us toward the edge of the city to hotel johnny, home sweet home for friday and saturday night. the other 16 people that decided to go to milan for the weekend made a detour in verona. the 4 of us weren't smitten by the idea of more train-riding (because trenitalia already feels like our second home) and we wanted to have a relaxing day, without so much touristy excursions. milan is also more expensive than siena, not surprisingly so, for it is the fashion capitol of the world! once our group of 20 reunited, we bathed (literally), ate and headed to this strip in the city where people go at night. to say the least....it was hopping. and the women were pretty swanky themselves, going all out in heels. (as i walked through with my rainbow knock-offs...no worries). on sunday we explored for the morning/early afternoon throughout milan. we tried to see the last supper, but you need to have a reservation (and the next vacant one isn't for another 2 weeks). attached to the church that houses the last supper, there was a leonardo da vinci museum that we explored around the outside/garden portion. we ran into a guy that asked us where we were from in america...and if we knew anyone that goes to villanova. SMALL WORLD: he is a friend of father peter's! (nova's president). i truly thought that relation was going to hook us up with a look at the last supper, but alas, he simply said "i have an american car! it's a cadillac. see it over there? do you know it?" haha ah well. we also ventured to the duomo,
which is incredible, just from the outside. i didn't have the opportunity to get inside because my knees weren't covered. but i didn't venture inside mcdonald's...(for the bathroom, and conveniently a "chococrock" mcflurry). our last stop before the bus stop was a horse statue. so the story goes: leonardo da vinci started this statue for the main family in milan. unfortunately he didn't get to finish it before he died. during the war, the unfinished horse was shot at and ruined. another artist came along later (after finding da vinci's drawings and plans for the horse) and finished the statue. too bad the horse was not in the center-ish of this big city like everything else. 
our tram ride was significantly longer than normal, and once we got off, we wandered around until we were right in front of the gigantic horse. very cool, but very stressful getting there. actually, i wasn't stressed out at all. i decided, again, to just follow the crowd. it's been going pretty well since we made it back to the bus station, found the right bus and got on it with only minutes to spare...journeying back to siena. but as for saturday, our journey (of less than an hour) was to...lake como:
in 80 degree weather. stunning. and there are the alps too. apparently we could have taken a ferry to switzerland from there, but we explored varenna, the little town by the side of the lake. following a path along the side of the lake, we found lunch, a wedding reception, a pebbly beach where we relaxed/swam, and a taxiboat tour! the boat took 10 of us at a time around a portion of the huge lake, showing us different areas (he told the group i wasn't where they could find george clooney's lake-side 
house). i felt like i could have been honeymoon shopping (sans a honey haha). we also found a rick steves-recommended gelateria where the owner makes the gelato daily. deeeelicious. it really should be a controlled substance. by sunday evening, we were all back home, where we know the protocol, we have a general routine and expect to see the campo just about every night. (the campo and conad).
now we have 5 days in a row of classes. no day trips this week? our lives are so hard.
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