Julia's Thoughts 6/19-6/22

Julia’s Location: On Bus to Venice

My flight sucked. The last five hours of the transatlantic flight had me wanting to die- my stomach hurt so BAD. It was better in Frankfurt (though I thought the airport was slightly gross) but on the plane to Italy my stomachache was back and worse. The food on the plane was good, though. They even gave me my first Mars Bar!! It’s like a cross between a Milky Way and a Three Musketeers. The Leonardo Da Vinci Airport was a little bit gross too, but but my perception might have been altered by the fact that everything seemed to be swaying and I was dizzy from the change of being on a plane with horrible turbulence and then on flat, stable ground. In Roma, it was very humid and our shuttle had no air conditioning. There were two other people on the shuttle, who were from Indiana. They were such BABIES about the heat, and kept being super rude to the driver and complaining and saying how much better Amsterdam was than Roma and I just thought, “Then why didn’t you do us all a favor and STAY THERE?” Anyway. At the hotel, Kristina and I passed out on our (surprisingly) very comfortable beds for as long as we could until we went to dinner on a rooftop garden restaurant. It was good, but unfortunately I was still feeling my phantom plane symptoms (which, unfortunately, would continue through my Saturday). I had risotto with mushrooms, Nana had a scallop dish, Papa had lamb, Kristina had tortellini, and Mom had pasta carbonara. There was limoncello and biscotti and other pastries on the house. I had tiramisu for dessert, Papa ice cream with strawberries, and Mom this anise-flavored drink.
Saturday we left on a tour bus. It had excellent AC and nice seats, and the bus was not very full. Our tour guide is Pierre (but he is NOT french) and he hates “inhumane Tuscans” (which is what he called them when they wouldn’t let me use the bathroom. We drove three hours to our first stop, a town called Assisi. We walked for a very long time,enjoying the architecture of the churches, which included St. Clare’s and St. Francis’s. We even got to see St. Francis’s tomb underneath the church proper! Then we continued on to a town called Siena, where our tour was interrupted by an hour’s worth of torrential downpouring, during which we were stranded in a museum giftshop (where the “inhumane tuscans” refused me the use of the bathroom for the first 45 minutes, and then changed their minds). We didn’t have much time left when the rain stopped, but we got to have our first taste of REAL gelato. I had white chocolate- cioccolato bianco- and Mom had chocolate, Kristina melon, Nana amaretto, and Papa strawbery and pistachio. It was YUMMY!! Kristina got a blue “Italia” sweatshirt at a shop nearby. We finally headed to Florence, known as Firenze. We had a bigger room, which was nice, and all of the towns in Tuscany (including Florence) were not humid like Roma, so we could leave the door that led to our balcony open and it would let in cool, dry air. All of our tour group ate dinner at a ristorante nearby, and a nice guy named Brian who’s a Nebraskan art major with a hairdresser girlfriend sat with us to complete our table of six. We had pasta in a cream sauce with mushrooms, a meat dish with french fries (I had a mild cheese similar to mozzarella with fresh roma tomatoes), salad, and a dessert similar to flan (but MY flan is much better J). Then we all went back to the hotel and passed out until breakfast.

Breakfast was quick and the coffee and hot chocolate delish. We drove further into Florence, got out, walked in the rain for a little while, and went into the Academia Museum. We saw Michelangelo’s David!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was AMAZING. There was a lot of other beautiful artwork, and we had a great guide that took us through Academia and into the city and told us about architecture, art, and culture. We saw Michelangelo’s house, the river Arno, the old Medici bridge, and wen t into fancy shmancy gold and leather factories that made me wish I wasn’t a vegetarian and could justify getting a really expensive leather coat that felt like butter. Nana, Papa, and Kristina went to Mass, while Mom and I roamed around. I bought some souvenirs for my friends and Mom bought a cute red leather purse from a street vendor. The two of us got lunch at a cute café called Oibo- margherita pizza for me, prosciutto pizza for her, and water, cappucino, and a macchiato for us to share. That took up all of the time until one o’clock while we left some of our group to shop in Florence while the five of us, Brian, a Spanish-speaking couple, and an Indian-American family of five with the two most irritating kids EVER took the optional tour to Pisa. That’s right- the home of the leaning tower. It was about an hour and fifteen minutes drive each way. Pisa was neat, and we had another good guide. The original village was outlined by a huge ancient wall that contained the cathedral, the cemetary, the hospital-turned-museum, a baptistry, and, of course, the leaning tower. All except the hospital were made out of the same beautiful marble, and all were massive and lovely. Everything b egan construction in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. We took a tour of the cathedral, and the best part for me was when we saw the body of a really old guy who was important to the church (but I can’t remember his name)in a glass coffin. Then we ate some more gelato (I had chocolate, Nana and Kristina lemon, and Papa strawberry) with a plate of cheeses and bread. After that, we walked and looked at the street vendors, but they were boring and all selling the same things. At five, we got on the bus and rode back to the hotel in Florence, where we napped for 45 minutes before going to dinner. The first course was a plate of rigatoni in a meat sauce and penne in a butter sauce with veggies, the second course either chicken and salad or salmon and salad (which I gave to Papa- Happy Father’s day! J), and dessert was panna cotta, a bland type of custard topped with a strawberry sauce. You might see a pattern, but then we went back to the hotel and passed out until our 6:15 wakeup call.

Breakfast today (our Monday) was fast and yummy like yesterday (with things like croissants, fruits, real yogurt, etc.) and now we are on our way Venice as I am typing this up. I am finished for now, so I am going to nap. Ciao!