Italia

In San Marco square

This past weekend I had the best opportunity to visit Italy with an optional trip through my program. where three days were packed full with as much as possible.

A channel running through the city

Beautiful colored buildings downtown Venice

 It started around 5 am Friday morning I got up to meet the group in front of CYA to take a coach bus to the airport to catch our plane at 8:20. About 45% of the entire trip consisted of travel time. After taking off on the 3 hour plane ride, we touched down to a snowy Milan (which means it was freezing). From there, we boarded our official coach bus of Italy for an almost 5 hour bus ride to Mestre (the outskirts of Venice where everyone actually lives) and then to the ferry where we would finally arrive in Venice. As it was fairly late at this point, we were guided around on a walking tour to get a feel for the city before exploring and learning about it the next day. I might also add in that I became very ill at this point and was more than happy to crash at the hotel after getting back to Mestre.

On a lion's back in Venice

 The next day I woke up feeling slightly better than before, but still under the weather. Nevertheless, she persisted; I continued on with the class to explore the city of Venice. Now Venice is an island off of the mainland of Italy, where there are no cars or vehicles and it is swarmed with tourists. Now you may be wondering: Tourists? At this time of year? Why yes, it was the opening weekend of Carnival! That means despite the bitter cold and cloudy skies, the island was packed with people from all over the globe.

Inside the Doge's Palace

As we wove through the crowds, we visited San Marco's Basilica which is an 8th century Byzantine style church with breathtaking mosaics and artistry. We weren't really allowed to take pictures so I don't have much to show for that. Inside of the church there are many artifacts from the era including the original 4 Tetrarchs relief (which I learned about in my art history class last semester, so it was really cool to see in person). We then visited Doge's Palace (sadly, not for shiba inus) which housed all of the reigning Doges, who were basically like prime ministers of Venice during the Republic of Venice. There were many rooms for judicial hearings and meetings, and even a prison in the bottom! We then had some free time where Heather and I, along with some others, made our way to track down some Italian food because we were all starving. Right before meeting the rest of the group to leave, we also bought some cute scarves.

Side roads in Ravenna

Pizzaaa

After meeting up and ferrying back to the bus with a final wave of goodbye to Venice, we drove another few hours to Ravenna where we had the evening free. A group of us got lost in the city trying to find dinner and stumbled upon a quaint little pizzeria where I got a huge pie. Apparently we all are already so adapted to Greek culture that we stayed there for hours without noticing that the rest of the restaurant had emptied out, which then we decided to call it a night. The next day was spent visiting various churches in Ravenna including the Basilica of San Apolinaris in Classe where we attended the first part of mass which was...interesting. I am not a part of the Catholic religion so it was curious for me to get a new perspective on their service.

Beautiful relief on the dome of San Vitale

Mosaic in the mausoleum

We then loaded up the bus again to visit two amazing sites, the Mausoleum of Gala Placidia and the Basilica of San Vitale. First of all, Gala Placidia is a bad ass woman who ruled the world around her, and her mausoleum held beautiful mosaic reliefs all around, and pretty famous ones I might add. Right next door stood the infamous (jk, it's very famous) Basilica of San Vitale which was absolutely breath taking. Every relief completely filled the inside with awe, even those added in the later Renaissance era. Two reliefs that stood out to me the most were other pieces that I looked at in my art history class, Emperor Justinian and his court and Empress Theodora and her attendants. These rulers of the Byzantine era Ravenna were very elaborate, obviously enough to be put up in a giant church.

My first gelato

Free time came around and we visited a restaurant downtown Ravenna for lunch followed by dessert at a gelato shop. Fun fact: I have never had gelato before this, so basically I can never have it again because it won't be good as fresh Italian gelato. We think hurriedly shopped in a little boutique before meeting at the bus where we were surprised with donuts from the staff! Before making the trek to the airport in Rome, we visited Dante's tomb which was dauntingly cool. As we were backing out to hit the road, the bus was stopped by a police officer which we bribed (??) before we were allowed to be on out way. After the 12 year drive to Rome, we were behind schedule and actually had to run to our gate to board the plane for Athens.

Dante's tomb

Finally making it home around 2 am this morning, I realized how much I appreciate Athens along with the travel opportunities I have. While in Italy, I got a little homesick for the familiarity of Athens and the warmness of the Greek people. I've still got a little over 3 months left to live this life and I'm not wasting any of that time. My next adventure will include this upcoming weekends travels to London, where I will visit my lovely friend Christine who will be hosting me. Until then, ciao!

**In regards to video: I heard your comments, and I took lots of footage this weekend! Unfortunately my camera is not cooperating and letting me access the footage, but once I sort that out I will post a clip about Italy!