One Month In Rome: Top Ten Highs and Lows

I can't believe it -- my girlfriends and I were talking all last week and into this week about how we've been here a month, and only have three left! Unbelievable to think about how fast time's gone. This post is dedicated to the highs and lows of the first month in Rome... Enjoy! 

Highs (why start with anything else?):

1. The city of Rome: What can I say? Rome is absolutely beautiful. A city of art and history and beauty all jammed into one crazy busy place. It is very different from anywhere I have been, and everyday has offered new alleys to walk and new parks and markets to explore. 
2. The fashion: Everyone is dressed to the nines. Very refreshing to see well-put-together people on a daily basis. 
3. The food: Italian food really is my favourite. Officially. The produce is so good here, and the herbs and cheeses just add so much to every meal. So great! I think this is the one place where you can put olives, tomatoes, basil, spinach, and cheese into every meal, and somehow it tastes just as good as the last time you had it!
4. Ryanair: It's so cheap here in Europe! To think I've been to three different countries in one month, all for less than 200 bucks total is totally sweet!
5. The weather: None of this raining/drizzling/showers/light mist/pouring rain that Vancouver or Norfolk can see at this time of year... Rome has blessed us with beautiful sunny days and decent temperatures that really are great. 
6. Class schedule: I have class from 5:15 to 8 every night -- so basically I am free to do whatever during the day! This actually allowed me to get a babysitting job for an Italian 13 month old, aptly named Franco. :) He's so cute! All thanks to my great class schedule. 
7. Playing soccer at JCU: Alright, I'll admit it, I am terrible at soccer. But I love it! I am back to riding the pines, and am totally okay with it for the first time in my life! The girls are great and our team is actually pretty good! We're in second in the Roman League of 6. Could be worse I guess.
8. Busing to babysitting: Every time I go to "work", I take the bus right past Circo Massimo (ancient Rome ruins), and on the way back to school, I pass by the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia and the Roman Forum. Unbelievable to see that everyday. Completely different world. 
9. Speaking (or attempting) Italian to locals for directions, shopping tips, etc: This has definitely been an entertaining highlight. Strange, after going to the French-speaking countries of France and Belgium, I struggled more with my Italian based on getting used to using French. But the attempts in Italian are often a hybrid of Spanish, French, and English -- which really throws a lot of Italians into blank stares or even laughs sometimes. 
10. Runs along the river: I run everyday between 11 and 12 (except for when I'm away eating chocolate) along the Tiber River. I'll admit, it's not the prettiest running path I've ever seen, but seeing St. Peter's in the distance and all the hills of Rome sticking out really is eye-candy as I'm sweating through stairs workouts or make-shift repeats that I somehow have rekindled a love for and actually enjoy doing here. Running and I have never gotten along too well, but here, I actually enjoy it! 

Lows (not necessarily lows...more like annoyances...I couldn't think of ten, but this is what came to mind):

1. Attack of the carbs: Everything I eat here is carbs! Albeit, very good carbs that taste incredible, the runs seem necessary! A friend of mine from Paris put it best..."There are no calories in Europe...just great food that shows more for some"
2. Tram 8, do you ever rest???: Tram 8 stops right outside my apartment. And it runs. All. Night. Long. Every 20 minutes, I swear it rolls up to Trastevere. I've become used to it, but at first, this was not a welcomed sound. 
3. Cobblestones: Every alley and road is cobblestone. They're cool the first week you're here. Now, they're just a big pain. When it rains, they're slippery. When you think you've got the hang of walking on them and you can finally lift your head up to nod at passerbys, you trip and look like an idiot. Yes, they are a big pain. 
4. The buses: It's amazing, the buses are bi-directional, so if you need to take a bus back, you just cross the road and take the same number in the other direction. Vancouver should figure that one out. Drawback though, you can't guess a bus number, because although they have all the stop names on the bus signs, they're all Piazza this or Plaza that, and there are HUNDREDS of them and I can't tell them apart!! So that does me a whole lot of no good. I need to research online before I can go anywhere...what numbers go where, count the stop numbers, etc! 
5. Begging: There are a lot of beggars in Rome. Very sad to see. Most sit calmly on the sidewalks with a cup out. Others come on the trams and buses and vocally address their needs. It's very sad to see. 
6. Lost in translation: Two of my professors have very thick Italian accents. They are also my two hardest classes. I initially struggled bigtime to actually tell the difference between the difficulty in the material or the difficulty in understanding the lecture. I am used to it now, but half my notes I had to re-read or re-write based on a sort of "Lost in translation" feeling. 
7. Temptation by gelato: There are gelaterias everywhere in Rome. On every corner, in every alley, everywhere. And they all smell and look so great!! It's so tempting! I've actually done pretty well to ignore the temptation. Strangely! 
8. Internet? Where art thou?: Our apartment has the worst internet; we either have it and get no bars, or we don't have any signal at all. It has been a month long battle of walking to cafes or school for skyping and facebooking. On the other hand, it has really toned down the need for both of those potential addictions in my generation!

I couldn't think of two more things to complain about or have an issue with! The highs absolutely outweigh the lows here -- I'm loving it. The lows for me are more funny than actually annoying. Bring a smile to my face when I think of them actually. This month has been great. Totally loving it. Looking forward to an exciting month of travel and Roman fun. I'll be in Rome for the next two weekends after a day trip this Friday up to Siena in Tuscany, then heading to London the first weekend of March, and then off to Greece for spring break for ten days. SO much to look forward to! 

Eating my weight in Belgian Chocolate: Brussels, Belgium Feb 11-13, 2011

There are no words, or pounds added, that can do justice to the incredible amounts of chocolate I ate this past weekend in Brussels. This weekend that originally started off as a cheap ticket on Ryanair, turned into a nightmare for our bodies to handle, but COMPLETELY worth every calorie. I travelled with four girls from the apartment below mine; we headed out on Friday morning at 5:30 for the airport, and got into Brussels by the time we took all the shuttles etc at around 2. We were all starving, so we dropped our bags, grabbed a hostel map filled with tips and suggestions, and went to the first recommended food stop -- a falafel joint called Mr. Falafel. Not exactly what I had in mind for Belgian/Flemish food, but hey, whatever works. It's was fantastic. Or should I say, it was a fantastic base for what came next.

We then started pa-rousing through Brussels. It's quite a small place; the city itself is walkable from end to end in about a half hour to 45 minutes, depending on how much chocolate/waffles/fries you've eaten. The city center is called Grand Place. This is where we started our Brussels experience. All around Grand Place are chocolate shops, and beer shops, and fries stands. We decided to go into all the cute stores -- BAD IDEA. As soon as it came to our attention that there were samples, there was no turning back. We made it our mission to test every store's chocolate. Ya, they all taste the same, which is FANTASTIC, but that was beside the point. On our first day, I think I must have eaten about 55 different samples, totaling about 10lbs of chocolate.

We then tested out the fries. They have a million different sauces in Brussels other than Ketchup. Most of them are mayo based, so again, we loaded up on empty calories, and took to the streets in search of some grease. They were pretty good not gonna lie. I'm not a fries fan, but they were pretty darn good. I got the sauce aux poivres (pepper sauce) mixed with Andalouse (no idea what the translation is or what it was made of) but they both were phenomenal!

Okay, food number three on the day was waffles. Duh, we're in Beligium, we're going to have to get waffles, regardless of how much crap we ate earlier on in the day. We all got icing sugar first, then returned later that night and got chocolate smothered waffles. UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE. I have never tasted something as heavenly. I'm done. I stop there.

Last but not least, we finished off our first evening with a little protein in the form of a pita/gyro (again more Greek food...no idea why) and then hit this big bar right around from Mannican Picc, a famous (but small) statue in Brussels. It was inpossible to sound out, or spell for that matter, so I took a picture and posted it below. Very cool place. Our waiter recommended some quality beers, and at that the night was complete. I had a brown-sugar beer, that basically tasted like apple juice/cider. As a non-beer drinker, it was awesome! Definitely quenched the ole thirst after the crap we'd eaten all day had made us all crazy thirsty.

Saturday, we toured Brussels with a friend of mine's great aunt twice removed... She's not sure how she's related to her -- her dad called the Belgian embassy in the States and apparently they have family lineage records in Belgium so they hooked up and this lady toured us around with facts etc. Very nice woman, she was really cute. Asking if we'd been to "all the sites" in Brussels -- I was tempted to say, "Oh absolutely, the 25 chocolate stores have all been visited" but I held back with that! We did go see the European Union buildings though (Brussels is the international headquarters for the E.U. government buildings). We also stopped in some cathedrals, and went into the Army museum and checked out some pretty old planes and stuff. Not my cup of tea, but the other girls thought it'd be cool to say they went to a museum in Brussels...so I tagged along, figuring at some point we'd run into a chocolate shop to do more testing, or a waffle joint. Great rationale.

Saturday night we headed to a French-ish restaurant. Massive let-down compared to the food in Paris, but let's not compare apples and oranges here. It was still pretty good. We then went to this bar called Delerium, which is famous in Brussels for young visitors. VERY cool place. I have never heard so many different languages being spoken in one place by young people. The bar was huge, different rooms all decorated differently with bohemian European stuff...totally chill place. They had a menu of, I swear, 200 beers. I'm not exactly sure how people pick, but the girls got the "house" beer Delerium. I was done eating crap at this point, so I held off on the beer idea. Good call on my part I think.

Sunday we headed back to Rome. All of us had sugar cramps I think. We looked like the most pathetic bunch traveling back! All of us had eaten more in those two days then we had during the month we've spent in Rome. Ugh disgusting to think about. But SO worth it. I came back and my disciplined self decided it'd be a great idea to maybe go for a VERY LONG run to burn off at least some of the calories I'd consumed. Another great call. Although I was a little worried I may not make it down the stairs of my apartment, I did, and it was a great finish to the weekend. I haven't stopped working out since haha! Everyday this week I have been motivated by the 18 million truffles I ate last weekend to go for runs and do some abs. I bought some truffles, but I'm sure they won't make it back home to actually share with anyone. So my sincere apologies in advance. I'm just being realistic!

Vive la France! In search of Hunchy, in Paris! Feb 4-7, 2011

Paris. What can I say to introduce this blogpost -- I was blown away. First off, by how expensive the place is. Second, by how exquisite the food ACTUALLY is. Third, by how identical all the buildings look and how cool they all are. And finally, by how much fun I had rekindling my French language abilities with locals! 

Paris was incroyable. I travelled with my five roommates (which I was kind of skeptical about, seeing as you know, we live together, we're six girls, it opens up doors for bickering once we get there, 6 people are going to want to do different things, and oh ya, no one speaks French...) But, it turned out well! We travelled together on our first Ryanair experience. It was interesting to say the least. You will all be happy to know that I didn't get delayed, and I didn't check bags so my belongings got there on time too!! Ha what a bonus! We got into Paris around 12 and got to our hostel right around the corner from the LOUVRE! SO COOL! Typical French....put a hostel right in the heart of the shwanky district of Paris, 'cause that really makes sense. Ah well, cheap and cheerful. Je l'aime! Oh as a completely added bonus, there were about five crepe joints right around the corner, so this became the required snack/meal/dessert of the day for all of us! 

Me and my five roommates on La Riviere Seine

We started off by trekking to Notre Dame -- which just so happened to be the only real reason I wanted to go to Paris.... To find Quazymodo (AKA Hunchy) and get him to sing to me with the gargoyles from the bell tower. (Hunchback of Notre Dame reference there if you didn't catch that). It was pretty legit; it looked exactly as I had pictured it would. But I mean, my imagination didn't have to tread far for that one. It was great though! We went inside and saw all the stain glasses that make the cathedral famous. They were literally unbelievable. Not sure how to describe them other than very stain-glassy and very artsy and very exquisite. They were also huge, bigger than I thought humans could make. Fascinating stuff. 

       Notre Dame

On Saturday I went to Musee d'Orsay with three of my roommates which is home to all the Impressionist works (Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet...too name a few). One girl had a scare and thought her passport had gone missing so she spent the day with her partner in crime trying to sort that out and didn't get to go to the museum. Turns out it fell out of her purse at the restaurant we ate at the night before, so all was fine there. She retraced her steps and found it. But anywho, back to my day. Musee d'Orsay was great. Lots to see; lots of petit-point (pointillism) and landscapes and Renaissance portraits. Impressionism is my favourite kind of art -- I should correct myself here...it's the only type of art I know. I learned about it at Joan of Arc in elementary school, so it was cool to think back about Madame Deussault criticizing me for my horrific paint skills in Grade 2, and the "pas-propre"s Mme. Lamoureux gave me during Monet month in Grade's 3 and 4. LOL that was great to reminisce about! 

Speaking of Joan of Arc, I found her statue! Had to take this pic! 

From there we went to the Eiffel Tower and l'Arc de Triomphe. We walked up Champs d'Elysees, which is the posh shopping street of Paris. Of course we made a trip into the 6 story Louis Vuitton. You'll all be thrilled to know that I did not buy anything, however was escorted down the staircase at one point by an employee in a garish maroon tux -- must have looked famous or something?! (Haha I'll get off my high horse now! Still a pretty funny experience...Can't say that's ever happened to me.) The Eiffel Tower was great, and the l'Arc de Triomphe was great as well. Thank God for all the walking we did. Paris is not small let me tell you! And to look the part, you have to walk everywhere to burn off the crepes and baguettes and cheeses and sauces! Ahh the food was so amazing I can't even begin to describe how great it was. But backtracking, the Eiffel Tower was cool, but it really is in the middle of nowhere of Northern Paris away from all the museums, so it's more like a "Glad I checked that off my list" feeling after being there. 

Concorde Square; where all the famous French prisoners were guillotined in front of the public (Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, etc)

Sunday was reserved solely for the Louvre. That place is ginormous. I swear I probably walked 5km INSIDE the museum. I bought one of the touristy headsets with guided tours of the museum's various collections, and took notes like a total nerd. If any of you care about art, I will gladly show you/send you them! I went on the Masterpiece Collections tour; the Monalisa was in this tour so me and all the other 58,000 tourists who bought the headset ended up in the same room at the same time. Cute. Lol but anyway, I then went on the French collections tour, and got a little bit sick of seeing portraits of Louis XIV and XVI, so I got lost in Napoleon's apartments and took in the riches found there. 

The Louvre entrance!

Venus de Milo Statue

Da Vinci's Monalisa

 Clearly, I am living in the wrong century...sign me up for this lifestyle. Wow! Napoleon's apartments

Staircases to the apartments

Sunday afternoon, my roommates left to catch their flight around five. I had a flight on Monday morning, so I booked it North, to Montmatre/Sacre Coeur area for sunset. The area is really cute; lots of boutiques and boulangeries (bakeries) and cheese/wine stores. Very homey place. There are less tourists and there was a lot to see and take part in. Lots of artists and musicians. It was really sweet. I took the Metro up to the Moulin Rouge street stop, took my tourist photo, and then power walked uphill to catch the sunset from Sacre Coeur. Totally worth the exhaustion. The view was fantastic. You can see all of Paris from this spot in town, and it was very peaceful and serene. 

The Moulin Rouge; in the Red Light District of Paris. 

The view from Sacre Coeur at sunset

Sacre Coeur Basilica at dusk

I headed from Sacre Coeur to a friend of mine's place in Paris, Christy Solomon, who used to be my PE teacher at Semi and was my teacher sponsor for Rugby in Grade 12. It was really nice to catch up with her and see how her European experience was going. She is teaching English to elementary students just outside of Paris, and plans to stay as long as she can. She's lovin it. What's not to love though. Great food, beautiful place, great people (from what I caught). 

So at the end of the night, I headed back to my hostel, and crashed early as I had to be up for my flight at 5:30. CRAZY story. I was woken up by the sound of incessant dry-heaving and vomiting for about 25 minutes at around 12:30. Had no idea who it was and had no intention of going to give the guy help. He clearly had to much of the French Vino. Okay but moving on....Then around 1:15, this completely random guy barges into my room (with three other girls), and fell forward into my bunkbed and braced his fall with my face...Scared the living POOP out of me. He then proceeds to stumble across our room, faceplant into our sink, and rebound onto the second girl's bed. No one said anything in my room. Quite frankly I think we were so scared we didn't have anything to say. I had my covers over my head and could hear my heartbeat for cryin out loud!! He just sat on that poor girl's bed for about a minute, then she got out her cellphone for light and whimpered "Um, who are you?", and the drunk idiot just stands up, sways, takes a topple into our coat hanger cupboard, and then leaves. Good god, I was so scared I did not sleep the rest of the night. We locked the door immediately (The girls' who came in last didn't think we could lock the doors from the inside.....??.....okay, ya no comment...But seriously, what were they thinking????) My alarm didn't need to go off at 5:30, as I was still up out of trauma, and I headed out of Paris. 

Although my last night was pretty damn brutal, I absolutely would not mind visiting Paris again. It did not waiver my opinion of the beautiful city. It was a great place, had such a great time. Anyone who wants to go back let me know! I didn't get to go to Versailles or the catacombs, so definitely need to repeat this  trip!

Weekend in the Veneto region of Northeastern Italy: Padua, Venice, Verona -- Jan 28-30, 2011

Forgive me for taking so long to post on the blog -- been rather busy! Two weekends ago, I went up north on a school-sponsored trip up to Padua, Venice, and Verona for three full (albeit, freezing) days of fun. It was AWESOME! There was a group of about 45 of us. We bused from Rome up to Padua (about 5 hours), then took a train to Venice for the day on Saturday, and bused to Verona for Sunday. It was fantastic. The weekend was so awesome. Completely different than Rome. We had guided tours in all three cities, and I pulled a major nerd move and took notes (to blog about of course)! So here goes, my historical and personal account of Padua, Venice, and Verona!

PADUA (Padova) - Stop 1

We stayed in a cute hotel in Padua for the weekend. It was an interesting drive up. We passed through the hills of central Italy, and there was quite a bit of snow which slowed us down. It's all good, we made it in one piece after 5 or 6 hours. My roommate downstairs, Andrea, was also on the trip so we roomed together and spent the days together which was great.

Okay, so Padua. I'd never heard of it (so don't feel bad if you're asking yourself what the big deal about that place is...) But, it actually is a pretty big deal for Italian history. Before the old Romans (~100BC), Padua was the 2nd most important city in the now called Roman empire. The city was the center of education in Italy. The city boasts the oldest Benedictine church in the world, built in 304AD called Basilica della Santa Justina (as well as the Basilica di Sant'Antonio). The church was completed in the 5thC. and is the 9th biggest Christian church in the world. It is a property of the Vatican State, so the land/church is not Italian property; it is in fact property of the Vatican. As you can see in the picture, the church is both huge and architecturally unique. The church consists of five different styles -- Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Romanesque. Different construction was completed as different conquerers came to Padua; construction lasted for centuries.

Padua is the town of Saint Anthony, the Patron Saint of 'Finding lost things'. Santa Justina is also a patron saint of Padua, but apparently Saint Anthony is main guy. Inside the Basilica (italian for 'tomb'), Saint Anthony's remains can be found. Also, just as a side note, there are a lot of myths surrounding his remains. Saint Anthony was considered a gifted communicator. He could address important politicians as well as the people of Italy. His tomb is very highly protected.

I tried to take pictures of how exquisite his tomb was, but no pictures were allowed so forgive the blurriness. The whole inside of the church is gold plated, adorned with the most amazing marble sculptures and mosaics. You can actually tell the different parts of the church that have been added through the artistic ages. It's totally cool; the church is ginormous. And every inch of it is covered in gold. Very humbling.

 Saint Anthony's tomb

GOLD!

As a sidenote about Padua, the city has a population of about 230,000. 60-65,000 of those people are University students. The University of Padua was the first known established University in the world (14C). It is historically monumental in this aspect. Botanical medicine was first discovered and used on live subjects here. The Medical school was the first to implement the concept of "teaching-hospitals" in the world. The Law school is considered among the top schools in Europe. Astute academia taught and studied in Padua; Galileo Galilei studied and taught here, and coming up with the sun-centred universe theory. Because the city is a "University town", there are tonnes of young people, which is a change of pace compared to the big cities of Rome, Venice, etc. That was certainly very cool to see, and to experience. 

On to VENICE!! 

Venice was so so so cool. I really enjoyed it. It's definitely the most unique place I've ever been. Venice is a city that was built up from a lagoon, with thousands of stilts and sand as foundation. It is technically a city of islands, 120 of them; shaped like a fish from the sky!! The Grand Canal divides Venice in half, and was and still is today the entrance to the city. Venice was the first European trading port; it was the first European city that engaged in trade with the Far East. For this reason, the city is heavily influenced by Eastern culture (as compared with the developed "Western" concept). 

Venice is famous for several cultural reasons. First, it is unique in that the city is entirely dependent on water transportation! Their front doors are on canals...their garages are boat slips! They boat to school, boat to work, boat to the train station to mainland Italy, boat to get groceries...Everything is on water! There are 400 bridges in Venice, in case walking may be faster; the city has a mapped out plan that included "roads" of actual cobblestones, and then "roads" that are canals! In Rome and other Italian cities, there are 'piazzas' and 'vias' and 'viales' named after historical events and popes and emperors -- Venice has 'campos' and 'calles'. The "streets" are named after random facts about the area or people who first lived there...not after famous people or saints or monuments. The city of Venice is very humble in this regard. Also, there are no statues in Venice. Considering that I can't even count how many statues I pass on my way to school here in Rome, this difference is easily noticed in Venice. It has kept that definition of humility throughout centuries, as it wanted to maintain the welcoming facade to its trading partners and visitors as compared with the boisterous attitudes conveyed in Roman architecture and statues of wealth and riches. Albeit not flashy, it is one of the coolest places I've been!

Venice places host to one of the biggest youth parties in the world -- that being for Carnivale (Mardi-gras time). Everyone wears masks and basically just parties bigtime from what I hear. Those bridges with no handrails over the canals must get a little challenging to cross around this time of year I wager...just a thought...! These masks are seen everywhere. Every single store in Venice sells masks. Every tourist stand, every posh store...everywhere. Many are extremely elegant, while some could rival my five-year-old gobby art skills.  They range from 50cents to 50,000Euro. Quite the cultural gig goin' on there. One of the myths of the city of Venice revolves around one of these mas. It has a beak, and on the decorative masks, it has glasses. This is the mask of the legend of the doctor who cured victims of the Plague in Venice when it ripped through the city and was considered by all as a non-curable disease. I bought one of these masks as a Christmas ornament :) 

Masks! 

One of many larger canals

Exhibit A: Garages and front doors

Jewish Ghetto Nuovo: Fun fact for the day...The word ghetto comes from the verb 'ghettare' in Italian, which means to melt metals. This was common in Venice for shipbuilding. Consider that the next time you say you pass by the Ghetto, where all the homies and hoodrats live! 

Another fun fact, in the above picture, you can see different vertical levels in the buildings. When Venice's population began to grow after it established itself as a very livable city, the city ran out of lagoon space for a foundation horizontally. So, they built upwards from existing buildings. 

This is the main "parking-lot" of Venice! Everyone who goes to get groceries or goes to work or what-have-you, parks here!

Exhibit B: Garages and front doors

These next few pictures bring me to part B of Venice. Venice is the city of St. Mark, the evangelist, best friend to St. Peter and Jesus's good buddy. St. Mark is the symbol of Venice. His symbol consists of a winged lion. This symbol is adorned on all the buildings of Venice; all the shops, every bridge, everywhere. St. Mark's Basilica is the dominating structure in Venice. It is found at the mouth of the Grand Canal, the gateway to the city. It is absolutely massive, and beautiful. St. Mark is symbolized through paradise and angels, merging the earth and the sky. It is quite a sight. He is considered the patron saint of Venice. 

St. Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco); its roots are in 828 where the initial structure came up as a result of a bunch of materials stolen from Alexandria in Egypt. In 1204, marble was brought from Egypt and Constantinople to adorn the Basilica. This is when the Venetian Empire began. The Basilica has some 8000 mosaics, and 300,000lbs of gold found inside. 

The tower in Saint Mark's square is called the 'Patron'. It was the city's first line of defense against domestic and foreign invaders.

The Grand Canal: The canal that divides Venice in two. The Grand Canal has some 250 palaces from the Middle Ages onward...the views along the Grand Canal were reserved for Venice's wealthiest visitors and residents. 

As a sidenote, it was freezing when I was in Venice, so I didn't go on a gondola ride and have some Italian sing to me on the romantic calm waters of the canals. Yes, disappointing, but the day was still great!! More incentive to go back again in warmer weather! 

Stop 3 -- on to VERONA! The city where Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' is based! Verona is very picturesque. The city has painted walls from the Renaissance with details still showing to this day. Apparently back in the day, every wall had designs on it, not just your typical yellow red or brown paint. So that was definitely very cool to see. Verona was a political cornerstone in Italy in the early centuries AD. It is found at the crossroads between the two major highways in Italy linking the Northeast with the Southwest and the Northwest with the Southeast. For this reason, especially back when this was considered a very important meeting place for travellers, messengers, etc, Verona built a reputation for hosting people. It also built a reputation for the meeting place of politically different representatives. (This is where the story of Romeo and Juliet stems from!) All through Verona, you can see buildings with roofs with M's along the top -- these signified buildings with owners/workers in support of the emperor. Other unmarked buildings, or churches and the like, supported the pope. The Montagues in R&J were in favour of the empire, and the Capulets were in favour of the pope having all responsibility. (NB: The story behind the family feud itself is true -- the houses of both families in Verona have historical data/artifacts showing their allegiances. Whether or not the actual relationship between Romeo and Juliet existed is pure fiction, but the families did exist, and they were in constant disagreement. Either way, I think ole Willie did a pretty great job with that tragedy. Shame, Shakespeare actually stole the work from an Italian writer and wrote it to fit his standards and styles.)

Verona apartments

Main square in Verona; massive market on Sundays

The 'Wall of Love' at Juliet's house; filled with lovers' individuals

Before sharpies existed, visitors would write their initials on pieces of gum. This ended up starting to ruin the walls, so they put white plaster on some parts of the walls for people to vandalize.

"Wherefore art thou, Romeo?!" -- Juliet's balcony

M for emperor!

The Forum of Verona; hosts the biggest opera concert in the world every summer from June until September. Built in the 4th C, the arena still has incredible acoustics and the performers don't use mics!

Letters to Juliet! Anyone seen the movie?? If you haven't, there's a club in Verona that answers people's letters about love etc to Juliet. Naturally, I had to write one, being a fan of the legends that I am and all! I didn't put my return address, but it was the thought that counts haha! 

Legend has it that if you touch the breast of Juliet, you will find true love. Well DUH! I had to take part in this! Her breast is actually a different colour because of all the visitors like me thinking this stuff is true! 

All in all, this was a fantastic weekend. Loved the food, loved the people, my chaperones were fantastic and totally fun -- the trip was totally great. Thrilled I went, and would gladly return to any of these places. Venice was my favourite, but the other two cities are rich in history and have a lot going for them. Great weekend!