Part Deux!

So I last left off with Carnevale in Bellinzona. I had to break it up for several reasons, many that involve going to class and lunch, but mostly because it would be the longest entry in the world. The day trip to Torino was a pretty epic long day, so that story alone deserved its own entry. So here goes...

Saturday:


So Amber, Matt & I decided to go to Torino as a day trip. It was originally planned to do a night there and just leave early the next morning, but one thing about Europe is that many trips can be done in a day. The trick is to get up super early and get back home pretty late. We weren't out late in Bellinzona (compared to my many other classmates) and when we got back at midnight I managed to get myself in bed right away. At 6am Amber and I woke up and zombied our way around the apartment. We literally had no words and basically pointed and grunted to convey messages to each other. By 6:50am we met up with Matt outside the villa in the frigid Swiss morning air. We did the fifteen minute walk to the train station at Capolago and waited outside in the cold for our train to pull up. There were actually two guys there on the bench either drunk or hung over from Carnevale and we knew this because they were wearing hot pink and purple wigs with grass skirts over their sweats.

We took the train from Capolago to Chiasso, which is only about a 20 minute train ride. When we arrived we purchased our roundtrip tickets from Chiasso to Milan, Italy and then sat down in this little cafe at the train station for a cup of coffee. We caught the train from Chiasso to Milan around 8:30-ish and continued on to Milan and from Milan to Torino. We arrived in Torino around 11:30am and luckily the weather was on our side. The sun was out which made the 45 degree weather so much more enjoyable.

First we walked down the street directly in front of train station which runs perpendicular. I don't know the name of the street because street signs are nowhere to be found, or at least I have no idea where Italians put them. The street had a nice overhang over this tiled floor and the shops all along the way included (but are not limited to) Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Mont Blanc, Swatch, Rolex, and H&M. It reminded me a lot of Fifth Avenue in New York City. Very high end and the street itself is really aesthetically pleasing. We continued on and walked through the squares which had tons of families out walking in the sunshine. Eventually we made it to the Piazza Reale which has the Palazzo Reale and the Palazzo Reale was the palace for the Royal House of Savoy. It's at the end of the piazza and has gates with statues out front and it's really something.

We walked on to go to the Mole Museum of Film and Cinema and honestly words cannot describe how amazing this museum is. It's SO COOL. They have everything in this museum regarding film and they even do the entire transition from shadow puppets and how people were interested by how they mimicked real life all the way to modern film. It was fantastic. I have never been so impressed by such a modern museum. That and the Hard Rock Vault in Orlando Florida are the coolest by far. I got to see original story boards from Star Wars and the original script for Psycho and Citizen Kane. They had chairs in the center of this museum which you sit in and can watch light shows on the ceiling and also watch scenes from movies in Italian in front of you on these huge screens. There is also this elevator that goes straight up the middle of the museum and it doesn't have an elevator shaft. It's just a free hanging elevator with all the cables hanging from the ceiling. And around the main room are different themed rooms and each room is a different genre of film (horror, first films made, westerns, dream sequence, etc). We literally spent 3 hours in this museum because there was so much to do. It only cost 5 euros and it was worth every single euro. Oh and did I mention the Mole is the tallest museum in the world? I believe it, you can see it over the entire skyline of Torino.

After that we had our pack lunch on the bench outside of the museum. We made our way back towards the Piazza Reale on our way to Palatine Towers. On our way there we started to see people in costumes for Carnevale. As we approached the piazza we heard music blasting and when we arrived at the same piazza where families were earlier there were now hundreds of people filling the square. I mean hundreds packed in dancing to music with vans all over the place playing different music. People were drinking in the streets and hanging out celebrating Carnevale. It was insanity to the max. It was unbelievable that this just materialized literally out of nowhere while we were in the museum. We pushed our way through the crowd and enjoyed seeing people in all the different costumes having a good time. The Palatine Towers aren't too far from the piazza so we managed to get there relatively easy.  The Palatine Towers is this medieval Roman gate that used to be one of the 4 main city gates of Torino and has two statues in front of Augustus and Julius Caesar. It's right by the palace and the il Duomo di Turin where the Shroud of Turin is located. Then we made our way back through the crazy rave in the center of town and walked to the Egyptian Museum which has the second largest collection of Egyptian artifacts next to Cairo. I believe it. The museum cost 3.50 euro and it was two huge floors of a ridiculous amount of Egyptian...just everything. Ranging from 3000 BC all the way to the Roman Empire. It was fantastic. I saw mummies and coffins and tombs and reconstructed chapels and tools. I literally saw everything. We spent about 2 hours in this museum and I took so many pictures because I couldn't believe all the amazing things that I saw. I couldn't believe that the collection they had acquired.

So after we walked out of the museum we headed back towards the square yet again because we saw a cheap pizzeria on our way to the Palatine Towers. Well the rave that was there and in full swing 2 hours prior was now completely gone. It was as if it had never happened. The square was pretty much vacant and the vans and venders and everyone and everything was all gone. We thought we had imagined it all because as soon as it arrived it had left and moved elsewhere. Crazy.

We got dinner at this pizzeria and had some cheap food which was delish. We then walked about a mile so we could go see the Po River and we also had a couple hours to kill. The river was spectacular at night and had this beautiful bridge that went over it with the archways and it was all lit up. After that we walked back to the train station tired and exhausted from our long day. We caught the 9:50pm train from Torino to Milan, which was just crazy. The train was filled with teenagers who all chain smoke  and they were drinking and loud. We were so tired that we didn't find much of it amusing and spent the next 2 hours in a haze of smoke and yelling italian boys. We got into Milan around 11:50pm and the train from Milan to Chiasso wasn't until 12:38pm so we spent our time walking around the freezing cold train station wasting time. We arrived in Chiasso around 1:45am and to our disappointment and upset the next train to Capolago-Riva San Vitale wasn't until 2:30am. We were heartbroken and tired and the Chiasso train station was the last place we wanted to be. It was covered in confetti and broken bottles and god knows what else because of Carnevale and in Europe they don't believe in heating train stations so it was freezing. We barely made it but kissed the Swiss train when it finally arrived, because one thing is certain: Swiss trains are freaking awesome compared to the crappy ugly Italian trains. There is this huge difference because the Swiss trains are so ridiculous nice (and expensive). We finally got back to Riva at 2:30-ish am and walked back to our apartment. I was in bed at 3am completely exhausted and my body sore as any other. I thought my entire body was going to give out because of pure exhaustion combined with the run and bike ride I did the day previous to this trip. I was literally feeling the burn...majorly.

Amber me & Matt in Chiasso at 2am completely worn out

The whole weekend was amazing. Torino was fabulous and by far one of my favorite cities. The museums and shops and city itself were so ridiculously cool. I want to go back already but probably won't make it there again until April.

It was a fantastic weekend, in total.

Weekend Adventures in Como, Bellinzona, & Torino: PART ONE

This weekend was absolutely crazy. I was able to see and do so much and by the end of it I was absolutely exhausted. I have never felt so accomplished in my travels, especially considering I have done this with a small group of peers. I have always had adults planning my travels for me and preparing all the transportation accommodations and hotels, etc. Instead, it was all on me and to be quite honest I feel like it has been such a rewarding and challenging experience. I have to give my parents and other adults I have had the privilege to travel with credit for all that they put into traveling. It is frustrating and exciting and nerve racking and often very challenging, but when you are able to do it yourself it is ultimately rewarding. I feel as if I could travel anywhere in the states now after doing some of the trips here. Why? Well, it is hard enough planning a trip on your own or with a few friends but it becomes a little more interesting when you have to figure it out in another language that you can barely scrape by with. For example:

A man came running up to us at 1:45am at the Chiasso train station on our way back from Torino. We were exhausted and slightly delirious and suddenly this man who had clearly missed his stop at Como (the stop before Chiasso) came up to us speaking in elaborate Italian. He was distressed and frustrated and looking to us for help. We stumbled and I eventually said "Non parlo italiano benne" or I don't speak italian well, so he says "parle francais?" "No, je ne sais pas parler francais bien. desolee." No I don't know how to speak french well, sorry. And finally, "inglese??" [english?] "yes!" and finally the language barrier was broken, slightly, because he then continued to explain his situation in a mixture of english and italian. He wanted to know when the next train was and unfortunately it was the last train, so we directed him to the bus and wished him luck.

That didn't really affect our traveling but there are so many situations where we aren't sure how to get somewhere and we have to sit and think about how to ask someone in italian how to get there. I can't walk up to people and ask directions or simple questions without knowing how to ask them in italian or whatever language speaking region I'm in. It's frustrating but exciting as a 20 year old student studying abroad, but at the same time it makes New York City look like nothing at this point. Being in a strange Italian city at night with two other friends trying to find the train station and a place to eat makes New York look like a walk in the park. It also makes traveling locally around the states seem possible and doable.

Anyway....on to my weekend.

Thursday:

So instead of having class on Thursday, we took a day trip to Como, Italy to see this incredible Roman museum that also contains artifacts from a wide range of time periods. We mainly went to focus on ancient Rome for our Roman Town class. We looked at inscriptions that discussed the Plinys, who are known because they are great primary sources for history. Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger are very important historically speaking and are important sources for historians especially in Classics. Pliny the Elder actually died in the eruption of Pompeii. Anyway we walked around and looked at inscriptions and artifacts from the Roman period. It was pretty fantastic. We also saw the Duomo di Como which was this fantastic church architecturally and was absolutely gorgeous. We weren't able to go inside but we walked around the outside and paid special attention to the Pliny statues on the facade of the church.

After that we had free time to wander the city. We were responsible for getting back to Riva on our own, which meant we had as much time in Como as we wanted. A side note, Como is where George Clooney has one of his Italian villas, which is pretty nifty. So my friends Amber, Kate, Matt, Marty, and I went down to Lake Como, which is absolutely gorgeous with mountains that have houses and buildings nestled in the side, and we had lunch there on the benches. After that we made our way to the bus station which was interesting to say the least. We had to figure out how to catch a bus that went to Mezzegra where Mussolini's grave marker is and it's just outside of Como. Trying to communicate to the bus station ticket lady in broken Italian while still being confused about which bus to take and how much to pay was beyond confusing and frustrating to the point where we almost gave up.

Eventually we figured it out and waited for our bus which arrived shortly after. We took an hour long bus ride through the narrow roads around Lake Como which cuts through these amazing little towns that are so cute. The houses are stucco with shudders and are situated right on the hillside with bridges that cut over the roads over to the other side of the street. Stone walls line the roads and people are out walking around talking and shopping. I definitely want to return to this little areas to explore the next time I make it out to Como. So while on the bus we realized that there were no signs or indicators letting us know which stop was what. The bus would stop at a bus stop which had no signs indicating what town it was. The classic quote was when the bus was careening around these narrow roads honking at passing cars (literally inches from hitting the car and killing us all....I never felt so close to death) and we had no idea what stop was next or previous when Matt goes, "uhh....I have no idea where we are going." It basically summed up our adventure to Mezzegra, but luckily a man across the aisle helped us out and yelled up to the bus driver telling him to stop at Mezzegra and he let us know when to get off the bus. We arrived and walked up this hill cutting through this town and randomly we stumbled upon Mussolini's grave marker. His grave marker is this black cross with his name, Benito Mussolini, and the date of his execution. This grave marker is on a stone wall conveniently located next to someone's driveway. This site is really interesting because when the fascist regime in Italy was being overthrown, Mussolini tried to escape to Switzerland and then onward but was caught by anti-fascists in Como and executed at this place in Mezzegra which the simple marker denotes. After he was executed, him and his mistress were taken to a gas station and hung upside down on meathooks and then taken to Rome where his body was stoned by the people and completely destroyed. It's an amazing story which makes our crazy bus ride out there completely worth it because we saw something so unique and interesting.

After we took some photos of this location we walked back to the bus stop area and went inside this great cafe where we got cappuccinos for one euro (super cheap!) and hung out and chatted it up until the next bus came. We got back on the bus and then arrived back to the center of Como where we walked around and enjoyed the sights for a little bit until we headed back to the train station so we could catch dinner at the villa. Later that night we went to the Carnevale opening parade in Riva san Vitale which was basically where all the kids from high school to elementary march in this parade dressed up while marching bands play. There are all sorts of tents out which have make shift bars and are run by the local bar owners of Riva. There was confetti and lights everywhere and it was so nice to be able to mingle with the locals for such an exciting occasion. Oh and Carnevale is this celebration in February that lasts about a week and it is basically a combination of Halloween and Mardi Gras. People dress up and I mean everyone dresses up and their costumes are always elaborate and crazy.

Friday:

Okay so after our adventure to Como we were excited to finally sleep in Friday. Well, Amber Kate and I ended up waking up at 9:30am so we decided to go for a run through Riva. We ran a little over a mile through town, which felt great because the weather was spectacular. The Lake Lugano in the morning is so beautiful and the people of Riva are walking around or hanging out in their little gardens. I absolutely loved my Friday morning run. After arriving back at the villa we debated going on a hike but decided instead to do yoga with Alyse in the main classroom. Yoga was awesome. Alyse and I decided to start doing yoga every Tuesday/Thursday and whenever we have free time. After that I showered and relaxed at the apartment and read some Harry Potter in bed while Amber and Kate napped.

Then we did the craziest 30 minute bike ride to Mendrisio to get our Carnevale tickets at the train station there, because the one in Riva didn't sell them. The bike ride there was almost entirely uphill and down this main road. We went through several rotaries and cars do not care about bike riders, so it was pretty intense being passed by cars and trucks that were flying down that road. Also the bike seats were the most uncomfortable bike seats in the world and for the past two days my butt has been feelin the pain. When we finally got there out of breath and my legs crying in pain from the run & yoga on top of the uphill bike ride, we got our tickets and hung out for a bit then headed back. Luckily the ride back was all downhill making it not so bad.

Friday night after dinner we started the preparations for Carnevale in Bellizona. As I've mentioned before, Bellinzona is the capital of the Canton of Ticino (the Italian speaking portion) of Switzerland. So the Carnevale there is pretty huge and everyone always says it's this huge blow out. So we got dressed as crazy as we could with what we had so we would blend in. When we got on the train there weren't many people on but the ones that were on the train were decked out in Carnevale costumes. As the train made more and more stops there were loads of people cramming onto the train with alcohol everywhere and yelling. It was insanity. We only stayed in Bellinzona for a few hours before heading back because we had an early morning. But basically Bellinzona had made all these huge tents which had bars and dance clubs in them and there were people everywhere wandering the streets. Any place that was open was either a bar or a dance club. There were lights strung about everywhere and people in the most amazing outfits. It was quite the experience. We got back to our apartment a little after midnight covered in glitter and confetti and went straight to bed because we had our train to Torino to catch at 7am the next morning.

Como, Italy

Head of Augustus in Museum in Como

Il Duomo di Como

 

 

walking through Mezzegra

walking through Mezzegra

Lake Como

 

Me Amber & Kate in Como

At Mussolini's grave marker outside of Como

Torino

Don't worry--I will have a huge blog update soon describing all of this and also more pictures to come from Como, Italy and Bellinzona's Carnevale!

Piazza Reale

street looking to the train station

park with the Mole Museum of Film & Cinema in the back

 

Mole Museum: world's tallest museum (and the coolest)

Palatine Towers

King Tut II, from the Egyptian Museum

Mummies!

Torino at night! 

The adventures of Stuart: Venice Edition

For those of you not aware, my dear friend Scott gave me a goat finger puppet to take pictures of in many of the places I'm traveling to. I dubbed him Stuart and have begun cataloging the places I have taken him to thus far in my journeys. He made it on the trip to Venice but unfortunately missed my day trip to Torino yesterday...but here is his photo shoot on top of St. Mark's basilica in Venice:

Stuart on the bus

Stuart in front of the Campanile di San Marco

chillin on the roof

In front of the Grand Canal and Columns 

in front of the church mosaic on the roof

Story of Venice

Okay so Venice was absolutely amazing. It's hard to describe in words how cool it was to walk around. I loved that city so much. I really want to go back some day. It's such a romantic city and everything is so unique.

The first night we got in we are all so tired. We went to Sirmione to see Catullus' supposed estate and then after that we saw Verona. It had already been a pretty jam packed day, so when we arrived in Venice at 5:30pm (oh and we left the villa in Switz at 6am) I was completely wiped and starving. It was already dark when we arrived and the city was so pretty even at night. We got off near St. Mark's Square, so that was an amazing sight to see at night. Breathtaking. Our hotel was off a street from the square, so we walked on and through the narrow streets of Venice. It was quiet because there are no cars, buses, mopeds, or bicycles but people were still milling about and shopping in the tiny shops along the streets. Chocolate and candy shops and shops filled with masks for the upcoming celebration of Carnevale. Then of course there was high fashion like Gucci, Valentino, and Chanel but even that was so neat to see mixed in. The narrow streets open up in open areas and squares that usually have the higher brand names and bigger stores but also have these amazing old churches and beautiful apartment buildings.

Anyway we arrived at our hotel not long after leaving the square. Once getting unpacked and settling in, we headed out into the streets to see the shops and look around. I was immediately in love with the city the moment we arrived. I loved every store and the people were so kind and everything was just so different from anything I have ever seen. I loved it.

We had dinner as a group and then some people headed out to the bars, but Amber and I decided to go to bed. It was a very wise decision since we were so exhausted. We ended up passing out around 10:30pm. We had to be up early the next morning to go see some sites with the group and do some other things before lunch. After our morning agenda of presentations and learning about the city and monuments, we were free to do our own things. I saw so much. I went to the Accademia, which is this really neat art museum that had a ton of Venetian art work from Bellini to Titian to Tintoretto.  Unfortunately for us, the  Vitruvian Man was not on display due to construction but everything else we saw was pretty amazing. We got lunch at pizzeria on our way back to the square, and then we continued on to go inside St. Mark's basilica. That church was beyond beautiful. It was filled with gold mosaics across the ceiling and there was so much going on in the church that you could sit there all day and keep finding new and interesting things. I saw the Pala D'Oro, which costs 2 euros, but it was totally worth it. This is an altar piece that was crafted during the Byzantine Empire and has nearly 2,000 jewels on it. It is a golden piece so when you look at it just shines and has tons of images of all the Doges and important figures. Honestly, it was so worth seeing. After that we went up and paid to go out on the balcony of St. Mark's that has a view of the Grand Canal and the square. Upstairs also has an entire museum with so many artifacts and amazing pieces. there are 4 horses that decorate the upper part of the basilica but the ones outside are not the original ones. The original ones are preserved on the inside in the museum portion. These horses were looted from the Hippodrome of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade and sent to Venice. Seeing the actual horses on the inside was another breathtaking moment. It's such a cool thing to be able to see. Honestly, the basilica was so amazing.

After that I recouped at the hotel for a bit and then went out with my friend Marty to do some site seeing. We tried to find a church but ended up getting lost in the winding and extremely complicated streets of Venice. We crossed over the Ponte di Rialto, which crosses over the Grand Canal, and we ended up getting some Carnevale masks and soccer jerseys for AC Milan. It was a lot of fun walking around and actually doing some shopping. After that we headed back to meet up with Amber, Kate, Matt, Andrew, and Clay to go out and get some dinner. After dinner we split up because some of us had bought tickets to see a music concert.

I bought a ticket for the music concert earlier that morning with some of the group. It was a string orchestra performing in this old church Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It was such an awesome concert. So beautiful and to be able to see it in a church was epic. It was the perfect setting and the musicians performed spectacularly. I absolutely loved getting the opportunity to actually see a concerto in this old church in the middle of Venice. Awesome. It completely renewed my appreciation for classical music. It was the perfect night.

After that was bed and the next morning we headed back home. We went to Vicenza to see the Teatro Olimpico, but I'll have to do another post for those pictures.

Oh and coming up soon I'm posting pictures of the many travels of Stuart the goat finger puppet. Scott gave me a finger puppet of his so that I can take pictures of it in all these different places across Europe. So if you don't get it, don't worry those posts are specifically for Scotty.

Alright until next time!
Arrivaderci!

VENICE

Gondola in the canal

St. Mark's Basilica

Gondolas and Grand Canal

Winged Lion of St. Mark & St. Theodore columns

Venice at night

Bridge of Sighs