Carnevale di Venezia

Yesterday I went to Venice and attended Carnevale and I fell in love with the city, to say the least. The crowds were hard to handle, getting pushed and shoved, bumped into continuously, having no personal space, getting separated(thank goodness for cell phones) but we managed to venture off to the smaller streets throughout the city. The canals everywhere you turn, gondalas passing beneath the bridges, and the simple yet perfectly fitting homes lining the water made the scenery surreal. Every street corner I turned I felt could have come straight from a painting. I told my friends I will be buying a home and retiring to Venice in 40 years. If by that time you have not yet visited the city, I extend a warm welcome to visit me at my future home :)
The carnevale itself was enjoyable as well. It has been compared to the Italian Mardi Gras. Many Venetians dressed up in authentic costumes, others just in crazy costumes. Most people simply bought masks and wore them around for the day. Every where you turned was another costume or mask stand. Our bus left around 8PM so we were leaving just as the real "party" of Carnevale was getting started, but nonetheless I enjoyed taking the city in on such a gorgeous sunny day.I also enjoyed going into all the small shops lining the streets. Venice is famous for its colorful glass sculptures, jewelry, and dishware that are made on a island off the city, called Murano.
One day wasn't enough for me and I can't wait to head back to Venice soon:)

More Pics from the Weekend

First Day of Classes

My two month winter break is officially over as of today. I start my classes today at Bocconi. My schedule isn't as full as a semester at Madison and I'm testing out an online course for the first time, but nonetheless I'm excited. As much I wish I could just be continuously traveling and making sure I miss nothing in Europe, it will be much better to get into a routine with studying again and having a schedule to keep.

I spent my last week busy by exploring Milan, meeting new people and, even took a small weekend trip. On Wednesday night a large group of people from the dorm all attended an appertivo together. You pay 10 euros to get into a club, and with that money you get into the club(every place here has a cover or service charge), you get 2 free drinks, and you get to eat from a buffet line. It's a great way to get a cheap dinner, and then afterwards dance it off when the music gets going.

On Thursday morning my friend Sarah and I took a train to Florence and spent two days there. It really is a beautiful little city, and easy to walk around without having to pay for any transportation. The first thing we saw was the statue of David at the Accademia Gallery. They had seating all around him and I sat for a good 15 minutes mesmorized by the sculpture. It's a captivating piece of art and the detail and size of it leave you in awe. We also walked through the Duomo and the large cathedral that night in the center of the city. We ended our first night in Florence out by the river taking some snapshots of the famous bridges connecting the two sides of the city. Friday was spent walking around the entire city all day. We stopped for a tour at the Pitti Palace and its Boboli Gardens. We ventured on the other side of the river a bit. Naturally we had to do some shopping in the afternoon, and casually made our way to an elegant little restaurant right on the river front for a filling dinner. Taking our time after that, we made a hike uphill to the Piazzale Michelangelo, which is the greatest place to see the whole city of Florence all lit up at night. Pictures couldn't even capture the beauty of the view. Saturday, once again we caught an early train to Pisa and spent the afternoon there taking in the leaning tower, the cathedral, and quaint streets of the city. It was also Valentine's day so we were surrounded by bouquets of flowers and couples. Italians aren't very private about showing affection in general, so naturally on Valentine's day it was quite a lovefest throughout the streets.

We made it home by Saturday night and now it's Monday morning and I'm off to class in a few hours. The first week isn't very intense, similar to other schools, and I'm signed up to take a weekend day trip to Venice on Saturday to participate in the famous Carnevale festivities. It's comparable to...I'd say Halloween mixed with Mardi Gras maybe? People get dressed in costumes, many times just masks and then for a week they have special events and at night all the decorated people take to the streets and have a good time :) I'm going with a large group of international students from Bocconi.

Well now you're caught up on everything I've been up to in Italy. Have a great week!

More Pics

Here are more pictures. Church in Munich, the Duomo in central Milan, and the others are pics at my Universita!

My Computer Works!!!

After many long days and nights without my internet working, I finally have it up and running again. Not much is new here besides I'm getting more settled in, exploring la citta and the University. When more happens I'll fill you in, but in the meantime I'll let you know what the pictures are of. First one is of the castle I wrote about in my last blog and the next is a view from inside the castle out over the Alps and a close lake. Enjoy!

Back in Milan

Sorry it's been a while since hearing from me. Like I said in my last entry, we were stranded in London and it took a while to get out of there, but we made it to Munich. We stayed a little less than 2 days and spent one of them going out to visit the Neuschwanstein castle. It was absolutely gorgeous and actually is the castle that Disney's magic kingdoms was based off of. It's in the mountains(Alps)or near them and was certainly a long uphill climb(getting cheap, we didn't want to dish out more euros for a ride up)The decor inside was breathtaking and I can't wait to put pictures up to show you. We left the next morning and took a train back to Milan. It was about 8 hours, but actually went by pretty fast because most of the ride was through Austria and Northern Italy right through the Alps.
I'm moved into my dorm but unfortunately my internet isn't working so I'm using a friend's. Once I get it fixed (let's hope sooner than later) I will upload some pictures for all of you see. The weather is pretty nice if you don't mind rain. This morning it was actually nice enough for me to wear shorts outside for a run!( I'll take it over WI snow)School starts in a little over a week so now I'm just getting settled in and more familiar with the city. Arrivederci!

Stranded in London

Hey everyone, so it seems the bad WI weather followed us to a T. I am still in London. They have the most snow that they've seen in almost 20 years. We woke up at 4AM this morning, got in taxis and made it to the train station on time but the drivers weren't too sure we'd make it out. Well, our trains made it out fine on time, and we got to the airport, checked in and waited for our boarding gate to open for our 7:55AM flight. We laid around hours, until about 2:30 PM they announced our flight was cancelled.Grrrrreat. We had to wait in the longest line I've ever been a part of to then try and get a new flight. (While waiting I finished the one and only book I brought with on the trip) We are going to hopefully get out tomorrow night on a flight to Munich if weather cooperates. A few of us pitched in for a hotel nearby and are recharging by actually getting some sleep. Hopefully we'll get out tomorrow! Here are also just a few other pics from trips so far.

London

While many people are probably gathering to watch the Superbowl right now, I'm sitting in a hostel lobby in London while it is practically blizzarding outside. I thought I left Wisconsin? I thought I should update you before we leave the UK and head over to Germany tomorrow. On the first day we arrived we wandered through the National Historical Museum and the 5 girls went to a show. We saw Avenue Q, which was a comical show that involved puppets and lots of vulgar humor - look it up, it was great! Then that night we went out and met up with a lot of other Wisconsin students that are studying abroad here.
The next day we went on a walking tour of the west side of the city, which included Buckingham Palace, the home of Prince Charles' and Harry and William, Green Park, Big Ben, House of Parliment, and Westminster Abbey. After the tour we were even able to stick around for an hour and get into the Abbey for a free evensong service by the Westminster Choir. It was absolutely breathtaking!
Today we planned on taking a train out to see Windsor Castle, but the trains were having some problems and we got there hmmm, I'd say like 4 minutes after the castle closed.:( But it was still cool to see and we had a good meal out there. Tonight we walked around in the snow (made for some gorgeous pics) and saw the Tower of London and London Bridge. We also did some research and were able to walk down where they filmed Diagon Alley and we saw Gringotts (Harry Potter fans?) There's a lot to see here and I've enjoyed it all so maybe I'll be making a trip back here. We are getting up early tomorrow to head out to the airport and off for Munich. Snow is still coming down really heavily so hopefully no flights are cancelled or delayed! If you have facebook, try and check out my other pictures because I can only upload so many on here. Ciao!