Pages

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Verona and Venezia (Italy 1)

So I have made the decision to break my Italy trip up into different sections considering I visited many many places and this way they all get their little moment to shine.  I mean would it be fair to put my favorite city (Florence) with Assisi (where I only spent a few hours--but still loved) NOPE! So this is how it is gonna go...

Day 1: Land in Milan--drive to Verona
I loved Verona so much! We did not have any tours scheduled for Verona so as a group we went to see Juliet's balcony and touch her boob for good luck that we shall return



heheh we all had fun doing that for a bit--but then it was free time! yay!

Mission 1 for free time: Gelato!
this was the first of oh so so so many gelatos! This time I got chocolate chip mint (ciocolate e menthe) and my friend got strawberry (fragola!)

A few of us decided to grab some lunch: 2 margherita pizzas and espresso shots for everyone!

 one minute they are there...

 Then they are gone...

The espresso was to keep us awake, we went straight from airplane to Verona! The shot was so strong!!

when we were about to take off for our free time, the gladiators swarmed us to take pictures--it made a funny shot :)

My favorite building! Honestly I am going to live there or in something like that! My favorite colors are orange and green--how gorgeous?!

Kristin and I were in the adventurous mood when we spotted these:
I am not quite sure what Nespole are but they grow on a tree and they are delicious! We  bought 2 (one for each of us) and the little lady told us that we had to peel the skin the just eat it.  
Now just look at all the delicious fleshy goodness

Time to eat!
Juicy, tangy, sweet, delicious...

And then there was gelato numero dos:
I got frutta di bosco (left) and Kristin got tiramisu (right)

We were leaving Verona when I spotted little kidlings sliding down this super wide railing of stairs and of course the 4 year old within was so jealous.  After begging our tour guide, Patrizzia (who, by the way, we LOVED LOVED LOVED!) she said we can run over uber quickly and take a ride...
heheh lovin the four year-old action :)

Oh Chris you would go head first down a marble railing

Then we continued our journey to our hotel in Venice.  Actually it was outside of Venice, like all of our hotels were...
The Venice hotel was the ickiest! Luckily it was first otherwise oh boy would it have been weird.

Even the hotel room keys didn't make sense!! It was like a puzzle to figure them out and I still couldn't do it!
 Here's a bunch of us trying to figure out how to open our room.  Mary is the one trying while Dino the dinosaur (his real name is dennis not dino btw) was just looking on...
Keep in mind, a majority of the kids were from OT (our sister school) and people we have never met and this is day one.  Dino was one of those kids from OT (my friend and I like to call them otters)

After the worst meal of the trip, no joke, this hotel was horrible! Just look please:
Some salad from the salad bar--those are boiled carrots...
Pasta alla yuck (with some meaty sauce--I ate this while trying to pick out the meaty bits)
Chicken and French Fries (I thought I was in Italy not America!) Could not even touch!

And some awkward creamy crustardy thing (mega yuck)

BUT no fret--we went for a walk to get some Gelato!
I got Baci (which is an Italian candy of chocolate and Hazelnuts) and Hazelnut (nocci) They were both so so good! (mines on the left) Kristin (right) got banana and nocci and Jessie (on top) got the same thing I did (I actually copied her hehe)

Then time for the little rascals to get some sleep for the first time! But sleeping wasn't really on the agenda for us...

But awkward tensions were soon broken--go figure, we were the only girls room on the boys side and therefore our balconies were right next to each other.
It allowed us to talk...
and for us to bond (go bonding haha) 
Louie is on the left, Denny boy is in the middle and Peter is on the right (nicest boy you will ever meet!--more on that later)

Peter is quite the character:
Owl time!

BUT we ran into some issues when the boys were in our room way way past our curfew and our teacher caught us! Oh no! Balcony hoping = bad idea! (even if you are on the first floor)

Next day we were up bright and early to take a water taxi into Venice
Beautiful....
but now its time to get to the islands!

We met up with our walking tour guide so she could show us some of the beautiful sights:

This is the Bridge of Sighs--it is named that because whenever someone had to walk across it they would be leaving the court and entering jail

The Dutchess Palace...please just stare in awe at the magnificent architecture and paintings for a moment

As we continued our walk, we passed the Florian Tea Room--not sure what that is but I love tea so I took pictures of it

The walking tour lasted for about an hour and a half but then it was time for Gondolas! It was extra but of course we had to do it! But before I forget--gelato time!
Tiramisu and banana on the left (Kristin) and I think I got cafe (coffee) and nocci (hazelnut) but I can completely be pulling that from my tush

Now we can go on the gondola's with our full tummys--an empty tum tum would not be pretty

 Lindsay! She's awesome. We snuggled on occasion (mostly in hotel numero dos)
Then there's me rockin the single shot (we have lots of single shots no fret!)

Venice is known for their glass and lace so we went to a demonstration of them both!
First was venetian glass blowing...
They make it so quickly! BTW feel free to stare at his chiseled bod (he'll never know)

Then it was off to lace
She was such a sweetie! That piece of art took 8 months of work by many women and costs somewhere in the thousands (euro wise)
 
LUNCH TIME! Woot woot!
Mozzerella and Tomato yumminess--toasty, warm, fresh and obvs delish!


Last stop as a group: The Dutchess Palace
We were planning on staying for 10 minutes and the peacing for free time.  Well that didn't happen for multiple reasons
1. It was too pretty! We were so intrigued!
2. We wanted to walk across the Bridge of Sighs but couldn't find it. We kept walking in circles...

"The Crew" aka the four guys from my school who went
Our tushies with the statues tush :)
 Mature. I know!

secret passage way? perhaps..we were having fun!
BUT it did lead us to the bridge of sighs! 
and into the jail...
fashion shoot in the jail cells...

Our appetites were all worked up from all that exploring...
so naturally gelato seemed like the right thing to do
this time we even got a little cookie (pizalle?)

Round 3: Mini Cones and cute gelato man!
Yummy (not only the gelato ;) )

We past a pasteria so I bought a chocolate merangue for later (post dinner)


yum was that delish!
  
Ship me this now! Nutella is only good in Italy
bye bye Venice--off to Florence!

Hopefully Florence won't take long to write up but it was my favorite and school has taken over (satII's, AP tests and research papers! YAY Junior Year!)


Follow me on facebook!!!


With love and cupcakes,
CookTeen

3 comments:

  1. FUN FUN FUN! Thanks for sharing all of your photos! I love Italy. Glad you had a great time. I am craving gelato and a trip now:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh I'm so glad you had fun. I love it there. I was only in Italy for a few days but man alive, the food. We ate very well. Though I think you absolutely out-gelato'd us. Gives me a mean craving for some Arranciata!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks guys!!

    TKTC--Don't tease me, I have been craving gelato since I have been back and cant find ANY! Any recipe ideas?

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails