Rain boots in Venice...A wetsuit may be better

This weekend started off in the lovely nearby city of Perugia. All of us girls got up early and caught the 8:00am train to Perugia to tour the Perugina factory with our Italian teacher. Luckily, I had already had my first Baci experience earlier this week and had fallen in love with the delicious chocolate hazelnut candy, so needless to say I was excited to tour the factory. Chiara, our Italian teacher, met us at the train station in Perugia and we all took a bus down to the factory. I quickly learned on the bus ride that there is no graceful way to ride on a bus in Perugia especially when you have luggage. I have toured the Hershey chocolate factory in the past in Hershey, Pennsylvania so I had a small idea of what to expect. I had told my roommate before going to the Perugina factory about my experience at the Hershey factory and how after touring the factory and seeing nothing but pure chocolate for an hour I was given one tiny Hershey kiss at the end of the tour. I was thoroughly disappointed at the end of the Hershey factory tour. My experience at the Perugina factory was nothing like my previous chocolate factory experience. Upon entering the factory, before the tour had even begun, there was a table full of free chocolate! At this point, the Perugina factory had already surpassed all my expectations and I knew that I was going to have a great time! I learned that the Perugina factory that we were touring is where all the Baci in the world are made. 1,500 Baci are made every minute! After touring the factory, and of course buying Baci of my own, many of the girls began to go their separate ways and started their travel breaks. For all the rest of us who had later trains we went to lunch with Chiara. It was nice to spend time with Chiara outside of class especially since we have a new Italian teacher taking over on Monday. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing Chiara at our Thanksgiving dinner in November!

After saying goodbye to Chiara, Hannah, Vi and I made our way down to the train station to catch our train from Perugia to Arezzo. We had a scenic train ride where we passed Trasimeno lake. (Thank goodness for text messages to Italian friends who are more than willing to answer all of my questions such as: “Do you know what beautiful lake I am currently passing on my way to Arezzo?”) After arriving in Arezzo we waited for our friend to get off work and then all proceeded to Ferrara together. I didn’t have too many first impressions about Ferrara because I was tired and hungry and was more focused on what was for dinner than looking around the city. However, after eating a delicious pasta dinner I was ready to see a little bit of Ferrara. Nicole studied in Ferrara last fall and was already in Ferrara when we arrived. She was excited to us around the city that she refers to as home. I could understand her excitement and eagerness to show us all of her favorite places because I know that I will feel the same way when I bring my family and/or friends to Sansepolcro. Nicole showed us the city center, her favorite gelateria, and her favorite bar. By the time we all made it to the bar I was ready to go to bed. It had been a fun and eventful day but the morning was going to come all too soon and we had an early train to catch.

The alarm clock went off entirely way too soon on Saturday morning. I had originally planned to wake up around 7:00am so that I could take a quick shower and get ready before us girls headed out around 7:45am for our two mile walk to the train station. The first two times the alarm clock went off I could not for the life of me open my eyes. Finally at 7:30am I rolled out a bed, showered and got dressed and ready in less than 20 minutes. Around 8:00am Vi, Hannah, and myself jogged to the train station, split up in two lines to see who could get through the ticket line the fastest, ran to validate our train tickets and then sprinted to make it to our train. The train ride from Ferrara to Venice was not bad but not as enjoyable as our ride from Perugia to Arezzo. There was not much to look at, it was foggy and rainy outside, the train was crowded and hot. Despite all those seemingly negative aspects of our train ride I was still able to get in a good nap.

When we arrived in Venice it had been raining and was still slightly raining. I thought to myself, “I can live with this weather, it’s not too bad.” Stepping out of the train station and onto the streets of Venice I felt as if I were in a movie. (This may have been due to the fact that I have watched Casanova twice since I’ve been in Italy and it is set in Venice.) Venice is gorgeous. Within five minutes of our wandering around it began to pour! Everyone walking around Venice was immediately soaked even if they were using an umbrella at the time. A friend of mine had warned me that it was probably going to rain on Saturday in Venice and I told him that I would just take some rain boots and all would be fine. He responded that a wetsuit may be better than rain boots for Venice. After being in the pouring rain for 10 minutes with my raincoat and umbrella and yet still somehow I was soaking wet it became crystal clear to me what he meant when he said that rain boots wouldn’t be enough to tackle Venice in the rain. Later, I jokingly told him that a wetsuit and flippers should have been required attire for enter the city in the rain and maybe even a snorkel.

I have always heard that everyone gets lost in Venice. I never understood how everyone in who visits Venice gets confused and turned around until now. The girls and I had decided that we wanted to eat at the Hard Rock Café for lunch. Since we had ran to the train earlier that morning and missed breakfast we decided to head to lunch pretty early on in the day. The Hard Rock Café is located in Saint Mark’s square, how hard can that be to find? Three hours later, I think it is safe to say that it is hard to find! I now understand why people get lost so easily in Venice. To begin, it was pouring down rain. We were wet and cold and nothing is simple when you are wet and cold venturing around a new city. We decided to follow to signs to Saint Mark’s square, S. Marco piazza. How can you go wrong when you just follow the arrows? Well, the arrows most often pointed to both the left and the right. When we stopped to ask for directions to the restaurant someone would say, “Oh, it’s to the left.” Little did we know that what they meant was, “Oh, it’s in the general direction to your left two miles away.” After asking at least 10 people, “Dove é Hard Rock Café?” Someone finally answered, “Alla destra, il a sinistra, alla destra.” (To the right, to the left, to the right.) These directions were our saving grace as we finally arrived to the Hard Rock Café.
Lunch was amazing and memorable for many reasons. Most importantly, lunch offered us a chance to dry off. Secondly, they served American food. I know that sounds like such an awful thing to say while in Italy but after a couple months in Italy it was a nice taste of home. Of course, the food in Italy is far better than anything I’ve ever had before there are a few things from home that I miss. With this in mind, Hannah and I decided that this would be the one and only time that we would ever do anything like this while in Italy, therefore, we went all out. We ordered the most expensive nachos known to man, and they were delicious! I loved them so much I even ate the tomatoes (normally I pick off the tomatoes on my food). I then ordered a Pepsi and the Legendary 10 oz. Bacon Burger and French fries. They even served Heinz ketchup! After drinking about half of my Pepsi our waiter comes over to our table and says, “Would you like some more Pepsi? We have free refills.” I immediately looked at him and told him that was the most glorious thing I had heard all day. The concept of free refills is something that I miss.

While at lunch us girls began talking about how fast this semester is flying by and how we couldn’t believe that we were already well into October. I came to the realization that we were already in the midst of October and asked Hannah what the date was. Hannah responded and told me that it was the tenth. Hearing “the tenth” hit me like a ton of bricks. October 10 is my cousin Amy’s birthday. Amy passed away in April and on October 10 she would be six years old. I don’t think that I will ever forget staring out the window of the Hard Rock Café at a bridge in Venice and realizing for the first time how far away from home I really am. It’s not that I became homesick or wanted to go home by any means but I realized how far away my family was from me. Sitting next to us at the restaurant was a group of American girls that we had met on the train earlier that morning. It was one of the girl’s birthdays and the staff in the restaurant turned off the music that was playing and everyone in the restaurant began singing happy birthday to this girl. This was a tough moment for me because I wanted with all my heart for Amy to be sitting at the table and all of us surrounding her and singing her happy birthday, but at the same time it was a nice moment for me to not only remember Amy’s birthday but to know in my hear that at that moment I was singing to her!

The rest of the day in Venice was nice. The weather finally began to clear up and we took a waterbus to Murano. Despite my heavy heart, I still had an enjoyable day. That night in Ferrara, we were all going to go out together to see more of the town. However, given the situation I decided that I would rather spend some time by myself and remember the wonderful times that were spent with Amy and how much she impacted those around her in her precious five years of life without ever speaking a word. Staying home and thinking about the blessing that Amy was and still is was the perfect way to spend my night and end my weekend!