Lauren's Adventures Studying Abroad in Italy: Venice and Verona

I got pooped on in Venice. Apparently it's good luck. No big deal. What a way to start a post, huh? Growing up, my teachers always taught me that when starting any composition, you need a fish hook. So there it is my little fishies, the hook.

Saturday I went to Verona with my study abroad program and it rained. I actually don't mind the rain, I really don't. Washington has made me immune to the rain. The only problem with the rain is that it makes it very difficult to take pictures without my camera getting wet. Verona was a lot different than I expected. Not sure exactly why I pictured it the way I did, but I pictured Verona having unpaved roads and just ruin looking buildings... Come to think of it, I probably pictured it that way because it is more or less the way Shakespeare described it. Verona was a nice city to explore, but I wouldn't make a special trip out there to do it again. It was a complete tourist trap. There was a house with a balcony that COULD'VE been Juliet's balcony. If she even existed. It was basically an IF kinda city...IF that took place. IF that happened. IF they existed. My friends and I found a tea/coffee shop and we hung out in there for a bit. A couple of my friends split a spiced ginger something (i think) tea, and I had a dark chocolate mint hot chocolate with homemade whipped cream. SO TASTY. so dangerously tasty. so glad that shop is not in florence, otherwise i would get dangerously close to becoming a diabetic with all of that sugar in that hot chocolate.

After Verona, we went to a wine vineyard and saw the grapes being dried out, and we had a small wine tasting. Before coming to Italy, I really wasn't a wine person, but Italy has definitely made me expand my wine palette. During the wine tasting, we only tasted red wines and I surprised myself by liking all of them; when before Italy, I would only drink white wines... occasionally. Wait. What am I saying? I've never had anything alcoholic to drink ever because I'm under 21, so OF COURSE it would be illegal. Pshh... okay so rewind. Before coming to Italy, if I had to IMAGINE what wine tasted like than I IMAGINED that I wouldn't drink it because of the taste. Alright, who am I kidding? Of course I've had wine before. I'm Jewish. Gotta keep up that tradition. And ladies and gentlemen, this is when it becomes apparent (and a child), that I am clearly not getting enough sleep... hence, the rambling. ANNNND moving forward...

Saturday night, we stayed in the middle of no where. I couldn't even tell you where we were, except we were in the middle of no where in between Venice and Verona. I'm 99.9% sure that the hotel was chosen because it WAS in the middle of no where. And having 130+ of us makes sense to being in the... yep, you've guessed it... middle of no where.

Sunday, bright and early, we departed for Venice. I had been to Venice before, but it was such a different experience. When I was younger, it was more about getting from point A to point B in the most efficient and fastest way possible. However, now it's about going from point A and going through the entire alphabet before getting to point Z. In short terms, I had fun getting lost. I love perusing the stores, the markets, the canals, everything. My friends and I decided to ride in a gondola, which was cool. The last time I was in Venice, we chose not to ride in one, so it was a nice experience.

Anyway, here are some pictures...

As promised, here is a picture of the chocolate chip peanut butter challah I made last week...