The final day in Montpellier was spent in my bed and in the train station. The train ride back to Geneva was fairly eventless (for the better I think). We did get an earful of Colgate professor gossip from the professor on the train-that was interesting and I have either forgotten most of it (or it is best to not be repeated here...) We arrived in Geneva and got a group bus ticket to take us to the Cite-our Professor was walking with us when he told us to, "wait here" and then ran off with one of the students-and when I say ran, I do in fact mean that they ran. They returned and our Professor told us to have a good week and to be safe-that was the last we heard of him. We got to the cite-the 12 bed dorm style rooms again, and dropped our stuff and went back downtown to try and find dinner. Unfortunately, all the stores and any affordable restaurants were closed. We ended up finding this grocery store/restaurant/deli that was open (and because it was in Geneva over priced) but I was able to get some sort of grain salad and a crepe-and they threw in a free fruit cup. Then we had to decide whether to wait to meet professor Shain in the morning to retrieve our other suitcases and repack for the week or just take off early in the morning. We decided to brave it and not get our other suitcases. This meant that the upcoming week would be spent in la meme chose clothes that we had been wearing for the last four weeks (mine which had only been washed once in that time frame). So we repacked our overworn, boring clothes and went to bed.
The next morning we arose early to catch our first train to Venice. But we already had bad news before we got on the bus. Melissa had been throwing up all night long. We got on the train and though she seemed sick managed to keep it all down on the train. In a second streak of bad luck Kate forgot her rail pass at the cite and had to go back and missed our train to Venice. But she managed to catch a later one that got her in a few hours later. We had a 6 hour train ride from Geneva to Venice. When we got on the train all 7 of us pulled out our book that we were supposed to be reading for class. I believe between the 7 us we may have finished 3 pages.
We got into the train station at Venice and from the moment we walked out the door of the train station, the palooza that is Venice Carnivale was quite evident. There was music and there were costumes and it was incredible just standing on the steps of the station. We looked up the directions to our hostel and step one was taking a boat on the grand canal-our hostel was almost to the end of the grand canal and so we were able to get (in my humble opinion) the best view of Venice. We stepped of the boat in front of a giant church and took the short walk to our hostel. Our hostel (hotel alla salute) turned out to really be more of a hotel than a hostel. They upgraded our rooms so we all had private bathrooms and 2 rooms of 4, the showers sucked (la meme chose as Montpellier, no curtain, hand held, and very little water pressure-when water came out at all) but there were little bottles of shampoo and conditioner! While Melissa slept, trying to recover from what we all eventually came to call the Gripe (pronounced gripay and french for the flu) a couple of us went out to explore the city. We were walking toward the main Piazza when we came across a collection of hand made carnivale masks! I knew this was my souvenir from Venice and purchase one with musical notes filling in a crescent moon-quite lovely. Matt was instantly infatuated with Carnivale. He knew exactly what kind of mask he wanted and during our walk we walked into every store that sold masks. He also had to complete the ensemble with a black 3 cornered hat with gold trim (later a feather would adorn it). When we finally made it to the Piazza-it took a while stopping at all the mask shops-There was a giant lion made of some kind of greenery and fruit, with lights and tons and tons of people in costume. After admiring the spectacle we headed back for dinner. We got a recommendation from the front desk and headed out to the restaurant. It was okay. i shared a caprese salad with Melissa and has spaghetti with mussels in it. I had a hard time not speaking french to the waiter. Unfortunately due to some unforeseen circumstances involving symptoms similar to the Gripe (though not the gripe) we returned to the hostel after dinner. The hostel had a free breakfast in the morning which was really really great. There was yogurt, cereal, pastries, and juice. Then we set off to see Venice-of course adorned with our masks. We saw the grand cathedral in the main piazza (though not very much of it because you had to pay to see all the good stuff like the "treasure"-they tried to lure us in with the mystery of the treasure but we resisted and found out later it was bones from the 4th crusade) Then we went to check out the Rialto bridge-it was more impressive from the boat ride in but still worth seeing then we headed over to the train station to book our tickets for that evening stopping for pizza in a random pizzeria on the way, I had a pizza with gorgonzola and Ricotta. Then we walked around the Jewish Ghetto which if you don't go to the museums is mostly just another area of town but it was great walking around the city. One of the coolest things about Venice is you just sort of pick a direction and walk in it so you never know what you're going to see! Then we went to see the Dodge's palace but we missed closing time by about a half an hour. We walked around looking for a place to eat, but it was difficult, Venice is so touristy it was hard to find "local" restaurants. But we managed to find something. I had one of the traditional (I believe it's Roman) dishes-spaghetti with peppers, bacon, and tomatoes I really liked it a lot. Then we went to get our bags and catch our train (the boys stayed another night as did Elise-Elise unfortunately caught the Gripe that morning)
The rest of us had a night train to Rome. This involved 2 compartments with 4 bunk beds (couchettes) each-and the math worked out that there were 3 in one and 2 in the other. This meant we enjoyed our first sleeper car with some strangers. In the other girls' car their roommates were there upon arrival-seemingly a couple watching a movie (though later it turned out that the guy inquired after Katie's number so they probably weren't a couple), Ours didn't show up until an hour into the train-after we were asleep. She entered the compartment on her cell phone (this is a quarter to one in the morning) and wouldn't be quiet until Kate told her to STFU-though I believe her words were slightly more delicate. We arrived in Rome and after a little confusion due to being at a different train station than we thought we were found our hostel and dropped our luggage to go do some light sightseeing. After heading several blocks in the wrong direction due to the strong directional skills of yours truly) we headed toward the Colosseum, we went inside and got audioguides. The Colosseum was amazing and just as impressive as one would imagine. After the Colosseum we headed toward the Trevi Fountain, on the way we ran into the tomb of the unknown soldier. After throwing a coin in the Trevi we stopped at a highly recommended gilato place-that was very very good-I had caramel and banana (and like the guide book said the banana was not yellow but grayish) then we headed back to meet the boys and elise who arrived on their train. Then we headed out a highly recommended restaurant. But when we got there they said reservations only-so we made one for the next day and went to the restaurant next door. I had a pasta similar to the one in Venice with bacon and an appetizer of zucchini flowers and these rice balls that were filled with tomatoes and cheese. Everything was really good. Then we headed over to Campo-the nightlife area. We went to a bar called Sloppy Sam's we hung out there for a while and then went back to the hostel to get some sleep. We woke up the next day grabbed some breakfast to go at the grocery store and headed over to the forum. It was amazing to see all the ruins but it would have been a lot better with the audio tour as nothing was labeled. The weather was very wet and very rainy but we bartered an umbrella salesman down to 2.50 for an umbrella (that was really crappy and barely lasted my whole time in Rome-so overall good purchase) Then we headed over to the Pantheon which surprised me because it was a Catholic church who knew? Then we walked by the Trevi again, stopped for the same gilato (chestnut and cinnamon ginger - the chestnut was AMAZING) and went to see the Italian equivalent of the White House and the 4 fountains-both were very quick to see. We then headed home to shower for dinner. We went to the restaurant and I ordered the same rice ball appetizer (amazing again) and the pasta that was listed as the restaurants specialty which turned out to be a gratin with some sort of meat in it-but it was very good. We then went to another bar we had heard about in the same area but most of the Rome nightlife is American bars with American people so we didn't really see the point in staying out too long. Thursday we had reserved for going to the Vatican so we woke up early to ensure we had enough time and avoid long lines. We got there went through security took some pictures and entered the Basilica where who was saying mass but the Pope! The fascinating part was it was mass with a spectator section and not the most polite spectators. When we left to go to the museum it turned out it was randomly closed that day. So when Matt went home with the Gripe we went to see the Spanish steps and the Cathedral of Rome, then having had a long week already we decided to take a nap that afternoon before dinner. We went to a more local area of Rome popular with students for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Mario's and had a waiter name Matteo who was absolutely high-but he made for some good dinner entertainment. We stopped by to see the Trevi at night and since we were in the area stopped for gilato again-where I learned not to mix flavors that don't go (i had chestnut banana and licorice) We woke up even earlier Friday morning to do the Vatican before leaving Rome. We whizzed through the Vatican museum to the sistene chapel, then while we were in the museum it started to snow-a very unusual occurrence in Rome-a city with palm trees, but it was enough to close the Basilica and make our wait for the bus absolutely miserable.
We were able to make it back to the hostel and pick up or stuff before heading to the train station. Where once again Modern Europe made and appearance but was not opened by one person. We got to Florence and when we got to our hostel's address there was a woman outside and said hostel for 7? and I said yes, turns out our hostel was a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment. Having the space was nice (though the fact that the heater for both the apartment and the water wasn't turned on until 11 am) A couple of us decided to walk around while the others took naps, we stopped and got the best hot chocolate-it was thick and amazing and then we accidentally ran into an H&M... Then I got to meet Keegan for dinner as she was in Florence the same weekend. We went to a restaurant called Zaza's which was great. I had some sort of penne and bruschetta. Then we went to the NYU dorms to hang out before going out. We went to a club called Babylon which was a lot of fun and on the way home we got Kebabs (and french fries) The next day we went to the covered market where I got handmade and fresh pasta to take back to Geneva with me. Then we saw the David which was truly unexpectedly overwhelming. Then we went to the top of the Duomo for an amazing view. Then we grabbed a quick lunch and went to an outdoor market where I was able to purchase a really great leather weekend bag (made in Florence!). Then we got ready for dinner which we had at Dante's, I had the bruschetta again and a pizza with buffalo mozzarella and sausage-it was SO good. We went out to an Irish pub that was very clearly catering only to study abroad students and then to a club described to be "the true Italian experience" though we managed to avoid any unwanted incidences. On the way home we witnessed this car having an incredibly difficult time pulling out of the parking lot and who was watching but the Adam's Family (I still can't really explain this) and then we turned the corner and some men tried to woo us with an impromptu choreographed Michael Jackson dance-they failed.
The next morning we had a leisurely lunch (pizza again it was SO good) and then headed for the train station-where once again we all enjoyed the cover of Modern Europe. On the train next to us was this woman who didn't really understand the concept of trains nor did she speak english, but her counterpart on her cell phone requested that one of us let her know when she reached her stop (again still can't quite explain this one) but she spent most of the train ride grooming-and not in a good way. We got to Geneva and finally checked into our rooms! It's SO nice to have a semi-permanent place for a while-though we're leaving again on Thursday...
Most Bizarre Happening in Italy: Seeing a woman walking up and down the metro-while breast feeding followed by (presumably) her husband playing the accordion (and adorned with a fake Louis Vuitton bag) while she held a cup bagging for money
Most Excited About: My single in the Cite!!
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