Sunday 21 February 2016

"It's amore"!

Hi everyone!

This week we had a week off school for the semester break, and so I made the most of the time off work to explore a country I've never been to before: Italy!

On Tuesday we hopped on a train at 9.30 in the morning, and arrived in Venice at 6.10pm. It was a long journey, but it went fairly quickly with a good book and beautiful scenery. I'm always amazed at how easy it is to travel from Austria!

The hotel was about ten minutes from the train station, and luckily I'd looked up directions before hand because Venice is just full of little winding streets, canals and bridges and it would have been impossible to find otherwise! The hotel was nice, basic but nice :) And naturally when in Italy, pizza and gelato was on the menu for dinner, at a nice little pizzeria just up the road from the hotel.

Wednesday was the first full day in Venice. We headed off on foot to St Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco) via the Rialto Bridge (Ponte Rialto). In St Mark's Square there is St Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace, and so we spent the morning exploring these two. Here are a few pictures from this:

The view from one of the many bridges we crossed to get to St Mark's Square

The view from by Rialto Bridge

The view from by Rialto Bridge

St Mark's Basilica 
Unfortunately you can't take photos inside the Basilica or the palace, but they were absolutely beautiful, full of paintings from brilliant Italian artists, and the Basilica was unlike any Church I'd ever seen before.

After lunch at the palace cafe, we went for a walk along the sea front in Venice. The sun came out for us, and the view was phenomenal. I'd not realised how much I missed the smell and the feel of the seaside, and so I was in heaven.

Venice seaside

One of the many canals in Venice
An obligatory selfie with a Venetian canal and gondola!
Wednesday dinner was at 'Osteria ae Cravate' which I would recommend highly to anyone visiting Venice. It was a quirky place with ties from all over the world hanging from the ceiling. The owner and waitress built up a great rapport with all the customers, and the food was amazing. I also managed to convince the waitress I spoke more Italian than I actually do by ordering in Italian...this did come back to bite me in the end though, when she started asking questions in Italian...

Sea food pasta
Panacotta with caramel and warm chocolate pudding

Thursday was boat trip day, and we were luck enough to have beautiful sunshine! A website called viator.com advertised a boat trip to see three islands near Venice called Murano, Burano and Torcello for €18. It was great! The tour guide switched seamlessly between four languages and gave lots of information on the sites we were seeing. The first stop was Murano, an island known for it's glass making. We watched a glass blowing demonstration and then walked up the canal towards the centre of the island.




The second island, Burano, is known for it's leaning church tower, multi coloured houses, and the lace produced on the island.
Some of the bright coloured houses on the island of Burano
The third and final island, Torcello, was my personal favourite. It was quite, scenic and beautiful.
We had a ten minute walk along the canal before we reached the main part of the island

Part of the beautiful island Church


Our return to Venice was just as the sun was beginning to set, and so the view from the boat was stunning.

After our boat tour, we headed off to the train station and got on a train to Verona. We arrived in Verona at around 6.30pm, and after a slight panic that we couldn't get into our hotel (no-one answered the doorbell, it turned out the owner didn't live there himself, but I managed to find a phone number so we weren't stranded!) we got in and the hotel was lovely.

Our one day in Verona was Friday, and so I wanted to see everything! I'd heard great things about the town, and having studied a lot of Shakespeare and loved the film 'Letters to Juliet' I was extremely excited!

We started off with Castelvecchio, a castle and bridge from the Middle Ages.





After Castelvecchio on the agenda was the Arena, a Roman Amphitheatre from the 1st Century and the third largest in the world, and which is still used for performances today.
We were able to get a 'Verona Card', which is €18 for students and gets you into all the tourist attractions in the city for free or for a very reduced rate. You can buy them at all the tourist attractions and it was really worth it, so I'd recommend that too.

Another obligatory selfie in the Roman Arena!
The beautiful fountain and park outside the Roman Arena


Next was Juliet's House, which features the symbolic balcony from Shakespeare's play, and a museum of the history of Juliet. There is a wall, like the one that features in the film 'Letters to Juliet', and inside the museum you have the opportunity to write a letter or email to the secretaries of Juliet, who answer questions on love.


We walked through the Piazza delle Erbe to the church of St Anastasia, which was beautiful. The design of Italian churches is different from Austria, very elegant and often light and airy.


After lunch, we headed over the river on the Ponte Pietra to the old Roman Theatre, which is now in ruins but was built here in the late 1st century BC. This location was chosen due to it being beside the river on a hill, so was easily visible. 

What is left of the Roman Theatre today
The view from the Pietra bridge (Ponte Pietra)
The ruins of the Roman theatre



The duomo (cathedral) of Verona was amazing. In some areas, there are some archaeological excavations which show what the original cathedral might have looked like. It was destroyed in an earthquake, and the Romanesque church that is there now dates back to 1187.  

The striking pink marble columns of the cathedral

After all the exploring, I decided it was time for (more) gelato! A lovely gelateria on the Piazza delle Erbe served waffles with the huge selection of ice cream, and English Breakfast tea, so I was happy!


The final stop of the day was Juliet's grave further outside of the main city centre. This grave is believed to have been Shakespeare's inspiration for the tragic death scene of Romeo and Juliet.




The story of Romeo and Juliet in picture form.

We headed back to Linz on Saturday, exhausted after a long week of exploring, but I had such an amazing time! I loved Verona, and Venice, and the beautiful islands we visited. My first trip to Italy was a great success, and I cannot wait to go back!

Thanks for reading!

Laura :)

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