Saturday, September 13th
The original plan for today was to wake up early, walk to the train station, and take a day trip to Florence and hopefully see the Basilica Di San Lorenzo and a bunch of Donatello statues. We got up and met in the lobby at 6:00am, walked to the train station for about an hour, and then when we got there, found out that round trip transportation would cost over 100euros. So we all sat down in the cafe, and came up with a new plan. We decided to go to a smaller little town called Montova, and try to experience the cultural aspects of Italy, instead of the huge tourist attractions like the overwhelming Venice the day before. The group of went was me, Rachael, Cody, Aurelia, Shawn, Jim, Billy, and Shannon. We ended up paying less than 3euros to get a ticket there.
We got to town, and the best way I can describe it, is that it was just a really classy little town. We walked around trying to look for a main square of some sort, because we read in Billy's book that there were good markets there. In looking for these, we came across a beautiful church and looked around in there. It was amazing. All of the European churches I have seen so far are incredible.
We continued to walk around and explore, and found a peaceful little park, with gardens, tall fences, and brick walls, and then also found an archeological museum. Just walking around and seeing people and the different houses was an experience in itself.
Eventually, we walked to another main piazza (square) and saw this festival going on. It was supposed to be some benefit to support volunteers I believe. We sat at an outdoor cafe there, and it looked like it was going to rain, so we grabbed a table under one of the umbrellas. Everyone ordered their authentic Italian foods, lots of wine, and it was great, of course.
After a few minutes, it started POURING! I couldn't believe how fast and how hard it could rain. Within about 3 minutes, our entire table was flooded, maybe 4 inches of water to walk through. We jumped across the cobblestone paths to get indoors, and Rachael actually climbed chairs to get through. We were all absolutely soaked! We got inside of the cafe and decided to play cards for a bit to try to wait for the storm to pass... but it didn't.
We decided to walk through the markets under the pavillions on our way back and there were lots of displays of pointless little toys, and lots of jewelry. I bought a necklace. All of the clothing stores were really nice, but we were unable to go through them since they were all closed for lunch (another cultural difference here. everything closes for about 2 hours for lunch.) I wish I were a European so that I could wear classy clothes all the time without being questioned why you are dressed up... that is what I have decided. There was this really crazy display in one of the stores- hay all over the ground, manicans wearing fancy clothes, and huge, fake pigs all over the place... I wish I could read Italian just for that...
We got to the train station and got a ticket back to Verona. Shawn sat down next to me, and we started talking and playing this card game where you have to guess what card the other is holding up by simply reading the facial expressions.
It kept raining, so we decided to head back to Verona and get ready for our departure the next day.
The original plan for today was to wake up early, walk to the train station, and take a day trip to Florence and hopefully see the Basilica Di San Lorenzo and a bunch of Donatello statues. We got up and met in the lobby at 6:00am, walked to the train station for about an hour, and then when we got there, found out that round trip transportation would cost over 100euros. So we all sat down in the cafe, and came up with a new plan. We decided to go to a smaller little town called Montova, and try to experience the cultural aspects of Italy, instead of the huge tourist attractions like the overwhelming Venice the day before. The group of went was me, Rachael, Cody, Aurelia, Shawn, Jim, Billy, and Shannon. We ended up paying less than 3euros to get a ticket there.
We got to town, and the best way I can describe it, is that it was just a really classy little town. We walked around trying to look for a main square of some sort, because we read in Billy's book that there were good markets there. In looking for these, we came across a beautiful church and looked around in there. It was amazing. All of the European churches I have seen so far are incredible.
We continued to walk around and explore, and found a peaceful little park, with gardens, tall fences, and brick walls, and then also found an archeological museum. Just walking around and seeing people and the different houses was an experience in itself.
Eventually, we walked to another main piazza (square) and saw this festival going on. It was supposed to be some benefit to support volunteers I believe. We sat at an outdoor cafe there, and it looked like it was going to rain, so we grabbed a table under one of the umbrellas. Everyone ordered their authentic Italian foods, lots of wine, and it was great, of course.
After a few minutes, it started POURING! I couldn't believe how fast and how hard it could rain. Within about 3 minutes, our entire table was flooded, maybe 4 inches of water to walk through. We jumped across the cobblestone paths to get indoors, and Rachael actually climbed chairs to get through. We were all absolutely soaked! We got inside of the cafe and decided to play cards for a bit to try to wait for the storm to pass... but it didn't.
We decided to walk through the markets under the pavillions on our way back and there were lots of displays of pointless little toys, and lots of jewelry. I bought a necklace. All of the clothing stores were really nice, but we were unable to go through them since they were all closed for lunch (another cultural difference here. everything closes for about 2 hours for lunch.) I wish I were a European so that I could wear classy clothes all the time without being questioned why you are dressed up... that is what I have decided. There was this really crazy display in one of the stores- hay all over the ground, manicans wearing fancy clothes, and huge, fake pigs all over the place... I wish I could read Italian just for that...
We got to the train station and got a ticket back to Verona. Shawn sat down next to me, and we started talking and playing this card game where you have to guess what card the other is holding up by simply reading the facial expressions.
It kept raining, so we decided to head back to Verona and get ready for our departure the next day.
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