Travels Abroad: April 2009

A quick stop in Pisa

Florence, Italy - A girl only turns 20 once!

Our Italian quest continued as we proceeded into Florence. Firenze, as said in Italian, is commonly associated with paintings and sculptures housing creations by Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello and many others. But since we visited, it can also mark the place where I completed my second decade of life! It’s true, I turned twenty in Florence, Italy!

View of Florence

The hostel we stayed at in Florence was one of my very favorites! Every morning, Clara, the lady that ran the hostel, would cook everyone eggs and bacon and serve a great breakfast. If there were too many guests to fit in the common dining room, she would pack and individual basket and deliver it to your door! When we ask if we could perhaps use her laundry machines, she told up to bring her our clothes so she could wash them for us! (We didn’t make her wash our clothes!) What a wonderful place!

Our first day, we visited a museum to see the Renaissance sculpture of Biblical King David by Michelangelo. This famous statue is 17 feet tall and depicts a scene right before David fights Goliath.

One of the most impressive areas we visited in this city was Piazza della Signoria. There of numerous statues in this square which has been a center of political life since the 1300’s. The display is entirely impressive! There is even an open air sculpture gallery known as Loggia dei Lanzi built in 1376.

Our traveling family in Loggia dei Lanzi

Statue in Piazza della Signoria

We were able to admire and go into The Duomo (Cathedral) of Santa Marie del Fiore built in the 13th century with a grand dome added in the 15th century. The outside of this building is beautifully crafted with pieces of pink, white, and green, marble.

Santa Maria del Fiore

For my birthday, Sara, Nick, and I went out to dinner. However, we also invited many other young travelers from our hostel. Quite a few of us shared a meal and went out at night.

Birthday dinner complete with South American Friends!

Venice, Italy

Entering Italy marks approximately the half way point in or journey. Our first stop was Venice. We arrived pretty late in the evening and celebrated our arrival with gelado! I swear to this day that this was the best gelado I had on the entire trip. I don’t know if this is because it was my first time and I was utterly shocked by its ‘amazingness’ or if it actually was of exceptional quality above all the others. (We made it a goal to eat this delicious Italian ice cream every stop we made…we almost made it!)

Sara and I and our fist gelado!

We only allotted for one day in Venice, but we went around like crazy doing everything we possibly could! Venice is probably the most unique place I have ever seen. There aren’t really actual roads, the city is made up of walkways and bridges over top of water, or more technically, “and archipelago of island linked by bridges.” Water taxi and gondola are the best ways to get from place to place and the walkways are almost impossible to navigate the way the wind every which way!

There are numerous things to see in the city. The Piazza San Marco, or St. Mark’s Square, and St. Mark’s Basillca is the main square of the city. Some of the best known bridges are: The Rialto Bridge, built in 1181 as the first crossing of the Grand Canal, and the Bridge of Sighs, built in 1602 which connects old prisons to interrogation rooms and is the last view that many convicts had of Venice before being imprisoned. The name refers to the sighs that the convicts would release as they walked through this covered bridge.

Sara, Nick, Me, and fellow youth travelers in front of the Rialto Bridge.

Sara, Nick and I in front of Statue of Condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni ,who faught for Venice against Milan, outside of San Marco.

We knew we couldn’t leave Venice without riding in a gondola, but instead of paying upwards of 60 euros to take a tour of the city in the classic boats, we opted to pay 50 cents to simply get from one side of the canal to the other. This turned out to be a great investment!

Sara and I on the gondola. (Note the drivers classic outfit!)

Line of Gondolas

We also took a boat over to the islands of Murano, a seperate chain of islands know for glassmaking. In 1921, the Venetian Republic ordered glassmakers to move out of Venice due to a fear that the fires could potentially burn the famous wood buildings of the city. The craftsmanship of and glass blowing technique is amazing and we were able to watch some artists at work! Every type of glass delicacy is made on this island from chandeliers to small rings.

Glassmaking on Murano

Geneva - Chocolate, Diplotmats, and the coolest money I have ever seen!

Traveling from Salzburg to Geveva, Sara and I took a series of panoramic trains through the Alps in Switzerland. The scenery was beautiful. The train stops at the base of lots of ski resorts where skiers and other outdoor enthusiasts can just hop on the train home at the end of the day. The buildings and houses in Switzerland are quite unique. It was great to travel by train through this wonderful area.

Our last stop of the day was in Geneva, a city right near the border of France. It is built right on Europe’s largest Alpine Lake. The city is home to many international organizations including the United Nations and International Red Cross. Commonly known for banks and chocolate, the city offers many of both. We were sure to stock up on chocolate and were very impressed by the ornate displays in the choclatier shop windows. Switzerland still uses the Swiss Frank, which is brightly multi colored and was (at the time) very comparable in value to the dollar. However, being the expensive city it is, a McDonalds Big Mac meal cost 11.30. I don’t know what it costs at home, but I guarantee it’s not that!

In Geneva, we met up with our friend Nick, also a mechanical engineering student at KU studying abroad in Wales.

We visited :
- Cathedrale de St Pierre, where John Calvin preached in the 1500’s