The Hill

Today was again a gorgeous day! I didn't even need a jacket, the sun warmed you up plenty.
After class today we decided to head to the famous hill that other students told us about. About a 30 minute walk to the other side of the river we found Verona's most scenic spot. See for yourself:

Over looking the river, we had a blast taking cute pictures (classic tourists..), enjoying the view and drinking wine. It was the perfect afternoon. 

The walk up to the hill was quite a work out but the little nooks and crannies made it enjoyable. It's crazy to think that people actually live off this staircase path up to the hill. Must be the life. 

The hike wouldn't be complete without a KKG sorority pic :)

The Dream Continues

The past two days have been gorgeous! Clear sky, sunny, and 50+ degrees, its heaven. 

I've been exploring more things in the town that I never knew existed until yesterday and everything I've seen before looks completely different when its touched with sunlight. I discovered you can see part of the Alps above the buildings right outside our apartment. Pictures don't do justice, but i swear its there.

Class has been going well, i'm learning a lot of Italian in the past two weeks, surprisingly. My favorite class is Italian Opera, we will be seeing two performances this semester which will be so fun!

Yesterday was my first day volunteering, and I am obsessed with my position! I am working for Club Di Giulietta, an organization that receives thousands of letters a month from all around the world writing to "Juliet" seeking love advice. It was so fun to read about others love lives and their problems because they are relatable to everyone. I love writing back as "Juliet" and hopefully giving good advice… not that I have much credibility but hey, a girl can dream.

This upcoming Sunday I will be attending my first soccer game! Hellas Verona is the soccer team that I will be rooting for when we play Roma at the Verona stadium. I bought a blue and yellow scarf to fit in -- fingers crossed-- with the actual Hellas fans. 

I tired a calzone today for lunch and it was amazing! I got a ham, ricotta and artichoke stuffed spinach calzone.. I know I like the weirdest combination of foods, but it was actually delicious. The man who worked at this pizzeria, called Doge, said they sell foods for American's and German's that visit. So I guess it isn't as Italian as I thought it would be but I can't pass up a bit of home every once in a while. Nom nom nom!

Mantova

Sunday morning we went to Mantova, a town south of Verona. It was awesome!! To start, we went to one of the Gonzaga royal family's palaces. It was called "Palazzo Te." It was filled with huge rooms whose walls were covered in paintings. Each room had a story behind it told through the paintings. Our tour guide informed us that the specific Gonzaga who had the palace built for him played a ton of jokes on his guests, and each room had a different joke. One room in particular was the room of the giants and it was faintly lit so when guests walked into the room they couldn't see that the floor was bowl shaped and this lead to the guests falling into the cratered floor! Apparently he also had the servants pour water on the floor to make it extra slippery. These jokes were more of pranks it seems. Man, if those walls could talk…

Just before our lunch at "La Masseria" we checked out Teatro Scientifico which is the theater where Mozart played, starting at age 13! Our tour guide apparently sang there with her chorus and said the acoustics were perfect and the sound traveled beautifully. Everything was very symmetrical. 

Lunch was delicious and also very filling -- as always. We made our way to the main Gonzaga palace called "Palazzo Ducale" of the Duke Palace. It was the best yet! Every room was breath taking, the walls, ceiling, furniture, tapestries were insane. The Gonzaga family was disgustingly rich, they made this palace so large that if could essential be its own town. If under attack, the family could reside within the castle walls just fine. Equipped with servants, a church, underground tunnels to other parts of the castle and thats just the start! It was so awesome to see in person and I couldn't believe that a family lived in such an enormous palace. Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace which just gives you a thought to how precious and exquisite the masterpieces really are. 

** SIDENOTE

Claudio's dogs are the cutest ever!!

Saturday Trip To Bolzano and Trento

Early Saturday morning we headed up north of Verona to Bolzano. This city was built in the Alps, basically, which made it so scenic! Unfortunately it was very cloudy and foggy as you can see in the pictures, but the mountains peaked through a bit! This town has a lot of German influence which made us feel as if we weren’t in Italy anymore.. kinda cool.

Here, in Bolzano, is home to the Iceman or ötzi as they say. He was just discovered 20 years ago in the Alps by a couple walking by. The cool thing about him is that he was apparently attacked or murdered and died in the Alps but his body was reserved by the ice and snow. We saw his body and there still remains skin on parts of his body.. it was so bizarre! It was gross but fun to look at too. This is a picture of ötzi recreated into what they think he looked like, so extremely short to say the least. 

We explored the streets a bit and found this beautiful church called Assumption of Our Lady Cathedral. The inside was gorgeous, as you can see from the pictures.

That afternoon we headed south of Bolzano to Trento. Here we toured “Castllo del Buonconsiglio” or Castle of good luck. It was fun to see the fancy paintings on the ceilings of some of the rooms in the castle. It had over 600 rooms in this castle.. so it was huge! The view from the Castle over Trento was awesome as well, especially with the mountains in the background. 

The church in Trento was also very medieval looking and fun to check out.

For dinner we went to Birreria Pedavena, which was a restaurant and also a brewery so we all had Lags beer. I got their Christmas beer which was really good. The food there was amazing! I had Cinque Terre pizza (it had pesto and tomatoes since Cinque Terre is known for its pesto) as well as some appetizers and chocolate mousse for dessert!