Favorite Memories and Mini-Update

Fortunately, for my poor mother and father who have been patiently waiting (and gently nagging) for another blog post, I wrote this during the last week of my study abroad. Each of us students were required to write a blog post about anything we wanted, so I chose to talk about three of my favorite experiences during the study abroad program.

One of the aspects of this study abroad in Italy that has surprised me the most is the reality of being able to travel to places I never thought I would. Before I started studying Italian, and even during my studies, Italy had always seemed more like a dream destination that I would maybe see someday or a pricey vacation that I would work my way up to. Even up to the point where I left for this trip, my expectations for what I would see and where I would travel to beyond Siena seemed limited; I did little planning and research for my weekends, assuming I would have little time. Well, my eyes were certainly opened, as well as Italy and my world. There were three specific moments during my short time here, where I stopped and thought, “Wow, I can’t believe I’m really seeing this,” or “Wow, that really happened?” Those three moments all happened in three different amazing cities in Italy, which also shows the span of country that I was extremely fortunate enough to visit. The three places were Firenze, Venezia, and Napoli (or in English: Florence, Venice, and Naples).

Firenze is an extremely special place and luckily, one of my friends was dying to visit the Uffizi Gallery, which houses the Medici collection of art. I am no art student or historian by any means, so I had very little knowledge of the collection and wouldn’t be able to tell a Renaissance from a Baroque work of art to save my life. After a whirlwind afternoon arriving late to our tour, I was just happy to be there and looking at all of the beautiful things in the museum. Our tour guide was interactive, personable, and distractingly knowledgeable with such great background in art history. After about 30 minutes of walking through the museum, our guide took us into a large room and right there, was the Birth of Venus painting by Botticelli. Hanging there in all its glory (amidst other noteworthy works of art that I have no idea about), it hit me like a ton of bricks – what I was looking at and the significance of the history and people that ACTUALLY happened and lived in Italy. I had seen this painting often from when I was in elementary school through European History textbooks in high school, but it obviously had very little impact in my life. Now after seeing it in real life and being so surprised that it was literally feet away from me, the Italian history and culture changed for me. Now they are more tangible and more realizable than anything I have ever experienced before.

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli; terrible picture because there were a lot of people and we were moving fast

The second time I was surprised at my location and my experience was in Venezia. One of my favorite moments from the entire trip happened on Burano, one of the little islands close to Venezia. This particular island is historically known for its Venetian lace, but is also known for its little, bright

The tiny canal and homes in Burano, a small island near Venice

colored homes along a tiny canal. On this trip to Venezia I had been looking around everywhere for the perfect mask to buy. I was on my way to find an ATM in order to go back to a little store and buy one of their masks, when we stumbled in on a little shop that accepted credit cards. The masks there were different from any I had seen in Burano, or even Venezia, so I stopped to take a look. One head form in particular, with a beautiful black tricorn hat with a black lace veil caught my eye and the proprietress was more than happy to place it on my head to see what it looked like. From there, she began to tell me that all of the masks and hats on a certain wall (behind the head form) were her own creations. Now, working in a small dress rental shop back home where creativity is necessary and having a deep, deep appreciation for the creativity and patience that are required for projects like these, I was intrigued. We had a long conversation about her masks and the process she goes through to make them. Unlike a ceramic or plastic-like material, all of her masks are made and formed from papier-mâché and once they are dry, she paints and decorates everything herself. I was just amazed by her artistry and the fact that each masks takes about 24 hours of work to complete. One thing I love about Italy is that you don't have to look very far to find an artisan who

One of the many, many, many mask shops in Venice

loves their trade (an actual trade) and are happy to share their knowledge and passion with anyone who wants to listen. After the conversation about masks, Fabiola, the shopowner, talked to us about the silk content in the types of scarves she had so we could find the best quality. She had been talking to us in English, but once we told her that we were Italian students she switched to Italian and gave us a whole mini-lecture about the history of the types of Carnivale masks that are still popular today. I could have spent the rest of the afternoon talking with her and chatting about her life and her shop. I was more than happy to spend a little bit more on souvenirs in her shop because she was willing to share so much with us. I walked away astonished and with the utmost respect for the tradesmen and women who are actually able to master a craft and hand-produce the items that they sell. Amazing.

"The Napoli Girls"  Belle, Rudy, and me; overlooking Napoli with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.

My last “I can’t believe this,” moment was a random, unexpected trip to Napoli, in southern Italy. Fortunately, one of my new study abroad friends has an uncle, who is stationed in a little beachside village outside of Napoli, called Bacoli. A small group of us were able to run down there for the weekend and stay in his home, which is a stone’s throw away from the ocean.  Now, the common activities in Napoli are seeing the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii/Mt. Vesuvius, and we actually didn’t do either of those things. We did get to see some amazing views from lookout points around Napoli and we visited another destroyed city of Pompeii, called Ercalano. The coolest part of that whole weekend was the morning we were going to return to Siena. That morning we decided to take the kayaks of my friend’s uncle out into the bay for a couple hours. He had told us about how Napoli was used as a Roman vacation spot back in the day (and I mean, like, back in the day) with grand villas all along the shore. Well, through environmental shifts in sea levels, etc. over the ages many of those villas were submerged or destroyed, but the stones from the decorative mosaics still wash up on the beaches in some areas. That morning we decided to go hunting for some of those little stones, so we kayaked until we found an alcove off the water to look. We stayed for over an hour searching and came away with a mix of mosaic pieces and sea glass. As we paddled back towards the marina, I was in awe: I was in Napoli, splashing in the Mediterranean waters, in a kayak. Before I left for Italy, I never thought I would make it farther south than Rome. So this experience with the kayaks, mixed with learning about the history of Naples – which I had absolutely no knowledge of prior to my visit – made for such an unexpected and pleasant addition to my study abroad.

Lookout point near the small village Bacoli, in Napoli

These are only three examples of the amazing opportunities I have had in Italy. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have been able to do what I’ve done, and see what I’ve seen. In the short span of six weeks, I literally traveled across the whole country of Italy and met so many interesting people. Now my study abroad program has been finished for over a week now (and I haven’t done the best job at blogging throughout the last month), but I still have another two and a half weeks to travel and do fun stuff. I am currently sitting in my great aunt’s apartment in Zurich, Switzerland right now, wondering where this blog will go and what other adventures are awaiting me. I will be here in Zurich for the rest of the week, then back to Siena for the Palio - a traditional bareback horse race held twice a year in the main piazza - then potentially off to Croatia!

I have thought about how I want to continue this blog and have come up with two different things. I have a journal of all of my experiences with me, so I think when I go back to Utah I will continue to write about what I did abroad, especially if I don't get to them in the next two weeks. The other thing that may get me to blog a little bit more is answering questions that anyone may have about my trip. I know my parents have been circulating this to family and friends, so if there are any questions or curiosities that you would like to pass on through them or ask me directly, I would be happy to write a response! This way I would have something to guide my post, rather than sitting for hours trying to condense what I want to say. If not, you may see another post soon or maybe in another month. We’ll see! :)