30 Minute Field Trip

Yet again we took the train to our "favorite" spot in Italy, which is Florence. This Friday we went to a different town called Fiesole. Fiesole is a small town in the mountains that still has their Etruscan city walls. We had to take a bus from Florence, all the way up the mountain with 28 students, 3 professors and a baby, 2 staff members, and our famous tour guide Silvia. This meant a constantly packed bus with few opportunities for anyone to really get a seat. The bus driver was rushing us to get on the bus but all of us had to validate our tickets before we got on. The bus route to the top is known for its pickpockets. There were some sitting right next to us that actually tried to trick another lady on the train, but our friend Andrew stared the guy down so he stopped. The way that the buses here speed through the streets is crazy. When we got to the top Silvia told us a little about the city and a man named Garibaldi. He was an Italian hero that went to South America and fought a great war. He also helped unify Italy by freeing the southern kingdoms from their rulers. Due to this, he spent the last 20 years of his life imprisoned in a villa as the sole inhabitant of an island because the new king was scared he would overthrow him. The first church we saw in Fiesole was a cathedral founded in 1028. It has the same shape of the church of San Monica Al Monte. Jeunesse, being Catholic, decided that it was a great opportunity to pray. I let her be while I walked around the cathedral taking in all of the architecture. As we were leaving I tapped her on the shoulder only to realize that she was in tears. She got up and said with a smile on her face, "I'm okay. I just needed to talk to my peoples and the tears just started flowing."

While we walked the long trek up three other steep hills Silvia told us about the auguries. They studied the ancient practice of reading an animals entrails to predict the future. In all of Italian history, they were never wrong. It was an augury that told Caesar to beware the Ides of March. The practice has long since been discontinued.
The second church was smaller but spacious. It was split into multiple rooms and a basement.

The view from the entrance of the church was beautiful. It was definitely easier to go down than come up because we took a different way. Behind the church was a famous pathway through the trees. The European Literature class is reading a book called A Room with a View in which the main character and a possible love interest share their first kiss in a field of violets. Nearing the end of the path, if you looked through the trees, you could see the exact field that the book and the movie were staged in. We then got on the bus and headed back. 

Over the weekend, there was a chocolate festival in our square. they had all types of different designs including chocolate cleats, golf clubs, lipsticks, nail polish, and etc. they also had chocolate liquor. It wasn't as big as the food festival.
We joined our friends from New Haven after the festival and decided to take a walk outside the walls. This probably wasn't a good idea due to the time we went out but there were 5 of us and we knew where not to go. We walked for 2 hours just talking and laughing. After a long walk we sat down on the steps of the old castle over-looking the square. Met some interesting Italian kids, sang songs from the 2000s, and went down memory lane doing cheers and telling all of our athlete stories. It was definitely a weekend full of laughs. 

As for Monday, I think that it's time to create a complaint and suggestion box for these field trips because the way that they've been going, we have some COMPLAINTS and some SUGGESTIONS. The goods news is that we have a lot (too much) history to tell you about and the bad news is we can't tell you about the adventures we had because we didn't really have time to have any. They set up the wake up call for 7:15 and told us to be downstairs by 8 o'clock. We chartered a bus for our day trip to Venice and it met us at exactly 8:30 on the main road. It took a little under 4 hours to get to Venice. We took one break on the way and Silvia took advantage of the fresh minds to give a pre-tour of the region of Veneto in which Venice resides. The region of Veneto is a very forward thinking and extremely wealthy. One of the more recognizable things they are known for is Prosecco. One of the famous drinks of that area is a Spritz which is a mixture of Prosecco and Aperol soda. The economy in only the region of Veneto is rich enough to be one of the G10 countries.The Group of Ten is made up of ten industrial countries (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States) which consult and co-operate on economic, monetary and financial matters. 

As we were about to arrive in Venice she began to narrow the facts specifically to Venice (one of the most photographed cities in the world). It was founded in the 5th century around the time that the Roman empire was crumbling. The city itself is built on a lagoon full of small islands and marsh lands. In the Middle Ages, Venice was almost impenetrable because they were always sheltered. It was very hard for outsiders to navigate the changes in depths of the canals and sand banks to successfully take over the city. By 1204 Venice had actually become one of the four maritime powers in the Middle Ages because of their military presence. The city's government was an exceptionally Democratic type of republic. A Doge was elected and was only in charge for a certain term length, There was a council of 10 and a council of two thousand people made up of all of the most influential families. In 1851 Venice joined the unified version of Italy. 

Because Venice is built on salty water, they had to build underground ways to track water into wells.  There were very few wells in the city and they were very heavily guarded because that was the only source of water for the city. A person would be terribly punished for going near the wells with dirty hands or with pets because they would contaminate the water.

 Speaking of water, all forms of transportation in Venice are narrowed down to boats. There are garbage boats, ambulance boats, firefighter boats, and water-buses. The most known type of boat in Venice is the gondola. We didn't realize that so much went into making them. They are 20 inches wider on the left side to compensate for the force of the gondolier's ore otherwise they would always be turning left. The 6 lines in the front represent the six parts of Venice. The three most known are Murano (known for its glass), Purano (known for its lace), and Lido (known for its beautiful beaches and the art exhibition it holds every 2 years). To get the severely glossy black color, they have to be painted with 7 layers of black paint. They are also made of 9 different kinds of wood and sell for around 15,000 Euro each. 

Venice is also famous for its large carnival. Their carnival is a period of celebration before Lent begins. It is an old tradition starting from the 11th century, but it was most popular during the 1700s. It was full of gambling and sexual promiscuity. People would wear the most amazing and lavish costumes that cost a fortune and have been created with a lot of historical background knowledge. It is a big thing for tourists to buy a mask to bring back with them or sit down in a shop and paint your own like I got to do when I was in Italy. 

After an hour of walking Silvia got to a small square called the Grand School of Saint John the Evangelist. 

This was the base of where many people would come to partake in the 7 labors of Mercy (feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned or ransom the captive, and bury the dead).
As we kept walking Silvia showed a place where you could get cicchetti, which are the Venetian version of tapas. 

We reached the famous Rialto bridge and got to take pictures of the beautiful view for like less than a minute. The view was like no other though. We finally got to the last part of the tour which was Piazzale San Marco. There are three important buildings in that giant square.

The first has an intricately designed clock on the face of the building. The two artists who built that clock had their eyes gauged out because the people of Venice didn't want them to build a clock like it anywhere else.

The second building is another architecturally detailed cathedral. In 1807 it became the official cathedral of Venice. Before that it was personally used b the Doge for different things. The third building had an important bell tower attached to it.

There are 5 bells with all different functions and all different names. One of them is Maleficent. At this point we had 1 hour of walking and 2 hours of Silvia. They let us go for 1 hour. In that hour we had to eat lunch, find a bathroom and explore. It really wasn't enough time to do much of anything. After we met back with the group we walked another hour back to the bus but had to wait for an extra hour because two people got lost and had to take a taxi to where we were. Because we waited so long, there was no break on the 3 hour trip back. We tried to sleep for at least some of the bus ride back but the front of the bus told the bus driver to play music on loud and the only English music he had were 80s hits. The back of the bus was fuming. Lianne (cranky from no sleep, limping on her right knee from all the walking, and terribly hungry) walked directly to the front row and asked Constanza, Dr. Brode, Silvia and the bus driver himself to either turn it down or off. The bus driver brought it down to almost the lowest volume. There were shouts from the front of the bus saying she was a party-pooper and all sorts of other stuff. She gave one of them her "don't even think about it" looks and they mostly stopped. We made it back and went straight to sleep. We'll save the suggestions portion for next week after our field trip on Thursday. We are the test dummies after all. There's no way it would be smooth sailing the whole semester. Until next week!