Buongiorno Llamas, Lace and lovely weekends

This past weekend was an excellent fun filled, interesting weekend. It started Friday morning with a trip to Bolzano with Anne and Janet. Bolzano was a place that I had heard a little about but kind of just decided to go on a whim. It was about a 2 hour train ride, totally worth it. Not only was the town completely off the beaten path for American tourists, but I felt like I was in a completely different country although I was still in Italy. The story with Bolzano is that it has changed hands multiple times between Austria and Italy, as has most of the area. It is one of the few towns that has official languages as both German and Italian, although it is a sensitive discussion. The main center of town is a part of the German area, so I felt it even more. I even felt weird using my Italian to order a cappuccino, but the bartender was Italian so it was all good. Anyways I had done my research and we did a ton that day. To my surprise (and delight) everything I wanted to see was all walking distance from the main square of the town so it was easy to do everything. We first visited the mercantile palace. This was the main place where trading went on. The actual building was gorgeous and had a lot of cool old furniture and artifacts. Right off the mercantile museum we found the fruit market which was amazing. They were selling every type of fruit, veggie, pretzel bread etc.

Next we went to an authentic German restaurant that Anne had read about in her guide book. It was delicious! Anne was adventurous and got the town's specialty white sausage, but I stuck with risotto with artichokes and trout (yum) it was there that i discovered that I actually like beer if it isn't too dark and is of good quality. I accidentally ordered a medium, which was difficult to finish but I thoroughly enjoyed it. (see below)

 After lunch we took a visit to the archeological museum to see the "iceman," a 5,000 year-old man discovered just outside of Bolzano in 1992. That was really cool and what Bolzano is really famous for.  After that we got some gelato (raspberry yay!) and finally took a cable card ride up into the mountains where we hiked around a bit. It was cool to be somewhere so green, very different from what I typically see here. We saw an interesting statue (see below) as well as llamas grazing in the fields. Overall I would say very successful day...oh yeah and did I mention I ran into a glass door at the mercantile museum...only the worker there saw me she kind of just gawked for awhile...remarkably this is the first time that has happened in my life, but well worth the great day!

The next day we took a trip with the group to Venice. I have been told by countless people that I would love Venice, and I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. The town was gorgeous but crowded with so many American tourists (yes I am disassociating) that it just kind of bothered me. We saw a glass blowing demonstration which was really cool. By far the best thing we saw was a lace factory, where they continue to make gorgeous lace by hand. They are subsidized by the government to continue to do everything without machines. I learned that there is a specific type of Venetian lace that will be basically extinct over the next few decades so it was really cool to see it.

Unfortunately, my attempts to wander and get lost in Venice ultimately failed because I couldn't get away from the tourists!  I am optimistic though, and will give it another chance when mom and dad come. I am also glad that I can really appreciate the more authentic experience I am getting in Verona. Even if there are a lot of tourists around, many of them are Italian and I am surrounded by the language and people just living their lives.

Luckily, I did not have to wait long to get a more authentic experience outside of Verona. Yesterday, we went with the group to Montagna, which is a town not far from Verona. It is one of the few towns completely surrounded by walls left in Italy. We were lucky enough to arrive there on a once a month fair. Since it was a small town, few people spoke English so I was able to practice my Italian. It was really cool seeing everything that was sold from veggies, fruits, antiques fresh meat and fish, different food spreads and honeys, purses etc. I left with some fresh olives and sun dried tomatoes which I cooked with tonight (fyi if you buy sun dried tomatoes fresh you should soak them in a jar of olive oil or they'll taste like raisins my issue tonight) the olives were absolutely delicious ahh. I also tried some sort of honey chocolate sprinklee sweet roll. The market totally reminded me of why I came to Italy. Unfortunately I regretted eating because we went to a castle..yes a castle to eat lunch. The castle (Belivicqua) was gorgeous and had a ton of cool artifacts. Claudio our resident director and his wife were married there. If only it were closer to Chicago, everyone would get married there...seriously. There we learned some medieval activities such as archery ( I had a good shot look below, yes the bullseye is a pepper...shout out to Hannah!)

We also visited a torture chamber. We had fun at pretending that we were being hung..weirdly I recognized a lot of the stuff we saw from writing my paper one women murderers in 17th century England...didn't realize I was such an expert.

What better way to end the day but with a trip to the mall? Although the ride there made me a bit nauseous, it was totally worth it, the mall was a cultural experience. Because it was Sunday, the mall was packed and insane. I left only with a cardigan but cannot wait to go back.  As for this week, I am excited to continue my new classes, start art history and visit my cousins in Brussels this weekend!