Italia!

11.6: Italy

This year I returned to the Talis Festival in Saas-Fee, Switzerland for two weeks in July. Knowing that this might be one of my last opportunities to take the summer for international travel, I again sought to extend my trip in Europe as long as possible. My parents, having caught the travel bug since being to France two times in as many years, casually asked me if I had any friends who would be joining me this year immediately after Talis. When I said that the flights were too expensive for that time, they said that they would love to join me for a week if we could decide where to go. I was pretty amenable to anywhere if they were paying, and we decided on Italy!

My introduction to Italy wasn’t great: I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with a power hungry train official who asked to inspect my violin. But, I got quickly past that as we set off to discover this amazing country!

The first day, we explored Milan on foot/subway. We saw the Duomo, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, and the Museum of Science (which included lots of models of Da Vinci's works). At the Duomo, we could go up on the rooftop for a great view of the city, as well as go underground and see the remnants of old (we're talking 12th century) cathedrals that were buried until Milan started building their subway in the 1960s and uncovered it. 

La Scala Opera House!

Our second day in Italy found us on a train to Cremona, the violin making center of the world in the 17th and 18th centuries. We went to an instrument museum and wandered the streets of the town, trying to imagine how Stradivarius and countless other makers made this their home hundreds of years ago. It was difficult--the town was much more commercialized than we thought it would be. 

Some original tools from the workbench of Antonio Stradivarius in the museum

Sculpture near the train station

On our third day, we ventured to the Lake Como region. As Rick Steves put it, we came here to take a vacation from our vacation. It's not hard to see why! The tiny towns of Varenna and Bellagio are beautiful.

After 3 days in Milan and the surrounding areas, we packed our bags and headed to Venice!

Venice was such a strange place to me! Who would think of building a city where canals were the roads and boats were the best way to get around? This charm made it a fascinating place to visit. Unfortunately, everyone else thought so too--the city was constantly packed with tourists!

We took a self-guided tour on a water taxi. Seeing the city from the canal was really fun!

Some highlights: St. Mark's Basilica (unfortunately no pictures, because they weren't allowed--but the gold mosaics were stunning), more instrument museums (as the birthplace of Vivaldi, there was a big presence of his music in the form of evening concerts and two museums showcasing instruments), wandering the streets and getting lost (unless we were trying to find something specific like a restaurant, then it was beyond aggravating), the Doge Palace, and of course...the food! 

We found the building that was an orphanage in Vivaldi's time, where he taught the orphaned girls how to play instruments. This well was one of the only remaining original pieces of the building, which is now a hotel.

From the top of St. Mark's looking toward the port of Venice of the olden days.

We found this was the easiest way to keep him happy!

Lasagna bolognese 

One of the (many) times I ordered ravioli

Spaghetti with crab on our last night

Italy was a dream. I would love to go back at another time when there are fewer tourists and lower temperatures. Until then...I guess I'll have to cook pasta for myself...