Wonderful Days Spent in Venice

My Mum and brother were visiting family in England so they popped over to visit me too and we spent a couple of days in Venice. For my brother and I it was the first time but my Mum had been when she was about my age. It was such a beautiful city and when people say the best thing to do in Venice is to "get lost", they really mean it! If I ever get the opportunity to give advice to someone for a trip to Venice it would be: Don't plan it, and just get lost! 

When we managed to trail out of the touristy area we came across so many beautiful places that we wouldn't have found otherwise. So many tiny, empty streets and little, forgotten churches; they really were some wonderful days in Venice.

Meal-wise my Mum and brother told me that they wanted to eat traditionally and see how I'd been eating for the past 4 months so that started with a typical breakfast on the first day. We went into a cafe (or a 'bar' as you would say in Italian) and each ordered a hot drink and a pastry as I've gotten used to doing when going out for breakfast here. Ten minutes later my brother says "so when's breakfast? That was just a snack right?"

Tis' the Season to be Jolly fa la la la la, la la la la...

Christmas in Italy is celebrated very differently to what I'm used to. The most obvious thing being while us Kiwis are at the beach soaking up the sun and having BBQs, the Italians are piling on the layers and having a hot cup of mulled wine. This being said I really enjoyed celebrating the Italian style Christmas, although it was very strange being without my family at that time of the year.

Christmas in Italy is a lot more about the church than it is in NZ. I went with my host family at midnight on Christmas Eve to the Mass where the priest spoke and there were some traditional, Italian, Christmas songs for about an hour. After this we went home and everybody opened their presents that were left under the tree. The present opening was very fast because people wanted to go to bed and everyone was tired so it wasn't such a big deal as it is for us at home.

On Christmas Day we had a big lunch at home with some other family members. It was a lovely day but it really didn't seem like Christmas to me - probably because I was without my family and that's what Christmas is all about in the end.

In Italy there are two types of traditional Christmas cakes called Panettone and Pandoro. They're very similar but while Pandoro is quite plain and buttery, Panettone has bits of dried fruit in it.

When you buy Pandoro it comes with a little sack of icing sugar and you put it on the cake then shake it in the box. I know that this will always be something that I'll think of at Christmas from now on. There was an advert on TV for Pandoro this Christmas with the Italian Christmas Carol "A Natale Puoi" and now that's also super Christmassy for me and I'm sure I'll listen to it at Christmas' to come!

La Befana

La Befana is the Italian equivalent to Santa. She's a lady on a broomstick who leaves lollies and presents for the good children, and coal for the bad children on the night of January 5. The kids leave out their socks for her to fill so it's very similar to what we would do with Santa and stockings. There's also a kind of edible coal which they make for Befana which is just like a hard, black sugar cube and that's quite a traditional present for the celebration.

Milan, Dolomites and Florence - All in One Week!

Milan

On Friday (27th December) I went with Ida's host dad and sister to Milano. We went in the car and it took about 3 hours each way. It was such a great day and seeing the Cathedral (Duomo) in real life was honestly breathtaking!

Outside the Cathedral there was a huge Christmas tree and it was so beautiful. The outside of the Cathedral was absolutely amazing, even more so in person. Every little bit has so much detail and it's impossible to even imagine how people created this. We went inside and had a walk around too which was just as beautiful. My favourite part of the inside was the stained glass windows up at the tops of the walls which you don't notice from the outside. They were so detailed and gorgeous! You had to pay to take photos inside but Ida's host dad was like "vai vai" and so I snuck a couple in as you do ;)

It's amazing to think that this is some people's local church that they come to every single week! Something that I also noticed in Rome when we went on the bus past the Colosseum and all of the Romans didn't even glance up from their phones was how easily you can take these breathtaking sights for granted. I can imagine most of the people who attend church here regularly barely look around anymore and take in the little details because it's so normal to them. I know I do the same with places in NZ because when I show photos to people here of home their jaws drop and to me it's so normal.

Back from that tangent - after the Cathedral we went into the building very nearby where the exhibition that Luca wanted to see was being held. It was an exhibition of really old paintings but next door there was also one of Andy Warhol which Ida and I decided to go to instead because it was more of our kind of thing.

The exhibition was super cool and we found out some really interesting stuff about him and his work. One of them was that his famous Marilyn Monroe artworks were shot at by some lady when she was visiting him in his apartment one day and asked "can I shoot them?". He thought she meant shoot as in take a photo but... No she did not.

After the exhibition we met back up with Luca and Giulia and headed to have lunch. We ended up going to Burger King which Ida and I weren't very happy about because for one thing I had to break my "I haven't eaten rat in 4 years" streak and also it's so boring to eat something so normal and not even Italian when we were in MILANO. But we survived.

After lunch we had a walk around the streets and visited Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a famous plaza of shops. We also saw some advertisements for the Expo which is going to be held in Milano next year. There were rows of flags from what were "every country" but that's only if by "every country" you mean every country other than povera Nuova Zelanda We also went into a huge department store which was at least 4 floors of designer stuff. There was even an umbrella that cost about $400NZD! I bought it of course. They also sold designer gum boots and I know I've been away from NZ for almost 4 months now but I can not imagine gum boots being in style like they are here. To me it's still so weird but when we saw them in the shop Luca told us as if it was the craziest thing ever that when they were in England they saw gum boots in a gardening store! I couldn't believe it because of course they were in a gardening store... They're for gardening!

I had imagined Milan to be full of overly dressed people but to be honest there were the normal amount of well dressed, and not so well dressed people.

We arrived back to Cesena at around 6pm and then I went out with my host parents in search for snow shoes as the following day we were off to the Dolomites!

Dolomites

On Saturday (28th December) we set off in the car for the 4 hour drive to San Martino di Castrozza, the small town where we were going to be staying for the next 2 nights. Both sets of my host grandparents have apartments in the area, as well as my host Dad's brother so accommodation wise we were set up really well.

The first day we arrived in the afternoon and I went on a walk around the town and sorted out skiing hire with my host sister (Marta) and her friends. In the evening I joined my host parents, auntie, uncle and Ali for pizza at a pizzeria near the apartment. I chose "trecolore" which was tomato, ricotta and spinach - the three colours of the Italian flag hence the name. It was super yum and I managed my new norm of finishing off a whole pizza. I don't know if I've written this before but here no matter what you order a whole pizza for yourself. Sometimes we have at least two people who leave half and the next time for some reason no one thinks to order one to share, this is something I'll never understand about Italy.

I shared a room with my 4 year old host counsin and the opposite to what I thought happened - I had to wait up because he didn't go to bed until 11pm and I was so tired but he still had so much energy hahhaa. Kids here go to bed so much later than in NZ!

The next day we set out for a walk around and a bit of bob sledding. I went down with my little host cousin and I didn't think to ask how to work it before so it was pretty scary but according to my new 4 year old friend "è stato divertente" (it was fun). We ate lunch at a little cafe and I had a sandwich with one of my new favourite things - mushroom purée (I realise it sounds gross but it's honestly not!!).

After lunch I met back up with Marta and her friends and we caught the bus to the town a bit lower down in the mountains called Ferraria (or something similar). There we went ice skating for about 2 1/2 hours on an outside rink. It was so much fun and there an old man (76 years old!!) who was so good and when Marta asked for some tips on how to skate backwards he ending up spending the next hour helping us! He was so lovely and although I still suck at skating backwards, a couple of Marta's friends got really good at it!

After this it was about 6pm and we went on a walk around the town in the dark which was so beautiful because the Christmas lights were still up. We got some hot cups of vin brule (mulled wine) and looked in some shops; it was such a magical, Christmassy atmosphere and I loved it.

The next day was our last day but we didn't leave until about 6pm so it was still a full day. In the morning I went skiing! I didn't think I would remember how to do it but it turns out those lessons at SnowPlanet paid off WOOHOO. It was my first time skiing on a real mountain but honestly it was pretty much the same as skiing at SnowPlanet hahhaa. I can now say "I skied in the Dolomites" which I'm pretty proud about though!

Florence

On the 2nd of January I went on an AFS trip to Florence! It was an amazing day because we got to spend it with the other AFS students - we've all become so close over these past months. The weather was really bad so Florence wasn't as beautiful as it could have been but still amazing. We visited Florence Cathedral, the church of Dante, the Boboli Gardens, Ponte Vecchio and the Hard Rock Cafe.

It was an amazing day and I loved the style of the city; it's probably my favourite out of all of the cities that we've visited and I would love to see it again someday.