La Mia Vita in Italia: Venezia e Sicilia

Rialto Bridge in Venice

Gold mosaics of the Basilica di San Marco

My Dad and I in Murano

Camellia and I on a lovely gondola ride

As the end of my time at the Villa creeps closer and closer I am trying to make the most of every day I have left. And the past two weekends I think I have definitely taken advantage of my time here by traveling to two of the places I’ve always wanted to see in Italy, Venice and Sicily. The Venice trip was two days and one night with my whole program. My dad was also visiting for that weekend, so he came along! It was really nice to have him with us, and to have him experience a little bit of what my life in Italy has been like for the past 3 months.

We left early on a Friday morning and headed on the 3-½ hour bus ride to Venice. When we got there we immediately hopped on a boat to go to the beautiful island of Murano. Murano is where the famous Venetian glass blowing is done, and we even go to watch the making of it. It was amazing to see them transform glass into almost any object. After Murano we headed to see some of Venice’s main tourist attractions. Even just walking down the streets was exciting because all of the bridges and canals. We eventually made it to the Piazza San Marco. The Piazza is filled with tourists, pigeons, museums, restaurants, and the Basilica di San Marco. The rest of the afternoon I just explored the streets of Venice with my Dad. We had a nice sit down dinner before heading back to Piazza San Marco for a private night tour of the Basilica. The church was filled with beautiful, gold mosaics from ceilings to floor. It was amazing to have our own private tour in such a popular tourist spot.

We began the following morning with a tour of the Accademia di Venezia. The rest of the day included more tourist activities like a visit to the famous Rialto Bridge and a gondola ride. I loved the gondola ride! It is something that is so unique to Venice I couldn’t imagine leaving without going on one. It was a bit of the expensive side, but with a large group it was totally worth it. We ended our Venice activities in the Jewish Quarter. It took us forever to find it, (Venice being of the easiest cities to get lost in), but we made it. It was cool to see such an active Jewish community in Italy.

Overall, the trip was very enjoyable. Even though Venice is such a touristy spot, the lack of cars and abundance of canals gives it a very unique feel. I also really like being able to see the differences between all the major Italian cities.

This past weekend I definitely got to see a different side to Italy too, when I headed south to Sicily. I went with three other girls on my program: Andi, Breanna, and Hillary. We left on Thursday, and I got off to a bit of a rough start when I stupidly forgot my passport at the Villa. Luckily, there was another group from our program going to Sicily who just happened to be catching a later train the airport. They grabbed the passport for me, but their train was delayed. I was sitting in the Pisa Airport by myself waiting for the other group to arrive, while our plane was boarding. Five minutes after the plane started to board they arrived. We rushed through security and thankfully made it to the plane just in time. It was hectic beginning, but I would soon find out all the chaos was absolutely worth it.

We flew into Palermo, got a delicious dinner (I got pizza with shrimp, arugula, and parmesan cheese), and soon after went to bed. We got up early the next morning in order to head to our next destination, Cefalù. We got on a train, and arrived in a little over an hour. As soon as we arrived we were in awe. The beach, the town, the palm trees; uh it all looked amazing. We continued to get more and more excited as we headed up to our resort. Hillary found this awesome place with bungalows in the hills overlooking the water. The resort workers were so friendly, and helped us to our bungalow. It was adorable, and had an awesome view of the water. We spent the rest of the afternoon lying out by the pool, drinking wine. That night we headed into the center of Cefalu’. We ran into so many friendly people, and one helped us to find a lovely restaurant for dinner. He told us it had an intimate atmosphere and great food, and he was correct. The food was delicious and the staff, like everyone else we kept running into, was extremely nice. I ordered pizza once again and we had cannolis and fruit for dessert. It was one of my favorite days in Italy thus far.

The next morning we were supposed to check out by 11, but the staff let us stay in our Bungalow until 1 instead. So we decided to lay our once again. We had great weather both days, 70 and sunny. I was so sad when 1 pm came along. None of us wanted to leave Cefalù. I definitely want to go back someday. So after our sad farewell to Cefalù we headed back to Palermo because we had to fly out of there the following morning. We checked back into our previous hotel, and then just walked around a bit. That night we had another nice dinner. I had a salmon risotto, and we all got free dessert because our waiter Massimo seemed to be somewhat fond of us. It was a funny, and delicious end to our weekend. I loved Sicily. It was wonderful to see a different part of Italy. It really feels like an entirely different country there.

I’m glad I was able to travel to two more must-see spots in Italy. I can’t believe I only have two weeks left of my program. I plan to truly appreciate all the time I have left here in Italy. Plus I still have a lot more traveling to do after that.

Tanti Baci da Italia!

-Laura