Carnevale in Venice

The only way to describe Carnevale (and Venice in general) is, simply put, magical.

I planned this trip with my friend Kaitlin before we even arrived in Rome because I'd read and heard many accounts of Venice's Carnevale and the spectacle that it was. Though we took the overnight train both ways and were exhausted when our train pulled back in to Rome at 6:30 am Monday morning before our 9 am classes, we sleepily agreed that the weekend could not have been more perfect.

We arrived in Venice around 6 am Friday morning, and as it was still pitch black outside and nothing was open, we meandered our way through the city's winding alleys and put ourselves on the water ready to watch the sun come up. Unfortunately, it was incredibly overcast and foggy so there was no sunrise to see, however it gave Venice and eerie early morning feel as the fog settled over the island.

A quiet Venice morning

Fog over the Grand Canal

We spent most of Friday aimlessly wandering Venice's beautiful streets. Arriving Friday morning gave us an idea of how Venice works on a local level - we saw many families getting ready for school and going about as if it were an entirely normal day, as opposed to the next two days that would fill the small island with a few million (!) people. What struck me most initially was that, aside from the train station, the island of Venice is an entirely pedestrian city - we did not see one car. Everything is transported by boat through Venice's many canals, and even the police use smaller speed boats to get around. The majority of the streets are much too narrow for cars anyway, but it was just an interesting concept to us that the entire island was free of any kind of automobile.

Too small for cars

A fraction of the crowd

Though it's a relatively small island, we had no trouble keeping ourselves occupied simply walking around (even by Sunday we were still stumbling across new sights but also we got lost every 10 minutes and would end up stranded at the edge of a canal). We spent time in several mask shops before finally settling on two lovely handcrafted masks from a local husband and wife who have been in the business together for 30 years. They were warm and welcoming and talked with us for over 30 minutes about their craft and showed us parts of the mask-making process. Talking with them and learning first hand about such an important part of the festival was hands down one of the most fulfilling parts of our weekend.

Not great lighting but the masks we finally chose!

More intricate masks 

Street vendor masks (what most people wore)

In the evenings, we happened to be staying right in Venice's university district making for a lively nightlife scene. The main square near us, Campo Santa Margherita, was full of great shops, restaurants, gelato, and young college students like us. We had a great time getting to know part of Venice's younger culture, and met some really great people during our evenings out.

I'm not going to give an extensive summary of the history surrounding Venice's Carnevale celebrations (look here if you want to know more), but essentially the festival began as a celebration and feast leading up to the start of lent. Masks have been used for centuries in Venice - notably they were used in the Parliament to maintain absolute anonymity during voting - but it was also common place for people to wear their masks through the streets simply because they could. While the Carnevale was stopped for a period of time, it was reinstated in 1979 and has been a world famous celebration ever since.

Kaitlin and I spent basically all day Saturday and Sunday wandering around St. Mark's Square and its surroundings - the center of the festivities and hub of all the costumes. We were lucky enough to see a few parades, costume contests, and shows put on for everyone during the day, and were continuously blown away by the beauty, intricacy, and creativity of the costumes. At first it was slightly perplexing to us why people would put in so much time and effort just to dress up for a couple weeks and have people take pictures of you (with a mask on your face, of course), however as the weekend went on we began to understand the appeal of not only dressing up to appreciate Venice's traditional Carnevale celebrations, but also just the fun of being seen and having people admire your work. Below is a sample of what we encountered over the weekend.

My favorite duo

As you can tell, simply wandering around and admiring the costumes was an event itself. This is without a doubt an experience I will cherish for the rest of my life, and I feel so fortunate that I was able to take part in such a beautiful and unique festival.

Watching the gondolas on our last evening

A Saturday in Orvieto

Atop Orvieto's wall

Two of the many lovely things about living in Rome are 1) the ease of travel outside of Rome and 2) the abundance of day trips in close proximity to the city. My friend Kaitlin and I decided to take advantage of this aspect of our study abroad experience and went on a day trip to a beautiful medieval town, Orvieto.

Just over a 1.5 hour train ride from Rome, Orvieto sits atop a large hill surrounded by a massive wall that was used to keep out adversaries throughout the centuries. To reach the historic part of town, you have to take a funicular up the hill (or ride a bus, but the funicular was much more fun). We didn't go with any sort of itinerary, so we got to spend most of the day wandering Orvieto's lovely but confusing streets.

So picturesque

Orvieto is known for its pottery!

Outdoor market

One of the most defining landmarks in the town is the massive Duomo (cathedral) perched on a large open piazza (plaza/square). I was intrigued by the stripes along the side of the Duomo, however the front is the most capturing part of the structure. The intricacy of the carvings and murals combined with the color was truly stunning. We spent awhile just standing in front of it and admiring the artwork.

Fun fact that I didn't know: during World War II, there were locations such as Orvieto, among others, that both the Allies and the Axis powers agreed not to bomb to preserve their cultural and historical history. Orvieto was preserved for its Duomo and underground caves (discussed later). This was just an interesting and sort of "hope for humanity" type of fact, that even in the middle of a war there could be agreements made by both sides to preserve cultural relics.

After wandering around for awhile, we stopped in at a local feeling hole-in-the-wall deli type restaurant. The waiters only spoke Italian which pushed both of us to work with our Italian certainly more than we have to in Rome which was very cool, and we appreciated the fact that the town is trying to preserve its own culture and not cater solely to tourists. We had a lovely meat and cheese plate along with a caprese salad and some local wine. Everything was so tasteful and fresh it was a wonderful meal, and we even sat next to two Italians who were very patient and let us practice more of our Italian with them. It was an all around enjoyable time.

Italian "aperitivi"

Everything so fresh!

We spent the afternoon walking along part of the outer wall of the city, taking in the Italian countryside views. It was a relaxing couple of hours that we just got to spend enjoying the lovely outdoors.

The outer wall

Views from outside Orvieto

In the early evening, we took a tour of Orvieto's underground. Apparently developed starting with the Etruscan civilization around 700 BC, nearly the entire underground of Orvieto is composed of caves. In 700 BC, the Etruscan's used the underground part of the city to work and store food, a process that carried through the middle ages. During this time, the medieval town was so overpopulated that people only lived above ground and all work happened below ground. Now most of the caves are privately owned as they still sit under houses and are used by families for storage.

Tools used to make olive oil

Another fun fact: these pictures with the holes in the wall show old aviaries where the people of Orvieto would keep pigeons for times of famine. Between this and their underground water source, they were able to wait out the Roman army for two years without starving just within their own city walls.

After our underground tour, we wandered around the town a little more and had a couple appetizers before heading back to Rome. It was a lovely day trip, and the perfect Italian medieval town to explore!

Adventures in Ireland

Though Ireland wasn't initially on my destination list for this semester, when a friend from school back in D.C. asked me to tag along it seemed like too great an offer to turn down. So, this past weekend I met two friends who are studying abroad in Madrid and one who is studying abroad in London for a weekend full of beautiful green grass and rain in Dublin, Ireland.

Though we were only there for 2 days, we managed to pack in lots of sightseeing and even travel outside of the city. Our first day in Dublin was filled by wandering around the town, starting with a tour at the Guinness Brewery. It's set up on this large industrial compound with tall brick buildings and lots of machinery. The tour was self guided and entirely worth doing, but it felt more like walking through a Guinness museum than taking a tour of the brewery. The exhibits were really well done though, and we learned everything we wanted and more about how Guinness is made.

Learning how to pour our own

Success

At the end of the tour, we also learned how to pour our own glass of Guinness, an entire 6 step process! The brewery has a beautiful sky deck that has wonderful views of the city so we were able to enjoy our glass of beer with a view (and though it was pretty early in the morning, it was still good).

Views from the top

Rainy Dublin

For the remainder of the day we wandered through Dublin taking in sights and trying (unsuccessfully) to stay dry. We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, Trinity College, ate corned beef and cabbage sandwiches, and wandered through the "Temple Bar" area of the city where we were staying. The city is charming and no one seemed bothered by the eternally wet state of their clothing and shoes.

Dublin Cookie!

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Rainy walk

Corned beef sandwich

City park

That evening we wandered around our neighborhood and stumbled into a wildly fun evening at an Irish pub playing live Celtic music. The venue was situated right above a bar and was packed to the brim with locals and unsuspecting tourists like ourselves. There were two guitarists and fiddler who all sang and introduced us to both modern and more traditional Celtic music. Everyone in the audience was so engaged and sang to every song (we started to catch on by the end of the evening) and best of all, everyone was dancing to the point that I thought the floor would give way under the small upstairs bar. Though it was clear nobody in there had any idea how to really do an Irish step-dance, it didn't keep anyone from trying their hardest the entire evening. We had the most incredible time.

Our second day in Ireland we took a tour outside the city to the opposite side of the island to visit the Cliffs of Moher and a small town called Galway. The day was filled with a lot of driving, however we were able to see beautiful Irish countryside and learned many fun facts. My favorite: there are more sheep than people in Ireland (it's true).

Sunrise on the bus

Castles/ fortresses everywhere

So green!

The cliffs were massive and intimidating and beautiful against the ocean. We had a couple of hours to explore the area so we hiked along the edge through lots of mud to see as much of the cliffs as possible.

After the cliffs we drove on to a small seaside town called Galway, a charming little area filled with incredibly nice locals and great fish and chips. We took a short walking tour around the city and then were left to our own devices to explore around the town and have a chance to eat before the long bus ride home. The area was small but lively and I certainly want to go back and explore more in the future.

Forgot to take more pictures oops

That evening we went to "the original" Temple Bar (who knows if it's really true since there are 5 or 6) for another evening full of wonderful live music. That night it was more of a Celtic-American fusion but incredibly fun nonetheless. I had no idea that Dublin was such a vibrant live music scene (every bar had performances every evening) but I'm so glad I got to experience a little bit of Ireland during my time in Europe this semester.

*disclaimer - not my picture (again I forgot)

Live music night 2!

Dublin river by night

More updates on my adventures throughout Rome soon!