Day 1
Cameron and I left London fairly early to fly to Verona. FYI British airport security is tiiight. I had forgotten to put a few liquids in bags and they saw it on the X-ray scanner. Soon the entire contents of my backpack were dispersed on a little table. Embarrassing. We finally made it to Verona and to our residence about 15 minutes after the introductory meeting began. After the meeting the whole group took the bus to town to eat dinner. We went to a cafeteria-ish place that had delicious pizza! yum!
After dinner the group decided that we needed to go out on our first night...the only issue was where. In Italy, bars are not the same things as our American bars; bars are like little resturaunts. Somehow we found a bar called Campus bar. The door was unlocked so the group of 27 rolled in to find all the bartenders still sitting and getting ready (seeing as it was about 7:30). I guess with such a large group, they didn't think about opening time and just started pouring wine. We all parked up in some booths and got to know each other...a great first night.
Day 2
The next day we had a meeting at 9:30 AM. The night before Cameron and I set an alarm, but didn't look to see that the phone was 5 hrs and 39 min off. Luckily Cameron woke up at 10 and we scrambled downstairs just as everyone was leaving for the grocery store. Our director, Martin, showed us how to buy groceries even though everything was either in Italian or German. I'd always heard that wine is cheaper than water here but though it was an exaggeration. It's not. Literally you can buy a bottle of wine for 0.80 euros. Wow.
The rest of the day Cameron and I unpacked and organized our room. That night the group got together in someone's room with our newly purchased wine and had a relaxing night at home.
Day 3
In the morning everyone got together to try to plan our first weekend trip. Everyone broke up into smaller groups to figure it out. Its pretty awesome when your biggest issue is picking which place in Italy you want to visit for the weekend. Me and 5 other girls planned a trip to Lucca and Siena. We leave Thursday for Lucca for the night and then spend the next two in Siena. I was really weary of staying in hostels (I've never seen the movie, Hostel, but I always associate the word hostel with hellish situations)...after seeing ours on the internet I am not too worried. A few of us set of into town with the hopes of getting Italian sim cards and a hairdryer. Both were unsuccessful, but I feel like I have a way better idea of Verona.
Everyone was pumped to go out again Saturday night. We went back to Campus Bar and it was significantly more packed. They were having a special on sangria...it was delicious. I also had my first experience with the beer Hoegaarden. It was great! We later moved to a bar called Camelot that was mainly lit by candles. It was a pretty interesting place. One of the bartenders knew exactly where we were from because his ex-girlfriend is from Atlanta.
Day 4
Most of the people Cameron and I got to know took a trip to Lake Garda Sunday, but we weren't willing to be ready for the 10 AM bus. Instead we slept late and had a lazy morning. In the afternoon we waited for the bus into town for nearly 30 minutes only to realize our bus doesn't run on Sundays. The weather was so beautiful even though it was a little chilly so we walked. I loved just wandering down the Italian streets and making our way to Piazza Erbe. There was a marathon going on so we got to see some of the runners. I can't imagine trying to run a marathon on cobblestone-ish streets...I have a hard time walking on them without tripping. We found a great place to eat lunch outside and we split a pizza with Parma ham and gnocchi with bolognese sauce. Both were delicious...I know I am going to love the Italian food :)
While eating lunch we noticed that, I kid you not, 3/5 women carry Louis Vuitton bags. We couldn't figure out how they were so common and concluded that they must be having a huge sale or a giveaway. After lunch we walking around the shops and went into Louis Vuitton. We were wrong. No sale. No giveaway. Still expensive. (Though the $700 bag I love is 450 euros...maybe its a little cheaper?) We even found the Verona Sephora and McDonalds and got perfume samples from Sephora and Coke light from McDonalds.
On our way home we found a path along the river near our residence and watched people walking their dogs. Its so crazy that these dogs understand Italian better that I do. haha. I even found an Italian Squeals!!!!!!!!
It was such a wonderful and relaxing day. Tomorrow is our first day of class at 8 AM! Yikes. Hopefully we won't be late!
Ciao! xo
Italian Squeals!!!!!!!
In the castle in Verona
View from the bridge walking to town
Piazza Erbe
Oh my gosh! I can't believe Squeals is in Italy...he's so perfect!
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