Primavera e' Arrivata!

Spring is here, that is. After a few absolutely miserable days, the sun really shone and we've been having fantastic weather in Venice ever since! I decided to stay in Venice this weekend to enjoy the weather with my friends. I was thinking about maybe going down to Parma or Siena but I decided against it because I knew that I'd be making my epic tour of western Italy with Emily next week. If I haven't written where we're going yet, it's Torino - Genova - Livorno and Pisa - Roma. Starting on Saturday, ending on Thursday (she's going on to Greece, and I'm taking the train back to Venice).

So a lot of interesting and amazingly exciting things have happened within the last few days! And a lot of them don't have much to do with Italy at all, actually (although most of them do, of course). First, as you all know, my friends and I received the third overall pick in the Boston College housing lottery - this secured our chance of getting a Mod, one of the coveted, run-down 1970s style modular units at the bottom of the campus. They are really lame looking, have one desk per three students and no laundry machines, but they buzz with tradition everyweekend - most famously before (and after) football games. I really had first-hand experience sophomore year - from an outsider's perspective that is - because my window in a nearby dorm faced the Mods. So yeah, that's the last time I'll ever win anything called the "lottery" again.

Also, I had to select classes for my course registration. Can you believe it? They (I don't really know who I'm talking about here - some extracorporeal bureaucratic force, it would seem) scheduled the housing lottery and course registration for the same week, even the same day - for some, it was "Black Wednesday." I didn't register until Thursday, which I couldn't even do myself - fortunately Vittoria (my girlfriend to new readers or people who just don't know) had my back and used her connections in the Lynch School of Education to process my courses - a political move for which I am eternally grateful, of course. Aaand I got everything I wanted! Filmmaking (with Dan), Adolescent Literature (with Meg and Jenn Fell, a girl studying here at VIU), Philosophy (I've put this off far too long), Art History and Public Relations.

So apart from all that BC stuff, what's new in the Veneto? Well, once again, spring is here, so on Friday I went into Venice with some friends, got an AMAZING lunch at this place called Zorzi that we've been trying to go to for forever, went to the grocery store (where I oddly ran into one of my professors), got some gelato and watched the boats out in the Giudecca Canal, and returned to San Servolo to lie down on the observation deck. It was kind of a semi-nap - beautiful, and it was so warm I wore a t-shirt and shorts. After that we decided to go out to Ae Oche, one of the restaurants in Venice that accepts our vouchers (it's actually the Italian version of Applebee's, we've decided) and then we spent some time in Campo Santa Margherita afterward. Tim (UVA), Tim (Munich), Jenn, Sally, Lauren, John and Anthony and I met up with Giulia and Erica, two Italian students who live in apartments in the city of Venice during the school year. So obvi, it was a good chance for us (and by us I really mean me, John and Anthony this time) to practice our Italian. Again, I may have mentioned this, but most of the students at Ca' Foscari have been studying Chinese for a long time and went to China a couple of years ago.

So, on Saturday, Tim from UVA and I decided to go to Verona - there was a famous wine festival there called "VinItaly" and we thought it sounded cool. And it was cool, right up until it would have cost 40 euro to enter. So we didn't. But we chose to go, just the two of us, on Saturday - all the others wanted to hang out on the beach on Saturday and go to VinItaly on Sunday. But Tim's parents came into Venice today so he wanted to go Saturday, so I went with him. We went into Venice and BARELY were able to eat lunch and make our train after getting lost in Castello (yes, it still happens, getting lost in Venice. Booo).

The train ride to Verona (it's where Romeo and Juliet takes place, if the name sounds familiar - sorry to my high-brow friends, I'm shooting for the lowest common denominator) took about 2 and a half hours. I brought a newspaper with me so I wasn't too bored. After discovering the price of the wine festival, we did an about-face and went into the old town of Verona. Era bellissima! The main piazza, Piazza Bra, is an incredible open space joined by the old Roman Arena (gladiators fought there, theatrical spectacles have taken place there ever since. It's really well known for opera these days. And I found out that the Killers are playing there soon... not soon enough, apparently, June 6, a week after I leave. Again, boooo). So we also walked along the riverbank, through the streets, of course stopping for a gelato. It was such a beautiful city!

One of the most fun things we did was right around the Piazza Erbe - there's a huge tower called the Torre dei Lamberti - it cost 4.50 to climb, so we did - it offered a spectacular view from the top of Verona. Like Bologna, the colors of the buildings were mostly reds, oranges, and yellows - very warm and inviting. And I might mention that the graffiti in Verona is sooo intense - not pervasive, but in terms of content. Messages like "I miss you Maria - let's get to know each other again. I love you." Of course, they sound soooo much better in Italian. "Mi manchi Maria - ci riconosciamo. Ti amo." Messages like this were all the way from the train station to the top of the bell tower.

We got down from the tower around 7:30, which is maybe my favorite time of day because the sun is just setting, so the city was cast in a beautiful shower of light - AND it was time for dinner. So we asked the guy at the desk of the tower store where we could find a good restaurant, and he recommended to us a place "next to Romeo's house." But there were so many people there we couldn't get in without a reservation! So we went down the street to another restaurant, Trattoria alla Colonna - I really don't feel like we missed out on the other restaurant at all. The house pasta was incredible, and the veal was heavenly. I should add (for better or worse) that Tim ordered the horse meat. On top of all, the wine was the best I've had so far in Italy. And that's what we really came to Verona for in the first place, right? But we got so much more.

Today, I went into Venice to go to the Palm Sunday mass (Messa della Domenica delle Palme) at the Basilica San Marco. It was really incredible - the palms are different then they are in the US - they're entire branches and they also have olive branches too. I also find that every time I go to an Italian mass, I understand more, and I'm able to even respond in the Italian in some parts. For the rest of the day, I stayed on San Servolo doing homework - reading about slaves and eunuchs in Islamic Northern Africa isn't my idea of a great time, but "beh," as they say here. Dinner at the mensa was good. Oh! Before I forget - I talked online with my cousin Kate, who gave me the courage to send an email to my family in Sicily, the Cuvas. So I wrote an email to Carmelo Cuva (same name as my Great-Great-Grandfather) who lives in Motta D'Affermo - maybe I'll be able to see my family in Sicily when I go there next month.
That's all for the next few days. It's time to get some rest.

Vi scrivo piu tardi, ciao!
Andrew