Picture of the Week: Ljubljana Dragon Bridge

 Legend says that when Jason and the Argonauts returned from Eastern Europe where they retrieved the Golden Fleece, they founded the city Ljubljana after Jason defeated the Ljubljana Dragon. 

City Life in Venice

As the most tourist-oriented city in Italy, and perhaps the world, Venice is home to hundreds of restaurants, hotels, and other amenities. What many visitors tend to fail to realize, though, is that Venice is actually a city of about 270,000 inhabitants. And like any mid-sized city, Venice must have certain elements that one would not usually associate with the city of canals.

City workers pulling mud out of the floor of a sinking Venice street. 

Since Venice is typically overrun with tourists on just about every day from March to October, these pieces of infrastructure are hard to come across during the peak season. But the last time I visited Venice was last week, in mid-February, which considering that this year’s Carnival is late, was probably the lowest tourist season of the year.

We actually got great weather, and a really good look at Venice as a city where people live. For example, would a tourist think that Venice has a university? It’s like asking if Disneyland has a university. Venice has two.

It was quite humorous to see how the postal workers move around with their pull carts that they have to carry over every one of Venice’s 378 bridges. Also, visiting the Dorsoduro sestiere of Venice, I even witnessed the garbage boat at work.

A garbageman and postal workers cross paths in Venice.

A garbage boat at work.

Every city needs its electricians.

The simple task of moving some dirt a few meters gets complicated by a bridge. 

Late in the evening that day, I even walked into a piazza that had children playing basketball, old ladies walking their dogs, businessmen having coffee, and some stores that prove the existence of a resident community such as supermarkets and even a veterinarian’s office, which was a nice change from the overwhelming abundance of t-shirt shops and Carnival mask studios. 

You know for a fact that you are in a true Italian city when, at about 1 P.M., throngs of schoolchildren with their backpacks disperse throughout.

Some evening basketball in Dorsoduro.

Did anybody say veggie boat?

Funny German words and street signs

Disclaimer: This blog post reflects my personal views on the German language, and if disagree with me that the German language is much more cacophonous than all Romance languages, I kindly invite you to reply, but only after reading my post in its entirety.

Last week, I spent a day driving through southern Austria with my father and some of his friends that live in Slovenia. The first Austrian city we visited was Graz, the second largest in this central European country. Considering this as my first real experience in a German-speaking country (I had previously only been in the Frankfurt am Main Airport), I was continuously amused by the language as a whole – whether it be the long, unpronounceable words, or the colorful signs indicating schools, fire stations, and other identifiable establishments.

I believe "schule" means "school". Just guessing.

Before last week, the only experience I had ever had with German was a quick lunch of a cream cheese pretzel (whose name I have already forgotten) and a putenschnitzelkracher (a breaded turkey sandwich). That name is the epitome of what seems to me to be the German pigritude in inserting spaces between their words, which whether right or wrong, is quite entertaining.

Personally, when I hear the German language, I seem to understand nothing but a loud cacophony of grunts and words with too many consonants jammed together. I always seem to think that they might be cursing at me, though this derives from my own ignorance of the language.

Anyhow, I enjoy poking fun at words I do not know, especially when I can repeat them in my Captain Von Trapp voice (which I am quite proud of). Every now and then I can sort of guess a word in German, which is especially necessary when trying to use the restrooms when the doors lack pictograms.

I cannot even begin to guess how this should be pronounced.

Does anybody have any idea what this means?

As you can see, I am very pleased that I speak languages that (at least in my mind) sound nice – mainly Spanish and Italian. I don’t know how many more “tsch” at the beginning of a word I would be able to handle.

For any of you that noticed, I used the word “pigritude”. I do realize that, according to just about any reliable authority on the English language, this word does not exist. Yet, I have “adopted” this word with www.savethewords.org and am therefore bound to use it. 

Picture of the Week: I Love Coffee

The doorway to a neat specialty shop in Verona. And yes, those are sticky notes.

Take the weather with you

Recent storm systems in the United States have nicely stepped aside. To my dismay, they have leaped across the pond. And it just so happens that this kind visit coincides with that of my father, who arrived this afternoon to the Venice airport. Now that I think about it, today has been the first true rainy day since 2010. Unfortunately, we cannot control the weather, so I will try to not complain about it too much.

As for my father's visit, he arrived at around noon after a long journey that included stops at three of the world's ten largest airports (Denver International, Chicago O'Hare, and London Heathrow). As soon as he arrived, he rented a car and drove to Vicenza, where I was waiting at a designated spot, getting drenched by rain. After a while of jamming out to my iPod, he finally made it to where I was with Mapquest directions that were not helpful enough, and some sketchy indications given by myself. After our greeting (I had not seen him for abot 6 months), we headed off to his hotel, which is situated in the very center of Vicenza. A sort of crossroads between Piazza dei Signori (the main plaza), Corso Palladio (the main street), and Il Duomo (the cathedral), I doubt there could have been a better location for a Vicenza hotel.

After getting him all settled in at the hotel, we headed off to my favorite kebab place, where my father was astonished at the size and apparent messiness of this Middle Eastern food that is so common in Europe. We then walked around town some more, and I showed him some spots such as some churches, my school, and even my favorite bar. (Note: in Italy, "bar" means coffee shop.) When had finished our espressos and had a decent conversation with the owner/manager of how Lavazza stacks up to other coffee producers such as Illy, Hausbrandt, Dersut, etc., we made our way to the other part of town and visited the Olympic Theater, designed by Andrea Palladio (and finished in 1584). My father was astonished at the quality with which Europe's first ever theater was divided into many perspective sections, with some stretching out up to 50 meters.

He then went back to the hotel to prepare for tonight's dinner with the my host family and we drove up to my house, where we had a great meal of tagliatine pasta and fish with capers, tomato, and olives.

As for our plans for the rest of his stay, we will most likely go into Verona tomorrow, Venice on Friday, and then a a five-day trip to Slovenia starting on Saturday.

I have also made some improvements to my blog in these days, including the "About Me" and "Contact Me" pages.                                                        

I have also gotten a Twitter account, which I would like all of you to follow me on. To do so, please follow the link on the right.

In fair Verona where we lay our stage ...

(In honor of Shakespeare, I will be writing this in iambic pentameter. Also, for those of you who are not aware, this is not supposed to rhyme.)

‘Twas just last week, if I recall, when we -

Four others from ‘round Italy and me -

 To fair Verona have we gone. And there,

To see the sites and one another have

Traveled from near and far to this here town, 

Where one can come and leave without a frown.

Merely an hour past noon, once school was done,

 A train from Vicenza to Verona

Was I aboard. I was, backpack and all,

Towards a city, so close but yet soo far.

And that I – I had not seen yet was a

Disgrace to be tolerated no more.

Arrived, was I, to Verona station,

When a kind pair of police officers

Directions to the center did provide

Followed the indicat’d path I arrived

To famous Piazza delle Erbe where

Patiently awaiting stood three girls and

A boy, who hail from Bologna and Trent.

Great weather up high was no hindrance to

Our want (or need) for a coffee (or two).

So off we went, into the shop, and sat

We did, while sipping gently from our drinks.

Soon thereafter, off we went through downtown,

Across Adige bridge, to bask in the

Glorious February sun whose bright rays

Faces and river did illuminate.

So there we stood, the famous footsteps of

the Capulets and Montagues retraced.

Retrace their steps we did indeed:

To the grand house of the late Juliet

We went and hence we saw the statue there.

Afterwards, our bellies craved none other

Than a scoop (or two) of cold gelato,

Whose fragola (strawberry) chunks made all

Palates water and eyes glare jealously.

Thus, our splendid day in the land of the      

ancient family feuds must dwindle down

And we must start to head back to the train

Returning to our native d’parture points.  

The old city gate to Verona.

"Love Locks" on the bridge over the Adige River.

The famous Verona arena.

The bridge over the Adige.

The wall before entering Juliet's courtyard. 

Crowds in Juliet's courtyard lining up to touch the statue.

Street performers! And fragola gelato!

Five-Month Update

Yesterday marked my fifth month-iversary in Italy. It also marked the 59^th anniversary of the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, but I am not sure which is more important. Since my last blog post, things have changed drastically. For those of you who did not know already, I have recently changed host families, and absolutely love my new family! I have been very busy since my return from Naples with school, getting settled in at this new house, and dealing with Rotary and the travel agency in order to fix my return date in June (which has been successfully completed).

Apart from that, I have done other various things these past few weeks, including an afternoon trip to Verona (expect a post on this later this week), trying (and failing) to organize a trip to Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day, getting my report card, and skiing in the Dolomites.

In late January I skipped a day of school to go skiing at Folgaria, a small (by American standards) ski area nestled in the Dolomites of the Trentino-Alto-Adige region of Northern Italy. Officially, I went to take place in my school’s annual ski race, but really it was just an excuse to get at least one day in this season. Actually that is not entirely true. I thought that since I live in Colorado ski country, I would be able to out-ski most of the Italians. As it turns out, there was a good amount of skiers that actually trained for racing.

That leads me to believe that although Colorado ski resorts are in my opinion bigger and better, there is no doubting that our European buddies are equally skilled.

Here are some interesting things I learned about Italian ski areas:

•         All kids up to age 14 are required to wear helmets.
•          Instead of the American slope progression of green, blue, black, double black, etc., the Italian slopes have blue (beginner), red (intermediate), and black (expert).
•          The Italian word for ski pole is “racchetta”, literally “racket”.
•          There are neither mogul runs nor backcountry areas. All slopes are groomed, though some blacks can get a bit steep.
•          Unlike Colorado ski areas, which offer a plethora of options at the top of each lift, at Folgaria, the most I saw were three possible runs.
•          I was able to ski every lift on the mountain. And almost every run. In one day.
•          All lift queues are automated and do not require people to scan your lift ticket.
•          There were no lines whatsoever (but we did go on a Wednesday).

Folgaria, Italy

The Trentino Dolomites

A nice day in Vicenza's Giardini Salvi

Sunrise from my new house.

My new town of Arcugnano