Picture of the Week: Crutches

My swollen ankle and the wrist-high crutches I will be using for the next few weeks. More on my injury and the Italian healthcare system later on this week.

Revisiting Venice

The Cathedral of San Marco in Venice. 

There are some destinations which are 'must-sees' like the Pyramids and Grand Canyon that, no matter how extraordinary, have not compelled me to even consider returning to visit. If I were to go back to Egypt, I would much rather see Luxor and Aswan and other places further south instead of revisiting Giza. Likewise with the Grand Canyon; I enjoy some of the National Parks just a bit to the north in Utah such as Zion and Bryce Canyon much more than the famous Arizona attraction.

But Venice for me is something completely different. I could return there every day and still find something new to see and experience. So far this year I have been to Venice about 7 or 8 times, which surprisingly is more than most of my classmates have done in their whole lives. Since for me it takes only an hour's train ride to get to La Serenissima, as Venice is affectionately called, there are times when I manage to head out there even after school and be home by nighttime. Truth be told, I never get tired of Venice - whether I am doing the regular tourist route or venturing off through unknown streets and canals trying to get lost, Venice never gets old.

Artists along the canal. 

Recently, I returned to Venice on a field trip. We did a pre-planned itinerary, meaning it was pretty fast-paced and we were not able to get intentionally lost, but we did see many churches and museums. After all, we were there with our Art History teacher. We started off at the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in the geographical center of Venice. After that we crossed the Rialto bridge and arrived to San Marco. We saw the interior of the Cathedral, then went up to the roof.

The view from the roof of San Marco.

Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in the San Polo district of Venice.

After that, we headed off towards the museums of l'Accademia which houses mainly Italian Renaissance art, which is what we are studying right now in Art History. We then went to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which is a part of the large group of Modern Art museums. Despite being small, this museum had pieces by some very famous artists such as Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Max Ernst. And while my classmates were used to classic art styles, I had seen some modern art before and was not too taken aback by it. While they could perfectly analyze a piece by Raffaelo or Giovanni Bellini, I was the only one that could find any meaning in some of these modern works. 

So even though this time around I was not able to wander around Venice like I usually like to do, it was a great opportunity to see some interesting art and enhance my Venice experience. 

Easter and ... Little Easter

Apparently in Italy, Easter Sunday is not enough. Pasqua as they call it, usually involves a trip to the church in the morning, then a nice meal with family. Up until now, this pretty much resembles our traditions in America. Although they do not have Easter egg hunts (nor the Easter Bunny, for that matter), they do have large chocolate eggs with a toy inside. A kind of hybrid between a Hershey's bar and a piñata, a uovo di Pasqua typically gets shattered to pieces before unwrapped. This way, when it is actually opened, the child can quickly retrieve the sorpresa inside and everybody else can start eating bite-size pieces of chocolate from the shell.

This relatively small uovo di Pasqua was kicked into pieces when it still had its wrapper. From this we learned that smashing on the ground seems to have a better effect.

So even though they get to have loads of fun cracking open giant chocolate eggs, the entertainment does not stop there. Unlike in the United States, where the Monday after Easter is just another normal workday that happens to have a lot of candy left over from Easter egg hunts, in Italy, they celebrate Pasquetta. Literally, this means "Little Easter" and is a nice addition to a holiday that is typically family-oriented. While Easter Sunday is almost always spent at home or at a relative's house, Pasquetta is when young people go and celebrate Easter with their friends. Since this year Easter came late, the weather was nice enough to spend long hours outside, so my friends and I got together up in the hills and had a picnic. Apparently, other people were doing similar picnics or having a grigliata, which is more or less comparable to a barbecue. 

At our picnic everybody brought a dish from home to make for a nice large meal.

Like any good Italian picnic, this one included salami. And only one person who knew how to slice it the right way. 

After about two hours of sitting down on blankets eating our various delicacies, we played calcio (soccer) for a while, and then I showed them how to play kickball. For us Americans, it is quite a simple concept - it's just baseball except that you roll and kick the ball instead of pitch and hit. But for Italians who do not have this common baseball background, I had to start from scratch, explaining everything from the positions to the bases to strikes and outs and innings. They actually caught on pretty quickly and by the end some were even understanding the difference between tag-outs and force-outs. 


Once the afternoon started to turn into evening, we all went back to our blankets, one friend pulled out his guitar, and the rest of us sang along, played cards, and had a colomba di Pasqua which is a large, sweet bread made specifically and exclusively for Easter.


At around 7 PM we all went our separate ways and cringed at the fact that we had only the next day left of Easter vacation. Then it was back to school on Wednesday (today). 

Picture of the Week: Parco Querini

The center of Parco Querini, my favorite park in Vicenza. Recently, I have spent many of my afternoons here. 

The Time I went to Bologna for Lunch

Juicy bistecca alla fiorentina at the Trattoria del Gallo near Bologna.

Over a month ago, when my dad came to visit, we did something totally irrational and went to Bologna for the mere purpose of having lunch. We woke up that day in Ljubljana, drove across the Slovenian-Italian border to the towns of Gorizia and Udine, where we kind of drove around and got a general feel for the cities. At this point, we had already seen Venice, Trieste, Verona, Slovenia, and others so we felt like seeing something new. Plus, my father wanted to have a last good Italian meal before heading back to the United States the next day. I mentioned that Bologna is regarded as the culinary capital of Italy, and was not too far of a drive away (about two hours from where we were at that time). We decided that it could not be a bad experience, and he felt like he had seen quite a bit already, so it was not like he would feel guilty about spending time in the car.

As we started heading south, I told my dad, "About 10 kilometers before we arrive into downtown Bologna, lets get off the main highway and try to find a trattoria or an osteria that does not look too touristy." And we did just that.

When we sat down, the typical Italian waiter comes up to the table and asked us if we wanted to order or if he could recommend the meal for us. As any good connoisseur should do, we let the expert decide what we were going to be eating for lunch that afternoon. The only choice he gave us was bianco o rosso?, asking what kind of wine we wanted. We went with the red.

The waiter then meandered his way across the dining room, stopping to talk with a portly old man that was apparently a frequent visitor. He then emerged from the kitchen bringing us our wine, as well as some bread to start off with.

A few minutes later, after we had noticed a few certificates hanging on the wall that labeled this particular restaurant as a favorite for the Rome Police Department, the primo piatto arrived. It was a tri-pasta plate consisting of fusili alla bolognese (spiral pasta with meaty ragù), tagliatelle al pesto (strips of pasta with pesto sauce), and ravioli alla carbonara (cheese ravioli with an egg and pancetta sauce). Apart from being among the best plates of pasta I've ever eaten, the combination was something quite unexpected, proving the waiter's expertise. 


Once we had finished this plate (as if it were not enough food already), the waiter came out with a large plate of contorno (side dishes) containing mainly vegetables such as parmigiana di melanzane (eggplant parmesan) and many other scrumptious delicacies. This on its own could probably constitute a full meal at just about any other restaurant. 

This colorful plate of vegetables contained everything from zucchini and potatoes to eggplants and asparagus. 

Before we had even finished our veggies, the jovial waiter came out of the kitchen once again, this time with a large black cast-iron skillet which had an aroma that filled the room with pure bliss.


VEGETARIANS BEWARE: If you are opposed to the human consumption of other animals, the following material is explicit in nature and may be found offensive or repulsive. 


If the picture at the top of this article is not enough to make your mouth water, I have lost a good amount of respect for your gastronomical choices. This bistecca alla fiorentina  (Florentine steak) was so perfectly succulent and so flawlessly marinated in olive oil and rosemary that I have raised my standards to a point which only truly talented chefs are able to attain.


The meat was so good, that it did not matter anymore how satisfied our stomachs were from the amounts of food we had already consumed, we kept on savoring this delicacy until the black cast-iron skillet that was on our table had nothing in it other than a few puddles of simmering oil and a few scattered rosemary needles still scenting the air.


Once again, our happy waiter came by and asked how everything was (which everybody knew was just a formality, since nobody in their right mind or palate could ever say no in this superb establishment. We were tempted to say no, though, when he offered us dessert. But then again, what was there to lose? 


So we got our tiramisu, and boy, we needed somebody to pick us up thanks to how good it was.

Delicate mascarpone and flavorful cocoa made this tiramisu one of a kind. 

In the end, not only was the food perfect, but so was the service and the overall atmosphere. The waiter even gave us a free bottle of wine to take home after we had finished. As it turns out, our impromptu trip to Bologna was well worth it. 

Picture of the Week: First Day of Spring

This was the view from my house this afternoon, the first day of Spring. Today had the nicest weather since I've been in Italy so I decided to walk home from Vicenza (about a 1 hour, 40 minute hike up a hill).

Italian Unification

Vicenza's main piazza today. This picture was taken by my friend Maximilien Pierre Francesco Zanardi  from his house. 

Today, March 17, 2011 is a very important day in Italy. So important that we actually got the day off from school (which typically only happens for religious holidays). Today is the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. Back before 1861, Italy was divided into many different kingdoms, duchies, and other administrative regions. For example, the Papal States included Bologna and Rome, while The Grand Duchy of Tuscany held Florence, Pisa, and Livorno. In the south, there was the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies with the southern half of the mainland peninsula as well as the island of Sicily, while in the north there were many regional kingdoms.

Before this unification in 1861, few Italians actually knew what "Italy" was. As far as scholars of that time were concerned, "Italy" was just a peninsula that happened to contain many different kingdoms in it, sort of the way "Iberia" is the peninsula that holds Spain and Portugal. Exactly 150 years ago, the first single country with the name "Italy" appeared under a single throne, that of Victor Emmanuel II from the northwest region of Piedmont. The idea for a unified Italy was spearheaded by radicals such as Giuseppe Garibaldi as well as the more conservative Victor Emmanuel II and his fellow Piedmont dweller, Count Cavour, who is generally regarded as the architect of the Risorgimento, or Italian Unification. The main thought behind this unification process was uniting a group of people with a similar culture, language, religion, and tradition under a single throne.

Many of the problems faced in that time had to do with the majority of the Italian population identifying with their previous nationality. People would not proclaim "I am Italian", yet they would proudly say "I am Veneto" or "I am Sicilian". Nowadays, this sort of nationalism for one's region continues. If I were to ask someone on the street to label themselves, they would say "Sono vicentino" or "Sono napolitano" or "Sono fiorentino", identifying with their province. In America, for the most part, people would say "I am American". If you ask me, this is mainly because of how different the various provinces of Italy truly are. Each has its own dialect (with some such as Neapolitan or Friulian being full-on languages of their own), its own cuisine, its own festivals, and its own way of life. It is not like in America where somebody from Oregon and someone from Delaware have essentially the same culture. Here, if you go a hundred kilometers in any direction, you've found a completely new set of people.

Even in politics you can see the lack of national unity here in Italy. One of the leading political parties, La Lega Nord (the Northern League) has an agenda of seperating the economically strong northern regions of Italy from the southern regions. Although this is not unheard of in American politics, there is no way such a group would gain any power.

So even though this is the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, there still seems to be a sense that the unity of Italians is missing.

Picture of the Week: Teatro Olimpico

Vicenza's famous Teatro Olimpico designed by Andrea Palladio. This is the oldest surviving enclosed theater in Europe with construction starting in 1580. The most interesting part of the theater is the perspective in the background, which is actually sculpted as opposed to the typical painting. 

100 days left in Italy

Over six months have passed since I arrived here in Italy. In some ways it feels like I have been here much longer, yet for certain things, I continue to be fascinated and surprised. If you count today, I have exactly one hundred days left as an exchange student, and I believe that I can truly say that it has been an extraordinary experience that I cannot compare to anything else.

As the sun hides away behind a rock and the grass, I start to realize that my time in Italy is more over than I thought.

As with anything you do for an extended period of time, being an exchange student has its highs and lows. Luckily for me, there have been more highs than lows, more joy than sorrow. I am thankful for such great people and places (and food) that I have come across so far this year. Now that we are in March, I think I am at a point where I can see the end of this year start to creep up on me, while before it always seemed to be far off in the distance. As my time dwindles down, I am trying even harder to see more, taste more, feel more, and experience more in general.

With 180 days behind my back, the hundred to come seem even smaller. And the closer I get to the end, the more I realize that I am not really sure if I want to arrive there. Of course, the closer I get to June, the nicer the weather will be – but this adds even more to the bittersweet feeling that I know is on its way.

“Tanto si deve scoprire all’esterno, tanto si deve progredire all’interno.”

~Giordano Bruno

One of the many things I have studied in Philosophy this year, that quote above reads, “As much as you need to discover on the outside, that much you need to progress on the inside.” What this means for me is that, although I have discovered and seen many things on the outside, I have also grown very much on the inside. And although I might not realize it immediately, when I look back at myself before coming to Italy less than a year ago, I realize how much I have evolved into a totally different person.

In some ways, it seems as if this whole year has been a sort of extended day dream in which I am inadvertently learning a new language, immersing myself in a new culture, and adding a few extra pounds. The worst part is that once I wake up this summer, not only will I still have those extra pounds, but I fear that I will have regrets for not having done as much this year as I could have. Of course, on a day to day basis, I do feel like I am discovering new things, but before I leave, there are some things I still feel I should do. Among these are: visit Rome and Florence (as well as other parts of Tuscany), expand my Italian vocabulary, and try to eliminate any traces of a Spanish accent in my spoken Italian. Of course, I still want to leave plenty of time to make new friends with not only Italians, but fellow exchange students.

On the bright side, I have a hundred days to do this. In a few hours I will be down to double digits.