Firenze 2006-2007: Beginning of the Semester and the a Weekend at the Lakes

Friday, January 26, 2007

Beginning of the Semester and the a Weekend at the Lakes

We got back to Florence on the 11th and found the villa about half full with more people coming in ever hour. We hung around that day and early the next morning we all got up and got on busses to Carrara, the world famous marble mine. Our first stop was a marble workshop in the city where we learned all about how the statues were made and about the overall process that takes a block of marble to a statue like the David. From there, it was up into the quarries on the mountain. We went to a museum about the history of marble mining in the area. We heard about the types of marble mines- what types were statue material, and which types building material etc. After hearing everything we wanted to hear about marble and then some we went to lunch at a small town in the mountains near the quarries. We all had pannini as that was pretty much all there was to eat there. Then we had the “privilege” to see how lard is made which was pretty gross and, just having eaten lunch, kinda made me want to throw up. From there, it was back into the quarries, and we actually went to a quarry at the heart of the mountain. It was really cool to see the cathedral size hole in the middle of the mountain with marble composing the roof, walls, and floor. It was wet, dark, and cold in there but it was probably the coolest part of the trip just because it was so interesting to see the process actually taking place and to think about the entire mountain that was above us. After that we got to see the quarry that Michelangelo took his marble from and then headed back to Florence and dinner.
The next day was the trip to Assisi. We saw the main churches- the Church of St. Francis as a group. I got to see parts of the church that I hadn’t seen my last trip as there was an ongoing service last time I was there. I saw St. Francis’ tomb once again and then headed to the church above. After touring that second church the group had about three hours of free time so we decided to get an early lunch and then go from there. About 10 of us got some pannini and pizza at a place in the center and then went to the church of Santa Chiara, but it had just closed for their lunch break. We sat in the square for a while before Steven went to get a soccer ball, and for the next several hours, 10 of us guys played soccer by the side of the church on the brick-laid piazza with makeshift goals and not much organization. It was a lot of fun, and the three hours of free time that initially seemed like too much turned out not to be enough for us. We ran back to the bus and went down to see the church inside a church that St. Francis died in before heading back to Florence.
We all slept in on Sunday and took walks around the city, etc. just relaxing before the start of the semester. And, on Monday classes started. A pretty long a busy week later was our first weekend.
Brenden, West, Alex, and I decided to go up to Lausanne for a day on our soon to expire Eurail passes, so on Thursday night we headed out and made it to Lausanne on Friday morning. Amanda picked us up at the station and took us to their hotel for the semester that was several minutes walk away. We got a room, said hi to our friends who were around for the weekend, had breakfast and then headed out with Will and Jon, a couple of guys from the program. We made our plans to go to lake Como the next day to meet up with 11 people from our group and then went to Montreax to walk along lake Geneva a bit and see the old castle that sits lakefront there. The castle was awesome cause we could do anything we wanted there. We could climb up to get great views, we found secret passages and had a blast exploring the castle. After that we went back to Lausanne, looked around there a bit and then went to a nice dinner. We got a ton of beef fondue which was great. We ate all we could handle and then some before walking around the city a bit to see some of the sights before heading back to the hotel fairly early as we had a very early morning the next day.
We just barely made our 6:20am train to Milan the next day, but the rest of the connecting trip to Como was perfectly fine. We made it to Como at about noon and immediately went in search of a boat rental place, but as it was winter and down season we couldn’t find anything. After trying everything we could to find some kind of vehicle and failing we got on a bus and went to Bellagio to meet up with the group. We drove along the coast of the lake and had some amazing views and hairpin turns in a huge bus, but we made it to the small town. We walked around the main street that has shops along one side and the lake on the other. After walking from one end to the other, we went to a little waterfront park and met up with the other 11 people from our group that were in the area for the weekend. We all hung out there for a while on the lakefront. After a while, West, Brenden, and I decided to go for a swim in the freezing cold lake. We changed right there and went out on one of the short piers and dived in. It felt amazing when we first got in, but after about five seconds, I could feel my muscles starting to cramp up and go numb, so after a quick swim we got out and dried off. Our skin still felt cold for a good fifteen minutes after getting out of the lake, but it was worth it. A little bit after that, we got on a hydrofoil that took us to Gravadona, the city we would be staying in. We made it to the tiny city, got a piece of pizza and then headed out to the apartment that we had rented a short way out of town. There were 17 of us there so it was a bit crowded, but we were all comfortable and had a blast. We played games like mafia, watched movies, and made a ton of noise doing nothing really. We all went to bed at various times as we had an early morning again today.
We got up at 6:30 this morning, and were on our way by 6:45. We caught a bus back to Colico, the nearest town with a train station, caught a train back to Milan and then one back to Florence. We made it back at about two, took naps, caught up on work, ate, and then went to play soccer. Now, we are heading out to watch a bit of football before going to bed and starting another week of class.