Category Archives: Blog

Carnevale di Venezia!

Ciao, everyone!

Sorry it’s been so long since my last blog post! Long story short, I’ve been experiencing all sorts of technical problems, ultimately ending with my computer crashing, so I’m here in my school’s computer lab typing this up for you all right now.

But fear not! My computer has been shipped away to be fixed and should hopefully be back within a week. And now, if anyone ever needs computer help in Rome, I can direct you to a whole slew of stores that can help you out.

But let’s get on to the exciting stuff. Although a little delayed, I’m here to tell you about my first trip outside of Roma! And what better place to go than Carnevale di Venezia (the Carnival of Venice)?

My journey started at Roma Termini, the main train station in Rome. I was meeting up with some friends in Venice who were flying in, so I took un treno (a train) right from Rome to Venice. Clearly I’m a child of the technological age, as I was in slight awe when the departure board was not digital, instead using flaps to update i viaggiatori (the travelers) on when and where their trains were leaving from. Can you see the individual flaps?

We were all pretty eager to start exploring, so as soon as we were settled we got on our way. Venice is beautiful at night,

but it’s pretty exciting during the day too! Look at all those people!

We basically covered your typical Venice agenda (and for my friends who were coming from outside of Italy, the typical Italy agenda): we ate a lot of food and a TON of gelato,

walked around Piazza San Marco,

and looked at all the people dressed up in their Carnevale costumes.

And when we finally felt out of the Carnevale loop, we got some masks of our own! (That’s mine!)

And of course, we went for a gondola ride. I have to say, even though it was fun walking around and taking part in all of the Carnevale festivities, it was nice to take a break from the crowds and relax in the gondola. (That’s not actually us, but it was hard to get a good picture of our whole gondola while we were sitting in it.)


Riding along the canals…

On our final day in Venice, we took un vaporetto (a waterbus) to l’isola (the island) Murano, which is famous for making glass. We went into one of the factories and got to see how glassblowing works.

Some finished products!

Venice was pretty incredible and a great choice for my first trip outside of Rome. It’s nice to be back in the Eternal City, but I also can’t wait to see some more of Italy! Ciao for now!



La Neve!

So I’ve been in Rome for about two weeks now. Late last week, people started talking about how it was supposed to snow. But wait a minute…I didn’t think it snowed in Rome.

Well apparently, it doesn’t. At least not that often. But all of a sudden I wake up this weekend and see this! (Photo courtesy of my roommate.)

According to Reuters, this is the most snow Rome has experienced since the 80s. Some parts of Rome apparently got around 15 inches! No wonder people were so eager to have snowball fights and make snow creatures like these guys:

Even though it may have been fun to watch, it wasn’t exactly the best weather for exploring. It was a little more difficult to get around, as the trams stopped running for a day. I’m not exactly sure what was going on, but I did see these people power washing the tracks the day they were closed.

Sites like the Colosseum and Largo Argentina (also known as “The Sacred Area of Largo Argentina”), pictured below, were also closed. Largo Argentina also serves as a cat shelter, so people were pleased to know that the cats had been taken care of.

Even though it was a bit cold and snowy, I still went out and got some gelato over the weekend. It’s never too cold or too snowy for gelato! Hopefully it’ll warm up again soon though so I can get back to exploring the city!