Pisa, Lucca, and Siena 06/30/07

This past weekend I went to Pisa, Lucca, and Siena- Three very amazing towns.

On Saturday, we went to Pisa to climb the leaning tower. I was surprised how much it leans, it was actually more than I imagined. After walking around a little bit, we headed to a small nearby town called Lucca, since there is little else to do in Pisa other than look at the tower and surrounding buildings.
Lucca was enclosed in tall thick walls during medevial times to barricade it from attacks from the outside world. Now, instead of taking them down, they turned the top of the walls into a bike path with grassy areas to sit and relax. It's cool because while you bike you get a good view of outside and inside the city. We then walked around and up a tall tower to enjoy more scenery from above and enjoy a refreshing cool breeze. 

On Sunday, we went to Siena. I liked the city because they had statues of Remus and Romulus suckling a she-wolf everywhere, which I thought was cool, but I have no idea why. Siena is neat beause it has 17 contrades, or districts that people live in, each with its own name, flag, and animals. Flags line the buildings to indicate where the boundaries are, and it was nice to see city and contrade pride since residents were wearing their flags everywhere.

Today, Monday, there is the Palio, an intense horse race between the 10 of 17 districts in the main plaza area. The city goes crazy preparing for this race, so that was also exciting to see. I didn't get to see the Palio, but maybe someday I will. However, I bought 3 flags: the turtle, the noble caterpillar, and the snail. The noble caterpillar design reminded me of Brasil. Now of course there are much mightier and traditional animals, but I thought it was nice that they choose such overlooked creatures to represent them. Like how can a caterpillar or snail beat a double headed phoenix? Its possible in the Palio!

Party with the Venetians! 6/29/07

Last night I was invited by another MIT student, Sara John to go to a festival with her coworker and some of her co worker's friends. It was a lot of fun. First we walked across the island to somewhere I had never been before, (my goal is to walk on all the streets of Venice), and went to a restaurant. The best part was when this 70 year old drunk woman latched onto Sara John's arm and started yelling at an old man. Then she shuffled away somewhere to go bother other people, but when we toasted, she shuffled back over to say "cheer cheer!" with us.

We then walked over to the festival which was tucked away in a little corner of the island. It was definitely a local scene, and we were probably the only non-Venetians. There were tents with food and drink, and I ate a deliciously greasy meal of ribs, sausage, fries, and coke. Mmm it was a nice change from pasta, pizza, water, and salad. It was so cute too, the joy in the air, all the children with strangely shaped balloons, the italian band performing latin sounding music, the quaint wooden bridges over waterways decorated with colored lights, the moonlight reflecting off the dark water. Sara John bought me a balloon and we danced the night away. Finally, we headed home and walked through Saint Mark's Square at Midnight, which was a pretty sight, compared its crowdedness and pigeonfullness during the daytime. To top the night off, I made my way home, pink balloon in tow, floating behind me as I walked through the dark and empty streets. Every once in a while I would pass a bar and people would look at me like how random, a girl with a pink balloon walking through the streets at night, or even smile at me, and I was content.

Overall, last night was a good break away from the tourist grind, the monotony of going home every night and cooking, washing the dishes, and then going to sleep. It's easy to feel isolated on the Island, because of the lack of young people, the lack of locals, and no connection with the familiar world after I leave my computer at work. I guess this is what life is about, not falling into that trap of repetition and boredom, doing different things, but still taking time to relax.

Murano

Today we slept in late, and made our way over to Murano, an island close to Venice, that is famous for their glass. Every single store was either sold glass or food. I bought a glass animal 'family'. Basically, you buy a set of 4 creatures of the same species and that constitutes a family. However, my family consists of 3 frogs, and 1 turtle. I have no idea how the turtle got in the family, but I found that to be part of the charm, and thus decided on that mismatched set. We walked around most of the island and saw some really cute things.

First, we stumbled upon a soccer tournament on a really small soccer field down a side street. Second, we saw a trio of old ladies walking down the street in sync, arm in arm.

Finally, we stumbled into a residential area away from all the glass stops and sat on a dock and stared out into the water. An older couple drove up in their motorboat having spent the say gathering mussels.

For dinner, we had fried calamari and pasta mmm. We then took the vaporetto back to the main island, and walked all the way home through a touristy drag.