La Mia Famiglia in Italia

On Saturday, March 23^rd Mark headed back to London and I flew to Italy with my parents. I can’t even describe how excited I was to bring my parents to Verona and show them where I live, my favorite restaurants and where I go to school.

The weather was just not on our side this trip, and it rained everyday they were in Verona. But you know that you’re making great memories when even pouring rain doesn’t block the happy memoires.

I took them to Juliet’s House, to the top of Torre dei Lamberti (obviously dad was not so happy about that one), to the Roman ruins, the Arena, my apartment, my school and everything else that I love about Verona!

Mom and Dad on Ponte Pietro

My favorite people

At night my mom and I cuddled up watching Dowton Abbey while dad mocked the British accents on BBC (the only English-speaking channel we could get).

My time in Italy with my parents consisted of fun memories and DELICIOUS meals.  

I was just loving spending time with them and showing off everything I’ve learned about Verona since coming here.

On Tuesday the three of us all took a train to Venice (or Venezia) for the day. After a small mishap I had while buying the tickets in Italian, we finally made it on the right train heading the right direction!

Venice was literally flooded that day. And I mean ankle-deep water. There were platforms set up everywhere for people to walk on, which made getting places a little tough.

We started at St. Mark’s Basilica, which I went into the last time I went to Venice. However, this time we had good old Rick Steves with us, and he had a nicely labled map of the Basilica in the book with explanations for everything we saw. We also got to go behind the alter, which is where St. Mark’s tomb is. It was pretty remarkable, actually being so close to one of the men who wrote a gospel.

We spent a good deal of time in the old Duke’s place after that, which has some amazing artwork in it. We also got to actually walk across the Bridge of Sighs, one of the most famous bridges in Venice.

By the end of the day, we were all absolutely exhausted. We’d been tourists for about a week at this point, which consists of a ton of walking and planning and trying to keep warm. We were ready to head back to Verona and get a good night sleep.

The Grand Canal

After my second trip to Venice I had a realization about it. I realized that I didn’t really like Venice all that much. It is definitely a cool city to see, since it’s unlike anywhere else in the entire world.  However, Venice is entirely a tourist destination. Hardly anyone actually lives in Venice, and everything there is now built for tourist’s eyes and tourist’s eyes only.  It was an interesting feeling being there again.

The next day was my parent’s last day in Verona. I had an art history field trip in the morning while my parents did some sight seeing.  I met up with them afterwards and we had time to grab some lunch before they had to catch a train to Milan, where they spent the night and flew out the next morning.

Words cannot explain how great it was to have my parents here. Verona has become so incredibly important to me, it’s where I’ve learned so many things about myself already. Being able to show my parents why this has been so important to me and seeing that they understood was one of the best feelings in the world.