Venice and Carnevale

Last weekend took a day trip to Venice for Carnevale.  It is located in northeast Italy and was roughly about 2.5 hours from Florence by high speed train.

What is the Carnevale di Venezia (Carnival of Venice)?
Carnevale is an annual celebration that takes place during the days leading up to Lent.  The holiday ends officially the day before Ash Wednesday, a day known as Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras, which is observed by gathering for a huge feast and eating food that one will abstain from eating during Lent, such as sweets or meat.

Although Carnevale is celebrated all over Italy (and many other countries as well), Venice is particularly famous for their celebrations and history of elaborate masks that come from the Italian theater, the commedia dell'arte.  Everyone dresses in creative costumes and masks and at night there are parties and music.  You will also find confetti (in Italian: coriandoli) all over the streets during Carnevale.  Check out the steel drum players we ran into:

Before going to Venice we had a workshop where we made our own masks using the original technique.  Below is a picture of me in Venice wearing my mask and posing with someone in a very pink traditional costume.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a costume but I did put my hair up in a bow on top of my head in an effort to be more festive, although it isn't very visible in the picture.

Making the masks.  That's me on the right!

In Piazza San Marco celebrating Carnevale!

Venice, the Floating City

Venice isn't just all about Carnevale though.  Historically, Venice was a very wealthy city, especially during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, due to its importance in the spice, silk, and grain trade routes.

Today Venice survives mostly on tourism.  It is considered one of the most romantic European cities and is the setting for many famous works of literature such as Shakespeare's Othello and The Merchant of Venice, as well as many others, including Henry James' The Aspern Papers.  Venice is also famous for Murano or Venetian glass and there were many stores selling beautiful jewelry.

Because it is made up of 117 islands it is very easy to get lost in Venice.  My friends and I spent over an hour wandering in tiny alleys, crossing small bridges, and pushing our way through enormous crowds just to make it to Piazza San Marco!  After that we took the water taxi back to the train station, which is the system of public transportation used in Venice instead of having a bus or metro.  Not nearly as practical but definitely more fun. :)  In fact, here is a video I made of our Water Taxi ride which includes a few guest gondola appearances.  The music in the background is La stravaganza by Vivaldi, a famous composer who was born in Venice.

Below are a few more pictures from my visit to Venice.  Thanks for reading!

This is what the water taxi looks like.  A one-way ticket from San Marco to the train station costs 7 euros!!

Some folks enjoying a gondola ride

Piazza San Marco

A fleet of gondolas following us on our water taxi ride

Laundry day :)

In fattoria: Our trips to Italian farms

Ciao a tutti,

Sorry for being absent for the past few weeks.  I started to write a post and then got hit by a sudden onset of work.  We have all our midterms this week so I've been busy writing a research paper for social history (which I thankfully finished last night) and now I need to study for my exams.
Let's see...so many things have been happening lately!  One of the classes I'm taking this semester is sustainable food where we learn about the methods of food production that are responsible and respectful of workers and our natural resources.  Part of the class includes field trips to visit local farms and compare the different types of agriculture.  So two weekends ago, we visited Camporbiano, a bio-dynamic farm outside of Florence.

What is bio-dynamic, you ask?  Good question!  In Italy, organic is called "bio" which is short for biologically (or naturally) grown.  A bio-dynamic farm is different from an organic farm for a couple reasons.  Organic means that the crops or animals have been raised without (or with limited) antibiotics or other natural substances.  Bio-dynamic is a little harder to define.  It is actually more of an agricultural philosophy but essentially it means that crops and animals are raised without antibiotics and with particular attention to their well-being.

Camporbiano produces milk, cheese, and other dairy products from cows and goats, as well as flour, fruit, and honey.  We got a tour of the farm and got to meet all the animals, including two very cute dogs :)

I vitelli!  The calves:)

Bonding time with the Camporbiano cows

 There are two words for "cow" in Italian.  You can either say la mucca (moo-ca) or la vacca, which is almost identical to la vaca in Spanish.  Our guide, who works at Camporbiano, told us that each cow has a name, in addition to the number on their tag and that the farmers know each one.  There are about 40 cows on the farm and during the winter months they live inside the stalls (which are much bigger than they appear in this photo) and during the rest of the year they graze outside.  The stalls, which are cleaned daily, are covered in hay to protect their joints from the hard impact of walking on the concrete all day - basically the same reason we wear good running shoes when we do certain sports or activities that involve lots of walking.  The cows also eat a very healthy diet - only the special hay that is made there on the farm. 

Le capre!  The goats - this one wouldn't stay still long enough to snap a photo that wasn't blurry :)

 Camporbiano has goats to make goats milk products that are very popular here in Italy.  Like the cows, they live not only in the stalls but also in the pastures depending on the seasons.  Our guide explained that because they do not give antibiotics to their animals, they heal them using natural remedies.  He told us that one time they had a bull who injured his leg and they cured him with calendula, a special type of flower with anti-inflammatory properties which grows naturally on the farm.  Incidentally, I have also used calendula gel for muscle pains and can say that it works quite well!

Camporbiano and the beautiful Tuscan countryside

 After our visit, we got to sample the various products, including cheese, bread, veggies, honey, yogurt, and a delicious fresh pear juice.  Yum!

Today was our second field trip and this time we went to Reggio Emilia, in the Emilia-Romagna region to visit la Fattoria Rossi (fattoria = farm in Italian) which is famous for Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.  La Fattoria Rossi is an organic farm, so it was rather different than Camporbiano.

For instance, the stalls the cows lived in were not covered in hay and were rather dirty.  They were also not allowed to roam outside and they ate corn and other grains in addition to hay.

Fattoria Rossi dairy cows

We did get to see how the parmigiano is made, which was neat but a bit smelly because there was so much milk and aging cheese.

Making cheese wheels

The cheese needs to dry a bit before it can be soaked in salt water to preserve it

The cheese has to be inspected by an expert to make sure it meets the standard of parmigiano reggiano cheese.  The wheels are tapped with a little hammer to make sure they are not hollow inside.  If they have any defects, they cannot be sold as parmigiano reggiano but can be sold as other cheese or as grated/powdered parmigiano like we have in the States (although today we learn that our grated "parmigiano" is usually not parmigiano but another different type of cheese called Grana Padano).

Aging gracefully: the cheese storage room :)  Parmigiano needs to age before it is ready to be eaten

These stamps certify that it is Parmigiano Reggiano and also tell us the details about where, when, and how it was made

Afterwards anyone who could eat dairy got to taste some samples of parmigiano that was in different stages of the aging process.  I can't vouch for it myself but I was told that one really can taste the difference between a few months of aging!

Now I'm back in Florence and ready to resume studying for those midterm exams!  If you have any questions about the farms, please ask!  I have lots more information to share that wouldn't fit in this post. :)

A dopo,
Isabella

Blog Updates + Lots of Photos

Ciao!

This is my second post this week because I wanted to share a few more things with you all:

1. I have now added labels to my blog.  On the right hand side there should be a list of all the topics I have covered.  If you want to see what I wrote about churches, click on the label "church" and you will get a list of all relevant posts.  This makes it easier if you are trying to search for a previous post.
2. Orientation finished about three weeks ago and I wanted to share some photos from my weekend trips with you all.  Enjoy!

I live far from il centro (the center of town) but close to a small town called Fiesole.  Fiesole was an Etruscan town originally and is full of Roman ruins....which are noticeably absent from Firenze and which this Classical Studies major really wanted to see.  It also has splendid views of Florence!  The first time I didn't get to go into the archaeological site but I recently went again last week during "culture week" so we got a reduced entrance fee which made us very happy.  It is a beautifully maintained site.

Fiesole: Street View

View towards Florence on a cloudy day

The Roman theater

Tuscan countryside view from the archaeological site (looking away from Florence)

 The next weekend my friend and I went to the Expo Rurale on the opposite side of town.  There was lots of food, plants, and animals to be petted and photographed. :)  It was a fun Saturday afternoon activity that also let us explore another side of town.

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selling salame

Having fun with Pinocchio

Another Friday after class we went to Settignano, which is another small town that is easily accessabile by bus.  There wasn't as much to do there as in Fiesole but we admired the view and enjoyed being away from the hustle and bustle of the city.  There seem to be good hiking trails here...when the weather cools down I need to convince my friends to go with me! ;)

A picture my friend took of me taking a picture :)

 The next weekend we took a trip to Viareggio beach, which was very relaxing.  To get there we had to take the train from centro at the Santa Maria Novella station.  It was the perfect time go to as it wasn't crowed with summer vacationers but it was still sunny and warm enjoy to enjoy the beach.

Santa Maria Novella train station (www.florence-on-line.com)

Viareggio beach with mountains in the background

Our final weekend was full of studying for our language and art history finals and spending quality time with Bubu:

Surprised Bubu

Lazy Bubu

Napping Bubu

So that's about it for orientation!  I am definitely more confident with navigating around the city and speaking Italian most of the time.  From now on we have class trips about twice a month and I will be posting about those.  Last week we went to Ravenna -- I'll tell you all about it in my next post!

Ciao!