The way to a Jenna's heart is through her stomach

The food in Italy is so mouth wateringly good.
If you come here you are guaranteed to eat about ten years worth of your reccommended daily intake of butter and cheese in one bite of any of the delicious local delicacies you choose.
Seeing as I have booked a ticket to the beaches of Spain once I leave Rome, I really do think I have done this holiday thing in the wrong order. I mean at the rate of ingestion of spaghetti and lasagne that I am going at I will soon be a weight only acceptable in the walrus popultion.

pppfffttt who I am kidding, I don't care.
Afterall...

Here are some of the meals which I have had over the past week or so which have made me want to give up the prospect of aiming for an education and life long career and simply become full time professional eater who ends up winning the biggest loser and spending the million dollars cheque on a life time supply of pasta and pizza.

spaghetti a la ragu aka bolognese

yum yum in my tum tum

what I wake up to every morning :)

some salami and zucchinni and a lotsa mozzarella

marry me

the reason I live and breathe

Also, I just found out you can buy a kilo of gelati for eighteen euro. My thighs should be very worried. 

Three strikes and you're out.

Four episodes of 'Pretty Little Liars', three slices margarita pizza and two beers later (the assigned figures to this list may or may not have been sligtly altered to make me seem like less of a lazy, emotional eating, alcoholic), I can officially say I am sitting alone in a hotel room, by my own will, in Florence.

Just an update in case any of you missed the epic breakdown that was my morning, I'll give you a quick run down.

First strike was when I woke up and due to the excessive downpour of rain that Verona experienced yesterday, my Vans were still wet. Not being a fan of wearing socks and sneakers together, I then had to endure the awful beautiful aroma of that followed when I attempted to blowdry my shoes dry in time to wear. This failed by the way and I was left to spend the rest of the day walking in damp runners that smelt like someone had left a banana in the bottom of a school bag for two weeks.

Second strike was when I decided to use the bathroom at the B&B I was staying at. Now without going into too many details that would make your stomach churn, basically European's have very, strange bathrooms. Not only do they have showers that beep and have reversed hot and cold taps, douchette's and bidets (which I had google how to use by the way, so not something I'm keen on trying whilst abroad), they also have very smalll toilets and piping. I learnt this when I went to flush the toilet this morning and the whole thing basically exploded on me (not literally, thank god) and then started overflowing. I waited for about 20 minutes trying to clean the now un-useable bathroom up but to no avail, decided I leave the owner of the house a note and leave for my train.

This would have all been fine and dandy until the third strike.

Third strike came when I went to leave the apartment and the door wouldn't open.

I pushed, I pulled, I turned the keys left and right but nothing would work.
Annoyed, I walked around the apartment checking if there was another exit or perhaps a window I could climb out. That's when I realised all the roller shutters had been brought down and locked from the outside. Thanks to my mother who had put thoughts of murders in my head the night before, this was when the panic kicked in. I started to envisage myself being the next special feature on 60 minutes and dumped all my bags on the floor in exasperation ready to crawl into the fetal position.

aiiiieee polizia !!

Luckily,  a few slightly hysterical phone calls to my best friend and family back home later, we formulated a plan to call the police to come rescue me.

I then had to explain in very broken Italian that I was an Australian tourist who had locked myself in a strange apartment that I didn't live in and no I couldn't call anyone else to come help.

Thank goodness the crime rate in Verona must be fairly low because within ten minutes, the polizia broke in through a side window and saved me from my 'on the verge of a nervous breakdown' state. Turns out the woman locked the door with a different key, one which I didn't have access to, which is why I couldn't open the door with the key hanging off a shitty foam lanyard that I was given.




So there you have it, those are the highlights of the day that was. I ended up catching a couple of trains to Florence and have spent the night in total rest and repair mode trying to plan my day for tomorrow in order to avoid any possible crises (particulary in the form of being locked in a confined space)

I'm not saying I had an awful time in Verona or that I hated it, I just think we had a few.. let's say differences of opinion on what makes a good stay.

To cap it off, when I went to go buy Maccas after the morning's ordeal, the man didn't give me my 'prevalidated toilet ticket' OR tomato sauce. I don't think I'll be visiting Verona again any time soon, I mean that's just inexcusable.

Verona in Love

 "There is no world for me outside the walls of Verona, except purgatory, torture, and hell itself. So to be banished from Verona is like being banished from the world, and being banished from the world is death." - Romeo

Enter JENNA [stage right] wearing a floral headband and a backpack.


Okay, so I am currently in Verona, which is the town where the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet took place. It is said that real life events that took place in this town are what inspired Shakespeare to write his epic tale. Two families, called Montecchi and Cappelletti (evidence of their existence in the town can still be found!) are believed to have been engaged in a feud when the two star crossed lovers meet and well.. the rest is history.

love lockets

You can visit the famed 'Casa di Giulietta' (Juliet's house) which has its brick walls scribbled with love hearts and names of couples. Everywhere you looked, there was declarations of love from the metal gate hanging thousand of love locks on them to the entrance archway which was covered in old bubblegum with love notes attached (not sure if this was gross or sweet)

In the courtyard there is a bronzed statue of Juliet and legend has it if you grab her left breast, you get goodluck and happiness.
I am so sure a man made up this myth.














Also for the handsome fee of 5 euros you can stand on Juliet's balcony and call out "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" (the yelling to Romeo is optional)

Devastatling, the balcony is not Juliet's real balcony- it was made as part of a movie set and is actually part of an old tomb :(




Verona is a very beautiful, old city and is nicknamed "Little Roma". It is the fourth most visited city in Italy, and it's quite easy to see why! Despite it's connection with Shakespeare's play, there is lots of qauint little shops, sophisticated restaurants, markets in the Stadium everyday and lotsss of history and culture.
Only having one day here, I decided to not only visit the House of Juliet, the House of Romeo and the Tomb of Juliet (basically the whole reason I came to this town), but I also visited the Arena and Castelvecchio.

The third largest Roman Ampitheatre, it was magnificant !

Castelvecchio was a castel built in the 1300's and is now a museum, home to some of the oldest and most important pieces of art in Europe.

Something which I have adopted on this trip is something which I never thought I would have- a particular taste in art. Unfortunately, this museum didn't do much for me because it was full of sculptures and old fragments of... things.

?????

However, I did enjoy looking at the beautifully maintained, original frescoes which had adorned the walls of the castle in the 13th century.

I would like make a point though, that some art is seriously weird and you can basically paint anything and say it has a great, indepth meaning. I mean seriously, look at this one, its two dogs climbing a ladder. The only meaning I can possibly see behind this is that the artist is quite fond of the movie 101 Dalmations.

The Waiting Game

I am currently writing a draft of this post from the bottom step of an apartment stairwell, where I have been for the past 2 and a half hours, waiting for the B&B owner to come home so she can let me in. I really wouldn’t mind waiting except it’s getting close to dinner time so I am quite hungry, add to that, moments before coming here, I downed a large Coke therefore I am in dire need of the bathroom.

Good morning Venice :)

Okay, so in order to distract myself from thoughts of fountains and flushing meadows, I will review the past couple of days. On Friday I left the dream like island of Venice. I woke up early because I wanted to make the most of my last couple of hours on the floating city, which was actually a wonderful decision because the piazza has considerably less tourists and pigeons (both equally as annoying) when the sun is still rising. 

The perfect image of Venice

I got allowed myself to get lost in the narrow, winding streets which I decided is the perfect way to actually experience Venice. I came across a lovely store which boasted signs to say it was “The Best Book Shop in the World” and although I’m no expert on the matter, I’d have to say it was one of the most interesting ones I have been to. It was absolutely filled with room of books on every topic in every language imaginable.

so many books, they made a staircase out of them!

I managed to make my way to the Rialto bridge which is the main bridge connecting the island of San Polo and San Marco across the Grand Canal. It was so beautiful, I could have stared at the view for hours. 

I left Venice after stocking up on Venetian artwork and jewellery and headed for the little known town of Udine. Now, I won’t even try to explain the family tree connection here but somehow I have family from my dad’s side living in Udine so for the past couple of days I have been staying with them. I was greeted at the station by Jean-Carlo and my grandma’s sister holding a sign bearing my name. After an exchange of numerous air kisses, I was given a tour of Udine and an aperitif of gelati. I swear to god, I have eaten so much gelati in these past few days that soon I will start driving around in a Mr Whippy Van and snorting icecream from my nose just like in Round the Twist. 

my piccolo Italian Zia

Now apart from my somehow related to me cousin, Gabriele, who I only saw in the evenings, no one in the household spoke English. But luckily between the minimal Italian that I know, the minimal English that they know, a common ground of French words which sound and mean the same thing in both English and Italian, and lots of flailing hand gestures- we managed to communicate.

casual statue of Caesar in the middle of the road

  I had the loveliest time whilst staying there. I was treated to lots of delicious home made meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner oh my!) and shown lots of interesting places around the area- such as the Devil’s Bridge and The Monastery of Santa Maria in Valle (which was built in 830 !). We even went in to Slovenia for lunch, which the idea of going to a different country simply for something to eat pleased me to the nth degree.

 

Also I can proudly say I have been able to build up my Italian vocabulary whilst staying in Udine. I now can say “forketta”, “cucchiaio”, “zucchero”, “mooca”,” cavallo”, “pecora”, “mi chiamo” and “Io non parlo Italiano” (which translate to fork, spoon, sugar an array of farm animals, my name is and the most useful phrase of all – I do not speak Italian)

 

I left Udine this morning and after a quick stop over in Venice (admit it, saying you have to change trains at Venice sounds about ten times more classy than when you say you did it at Footscray) I arrived in Verona around 3pm. Somehow, despite my uncanny ability to get lost simply by stepping foot out of a train station, I actually did manage to find the accommodation quite quickly and easily. 

shameless sad face selfies in hour number three

However, you win some you lose some, which is why I have been locked out of the B&B and sitting at the bottom of a staircase for what is now fast approaching four hours, craving food and in desperate need of the bathroom – I know understand the torture of pregnant women everywhere.

Note- eventually the lovely B&B owner show up at around 8 o’clock, apologising profusely. Or at least I think she was apologising because as you can guessed… she doesn’t speak a word of English !

 

Venice when it glitters

Normally my blog posts are quite lengthy and full of aliteration-ridden descriptions about what I have seen and done. Except this one is going to be an exception. You see, I am currently on the island of Venezia Santa Lucia, or to put it in plain English - Venice.
The reason this post isn't going to be burting with detailed sentences about the inside of churches or an indepth account about pristine scenery, is because no matter how I describe it, I will never do it justice. Venice is just that beautiful.
The moment I got off the train and onto the main docking harbour, it was like I had stepped out of realisty and into a dream. Every single thing you've ever envisaged about Venice is exactly as it seems. The crystal blue water, reflecting the bright, golden sun. The old, rickety gondolas with the old men singing with an accordion. The winding, narrow streets laden with infinte number of bridges to allow access accross the canals. It's all true.
Therefore, this post will mainly be inundated  with photos from my afternoon in truly the  most sparkling (in every meaning of the word) city I have ever been to.

Welcome to Venice

 Piazza di San Marco, described by Napolean as the finest drawing room in Europe.

Basilica di San Marco, built to house the body of St Mark, which had been stolen from the burial place in Egypt by two Venetian merchants.


I absolutely loved this cathedral. I could have spent hours, upon hours inside. The basilica, which was built in the 11th century was elaborately decorated both inside and out. The floor was made of tiny pieces of different colour marble cut out and placed in 'optical illusion' stirring designs. Massive, marble column ornately carved were everywhere. And my absolute favourite part was the roof with it's coloured glass mosaic covered with 24 carrot gold.

Beautiful gold bejeweled treasure buried with St Mark

gold, gold everywhere

funny old man

The Palazzo Ducale aka the official residence of the duke of Venice when he was stilll up and running, was built in the 9th century (so many old things in Venice!) and is now open to the public.
This was at the Palace and I'm not quite sure what it's significance was but it is old and made me laugh because it looks freakishyly lifelike.

famous Venetian glass and marble jewellery

One of the most amazing store I have ever been in- it was overflowing with amazing Carnevale masks, in about a million different colours and styles

I love this far too much

As if it was even possible, when the sun went down, Venice seemed to get more magical then it was before. Dusk was the most beautiful time - the sky was turning a light blue colour with a tinge of orange and pink whilst all the waterside restaurants and docks had already begun to turn on their candle light lamposts.

Sadly, I am leaving Venice tomorrow morning but somehow I kind of perfer it that way. I feel that if I spent too long in this enchanting island, it might lose it's 'dreamlike' untouchable quality. It's almost too beautiful to be true.

Bologna, it's been a pleasure.

After a leisurely wakeup, I made my way into the city centre to enjoy my last day in the city of Bologna. Walking through the streets, I was actually begining to feel a bit like a real local seeing as I had walked up and down them so many times in the past few days !

I had a lovely morning of wandering in and out of the shops on the Via Indepenza, making mental notes of everything I wanted to come back and buy. I really love the fashion in Europe. I am having a slight obbsession with pretty socks and stockings of late and have to constantly remind myself that I only have one pair of feet to wear these socks, so I really don't need another pair to add to the collection of 24 million.

My favourite thing about Bologna is definitely the beautiful porticos. There are 32km worth of these arched walkways, weaving around the city- so that means rain, hail or shine (whatever you despise!) you are almost always certain to be able to hide from the elements.

Whilst walking about the city, I happened to stumble upon the Archeological Museum of Bologna. The museum is actually in the Archiginnasio Palace, which was the first permanenet seat of the ancient University of Bologna. It was really interesting to explore all the old classrooms and the courtyard. The best part was the Anatomy Theatre where the original set up was maintained with the operation table for dissection of corpses in the middle and the Lecturer's chair surrounded by two "skinless" statues.

If I had a coat of arms, it would be this one

 The hallways of the Museum were so unique and very richly decorated, I loved it.The walls and roof was covered in nscriptions and memorial monuments of prominent professors of the university, surrounded by  thousands of coats-of-arms and names of students

I spent ages looking at all the different coat-of-arms for each family name and decided this one was my favourite because not only is the horse trying to steal an apple off the man but it is also wearing a crown haha.







Today, yet again I indulged in a some traditional Italian cooking but unfortunately it was not as good as yesterday which broke my heart :( Therefore, in order to cheer myself up I bought another delicious gelati and sat on the steps of Palazzo Maggiore and watched the world go by.

yesterday's scrum-didily-umpticious lunch !

On a final note, because I have been away for so long, I know all my friends are missing the dumb blonde things I say. Therefore, to entertain them in other ways I have been flooding their inboxes with pictures of me pulling the most attractive faces I can muster. I bet you wish you woke up to texts like this too hey? hahaha

Bologna the Learned, Bologna the Fat

I am currently sitting alone, on a double bed in bedroom with two large wardrobes, a desk and a tv cabinet. I would like the emphasis the fact that I am on a double bed because this is the first time in 3 months that I haven't been in a slept in a piece of furniture designed for someone the size of a 12 year olds or in bunk beds. Also, there is enough space in the room for me to actually put my bag on the floor and walk around at the same time, oh my god. 

Hahah okay so FYI, I am in a lesser known town in the north of Italy called Bologna. Bologna is like an intermediate between a big city like Milan and  quiet little village like Modena. That said, there is so much culture, history, art and cuisine to soak up in Bologna that I am surprised it is not infiltrated with tourists !

Fontana di Nettuno (aka Neptune's Fountain)

I had been highly recommended to come to Bologna by my Portugese friend, Sofia, due to it's large population of young people. Bologna is home to the biggest university in the northern hemisphere and is also considered the very first university after being founded in 1088. It is ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Italy due to it's mix of old and new. It is famous for not only it's rich, religious and architectural history but also for it's food, most noteably the invention of quite possible the greatest pasta dish of all kind - spaghetti bolognese.







I arrived in Bologna yesterday afternoon and immeadiately got myself lost in the city. Now you know how when people say "they got themselves lost" in Italy, everyone goes "awww" or "wow" because it sounds so romantic, idyllic or adventurous? Yeah well no, not for me. I quite literally got myself lost in the city of Bologna minutes after stepping off the train. I walked around for about three hours with that godforesaken backpack on, walking up and down streets that all had names which sounded like they belonged to the long lost brothers of Mario and Luigi.

FINALLYYYY, I got to my accommodation which is a little B&B just outside the city centre and my house host quite amused told me I looked a tired hippie flight attendent with all my bags.

dancing life sized puppets?

After regaining some mental and physical strength, I ventured back out to the main part of the town. It just so happens that it is "Celebration of Liberal Arts" week in Bologna, so the whole town square was closed off to traffic and there was heaps of market stalls and street performers. The smell of the Italian food mingled with the sound of festive music and children laughing really made the whole place feel so alive and joyful !









Today, I was quite unfortunately reminded that everything is closed on a Sunday, so the city was fairly quiet. However, that gave me a good opportunity to go see some of the main historical attractions of Bologna! I went to Basilica of San Domenico, which has a marble shrine to this saint decorated with statues by the likes of Michelangelo. I visited the Basilica of San Stefano which is a collection of four of the remaining seven churches where 'Pontius Pilate used the basin in the courtyard to wash his hands after condeming Christ to death'. I visited the Basilica di San Petronio, which I had no idea why it was famous so I decided to sneakily jump onto the end of an English speaking tour group and soon learnt that it was  dedicated the to the city's patron saint and housed the largest sundial in the world.

I am astonished at the amount of churches there are in Italy and the pure dedication, effort and talent that has gone into building them. Everytime I walk into a church I am left breathless by the amount of detail that is in these buildings in honour of religious figures. Being someone who has never had or learnt about any partciular religion in depth, I find these 'offerings' quite astounding. Each time I walk into a church there are people on their knees praying to alters and I find their blind faith so beautiful. I went to an evening service yesterday afternoon and the quiet refletion and peacefulness that takes place when the choir sing is so serene.

view from the top of the tower :)

I also climbed the 498 steps of the Tower of Asinelli, which gave me a panoramic view of the city of Bologna with it's terracotta roofs and massive Piazza Maggiore.

taking a well deserved break

I swear to god, by the end of this holiday I will have thighs which rival Arnold Schwarzenegger and buns of steel from all the towers and staircases I have been climbing !

Asinelli is the right in the middle- one of the tallest in Italy!

There are actually many towers built in Bologna  and the Asinelli Tower is the tallest of them all. It's 'partner' is Garisenda Tower which is a leaning tower (just like in Pisa!), except it is much much taller !

Bon apetite!

To finish my day, I indulged in the national past time of Europe- people watching. After enjoying myself a delicious bowl of the town's famous spaghetti bolognese (mouth watering-ly good !) , I sat on the steps of the Piazza Maggiore and watched the world go by as I enjoyed a yummy nutella and mango gelati