Submitted by Laura Binczewski on the 2019 winter session study abroad program in Italy sponsored by the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science and the Department of English…
Ciao from Florence! We have made it back to a big city after spending four days in the town of Verona. Even though Verona has a small feel and is less populated than Rome, it is considerably bigger than the quaint town of Siena that we had come from. One of the most exciting activities we got to do here was visit Juliet’s house, which Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet was based on! The area was filled with letters on the wall and love locks chained to the fences. I got to stand on Juliet’s balcony and call to Romeo, which brought out my inner literary geek. It was really exciting to step back in time and, in a way, experience history. From Verona, we got to take a day trip to one of my now favorite places, Venice! Venice is actually made up of close to 200 separate small islands, all connected by over 400 bridges. This makes the city somewhat of a labyrinth, with very small walkways and lots of dead ends. However, Venice is the one city in Italy that does not allow cars within its borders; it actually doesn’t even have roads, just canals! Residents and tourists alike must either walk or catch a ride on a water taxi or one of the many gondolas that line the canals. I had a great time just wandering the streets and taking in all of the beautiful sites, all while getting a great workout in. We even got to take our own gondola ride along the Grand Canal, experiencing the typical Venetian way of life!
