Eff the Bianconeri (White and Blacks)

I hate Juventus, the Turin team, who are also rivals with Fiorentina. So no, forza for them.

The train to Torino wasn’t bad, it was just under 3 hours. What I liked the most when I first got here, was that isn’t hot or humid like it was in Florence. My hotel was one street away from the train station; you just have to walk down a couple hundred meters. I parked my bags and immediately walked up the center to try and find things to do and get lunch. It’s like a 20 minute walk to the Piazza Reale so it wasn’t too bad at all. I found the McDonalds, and got my usual, since I refuse to eat Mcdonalds in Florence. After McDonalds I wanted to go to the Turin Cathedral. The cathedral itself isn’t very impressive, however this chapel does carry the Shroud of Turin. Although it wasn’t on display, they have a copy of Jesus’s face in a shrine where the Savoy’s used to sit above that you can look it. It was pretty neat looking at the copy of a fake or real shroud of Jesus. After cruising around here, I stopped by the tourist office to pick up a Torino/Piedmonte 2 day card for 22 euros. It gets you into all the museums, and free public transport. With this I headed straight over to the National Museum of the Italian reunification. Torino was the first capital of the Italian republic, so it lays claim to being the site of unification of Italy. It’s basically a museum of Italian history from Napoleon-on of the Piedmonte region. Some of the things on Napoleon’s rule of Italy, the European revolutions of 1848, and stuff. Then they have a lot of paintings, drawings, pamphlets dedicated to Giuseppe Garibaldi, who is like the George Washington of Italy. What is interesting was how the French and Napoleon III were the protectors of Rome against Garibaldi. They had some cool flags, and some cool newspaper/magazine clippings of the unification of Italy. After this museum visit, I decided to check out the Mole Antonelliana and the Museo Nazionale del Cinema. The Mole is interesting because it’s a huge tower a little taller than the Eiffel tower at Las Vegas. You can get an excellent view of Turin, and you can see the mountains, and the former royal palaces on the surrounding hills. The cinema museum was alright, nothing special. They had some cool Italian movie posters of American movies, some picture stills from famous movies, rooms designed from old movie sets, and screenplays from Citizen Kane to the Godfather Part 2. I then walked around trying to find a place for dinner and settled for a self-service place called Brek. The food here was actually quite excellent, they have a lot of selection, and its cafeteria style. Lots of locals were eating here from university to old people. I had a penne pasta and proscruitto cotto di Parma, which was excellent., and a pepsi all for 11.70.

Day 2: I started off my morning a little late due to the comfort of AC and a nice bed, and a comfy pillow. I then went to the Egyptian Museum. This is supposedly one of the largest Egyptian collections in the world so I was interested. You first walk into a bunch of sarcophagus and scrolls from the book of the dead. Then you are led through other Egyptian art like scarab jewelry, steles, mini statues, etc. They had a mummified crocodile among other mummified animals which was neat. Then your done with this floor, and think to yourself that’s it, but you go downstairs to see the big exhibits. The hall with all the statues from Egypt, especially the Ramses II statue. Then they have a Temple of Ellesiya from King Thutmose III which was neat. They also have the tomb of Kha which shows everything they excavated from his tomb which was previously unplundered. Kha was apparently an architect for three royal kings in the New Kingdom. After this, I headed up the street to the Palazzo Madama to the The Civic Museum of Ancient Art. This was four floors of art from the Medieval period to the Gothic/Renaissance to the Baroque, to former Roman watchtower at the top. I breezed through the Renaissance arts since I don’t know any Piedmonte renaissance artists. The medieval floor was kind of cool, they had some neat stonework and roman treasure there. The Roman watchtower gave you a good view of the courtyard, since this is like the main Palazzo in Turin. The Baroque period had some former royal rooms decorate with art, but the main thing was probably the reconstruction of the Senate chambers. This was a cool little exhibit, you could sit in the chambers, listen to famous speeches given, and they even had the seat of the first king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II. After this I walked around to the new Oriental Art Museum. This museum reminded me of the Norton Simon museum, since they had similar collections. The Indian art was ok, lots of Buddha’s and art dedicated to their deities. Then when I get to the second floor, its Chinese and Japanese, so I tried going to the Japanese art, but the security person made me go through the Chinese art first. I breezed through it, since I don’t really care for Chinese art at all. After this, I went to the Japanese art. They had this scroll or something showing Samurais and stuff. Then they had some crazy looking Buddha’s and the Kongo Rikishi. They had some of those weird Japanese hanging clothes on the next floor along with some Samurai armor. The Himalayan art had some crazy gold/bronze Buddha’s from Thailand to Nepal. You can only see so many Buddha’s before you get bored. And the Islam art is very boring, because it’s all fancy drawn Arabic on pots, fabric, etc . I found a cheap pizza place, don’t know what I ordered, but it was 1.50 euro for a slice. I then went to the real Museum of Ancient Art, the Museum of Antiquities next to an archaeological dig site and the former Roman theatre. This thing had tons of excavated Roman stuff from coins, weapon shards, jewelry, pots, etc. That’s just the dig site room. The other large hall contained statues of former Roman emperors, pots from the Etruscans to the Romans, and other stuff. I enjoyed this Antiquity museum much more than the Ancient Art Museum. I then walked by the Palatine towers, which were part of the Roman gates during the time of Augustus Caesar when the town was called Augusta Taurinorum. After this, I went to the Basilica of Superga. It’s located on a hill overlooking Turin, and you take the bus to the train-funicular that takes you up the hill. You get an awesome view of the Piedmonte region. You get an especially beautiful view of Turin, the Alps, etc. It really made that tower thing in Turin, look like a small normal building from up here. Going up the Cupola in the Church gave you an even better view. It was kind of cloudy so I couldn’t see the Matterhorn, but I could see pretty much all the Alps viewable from Italy. The Basilica is nothing special, but it’s important to Italians because Victor Amadeus II of Savoy prayed here before leading his troops to a surprise victory against the French and gaining the title the King of Sardinia. I then took the tour of the Royal tombs of the House of Savoy. It was conducted in Italian, but I bought a little book in the church for a euro that gives details of the whole Basilica, and we were given a large book thing that detailed the crypt in English. So me, and this French couple with their French note thing version, were pretty much on the tour, but not paying attention. The tour was boring at first, since I had zero idea what the guy was talking about, and I could only read what was in my little book. But going to the royal crypt was pretty awesome. I saw the tombs of Victor Emmanuel II and Umberto I in the Pantheon in Rome, so seeing the rest of the House of Savoy’s tombs was pretty cool. Umberto the 1st, and Carlo Alberto probably had the most elaborate tombs in the crypt. After this, they had a little hike through the park you could take to the train station so I did that to kill time, since the train only comes every hour. Some interesting stuff I saw on the bus back to the center, Castello, was a kid playing soccer with his grandma, and a Bocce court. I thought this was just a mythical game included in the PS3 Move, Sports Champions game, but I actually saw an older couple playing this game in a little Bocce court. This game is pretty much curling without sweeping and bowling and underarm tossing instead. For dinner, I started off at an apertivo place right by the university, and just had their bread/pasta stuff. I was looking for a glass of Moscate, but they didn’t have any, so I settled with a sparkling white wine which was actually alright. After this, I headed back to my favorite spot, Brek. This time I got a Roast Beef+fries and Pepsi for the same price as last night. It was delicious, and I saw three people that were their last night, so I guess some Italians who can’t cook go here for dinner. Then I went to Grom for desert. There is like five groms in Turin, because Grom originated from here. The peach gelato was excellent and one of the best I ever had. Guess I have to compare it to Grom in Florence.

Long blogs coming up, this week in class

We learned about sexual crimes in the USA and Italy in this week’s lecture. In the original definition of rape, a man could only rape a woman who wasn’t his wife. While the California rape law fixed the law to make sure it included any sexual intercourse thing done against the will of the victim. And the California sexual assault law made it any unwanted sexual action against the victim. What’s interesting here, is a guy can’t get raped by a female according to these words. Even if it’s the ugliest bitch in the world forcing her will literally on some dude, it wouldn’t be called rape. It’s sad that more than 70% of the rapes happen by people who know their attacker. It shows that there is some messed up people around the nation, and clearly the victim is too scared to report it. We then talked a bit about Megan’s law and how they sex offenders have to register their names. It was funny that the teacher brought up how many sex offenders live in south Placentia by school. And all these students don’t realize what a shitty area that is. Problems us proud North Placentians don’t have to deal with, Smiley face. Then we talked about how these people who need to rehabbed into society aren’t welcomed by communities so it’s kind of a whole double standard of their rehabilitation process. Sex offenders don’t deserve second chances but murderers and alcoholics deserve all the second chances they can get. It’s interesting how sex offenders have to live 2,000 feet away from a park or school, which is almost impossible in Orange County, so these people have to move way out of the city into ex-urbs or either further. Italy apparently has the lowest per capita rate of rape in the EU, but it reality it feels as if Italian men are aggressive as hell, unless they’re just trying to pick up yank tourists. The whole issue of rape in Italy is awkward. They really don’t want you to go forward with the case, they make you take your time, and the trial is apparently humiliating for the victim. It’s interesting that Mussolini’s granddaughter is a big proponent for rape victims. The whole joke of a code, the querela system, said that a dishonest seducing women would go to court to report a rape charge, while the honorable women who was raped would keep quiet and hold her shame in private. Thankfully the more reform rape laws aren’t so harsh on women, and it penalizes men a lot stiffer than before for violating the morals of society, rather than for a crime in society. The funniest thing was this girl wearing jeans was raped by her driving instructor and didn’t report it until she got home. What’s funny is the judges ruled that because she was wearing jeans, it takes more than one person to take off the jeans so that was a form of consent. The Italian justice system makes a mockery of justice. I have no idea if the girl driving was raped or not, but their answer to not convict the instructor was utterly ridiculous. I’m not some women’s right activist crusader or anything, but rape is a crime punishable by the

Class, Rimini and San Marino, part 3 of 3.

This week in class we talked more about the Monster of Florence case. It's a case about a series of murders committed mainly between the 1970's and 1980s. A sick deranged serial killer would murder young couples who would go to the woods/outer hills of Florence to be intimate. His M.O. would be usually to kill the male in the car, and then drag and kill the female, and mutilate part of her female parts. This Mario Spezi, journalist, was covering the cases from start to finish. It led to various trails from the Sardinian trail and to wild satanic ritual plots. Four men were arrested and or accused of being the monster, while Spezi came to the conclusion that one of the members of the Sardinian trail, fit an FBI profile of the killer. The Italian justice system had zero idea where the trail led to and it seems they were just arresting people for show. Then, an American, Douglas Preston moved to Florence to work on a mystery novel, then happened to find out a murder happened near the Villa he was living at. He then became hooked onto the case, and went over Spezi's stories. Eventually they worked on writing a book about the case, and their suspicion on who the killer was, while that same crazy Justice Mignini got involved in the case. He believed in the satanic ritual theory, and the theories of some conspiracy theorists who interlinked this satanic cult with the Twin Tower suicide crashes. He eventually went after Spezi and Preston for trying to continue to follow the Sardinian trial, and even linked Spezi to a murder. Preston used his friends from the international press to condemn Italy, eventually leading to Spezi's freedom because Italy didn't want to deal with it. The case is still pretty much unsolved, because the gun that all the murders have been linked too has never been found. The chief investigator and Prosecutor Mignini were convicted of misconduct. I believe that the serial killer is either dead, or there was copycat killings. The man that Spezi and Preston believed committed the murders has denied he was the monster, but has done nothing to try and clear his name from being linked to it. This story once again shows the stupidity of the Italian court system. Withholding evidence, testimonies, and believing conspiracy theories and unreliable witnesses as if they were spitting facts. In the other class, we talked about the Cosa Nostra, or the Mafia. We talked from everything to the head of all the families, the Corleone bosses. It seems they are most prevalent in Western Sicily, and in Naples. One of the most interesting things was that family members have to be introduced to each other, or that mafioso is a literary invention.

I decided to go to Rimini/San Marino on Sunday. My guidebook had nothing really at all on Rimini so I had to rely on the internet for interesting things, like the roman ruins or the Arch of Augustus. A marker where Caesar addressed his troops before crossing the Rubicon. And the Tempio Malatestiano, the cathedral of Rimini. What sucked was, the tourist office is closed on Sunday, so I had to just walk around the center of the square and try to find things. I did eventually find most of the sights that I wanted to hit by getting lost. I then had to go find the bus to San Marino, since the tabacchi and the ticket office clearly said no San Marino bus information/tickets. I eventually found the area for the bus but I had to wait. It takes about 45 minutes from Rimini to San Marino, because it's only 24 km away, but historical center of San Marino is up the hills. You get a beautiful view of the Emilia-Romagna area from the walls. You can go in and look out from 2 of the three towers that guarded San Marino. The main palazzo was cool, because you can see members of the San Marino guard. You just get an awesome view of the Adriatic Sea, Rimini, and other neighboring towns. I can see why people never bothered to try and conquer San Marino since it's up a steep hill. What's cool is that how much cheaper things are in San Marino, compared to Italy since they don't have to pay taxes. The State Museum was free and displayed some artifacts from San Marino's history. The two towers were definitely worth visiting for the amazing views. And getting my passport stamped for 5 euros was ok, because I'm probably one of the few hundred of yanks with a San Marino stamp in their passport. The bus back there took a bit longer since there was more traffic. Rimini, is a beach resort town, so understandably all the local Italians were taking the train back to home. I never really got to explore the beach area since it was the opposite way, but it looked nice, and seemed extremely young and local. The train ride from Rimini to Bologna kind of sucked since it was packed to the max with people without seats. And there wasn't air conditioning in the corridor of the trains. But we passed by two baseball fields on the way to Bologna, so evidently baseball exists in the Emilia-Romagna region. San Marino is a cool little country to explore, except that it's extremely hilly and has lots of steps so I got a good workout in. But I'm glad to visit another country before my trip comes to an end.

Forza Nerazzurri, Milano, Part 2 of Three

Milan-Well that morning started off interesting. I went to bed pretty early-ish, between 1 and 2 am because I had reserved a 9 AM train. Unfortunately my lazy ass ignored my alarm and I woke up naturally at 8:30 AM. I was freaking out, but luckily I had packed almost everything the night before, so I was up and out of the house within 10 minutes. I pretty much hustled all the way to the train station, and thankfully no one sat next to me because I was sweating. Once I got to Milan, the train station was impressive, and luckily they have a tourist info booth right at the platform so I could get a map. I then headed straight to the Duomo on the metro. The Milan Cathedral, is the second biggest church in the world, and it’s impressive as hell. I think the Milan Duomo façade is the nicest façade I’ve seen this trip compared to Florence, St. Peters, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame. There is so much going on, the towers everywhere, the thousands of figures. It’s a sight to behold. Some berber guy tried bumming off money by holding his hand out which had me thinking he wanted to shake my hand because he started talking about America with me. But all he did was dump pigeon seeds in my hand, which I had zero interest in doing, because I hate pigeons. I then went inside the Duomo, which the line goes by in like 3-5 minutes. The interior isn’t that amazing, but I didn’t see the treasury or the remains of the baptistery. I walked around, took some pictures of the altar, even though you’re not supposed too. I found a Giamcomo Medici tomb, which was interesting because I was reading my book about the Medici’s and there was like 2 chapters dedicated to him. What’s neat about the cathedral there is they have all the bodies of the former Arch Bishop’s of Milan on display. It’s kind of weird seeing deteriorating bodies, but it’s interesting seeing them dressed in church attire. Then I saw the statue of St. Bartholomew with his own skin, this statue is pretty insane to look at because it’s kind of a gruesome image. I had seen it before, but could never pin it to where I have seen it. I then walked to the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele where all the Prada, Luis Vuitton, Gucci, etc stores are, and found a Mcdonalds. I got my typical chicken nuggets meal. I then went to look at the monument to Leonardo Da Vinci right outside which was cool. I then went to look at the formal Roman Portals in the city before my check-in time at 2 PM. I got to my hotel at like 1:45, but they let me check in. My room was pretty huge in size, for a one person, double bed. It was honestly like an American hotel, so I loved my room and the air conditioning. After this, I went to the Castello Sforzeca located in the heart of the city where the former Sforza rulers lived. My book also mentioned the Sforza-Medici alliance, so seeing this was also interesting. What sucks is they are renovating half the castle, so like 3 of the museums are closed. At least the museum I was most interested, the old art/sculptures that the Sforza’s owned was opened. They had some cool plundered ruins, tapestries, and stuff from their conquests. The main thing was the Michelangelo Rondanini Pietà. This pieta was interesting, because it was the third pieta of Michelangelo’s I have seen on this trip, and was one of the many unfinished works by Michelangelo. This is also believed to be his last work, so it’s understandable, he didn’t finished it. They also have the only remaining portal to the Medici Bank of Milan. The other museum open here was like music instruments, ceramics, and tapestries, which was boring, until you got to see the treasury room with gold and bronze stuff everywhere which was awesome. After this, I decided to go check out some of the churches that I was recommended to go too. The first one I went to was dedicated to Saint Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan. The church was ok, except the crypt, where you can see Saint Ambrose and his brothers on display dressed in full Archbishop/Cardinal gear. That was a pretty impressive sight, to see the patron saint of Milan from 400 AD’s body. I then went to the Basilica of Sant’Eustorgio because this church had originally housed the tomb of the Magi before the Germans stole the remains to Cologne. So seeing this tomb was pretty cool. I then went to this other church with 16 roman columns on the exterior of the church. After this, I actually went shopping because it was a pretty happening street and they had good stores. A soccer fanshop store, Stussy, Vans, Adidas, etc. I then found a German type fast food place which was pretty funny, but they had good brats, and served Paulaner so I’m not going to complain. The cash register worker was from Brazil, spoke English, and we talked about surfing and UFC. He is from Curitiba and he has watched Anderson Silva train before at his local gym. After this, I was pretty seriously wiped out from lack of sleep and lots of walking that I had an early night.

Day 2-I chose my hotel because of its proximity to the Santa Maria Della Grazie, or the refectory known as Cenacolo Viciano, because I had a 9 AM reservation to see the Last Supper. It was like an 7 minute walk from my hotel so I got there a little early but that was fine. The painting is housed in the former dining hall of the Dominican friars, who luckily got to eat breakfast there every morning. This building has through serious neglect in its life time. It was washed over by monks trying to clean it, Leonardo tried painting a dry/wet fresco on the wall which already made it start to fall off, it was used as a prison too. But after serious restoration, the painting has been restored to a decent image. It’s mind blowing how large this painting is. It’s seriously about the size of at least 15 by 30 feet or something. I was amazed at how it basically was the whole south side of the wall. You can’t take pictures, although it wouldn’t be very hard to sneak one. The room is kept dark, and cold, and they only allow small groups of people in at different intervals so moisture doesn’t build up in the room to damage the painting. The Mona Lisa painting was whatever, but this and the Sistine Chapel are two of the finest pieces of art I have ever seen. I was like a huge Da Vinci Code fan when I read the book, and after seeing the Apostle John, he does very much look like a women. However I believe the story of the painting when the other guys are trying to figure out who will betray Jesus. And you can see you a pouch in Judas hands, the gold he got for betraying Jesus. They have a crucifix painting by another famous Italian painter, on the other side which I looked at for like a few minutes, but my eyes were transfixed upon the Last Supper. This painting is a must-see for everyone, since there’s no chance it will ever become the full image its supposed to be. I then decided to check out the Cimitero Monumentale, (Monumental Cemetery). I didn’t know anyone buried here, but the sculpture on the tombs for these people was pretty amazing. I guess people famous to Italians are buried here, but to me, it was like being a tourist at Punchbowl Cemetary on Oahu, instead of visiting my grandpa’s grave. After this, I went to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, to see the private collection by the Cardinal Federico Borromeo who started the first public library in Milan. The lady at the front desk was excited to learn that I already knew some of the work there, like the drawing of Raphael’s School of Athens. Cause our tour guide at the Vatican didn’t show us this painting…….not many good things to say about the Vatican tour. But seeing the drawing was amazing, on how someone could sketch something like this because it is gigantic. They have Caravaggio’s fruit basket, some Boticelli works, and then this bronze room had a bronze statue of what the Original Trajan’s column looked like, with Trajan and not St. Peter on top of it. That was cool. You can peak into the researcher part of the library. Then downstairs is the most famous part of the room, the Da Vinci works. You see his Duchess painting, and his painting of a Musician. And they have a copy by another artist of Da Vinci’s Last Supper, and what it would look like if it was a painting. Then they have 24 pieces of the Codex Atlanticus., which was amazing. You see Da Vinci’s handwritten notes, his sketches, his little side notes. It showcased pages from birds flying, to weight equilibrium to siege defenses, to stone throwing devices. It makes you wonder if Da Vinci grew up in the time of Galileo/Newton, how close he was to figuring out modern physics. Because many of those pages were almost physics like, but missing the equations to solve the answers. I’m glad I went there, and I’m glad I got a student discount for only 10 euros. I then went to the San Siro/Giuseppe Meazza stadium. This was pretty much heading into local Milan territory. I’m a fan of Inter Milan, so it’s known as the Giuseppe Meazza to Inter supporters, because he captained the club in their early history. To AC Milan fans, its known as the San Siro, because it’s in the San Siro neighborhood in Milan. The museum was cool, showcasing the various trophies and memorabilia they have won throughout the years. Then the tour was neat, we got to sit in the VIP section, got views of the field, and of the supporters section on either side. The stadium is pretty massive, you have to look at it has a large NFL stadium. It can hold 84,000 spectators. Then we got to see the Locker Rooms of both teams, the AC Milan focuses on individuality. The Inter Milan locker room forces on unity. It was pretty cool to sit at the same spot where some of your favorite players sit before game. After this, I eventually made it back to the Duomo and to the same Mcdonalds at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. Then I had a decent amount of time to make the train back home. This Milan trip was definitely worth it, seeing the Last Supper and the Duomo, and the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza was worth the trip alone. The Pinacoteca Ambrosiana and the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, and the Sforzeco Castle were welcome surprises.

Forza i Parmigiani , Parma 1 of 3 this week

My adventure in Parma was the first day I got to use my Eurail pass. It was kind of weird at first not having a ticket to Parma, but only having a ticket to Bologna. I also almost completely missed the train because it was in some small station to the left. Once I got to Parma, my first destination was to find the tourist office to get a map. I didn’t exactly take my directions I wrote down, but I found the tourist office randomly. The number one reason I went to Parma, not to eat, but to find the Emporium (store) for the soccer team Parma FC. Once I got to the stadium I was super excited, I don’t care for the team too much at all, but they have the sweetest jerseys in Italy every year. Then there was lots of people going to the stadium, so I thought it was strange, than I find out, season tickets went on sale that day. It wasn’t too packed, and it was funny because it was a lot of older people in the line. I then went to the Emporium, to only find that it has closed for renovations. I was kind of mad, but then I went to the locations in my guide book said to go. The Baptistery was pretty impressive from the outside, since it is a mix of Romanesque and Gothic architecture. It’s also painted a distinctly pink color. I then went to the Duomo right by it, and saw some really cool Deposition of Jesus Christ plaque/sculpture/other assorted wall thing. After this, I went to you guess, another church right nearby but it wasn’t as impressive. I then cruised around the shops in Parma hoping to find a store that sells team gear, but I couldn’t everything. Though every window panel in every store had saldi signs everywhere, which I kind of assumed meant “sales.” I then went to the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Steccata , the last church that the guide book said to go and it was alright. I really just the Gypsy beggars who stand on the steps of churches. I then finally find a place to eat, some caffe. I had a prosciutto cotto sandwich, which was probably the best prosciutto (thinly sliced ham) and cheese in it, it was delicious. I’m bummed I didn’t order another one. I then found a deli that actually sold Parmagiano Reggiano, but I figured what the hell am I going to do with a block of cheese, and a big thing of prosciutto. So then I walked by the University and went home.

Forza Gialloblu & Venezia

What we talked about in class this week was about the Amanda Knox case, and the book we had to read about it. Murder in Italy: the Shocking Slaying of a British Student, the Accused American Girl, and an International Scandal. From what I previously learned about this case before this class, I always assumed she was guilty. I didn't really know anything other than reading about the proposed sexual theory. From going over this case and reading this book, I learned this sex orgy game gone wrong was pretty much the invention of Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini. From what we learned this case has like zero evidence linking Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito to the scene of the murder, and the third person involved, Rudy Guede has tons of evidence linking him to the crime from his DNA everywhere and other evidence. This book also showed how crazy the Italian and British media basically crucified Amanda before the trial even began and was full of such bullshit. William Randolph Hearst would be so proud of the yellow journalism displayed in their headlines. The Italian police and court system is such bullshit compared to the American system, and it's unbelievable that there's no sort of European Union standards for judicial proceedings. This Justice Mignini guy should write screen plays because this guy has some wild ideas and theories or he should be locked up for saying lie after lie. I don't understand how Italians can deal with the news they get, but it's basically as if the Onion and that silly Newspaper sold at 7/11 with ridiculous headlines like "dogs take over Mars" were taken seriously. Thankfully the evidence used to convict Amanda and Raffaele has been deemed not good enough to be used as evidence for a crime, so hopefully the Italian justice system releases them, and Justice Mignini goes to hell. It's ridiculous that Rudy could get out in six years for good behavior when he clearly was present at the crime. He got rewarded for agreeing to a story suitable to Justice Mignini's. We talked about immigration in the other class. 7.2% of the registered population in Italy is made up of immigrants, there is probably about 2 or 3 percent more that our unregistered. They come from the Balkans to Africa to South America. I like the Bossi-Fini law which forced immigrants to prove they had an employment contract before they could come to the country, rather than come to Italy and sell fake bags, overpriced beer, and really stupid laser toys that stupid tourists waste money on. It's interesting that some immigrants pay hundreds of thousands to old Italian ladies to get married and divorced too so they can become citizens. What was interesting was there was some Egyptian guy who got beat up by a Dominican guy in Milan which led to the Egyptian community rioting versus the Latin Kings gang. Of course the Latin Kings beat the shit out of the Arab Egyptian community. I like that in Lucca their are no Kebab shops and every restaurant must sell a dish with Luccan cuisine. It's interesting that the Chinese community in Prato is like the one group of immigrants who refuse to learn Italian and stuff. 50 percent of Italian youth view immigrants negatively, it doesn't sound like they commit much help to the country, and I think we will see more hardline stances against immigrants in the future especially with the rise of Islam in Italy.

Friday-Our trip started out with a bus ride to Verona. The bus ride there was whatever, what was cool was seeing all the Roman ruins, especially the walls mixed in the current buildings. We got dropped and off and met near the Roman coliseum. This coliseum is the third biggest in Rome, next to one in Rome, and the one in Capua. I didn’t go inside it, but was intrigued by it. Verona is a very easy walking town. We then walked to the Castlevecchio and got there in less than 5 minutes, again we didn’t go inside the museum but you are free to go to the Courtyard and see the castle walls. After this we were given a map with points of interest and just tried to hit as many of them as we could. Another awesome part about Verona is that they have these portals from where former Roman entry ways were. We got to like the main tower in Verona which is a big square with caffes all around. Then we looked for Romeo’s house, which you can just see the exterior. After this, we saw the Scala tombs, the former rulers of Verona. Then we walked by the San Anastasia Church and the Duomo. The façade of the Duomo is pretty awesome. After that we walked across the bridge to see the old Roman ruins of the theatre. I then walked to another church to check out the façade and to another portal. I went back and got some lunch in that popular square and walked to Juliet’s house. It was crazy pandemonium there, there was like 2 tour groups there, a hundred tourists in this cramped courtyard. I could see the balcony from the outside so I didn’t have to go in, or rub the statue of Juliet’s breast for luck. The tunnel to get in there is loaded with people trying to write “so and so” forever. After this I walked by more churches, and another portal, Portal Leone, and I headed back to the meeting spot near the coliseum. I never found a Chievo Verona (local soccer team) store so that kind of sucked, but Verona is a cool town if you’re down to see some random Roman ruins.

-Venice Day One-We got into Venice around 4:30 ish, it was like a 1 ½ hour bus ride from Verona. We pulled off to where all the day trip buses were parked, and there was a shit ton. We then walked over a bridge, passed the train station, and ended up at our hotel. We were the top floor, but didn’t get the balcony, the room over did. The room was decent, just sucked that the beds were pushed together, so me and my roommate for the trip, Mark from San Diego pushed them apart. The weather in Venice is awesome compared to the blistering heat that was Florence for the past week. We were given a 48 hour vaporetto (water bus) ticket to use. We walked across a bridge to go find a further out vaporetto stop then the one near the train station, and we took Line 52 to Lido. Lido is a 12 km long island south of Venice, so it was like a 40 minute vaporetto ride. It was pretty chill though, just seeing the islands, the Adriatic sea. In Lido, which is a beach resort (but we didn’t go the beach), we found some random restaurant. I had a Würst Pizza, but it was huge. It destroyed all the pizza that I had ate in Florence. And being close to Austria I guess, they had Austrian beer, Austrian sausages, Austrian dishes. We ate dinner and then went to San Marcos Square. It’s pretty cool over there, we saw the Basilica, the Doge Palace, the Campanile (Bell Tower) at night and then we found like the oldest coffee shop in Western Europe. We then went back to the hotel, tried to find a bar, which there was none on the island, and went to drinking in one of our classmate’s rooms with beers we bought. All the stores/restaurants closed at like 11 PM, totally different from Florence.

-Venice Day Two-We started the morning off with a crappy Italian breakfast of prosciutto and cheese and some fruit and some bread. We then took the vaporetto to San Marcos square. This route didn’t go through the Grand Canal so we could see all the different Cruise Lines docked in Venice. These were some behemoth ships compared to the boats next to them. After we got there, we ended up meeting right by the Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs connected to the palace or the church. This was like the only art piece I actually knew of from Art History. It was definitely cool to see it in person, and how the oblivious person walks by it. Hell, I missed this completely at night the day before. We then went on a walking tour of San Marcos Square, going by the Palace, the Basilica, the Bell tower, the clock tower and then we went on a walking tour through Venice going by some churches like the Church of Moises, some other churches, a famous theatre, and then through some local areas nobody really cared about and to the Rialto bridge and back to the square. Our guide was a former professor who looked like he woke up with a hangover, or just liked to drink in general since he kept making references to whisky. After the tour we were free to do our own thing for like 6 hours and we started off at the Hard Rock Café in Venice. Our waitress was very eccentric but look like she loved her job and it was probably the best burger I had on our trip. Plus they offered free refills, unbelievable! We then waited in line to get into Basilica di San Marco which goes by very quick since it cost money to get into the treasury, the sanctuary (which houses an awesome silver screen filled with thousands of gems and offers a close-up view of St. Mark’s tomb, and the Museo which houses like the original Gold horses. Since I was with a bunch of people who wouldn’t spend money to see any of these things, it kind of sucked but whatever. We then went to the Doge’s palace which was huge, the Court of Justice rooms were especially gigantic filled with portraits of the hundreds of Doge’s during the time of the Venetian republic. The prison was also pretty big, and the bridges of sighs looking out into the dock before the criminals were hanged between the two columns. I then checked out the other museums on our pass like the Museo Correr which showed Venetian art and history from Roman times to the Republic. It connects to the Museo Archeological and part of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. Unfortunately we could not see the ground floor where Indiana Jones discovered a clue to reach his father. I cruised around this part of the island to the exterior of the Arsenale, or naval shipyard. Then we had a free dinner through AIFS. The owner recommended some nightlife areas and we found a good bar near the Rialto Bridge. I had some Paulaner Munich beer on tap which was excellent, I now know why you wear that shirt, dad.

Day Three-We were free to explore today, so we started out at the Jewish ghetto in Venice. Apparently this is like the original ghetto and has been there since the 1200s. It’s also the spot where the Germans rounded up the Jews and sent them to Auschwitz. After that we took the vaporetto to the Venice Academia and saw all the famous Venetian artworks there. Leonardo’s “Vetruvian Man” is here, but it only goes on display every couple years so it wasn’t on display this time. Saw some interesting artwork here, I don’t know Venetian art because my Art history class never made it this far so it was kind of just like looking at interesting art and knowing nothing about it. After that we went to Lido and walked to the beach which looked packed but nice and cool, but I had shoes on and couldn’t get closer to the water and then we just ate at a snack bar on the island. We caught the vaporetto back and tried going to a church near the Academia only to find out my stupid guidebook was wrong and that churches weren’t open on Sunday’s like my guide book said they were. So we walked around and eventually found an open church called the Santa Maria della Salute. After this we tried going to another island called San Giorgio Maggiore but could not figure out a boat that would take us there. Then we just cruised around San Marcos square a little bit more before we took the Vaporetto back to the water bus stop near the hotel. We had a fast train going from Venice to Florence to Rome, which I wish I stayed on for.

My final reflection of Venice is that it’s a city that needs more than one day to explore. I think that is why my roommates hated their day trip to Venice. It can be walked through all the parts of the island, but the water bus is a huge help. I managed to walk through most of the island without using the vaporetto. San Marcos square is definitely a site that needs to be seen, there is less pigeons than I expected there to be. It’s cool to see the water at night float onto the land and stuff. I’m bummed I never got to go see all the churches in Venice since some of them seemed really cool, or the glass-making island Murano. I never had seafood there, went to the beach resort island twice and never went to the beach and those are probably my only regrets. This trip was definitely worth it, I think traveling by Gondola is a waste of money, but if you have money to blow by all means go for it. I also wish I went to the Casino since it was like two stops from our hotel. It didn’t smell that bad like everyone was insinuating but the canal water is polluted with sewage, my late night public urine, and their tap water comes from the mountains in the Dolomites. Rome > Venice. I wish I knew more about the Venetian republic, but I never took a European history class so I didn’t know much.