March 30
We arrive in Frankfurt at 4:40 am, but because European timezones are jumping forward today, it's really 5:40 am, Which works in our favor, to shorten our day management of jetlag. Some of us have slept During the flight, but most of us have not since at the time of our arrival it feels like about 11 pm for us. So we just soldier on.
The Frankfurt airport, while large and spidery in its webness - think long windowless corridors with moving sidewalks (some of us walk and some of us laugh, causing minor debate and mockery) - is not hard to navigate and we have no trouble getting our final boarding passes to Milan. We take the 2-hour layover in Frankfurt to catch up with home - Facebook, messaging, blogging - and then get on the plane at 9 am. On this flight fewer than half of us sleep.
We arrive in Milan at around 10:15 am and find that all of our luggage made the journey too. Patrizia, our tour director is waiting for us and introduces us to the Ohio group of 21 girls, 8 boys, and 5 teachers. We head for the bus to meet our driver Stefano, and drive to Verona.
In Verona Patrizia and Stefano take us downtown to the old city. We walk to the front of Its famous Amphitheatre to begin to orient us to the piazzas (squares) and streets. Then she takes us over to Guilietta's balcony (the "real" balcony where the fictional girl first declares her love for Romeo.) This place is really more kitsch and comedy than love and meaning, and we stayed there for an appropriately short time. Actually, our stay was short because it was so crowded. Since we were in Verona on Sunday and it was warm (20'C!), many many people, locals and tourists, were out on the streets. Anyway, now we can say that we've been there.
After gazing at Guilietta's balcony we take our first try at independence. We separate into smaller groups for some freetime and food-finding missions. We tour the piazzas and look into the shops, and then some of us decided to begin sampling the pizza sooner rather than later (see previous post). As explained earlier, the Italians have a way with pizza - a good way.
Settled and our hunger satisfied we head over to the amphitheater, a first century (30 AD) Roman structure that is still used for events and concerts today. Again it's good to be reminded to take time and care about your work! All those years ago the people built with great care and exertion, without the help of earth movers and cranes, and it still stands today. This is a stadium amphitheater-like bowl That is an acoustic design marvel. A person standing on one end of it can speak at normal volume voice and be heard easily all the way across the span of it. In a few days when we see the colosseum in Rome, this will be an interesting point of comparison - if this place is big, the colosseum is on another scale.
After our explorations each group of travelers' make it back on time! Already they're naturals at this! No trouble with keeping busy. No trouble with finding Their Way around. Maybe there's something in the organic, less grid-like, design of these old cities That helps us all be better navigators - at least, It seems that way with this group. None of us are frustrated, in fact we're all relaxed and happy. This can be one of those simple pleasures of traveling with students. You give them your trust and they repay you by being responsible and happy.
We end the day with gelatto of course! Lemon and raspberry for me. The best ever really! Then it's back to the bus for another 2-hour ride to Treviso where we'll check in to the hotel, eat supper (pasta with tomato sauce, turkey slices with carrots, vanilla cake and custard), and then head to bed to try to catch up on sleep so we can get up at 5:45 am to get ready for breakfast at 6:30 and 7 am bus ride to the water taxi That will ferry us to Venice!
One good day done. Many more to come!
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