Typically our scheduled plans begin in the morning with a meeting time of around 9-10am, but today it was 2:40pm – so clearly a new change of pace compared to what we are used to. This meant I had to be responsible and still get up at a reasonable time in order to make sure I would have enough time to get to see/do everything I wanted to for our last day in Verona.
The entire day’s weather forecast was consistent rain, which it definitely lived up to. When deciding what to wear I figured it would be a good time to break out my new Theta Phi Alpha raincoat that I recently bought, but there was a slight issue… it was nowhere to be found. I unpacked my entire suitcase and ran through what seemed 1000 different places in my head that I could’ve left it. Eventually I decided to try and call Panther Central to ask them if I had left it in Towers the one night we stayed there before leaving for Italy and ALAS the jacket was found! The small issue is that its now stuck back in Pittsburgh, but at least they aren’t going to be throwing it away and I will eventually get it back! Woohoo!
A group of us decided to spend the morning exploring the different shops around the city center of Verona, and then traveled to Juliet’s house – where above you can see a picture of me standing on the incredibly famous balcony of Juliet where she calls down to Romeo in the courtyard below. With our tickets we got to look through the entire house, but honestly the rest of it was pretty empty and uneventful. Ever since I was younger and the movie “Letters to Juliet” came out, it has been one of my dreams to write a letter and leave it for her to read – which is something you can do at this site. Now, because the movie made letter writing so popular, they have a red mailbox you can place your letters into to make sure they are received – a much more reliable form of storage than between old bricks on a wall.
After that excursion, we went to a nearby restaurant for a quick lunch where I had tortellini stuffed with ricotta and spinach. Even though that wasn’t anything super noteworthy, afterwards we got yet another fruit cup – one of my favorite things to buy in the streets of any Italian city we go to. They are called macedonias (yes, like the country) and are just basically walking edible arrangements. At this point in the trip, I seem to buy at least one a day whenever I pass any sort of outdoor food market and they just never disappoint. I mean, how can you really make fresh fruit bad cmon people?
Just barely making it back in time due to having to run through the steady rainfall, we went as a group to our site visit of the day. Yes, I think it is strange too that we actually have educational things on a study abroad trip – who would’ve thought? Today we visited Mero and More: one of the fashion companies who are members that work with the Verona Consortium. The space is one where local fashion designers and entrepreneurs can work together and collaborate. Our visit included both a tour of the facility as well as a beginning lecture where we discussed the differences between the American and Italian fashion industries. The main difference we discussed was how fashion in Italy is more driven by the dreams and visions of the creative geniuses whereas America focuses predominantly on the business aspect of the industry. When in truth, you need both uniqueness/passion and a business savvy attitude in order to survive in the industry today.
By the time we got back it wasn’t too late so I asked some of my guy friends on the trip to go on a walk – yes, it was basically a solid bros trip. We began just aimlessly walking all around the main square, but eventually Russell Jacobs, gotta give him a shoutout, decided to try and lead us to a castle near the river he had found earlier. After a little bit of time and much doubt that either the castle didn’t actually exist or that he wouldn’t be able to retrace his steps, we found it and it did not disappoint. The castle itself was absolutely breathtaking – entirely made out of red brick and was equipped with a mote, towers, drawbridge and all. The only thing we never found was the dragon, but maybe we were better off for that anyways.
Tomorrow is probably our busiest day of the trip yet including three site visits and traveling back to Milan for the final leg of our Italian adventure. Let’s hope that all of my excitement/enthusiasm has enough power to keep me awake – fingers crossed! I typically end my blog posts with some sort of Italian word/phrase, but it just occurred to me that I only know about 4 words in total so by now I’d have to start repeating some old favorites so – ciao ciao for now my peeps.