I’ve had the chance to visit some pretty amazing places in Europe
thus far and look forward to the rest of the travels this semester will
contain. Besides Paderno del Grappa, where campus is located, I’ve been
to six Italian cities: Bassano del Grappa, Asolo, Verona, Venice,
Florence, and Cortina d’Ampezzo. Cortina is a city in the Dolomite
mountain range where I just spent the past weekend snowboarding. The
prior weekend was spent in Florence, which is my favorite of the Italian
cities I’ve seen so far this semester. My time spent in Venice was on
Fat Tuesday during Carnivale. Venice is regarded as one of the best
places in the world to be for this profoundly celebrated Catholic
holiday.
Besides Italy I’ve already gotten to visit three other countries:
France, Belgium, and The Netherlands. The cities I visited were Paris,
Brussels, and Amsterdam respectively. We had a day full of rain in
Paris, but still made it out to the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.
Brussels was a city I fell in love with during our short time there.
The Grand Place is the main attraction there and the architecture in it
is absolutely gorgeous. I liked how the city combined traditional
architecture and atmosphere with a large, modernized business center and
downtown area. Brussels is also the capital of the European Union,
which is quite frankly beginning to fall apart. It’s been particularly
exciting to study in Europe during this time and follow what’s going on
with the EU.
From Brussels we took a short train ride to Amsterdam in
The Netherlands. Amsterdam is a really cool city that sits on several
canals coming off of the dammed up Amstel river. The history of
Amsterdam is very interesting, as I learned on a bike tour of the city.
One of the most interesting facts is that when the city was founded
property taxes were paid on the basis of the width of the house, leading
to citizens building up not out. The tall, skinny houses also create a
problem because it’s impossible to bring anything large up a staircase.
As a result, each house had a hook at the top so they could use a
pulley system to get furniture and other large objects into upstairs
rooms through the windows.
My fiends and I will be embarking on a “capital tour” during our
travel week. We will visit the capital city of six different European
countries: Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, and
Belgium. It just so happened that going from Prague to Brussels and
then to Venice from there was about half the price compared to going
straight from Prague to Venice. Our transportation round trip from
Venice is compromised of four flights and three busses, only amounting
to about €175 in total! Our group is very excited about this
economical, yet incredible tour coming up next week. I can’t wait to
learn about six different countries and their incredible capitals, all
in the span of nine days!
Ciao,
Trevor Ivy
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| Sign an the entrance of campus in Paderno del Grappa |
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| View from my dorm room window featuring Monte Grappa |
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| Verona, Italy |
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| Piazza Bra, which includes the Arena di Verona (colosseum partially shown on left) |
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| Verona, Italy |
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Juliet’s
(Romeo & Juliet) house and balcony in Verona, Italy. It’s
apparently good luck
for romantic endeavors to touch the breast of
Juliet’s statue, as you can see. |
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| The Louvre courtyard |
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| Some friends and I in front of the Eiffel Tower |
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Field trip on a foggy morning to the nearby town of Asolo,
which is normally known for incredible views |
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| Fountain in the main square of Asolo featuring the St. Marks winged lion |
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| Panorama of Brussels Grand Place at night |
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| Panorama of Brussels Grand Place during the day |
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| One of the many beautiful canals in Amsterdam |
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| Westerkerk church in Amsterdam |
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| Anne Frank house and museum | |
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| Venice’s main canal |
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| Panorama from just outside our hostel looking at the main island of Venice |
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| Selfie with the gondola driver and my Carnivale mask |
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| Some friends and I with one of many couples dressed up for Carnivale |
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| Il Duomo di Firenze |
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| Panorama of the Arno river and the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge |
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| Looking over Florence from the Michelangelo Plaza |
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| Panoramic view from the Pomedes peak (2303 meters) |
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| About to start a run from the Forcella Staunies peak (2930 meters) |
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| Myself on the Tondi peak (2362 meters) |
