Treviso!!!!

Ciao! Today was a very enjoyable time because I went with Angelo to Treviso, about 30 miles from Vittorio Venento. He goes there for work purposes twice a week and said that I was more than okay to go with him for the morning. I am so happy that I have the opportunity to go be in a different city for a couple days a week! The drive there is perfection...all the prosecco grapes through the vineyards, the miles and miles of bright red poppies, and all the calming sounds that Italy sounds like in the morning. What a beautiful life here in Northern Italy! Angelo dropped me off at one of the more popular shopping centers of Treviso to go explore. He said he would pick me up at noon so I was hoping that I wouldn't get lost in just 3 hours! I started at the big entrance over the famous canals that run through the city. Like Venice, I understand that Treviso was also built on the water. The city center has canals that run through it every which way, very interesting to look at but on hot days, it doesn't smell good at all! After walking around from shop to shop, I stopped to eat two canollies and a coffee. Then, I ventured a little more and stopped for a nice vegetable pizza. I am taking Kelly's wise advice and eating everything that I see that looks good! Also, an excuse to sit down, relax and enjoy the scenary. After some food, I kept walking away from the city center, being careful to remember landmarks because I did not want to get lost with it being so close to noon to meet Angelo. I walked by a very pretty arched wall and stopped to take pictures of it. As I looked ahead just a little more, I realized that this was a brick fence to a very old cathedral and a courtyard. I saw some sort of art display inside the courtyard but I wasn't sure if it was for anyone or just people from the church. I pretended to take a lot of pictures while I went to go look if it was for the public. Finally, I saw one man ride up on his bicycle and go in and he didn't pay so I figured I would be okay to check it out. It was an artist named Dina Moscato that created all the paintings around the courtyard and they were beautiful. I was thinking to myself that I wish I was rich and could just tell him that I want them all and somehow get them back to my house and decorate! They were all very colorful and dramatic, with much character and life. I was about to leave when I saw a small table of what looked like just flyers to hand out but there were small pictures and things to buy that he painted. I just had to have one...or two. :) I picked out a small pink and glittery mosaic painting for 15 euro and a bookmark with a peacock on it (my favorite!) for 7 euro. I either had 20.50 euro or a 50 euro bill to pay with so he took the 20.50 and said,"Good enough, grazie!" He was a very nice man and I hope he sold a lot of his paintings today. I thought to myself as I was walking away that this is a great example of why I wanted to have this journey in the first place. Going beyond where you think you know your way back, and then going one more block or one step more, and you find beautiful things in life. Just one more step over what you are usually comfortable with really pays off in the end. Going to Italy by myself was never really on my bucket list. I always pictured myself going again with my besties or hopefully one day, with my family. This experience is definitely out of my comfort zone but it feels so good to know that if I can conquer a busy Italian town on my own, I can conquer anything! Haha...like maybe my master's degree? I have been thinking of how much work that is going to be in the next couple of years, now that I made it into the program. I am thinking that if I come out a better person for having this experience in Italy this summer, then anything else I do will be just as good, challenging but good. After we went home from Treviso, I fell asleep with Momo on the couch and woke up to Gianna coming home for pranzo (long lunch). We had leftover pizza, the one with egg in it. Very good even cold! And of course, I had some gelato for dessert. While we were cleaning up, Maria stopped by with her son Daniel to clean the house. Daniel speaks English very well and I was excited to meet him to see if I could hold a conversation with him. He is 17 and is in school where there are only 10 boys and about 290 girls! It is a public school where the main focus is for the students to become teachers, which is why the population of the school is almost all girls. There are very few male teachers in Italy as I understand. Daniel told me he has no desire to become a teacher, but he went to that school because it does not emphasize much on mathematics, where he does not excel at. It is still a public school and he has to travel by bus everyday for at least 30 minutes to get there. He said it was a much better fit for him than the school in his neighborhood because the other boys at his old school were not nice to him. Daniel and Maria are originally from Romania and are stil citizens there. Because of that reason, Daniel is not liked at his school or his neighborhood by the boys. So the school that has the less amount of boys, the better he does in school. Daniel has had a girlfriend for over two years that goes to his school. She is Italian but he said she doesn't care that he is from a different country because she focuses on him being the smartest boy at school, not his ethnicity. She sounds like a nice girl that he loves very much. I guess Daniel doesn't speak to Gianna and Angelo much when they are around. He seemed a bit nervous at first around me but then warmed up and started asking me questions about where I live and about school in the States. After Maria was done cleaning the house, they left and he said that he would come by on Friday with his mother to talk some more and to improve his English. He speaks English very well! I was impressed on how well he sounded and he was happy for me to tell him that he sounded great. I told him that if he needed any studying this summer to improve on his English to just ask because I could try and help him. I am anything but a teacher but I could try. After I went back upstairs, I heard the doorbell ring and it was Daniel at the door. I thought he forgot something so I let him in and he asked me if it would be okay if he came to Venice with me tomorrow! I was so happy that I could have a companion in Venice with me because it is much bigger than Vittorio Veneto or Treviso. I was a little nervous about going there myself but with him there, it should be wonderful! Angelo is going for the day for work, from about 9:00 to 3:00. We will see what we can explore in that time tomorrow! I have been waiting to go with someone to all the tourist places so this will be great to have Daniel along with me. More from Venezia tomorrow! Ciao for now!