As midterms are rapidly approaching and I make plans with friends and family to travel during my fall semester break, I still made sure to continue to check off my Italian bucket list and visit the cities of Parma, Pisa, and Lucca this weekend.
As of now I have been in Italy for approximately six weeks and although my Italian literature and history courses have been extremely interesting, like any other college semester, its often nice to a break from studying and enjoy some sightseeing with friends. I find it has been the best way to improve my fluency in Italian and even become informed on the rich cultural histories of certain areas of Italy. As I learned in Pisa from my tour guide, during the Renaissance era, Italy was divided into city-states therefore most citizens simply took pride in the their specific city-state and region as opposed to evoking more of a national pride that we see prominent in Italian culture today.
On Friday, my friends and I went on a guided tour of the city of Pisa. Although Pisa is obviously infamous for the Leaning Tower, I was surprised to learn that Pisa is also home to the Piazza dei Miracoli, one of the most stunning examples of Romanesque architecture in the world. It is the area that encompasses that Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Camposanto Monumentale (Monumental Cementery), the Pisa Cathedral, and the Pisa Bapistry. Walking through the gardens that border the Camposanto Monumentale as well as viewing frescoes inside the Pisa Cathedral was absolutely breathtaking. It was incredible to be able to still witness paintings and monuments that were constructed in the 1100s or even earlier.
Up next, we boarded the bus and headed to Lucca. I found that Lucca was certainly more metropolitan than Pisa. The streets were lined with restaurants, café bars, gelatarias, bike rental stores, and even live music. After walking through the center of town and visiting some small stores, my friends and I ate lunch at a small panini café.
One of my favorite moments of the weekend was certainly my visit to the Teatro Regio in Parma. The Teatro Regio was constructed in 1688 and is one of the most infamous opera houses in Italy, mostly because of its productions of the operas of the Giuseppe Verdi, a famous Italian composer who is in fact from Parma. On Sunday evening, I had the pleasure of viewing Otello, Verdi’s opera based on William Shakespeare’s Othello. This was my first opera and I could not have asked for a better experience. The costumes and set design were incredible and luckily the stage displayed a projector that subtitled the play in both English and Italian, which made the opera a lot easier to follow.
In short, I would summarize my weekend as possibly one of the best I have had while abroad so far. I am so excited to continue my travels once my midterm exams are over!
Until next time!