For our last weekend of the program a few of us decided to stay within the borders of Italy and specifically in the Veneto Region. On Thursday night, 5 of us (Mallory, Emily, Holden, Elizabeth and Me) decided to go to Asolo for dinner. Asolo is about 20 minutes from Paderno del Grappa by cab. It is also where the CIMBA Master's program is located. Before hitting up one of the pizzerias for dinner, we walked up a hill back to a bar we went to in January. The bartender makes the best mojitos with fresh mint from his garden outside the bar. So of course we had to come back for second servings of the mojitos! After enjoying our drinks and watching some of the sunset from their balcony, we wondered back down into the city center to the nearest pizzeria. There we had pizza and a glass of their house wine. I wish I was more exciting, but after dinner, we called it a night and went back to Paderno. On Friday and Saturday it rained literally all day, so there wasn't much to do. It was nice to sleep in and hang out for a day rather going the tourist route and sightseeing. All of us manage to be productive at some point in the day and got some studying/homework/project done, so that was a plus! Saturday night we went to the pizzeria. Emily, Elizabeth, Mallory and I were ready for a night out on the town with some of the locals. Right after we sat down in the pizzeria and had our first glass of wine, we turned into zombies. All of us were so tired(since we had done so much that day....not) and opted to finish our wine and go to bed early.
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| Streets of Asolo. |
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| View from the Bar's balcony. |
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| Me, Holden and Emily at dinner in Asolo. |
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| Sunset in Paderno after all the rain. |
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| Elizabeth and I at the pizzeria in Paderno. |
Sunday is when everything started getting interesting... Our original plan was to go church, then go to Verona, skydive in the morning then see the city and return back to Paderno that night. We arrived in Verona, by train around a little after 12. The weather looked perfect right until we arrived in Verona. The four of us hopped in a cab and went over to SkyDive Verona center, to check in with the office and see if it was possible to jump today. They were skeptical of the weather and told us wait there and see if it would clear up. (This is the first time in the entire semester I have seen rain in Italy. Ironic that as we try to do something extreme, the weather would get in the way for the first time.) To make a long story short, we ended up not jumping that day and decided to go into town and explore Verona.
Right when we got into the city center, it began to rain and it even hailed for a little bit. Good thing we didn't jump out of a plane then! Anyways....The city isn't very big and there weren't a lot of tourist attractions, but there was great shopping and a cool market! The main attractions were Juliet's house and Verona Colosseum. We opted not to go into the colosseum since the weather was bad and the it isn't covered. After walking through the streets and window shopping for a bit, we headed over to Casa di Giuliett (Juliet's House). Before entering in the courtyard that has the statue of Juliet and the famous balcony, you have to walk through a short tunnel. In the tunnel, so many people had written their names on the wall. Some people even stuck a piece of gum on the walls and signed over it. As we walked through the tunnel, there was a mint aroma in the air due to all of the gum stuck on the walls. There was a big gate with love locks on it and stores surrounding the courtyard that sold Romeo& Juliet/romantic/cheesy Valentine souvenirs. I don't think I have ever seen so many hearts concentrated in one area before. Elizabeth, Mallory and I wanted to get our picture with the Juliet statue, so we waiting in line and jumped up to the statue the first chance we got! There were no letters to Juliet stuck to the brick wall like there was in the "Letters to Juliet" movie. Sadly I did not write a letter to Juliet, Sorry Mom!!
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| Verona Colosseum. |
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| Walking through the streets of Verona. |
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| Famous Romeo & Juliet balcony. |
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| Posing with Juliet. |
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| Gate with Love Locks. |
After escaping from all of the tourist, we wondered around the town and window shopped. We also walked through a market that sold a lot of hand made and local goods. By then, the rain had finally stopped. For the rest of the evening we walked around the city before catching a cab back to the Skydiving center. The workers at the center felt bad that we had traveled so far away to skydive and didn't get to go that day. They let the four of us and two other study abroad students from Milan stay in their cabin for the night, so we didn't have to get a hotel room or travel all the way back to Paderno. Monday morning we woke up and were ready to jump out of the plane! The four of us were all suited up by 9:30 and Mallory and Elizabeth were getting ready to get on the plane! After watching the two of them take off in the plane and parachute back down, it was finally Emily and I's turn to make the jump!
After getting suited up, they took us to the plane and we were ready for take off. (I'm getting nervous typing about this haha) It didn't really hit me that I was about to jump out of a perfectly working plane until after watching Emily jump out. I was the lucky one who got to watch everyone jump out of the plane and go last. The Italians could tell that Emily and I were a little nervous, so they were poking fun and messing with us the entire way up (over 12,000 feet). We calculated that as we were fee falling 150 feet per second! It was the weirdest and most wicked experience jumping out of the plane. My stomach didn't drop at all because my body just had no idea what was going on at the time. After free falling and spinning around for about 15 seconds, the instructor I jumped with pulled the parachute. For the rest of the time, we paragliding and gave me a tour of Verona. At one point he let me steer the parachute, which is way harder than it looks! After coasting in the sky for about 7 minutes, we made back to the skydiving center and manage a smooth landing. This was probably one of the most craziest things I have ever done. I can't even describe the feeling it was so weird! I won't bore you with any more explanations and show you the good stuff. I do have a video that is pretty funny to watch, but I can't load it on the blog from the DVD. Anyways, here are some pictures from my skydiving experience!
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| Emily and I before we took off! |
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| Right before we jumped! |
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| Air borne! |
