Chapter 2: Verona

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The bus ride was more tiring than I thought it would be. Everyone had been sitting for about 24 hours but I didn't take in the consideration of Jet lag. Four buses were assigned to be our source of transportation. I, along with several of my friends ended up on the blue bus. However, a good portion of my choir friends were on either the Green, Orange, or Red bus. Jake, Aspen and I chose seats on the back half of the bus. Aspen sat with Jake, while I sat with one of my other friends, Jolene.

Jolene is a sweetheart. She would never say anything negative about anyone. Her hair falls in lengthy blonde waves down to her collar bone. Her eyes are a deep shade of blue. The put the ocean to shame. I'm convinced that she doesn't have a mean bone in her body. She's in the same choir as me, although she's a Soprano while I'm an Alto. I've known her since middle school but we lost contact the instant we entered high school.

I've always gotten along with Jolene. For the first ten minutes we made small talk about the currently released best-sellers. We are both quite book savvy.

"Nerds." I hear Jake mumble.

"Shut up!" I laugh.

Jake rolls his eyes at me as I return to my phone. Looking up, I notice my vision alternating between focus and blurry. I try to control it but there isn't a way to. My mind erupts with dizziness and pain. I feel as though I may pass out therefore, I quickly reach of my bag, taking my contact case and glasses out swiftly. My glasses are refreshingly comfortable.

"Gross Tay!" I hear Aspen screech in a hushed tone.

"I know exactly what she's referring to,"If you hate it so much, then why on Earth do you watch?"

"I can't help it if you're in my line of vision." I gave her a weird look.

Sometimes Aspen is hilarious for all the wrong reasons. She will use intellectual phrases for the stupidest scenarios.

Our tour guide Joya, comes on through the intercom. Everyone is silent and very attentive. Joya is a young Italian woman in her mid twenties. She has a very fresh face and her beauty is pure. She is fluent in Italian, English and several other languages. The information she gave us was very uplifting. She made our trip so much fun. Her personality is big and she lights up the room she walks into. She begins explaining the background of our first destination, Verona. With the wide open opportunity she had, a reference to William Shakespeare's bittersweet tragedy was thrown in.

Given the fact that the tour had to be somewhat educational, Joya, included a lesson in numbers. As she walked down the isle carefully, pointing to each individual, we gradually learned to count to 32 in Italian. It was easier for those of us that are currently enrolled in a Spanish class at our high school. Italian is very similar to the Spanish language. Everyone struggled with it along with the exception of Eliana and her parents.

Eliana is an incredibly intelligent individual. She's probably first in line for valedictorian next year. She would've gotten the Italian nailed within a few tries. However, it did help to have her father fluent in Italian. Her father is on our city's S.W.A.T team. He's very shy yet intimidating. He's very handsome and muscular.

We arrived in Verona early on in the afternoon. Between the buses and the meeting spot, there was a good distance we had to walk to reach the destination. For the first stop on our tour, Joya set up a meeting spot for the departure. Being in a foreign land, it was very important to stick together at all times. Once the meeting spot had been established, everyone was off on their own adventures. Aspen, Jolene, Jake and I set off to grab lunch prior to all of the sight seeing.

With pizza in hand, our voyage around Verona had begun. Pizza in Italy is very different from the pizza we have here in the United States. For instance, it isn't shaped in a circle but rather in a rectangle. Their main focus for pizza is not the sauce. In fact, the sauce is served in minute portions on the pizza. The Italian's pizza's focus is on the toppings. The cheese is served vigorously and the topping come in big amounts.

Verona is a beautiful city. Their landscaping is very old fashioned. Buildings are constructed of brick as well as wood. Each structure was very unique in their own way. It's one of the most colorful towns in regards to buildings.

Every student was on the hunt for the legendary "Juliet's Balcony" for 'Romeo and Juliet.' Very few found the balcony and I was one of them.

"It's beautiful." Jolene gasped.

"Great find Tay!" Aspen patted me on the back.

"Wow." Jake stuttered.

"It was truly breathtaking. It's a completely different perspective between hearing and seeing picture of the site, compared to experiencing it. Over the course of roughly and hour or so, our group sauntered through the streets of Verona. We wandered a down a few alley-ways in the attempt to discover a few shortcuts as if we were natives. Even considering the shadowy factors of these alleyways, they weren't creepy at all. If anything they were mysterious and questionably beautiful. Much unlike our small town back home in Virginia, the allies were pleasant to walk through.

Making the decision to head back to Joya's instructed meeting destination, we arrived a few minutes early to catch up with our fellow classmates.

Joya really thought through a beautiful meeting place. Having a few minutes to spare, Aspen, Jolene, Jake and I walked into this garden area in the middle of the square. It was decorated beautifully. There were flowers in bloom everywhere you looked. Benches were places coordinately around a small fountain. The fountain spurred water in a majestic way. I found my friends Melissa, and Kailie. We caught up and shared our experiences from the previous hour.

Melissa was holding a small cup of chocolate gelato. I asked where she got it from and Kailie came up behind her pointing to the bakery across the street. Their goal was to have a helping of gelato in every Italian city we visited. She shared a spoonful with me as we talked. Kailie had the amazing idea to take a photo of the four of us on one of the benches. Between Jolene, Kailie, Melissa, and I we all took photos together. Aspen and Jake had walked back to our meeting spot and after our photos had been taken we too, decided to do that.

Attendance was taken as one of our retired principles, who volunteered to be a supervisor on the trip, took role. My parents were nowhere to be found. I freaked. How could they disappear on me? They understood they had to meet back at the meeting spot just like everybody else. Being concerned, I called them. They decided to head back to the buses so the group went ahead and met at the buses altogether. I was embarrassed that my parents were the only ones who didn't follow directions.

As the buses started up, the chattering picked up immensely. Our yellow itineraries were drawn out by a mere twenty or so students. I'm a very precise person so I like to know where we are going, at what time, and the activities we will be enduring.

We were all prepared for the next stop on the day's tour, Venice. 


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⏰ Last updated: Nov 22, 2015 ⏰

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