Sabina/Venezia

On November 11th, I went on a field trip coordinated by my school to Sabina, Italy which is famous for its Olive Oil production. Our guide told us Sabina is the next Tuscany and I can see why. It is conveniently located only about 45 minutes outside of Rome, but it was hard to believe we were anywhere near a big city because we were surrounded by olive groves and rolling hills. First we took a tour of the grounds and watched the groves being harvested. We even got to use some of the fancy plastic mini rakes to help harvest, too. After that we visited the mill where they actually squeeze the juice out of the olives to make the olive oil and then we tasted the olive oil that was made that day. Then we went back to the villa and had lunch outside on the patio. The food, obviously, was cooked with a lot of olive oil. It was delicious! We had bruschetta, salad, pasta, chicken, and tiramisu for dessert. 

The next day I took a train to Venice with 2 of my friends. We saw St. Mark's Basilica in Piazza San Marco, Doges Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, the Grand Canal, the Rialto Bridge, and mostly I was just amazed at how there were no streets, just water ways. There were no cars or vespas anywhere. Very different from Rome and anywhere else I've been in Italy. We didn't ride on a gondola because it was a little chilly outside and would have been even colder on the water, but our hotel looked out over the water so we saw plenty of people pass by our window on a gondola so it was basically like we were riding on the gondolas too.