Day 2 Ivrea/Venice(Culture) (Celebration)

When we woke up in the morning we immediately went to Café Rouge to get a bite to eat. Blake and Jack both had the French Toast Croissant, while Will, Luke, and I got the buttermilk pancakes which had fresh fruit, crème fraîche and toasted granola on top. If I had to describe crème fraîche it would be a cross between sour cream and whipped cream, and as a nice bonus, it was absolutely delicious. Soon, we knew it was time to head on our way to the Battle of the Oranges Festival. (CULTURE/Celebration)  On the way to the festival, we drove by the Chateau de Masini, which is an 11th-century castle that overlooks a great expanse of fields. Also on our way, we stopped at the Museo a Cielo in Ivrea, which means air museum. We decided to take a quick 2-hour tour there, and it ended up being a great decision. The Museo was not like other museums we have in America, rather, instead of being inside of a building, we walked on top of them. Most the buildings in Ivrea are built connected, so the guide took us on a nice quiet walk on top of them showing us a different view of the city.

The tour ended on top of an olive factory, which Italy is famous for producing and packaging, and we carefully climbed the stairs to the bottom. We decided we had enough sightseeing in Ivrea, so we kept on our drive to the Battle of the Oranges. We had heard a lot about it from the locals in Ivrea, but we had to see it for ourselves. The festival was very exciting and the main part of it was a mosh pit where certain teams of people were just throwing oranges at everyone that wasn't wearing the same colored outfit as them. The crowd of people extended down the street as far as we could see in either direction, and while Jack was looking under the safety net to get a better view, he got an orange straight in his face! Orange guts spilled down his shirt. After Jack got cleaned up, we decided it would be best to stay at the festival and eat lunch there. We each ordered, but William got the most interesting meal of all, which was orange ice cream in a bowl that was an orange peel.

 After we had our colorful, but surprisingly delicious lunch, we went back into the orange-throwing fray. People were going down left and right as we attempted to dodge out of the way of the projectiles. Eventually, we all decided we had enough of the Festival, so we hopped back in our Nissan and made the four-hour trek to Venice, excited for what we would do there the next day. As we were driving, we found out we were making a cross-country drive, as Italy was only 4 hours driving distance wide. This was tiny compared to the 40-hour cross-country drive in the U.S. On the way there, we saw the great Milan Cathedral as we passed through the city, and also its Sforza Castle that had been there since 1390. That was before Columbus was born! When we arrived in Venice, we stopped at another Air BnB and we ordered a Margherita pizza and a Napoletana pizza which is tomatoes and mozzarella cheese, so pretty much the same thing as a Margherita pizza but without the basil. While we were eating the pizza I had a great idea to watch a movie and everyone else agreed and were ready to relax for the day. I picked out the movie called "Once Upon a Time in Venice" because I thought it would be a good idea to watch a movie about Venice in Venice, unfortunately it was about Venice California so the rest of the guys made fun of me for that for the rest of the night.