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Saturday, August 29, 2015
Sunday, May 31, 2015
What's next for me?
Ciao :)
So, leaving off from my last post, my boyfriend came to visit and while he was there I packed for 2 more trips. I packed for the beach- South Padre Island which we stay at for a week every year with my aunt and uncle- we rent a condo and it's wonderful. And then I packed for summer school. I have to take 2 classes this summer: british literature and jewelry making/ metalsmith.
We just came back from the beach, we had a wonderful time. I am now currently in waco, about to unpack my things for the 4 weeks of summer school I have here. In July, will then continue working in my store that I have been working at, and then in August I begin my final semester at baylor :) and then, who knows? Maybe an internship back in italy? :) we'll have to wait and see!
xoxo
So, leaving off from my last post, my boyfriend came to visit and while he was there I packed for 2 more trips. I packed for the beach- South Padre Island which we stay at for a week every year with my aunt and uncle- we rent a condo and it's wonderful. And then I packed for summer school. I have to take 2 classes this summer: british literature and jewelry making/ metalsmith.
We just came back from the beach, we had a wonderful time. I am now currently in waco, about to unpack my things for the 4 weeks of summer school I have here. In July, will then continue working in my store that I have been working at, and then in August I begin my final semester at baylor :) and then, who knows? Maybe an internship back in italy? :) we'll have to wait and see!
xoxo
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
This is the end....
Ciao :(
I'm so sad that study abroad is over! Gosh, I have learned so many things in my 4 months away!!!! Well first things first, I'll talk about my last few days.
-Lots of gelato was consumed, we went to our favorite little hangouts, my roommates and I took lots of pictures together, and there was some tears. But we were all excited to go home honestly, we missed simple things like hearing english spoken everywhere. So after we checked out of our apartment on the last day, Taylor left first to the airport and she made it home first. Maggie left second, she ran to the train station to catch a train to Milan to meet up with a family friend until her family met up with her. They traveled around for another week. And Ashton and I left at about the same time, her brother and her stayed with her grandparents until her parents got there, and they also travelled around for another week.
I had to transfer my bags to a hotel room for the night, because my flight was the next morning. I spent the day walking around, eating lots of my favorite food I knew I wouldn't get again, and watching ALL my friends back home graduate. I watched all 3 ceremonies. I found the rose garden by Piazzale Michelangelo and stayed there for a while- it was beautiful. Walked the beautiful streets of florence while I shopped for last minute souvenirs that wouldn't be able to fit in my suitcase but I made them fit. I had dinner alone at one of my favorite restaurants and tried not to think of how much I was going to miss that place.
I took a taxi ride early in the morning to the airport where I was put on an earlier flight to Paris. The paris airport is amazing :) I had a 5 hour layover there, then the 9 hour flight over the atlantic. I finally landed in Atlanta, and the line for customs was so long, it made me miss my connecting flight to dallas by 10 minutes. So I had to be put on the standby list for the next one. But praise God that I got the last seat on the flight by flying standby, and I made it home after about 18 hours of straight traveling. My luggage arrived before me, but my lovely parents got it before I landed. Finally was back in the states and it felt so good :)
Thats all for now
I'm so sad that study abroad is over! Gosh, I have learned so many things in my 4 months away!!!! Well first things first, I'll talk about my last few days.
-Lots of gelato was consumed, we went to our favorite little hangouts, my roommates and I took lots of pictures together, and there was some tears. But we were all excited to go home honestly, we missed simple things like hearing english spoken everywhere. So after we checked out of our apartment on the last day, Taylor left first to the airport and she made it home first. Maggie left second, she ran to the train station to catch a train to Milan to meet up with a family friend until her family met up with her. They traveled around for another week. And Ashton and I left at about the same time, her brother and her stayed with her grandparents until her parents got there, and they also travelled around for another week.
I had to transfer my bags to a hotel room for the night, because my flight was the next morning. I spent the day walking around, eating lots of my favorite food I knew I wouldn't get again, and watching ALL my friends back home graduate. I watched all 3 ceremonies. I found the rose garden by Piazzale Michelangelo and stayed there for a while- it was beautiful. Walked the beautiful streets of florence while I shopped for last minute souvenirs that wouldn't be able to fit in my suitcase but I made them fit. I had dinner alone at one of my favorite restaurants and tried not to think of how much I was going to miss that place.
I took a taxi ride early in the morning to the airport where I was put on an earlier flight to Paris. The paris airport is amazing :) I had a 5 hour layover there, then the 9 hour flight over the atlantic. I finally landed in Atlanta, and the line for customs was so long, it made me miss my connecting flight to dallas by 10 minutes. So I had to be put on the standby list for the next one. But praise God that I got the last seat on the flight by flying standby, and I made it home after about 18 hours of straight traveling. My luggage arrived before me, but my lovely parents got it before I landed. Finally was back in the states and it felt so good :)
Thats all for now
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Day trip to Lucca | Aperitivo | Day trip to Pisa
Ciao :)
-This has been the time of the day trips lately. Because we don't want to pay for hostels or B&B's, we just have been traveling around seeing little cities nearby for the day. Luckily we all figured out how to navigate the train system and we just take a train.
-May 6 Lucca
I went with a classmate from my architecture class to this city for making up the field trip we had missed the weekend before (I was in london and she and been somewhere else also and we had booked those before we knew the date of the class field trip). So we just went there, saw some churches and other architectural sites that the class saw. Got some food, and just walked around! It was a nice little trip, a beautiful city very small but cute. They call the architecture Pisian, which means derived from the architecture found in Pisa, which was good because the next weekend i went to pisa and got to see the similarities.
-May 7 Aperitivo
Our school has a cooking school in it also, which they put on an aperitivo every week. Basically appetizers and drinks made by the kids in the cooking school. It's all really good stuff, authentic Italian food and things Italians would eat at aperitivo. This is a very commonplace thing, done before dinner frequently. We later went out to dinner, and went to a place to dance. It was all very fun, and I had never done any of it before, so that was a fun thing to do with all my roommates and their friends right before finals were going to start.
-May 9 Pisa
We went for the leaning tower pictures of course :) small little city but so fun! Lots of adorable little shops, and actually some high end stuff. The leaning tower is beautiful, so gorgeous. As is the cathedral and the baptistry which are all right by it. and it really was similar to the architecture in Lucca, must have been by the same architect or a pupil. Last day trip we were able to do :/ bittersweet it all came to an end so fast! The next week was finals week.
Ciao
-This has been the time of the day trips lately. Because we don't want to pay for hostels or B&B's, we just have been traveling around seeing little cities nearby for the day. Luckily we all figured out how to navigate the train system and we just take a train.
-May 6 Lucca
I went with a classmate from my architecture class to this city for making up the field trip we had missed the weekend before (I was in london and she and been somewhere else also and we had booked those before we knew the date of the class field trip). So we just went there, saw some churches and other architectural sites that the class saw. Got some food, and just walked around! It was a nice little trip, a beautiful city very small but cute. They call the architecture Pisian, which means derived from the architecture found in Pisa, which was good because the next weekend i went to pisa and got to see the similarities.
-May 7 Aperitivo
Our school has a cooking school in it also, which they put on an aperitivo every week. Basically appetizers and drinks made by the kids in the cooking school. It's all really good stuff, authentic Italian food and things Italians would eat at aperitivo. This is a very commonplace thing, done before dinner frequently. We later went out to dinner, and went to a place to dance. It was all very fun, and I had never done any of it before, so that was a fun thing to do with all my roommates and their friends right before finals were going to start.
-May 9 Pisa
We went for the leaning tower pictures of course :) small little city but so fun! Lots of adorable little shops, and actually some high end stuff. The leaning tower is beautiful, so gorgeous. As is the cathedral and the baptistry which are all right by it. and it really was similar to the architecture in Lucca, must have been by the same architect or a pupil. Last day trip we were able to do :/ bittersweet it all came to an end so fast! The next week was finals week.
Ciao
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
London calling!!!!!
May 1-3
-Sorry this is late! Busy busy.
-This was our last roomie trip together so we wanted to do something big. We tried to do Budapest and Prague but it was hard to get there from italy. So next choice was London, because none of us had been there. We took an early bus to Pisa where we flew on an airline called Ryanair- because they are so cheap they don't fly into many large airports but hey, we were going to London so we didn't care :) Finally got to London in a few hours to Stansted airport, where we had to take another hour bus ride to the city center, where we took a double decker bus to a stop near our hostel (finally! It was basically a whole day of traveling).
-We walked around, and saw we were right by king's cross station which happens to be a tube stop, so we bought oyster cards (reloadable cards you put money on to ride the tube) and we went to see some stuff straight off! Saw Big ben, the London eye at night, thames river, telephone booths, we went to starbucks, randomly saw a spanish culture festival where there was live music, food, and other cool stuff. We got dinner in a place recommended to me by some friends that had gone a few weekends prior to us- I had curry which was delicious! We later went to a pub for a drink (!!!) And then crashed in our beds. Our hostel wasn't bad, 4 to a room (so luckily we didn't have strangers) and we shared a bathroom with the hall- so basically freshman year of college communal bathrooms. They were a little strange, because in one stall there was a sink, shower and toilet in that order, separated by curtains haha. But hey, they made the small space work, and it was fine for two nights.
-Next day we got up super early to get our picture at the Harry Potter platform 9 3/4 setup inside King's cross station-- we were first in line, actually there was no line up yet heh heh we beat everybody by getting up at 6 am :) then we ran around all day long! saw the harry potter gift shop, parliament, shakespeare globe theatre, a cool vintage bookmarket underneath the waterloo bridge, an ethnic food festival was going on by shakespeare's theatre so we had lunch there (I had a moo pie which was essentially a meat pie), and kept going and occasionally taking the tube to get us around. The tube is wonderful and very easy to navigate. It was wonderful. we saw tower bridge, london bridge, took cute pictures by the phone booths, st paul's cathedral, westminster, buckingham palace (actually we went there the DAY the princess Charlotte was born :) how cool are we???) Trafalgar square, and we actually found Abbey Road out in westminster and we did the picture in the crosswalk :) we also had afternoon tea in a little teahouse, because that's what you have to do.
-We had dinner in a pub (I got fish and chips of course, what else) and almost everything was going so well, until at dinner my roommate had her purse stolen. So unfortunate and soooo scary- luckily she had her passport, our plane tickets and cellphone back at the hostel. She cancelled her cards and lost some money, but it could have been way worse.
-We had to leave at 3 am, which sucked, because we had to taxi to the bus station, then bus to the airport, go through customs, and then board our flight to a city called Perugia in italy. Then we took a train from Perugia to Florence where we all happily arrived. We were excited with the fun weekend, the things we saw and with our souvenirs we got, but still freaked out from the purse-stealing situation and drained from all the traveling... and yet we all had homework due next day haha. So homework sucked but hey, we spent the weekend in London :) it wasn't perfect, but I was able to do it with my friends and it was awesome.
Ciao for now
-Sorry this is late! Busy busy.
-This was our last roomie trip together so we wanted to do something big. We tried to do Budapest and Prague but it was hard to get there from italy. So next choice was London, because none of us had been there. We took an early bus to Pisa where we flew on an airline called Ryanair- because they are so cheap they don't fly into many large airports but hey, we were going to London so we didn't care :) Finally got to London in a few hours to Stansted airport, where we had to take another hour bus ride to the city center, where we took a double decker bus to a stop near our hostel (finally! It was basically a whole day of traveling).
-We walked around, and saw we were right by king's cross station which happens to be a tube stop, so we bought oyster cards (reloadable cards you put money on to ride the tube) and we went to see some stuff straight off! Saw Big ben, the London eye at night, thames river, telephone booths, we went to starbucks, randomly saw a spanish culture festival where there was live music, food, and other cool stuff. We got dinner in a place recommended to me by some friends that had gone a few weekends prior to us- I had curry which was delicious! We later went to a pub for a drink (!!!) And then crashed in our beds. Our hostel wasn't bad, 4 to a room (so luckily we didn't have strangers) and we shared a bathroom with the hall- so basically freshman year of college communal bathrooms. They were a little strange, because in one stall there was a sink, shower and toilet in that order, separated by curtains haha. But hey, they made the small space work, and it was fine for two nights.
-Next day we got up super early to get our picture at the Harry Potter platform 9 3/4 setup inside King's cross station-- we were first in line, actually there was no line up yet heh heh we beat everybody by getting up at 6 am :) then we ran around all day long! saw the harry potter gift shop, parliament, shakespeare globe theatre, a cool vintage bookmarket underneath the waterloo bridge, an ethnic food festival was going on by shakespeare's theatre so we had lunch there (I had a moo pie which was essentially a meat pie), and kept going and occasionally taking the tube to get us around. The tube is wonderful and very easy to navigate. It was wonderful. we saw tower bridge, london bridge, took cute pictures by the phone booths, st paul's cathedral, westminster, buckingham palace (actually we went there the DAY the princess Charlotte was born :) how cool are we???) Trafalgar square, and we actually found Abbey Road out in westminster and we did the picture in the crosswalk :) we also had afternoon tea in a little teahouse, because that's what you have to do.
-We had dinner in a pub (I got fish and chips of course, what else) and almost everything was going so well, until at dinner my roommate had her purse stolen. So unfortunate and soooo scary- luckily she had her passport, our plane tickets and cellphone back at the hostel. She cancelled her cards and lost some money, but it could have been way worse.
-We had to leave at 3 am, which sucked, because we had to taxi to the bus station, then bus to the airport, go through customs, and then board our flight to a city called Perugia in italy. Then we took a train from Perugia to Florence where we all happily arrived. We were excited with the fun weekend, the things we saw and with our souvenirs we got, but still freaked out from the purse-stealing situation and drained from all the traveling... and yet we all had homework due next day haha. So homework sucked but hey, we spent the weekend in London :) it wasn't perfect, but I was able to do it with my friends and it was awesome.
Ciao for now
Monday, May 4, 2015
Florence cultural events
Buona giornata ragazzi! Sorry this is so late.
I can't even express to you how cultural of a city florence is. I just love it! I can walk down the street and see a painter, or a sidewalk artist drawing a Botticelli with pastels, or a violin player playing excerpts from Vivaldi or from famous operas. They embrace culture here, and they live it. They implement it in daily life, and they let it thrive out in the open for everyone to enjoy. It's not confined in just a museum or just a historical building. They put on events all the time, not just once a year. For example, I did three really cool city events in one day! Thursday April 30th. Things like this go on all the time, and since three somehow lined up all on the same day, I decided to do them all. I LOVE FLORENCE.
-The first cool thing I did was an annual artisan Festival at a place away from the city center called Fortezza da Basso. Literally translated means fort, and when you see it you can tell this is a really old fortification used for war and probably all sorts of other things, but now it is used for large conventions like this. A huge area of building after building, all filled with stuff. Some are food places, one huge area is dedicated to clothing makers and jewelry makers, another is all beauty products, another is all horticulture and plants, another is ceramic pieces, and one huge building in the center was like the world craft fair or something like that. I kid you not, this building is massive. Three floors that spans for ever and ever. I got lost on every single floor! The ground floor was all local italian artisans that produced everything you could possibly want ranging from knickknacks to flowers, to garments to food. The bottom level was the world artisan area- artisans from all over the world, and each section of this floor was separated by country!!!! Crazy! India, lots of countries in Africa indonesia, china, south america, spain, japan, korea, germany, just country after country with clothes, pottery, art, jewelry, just amazing beautiful things. And finally the top floor-- all food. Nothing but food. From any country you could think of! Again segmented by the specific country. So you had crepe makers near france, meats near germany, kebaps near Turkey, meats and cheeses I'd never even heard of, just everywhere. It was literally amazing. I would go back next year for that event.
-The second thing I did was go to a gelato festival up at piazzale michelangiolo. How cool is that??? I went with my roommates and it was awesome! Multiple gelato trucks! And for 7 euro you could get a ticket that got you 6 different kinds of gelato. Kind of large cups too! I think I only ate 5 heh heh. But there was all kinds of delicious flavors, I unfortunately don't remember specifically what kinds besides nutella which was delicious of course.
-My roommates and I also did a bookmaking workshop through school. That was so fun too! The class was taught by a local bookbinder, and they supplied everything for us. The paper, the awls, covers and thread. We got to design our own pattern we wanted on the spine, and then you punch all the holes in the pages, and thread! It was surprisingly simple. And fun :) we all got a really cool souvenir to take home.
-The last one was finally that night. Called Notte Bianca, which means white night. The city basically stays up until 4 am with live music everywhere, artists, restaurants open, shops open, and all sorts of stuff going on. They hand out program guides that are connected to a map, so that you can see what is going on where, at what time, and how to get there. There was about 50 events total! So many, it was nuts. My friend and I just walked around and happened to run into some random music groups (italian heavy metal?), jazz, rock, string violin quartet, and other cool things. We also found some cool street artists doing stuff. Very cool! We didn't want to stay out too late with just the two of us, or else we would have stayed later to see more events. But this was a really cool event :)
Ciao!
I can't even express to you how cultural of a city florence is. I just love it! I can walk down the street and see a painter, or a sidewalk artist drawing a Botticelli with pastels, or a violin player playing excerpts from Vivaldi or from famous operas. They embrace culture here, and they live it. They implement it in daily life, and they let it thrive out in the open for everyone to enjoy. It's not confined in just a museum or just a historical building. They put on events all the time, not just once a year. For example, I did three really cool city events in one day! Thursday April 30th. Things like this go on all the time, and since three somehow lined up all on the same day, I decided to do them all. I LOVE FLORENCE.
-The first cool thing I did was an annual artisan Festival at a place away from the city center called Fortezza da Basso. Literally translated means fort, and when you see it you can tell this is a really old fortification used for war and probably all sorts of other things, but now it is used for large conventions like this. A huge area of building after building, all filled with stuff. Some are food places, one huge area is dedicated to clothing makers and jewelry makers, another is all beauty products, another is all horticulture and plants, another is ceramic pieces, and one huge building in the center was like the world craft fair or something like that. I kid you not, this building is massive. Three floors that spans for ever and ever. I got lost on every single floor! The ground floor was all local italian artisans that produced everything you could possibly want ranging from knickknacks to flowers, to garments to food. The bottom level was the world artisan area- artisans from all over the world, and each section of this floor was separated by country!!!! Crazy! India, lots of countries in Africa indonesia, china, south america, spain, japan, korea, germany, just country after country with clothes, pottery, art, jewelry, just amazing beautiful things. And finally the top floor-- all food. Nothing but food. From any country you could think of! Again segmented by the specific country. So you had crepe makers near france, meats near germany, kebaps near Turkey, meats and cheeses I'd never even heard of, just everywhere. It was literally amazing. I would go back next year for that event.
-The second thing I did was go to a gelato festival up at piazzale michelangiolo. How cool is that??? I went with my roommates and it was awesome! Multiple gelato trucks! And for 7 euro you could get a ticket that got you 6 different kinds of gelato. Kind of large cups too! I think I only ate 5 heh heh. But there was all kinds of delicious flavors, I unfortunately don't remember specifically what kinds besides nutella which was delicious of course.
-My roommates and I also did a bookmaking workshop through school. That was so fun too! The class was taught by a local bookbinder, and they supplied everything for us. The paper, the awls, covers and thread. We got to design our own pattern we wanted on the spine, and then you punch all the holes in the pages, and thread! It was surprisingly simple. And fun :) we all got a really cool souvenir to take home.
-The last one was finally that night. Called Notte Bianca, which means white night. The city basically stays up until 4 am with live music everywhere, artists, restaurants open, shops open, and all sorts of stuff going on. They hand out program guides that are connected to a map, so that you can see what is going on where, at what time, and how to get there. There was about 50 events total! So many, it was nuts. My friend and I just walked around and happened to run into some random music groups (italian heavy metal?), jazz, rock, string violin quartet, and other cool things. We also found some cool street artists doing stuff. Very cool! We didn't want to stay out too late with just the two of us, or else we would have stayed later to see more events. But this was a really cool event :)
Ciao!
Friday, May 1, 2015
Naples, Capri, Sorrento, Oh my!
Ciao!
I'll try to do this as quick as possible :) Another travel weekend, woohoo! April 24-26
I'll try to do this as quick as possible :) Another travel weekend, woohoo! April 24-26
-We took a high speed train to Naples, and we spent the night there. They took us to dinner, and then we went to sleep. Naples it turned out I didn't really like, it was rather on the sketchy side, more dingy, more impoverished, smelled kind of weird and it wasn't as pretty as other cities I visited. I also didn't feel as safe there. I had heard the south of italy is a little more sketchy, *so if you ever go*, just be very aware of pickpockets and people trying to sell you stuff. Don't stay out too late at night either.
-The next day we did Capri, in which we took a boat out there since it is an island. And then we had free time in which we went to the Blue Grotto, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. So cool! The sand is so white and the water is so clear that when sunlight comes into the little opening into the grotto, reflects it, and illuminates the water from underneath. We took a funicular to the top of the island- incredible view! Capri is GORGEOUS with beautiful shops (most were expensive but so pretty to look at), cute restaurants (food was amazing), and we passed by people's private little villas which looked heavenly. I'd definitely go back.
-Later in the day was Sorrento, which is home to tons of lemon groves, from which they make the famous limoncello (which is gross, I did not like it and trust me, even getting it in the place where it's supposedly the best didn't help). It always looks pretty but it's waaaaay too strong. and grody. We walked around, and it was a very cute little town with adorable little shops. Lemon themed everything and it was so cute. I had limoncello and tiramisu gelato (I know I just said I hate limoncello) but when its inside gelato you can't taste the alcohol. This combo was probably some of the best gelato I ever tasted! Tasted like chocolate and lemon cake kissed by angels.
-We did a walking tour of Naples the last day and although we went to the nicer section, it was still slightly sketchy. We took a funicular to the top of the city and visited some monasteries and churches. Stopped for lunch at a local pizza place- I have to say, some of the best pizza I've ever had. In naples they invented the margherita pizza so we ordered that-- so tasty.
All in all, a good weekend :) I never thought I would go to Capri! That's where rich and famous people go! Definitely one to check off the bucket list.
Ciao xoxo
-The next day we did Capri, in which we took a boat out there since it is an island. And then we had free time in which we went to the Blue Grotto, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. So cool! The sand is so white and the water is so clear that when sunlight comes into the little opening into the grotto, reflects it, and illuminates the water from underneath. We took a funicular to the top of the island- incredible view! Capri is GORGEOUS with beautiful shops (most were expensive but so pretty to look at), cute restaurants (food was amazing), and we passed by people's private little villas which looked heavenly. I'd definitely go back.
-Later in the day was Sorrento, which is home to tons of lemon groves, from which they make the famous limoncello (which is gross, I did not like it and trust me, even getting it in the place where it's supposedly the best didn't help). It always looks pretty but it's waaaaay too strong. and grody. We walked around, and it was a very cute little town with adorable little shops. Lemon themed everything and it was so cute. I had limoncello and tiramisu gelato (I know I just said I hate limoncello) but when its inside gelato you can't taste the alcohol. This combo was probably some of the best gelato I ever tasted! Tasted like chocolate and lemon cake kissed by angels.
-We did a walking tour of Naples the last day and although we went to the nicer section, it was still slightly sketchy. We took a funicular to the top of the city and visited some monasteries and churches. Stopped for lunch at a local pizza place- I have to say, some of the best pizza I've ever had. In naples they invented the margherita pizza so we ordered that-- so tasty.
All in all, a good weekend :) I never thought I would go to Capri! That's where rich and famous people go! Definitely one to check off the bucket list.
Ciao xoxo
Friday, April 24, 2015
Roman Holiday
Ciao!
Here is the quick version of my blog post for my weekend trip April 18-19 to Rome that I did through my school program. I'm not going to write very lengthy anymore because it takes too long :) It was a great trip because my architecture professor was one of the chaperones, and another history professor was the other- so it was educational as well as fun!
-Walking tours of the city over both days in which we saw the Colosseum, Arch of Constantine, Trevi fountain (unfortunately under restoration so we couldn't throw the coin :( sad), St. Peter in Chains church, Quattro Fontane, a couple of other churches, Michelangelo's Spanish steps, the roman forum, the pantheon, Piazza navona with the three fountains, and probably other famous things that I have forgotten. Take a look at my Flickr page and tell me if I forgot something!
-Random- but right by the Pantheon is a fantastic coffee shop that everyone must go to sometime in their life. Called "La case del caffe" also "Tazza D'oro" right next to the Pantheon, literally can't miss it, and the thing to get is like a granita iced coffee slush basically layered between two mounds of whipped cream. I believe it's "granita di caffe con pana" is how it is written on the menu. I'd go back just for that!
Here is the quick version of my blog post for my weekend trip April 18-19 to Rome that I did through my school program. I'm not going to write very lengthy anymore because it takes too long :) It was a great trip because my architecture professor was one of the chaperones, and another history professor was the other- so it was educational as well as fun!
-Walking tours of the city over both days in which we saw the Colosseum, Arch of Constantine, Trevi fountain (unfortunately under restoration so we couldn't throw the coin :( sad), St. Peter in Chains church, Quattro Fontane, a couple of other churches, Michelangelo's Spanish steps, the roman forum, the pantheon, Piazza navona with the three fountains, and probably other famous things that I have forgotten. Take a look at my Flickr page and tell me if I forgot something!
-Random- but right by the Pantheon is a fantastic coffee shop that everyone must go to sometime in their life. Called "La case del caffe" also "Tazza D'oro" right next to the Pantheon, literally can't miss it, and the thing to get is like a granita iced coffee slush basically layered between two mounds of whipped cream. I believe it's "granita di caffe con pana" is how it is written on the menu. I'd go back just for that!
-Vatican
museum and St Peter's basilica was all in one day, and it was amazing! Vatican
tour was very long, but we got to see everything: the papal apartments, ancient
art pieces like the Doryphoros and the Laocoon group that are displayed there,
through the long halls of tapestries and maps, and at the very end was the
Sistine chapel. We had about 30 minutes inside, and it was spectacular.
-St
Peter's was close by, we got to go inside there (GORGEOUS) and see Michelangelo's Pieta
and the beautiful bronze canopy (ciborium or also called a baldachin) that sits in the middle of the transept. We got to go to Mass there too! Beautiful.
-St. Peter's square was equally spectacular, with the 4 column-deep rounded colonnade that surrounds the entire church and then extends downward, to encircle the people with the "church's loving arms" as Bernini was quoted as saying for the reason for his design.
That's all I can think of for this trip! Ciao
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
French Riviera weekend!
Ciao! I'm so sorry I have been MIA lately, school was getting busy and traveling every weekend didn't leave me time for blogging. I'll update y'all on the Cote d'Azure or French Riviera trip! It was wonderful. I actually went "alone" or I signed up without knowing anyone immediately. Turns out I knew a few people from class and other friends, so I hung out with them all weekend. I am typing this fast, so here it is! I might come back and fix it later.
Eze: tour of Fragonard perfume factory, walk to high point and exotic gardens, giant take away sandwich on a baguette with fresh basil that she picked right outside the shop door. Breathtaking views and wonderful little shops that lined the little hillside that we climbed.
Monaco: bus ride to Monaco, yacht area, Monte Carlo casino, played the slots, guy who laid down €1000 like it was nothing then lost it all, walked along the streets and the coastline, gorgeous pictures, came back on the bus for Nice, had piรฑa colada and tapas for dinner and I had beautiful gelato in the form of a flower
Antibes: we finally found a sand beach, we sat on it most of the day. I also got really sunburnt haha awkward. My skin said WHAT IS SUN AHHH. We also found this huge outdoor market that was AMAZING. So many different kinds of spices, meats, fruits, anything you could possibly want. There must have been 10 different kinds of salt alone! Idk what either black or pink salt are, but I'm sure they are delicious. We shopped in some little outdoor shops, where they had the prettiest jewelry and I wanted to buy everything. I found another printshop! And I bought a pretty little etched print of the beach. We bought lunch at a sandwich stand, and took it to the beach. That's pretty much it for that trip!
Antibes: we finally found a sand beach, we sat on it most of the day. I also got really sunburnt haha awkward. My skin said WHAT IS SUN AHHH. We also found this huge outdoor market that was AMAZING. So many different kinds of spices, meats, fruits, anything you could possibly want. There must have been 10 different kinds of salt alone! Idk what either black or pink salt are, but I'm sure they are delicious. We shopped in some little outdoor shops, where they had the prettiest jewelry and I wanted to buy everything. I found another printshop! And I bought a pretty little etched print of the beach. We bought lunch at a sandwich stand, and took it to the beach. That's pretty much it for that trip!
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Day Tripping and Easter weekend
Ciao Ragazzi!
Buona Pasqua! That means happy easter over here in Italy :) This past weekend has been kind of crazy, we did 3 day trips AND experienced some local culture with traditional easter festivities! I'll try to make this short, but no promises :) as always, check out my pictures! They tell the story of my trips better than my words can.
Friday we day tripped to Siena, Italy. This is a gorgeous little medieval city about an hour and a half train ride from florence. We wanted to go to Verona, because we had just watched Letters to Juliet, but the Verona train wasn't going through florence that day. So we decided to go to Siena instead. Which was just fine because it turns out part of the movie was filmed there too. Tickets are super easy to buy and cheap too. I liked traveling by train! It was fast! We walked a little ways until we reached the main city center and saw the main piazza with the gorgeous clock tower, had some lunch, went and did some shopping, went inside a few churches and then hopped back on the train! Just there for a few hours but that's pretty much all you needed for this city. It was so cute! Our pizza was tasty. It was a nice day, so it was good to walk in the sun and get some vitamin D.
Saturday all four of us had signed up for a school trip to Chianti for a vineyard tour and a wine tasting! Chianti isn't that far from florence, maybe an hour by bus. We toured this spectacular vineyard that used to be a villa belonging to a royal family. They taught us all about their wine, and what makes their chianti different than others. Then we toured their gardens, and the places where they store all the wine... it was all so impressive! The last part was the tasting, and surprisingly I actually liked it! We tried a Chianti, a Chianti classico and then a sweet dessert wine that you put your biscotti in. I liked the Chianti classico that was aged for less time than the other one, because it was lighter and more fruity. I didn't really like the dessert wine, lol. They gave us some bread, cheese and meat to for a light lunch, and it was so fun! Such an Italian thing to do during the day. That was pretty much it for that one too! Only a few hours there, and then they brought us back on the bus. We went to a Mexican restaurant that night for dinner here in florence, and it was actually delicious :) fantastic margaritas, because we are actually closer to Spain than I had thought :) someday I'd like to go there! I don't speak any Spanish though. We went to a late night easter candlelight vigil, which was so cool! They built a fire inside Santa Maria del Fiore, and then the bishop lit the Christ candle from it, and thus all of our candles that we had were lit from the flame of the Christ candle. It was so cool! So many people. There was a choir, and an organ player, and they really pulled out all the stops for this service. Also, it went on for 3 hours. Yeah, it started at 10:30, so we didn't get back to our apartment until around 2, and we were pooped. But we had to wake up early for the stuff on Sunday!
Sunday Easter festivities began around 9:30, a parade started in town with people dressed up in medieval garb and instruments of all kinds. They pulled the cart along behind them, which is rigged with hundreds of fireworks and it is the pride of the city. They start working months in advance to attach all the fireworks. We see flag twirlers and dancers, and so many different animals and interesting things. The main spectacle- called scoppido del carro- began at 11 right in front of the Duomo, which is where the cart stopped, a fake dove with a fuse attached to it was sent down a wire from inside the Duomo, flew into the cart, hit the fuse and started this huge chain reaction of exploding fireworks on this cart. It was cool!!! So many people cheered and screamed. And boy was it crazy trying to get out... only thousands of my closest friends had shown up to watch the show with us. Another easter tradition in Florence is huge chocolate eggs, so of course I bought one, it was about the size of my head. And it was delicious :)
Monday we had the day off, so we decided to go to Livorno, Italy. We again tried to go to Verona, but tickets were really expensive because it's kind of far, so we chose a city none of us had ever heard of. Completely a "zingarata", which comes from the word meaning "gypsy" and it means to take a spur of the moment trip to unknown places, maybe even alone, get a little lost, and there you will find yourself. Italian is the coolest language! Anyway, we get on the train like last time, and its about the same distance but in the opposite direction. This town wasn't as exciting because it was a holiday, and so the town was almost completely empty. Also it was a costal town, and therefore it wasn't in the best condition. But we managed to walk about 12 miles just wandering and looking at random stuff. We had a delicious lunch, and the walked down by the marina that they had. There were lots of boats which was cool to see, and it was nice weather that day. We talked about friends, family, boys and all sorts of other topics which was nice to bond about. And then we took the train home again! Something to do, just for fun for a few hours. We really like traveling on the train, and it is super easy!
Well that's pretty much all for now, until later, ciao ciao!
xx
Buona Pasqua! That means happy easter over here in Italy :) This past weekend has been kind of crazy, we did 3 day trips AND experienced some local culture with traditional easter festivities! I'll try to make this short, but no promises :) as always, check out my pictures! They tell the story of my trips better than my words can.
Friday we day tripped to Siena, Italy. This is a gorgeous little medieval city about an hour and a half train ride from florence. We wanted to go to Verona, because we had just watched Letters to Juliet, but the Verona train wasn't going through florence that day. So we decided to go to Siena instead. Which was just fine because it turns out part of the movie was filmed there too. Tickets are super easy to buy and cheap too. I liked traveling by train! It was fast! We walked a little ways until we reached the main city center and saw the main piazza with the gorgeous clock tower, had some lunch, went and did some shopping, went inside a few churches and then hopped back on the train! Just there for a few hours but that's pretty much all you needed for this city. It was so cute! Our pizza was tasty. It was a nice day, so it was good to walk in the sun and get some vitamin D.
Saturday all four of us had signed up for a school trip to Chianti for a vineyard tour and a wine tasting! Chianti isn't that far from florence, maybe an hour by bus. We toured this spectacular vineyard that used to be a villa belonging to a royal family. They taught us all about their wine, and what makes their chianti different than others. Then we toured their gardens, and the places where they store all the wine... it was all so impressive! The last part was the tasting, and surprisingly I actually liked it! We tried a Chianti, a Chianti classico and then a sweet dessert wine that you put your biscotti in. I liked the Chianti classico that was aged for less time than the other one, because it was lighter and more fruity. I didn't really like the dessert wine, lol. They gave us some bread, cheese and meat to for a light lunch, and it was so fun! Such an Italian thing to do during the day. That was pretty much it for that one too! Only a few hours there, and then they brought us back on the bus. We went to a Mexican restaurant that night for dinner here in florence, and it was actually delicious :) fantastic margaritas, because we are actually closer to Spain than I had thought :) someday I'd like to go there! I don't speak any Spanish though. We went to a late night easter candlelight vigil, which was so cool! They built a fire inside Santa Maria del Fiore, and then the bishop lit the Christ candle from it, and thus all of our candles that we had were lit from the flame of the Christ candle. It was so cool! So many people. There was a choir, and an organ player, and they really pulled out all the stops for this service. Also, it went on for 3 hours. Yeah, it started at 10:30, so we didn't get back to our apartment until around 2, and we were pooped. But we had to wake up early for the stuff on Sunday!
Sunday Easter festivities began around 9:30, a parade started in town with people dressed up in medieval garb and instruments of all kinds. They pulled the cart along behind them, which is rigged with hundreds of fireworks and it is the pride of the city. They start working months in advance to attach all the fireworks. We see flag twirlers and dancers, and so many different animals and interesting things. The main spectacle- called scoppido del carro- began at 11 right in front of the Duomo, which is where the cart stopped, a fake dove with a fuse attached to it was sent down a wire from inside the Duomo, flew into the cart, hit the fuse and started this huge chain reaction of exploding fireworks on this cart. It was cool!!! So many people cheered and screamed. And boy was it crazy trying to get out... only thousands of my closest friends had shown up to watch the show with us. Another easter tradition in Florence is huge chocolate eggs, so of course I bought one, it was about the size of my head. And it was delicious :)
Monday we had the day off, so we decided to go to Livorno, Italy. We again tried to go to Verona, but tickets were really expensive because it's kind of far, so we chose a city none of us had ever heard of. Completely a "zingarata", which comes from the word meaning "gypsy" and it means to take a spur of the moment trip to unknown places, maybe even alone, get a little lost, and there you will find yourself. Italian is the coolest language! Anyway, we get on the train like last time, and its about the same distance but in the opposite direction. This town wasn't as exciting because it was a holiday, and so the town was almost completely empty. Also it was a costal town, and therefore it wasn't in the best condition. But we managed to walk about 12 miles just wandering and looking at random stuff. We had a delicious lunch, and the walked down by the marina that they had. There were lots of boats which was cool to see, and it was nice weather that day. We talked about friends, family, boys and all sorts of other topics which was nice to bond about. And then we took the train home again! Something to do, just for fun for a few hours. We really like traveling on the train, and it is super easy!
Well that's pretty much all for now, until later, ciao ciao!
xx
Monday, March 30, 2015
One night in Paris!!!
Hello!
So this is my spring break post! Finally it has come. My awesome aunt and uncle visited me, which is great! For the first few days we did lots of things around the city, like went to mass in Santa Croce, I showed them my apartment, my school, I took them to some of my favorite eateries, we went shopping, did some walking around the city center, amongst other things. My uncle bought us leather jackets, which was so nice! Such a wonderful present! Then Tuesday my aunt and I left for Paris for a night, and my uncle wanted to see the Porsche car factory so he went to Stuttgart, Germany!
We landed in Paris, and although it was raining it was a beautiful city. Cold and wet, but beautiful. We hit the ground running when our plane landed, we taxied to our hotel, dropped off our bags and went in search of our tourism guide office where our bus tour was leaving from. A quick trip on the metro (yay us for conquering it), and after a few stops asking for directions (I asked in French, yay!) we get to our destination. Our bus takes us to a "river cruise" down the Seine, and it came with an audio guide- so we were able to see sights from the river and then hear about them in our audioguide. It was beautiful at night, everything was lit up. Had it not been so cold and rainy we would have sat on the top of the boat.
Anyway, next stop was to the Eiffel Tower! We walked from the boats and we see the Tour d'Eiffel sparkling in front of us. We actually got to go up it! The legs of the tower have lifts/ascensions/elevators so we rode up to the second story! It was really high up but offered a great view of the city. There were even restaurants up there and souvenir shops too! Weird. We then go back down and attempt to find our bus to have the "illumination" nighttime bus tour of Paris. We have some trouble finding it, but after I ask for directions (in French!) we find our way.
Upon getting on the bus, we ride all over the city looking at all these cool sights, which are beautiful because they are all illuminated. After the driver fixed our audioguide (the english setting was the only language that wasn't working, of course) we get a nice historical overview along with looking out the window of our double decker bus. We finally reach our hotel, and my aunt and I stay up to answer some emails from my school- fighting some fires about classes over 5,000 miles away. Luckily they all got sorted out within a week or so. Our hotel room was so cute and quaint! The view outside was a nice survey of the main street below us... The culture in Paris is like no other! The people are so cool, its very similar to New York but somehow more chic. Everything sounds better in French I guess.
The next day we have a wonderful breakfast in our hotel, and we are off early for an audiotour of the gardens by the Louvre, and then the Louvre itself. We get these cool devices from the travel agency that looked like pens, and when you held them up to the pamphlet with the item you want to learn about, you push a button and it scanned it, then it played a prerecorded lesson! It was so cool, there must have been 50 or so, it was upper level technology. So fun! My aunt and I toured the Tuileries Gardens and the tiny arc, and all around there. It was gorgeous! Then we went in the Louvre, and we had skip the line tickets, so we bypassed THOUSANDS of people! At least a 3 hour wait by the look of it, and we just walked right in :) we saw so many things! It was wonderful to see so much art in one place! Everywhere you looked something that I studied in my art class, something more beautiful than the next. So much history and so much culture. We saw Mona of course, Michelangelo's Slaves, Venus de Milo, Nike of Samothrace, Madonna of the Rocks, the Inverted Pyramids and so many other things I can't even remember. I took pictures though! The Louvre also has some insane shopping stores in the bottom level, along with some nice restaurants. Expensive stuff, and there is even a Laduree macaron store in there! It was so impressive!
Next stop was lunch at a cute little cafe. We sat outside- I got a cappuccino, and my aunt got hot chocolate and we both got croque monsieurs.... So very french! And then the hop on/ hop off bus tour was next. We had a bit of trouble with that, because the tour agency gave us the wrong bus company, and all the information we had was for the wrong one. !e had no idea how to find the correct one, and we didn't have their number to call. So we just waited until we found the correct one, and followed it until we saw it stop at the designated bus stop. It took some time out of our day, and it was raining too during this, so that was a little frustrating. But we eventually found it, and managed to see lots of things with our remaining time! Went inside Notre Dame, and while on the Isle de Citรฉ we stopped inside Sainte Chapelle... which was gorgeous. Both of these churches were absolutely amazing. Then we saw the Pont Neuf with the "love locks" on the sides, and we went down the Champs Elysees, and got out and saw the Arc de Triomphe! Wow was that a sight. After that, it was time to go to the airport, so we flagged a taxi.
After lots of traffic and a very expensive cab, we make it to the airport. However, our driver was sleepy and drove us to the wrong terminal; which made us later than we already were because of the insane traffic. We find our gate and everything is going fine, until the guards tell us we can't go through security because there had been unattended luggage close by, and they were going into emergency procedure. I literally cannot make this up, this actually happened. So we have to go through all these loops to get back into the terminal, it takes forever, long story short we have 5 minutes to get all through security and walk to the farthest gate in the airport. Lots of running involved, and many frustrated people. I saw military guys decked out in camo, kevlar vests and huge guns at the ready, it was nuts. Luckily they held the plane for us, because there was so many of us. So thank goodness we make the flight :)
So that's pretty much it! The last night I show my aunt and uncle this awesome nice restaurant on the Oltrarno side called Da Pescatore, and it was so tasty. We had a great last meal together. It was really nice to see them, and I'm glad they got to come :) all in all, even with all the ups and downs, spring break was great!
Ciao ragazzi :)
Anyway, next stop was to the Eiffel Tower! We walked from the boats and we see the Tour d'Eiffel sparkling in front of us. We actually got to go up it! The legs of the tower have lifts/ascensions/elevators so we rode up to the second story! It was really high up but offered a great view of the city. There were even restaurants up there and souvenir shops too! Weird. We then go back down and attempt to find our bus to have the "illumination" nighttime bus tour of Paris. We have some trouble finding it, but after I ask for directions (in French!) we find our way.
Upon getting on the bus, we ride all over the city looking at all these cool sights, which are beautiful because they are all illuminated. After the driver fixed our audioguide (the english setting was the only language that wasn't working, of course) we get a nice historical overview along with looking out the window of our double decker bus. We finally reach our hotel, and my aunt and I stay up to answer some emails from my school- fighting some fires about classes over 5,000 miles away. Luckily they all got sorted out within a week or so. Our hotel room was so cute and quaint! The view outside was a nice survey of the main street below us... The culture in Paris is like no other! The people are so cool, its very similar to New York but somehow more chic. Everything sounds better in French I guess.
The next day we have a wonderful breakfast in our hotel, and we are off early for an audiotour of the gardens by the Louvre, and then the Louvre itself. We get these cool devices from the travel agency that looked like pens, and when you held them up to the pamphlet with the item you want to learn about, you push a button and it scanned it, then it played a prerecorded lesson! It was so cool, there must have been 50 or so, it was upper level technology. So fun! My aunt and I toured the Tuileries Gardens and the tiny arc, and all around there. It was gorgeous! Then we went in the Louvre, and we had skip the line tickets, so we bypassed THOUSANDS of people! At least a 3 hour wait by the look of it, and we just walked right in :) we saw so many things! It was wonderful to see so much art in one place! Everywhere you looked something that I studied in my art class, something more beautiful than the next. So much history and so much culture. We saw Mona of course, Michelangelo's Slaves, Venus de Milo, Nike of Samothrace, Madonna of the Rocks, the Inverted Pyramids and so many other things I can't even remember. I took pictures though! The Louvre also has some insane shopping stores in the bottom level, along with some nice restaurants. Expensive stuff, and there is even a Laduree macaron store in there! It was so impressive!
Next stop was lunch at a cute little cafe. We sat outside- I got a cappuccino, and my aunt got hot chocolate and we both got croque monsieurs.... So very french! And then the hop on/ hop off bus tour was next. We had a bit of trouble with that, because the tour agency gave us the wrong bus company, and all the information we had was for the wrong one. !e had no idea how to find the correct one, and we didn't have their number to call. So we just waited until we found the correct one, and followed it until we saw it stop at the designated bus stop. It took some time out of our day, and it was raining too during this, so that was a little frustrating. But we eventually found it, and managed to see lots of things with our remaining time! Went inside Notre Dame, and while on the Isle de Citรฉ we stopped inside Sainte Chapelle... which was gorgeous. Both of these churches were absolutely amazing. Then we saw the Pont Neuf with the "love locks" on the sides, and we went down the Champs Elysees, and got out and saw the Arc de Triomphe! Wow was that a sight. After that, it was time to go to the airport, so we flagged a taxi.
After lots of traffic and a very expensive cab, we make it to the airport. However, our driver was sleepy and drove us to the wrong terminal; which made us later than we already were because of the insane traffic. We find our gate and everything is going fine, until the guards tell us we can't go through security because there had been unattended luggage close by, and they were going into emergency procedure. I literally cannot make this up, this actually happened. So we have to go through all these loops to get back into the terminal, it takes forever, long story short we have 5 minutes to get all through security and walk to the farthest gate in the airport. Lots of running involved, and many frustrated people. I saw military guys decked out in camo, kevlar vests and huge guns at the ready, it was nuts. Luckily they held the plane for us, because there was so many of us. So thank goodness we make the flight :)
So that's pretty much it! The last night I show my aunt and uncle this awesome nice restaurant on the Oltrarno side called Da Pescatore, and it was so tasty. We had a great last meal together. It was really nice to see them, and I'm glad they got to come :) all in all, even with all the ups and downs, spring break was great!
Ciao ragazzi :)
Sunday, March 15, 2015
The past week or so; Kendall came to visit!
Hello!
Short post tonight, I promise! I have to get back to studying for midterms... they start this week yay... And I have to finish my clutch bag for handbag construction by this week too yay... Oh well, after Thursday I'm free for spring break! Lord help us get there... everyone is starting to stress out lol. Even midterm stress is universal.
Anyway, I had the most wonderful week spending time with my boyfriend that flew 5,000+ miles to see me! We did so many things that I had to keep a list so that I wouldn't forget. This is all in order, mind you. Are you ready? This is a whole week's worth of stuff every single day...
I took him to Caffe Firenze, el emporio gelateria, GustaPizza, Santa Maria della Fiore, the Palazzo Vecchio museum, our local mercato, Pino's panini, Santa Croce, my school, Piazzale Michelangelo, Ladureรฉ, The Fool's trattoria, Amalo, La Milkeria, The Uffizi Gallery for hours, Doner Kebap, inside the Baptistry of florence, we climbed 414 steps to the top of Gioto's Campanile, inside Basilica de San Marco, Basilica della Annunziata, the Opetale del Innocenti, Grom gelateria, Yellowbar, the mercado centrale, la strega nocciola gelateria, Astor cafe, the Accademia Gallery for the David, the Boboli Gardens in Pitti Palace, Vivaldi's gelateria/ sweetshop for live music, the secret bakery, spent time on the Oltrarno side by going into the Basilica de Santo Spirito, Santa Maria del Carmine, San Frediano at Cestella, and dinner at a really fancy restaurant Gilli.
So if you ever come to Florence for a week and you want to do lots of things, this is a really good itinerary of stuff to do! :) I showed him all the sites that most tourists see, and some that they don't i.e. the inside of my tiny apartment, lol. All in all it was a really packed week, but not too much because I still had time to study and time for us to just walk around or to hang out with my friends. So that's that! Check out all my kagillion picture on my Flickr :)
Ciao ciao!
Short post tonight, I promise! I have to get back to studying for midterms... they start this week yay... And I have to finish my clutch bag for handbag construction by this week too yay... Oh well, after Thursday I'm free for spring break! Lord help us get there... everyone is starting to stress out lol. Even midterm stress is universal.
Anyway, I had the most wonderful week spending time with my boyfriend that flew 5,000+ miles to see me! We did so many things that I had to keep a list so that I wouldn't forget. This is all in order, mind you. Are you ready? This is a whole week's worth of stuff every single day...
I took him to Caffe Firenze, el emporio gelateria, GustaPizza, Santa Maria della Fiore, the Palazzo Vecchio museum, our local mercato, Pino's panini, Santa Croce, my school, Piazzale Michelangelo, Ladureรฉ, The Fool's trattoria, Amalo, La Milkeria, The Uffizi Gallery for hours, Doner Kebap, inside the Baptistry of florence, we climbed 414 steps to the top of Gioto's Campanile, inside Basilica de San Marco, Basilica della Annunziata, the Opetale del Innocenti, Grom gelateria, Yellowbar, the mercado centrale, la strega nocciola gelateria, Astor cafe, the Accademia Gallery for the David, the Boboli Gardens in Pitti Palace, Vivaldi's gelateria/ sweetshop for live music, the secret bakery, spent time on the Oltrarno side by going into the Basilica de Santo Spirito, Santa Maria del Carmine, San Frediano at Cestella, and dinner at a really fancy restaurant Gilli.
So if you ever come to Florence for a week and you want to do lots of things, this is a really good itinerary of stuff to do! :) I showed him all the sites that most tourists see, and some that they don't i.e. the inside of my tiny apartment, lol. All in all it was a really packed week, but not too much because I still had time to study and time for us to just walk around or to hang out with my friends. So that's that! Check out all my kagillion picture on my Flickr :)
Ciao ciao!
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Montepulciano and Pienza
Hi everyone!
I'm tired todayyyy. I think the weather is making me sleepy. It was nice yesterday and sunny, but today it's cloudy and rainy and gloomy. It also might be gloomy my entire apartment is sick... we all have some sort of illness. Me and one other of us are getting over the flu (we think), one has a cold and one might have bronchitis. Woo. Also, it seems like the entire Italian population has the plague right now, so we might get it from someone else. Apparently a month after being in a new place is when you start to catch the bacteria and get sick. Wash your hands people! This has been a PSA from Logan.
So, this past weekend (2/28) I had a day trip to Montepulciano and Pienza- two small medieval cities about two hours away from Florence. This was a mandatory field trip for a whole bunch of classes at FUA, I think there was about 5 or 6 busloads of people. Two of my roommates went with me, but were on other buses because they came through their wine tasting class, while I went through my architecture class. We had another early call time in the morning for the bus, and then half of the busses went to Montepulciano while the other half went to Pienza, because the cities were too small to have us all there at one time.
We had the wine tasting first; so we walked down a large hill and had a tour of a small vineyard that produces something called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and we saw their little bottling area and their little storage facility. I say little in relation to the other wine tasting I went to in Assisi, which was huge. This one was family owned, and right on their property that they own, but they are still was able to produce a lot of wine and even bottle/ label it on site. We tried three different kinds of reds. I thought this was cool, what they wrote on our itinerary about the Vido Nobile di Montepulciano. "According to DOCG rules, to be labeled as Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, a wine must come from vineyards on the hills which surround Montepulciano...the aging period for any Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is a minimum of 24 months of which at least 12 months must be spent in oak barrels. Local winemakers long used large Italian botti, rather than the smaller French barriques, as barriques would bring an undesirable level of toasty, vanilla oak flavors to the wine." Because wine tasting is no joke! They have this stuff down to a science! I don't really understand all the different flavor notes and things, but it's cool that some people can.
We then had to walk back up the large hill to get back to the bus (the valley was to small for a bus to drive down) and then drove into the main part of town for a few free minutes to take pictures and walk around the main part of the city. Oh funny story, they were counting us to make sure we had everyone, but they kept coming up short so they panicked and assumed they had left somebody at the vineyard. About 20 minutes of counting and recounting, and trying to reach this person but to no avail, they figure out they didn't even start the trip with us. They were counting an absent name the whole time... lol awkward. The wine made us sleepy so we took a nap on the bus :) and we were off to Pienza.
Pienza we finally got to do some stuff related to my architecture class. We went around to various churches and buildings that had comparable architecture to Florence because they were done by the same architect. The tour was pretty quick, I wish we would have had more time to learn about things, and also my teacher was talking really fast. But, there are some serious great views in this city because it is on a hill overlooking the large tuscan valley. So pretty! We also had a cheese tasting at a local store where we had some pecorino, which is the cheese Pienza is famous for. However, they never actually fed us lunch which was kind of annoying, and we didn't have time to go get lunch anywhere because all the extra free time we had was trying to find a bathroom or a gelateria. (side note, gelaterias are literally all over florence. Like CVS's there is one nearly every 30 feet. But apparently not here because I never got any gelato.) And that was pretty much all to be had there, and we went home.
A beautiful trip for sure, however it wasn't the most organized trip it seemed like, and so unfortunately that did affect the fun factor a little bit. Now that it is rainy today I definitely miss the sunshine we had there. I also miss not being sick, lol. But it is okay, because my awesome boyfriend comes in 3 days YAY and then my awesome aunt and uncle come in a short while after that, yay! I just have to survive this illness and do my homework by then :)
Ciao ciao!
I'm tired todayyyy. I think the weather is making me sleepy. It was nice yesterday and sunny, but today it's cloudy and rainy and gloomy. It also might be gloomy my entire apartment is sick... we all have some sort of illness. Me and one other of us are getting over the flu (we think), one has a cold and one might have bronchitis. Woo. Also, it seems like the entire Italian population has the plague right now, so we might get it from someone else. Apparently a month after being in a new place is when you start to catch the bacteria and get sick. Wash your hands people! This has been a PSA from Logan.
So, this past weekend (2/28) I had a day trip to Montepulciano and Pienza- two small medieval cities about two hours away from Florence. This was a mandatory field trip for a whole bunch of classes at FUA, I think there was about 5 or 6 busloads of people. Two of my roommates went with me, but were on other buses because they came through their wine tasting class, while I went through my architecture class. We had another early call time in the morning for the bus, and then half of the busses went to Montepulciano while the other half went to Pienza, because the cities were too small to have us all there at one time.
We had the wine tasting first; so we walked down a large hill and had a tour of a small vineyard that produces something called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and we saw their little bottling area and their little storage facility. I say little in relation to the other wine tasting I went to in Assisi, which was huge. This one was family owned, and right on their property that they own, but they are still was able to produce a lot of wine and even bottle/ label it on site. We tried three different kinds of reds. I thought this was cool, what they wrote on our itinerary about the Vido Nobile di Montepulciano. "According to DOCG rules, to be labeled as Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, a wine must come from vineyards on the hills which surround Montepulciano...the aging period for any Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is a minimum of 24 months of which at least 12 months must be spent in oak barrels. Local winemakers long used large Italian botti, rather than the smaller French barriques, as barriques would bring an undesirable level of toasty, vanilla oak flavors to the wine." Because wine tasting is no joke! They have this stuff down to a science! I don't really understand all the different flavor notes and things, but it's cool that some people can.
We then had to walk back up the large hill to get back to the bus (the valley was to small for a bus to drive down) and then drove into the main part of town for a few free minutes to take pictures and walk around the main part of the city. Oh funny story, they were counting us to make sure we had everyone, but they kept coming up short so they panicked and assumed they had left somebody at the vineyard. About 20 minutes of counting and recounting, and trying to reach this person but to no avail, they figure out they didn't even start the trip with us. They were counting an absent name the whole time... lol awkward. The wine made us sleepy so we took a nap on the bus :) and we were off to Pienza.
Pienza we finally got to do some stuff related to my architecture class. We went around to various churches and buildings that had comparable architecture to Florence because they were done by the same architect. The tour was pretty quick, I wish we would have had more time to learn about things, and also my teacher was talking really fast. But, there are some serious great views in this city because it is on a hill overlooking the large tuscan valley. So pretty! We also had a cheese tasting at a local store where we had some pecorino, which is the cheese Pienza is famous for. However, they never actually fed us lunch which was kind of annoying, and we didn't have time to go get lunch anywhere because all the extra free time we had was trying to find a bathroom or a gelateria. (side note, gelaterias are literally all over florence. Like CVS's there is one nearly every 30 feet. But apparently not here because I never got any gelato.) And that was pretty much all to be had there, and we went home.
A beautiful trip for sure, however it wasn't the most organized trip it seemed like, and so unfortunately that did affect the fun factor a little bit. Now that it is rainy today I definitely miss the sunshine we had there. I also miss not being sick, lol. But it is okay, because my awesome boyfriend comes in 3 days YAY and then my awesome aunt and uncle come in a short while after that, yay! I just have to survive this illness and do my homework by then :)
Ciao ciao!
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Parma, Milan, Como, oh my!
Hi!
In the latest installment of Logan's Italian Adventures, I went on my first weekend trip this past weekend! I have a couple more of these trips during my time here, so it was good to finally experience one! I like traveling a lot, I can't wait to see what other cool places I get to go see! Also, I'm sorry if the font gets super weird. It looks all the same when I am composing this, but it sometimes gets weird when I publish it. Technology is sometimes good, sometimes not. Speaking of which, let me just reiterate how much I miss clothes dryers. I will never take mine back home for granted ever, ever again. Go hug yours, right now. Did you? Okay, you may now continue reading. Heads up, this is a long post <3
-Early friday morning we had to meet at a bus that was waiting across town. This trip was supposed to be with two of my roommates, but unfortunately one fell sick right before we left and she had to stay behind. At least she didn't pay for the trip, it was paid for by our school. So then we rode on the bus, which is always pretty because we drive right through the tuscan countryside, and sometimes through the Italian alps, depending on which way we are going.
-It was a long bus ride, but we finally get to Parma... The land of magical Parmesan cheese!!!! :) we stopped at a dairy farm of sorts where we learned how this specific factory makes their Parmigiano-Feggiano formaggio. First, we got to taste different kinds of cheesy breads, little appetizers avec fromage, and Parmesan aged 12, 24 and 36 months. The darker the cheese, the older and harder it's going to be, but richer the flavor. My favorite was the 24, right in between. On the tour we got to see their inner workings They have their own land, their own cows/goats, their own factory, their own distribution plant, the works. They rely on nobody but the postal service, which I found amazing. Also, it ages for at least 12 months to even be considered "parmigiano-reggiano"! There was about 7,000 wheels of cheese stored in their warehouse curing, and it was so cool! Smelled weird, but I've never seen so much cheese in my life. We had to wear the little plastic booties over our shoes and everything. It was legit.
-More bus riding brought us to Como, which is where our hotel was. I thought we were going to stay in Milan, but since the next week (beginning the 25th) is Milan fashion week, I'm assuming no places were available and not affordable. So we went to our little hotel, then onto dinner at a restaurant called Birrificio di Como, which essentially was a brew house that had a brewery on site, and it is also a pizza house. Because, Italians NEVER drink wine with pizza (I learned this from the tour guide in Assisi) they drink beer, and here they make some of the best. Here was our menu:
Risotto with Prosecco and Rosemary
“Giro Pizza”, a different selection of Pizza
Homemade Jam Pie
So, I actually ordered a beer! It was very exciting because I personally don't like it, but when it's a) free and b) recommended by the restaurant, then I will try it for sure. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible lol. I gave the rest of it to one of my friends that came on the trip, lol. The risotto though.... Dat risotto.... So good. I ate way more than I care to admit I did. Same thing with this pizza-- okay so we had no idea what a "different selection of pizza" was because that was verbatim on our itinerary. No one had any idea what that meant, and past people that had gone on the trip wouldn't ruin the surprise for us. After they clear the risotto mess, out from the kitchen people just start carrying pizza after pizza out to us, Brazilian steakhouse style. You know, where they carry around the slabs of meat on huge skewers? Yeah, like that. These pizzas are LARGE and they come around to each table offering slices to us, and each pizza is something different. Margherita, pesto, prosciutto and pineapple, spinach and potato, arugula and cheese, geez we tried so many I literally don't remember them all. We figure out after the first two that we cannot eat whole slices ourselves so we start cutting the slices in halves and fourths to share with the table so we can taste, because there must have been around 12 or 15 different kinds of pizzas. I don't even know, I didn't count. They were all so good, and I went into a food coma that night. Way worse than Chipotle food comas, which are legendary. Sometimes I miss Chipotle while I'm here, but then I go get a delicious panino and gelato and then I feel better ;)
-The next morning, Saturday, we had another early call time and we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel, then on a bus for about an hour to Milan. We began with a guided tour of the Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci at Cenacolo Vinciano, Duomo, Scala. I was a bad art major and COMPLETELY forgot from last semester that Da Vinci's last supper was literally in Milan until I saw the itinerary and freaked out. I was all excited to hang out with my roommate, but there wasn't enough tickets for both of us to be in the same tour group so we had to split up. But I had friends in the second grouping so it luckily worked out. Anyway, this "dry fresco" is on a wall inside a monastery's refectory (now turned museum). So every day the monks would eat in the same room as this gorgeous painting, no big deal. The refectory has these really intense doors that close only when the door on the other side opens, so it keeps air, humidity and the elements out as much as humanly possible. They only allow groups in there for 15 minutes, so we had a guy quickly describe it and then we were ushered out. This painting is so cool in person though, because Da Vinci made all of the faces different, which was new for that time. And when you're up close you can see all the textures and colors, although they are faded. Each person is reacting differently to Jesus's words of "one of you will betray me". Thomas is pointing his finger up (foreshadowing when Christ returns in front of him and he must physically put his finger in his wound to believe he is real), Peter has a knife in his hand (foreshadowing what he will do to a soldier when they come to arrest Jesus), Judas is leaning away from Jesus as if to try to hide his guilt. And even though in the Da Vinci code they say that Mary Magdalene was present at the time of the last supper, she's not. That person in the corner with the smooth face is John the evangelist, who in all Renaissance art was depicted as super young by having him clean shaven and with long hair. Hmm I know there is more religious symbolism but that's all I can think of for now. Art history is so interesting! :) we weren't allowed to take pictures of the real thing, but I did take a picture of a replica inside the bookshop.
-We then went on a walking tour of the city while the other group did something else. It was cold and rainy so that wasn't opportune. I forgot my gloves back in the hotel because we had to be up so early and my brain wasn't awake, and so my hands were wet and freezing, so I was struggling trying to take pictures and walk and not get run over. But besides the sucky weather, the city is so cool! We passed old buildings, a medieval castle owned by the Visconti family, and saw shopping centers after shopping centers. The galleria- which is basically their really high-end mall- was so beautiful. There were only designer stores in the shopping center so it was all top notch stuff. Gucci, Prada, Louie, Armani, Hermes, the usual. It is a fashion capital for a reason, and it was so cool. Everyone was dressed nice too, that was cool. Despite the weather, everyone had a look of chicness, whereas I felt unfashionable but at least I was somewhat dry. My friends and I just mainly walked around when we had free time. We went inside the Milan cathedral and it was gorgeous!!! The is a pope and Cardinal buried there, and the inner nave and aisles are humongous. Many pictures were taken, and I'm not sorry about it. We found this DELICIOUS burger joint called Mama's Burgers, and that was our lunch. I know... I'm sorry I caved and got american food, but it was soooo worth it. It came in a little box!!! :) We then popped in some stores, just to see what kind of clothes some of the ready to wear/ cheaper stores had. My hands were literally blood-red, and I couldn't move them. So I bought mittens for 2 euros. And that is pretty much it! We unfortunately didn't have that much time to see anything, or else we would have gone into the Van Gogh exhibit or some other art museums.
-Dinner that night back in Como was again quite good. We had to walk to our hotel in the rain, ugh, but we passed through the non-sketchy part of town and saw cute little stores and bakeries just like in Assisi. Our dinner was at a ristorante called L'Orologio, and this was our menu:
-Dinner that night back in Como was again quite good. We had to walk to our hotel in the rain, ugh, but we passed through the non-sketchy part of town and saw cute little stores and bakeries just like in Assisi. Our dinner was at a ristorante called L'Orologio, and this was our menu:
Caprese salad with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella
Risotto with asparagus and parmesan cheese
Pasta with pesto
Veal escalope with roasted potatoes
Tiramisu
Yes, you read that right, that's 5 courses. And yes, it was delicious. I know it sounds like a lot, but the portions here (disregard the menu the night before) are all really good sizes and you (most of the time) don't eat too much (again, pay no attention to the one last night, that was a fluke). Sorry I've been talking about food so much, but that's something I want to remember. All of the things I write on here are what I want to remember about my experiences here. So, after all this food, we again just went straight to bed.
-The next morning, Sunday, was our last day in Como, so we had to pack up our things and then head out to breakfast. We again split up into the tour groups we had yesterday, so while we went on a walking tour of the old part of Como, the other group went on the boat ride. The tour was nice, I was excited to see all of the historical buildings. Sounds lame, but in Como all of the buildings are different colors. Pinks, greens, oranges, blues, all pastel colors and very pretty. See all of the pictures that I posted because I took a ton of course. (side note, I'm almost up to 1,000 photos and I haven't even been here a full month yet... I have a problem) Their main cathedral was also quite gorgeous, and there were apparently medieval tapestries inside. Mass was going on at the time so we unfortunately couldn't go in. But after the walking tour we got to ride on the boat!! It was about a 45 minute ride, all over Lago di Como. It was beautiful! Although I picked the worst seat on the boat and kept getting splashed and I had all the wind in my face, and although it was cold and rainy, I was able to get good photos and still hear our guide. She showed us prominent buildings owned by the government, farmers, just plain wealthy locals and famous people. She pointed out how close Switzerland was (only a few miles, I have great shots of the Swiss Alps) and all of the little villages right next to Como. She even showed us areas where movies have been shot like Casino Royale, Oceans 12, music videos like John Legend's All of Me and the site where he got married, and pointed the general area of where George Clooney's house is. It isn't lakefront, so we couldn't see if from the boat. But right after we got off the boat and into a cute little restaurant for lunch, the sun came out! We hurried up and ate, and took pictures outside. It's like the entire city came alive when the sun came out, it was insane! It was 10x as beautiful as it had been earlier. I can see why it is so popular in the spring and summer, and for vacation... It's GORGEOUS.
-And then we got on the bus to go home :) It was a fun trip all in all, despite the weather. I'm glad I got to go and see two more places! Returning to normalcy, this week I have ceramics to do, I'm sculpting an acorn; and painting to do, we have to paint a building and finish one that we started painting on-site last class. That was cool, we got to paint outside during class. People kept taking pictures of us, and it was uncomfortable, but also kind of really cool. Also, Monday night I did a cooking class! It was so fun! We made ravioli from scratch, this potato thing and a chocolate souffle! I hope they post pictures from it so we can see it, but it was so much fun. Oh, and I have to do some laundry, ew.
In other news, I got an internship for the summer! A few weeks ago I applied to a whole bunch of places, including a boutique called JBT close to my house. It was founded by a local woman who has written some books, done some directing and she's now an entrepreneur expanding into fashion. She has a children's line called Kinsley Kouture, named after her daughter, and they make upscale yet durable children's clothes for the fashionable youngsters of the 21st century. From my current understanding, I believe I'm interning in the pattern making/ sewing department, so I'll be working on the actual construction of the garments which is really cool! I will get more information later, when I return to the states. Praise the lord I was able to get an internship, especially with me starting the application process a little later than most, and from a tiny laptop over 5,000 miles away. Jesus is always Good!!! :)
So that is all I got right now! The future looks bright! I have a mandatory field trip to Pienza and Montepulciano on saturday for my architecture class, because those are two medieval cities like florence that have similar architecture that we can compare. Ohh, and theres a wine tasting. I mean, it isn't a trip to the Tuscan valley without that, right? Lol :) but that's about it, pretty chill weekend. Oh, and my wonderful boyfriend comes to visit me in 10 days time for his spring break *cue tears*, i'm so excited. And my aunt and uncle come a few weeks after that for MY spring break, even more excitement... This semester is going by so fast!
P.S., I miss everyone back home, hope everyone is doing good! Facebook message me if you want to Skype sometime, I'm 7 hours ahead of central time!
Life is good, la vita รจ bella <3
Ciao tutti! xx
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Assisi for Valentine's Day
Ciao a tutti!
That means hi everyone lol :) I'm probably going to only blog once a week, just when something exciting happens, haha. Life has started to fall into a semi-normal schedule, although I don't consider living in Italy "normal". I go to classes 3 times a week, and then the other days I'm doing homework (yes despite all my travel pictures I do have homework) or just walking around the city. Lately it has been cold and rainy a bit, but today it is gorgeous!
A little about my classes, in case you didn't know, I'm only taking 4 and we only have each class 1 time a week for 2hrs and 30 minutes. So it's very different from American schools, going to the same classes multiple times a week. I also have no class on Wednesday or Friday, so those make excellent exploring or homework days. But mainly homework ;) ceramics is fun, I just finished my first piece. It's a big water bottle made out of "gaelestro" (not sure the spelling). Now I have to find another object to make into clay. Painting is fun, but I'm having trouble rendering what I want with water colors. You have to let each layer dry before proceeding, which is hard because I'm used to dry media that you can just go go go on and not stop till you're done. So that will take some getting used to. Renaissance architecture is super fun, we spend half the class in lecture inside a classroom, then the other half inside the building that we just discussed. I'm a nerd so I'm certainly enjoying that class. This city is so interesting, I can't get enough. And lastly is handbag construction, which is also fun. I'm thankful for my background in fashion and art, because this class is both parts which makes it easier for me. We learned how to stitch seams in leather last class and Thursday we will begin making our first bag. So that's pretty cool :) I like my classes! But I also really enjoy traveling on the weekends.
Traveling is a very big part of study abroad, which I'm just starting to understand. You kind of need to get out of the city you are in to experience more of what the world has to offer. So with that mindset, yesterday I booked a weekend trip to the French Riviera! Kind of like my most recent day trip to Assisi (I'll get to that in a second), I booked it not knowing anybody going. It worked out in my favor last week, and I'm praying that it works out for me again that either I'll know someone or make friends. But if not, I'll still be in the French Riviera! If nothing else I'll know the language lol. I'm super excited about it. I think I have a place to go every single weekend, which is wonderful! I didn't think I would get to go to so many places! Some are for school and then others are just trips that we booked either through our program or through a student travel agency. I'm very happy to get to experience all this! I feel like this semester is going to start going by really fast...
Okay now to what my main post was supposed to be about, I went to Assisi this past Saturday! It was beautiful. So as I said, I went to the bus stop at 7:30am expecting to not know anybody, but it turns out I knew 2 girls that are friends with my roommate, and a 3rd girl is in my architecture class. Total number of people on the tour was 7 so I knew a large portion of our tour, haha. We took a "private bus" there, and by private bus I mean a large version of a minivan, and me being the 7th person I had to sit sandwiched between two italian men: our bus driver and our translator/ guide who is also a professor at our school. So that was a fun bus ride, trying to decipher their conversations. It was fast, but I know for a solid hour they talked about food.
Assisi is located on the side of a mountain, but some of it is down in the valley also. The part we saw was up on the mountain. Assisi is in the region of Umbria, like Florence is in the region of Toscana or Tuscany. Each region is known for different foods and things. It is an ADORABLE little town with tiny shops and cobblestone streets. It's so old, a lot of buildings date back to medieval times. You can still see ruins of old medieval stone structures/ archways in the buildings, they've just updated the inside but kept the outside historic. There's places where you can still see Roman walls built by, yes you guessed it, the Romans. I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. I bought a tiny print in a printing studio, and her prints were gorgeous. I unfortunately didn't know how to say "are these metal etchings or woodcuts?" Or "did you make your own ink?" So I just said hi and thank you instead. Sigh language barriers are annoying sometimes. Also, random, but it was really busy in the main square because there were 3 weddings going on that day.
We get there and we meet up with a local tour guide who gave us a private tour for our "pilgrimage" essentially. People in the Middle Ages would take this trek up the mountain to visit the resting places of St Francis and St Clare, and visit other churches with holy relics and sacred things inside. It was pretty cool learning about caltholicism, christianity, art history, architecture and regular history. This lady knew everything, she was a wonderful tour guide.
Just for giggles I'm including some of the text that was in my itinerary because it had some historical information in it. So this'll be a tiny history lesson, hope you don't get bored. We technically did this pilgrimage backwards, because the medieval people would have began in the valley where they lived, and then walk up the hill. But it was easier to drive to the top and then walk down. So our first stop was San Rufino. This cathedral was so pretty and it's dedicated to Saint Rufinus. His remains are still there, and in this church Saint Francis, later Saint Clare and many of their original disciples were baptised. It was upon hearing Francis' preaching in this church in 1209 that Clare became deeply touched by his message and realized her calling. (I couldn't remember all of that from the tour so, thanks google!)
Santa Chiara or Saint Clare was our second stop. It was a smaller basilica and less decorated than the first, but still beautiful. She was a follower of st Francis, but because she was a woman she could not be a part of the monastery, so she created her own convent. Like Francis she was born wealthy, but gave it all up to live in absolute poverty and live out her faith life alongside other destitute people. She and the others were called the "poor Claire's" which people still talk about today because to my knowledge, it's still around. It is dedicated to and contains the remains of her and also St Agnes. What was interesting is down in the crypt, her bones are encased in a life size, realistically painted statue of a prostrate woman sleeping with a flower in her hands. So it was kind of scary at first to walk down the stairs and at the end of the hall then you see what looks like body... Lol. But once you got closer the shrine was beautiful. Also, I took pictures of all of the outsides of the churches. Of course. Also housed here was the relic that St Francis heard Jesus's voice speak to him and call him to rebuild his church, which started his life of ministry.
Before lunch we also did S. Francis's Basilica. Which is the mother church of the Roman Catholic order of Friars minor, commonly known as the Franciscan order, in Assisi, the birthplace of St Francis. Down in the valley is where he was born. There is a piazza around the church where he renounced his father and took his vows of poverty very publically- by taking off his clothes and giving the last object that tied him to his family back to the father. They never got along after that apparently. The church is also the burial place of st Francis and the basilica is one of the most important places of christian pilgrimage in Italy.
Then we had lunch at this really awesome little restaurant that served some specialty of Umbria called Torta. It's like a pita bread only they cook it by putting hot ashes on the top, then cutting off that top part and opening it up to stuff various things in. It was so big and so tasty, I ate it all. Because yolo.
Lastly we visited a little bit away from the mountain part of Assisi another church called Santa Maria Degli Angeli, the place where it is said St. Francis passed away. Theres a little chapel inside the big church which they call La Porziuncola which is one of the churches that Francis restored during his ministry, and that was his inspiration and his model for his followers, and there it is considered the literal birthplace of his order.
Wow I know that was a lot, but hey imagine being told all of this while being inside the buildings! It was overwhelming but very interesting. Also our guide pointed out paintings and frescos that I studied in school, so I was getting art history plus regular history plus some christian history. Basically I was nerding out for 2.5 hours.
So then we went to a little village about 30 minutes away called Torgiano and we visited Cantine Lungarotti, or Lungarotti vineyard, for a wine tasting and tour of their vineyard. We saw all of their machinery and it was fascinating how long it takes to make just one bottle of wine. Then after our tour, which we had to have translated because the owners didn't speak any English, we got to taste 3 of their wines! How italian, right? They were actually pretty good. If someone told me to drink them I wouldn't have gagged which was surprising because most wines I don't like. I felt so classy though learning how to smell it, how to spin it in your hand to see the colors, how to detect "flavor notes", it was all very impressive the whole process of winemaking and wine tasting. So culturally interesting.
So umm sorry for the really long post, but mainly these historical things are for me to remember and look back on once this journey is over. Because I want to remember this amazing time and I don't want to forget the knowledge I've acquired here. It's much faster than writing in a journal you know :)
Well, it's lunchtime here so I think I'll go get uno panino!
Ciao!
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Venice for Carnivale
Venezia!!!
-We had an early bus time, sleepy!
-we met in a train station, it was my first time seeing a train station... Cool! Easy to understand and navigate. Maybe I'll take a train somewhere for a day.
-we drove through Bologna, the italian alps, close to Padua and some other places (see map in the many pictures I took)
-we drove through SNOW!!! The italian alps were like a winter wonderland; so gorgeous!!!
-finally get to the shuttle ("people mover") that takes us to the island of Venice.
-the only way around is by boat or water taxi!
-it was freezing! So cold when the wind blew
-Venice is gorgeous!!! So much color everywhere! And the water is just so pretty moving though all the streets.
-We got there around lunchtime, so we had to search for food.
-Found a really cute place, and got tasty pasta.
-then walked around some more; window shopped and took pictures. We found some masks to wear around for the first day of carnivale, kicking off the festivities.
-then we rode in a gondola!!!! 80€ per group of 5 so only about €16 per person... Worth it!!!
-our gondolier was so nice, and very knowledgable about Venice. Fun fact, you can't just be a gondolier, you have to be born into the profession- it's passed down from generations in Venetian families.
-I got my hand kissed by a gondolier, I felt special
-then we decided to walk around some more and see more things. We got there at kind of an awkward time, around afternoon where we couldn't really do anything besides walk around because the museums and things closed. When we have more time I want to see Murano (glass blowing) and Burano (colored houses), and the inside of some of the beautiful churches there.
-people started coming out in full costume around 6, and boy were their costumes beautiful. Huge elaborate Spanish and French 18th century farthingales complete with jewels, the powdered wig and the beautiful masks of course.
-most of these masks are handmade and hand painted... So every store and stand is different! All of them are so beautiful; so much attention to detail.
-costumes were so pretty but some were funny. One group were giant fuzzy sea creatures. I got taken away by a giant pink octopus, he walked me down the street a ways then back to my friends.
-danced in St Mark's Square
-I used a water closet! That was exciting. Never had to pay to use the bathroom before
-late getting home because of late people
-Fun time all in all! Very tired though.
There's a chocolate festival going on in Florence right now for a few days. Umm have I said how much I love italy??!! :)
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