Last 2 weeks in Italy

Two weeks ago I had a free weekend and decided on a whim to go visit my friends Diane and Clarice who were studying abroad in Ascoli, Italy. I took a train ride to San Benedetto, and met up with them at the beach. I got to swim in the Adriatic sea! After a few hours of enjoying the beautiful water we went to Ascoli which is a really cute town with no tourists. It is a medieval town, so it has old buildings and picturesque scenery. At night there was a dance competition with all of the locals at the piazza which we got to watch part of. Then we went to this bar called Murphy’s which the kids in their program go to every night and it had all locals, which is different from the bars in Florence which have lots of international students.

When I got back to Florence that weekend I went to “white night” in Florence which was a festival celebrating the first night of summer. I went with some friends and had an amazing time looking at all of the tents set up selling items and food. There were also a bunch of musicians in that whole area by the Ponte Vecchio, so we did some dancing to Italian music. Another night that week was San Giovanni day, so they set off fireworks by the Arno. The whole river was lined with people watching them and eating gelatos. My favorite gelato combination (after trying almost all of the flavors at my favorite place, La Carraia) is fondente and cocco (dark chocolate and coconut).

My last week in Florence I did a bunch of tourist type things that we had left until the last minute, like seeing Michelangelo’s “David” at the Accademia. This 17 ft tall sculpture is absolutely amazing all the way down to the detailed veins in his hands. Then our class went to the Uffizi and saw “La Primavera” and “The Birth of Venus,” two famous paintings by Botticelli. That week I also went to Piazzalle Michelangelo which has a beautiful view overlooking Florence, as well as climbing the Duomo and the belltower. A couple of friends and I went to an Apertivo, which is something that the Italians do. You go to a restaurant and pay a flat fee and get an alcoholic beverage and unlimited appetizers. I’m glad I got to experience a local tradition.

That about sums up my study abroad experience. I’m really happy that I had the opportunity to experience everything in Italy this summer, and meet all of the great people I became friends with. I have had the time of my life! Now I’ll talk about when my family came over.

I was excited to meet up with my family in Venice after not seeing them for 6 weeks. Something really funny that happened in Venice was when we were riding a gondola. We were about to go under a really low bridge, so our gondolier (or whatever you call him) told us to all lean onto one side of the boat so that the tips of the gondola would be low enough to go under. However, the back side of the gondola got stuck on bridge. Our whole family had to go to the back side of the boat to lower it enough to fit under. Luckily, I got this all on video!

Then we went off to Roma! The first day we got to see Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain (which is beautiful), and the Pantheon. That night I went on a bar crawl with my friends Katie and Ekta (friends from my Florence program) who were also in Rome, which was a really fun time. If you are like my mom and don’t know what a bar crawl is, it is when you go to three different bars and then a club. I’m glad I did it, and I even got a free t-shirt! The next day my family and I went to the Vatican. It was scorching hot in Rome and makes it hard walking around the huge city and to all of the places of interest. We did St. Peter’s Basilica first, and Christie decides to get sick in one of the most sacred places on Earth. She throws up on the marble floor with tons of tourists everywhere, right where everyone lines up to rub the foot of the famous sculpture of St. Peter…it was pretty gross but humorous at the same time. Luckily the guards handled the situation well and didn’t seem too upset about it. Then we went to the Vatican museum and got to see lots of artwork by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. At the end of the never-ending museum, we got to see the Sistine Chapel! I find it amazing to think about how Michelangelo painted for four years lying on his back up at that height.

Another extremely hot day followed, and that is the day we went to the Colosseum. I was really excited to see this in person after learning about it in all of my history classes. Then we went to the Roman forum, which is where the center of Roman life used to be. It was neat to see all of the ancient ruins and broken columns on the ground. That night we got to see the Trevi Fountain at night, which was really cool because the water was all lit up. It was the 4^th of July, so I pretended that this was similar to fireworks, since I was feeling Independence Day deprived.

The following day we departed Rome in our rental car. Now, let me just say this trip has been my worst rental car experience ever. First of all, the van we rented was a standard which makes things difficult (Thank goodness I didn’t have to drive). My dad tries to pull out of the parking spot in front of the rental place and drives into the table in front of us with people sitting on it (I wish I video taped it because it was pretty funny). An Italian man had to jump in our car and teach my dad how to reverse. Then after surviving getting out of Rome we realize that highway signs and street signs are way different than America. They are so confusing, and the people speeding down the autostrade (highway), without police enforcement, made things very interesting. Anyways, that day I revisited Sienna with my family. In the days that followed, I revisited Pisa, Lucca, Cinque Terre, and my favorite…Florence! I was able to be my family’s tour guide at these places. We have been staying at cute bed and breakfast houses in the rural parts of Italy, right outside of the cities. This has given me a better understanding for Italian local life.

Right now I am on my long flight home back to America! I am actually really excited to return home and see all of my friends and family that I miss so much (yes, that means you!). I will definitely miss Italy, but will always remember the wonderfully fun experiences that I had and things that I learned. Ciao!

Paris!

Bonjour! My dream of going to Paris came true this past weekend! First, I’d like to say that I did not meet any rude Parisians. Every waiter/waitress/store clerks/people on the street were very nice to us. Sooo do not believe this when people tell you that they are rude! Anyways, I took a flight on Wednesday afternoon with my friend Kelly and arrived at our hostel that night. It turned out being a hotel and was very nice considering the cheap price that we paid. Our room was cute and quaint, and the best part was that there was a terrace overlooking our street. We were basically in the center of Paris and had a metro station right by our hotel so we could get anywhere we wanted really easily.

            I got to practice my French and I ordered most of my meals in French, so I was pretty proud of myself. There was a French song that I learned in middle school in which some of the lyrics are “Je voudrais une orangina”…I was able to say this for real at a café which I was pretty excited about. I had the following foods, most of which I loved.

- pain au chocolat

- croissant

- the crepes were fabulous (I had one every day, and one I even had under the Eiffel Tower)…one with nutella, w/ nutella and bananas, w/ jam, and with dark chocolate. I am pretty much addicted to Nutella after coming here because it is served with everything.

- quiche

-parisien salad

-steak et frites

-croque monsieur

            The first morning we went off to the Louvre! We got some pictures with the pyramids (which are in the Da Vinci Code!) and then headed inside. I had known this museum was huge, but didn’t realize exactly how huge it really is. We headed right to the Mona Lisa because we knew that there was going to be tons of tourists heading there. It is so small, under inches of bullet proof glass, and you have to wait in line to see it…extremely over-rated, but I’m glad I saw it. The Louvre is very tiring and we were ready to leave after 2 ½ hrs…barely enough time to make a dent in the amount of artwork there. They say that in order to appreciate every piece of art in the museum, that you would have to spend 9 months there.

            After leaving, we got to see the Notre Dame and I posed like Quasimodo. After learning about this church in class for years, it was great to be able to see it in person. It is right next to the Seine River, which had tons of huge boats going down it packed with tourists. Then we headed over to Luxembourg gardens which was absolutely gorgeous.

            The next day we went to the Eiffel Tower! We climbed up to the 2^nd level and took an elevator to the top from there. The view was absolutely breathtaking. I never realized how huge the city of Paris is until I was up there. Pretty much as far as the eye can see, is buildings upon buildings. We even ate a croque monsieur on the Eiffel Tower! I also got my picture with some good-looking pro soccer players on the second level. Unfortunately, I have no idea what team they were on.

            Then we walked over to the Arc de Triomphe which is surrounded by a huge rotary with 11 streets that enter it. We strolled down the Champs Elysees, the main shopping road of Paris which leads into the rotary. We went in some pretty sweet stores including Mercedes, Louis Vuitton, and other high end stores. There was even a Disney store we went into. That night we went back to the Eiffel Tower and got to see what it looked like with it’s lights on. Every hour they do a light show, where a bunch of lights start blinking and sparkling on the tower. We got to see this happen three times. We took our time walking around it, taking pics and eating crepes.

            Saturday, we got up early and went to go see Sacre Coeur, which is a beautiful basilica up on a hill in Paris. It was built in the 1800’s, so pretty modern compared to the hundreds of other churches I have been into this past month. I think I’ve been into more churches in the past 4 weeks than I ever have in my whole life. Then we walked over to the Moulin Rouge area which was pretty cool…too bad I’ve never seen the movie!

            After that, we went to the Pompidou which is a modern art museum…one of the coolest museums I’ve ever been into.  The museum itself was designed by a modern architect, so there is bright tubing that makes up the exterior of the building, and then a clear tube that we got to take an escalator through. The art inside was really neat also, including a bright red rhinocerous and Duchamp’s “Urinal”!!! I was pretty excited to see that.

            Sunday morning, our last morning in Paris, we went to see the Catacombs. We walked down a hundred steps or so to the ground below the city. Back in the 1700s, a cemetery in Paris was causing a disease to spread, so they had to get rid of the bodies. What they did was bury them all below the city. I was pretty creeped out because there are piles and piles of skulls and bones that you are walking right next to. You can literally touch them if you wanted to (I don’t know why you would want to though). Once we came back up, a guy asked to see my bag. I was really confused and then realized that he was making sure I didn’t steel any bones. Right next to him was a table with a few skulls and bones that people had tried to steal. Crazy right?

            That pretty much sums up our trip to Paris. Even though it was wicked expensive, the trip was worth every penny. Au revoir!

Cinque Terre

Two weekends ago my “Architecture in Italy” class went to Cinque Terre. We took Harry Potter type trains to a town called Le Spezia (these were even more like the Harry Potter train because 6 of us had our own cabin and there was a Snape-like looking man outside our door). In Le Spezia we went to a local restaurant which was known for its Farinatas which is a pizza type food, which was delicious. Then we went to a town outside of Cinque Terre called Fassola and visited some houses on the coast that were being renovated (this part was for class). It was so beautiful because the whole neighborhood was on a cliff right by the water. That night we went to a fancy seafood restaurant at the first Cinque Terre town called Riomaggiore. I ordered grilled salmon and penne, and this was my first time ordering seafood at a restaurant. I must say it was one of the best meals I’ve had in my life. Then we went to a bar (with our professor) and he had us order limoncellas, which is the local alcoholic beverage that everyone drinks. It was a little too strong and a little too lemony for my liking.

            After that we headed to our hostel. This was my first true hostel experience and everything went smoothly. There were four girls total in my room and we had bunk beds. We got breakfast at the hostel in the mornings and there were showers to use. Also, our room had a beautiful view of the town, Biassa. So I have no complaints about my first hostel experience.

            The following day we went on a cliff walk between the first 3 towns which was absolutely gorgeous. Then we tooka train to twon 5 and went swimming in the Mediterranean sea! It was colder than I expected, but a lot of fun. Then we hiked from town 5 to town 4 on a very strenuous trail. It was exhausting but worth the hike because of the beautiful views. That night we ate at a local restaurant by our hostel and I’m pretty sure this was the best meal I have had in my life. We had pasta that was rolled by hand with homemade pesto sauce on it…Troffie de Pesto, or something like that. Then the second course was a pita type thing (which we saw them make in front of us) with Italian meats such as prociutto, salami, and Italian cheese. Soooo delicious. Pesto originated in Cinque Terre as well as foccaccia (which I had for lunch).

            The next morning, we woke up and headed to Genova. We got to see Christopher Columbus’ house which was really neat. Also, we took an elevator to the top of the city, and had a spectacular view up there. We learned a little about the architecture in Genova also. I had a fun time with all the girls in my class (9 of us) and my professor.

My travels to Siena, San Gimignano, and Venice

This weekend I went to a bunch of locations in Italy, all of which were spectacular. Friday was a bus trip with a bunch of kids from the program to Siena and then San Gimignano. Unfortunately, it was a really rainy day and of course I forgot my umbrella. Most of what I remember of Siena is trying not to fall because I was wearing slippery sandals, and trying to stay under friends umbrellas. Siena was a really nice town, and I can imagine it being beautiful on a sunny day. We got to see supposedly “the prettiest square in Italy,” which was a cute piazza. We also visited the church of San Domenico, which has the actual head of St. Catherine on display. It was soooo weird. We ate in a really cute restaurant and I got a delicious salad.

            After lunch we got back in the bus and traveled to San Gimignano which I absolutely loved! It got sunny once we were there, which could be why I loved it so much more. We got to climb a really tall bell tower on top of which had the best view I think I have ever seen in my life. We could see the beautiful town below and then miles and miles of green. This was definitely a town worth visiting, more so than Siena.

            Saturday I took a trip to Venice with my two friends Kelly and Ekta. This one of the coolest places I have ever been! There are over 400 bridges in Venice and each of them is beautiful. We took a gondola ride which was totally worth the money that we spent on it. We got to go through the canals and under bridges that not many tourists know about, so it was very quaint and picturesque. Some other gondolas had musicians on them, so we got serenaded every once in a while. That day we also got to see St. Mark’s cathedral, which was really neat to see since it is so famous. St. Mark’s square was packed with tourists and pigeons. The pigeons are like ants…sooo many of them. Venice is known for its masks, so there are mask stores everywhere you turn. We went into one store in which the man who owned it, dressed up in a costume for us, and showed us which masks would look best on us. He was pretty excited about all the masks he made.

 That night we stayed at a hostel that we found out wasn’t actually in Venice! We started to freak out (and when I say we, I really mean myself). It’s a long story, but we eventually found our way to our hostel late at night by pure luck. It turned out that it wasn’t even a hostel, but a hotel with free continental breakfast. So it worked out for the best, but it was a little stressful when we realized the hostel was a 25 minute train ride outside of Venice. Luckily my two friends are really laid back and chill about everything, which made me stay calm in a situation that could have turned out a lot worse.

The following day we returned to Venice and visited Murano which is an island that is famous for its glass. We went to a glass museum which has lots of glass sculptures, but I would not recommend going to this museum. If you go into all of the glass shops on the island, it is more interesting than the museum. Also we went to a glass factory where they show you how they make bowls and glass horses. The guy literally made a beautiful glass horse in five minutes. It was really impressive. Then we returned to the main island and met up with some other girls from our program and took a boat tour around the grand canal of Venice. Overall, this was one of the coolest weekends of my life.

 

            

First week

I have thoroughly enjoyed this first week here. My masters and monuments class is pretty cool because we get to go to museums and churches for class. The other day we got to see one of Michelangelo’s three “Pietas.” It is great getting into these famous museums and pretty much having our teacher as our tour guide. Way better than what art history classes in Storrs, CT has to offer! I’m not so sure about my architecture in Italy class however…my professor is a little boring, but luckily we go out into the city for this class as well.

I’ve had a couple of interesting shopping excursions this week. Who would have thought that they don’t sell salad dressing in Italy? Or that they don’t sell peanut butter, but only Nutella? Or that laundry detergent here is powder? All of these things can be very confusing when you are walking up and down an aisle looking for something and they don’t have what you are looking for and everything is labeled in Italian. And then you ask somebody where something is and they only know a few words of English. Then I go through the checkout line and am asked (in Italian) if I want to buy a plastic bag to use. WHAT? Such a crazy concept…but I guess a good way to get people to go green. Speaking of going green, our dryer in our apartment is broken so after doing laundry we have to hang all of our clothes up by the window to dry and it takes about three days.

After class one day this week a few of us girls walked to the Ponte de Vecchio which is an extremely old bridge that goes across the Arno River. It has shops all along it that sell gold and silver jewelry. The most beautiful scenery can be viewed from this bridge.

Friday, about 40 of us from the program went on an excursion to Pisa. After getting off the coach bus (I don’t think any European coach buses have bathrooms) I had to use the bathroom. What do I find out? That there is a 70 cent fee to use the bathroom (this is in euros…so that equals over a dollar). So knowing me, I am going to be spending a bunch of money on this trip. Anyways, finally after a ten-minute wait, us bathroom goers got to actually walk to the Leaning Tower of Pisa! I can’t even describe how amazing it felt to be standing in front of one of the seven wonders of the world.

After taking millions of pictures there, we got back on the bus and rode to Lucca which is a cute old city about half an hr from Pisa. The highlight of my day was renting bikes and riding around a gorgeous bike trail that loops around the edge of Lucca. The view of the city was amazing as well as the mountains in the distance.

Saturday, four friends of mine and I took a 7 am train to Milan. The trains here are so fancy compared to the ones I am used to in the US. Picture the train from Harry Potter (well not quite), but picture restaurant booths and tables all lined up one after the other. Also, there was a kitchen in which you could buy drinks and snacks. We reached Milan around 10 am. We walked around and through a huge-fancy-glass-dome-covered-mall-thing (excuse my bad grammar). There was a fancy McDonalds in which I bought a cappuccino frappe. It was by far the best thing I have ever bought at McDonalds. Then we visited the Milan duomo, which happens to be the fourth biggest cathedral in Europe!
Crazy, I know. I felt like an ant inside of it. The intricate and beautifully painted stained glass was incredible. We took an elevator to the top of the cathedral and walked around taking pictures for what seemed like ages, because there were so many gorgeous angles and views that we wanted to photograph. We got to walk right under all of the flying buttresses and look out over Milan. We walked around some more and got some dinner. There is so much to do in Milan that we didn’t get to do, but we didn’t feel like staying at a hostil that night so we came back the same day.

Buongiorno! Florence is already my favorite city I have ever been to. The first couple of days it didn't seem real that I was here...if you have ever been to epcot, that is what it felt like for me. When I first got off the plane when we landed in Rome, it hit me that we were in Italy because I had a language barrier situation. A woman guard at security started speaking Italian to me about my laptop bag and I had no idea what she was talking about. Looking back it is pretty humorous but at the time I was a nervous wreck.
After getting our connecting flight to Florence, we got taxi rides to our apartments. Our taxi driver was the craziest driver I have ever seen, swerving between mopeds and people. But then I learned that everybody drives like this in Florence and that they don't stop for pedestrians. The apartment I am staying in is huge! There are ten girls total in the apartment and every two people have their own room and bathroom. We have a common room and a kitchen. It is good to have so many girls in the apartment because you can pretty much always have somebody or a group that wants to do the same thing as you. Our apartment is in a central location so it is close to the main part of the city, and is a two minute walk from the school. It's great because I can walk outside of the apartment and grab a pastry at the bakery across the street.
The food here is delicious! I have not had one bad meal yet. The other night I ordered my first wine in a restaurant. I am not a big fan of wine but when in Florence, do as the Florentines do. We have also been to an outdoor restaurant on the piazza right near our apartment. The piazza has a carousel and at night has live music and artists. Last night we went to get gelattos which were excellent! Also I am a big fan of chocolate croissants.
Two nights ago I had my first club experience! The club was right next to the Duomo. We had a lot of fun dancing, and Italy plays a lot of American music so we knew most of the songs. When I mention the Duomo, I mean the big cathedral in the middle of Florence with the big red dome that you see in pictures. The intricacy of the building is mind-boggling as well as the size! It is by far the biggest and tallest cathedral I have ever seen.
Yesterday I walked through an outdoor market selling all types of leather items since Florence is known for its leather. They have the market set up every day. Today I went to the food market which they have in a huge building. All different vendors are selling items such as meat, breads, cheeses, fruits, and vegetables. Everything there is really cheap compared to the supermarket. I even tried ordering things in Italian! I am slowly learning the basics which has been really helpful.