I really missed the good home cooked meal, but spending Easter in Milan and Genova makes up for it.
My friend, Meg and I, took a train up to Milan on Friday morning. Which took 5 hours, by the way! But it went quickly. There were 2 other couples sharing our cabin with us. We attempted to talk to them as much as possible, but they knew absolutely no English. They were probably in thier 60’s or so. However, what I managed to get out of it was that one couple was from Naples going to visit their sons (2) in Pencenza (which is about an hour from Milan) and the other couple was from Rome and they were going to visit family in Milan. They were really excited that we were studying in art and architecture in Italy and kept telling us how beautiful Italy was. The men didn’t talk much but the women were quite chatty. It was hard to understand the lady from Naples though, because she had a slightly different accent/dialect.
Well, we finally got to Milan around 3:00 and we went in search of our hostel, which was only about 4 blocks from the train station. By the way, the train station in Milan is really cool; it’s completely covered by a glass dome. After finding our hostel, we took the metro to the Duomo. If you’ve never seen pictures of the Milan Duomo… it’s huge and that’s no exaggeration. We took the lift to the top of the Duomo. There’s no dome, but you can climb on top of the roof and walk all the way around it. So we got to see all of Milan and all the spires of the Duomo up close. After the Duomo, we went next door to the Victor Emmanuel Galleries. This is a “museum” with a shopping mall flare. It has a glass dome covering the entire thing, but basically it just houses stores (like Prada) and cafes. We took a stroll down the main street (or rather the shopping street), which was all the really expensive stores. Milan is supposed to be one of the fashion capitals of the world, but I didn’t really see anything incredible, or anyone for that matter. In fact, twice, I saw a pair of pants in a window, which looked, to be made from felt and they were zebra stripped and the crotch hung down to the knees. I’m pretty sure if I were those anywhere, even in Milan, people would think I had special needs. For dinner, we went next door to our hostel and had some really good pasta … and my entire meal… including pasta, bruschetta, wine and water, was less than 12 Euros. Considering everything else in Milan was extremely expensive, I was rather impressed with this Chinese-owned seafood/pasta restaurant. We spent the evening out in Milan in the Brera district, which is the university area/artsy area of town. There were lots of sidewalk cafes and swanky little bars. However, drinks still cost us 8 Euros. So there’s the Milan factor kicking in.
The next morning, we went to the Sforza Castle, which used to be the fortress of Milan, but now it houses 5 different museums and you can get into all 5 for only 3 Euros. We were on a tight schedule so we just went to the ancient art museum, where we saw Michelangelo’s forth, and last Peita, (representation of the Madonna holding the crucified Jesus in her arms), which he was unable to finish, because, well, he died. Then we went to the furniture museum, because Meg is a an interior architect and she is pursuing product design, but it was pretty cool seeing lots of furniture from the middle ages and then some really modern designs as well. Then we got lunch, pizza of course, and headed to the La Scale Opera House and Museum. The Museum was all right, but we just really wanted to see the theater. The theater was really cool, with a giant chandelier in the center and sides lined with red and gold box seats. They were setting the stage up for a show and I never really realized how slanted the stage is. If I had to sing and dance on that stage I’d fall off and you’d be fishing me out the violins in the pit. Afterwards, we retrieved our bags from our hostel and we caught a train to Genova.
When we reached Genova (Genoa in Italian), my penpal, Stef and her boyfriend, Andre picked us up from the train station and drove us to our hostel. We spent the entire evening walking around in the city center as Stef and Andre tried to fill us in on some history. Christopher Columbus was from Genova, so we got to see his house, or rather what’s left of it anyways. We also go to see their Duomo and the pier and the boardwalk. They took us to a small typical Genovese restaurant and told us we had to order something with pesto, because pesto originated from Genova. So we got some pasta with pesto and it was very good. They also took us out to the square where everyone hangs out in the evenings and introduced us to some of their friends.
In the morning, Stef and Andre picked us up from our hostel and we drove down to Camogli, which is a small town only 15 miles down the coast from Genova which has some beaches and tourist attractions. It was really quaint and beautiful. It wasn’t really sunny, so we didn’t lay on the beach all day, as we originally planned, but we walked around the town, had some coffee, tried some foccacia (apparently the have the best foccacia too, and it was pretty good), and finally ate some lunch. We got pizza, with pesto on it, haha. Then it was finally time to catch our train home, so Andre and Stef drove us back to the train station just in time to get on.
It took us 7 hours to get back to Orvieto and we had to change trains twice, but I really enjoyed spending the weekend up north. I hope I can go back to the Genova region again, its by Cinque Terre, which is the coastline with small towns and beaches, which is known for being “ultimate romantic getaway in Italy”. It was also fun to have my friend Stef show us around and to get to know her better and to swap stories about the differences between being American and being Italian.
4/16/2009
4/09/2009
The Story in Pictures
Some Pictures for you all, just to keep you on your toes.
In the garden of Monsters, outside of Orvieto. 
The Campo (main square) in Siena, where the Palio takes place every July and August. 
San Giovanni Cathedrale in Siena - the relic of St. Catherine is kept in this church - and by relic, I mean head.. yes.. an actual decaying head... I saw it.. with my own 2 eyes. It was crazy. 
This is from Venice - a picture of some gondolas and Santa Maria Maggiore in the background.4/05/2009
Siena and the Palio
I seem to be on the down-slope of this journey. I’ve been here for 11 awesome weeks and I only have 5 left! The weather is starting to warm up around here, but just like Kansas, Orvieto has very unpredictable weather. One minute it is bright and shiny and warm, and the next its thundering and rainy and cold! But the warm weather brings unwanted things to Orvieto as well…. Tourists! They come in herds of 30-50 and they are EVERYWHERE I want to go. They also like to wear matching items, so its very common to see a large group of people and they all have red hats on. It's nearly impossible to walk down the Corso (the main street) on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. But with the tourists comes good things as well. The shops have started to remodel and more and more are opening, as well as the restaurants are beginning to offer more out-door seating. So the city is becoming very lively at the same time! The market is also growing and expanding. In January, on Saturday mornings, you could find several local farmers with stands and few stands with cheese and meats and an occasional person selling clothes or shoes or something odd like rugs. However, yesterday, when I went to the market, I found that it had grown quite significantly since January. There were many more local farmers and their wives who had opened up more stands, selling a much bigger variety of fruits and veggies that I had seen yet. There were also more vendors that had set up special meat stands, where you could buy the meats already cooked, like chickens or pork, or kebabs, or hamburgers even. I also found that the market stretched from not only the main square, but down some of the side streets as well and you could buy everything from rugs, to lace products, to clothing to cooking supplies to purses to accessories, and I even saw a stand that sold toiletries and make-up related things. It was like being in a very crowded (and cheaper) shopping mall.
Last friday we went to Siena. Siena is small town, around the size of Orvieto, and its home to many universities and students. It one of the most well known towns in Italy, because of its strong traditions and rivalries within the city walls. This is the home of the famous Palio, the horse race in the main square (which is huge). The horse race takes place twice a year and every time is just as important as the first. Siena has 17 contradas (neighborhoods) and they all are represented by an animal (goose, elephant, worm, etc). They all find a professional jockey (usually never from Siena) to ride in the Palio. Then the horses are chosen at random. The 3-day prior to the race are the most crucial. These are the preliminary rounds because only 10 of the 17 contradas are allowed to proceed in the actual Palio event. These days are also important, because this is when all the dirty work takes place. The bribery and the back-stabbing and cheating. Jockeys are not only usually paid by their contrada, but usually also paid in secret by other contradas to lose. It's a very dirty sport. The day of the Palio, is a huge celebration, the 10 horses are taken into the contrada's own church and are blessed by the priest. If the horse happens to poop while in the church, this is considered good luck, because this means that the horse has no respect and that he is simply selfish and therefore will be only ruthless during the race. The Jockeys are hidden all day and are constantly surrounded by bodyguards so that they may not talk with one another or other contradas before the race. Then there is the race around the main square, which they have packed tight with dirt and people. The winner of Palio is no-less than God until the next Palio. These contradas are all rivals and they all hate each other, and as Marco says "the Palio is an excuse for them to punch one another". This is an event that draws in thousands and thousands of visitors every year and it is nearly impossible to book a hotel or a place to stay nearby unless you book a year in advance! So this has certainly been put on my list of things to do before I die. But, even without the Palio, Siena was a very nice place. Very busy, but very beautiful and friendly, with a wealth of shopping available as well.
Last friday we went to Siena. Siena is small town, around the size of Orvieto, and its home to many universities and students. It one of the most well known towns in Italy, because of its strong traditions and rivalries within the city walls. This is the home of the famous Palio, the horse race in the main square (which is huge). The horse race takes place twice a year and every time is just as important as the first. Siena has 17 contradas (neighborhoods) and they all are represented by an animal (goose, elephant, worm, etc). They all find a professional jockey (usually never from Siena) to ride in the Palio. Then the horses are chosen at random. The 3-day prior to the race are the most crucial. These are the preliminary rounds because only 10 of the 17 contradas are allowed to proceed in the actual Palio event. These days are also important, because this is when all the dirty work takes place. The bribery and the back-stabbing and cheating. Jockeys are not only usually paid by their contrada, but usually also paid in secret by other contradas to lose. It's a very dirty sport. The day of the Palio, is a huge celebration, the 10 horses are taken into the contrada's own church and are blessed by the priest. If the horse happens to poop while in the church, this is considered good luck, because this means that the horse has no respect and that he is simply selfish and therefore will be only ruthless during the race. The Jockeys are hidden all day and are constantly surrounded by bodyguards so that they may not talk with one another or other contradas before the race. Then there is the race around the main square, which they have packed tight with dirt and people. The winner of Palio is no-less than God until the next Palio. These contradas are all rivals and they all hate each other, and as Marco says "the Palio is an excuse for them to punch one another". This is an event that draws in thousands and thousands of visitors every year and it is nearly impossible to book a hotel or a place to stay nearby unless you book a year in advance! So this has certainly been put on my list of things to do before I die. But, even without the Palio, Siena was a very nice place. Very busy, but very beautiful and friendly, with a wealth of shopping available as well.
3/23/2009
Spring Break Adventures
This past week was spring break and my parents and John were able to come and visit me. So, I got to play tour guide for a week!
Day #1 – Orvieto – “Jet Lag”
They arrived around noon and I met them at the top of the Funicular and show them to our hotel and get checked in. We went to a really good pizzeria for lunch and then I took them on a quick walk around the edge of town so they could see the view and get a better picture of how high up they really were from the town below. We also went to the Duomo and walked to the top of the Torre del Moro (the town’s clock tower), which was fun because I hadn’t gotten a chance to do that yet. Then I took them to my favorite wine bar, Vin Caffe until they all began to fall asleep at the table.
Day #2 – Pisa – “Is this our train?”
We took the early train to Florence and then hopped on another train to Pisa. We got into Pisa around noon and headed through the town on our way to the Field of Miracles (Duomo, Leaning tower, etc). We stopped for lunch at a pizzeria, which offered more types of pizza than I had ever seen before. We continued after lunch to our destination. We hung out for awhile and took some tacky tourist pictures along with everyone else, then we decided to sign up to climb the Leaning tower. Climbing the tower was an interesting experience considering it was leaning. So on one side it was extremely easy to climb and the other side was a little more difficult. We were even allowed to go and stand on the very top. Which, yes, is slanted so that was a little scary. We didn’t spend too much time up on top. Then we went inside the Duomo, which was the best collection of art/sculpture I had ever seen inside a church. Usually the art is all taken out and place else where in a museum. But in this case, they had left all the art and paintings along and it really made the interior look amazing. It also had an incredible golden ceiling and golden mosaic in the apse. By this time, we needed to catch a train back to Florence to make our way back to Orvieto. I was following a sheet of paper that I was given by a travel agency in Orvieto that listed all the times of the trains that ran from Florence and back and Rome and back. We successfully caught the correct train from Pisa to Florence. HOWEVER, we were apparently supposed to get off at the station before the Florence. (This was still a Florence station, just a smaller one). This was listed incorrectly on my train sheet and the ticket we were given did not successfully list the station we were supposed to exit at. So, we asked a conductor and he said we had one minute to run and catch the last train that heads back to the station we missed. Well, yea, we missed that train. So the conductor sent us on a different train to Orvieto (a very slow one). We boarded early, assuming that the permanent board that lists trains and platforms was correct. There was a train at the platform, but the platform board did not have a train listed on it. The train was supposed to leave at 7:20 and it began to move at 7:00. Very suspicious of this we finally asked the lady next to us if the train was headed to Rome and she said yes. HOWEVER, then the lady next to her said “no no no, this train goes to Arezzo”. So she told us to hurry and get off at the next stop and then catch the next passing train, because that one would go to Rome. So we got off again (with the other lady, who was also on the wrong train). The next train pulled up and we began to get on (well, mom did). The other lady was chasing down a little old lady asking if the train headed to Rome. So I became suspicious of this train as well and began yelling Roma?? Roma?? Into the train and finally someone answered and said no. So we got off again and a girl sitting on a bench explained to us that it was the “slower” train to Rome and that we would get on the next train. So we did. And yes, we did get home, around 10:00. I’ve used a train almost every weekend since I arrived in Italy and I’ve never had that many problems in one night. But the good news was that we did get home, eventually. And now we just have something to laugh about, even though at the time, it didn’t become funny until about the time we had to get off at some po-dunk stop and catch a different train.
Day #3 – Florence – “St. Matthew’s Finger??”
Again, we catch the early train to Florence and arrived around 9:30. We immediately headed to the Accademia Museum, because we knew there was a good chance we would be standing in a long line. This is the museum that houses the statue “David” by Michelangelo. We really didn’t wait too long in line and we were kept fairly entertained by a pair of boxers on sale and the vendor next to us that had a picture of David’s “family jewels” on them. So then we spent some time in the museum and saw the David. Then we went to a recommended sandwich shop and had some good toasted sandwiches. (When I say recommended I am usually referring to my Rick Steve’s Italy 2009 guidebook – he is the new Frommer’s). We walked to the Duomo after lunch and went inside and them walked to the top of the Dome. I had already climbed the dome, but it was still cool, and on the way down we stopped under the painted “Last Judgment” on the interior and laughed about all the creatures of the underworld that were depicted. Then I took them on a nice little hike to see more of the city. We walked by the Palazzo Vecchio, Uffizi Galleries, Ponte Vecchio, Pitti Palace and back again. Then, of course, we stopped for Gelato. We made our way to the San Lorenzo church so that we could see the Medici chapel and Lorentian Library (staircase designed by Michelangelo). However, they were both closed, so we bought tickets to the church and “treasure” instead. The treasures were cool, they were mostly relics of the saints. And my dad was really excited that he got to see “St. Matthew’s finger”. The treasures also housed the tomb of Donatello, which I thought was pretty cool. We caught an earlier train home and we were able to come back and get dinner in Orvieto.
Day #4 – Orvieto/Rome – “If I see one more rose guy…”
We got to sleep in for a chance to get some breakfast at the hotel. Then dad went back to see the Duomo once again and mom and I went shopping. Then we all got together and had lunch at a pizzeria on the main street. I had never been there before, but it was the best cheese pizza that I’ve had so far since I’ve been here. We headed to Rome after lunch and checked into our Hotel. After checking in, we were off again. We did a nice walk to some of the picturesque places of Rome. First we hit the Pantheon, which unfortunately was closed but was supposed to open back up around 6:00 pm. So we went to the Spanish Steps and fortunately managed to escape most of the men wanted to sell you roses, and then we headed to the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi was cool, because the sun was setting and the lights in the fountain were all lit up, giving it a nice evening ambiance (minus the other 300 tourists gathered around it). Then we headed back to the Pantheon, and this time it was open. We ate dinner at a really good pasta place that Rick (Steve’s) recommended. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and hung out for the rest of the evening.
Day #5 – Rome – “The men dressed as Gladiators are quite crafty”
We got up and ate breakfast out of the rooftop of our hotel and then spent the day doing “Ancient Rome”. We started out at the Santa Maria Maggiore church, because it was on our way. This is the church that has incredible gold frescoed ceilings, walls and alter. It is also claims to house pieces of wood from “the crib” (Jesus’ manger). Then we walked through the Roman Forum and the Colloseum. After the Colloseum, we ate lunch and continued our trek at Palatine Hill (the emperor’s hill that was an enormous palace). We then exited the Hill, and rounded to Circus Maximus. We ended our day at Capital Hill which Michelangelo’s staircase and this piazza (square). This man liked stairs apparently. By this point, everyone was getting worn down, so we split ways. Some of us went shopping (obviously, me and mom), some took a nap and some wandered to some neighboring sights. We found a nice restaurant just down the street from our hotel that had extremely good pasta. But in Italy, you will never find a bad pizza, or a bad pasta. Or at least, I’ve not discovered one yet.
Day #6 – Rome/Orvieto – “I feel like I’m being herded like a sheep…”
We did Vatican City on this day. We started with the Museum, because, once again, we knew we’d be standing in a line for a while. However, we actually were probably only in line for 30 minutes or so. The museum is 4 miles long, so we saw a lot. A lot of statues, a lot of paintings, a lot of maps, a lot of gold ceilings, a lot of tapestries, and A LOT of people. We were pretty much herded through the rooms as be began to get closer and closer to the Sistine Chapel. Finally, we reached the Chapel and it was amazing and extremely over whelming. The room as jammed tight with people and camera nazis, so it was had to enjoy ceiling and the space. But it was cool nonetheless. We grabbed some pizza at the cafeteria in the museum and then headed to St. Peter’s. We spent some time in St. Peter’s, which like the Duomo in Pisa, still has all its art and décor. (mainly because its still used and it’s the Pope’s personal cathedral. There were several tombs of former popes and it also houses the statue “Pieta” by Michelangelo (Madonna and child). It also housed several other works, and one by Raphael. In the afternoon, we caught a train back to Orvieto and spent the afternoon shopping to pass time before dinner. We ate dinner at restaurant close to my apartment, which I had eaten at before. It has very good pasta, and an incredible friendly waiter. After dinner, mom and dad crashed, but John and I spent the evening in true “Orvieto style”. We stayed at my favorite wine bar for a while and then headed to the club, where we ran into some friends of mine from the Arizona study program.
Day #7 – Orvieto – “I just bought like 7 oranges…”
I took my parents to the market in the morning, but it was a really cold day, so we shopped quickly. We picked up some things to make lunch with, but also some things that I would need for the week. We made sandwiches for breakfast, but mainly spent the afternoon bumming around. We went to the internet café for a little while, but I think we were all just exhausted for the crazy 6 days prior. I saw them all off at the top of the Funicular around 5:00 and they were once again on their own until their plane left from Rome.
Day #1 – Orvieto – “Jet Lag”
They arrived around noon and I met them at the top of the Funicular and show them to our hotel and get checked in. We went to a really good pizzeria for lunch and then I took them on a quick walk around the edge of town so they could see the view and get a better picture of how high up they really were from the town below. We also went to the Duomo and walked to the top of the Torre del Moro (the town’s clock tower), which was fun because I hadn’t gotten a chance to do that yet. Then I took them to my favorite wine bar, Vin Caffe until they all began to fall asleep at the table.
Day #2 – Pisa – “Is this our train?”
We took the early train to Florence and then hopped on another train to Pisa. We got into Pisa around noon and headed through the town on our way to the Field of Miracles (Duomo, Leaning tower, etc). We stopped for lunch at a pizzeria, which offered more types of pizza than I had ever seen before. We continued after lunch to our destination. We hung out for awhile and took some tacky tourist pictures along with everyone else, then we decided to sign up to climb the Leaning tower. Climbing the tower was an interesting experience considering it was leaning. So on one side it was extremely easy to climb and the other side was a little more difficult. We were even allowed to go and stand on the very top. Which, yes, is slanted so that was a little scary. We didn’t spend too much time up on top. Then we went inside the Duomo, which was the best collection of art/sculpture I had ever seen inside a church. Usually the art is all taken out and place else where in a museum. But in this case, they had left all the art and paintings along and it really made the interior look amazing. It also had an incredible golden ceiling and golden mosaic in the apse. By this time, we needed to catch a train back to Florence to make our way back to Orvieto. I was following a sheet of paper that I was given by a travel agency in Orvieto that listed all the times of the trains that ran from Florence and back and Rome and back. We successfully caught the correct train from Pisa to Florence. HOWEVER, we were apparently supposed to get off at the station before the Florence. (This was still a Florence station, just a smaller one). This was listed incorrectly on my train sheet and the ticket we were given did not successfully list the station we were supposed to exit at. So, we asked a conductor and he said we had one minute to run and catch the last train that heads back to the station we missed. Well, yea, we missed that train. So the conductor sent us on a different train to Orvieto (a very slow one). We boarded early, assuming that the permanent board that lists trains and platforms was correct. There was a train at the platform, but the platform board did not have a train listed on it. The train was supposed to leave at 7:20 and it began to move at 7:00. Very suspicious of this we finally asked the lady next to us if the train was headed to Rome and she said yes. HOWEVER, then the lady next to her said “no no no, this train goes to Arezzo”. So she told us to hurry and get off at the next stop and then catch the next passing train, because that one would go to Rome. So we got off again (with the other lady, who was also on the wrong train). The next train pulled up and we began to get on (well, mom did). The other lady was chasing down a little old lady asking if the train headed to Rome. So I became suspicious of this train as well and began yelling Roma?? Roma?? Into the train and finally someone answered and said no. So we got off again and a girl sitting on a bench explained to us that it was the “slower” train to Rome and that we would get on the next train. So we did. And yes, we did get home, around 10:00. I’ve used a train almost every weekend since I arrived in Italy and I’ve never had that many problems in one night. But the good news was that we did get home, eventually. And now we just have something to laugh about, even though at the time, it didn’t become funny until about the time we had to get off at some po-dunk stop and catch a different train.
Day #3 – Florence – “St. Matthew’s Finger??”
Again, we catch the early train to Florence and arrived around 9:30. We immediately headed to the Accademia Museum, because we knew there was a good chance we would be standing in a long line. This is the museum that houses the statue “David” by Michelangelo. We really didn’t wait too long in line and we were kept fairly entertained by a pair of boxers on sale and the vendor next to us that had a picture of David’s “family jewels” on them. So then we spent some time in the museum and saw the David. Then we went to a recommended sandwich shop and had some good toasted sandwiches. (When I say recommended I am usually referring to my Rick Steve’s Italy 2009 guidebook – he is the new Frommer’s). We walked to the Duomo after lunch and went inside and them walked to the top of the Dome. I had already climbed the dome, but it was still cool, and on the way down we stopped under the painted “Last Judgment” on the interior and laughed about all the creatures of the underworld that were depicted. Then I took them on a nice little hike to see more of the city. We walked by the Palazzo Vecchio, Uffizi Galleries, Ponte Vecchio, Pitti Palace and back again. Then, of course, we stopped for Gelato. We made our way to the San Lorenzo church so that we could see the Medici chapel and Lorentian Library (staircase designed by Michelangelo). However, they were both closed, so we bought tickets to the church and “treasure” instead. The treasures were cool, they were mostly relics of the saints. And my dad was really excited that he got to see “St. Matthew’s finger”. The treasures also housed the tomb of Donatello, which I thought was pretty cool. We caught an earlier train home and we were able to come back and get dinner in Orvieto.
Day #4 – Orvieto/Rome – “If I see one more rose guy…”
We got to sleep in for a chance to get some breakfast at the hotel. Then dad went back to see the Duomo once again and mom and I went shopping. Then we all got together and had lunch at a pizzeria on the main street. I had never been there before, but it was the best cheese pizza that I’ve had so far since I’ve been here. We headed to Rome after lunch and checked into our Hotel. After checking in, we were off again. We did a nice walk to some of the picturesque places of Rome. First we hit the Pantheon, which unfortunately was closed but was supposed to open back up around 6:00 pm. So we went to the Spanish Steps and fortunately managed to escape most of the men wanted to sell you roses, and then we headed to the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi was cool, because the sun was setting and the lights in the fountain were all lit up, giving it a nice evening ambiance (minus the other 300 tourists gathered around it). Then we headed back to the Pantheon, and this time it was open. We ate dinner at a really good pasta place that Rick (Steve’s) recommended. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and hung out for the rest of the evening.
Day #5 – Rome – “The men dressed as Gladiators are quite crafty”
We got up and ate breakfast out of the rooftop of our hotel and then spent the day doing “Ancient Rome”. We started out at the Santa Maria Maggiore church, because it was on our way. This is the church that has incredible gold frescoed ceilings, walls and alter. It is also claims to house pieces of wood from “the crib” (Jesus’ manger). Then we walked through the Roman Forum and the Colloseum. After the Colloseum, we ate lunch and continued our trek at Palatine Hill (the emperor’s hill that was an enormous palace). We then exited the Hill, and rounded to Circus Maximus. We ended our day at Capital Hill which Michelangelo’s staircase and this piazza (square). This man liked stairs apparently. By this point, everyone was getting worn down, so we split ways. Some of us went shopping (obviously, me and mom), some took a nap and some wandered to some neighboring sights. We found a nice restaurant just down the street from our hotel that had extremely good pasta. But in Italy, you will never find a bad pizza, or a bad pasta. Or at least, I’ve not discovered one yet.
Day #6 – Rome/Orvieto – “I feel like I’m being herded like a sheep…”
We did Vatican City on this day. We started with the Museum, because, once again, we knew we’d be standing in a line for a while. However, we actually were probably only in line for 30 minutes or so. The museum is 4 miles long, so we saw a lot. A lot of statues, a lot of paintings, a lot of maps, a lot of gold ceilings, a lot of tapestries, and A LOT of people. We were pretty much herded through the rooms as be began to get closer and closer to the Sistine Chapel. Finally, we reached the Chapel and it was amazing and extremely over whelming. The room as jammed tight with people and camera nazis, so it was had to enjoy ceiling and the space. But it was cool nonetheless. We grabbed some pizza at the cafeteria in the museum and then headed to St. Peter’s. We spent some time in St. Peter’s, which like the Duomo in Pisa, still has all its art and décor. (mainly because its still used and it’s the Pope’s personal cathedral. There were several tombs of former popes and it also houses the statue “Pieta” by Michelangelo (Madonna and child). It also housed several other works, and one by Raphael. In the afternoon, we caught a train back to Orvieto and spent the afternoon shopping to pass time before dinner. We ate dinner at restaurant close to my apartment, which I had eaten at before. It has very good pasta, and an incredible friendly waiter. After dinner, mom and dad crashed, but John and I spent the evening in true “Orvieto style”. We stayed at my favorite wine bar for a while and then headed to the club, where we ran into some friends of mine from the Arizona study program.
Day #7 – Orvieto – “I just bought like 7 oranges…”
I took my parents to the market in the morning, but it was a really cold day, so we shopped quickly. We picked up some things to make lunch with, but also some things that I would need for the week. We made sandwiches for breakfast, but mainly spent the afternoon bumming around. We went to the internet café for a little while, but I think we were all just exhausted for the crazy 6 days prior. I saw them all off at the top of the Funicular around 5:00 and they were once again on their own until their plane left from Rome.
3/14/2009
Venice, Vincenzia, and Verona
Our class trip to Northern Italy before Spring Break!
Day 1: VENICE
We started our journey by bus from Orvieto at 7:00 am. We stopped shortly in Florence to see the Church of the Autostrada (Highway). This church is an interesting mesh of curves and shapes that aren’t normally found in religious architecture and there is no bell tower, just a couple bells hanging only 8 ft. off of the ground. We reboarded the bus and eventually ended up in Venice around 1:00. We took a Vaporetto from the parking area to where our hotel was. A vaporetto is a bigger boat that is the main form of public transportation. There are no cars in Venice. Which was wonderful! Our hotel was the Belle Arti by the Accademia Museum (kind of close to San Marco’s (St. Mark's) Square, but on the other side of the Grand Canal). We had a small little room and balcony, but the hotel was nice with a great area to sit outside in their garden. For the afternoon, we tried to take the advice of several people who had been to Venice, and we “got lost” in Venice. We just walked around leisurely and didn’t look at the map ever. We accidentally ran in San Marco’s at one point and we crossed a bridge and then got to the top and realized that is was the Rialto Bridge. We checked out a few restaurants for dinner and finally chose one overlooking the Grand Canal. It’s is a lot of fun to just walk around without a plan in Venice. There’s tons of shops, especially glass shops, and other fun things to see. They are also known for their awesome gelato.
Day 2: VENICE
We ate breakfast at the hotel, which was the best assortment of pastries, meats, cheese, cereals and everything you could imagine. After breakfast, we walked to San Marco’s Square to meet Marco for our morning tour. He told us about the columns located just at the entrance of the San Marco’s Square, which are referred to as the “Lover’s Columns” and represent the symbols of Venice. The current symbol of Venice is the winged lion and you can find it EVERYWHERE in Venice on EVERYTHING. Then he took us in a small chapel in the back of San Marco where tourists aren’t technically allowed unless they have special permission. He wanted us to show us the most famous gold fresco painting of the Madonna and child, which the Venetians were extremely proud of, because they stole it from Constantinople. Then we took our Marco-led tour of the Doge’s Palace and we got to see the private family quarters, the government meeting rooms and the prison. Afterwards, we found a bar to grab a sandwich in. Venice has the BEST wraps, which are stuffed full of meats, cheese and spinach. We then took Marco’s suggestion and rode the Vaporetto up and down the Grand Canal for a few hours and got to see all of the houses and buildings along the Canal. It was a lot of fun, and free, however, a bit chilly. After getting off the Vaporetto we found some good gelato and headed to the Academia Museum. Before dinner, we went shopping at a glass shop for some jewelry. Then we joined another group of students and went to a highly recommended Trattoria (like a more casual restaurant) for dinner, which had some incredible pizza. We then wandered over to the popular bar and club district and asked one of the Italians we ran into which bar was the best. He pointed us in the direction of a bar on the corner which had a special that night on Spritzers, but there was also a game on so the bar was full of football hooligans. But we stayed outside, so that we were out of the way, and we managed to make friends with a group from England.
Day 3: VENICE
After breakfast, Marco met us at the Rialto Bridge and lead us on a morning walk through the Northern part of Venice. We made short pit stops at several squares and churches along the way. The main highlight of the walk was the San Giovanni e Paolo and we were able to go inside and see the chapel. After the walk with Marco, we headed back to the San Marco area to get lunch in “sandwich row” which had been recommended by several other students. For the afternoon, we signed up to take an excursion to the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Murano is the island that makes all the glass products. The glass used to be made in shops in Venice, but the Venetians began to fear that all the kilns and ovens that were ablaze night and day would someday lead to a mega fire disaster and it would destroy all of Venice, so they forced the glass blowers to move to the island next door, called Murano. We got to see a glass smith make a vase and then another one made a horse. Then we got to go into the store and see all the glasses, vases and chandeliers. The chandeliers were amazing and I’ve never seen such extreme eccentric pieces before (or prices). Next was Burano and this is the island that is known for its brightly colored houses. It was the fisherman’s island, so the houses were colored so that the fisherman could see their homes when coming in from sea. It is also know for its lace. They have several places to get handmade lace and you can watch some of the women knitting lace in the shops. Lastly, we went to Torcello, which is a fairly vacant and morose place, but its known for its cathedral which has an interior that is lined in gold mosaics. After our boat excursion, we headed to another recommended seafood restaurant that was family owned and we were served by the nicest little old man who had a great sense of humor and loved joking with us. After gorging ourselves in a mesh of shrimp, mussels, lobster, fish, calamari and more, we went nearby to a bookstore, recommended by Marco. It was a rather hole-in-the-wall sort of place, but it was actually huge inside and books were just piled up. You definitely had to dig to find what you wanted. The back door dumped off into a canal and was labeled “fire exit”. I bought an Italian cookbook there and so now maybe I can cook something that’s actually “Italian”. This was followed by a leisurely walk back to the hotel and crashing for the night.
Day 4: VENICE, VINCENZIA, VERONA
My roommate, Meg and I woke up at 6:00 am and sleepily wandered over to San Marco’s Square and sat on the stairs by the gondola docks and watched the sunrise over Venice with the remainder of a bottle of wine from a few nights earlier. We left Venice around 9:00 am and headed for Vincenzia. On the way, we stopped at a small town to see the Brion cemetery, designed by the Spanish architect, Carlos Scarpa. We reached Vincenzia and only stayed a few hours and wandered around to see the several buildings designed by the ancient architect Palladio. We arrived in Verona and spent the remainder of the day just exploring the town. This is the supposed location of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, so it is quite the tourist mecca. We walked down the main street and were instantly sucked into a small café, which advertised 32 different flavors of hot chocolate. We then stopped at a bookstore and I found a Rick Steve’s 2009 Italy book, which I had been looking for. It has the best recommendations for sights, hotels, eating, and tons and tons of history. We then, with the help of Rick Steves, found a good restaurant, which had awesome spaghetti and crostini.
Day 5: VERONA
We went to the Castelvecchio in the morning and explored the museum and castle grounds, and got to walk along the guard wall in the garden. This was pretty much the only thing I could do for the day, because I had to catch a 1:00 train home. I actually had to catch a train to Bologna and switch trains and then come to Orvieto. I was lucky though because I had 4 other students with me, so with the 5 of us, we managed to find our way around fairly easily. So I arrived back home around 7:00 and that ended our trip to the north. I loved Venice and if I ever came back to Italy, I think that I would spend most of my time in Venice. Now, I am patiently awaiting the arrival of my parents and my brother, who will arrive in Rome tomorrow morning, and will be meeting me at the Orvieto train station around noon!
Day 1: VENICE
We started our journey by bus from Orvieto at 7:00 am. We stopped shortly in Florence to see the Church of the Autostrada (Highway). This church is an interesting mesh of curves and shapes that aren’t normally found in religious architecture and there is no bell tower, just a couple bells hanging only 8 ft. off of the ground. We reboarded the bus and eventually ended up in Venice around 1:00. We took a Vaporetto from the parking area to where our hotel was. A vaporetto is a bigger boat that is the main form of public transportation. There are no cars in Venice. Which was wonderful! Our hotel was the Belle Arti by the Accademia Museum (kind of close to San Marco’s (St. Mark's) Square, but on the other side of the Grand Canal). We had a small little room and balcony, but the hotel was nice with a great area to sit outside in their garden. For the afternoon, we tried to take the advice of several people who had been to Venice, and we “got lost” in Venice. We just walked around leisurely and didn’t look at the map ever. We accidentally ran in San Marco’s at one point and we crossed a bridge and then got to the top and realized that is was the Rialto Bridge. We checked out a few restaurants for dinner and finally chose one overlooking the Grand Canal. It’s is a lot of fun to just walk around without a plan in Venice. There’s tons of shops, especially glass shops, and other fun things to see. They are also known for their awesome gelato.
Day 2: VENICE
We ate breakfast at the hotel, which was the best assortment of pastries, meats, cheese, cereals and everything you could imagine. After breakfast, we walked to San Marco’s Square to meet Marco for our morning tour. He told us about the columns located just at the entrance of the San Marco’s Square, which are referred to as the “Lover’s Columns” and represent the symbols of Venice. The current symbol of Venice is the winged lion and you can find it EVERYWHERE in Venice on EVERYTHING. Then he took us in a small chapel in the back of San Marco where tourists aren’t technically allowed unless they have special permission. He wanted us to show us the most famous gold fresco painting of the Madonna and child, which the Venetians were extremely proud of, because they stole it from Constantinople. Then we took our Marco-led tour of the Doge’s Palace and we got to see the private family quarters, the government meeting rooms and the prison. Afterwards, we found a bar to grab a sandwich in. Venice has the BEST wraps, which are stuffed full of meats, cheese and spinach. We then took Marco’s suggestion and rode the Vaporetto up and down the Grand Canal for a few hours and got to see all of the houses and buildings along the Canal. It was a lot of fun, and free, however, a bit chilly. After getting off the Vaporetto we found some good gelato and headed to the Academia Museum. Before dinner, we went shopping at a glass shop for some jewelry. Then we joined another group of students and went to a highly recommended Trattoria (like a more casual restaurant) for dinner, which had some incredible pizza. We then wandered over to the popular bar and club district and asked one of the Italians we ran into which bar was the best. He pointed us in the direction of a bar on the corner which had a special that night on Spritzers, but there was also a game on so the bar was full of football hooligans. But we stayed outside, so that we were out of the way, and we managed to make friends with a group from England.
Day 3: VENICE
After breakfast, Marco met us at the Rialto Bridge and lead us on a morning walk through the Northern part of Venice. We made short pit stops at several squares and churches along the way. The main highlight of the walk was the San Giovanni e Paolo and we were able to go inside and see the chapel. After the walk with Marco, we headed back to the San Marco area to get lunch in “sandwich row” which had been recommended by several other students. For the afternoon, we signed up to take an excursion to the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Murano is the island that makes all the glass products. The glass used to be made in shops in Venice, but the Venetians began to fear that all the kilns and ovens that were ablaze night and day would someday lead to a mega fire disaster and it would destroy all of Venice, so they forced the glass blowers to move to the island next door, called Murano. We got to see a glass smith make a vase and then another one made a horse. Then we got to go into the store and see all the glasses, vases and chandeliers. The chandeliers were amazing and I’ve never seen such extreme eccentric pieces before (or prices). Next was Burano and this is the island that is known for its brightly colored houses. It was the fisherman’s island, so the houses were colored so that the fisherman could see their homes when coming in from sea. It is also know for its lace. They have several places to get handmade lace and you can watch some of the women knitting lace in the shops. Lastly, we went to Torcello, which is a fairly vacant and morose place, but its known for its cathedral which has an interior that is lined in gold mosaics. After our boat excursion, we headed to another recommended seafood restaurant that was family owned and we were served by the nicest little old man who had a great sense of humor and loved joking with us. After gorging ourselves in a mesh of shrimp, mussels, lobster, fish, calamari and more, we went nearby to a bookstore, recommended by Marco. It was a rather hole-in-the-wall sort of place, but it was actually huge inside and books were just piled up. You definitely had to dig to find what you wanted. The back door dumped off into a canal and was labeled “fire exit”. I bought an Italian cookbook there and so now maybe I can cook something that’s actually “Italian”. This was followed by a leisurely walk back to the hotel and crashing for the night.
Day 4: VENICE, VINCENZIA, VERONA
My roommate, Meg and I woke up at 6:00 am and sleepily wandered over to San Marco’s Square and sat on the stairs by the gondola docks and watched the sunrise over Venice with the remainder of a bottle of wine from a few nights earlier. We left Venice around 9:00 am and headed for Vincenzia. On the way, we stopped at a small town to see the Brion cemetery, designed by the Spanish architect, Carlos Scarpa. We reached Vincenzia and only stayed a few hours and wandered around to see the several buildings designed by the ancient architect Palladio. We arrived in Verona and spent the remainder of the day just exploring the town. This is the supposed location of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, so it is quite the tourist mecca. We walked down the main street and were instantly sucked into a small café, which advertised 32 different flavors of hot chocolate. We then stopped at a bookstore and I found a Rick Steve’s 2009 Italy book, which I had been looking for. It has the best recommendations for sights, hotels, eating, and tons and tons of history. We then, with the help of Rick Steves, found a good restaurant, which had awesome spaghetti and crostini.
Day 5: VERONA
We went to the Castelvecchio in the morning and explored the museum and castle grounds, and got to walk along the guard wall in the garden. This was pretty much the only thing I could do for the day, because I had to catch a 1:00 train home. I actually had to catch a train to Bologna and switch trains and then come to Orvieto. I was lucky though because I had 4 other students with me, so with the 5 of us, we managed to find our way around fairly easily. So I arrived back home around 7:00 and that ended our trip to the north. I loved Venice and if I ever came back to Italy, I think that I would spend most of my time in Venice. Now, I am patiently awaiting the arrival of my parents and my brother, who will arrive in Rome tomorrow morning, and will be meeting me at the Orvieto train station around noon!
3/05/2009
Pictures
So I was finally able to find and internet connection that was fast enough to download pictures to my blog, so here are a few just to keep you entertained. I'll try to post a few here and there with my blogs! 
The Pantheon in Rome, of course!
Yay! Jumping for joy on our hotel balcony in Almafi. This is Sam, Al, Me and Meg.
Welcome to Almafi! This was the morning we left, it was bright and shining and beautiful!
This is me, obviously standing on the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) in Florence!
This a photo I took our first week in Orvieto. It is of the side of the upper city showing the valley city down below.
The Pantheon in Rome, of course!
Yay! Jumping for joy on our hotel balcony in Almafi. This is Sam, Al, Me and Meg.
Welcome to Almafi! This was the morning we left, it was bright and shining and beautiful!
This is me, obviously standing on the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) in Florence!
This a photo I took our first week in Orvieto. It is of the side of the upper city showing the valley city down below. 3/02/2009
un giorno in la viva di una ragozza americana in Italia - a day in the life of an american girl in Italy
So I know you all love hearing my stories of traveling and meeting strange people in Italy, but I figured that one thing you might all really enjoy is a special opportunity to see into my daily life here in Orvieto. It will give you a chance to see how different things really are, but also how great they are as well. I will tell you about 2 different days: A weekday and a Saturday in Orvieto with Maggie.
Weekdays:
Classes are different from day to day but this is generally my routine for school during the week. I wake up around 8:00 to shower and get ready for the day. On my way out the door (around 9:00) I grab breakfast to go from my gigantic fruit basket in my slave’s kitchen, which usually is piled high with pears, bananas, and oranges, which I bought fresh from the local market that weekend. It only takes me about 5 minutes to walk to the study center from my apartment and along the way I pass an art school, San Francesco cathedral (very beautiful interior but the exterior is quite sad and plain), a couple restaurants and wine shops, and, of course, the Duomo. The duomo (church) is amazing and I take it for granted to be able to walk by it everyday. Its façade is covered in beautiful tiled artworks, columns, guardians (lions, dragons) and a gorgeous gold leaf that can be extremely blinding and mesmerizing when the sun shines just right. So I reach the study center with about 30 minutes to spare before Marco’s history lecture begins. I set up my office in the back row with some classmates who have already staked their claim (the back row is very popular amongst those of us with computers because there are outlets on the wall). Then I go out to the hall to get a cappuccino. The study center has coffee machines and you can get anything from tea to coffee to hot chocolate. So I always get my coffee before class starts. Then I check my emails, facebook, etc. before class begins and I eat my breakfast. Then around 11:00, we take a short break from lecture, in which I usually invest in my second cappuccino of the day and continue to email and blog. Then around 11:30 the lecture commences once again and goes until 1:00. Yes, it is a 3 hour-long lecture. After the lecture, we have about an hour and half until we meet for our Italian language class at 2:30. So I move my office to my studio desk and grab my bag and head out for some lunch. I usually head straight for Muscatelli. This is a pastry and pizzeria shop (the lady knows me quite well and always greets me with a smile). I get whatever pizza looks most tempting at the time and I can usually get a pretty large piece for only 1,50 Euros. This is one of the cheapest pizzerias in town. So I head back to the study center with my pizza. So while I wait for my language class to begin, I eat lunch and do homework or chat with others to pass time. So language class is basically just a kindergarten class in which usually consists of singing, dancing, playing board games, etc. And me with an extremely confused look on my face the majority of the time. Our teacher speaks only Italian unless we are absolutely confused then she may stick in an English word or two. This class ends around 4:00 so I hang out at the study center until around 5:00 or so just doing work, painting, sketching or playing on the internet. Before dinner, I usually go for a run/walk around the trail or just around town til 7 or so. Dinner most nights usually consists of a medley of the veggies I picked up on the market or some sort of pasta. Whatever I decide on always turns out awesome though. The rest of the evening is either spent working on sketches, paintings, watching movies, or on occasion going out for wine with some friends. We always go to our favorite spot, Il Vin Café. We love this spot because it has a great atmosphere with quaint little tables and they always give you free munchies if you order a bottle of wine.
Saturdays:
If you ask me what my favorite day is, without a doubt, I would answer Saturday, and not because it’s the weekend and it’s the “party day”. But, because it is market day! The local market only takes place on Thursday and Saturday mornings and Saturdays have more vendors and are livelier. So, my day begins at 9:00 when I get up (and yes, I do get up even if I went out the night before and didn’t get in til 5:00 am, because… I just can’t miss the greatness of the market). I head to the Piazza del Popolo, which is the square that the market is held in. It is only a 3-4 minute walk from my apartment. I met friends at a place called Scarponi to get breakfast. This pastry shop/chocolate shop has amazing pastries and an awesome variety of handmade chocolates. So I usually get the most appealing pastry of the day and a coffee to help me get started. Then we head over the bakery (also in the same piazza space), because if you don’t go early then you’ll miss out on all the good stuff. I usually get a couple rolls (they get stale extremely quickly so its not worth it to stock up), and I usually get some other baked goodies too. My favorites are these little breaded balls with sunflower seeds, bacon and cheese in them. So, after bread shop, we hit the market up. The market has everything from food to clothing to kitchen appliances in it. And once I think I even saw rugs. But all the food is in one area down by the bakery and pastry shop. I head over to a vendor who’s from Sicily, because he always has blood oranges (because blood oranges come from Sicily) and he usually has the freshest fruit and I can usually get 3 oranges, 3 pears and bananas/kiwis or under 2 Euros. Then I head to one of the cheese vendors (there is usually 3 or four) And I look for the cheeses I really like: Pecorino al peperoncino (this is extremely similar to a pepperjack cheese, except much softer and much hotter), and the Morridella (This is a milder cheese that’s extremely soft). Sometimes if I’m feeling lucky I’ll see a cheese that looks good and I’ll get a taste test and usually I’ll get some of that too. I’m in love with Italian cheese. Then I’ll go to a large vendor who sells tons of vegetables, it is run my a husband and wife couple who are in the 70ish and they just constantly yelling back in forth to one another in angry Italian, but then they always start laughing, so I don’t ever know what’s going on. Here I get garlic, onions, zucchini, eggplants, tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce and whatever else that looks good that day. The one thing you always have to remember about the market is that you can’t go with a grocery list in hand. You have to just look around and base your grocery list on what’s in season and what looks best that day and what looks ripe and fresh. So after I finish with the market I usually wonder around to the other vendors just to see what’s being offered. Nothing has sucked me in yet though. So I drop my groceries off at my apartment and then I head to the Alimentari (this is a version of a grocery store/butcher/condiment store), Here I can get all the things that I can’t get an the market, like meat, eggs, milk, cereal, pasta, sauces, pop, wine, napkins, toilet paper, etc. So by the time I reach home with all my shopping completed then it is usually around 1:00 and I’ve definitely worked up a lunch appetite. So I proceed to make my favorite sandwich, EVER. I get out a fresh roll from the bakery, slice up some peperoncini cheese, salami, fresh tomatoes, a little pepper and a little olive oil. …amazing. I would eat this sandwich every day if I could. Then after lunch, I pack up my computer and head to the Blue Bar (one of the 3 internet café’s in town). It’s only a 3 minute walk form my apartment. I get a cappuccino and hang out and use the internet for a couple hours and usually am joined by several other students as time passes. To pass time until dinner, I usually just keep myself entertained at the apartment or go do things with friends. Then after dinner I meet up with friends and we all usually start the night out with a bottle of wine somewhere and then we head to Corso (the main street in town) and hit up some of the bars, clubs.
So these are typical days in the life of me, give or take random adventures here and there.
Weekdays:
Classes are different from day to day but this is generally my routine for school during the week. I wake up around 8:00 to shower and get ready for the day. On my way out the door (around 9:00) I grab breakfast to go from my gigantic fruit basket in my slave’s kitchen, which usually is piled high with pears, bananas, and oranges, which I bought fresh from the local market that weekend. It only takes me about 5 minutes to walk to the study center from my apartment and along the way I pass an art school, San Francesco cathedral (very beautiful interior but the exterior is quite sad and plain), a couple restaurants and wine shops, and, of course, the Duomo. The duomo (church) is amazing and I take it for granted to be able to walk by it everyday. Its façade is covered in beautiful tiled artworks, columns, guardians (lions, dragons) and a gorgeous gold leaf that can be extremely blinding and mesmerizing when the sun shines just right. So I reach the study center with about 30 minutes to spare before Marco’s history lecture begins. I set up my office in the back row with some classmates who have already staked their claim (the back row is very popular amongst those of us with computers because there are outlets on the wall). Then I go out to the hall to get a cappuccino. The study center has coffee machines and you can get anything from tea to coffee to hot chocolate. So I always get my coffee before class starts. Then I check my emails, facebook, etc. before class begins and I eat my breakfast. Then around 11:00, we take a short break from lecture, in which I usually invest in my second cappuccino of the day and continue to email and blog. Then around 11:30 the lecture commences once again and goes until 1:00. Yes, it is a 3 hour-long lecture. After the lecture, we have about an hour and half until we meet for our Italian language class at 2:30. So I move my office to my studio desk and grab my bag and head out for some lunch. I usually head straight for Muscatelli. This is a pastry and pizzeria shop (the lady knows me quite well and always greets me with a smile). I get whatever pizza looks most tempting at the time and I can usually get a pretty large piece for only 1,50 Euros. This is one of the cheapest pizzerias in town. So I head back to the study center with my pizza. So while I wait for my language class to begin, I eat lunch and do homework or chat with others to pass time. So language class is basically just a kindergarten class in which usually consists of singing, dancing, playing board games, etc. And me with an extremely confused look on my face the majority of the time. Our teacher speaks only Italian unless we are absolutely confused then she may stick in an English word or two. This class ends around 4:00 so I hang out at the study center until around 5:00 or so just doing work, painting, sketching or playing on the internet. Before dinner, I usually go for a run/walk around the trail or just around town til 7 or so. Dinner most nights usually consists of a medley of the veggies I picked up on the market or some sort of pasta. Whatever I decide on always turns out awesome though. The rest of the evening is either spent working on sketches, paintings, watching movies, or on occasion going out for wine with some friends. We always go to our favorite spot, Il Vin Café. We love this spot because it has a great atmosphere with quaint little tables and they always give you free munchies if you order a bottle of wine.
Saturdays:
If you ask me what my favorite day is, without a doubt, I would answer Saturday, and not because it’s the weekend and it’s the “party day”. But, because it is market day! The local market only takes place on Thursday and Saturday mornings and Saturdays have more vendors and are livelier. So, my day begins at 9:00 when I get up (and yes, I do get up even if I went out the night before and didn’t get in til 5:00 am, because… I just can’t miss the greatness of the market). I head to the Piazza del Popolo, which is the square that the market is held in. It is only a 3-4 minute walk from my apartment. I met friends at a place called Scarponi to get breakfast. This pastry shop/chocolate shop has amazing pastries and an awesome variety of handmade chocolates. So I usually get the most appealing pastry of the day and a coffee to help me get started. Then we head over the bakery (also in the same piazza space), because if you don’t go early then you’ll miss out on all the good stuff. I usually get a couple rolls (they get stale extremely quickly so its not worth it to stock up), and I usually get some other baked goodies too. My favorites are these little breaded balls with sunflower seeds, bacon and cheese in them. So, after bread shop, we hit the market up. The market has everything from food to clothing to kitchen appliances in it. And once I think I even saw rugs. But all the food is in one area down by the bakery and pastry shop. I head over to a vendor who’s from Sicily, because he always has blood oranges (because blood oranges come from Sicily) and he usually has the freshest fruit and I can usually get 3 oranges, 3 pears and bananas/kiwis or under 2 Euros. Then I head to one of the cheese vendors (there is usually 3 or four) And I look for the cheeses I really like: Pecorino al peperoncino (this is extremely similar to a pepperjack cheese, except much softer and much hotter), and the Morridella (This is a milder cheese that’s extremely soft). Sometimes if I’m feeling lucky I’ll see a cheese that looks good and I’ll get a taste test and usually I’ll get some of that too. I’m in love with Italian cheese. Then I’ll go to a large vendor who sells tons of vegetables, it is run my a husband and wife couple who are in the 70ish and they just constantly yelling back in forth to one another in angry Italian, but then they always start laughing, so I don’t ever know what’s going on. Here I get garlic, onions, zucchini, eggplants, tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce and whatever else that looks good that day. The one thing you always have to remember about the market is that you can’t go with a grocery list in hand. You have to just look around and base your grocery list on what’s in season and what looks best that day and what looks ripe and fresh. So after I finish with the market I usually wonder around to the other vendors just to see what’s being offered. Nothing has sucked me in yet though. So I drop my groceries off at my apartment and then I head to the Alimentari (this is a version of a grocery store/butcher/condiment store), Here I can get all the things that I can’t get an the market, like meat, eggs, milk, cereal, pasta, sauces, pop, wine, napkins, toilet paper, etc. So by the time I reach home with all my shopping completed then it is usually around 1:00 and I’ve definitely worked up a lunch appetite. So I proceed to make my favorite sandwich, EVER. I get out a fresh roll from the bakery, slice up some peperoncini cheese, salami, fresh tomatoes, a little pepper and a little olive oil. …amazing. I would eat this sandwich every day if I could. Then after lunch, I pack up my computer and head to the Blue Bar (one of the 3 internet café’s in town). It’s only a 3 minute walk form my apartment. I get a cappuccino and hang out and use the internet for a couple hours and usually am joined by several other students as time passes. To pass time until dinner, I usually just keep myself entertained at the apartment or go do things with friends. Then after dinner I meet up with friends and we all usually start the night out with a bottle of wine somewhere and then we head to Corso (the main street in town) and hit up some of the bars, clubs.
So these are typical days in the life of me, give or take random adventures here and there.
3/01/2009
Assisi
The past week hasn't been very eventful. I guess we needed a "down-week" after going on our South Trip to Almafi. However, on friday we made the short one-hour trip up to Assisi (also in the same region as Orvieto, Umbria). Its a town that's very similar to Orvieto: hill-top, very small and quaint. And there's plenty of tourists, but they all only come for one thing: San Francesco d'Assisi. (Similar to Orvieto, they all come from one thing: the duomo). So, we spent most of our time at this particular church. The church actually has 3 parts: The cript, the lower church and the upper church. And as you have probably already guessed: The church was built to house the relics of St. Francis. Which was truly awesome, because we actually got to see his tomb which was located in the cript. This was one of those church that was considered to be a major pilgramage destination.
Assisi was also hit with a bad earthquake in 1997 which completely destroyed the nave of the lower church (the ceiling collasped completely and unfortunately killed several people). Since then, the church as been restored as best as possible and its still quite beautiful. And did I mention that Assisi is Marco's hometown? Yes, so as you can image, we got quite the earfull. And he took us on a tour and showed us where he was born and where he grew up and other things. He also seemed to know everyone in town. (which shouldn't be hard, he said there was only 800 people who lived in Assisi).
We came back to Orvieto after about 1/2 a day in Assisi and it has been a fairly quiet weekend here. It's also been extremely nice weather and I've been able to go running for several days on the trail. The trail wraps around the outer edge of Orvieto on the side of the hill and its quite the roller coaster. Up down Up down Up down.... etc. But its an extremely nice trail with benches and maps and such. Its extremely nice to walk the trail around 5-6 in the evening because the sun is starting to set and it is, of course, just like the rest of Italy... Bellisimo!
This week should be fairly quiet too, we are working on an "urban facade" project which is due on friday and then we have a free weekend (some people are going sky-diving, but definately NOT me) and then on Monday we head for a week in Venice! So I will be getting ready for that excursion and just trying to actually do my school work. Ha!
Assisi was also hit with a bad earthquake in 1997 which completely destroyed the nave of the lower church (the ceiling collasped completely and unfortunately killed several people). Since then, the church as been restored as best as possible and its still quite beautiful. And did I mention that Assisi is Marco's hometown? Yes, so as you can image, we got quite the earfull. And he took us on a tour and showed us where he was born and where he grew up and other things. He also seemed to know everyone in town. (which shouldn't be hard, he said there was only 800 people who lived in Assisi).
We came back to Orvieto after about 1/2 a day in Assisi and it has been a fairly quiet weekend here. It's also been extremely nice weather and I've been able to go running for several days on the trail. The trail wraps around the outer edge of Orvieto on the side of the hill and its quite the roller coaster. Up down Up down Up down.... etc. But its an extremely nice trail with benches and maps and such. Its extremely nice to walk the trail around 5-6 in the evening because the sun is starting to set and it is, of course, just like the rest of Italy... Bellisimo!
This week should be fairly quiet too, we are working on an "urban facade" project which is due on friday and then we have a free weekend (some people are going sky-diving, but definately NOT me) and then on Monday we head for a week in Venice! So I will be getting ready for that excursion and just trying to actually do my school work. Ha!
2/22/2009
South Trip - Pompeii, Almafi, Ravello and Naples
“…And we have a special treat for you today,” my professor David said when we pulled up to Pompeii, “Pompeii in the snow!” And yes, that’s exactly what we got. Pompeii in the snow. For about 10 minutes we walked around in the slushy/rainy/snow that was pouring down from the sky and we were certain that this was going to be the worst day in Pompeii…ever. And we were all really pissed. But then fortunately for us, the rain/snow stopped quickly and we were able enjoy (minus the extreme mess of mud) Pompeii. Two thoughts that I had about Pompeii before entering were quickly proved wrong. The First one: it’s actually huge. So much bigger than you are lead to believe it is. Two: It’s not in the middle of nowhere, it’s actually surrounded by snowy mountains. But it was a good exploration/adventure. Unfortunately they rope off/lock up several places so its hard to really get in and see some of the ruins besides a few houses here and there that they’ve opened up. However, Marco told us that the golden Italian rule was: If the gate is open or unlocked, you may enter. So after a slight frustration of not being able to see more things, we took this rule to heart. We disregarded a lot of the ropes and barricades and just made sure to be careful not to step on anything “important looking” such as tiles or frescoes. Thanks to this maneuver we were even able to climb up inside the amphitheater. The staircases were originally blocked off by big orange plastic gates, one of which had been torn down on one side and hadn’t been fixed. SOOO therefore, it was open to us! So, we got to climb to the top and get a pretty good view of the inside and of the neighboring structures. Then we climbed down the seating and got to go inside the lower chambers and eventually found a hole in the fence to climb back out of. However, my friend Eric was too tall and couldn’t fit through the hole and it just so happened that a gigantic tour group showed up around the time we were trying to crawl through this hole in what was obviously an “off-limits” area. But we eventually managed to escape without getting kicked out of Pompeii. And right as we boarded our bus, it began to rain/snow again. So I’d say we got really lucky.
From there we headed (on our gigantic charter bus) to the Almafi coast. To put this into perspective for you: we had to scale the mountains to get there. Well, actually Almafi is in the mountains. But, it’s also the coast. The mountains just kind of drop off into the ocean. No beaches or flat land to keep them separate. They just plummet straight into the ocean. Their houses/towns are built up on the sides of the mountains in a somewhat stair-step fashion with windy roads and hairpin turns. Now that you have that picture, please picture a 40-ft long charter bus driving along these stair-step roads and hairpin turns. This was the entire drive for about 2 hours the whole way to Almafi. I’m not scared of heights or usually things of this sort. However, I kept thinking to myself, “Oh my god, I’m going to die today.” I wanted to close my eyes and not think about it. But I didn’t, because this was also the most spectacular view I’ve ever seen of the ocean. When you are up in a mountain, looking out, the ocean appears SO much more vast than it does when you are just standing on the beach. It was really cloudy but about 4-5 miles out from the coast there were patches of clouds missing and it formed a sort of sun-spotted pattern on the ocean water. So, despite being absolutely terrified, the view was amazing and we eventually made it to Almafi (alive) and I felt like I could breathe again.
Almafi is beautiful, but very very small and for the most part, pretty quiet. Probably because it is the “off-season”. And don’t be fooled by the phrase “Almafi coast” or “southern Italy”. We thought that it would be a little warmer and some people even brought shorts with them. (Which I thought was a bit of a stretch). However, it’s FREEZING! The wind blowing in from the sea and the snowy mountaintops didn’t help the cause. But our hotel was pretty amazing and my roommate, Meg, and I were blessed with not just a balcony, but also a deck with a great view of Almafi and the sea, which we shared with some of the other girls from K-State. We found a small café in town and made friends with the owners (a husband and wife) and we actually went back the next day and they gave us free cookies! Plus, they made hot chocolate for us, and if you’ve never had hot chocolate from Italy/Europe before then you’d be impressed. It’s so thick that you can set your spoon on top of it and it won’t sink into the “liquid”. It’s extremely rich, but very good. We also bought lots of Limoncello while in Almafi. Limoncello is a liquor similar to a vodka, but it’s a neon yellowish green in color and its made from lemons and tastes like an extremely sugary lemonade. But its liquor and it’ll definitely kick you in the butt. But, Almafi is the birthplace of Limoncello and it was only fitting that we buy some. PS. You can tell that they cater to lemons in this region. Lemon tree farms are plastered along the sides of the mountains and are about as common as wheat fields in Kansas. For dinner, we made friends with the cute little old man that worked the front desk of our hotel and he told us that the best seafood restaurant in town was down the road quite a distance. (Not walkable). But, he called the restaurant and they sent a car to come pick us up for free! (There were 7 of us). It was good meal, and they even gave us some Limoncello and meloncello (which is awesome!) on the house as well as some appetizers. So far, I was really starting to like the hospitable people of Almafi! We had some things that were called “seaweed puffs” and they were awesome. I need to figure out where I can get some of these in the states!
The next morning, I opened the shutters to our balcony and was greeted by an immense, blinding, bright sunshine and the view of the white Almafi mountain homes and it caused me to actually break out into song: “It’s a beautiful morninggggggg….” (You know, the theme song to the bounce dryer sheet commercials). This caused Meg, who was still in bed, to start hysterically laughing. But, we headed up to Ravello for the day, to see the gardens. (Apparently its known for its gardens, which were, of course, villas that used to be owned by some of the wealthiest Italians back in the day.) But, Italian gardens are always great. They have a sense of organization and placement that make them very appealing and quaint. However, most of the gardens we visited were extremely muddy and nothing was in bloom. We went to see the rose gardens at one of the villas and all we got was some steams and dirt. O well. Ravello is a small itty-bitty town located on the very tiptop of the mountain peak behind Almafi. So, it, along with the neighboring mountain peaks, was covered in snow. It was quite a frigid little excursion, but we got some great views. One of the gardens/villas we visited was called Villa Cimbrone and had been transformed into a hotel for the rich and privileged. Off-season price = 1,000 Euros a night. I was told that both the Clinton’s and the Kennedy’s had stayed here. We got back to Almafi in time to catch the sunset, and we walked out to the end of the pier and got pictures.
The next day, we headed to Naples to go to the archeological museum, which is mostly a collection of pieces found in Pompeii and in Herculaneum. (Statues, frescoes, pots, jewelry, etc) And I found out that the Pompeii people were very … .interesting. The museum had a “secret room” in which is kept some paintings, statues and likewise that came from the Brothel that was in Pompeii. Let’s just say that they Pompeii people were extremely perverted and leave it at that. Riding out of Naples was interesting. There’s trash everywhere, graffiti everywhere, bums everywhere, and the buildings look like they’ve just been bombed. There was just nothing what-so-ever charming about anything I saw. So I wasn’t eager to say I would ever want to return to Naples, but I hear that over by the coast is much better. So that concluded our “south trip, and I slept the entire way home on the bus.
From there we headed (on our gigantic charter bus) to the Almafi coast. To put this into perspective for you: we had to scale the mountains to get there. Well, actually Almafi is in the mountains. But, it’s also the coast. The mountains just kind of drop off into the ocean. No beaches or flat land to keep them separate. They just plummet straight into the ocean. Their houses/towns are built up on the sides of the mountains in a somewhat stair-step fashion with windy roads and hairpin turns. Now that you have that picture, please picture a 40-ft long charter bus driving along these stair-step roads and hairpin turns. This was the entire drive for about 2 hours the whole way to Almafi. I’m not scared of heights or usually things of this sort. However, I kept thinking to myself, “Oh my god, I’m going to die today.” I wanted to close my eyes and not think about it. But I didn’t, because this was also the most spectacular view I’ve ever seen of the ocean. When you are up in a mountain, looking out, the ocean appears SO much more vast than it does when you are just standing on the beach. It was really cloudy but about 4-5 miles out from the coast there were patches of clouds missing and it formed a sort of sun-spotted pattern on the ocean water. So, despite being absolutely terrified, the view was amazing and we eventually made it to Almafi (alive) and I felt like I could breathe again.
Almafi is beautiful, but very very small and for the most part, pretty quiet. Probably because it is the “off-season”. And don’t be fooled by the phrase “Almafi coast” or “southern Italy”. We thought that it would be a little warmer and some people even brought shorts with them. (Which I thought was a bit of a stretch). However, it’s FREEZING! The wind blowing in from the sea and the snowy mountaintops didn’t help the cause. But our hotel was pretty amazing and my roommate, Meg, and I were blessed with not just a balcony, but also a deck with a great view of Almafi and the sea, which we shared with some of the other girls from K-State. We found a small café in town and made friends with the owners (a husband and wife) and we actually went back the next day and they gave us free cookies! Plus, they made hot chocolate for us, and if you’ve never had hot chocolate from Italy/Europe before then you’d be impressed. It’s so thick that you can set your spoon on top of it and it won’t sink into the “liquid”. It’s extremely rich, but very good. We also bought lots of Limoncello while in Almafi. Limoncello is a liquor similar to a vodka, but it’s a neon yellowish green in color and its made from lemons and tastes like an extremely sugary lemonade. But its liquor and it’ll definitely kick you in the butt. But, Almafi is the birthplace of Limoncello and it was only fitting that we buy some. PS. You can tell that they cater to lemons in this region. Lemon tree farms are plastered along the sides of the mountains and are about as common as wheat fields in Kansas. For dinner, we made friends with the cute little old man that worked the front desk of our hotel and he told us that the best seafood restaurant in town was down the road quite a distance. (Not walkable). But, he called the restaurant and they sent a car to come pick us up for free! (There were 7 of us). It was good meal, and they even gave us some Limoncello and meloncello (which is awesome!) on the house as well as some appetizers. So far, I was really starting to like the hospitable people of Almafi! We had some things that were called “seaweed puffs” and they were awesome. I need to figure out where I can get some of these in the states!
The next morning, I opened the shutters to our balcony and was greeted by an immense, blinding, bright sunshine and the view of the white Almafi mountain homes and it caused me to actually break out into song: “It’s a beautiful morninggggggg….” (You know, the theme song to the bounce dryer sheet commercials). This caused Meg, who was still in bed, to start hysterically laughing. But, we headed up to Ravello for the day, to see the gardens. (Apparently its known for its gardens, which were, of course, villas that used to be owned by some of the wealthiest Italians back in the day.) But, Italian gardens are always great. They have a sense of organization and placement that make them very appealing and quaint. However, most of the gardens we visited were extremely muddy and nothing was in bloom. We went to see the rose gardens at one of the villas and all we got was some steams and dirt. O well. Ravello is a small itty-bitty town located on the very tiptop of the mountain peak behind Almafi. So, it, along with the neighboring mountain peaks, was covered in snow. It was quite a frigid little excursion, but we got some great views. One of the gardens/villas we visited was called Villa Cimbrone and had been transformed into a hotel for the rich and privileged. Off-season price = 1,000 Euros a night. I was told that both the Clinton’s and the Kennedy’s had stayed here. We got back to Almafi in time to catch the sunset, and we walked out to the end of the pier and got pictures.
The next day, we headed to Naples to go to the archeological museum, which is mostly a collection of pieces found in Pompeii and in Herculaneum. (Statues, frescoes, pots, jewelry, etc) And I found out that the Pompeii people were very … .interesting. The museum had a “secret room” in which is kept some paintings, statues and likewise that came from the Brothel that was in Pompeii. Let’s just say that they Pompeii people were extremely perverted and leave it at that. Riding out of Naples was interesting. There’s trash everywhere, graffiti everywhere, bums everywhere, and the buildings look like they’ve just been bombed. There was just nothing what-so-ever charming about anything I saw. So I wasn’t eager to say I would ever want to return to Naples, but I hear that over by the coast is much better. So that concluded our “south trip, and I slept the entire way home on the bus.
2/15/2009
Florence put my legs into Shape
We went to Florence again on friday as a class. But I didn't stay the night this time, we caught one of the later trains back to Orvieto so that we could spend plenty of extra time in Florence, once Marco was done talking our heads off at the Uffizi Galleries. We spent all morning at the Uffizi (probably the most famous museum in the world due to the fact that it has the largest collection of master artworks in the world by a number as extremely extremely famous people) You may know some of them: Leonardo Di Vinci, Michaelangelo, Botticelli.. you know.. just those B list celeberties. I only recognized a few works of art though. I'm not near as knowledge with art as I am with architecture. However, I definately recognized "The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli and "Annunciation" by Leonardo Di Vinci. But, you aren't allowed to take photographs in the museum and I could only manage to sneak one of the funky ceiling frescos in the hall. This was extremely difficult to do because there were like 3 photo nazis in every room (a room the size of 20 ft by 20 ft). I was dying to have a picture of the Venus painting, but I couldn't have one, so instead I did what us artists do best. I sketched a picture of it. I think that was probably actually better though, because that way I was forced to spend a little more time studying the painting rather than just snapping a photo and walking away 10 seconds later. Which I think becomes a common problem with a lot of people. We should all spend more time looking through our own eyes, instead of a lens. Don't get me wrong, I'll always take a billion picture where ever I go, but, just something to remember when taking photos.
After the Uffizi, I split off with a group and we hiked up to the Piazza Michaelangelo. This is a piazza (square) overlooking the entire city of Florence. Then we continued on up, even higher, to the San Miniato al Monte (The al Monte stands for on the mountain, by the way) And let me tell you, it IS on the mountain. It was quite a treck, but it was easy, because we stopped alot for pictures and things of the sort. The San Miniato is a pretty cool little church with an extremely large grave/tomb cemetary-like area which surronds the hill and looks out over Florence. It had some cool graves and an underground crypt and hundreds and hundreds of statues and "family houses". And it was more than one story, it was 3 levels of dead people. Crazy, I know, but it was really cool. And the entire thing was covered in flowers and arrangements of plants. That's the one big thing I've noticed in Italy, the can keep flowers alive in the winter! It's amazing! This entire treck from beginning to end took up our entire afternoon and only gave us enough time to find a pizzeria before we caught the train. It was a very successful day! And if you have more than one day to spend in Florence, I highly reccommend this hike! The view is definately worth it and it you have an odd appreciation for graveyards, you'll definately like San Miniato al Monte!
After the Uffizi, I split off with a group and we hiked up to the Piazza Michaelangelo. This is a piazza (square) overlooking the entire city of Florence. Then we continued on up, even higher, to the San Miniato al Monte (The al Monte stands for on the mountain, by the way) And let me tell you, it IS on the mountain. It was quite a treck, but it was easy, because we stopped alot for pictures and things of the sort. The San Miniato is a pretty cool little church with an extremely large grave/tomb cemetary-like area which surronds the hill and looks out over Florence. It had some cool graves and an underground crypt and hundreds and hundreds of statues and "family houses". And it was more than one story, it was 3 levels of dead people. Crazy, I know, but it was really cool. And the entire thing was covered in flowers and arrangements of plants. That's the one big thing I've noticed in Italy, the can keep flowers alive in the winter! It's amazing! This entire treck from beginning to end took up our entire afternoon and only gave us enough time to find a pizzeria before we caught the train. It was a very successful day! And if you have more than one day to spend in Florence, I highly reccommend this hike! The view is definately worth it and it you have an odd appreciation for graveyards, you'll definately like San Miniato al Monte!
2/09/2009
Florence
On friday, we went as a class to Florence with our Italian professor, Marco. He only stayed with us until about 2:00 pm and then we were on our own. A group of us were able to book a hostel for the night so we were planning on staying until saturday evening. When we were with Marco, we took us to the Duomo/Baptistery/Bell Tower and I saw several gypsies (one of which tried to spit on Wendy, the wife of one of the professors from the Santa Chiara program). So if you ever go to the Duomo, beware of the gypsie stationed at the door to the Capula (dome). Apparently she's known for doing this! Next we went to a few smaller not-as-well-known places: Dante's house/church. And he showed us the first "skyscraper" built in Florence (5 stories high). But then we eventually made our way to Santa Croce (Church of the Holy Cross). This church houses several tombs of extremely important people to the Italian culture (for example: Galileo, Dante and several other artists and people alike). This is also the church that is attached to the Medici family's private Chapel. For those of you who aren't history buffs, The Medici family was the extremely rich and powerful family that ruled Florence for years and were known as "The Godfathers of the Renaissance". They didn't have many friends in Florence and there were several plots to kill the Medici family members, so they spent most of their days in hiding and traveling through Florence in an elevated passageway so that they could not be reached easily by the hostile townies.
Okay, but back to my Florence adventures. So, at this point, after our Santa Croce visit, we were set free to do our own thing. Well the first thing we did was to check into our hostel so that we could drop our bags off (which were killing us). (By the way, a hostel is an extremely low-key hotel like establishment that is mostely for students who are traveling and its usually a share-bath, private bedroom situation) Hostels are much cheaper and much more rational for our travels, since we are never at the hostel. Afterwards, we continued our own tour of the rest of city. We stopped by the river so that we could get a good view of Ponte Vecchio (Bridge Vecchio). This is the bridge that is covered with stores, because back in the day there was law that taxed any store that was located "on Florence land", so these business entrepenuers found a loop hole and started building thier shops on the bridge (on water) so that they could not technically be taxed. Today there's still tons and tons of stores on the bridge, and they are ALL jewelry stores. So the second you step onto the bridge you are blinded with shiney dimonds and jewels from all sides. (And they are extremely expensive). But they do have the prices in the windows so you can always look and see the cost before you actually enter the store (most stores in Florence are like this). Florence has excellent shopping.. everywhere. So if you plan to do some good shopping, you should save your money for Florence. They are also known for their leather products and I saw some pretty awesome jackets and purses. And I was tempted, but I didn't give in! (But I did try on several jackets and some pairs of shoes) hehe.
This pretty much summed up our friday in Florence. When we woke up on Saturday morning it was sun-shiney and blue skies, so we were thrilled (because it rained the entire day friday and it was supposed to rain on saturday). We decided we'd better hurry up and make our way back to the Duomo so that we could climb to the top of the Capula to get an awesome view of Florence. So we did it, we climbed 496 steps to the top. (some of which was a spiral stair case and some of which spiraled around the dome and then eventually went staight up the side of the dome) It was a good trek, but fortunately we weren't too winded and if we were, we totally forgot the second we stuck our heads up out of the man whole at the top. With the bright sunny day, the city was absolutely beautiful! The red terra cotta roofs with the contrasting white stone buildings as just amazing. Our professor said that technically Florence wasn't a "beautiful city", but I'm disagreeing with him 150%. None of the pictures I took, although still good, don't do any justice to this view. So the one thing I would reccomend for anyone traveling to Florence would be, to climb to the top (its costs 8 Euros) but its worth that and much more. And you also get up close and personal with the frescos on the inside of the Dome as you are going up. They were within not even 2 feet of my reach and they are HUGE and insanely awesome! They depict the "Last Judgement" so theres angels and apostles near the top of the dome and down where we were walking there was devils and demons that were pulling the sinners down into hell (and in some cases eating them). It was way cool.
That mostly sums up our saturday, because after that we spent a good chunk of time shopping and then stopping for lunch and we hopped on the 5:00 pm train back to Orvieto. There were some things that I would still love to see in Florence, but we are headed back on friday again, so there is still time left to see everything else, and maybe somethings again. But I have one more peice of advice for those of you ever planning to visit Florence:
Italy is know for having excellent gelato (ice cream), which is more like a frozen custard/frozen yogurt, and they are tons and tons of flavors, all of which are amazing. But, anyways, in Florence some of the gelato stores have someone standing outside cooking waffles and the smell is very enticing, so they suck you in and the want to give you a waffle with your ice cream and then when its all said and done you end up owing over 10 Euros for an ice cream and a waffle. (This did not actually happen to me, but rather to another friend I was traveling with). So, avoid the waffle places and just go to a more hole-in-the-wall joint and you'll be much happier. You should look for somewhere that offered a medium size cone with 3-flavors for around 2 - 2,50 Euros. So, you sum up: beware of the waffle gelato shops, and the gypsie that stands by the Capula entrance to the dome.
Okay, but back to my Florence adventures. So, at this point, after our Santa Croce visit, we were set free to do our own thing. Well the first thing we did was to check into our hostel so that we could drop our bags off (which were killing us). (By the way, a hostel is an extremely low-key hotel like establishment that is mostely for students who are traveling and its usually a share-bath, private bedroom situation) Hostels are much cheaper and much more rational for our travels, since we are never at the hostel. Afterwards, we continued our own tour of the rest of city. We stopped by the river so that we could get a good view of Ponte Vecchio (Bridge Vecchio). This is the bridge that is covered with stores, because back in the day there was law that taxed any store that was located "on Florence land", so these business entrepenuers found a loop hole and started building thier shops on the bridge (on water) so that they could not technically be taxed. Today there's still tons and tons of stores on the bridge, and they are ALL jewelry stores. So the second you step onto the bridge you are blinded with shiney dimonds and jewels from all sides. (And they are extremely expensive). But they do have the prices in the windows so you can always look and see the cost before you actually enter the store (most stores in Florence are like this). Florence has excellent shopping.. everywhere. So if you plan to do some good shopping, you should save your money for Florence. They are also known for their leather products and I saw some pretty awesome jackets and purses. And I was tempted, but I didn't give in! (But I did try on several jackets and some pairs of shoes) hehe.
This pretty much summed up our friday in Florence. When we woke up on Saturday morning it was sun-shiney and blue skies, so we were thrilled (because it rained the entire day friday and it was supposed to rain on saturday). We decided we'd better hurry up and make our way back to the Duomo so that we could climb to the top of the Capula to get an awesome view of Florence. So we did it, we climbed 496 steps to the top. (some of which was a spiral stair case and some of which spiraled around the dome and then eventually went staight up the side of the dome) It was a good trek, but fortunately we weren't too winded and if we were, we totally forgot the second we stuck our heads up out of the man whole at the top. With the bright sunny day, the city was absolutely beautiful! The red terra cotta roofs with the contrasting white stone buildings as just amazing. Our professor said that technically Florence wasn't a "beautiful city", but I'm disagreeing with him 150%. None of the pictures I took, although still good, don't do any justice to this view. So the one thing I would reccomend for anyone traveling to Florence would be, to climb to the top (its costs 8 Euros) but its worth that and much more. And you also get up close and personal with the frescos on the inside of the Dome as you are going up. They were within not even 2 feet of my reach and they are HUGE and insanely awesome! They depict the "Last Judgement" so theres angels and apostles near the top of the dome and down where we were walking there was devils and demons that were pulling the sinners down into hell (and in some cases eating them). It was way cool.
That mostly sums up our saturday, because after that we spent a good chunk of time shopping and then stopping for lunch and we hopped on the 5:00 pm train back to Orvieto. There were some things that I would still love to see in Florence, but we are headed back on friday again, so there is still time left to see everything else, and maybe somethings again. But I have one more peice of advice for those of you ever planning to visit Florence:
Italy is know for having excellent gelato (ice cream), which is more like a frozen custard/frozen yogurt, and they are tons and tons of flavors, all of which are amazing. But, anyways, in Florence some of the gelato stores have someone standing outside cooking waffles and the smell is very enticing, so they suck you in and the want to give you a waffle with your ice cream and then when its all said and done you end up owing over 10 Euros for an ice cream and a waffle. (This did not actually happen to me, but rather to another friend I was traveling with). So, avoid the waffle places and just go to a more hole-in-the-wall joint and you'll be much happier. You should look for somewhere that offered a medium size cone with 3-flavors for around 2 - 2,50 Euros. So, you sum up: beware of the waffle gelato shops, and the gypsie that stands by the Capula entrance to the dome.
2/05/2009
My Adventures with Charlie
Yesterday evening proved to be quite the adventure for a small group of us. Rick and his wife Penny invited a few people over for wine and cheese after classes were over, so that they could start to get to know people better. Afterwards we met some more friends at a pizzeria called Charlie's Pizzeria. I've heard really good things about this particular pizza place, but hadn't been yet. Unlike a lot of the "grab-and-go" pizzerias in town, this was a sit down restaurant and you can order more than just pizza. (Although pizza is the norm). I ordered a tortelloni with ricotta and it was ...amazing! And as a group we also ordered some Tiramisu, which was also ...AMAZING!
After 5 bottles of wine (vini), we were the last of the crowd at around midnight. The servers/waiters/cooks/chefs that worked at the restaurant were all sitting and eating their own dinner. So we decided to invade their space and make some new friends. So we pulled up some chairs at their table and started a conversation. (There were 5 of them, only one spoke a small amount of English). However, it was crazy how we could still communicate fairly well, although at times they would laugh and I'm pretty sure they were laughing at us. But to be fair, there were times that we were laughing at them. So it turns out that the main man, Charlie himself, was infact the owner, and he ran the pizzeria with his brother and his son (Wiliam). (So.., we got in good with Charlie). After leaving, we walked home in the same direction as Wiliam (by the way, who is very young and still in highschool). And he knew only a few select words in English, but he talked A LOT. He told us lots of stories, which we.. kind of understood? :S But we did learn some interesting facts from Wiliam:
Orvieto has a lot of marjiuna.
They are communist.
He loves Katie Holmes.
His dad hates when he smokes.
There were some people arrested in Rome, Perugia, AND Orvieto after 9/11 because of their connections with Al Qida (spelling?) and terrorism.
He thinks that Bush = bad, and that Obama = JFK. :S
He threw up a lot of New Years Eve in the street.
I laugh now as I write this, because all of these random "stories and facts" were told to us by mostly signing and strange noises. (ex: a puking noise and action for throwing up, a gun and "bang bang" with the Obama, He grabbed his heart and pretended to pass out when he mentioned Katie Holmes.)
Nonetheless, it was nice to make some new friends even though we can't understand a word they are saying.
After 5 bottles of wine (vini), we were the last of the crowd at around midnight. The servers/waiters/cooks/chefs that worked at the restaurant were all sitting and eating their own dinner. So we decided to invade their space and make some new friends. So we pulled up some chairs at their table and started a conversation. (There were 5 of them, only one spoke a small amount of English). However, it was crazy how we could still communicate fairly well, although at times they would laugh and I'm pretty sure they were laughing at us. But to be fair, there were times that we were laughing at them. So it turns out that the main man, Charlie himself, was infact the owner, and he ran the pizzeria with his brother and his son (Wiliam). (So.., we got in good with Charlie). After leaving, we walked home in the same direction as Wiliam (by the way, who is very young and still in highschool). And he knew only a few select words in English, but he talked A LOT. He told us lots of stories, which we.. kind of understood? :S But we did learn some interesting facts from Wiliam:
Orvieto has a lot of marjiuna.
They are communist.
He loves Katie Holmes.
His dad hates when he smokes.
There were some people arrested in Rome, Perugia, AND Orvieto after 9/11 because of their connections with Al Qida (spelling?) and terrorism.
He thinks that Bush = bad, and that Obama = JFK. :S
He threw up a lot of New Years Eve in the street.
I laugh now as I write this, because all of these random "stories and facts" were told to us by mostly signing and strange noises. (ex: a puking noise and action for throwing up, a gun and "bang bang" with the Obama, He grabbed his heart and pretended to pass out when he mentioned Katie Holmes.)
Nonetheless, it was nice to make some new friends even though we can't understand a word they are saying.
2/04/2009
My classes
I'm sure everyone is wondering what my class load is it over here at the Orvieto Study Center. Well for those of you who didn't know, we took two of our own K-State Architecture professors with us. Our landscape professor is Rick Forsyth and he bought his wife Penny along for the ride. Our architecture professor is David Sachs and he brought his two sons (16 & 18) along with him. I am only taking 4 classes while I am here - 14 total credit hours.
One class is obvious: studio, which David and Rick teach jointly. We have series of 3 projects while we are here. They don't give a lot of busy work and the class is fairly laid back (compared to studio back home) due to the lack of technology and resources.
My second class is an exploration of architecture through drawing and painting, which Rick mostly teaches. (He's an excellent watercolorist). For this class, we simply keep a sketchbook and do 3-4 sketches weekly and then we will turn this in at the end of the semester. We are also required to do a "space analysis", and 2 "beautiful drawings" which is all due at the end of the semester. So as you can imagine, I am trying not to procrastinate, but I'm truly living the Italian motto: Don't do today, what can be done tomorrow.
My third class is Italian History/Culture, which is taught by Marco. Marco is a professor from the Rome area (his roots are in Umbria) and he lived for some time in Arizona. He speaks English well and he keeps us very entertained during his lectures. He has traveled all over the world and he enjoys showing us slides of the all the adventures he's taken. The only thing required for the class is to turn in a journal at the end of the semester.
My last class is Italian Language which is taught by one of the ladies who works at the Study Center, Roberta. There is nothing required for this class. Its a pass/fail credit and all they would like is your attendence. She speaks English, but doesn't use any during the class time. So, its difficult to understand and she teaches us as if we were 3-year olds. Which, in a sense, when it comes to the Italian language, we are. We play games and sing songs cut and paste a lot.
So as you can see, my class load is .... easy... and definatly not stressful. Its been a great break from the usual chaotic class load demanded of the architecture major. However, of course, the main source of my learning while here mostly comes from just being able to experience another culture's way of life. I've definatly already learned so much while being here and it has only been 2 weeks. I'm excited to see what Italy has in store for me!
Also, I have tried to post some pictures, but the blog website has had a disagreement with my images and refuses to post them, but I will keep trying anyways.
One class is obvious: studio, which David and Rick teach jointly. We have series of 3 projects while we are here. They don't give a lot of busy work and the class is fairly laid back (compared to studio back home) due to the lack of technology and resources.
My second class is an exploration of architecture through drawing and painting, which Rick mostly teaches. (He's an excellent watercolorist). For this class, we simply keep a sketchbook and do 3-4 sketches weekly and then we will turn this in at the end of the semester. We are also required to do a "space analysis", and 2 "beautiful drawings" which is all due at the end of the semester. So as you can imagine, I am trying not to procrastinate, but I'm truly living the Italian motto: Don't do today, what can be done tomorrow.
My third class is Italian History/Culture, which is taught by Marco. Marco is a professor from the Rome area (his roots are in Umbria) and he lived for some time in Arizona. He speaks English well and he keeps us very entertained during his lectures. He has traveled all over the world and he enjoys showing us slides of the all the adventures he's taken. The only thing required for the class is to turn in a journal at the end of the semester.
My last class is Italian Language which is taught by one of the ladies who works at the Study Center, Roberta. There is nothing required for this class. Its a pass/fail credit and all they would like is your attendence. She speaks English, but doesn't use any during the class time. So, its difficult to understand and she teaches us as if we were 3-year olds. Which, in a sense, when it comes to the Italian language, we are. We play games and sing songs cut and paste a lot.
So as you can see, my class load is .... easy... and definatly not stressful. Its been a great break from the usual chaotic class load demanded of the architecture major. However, of course, the main source of my learning while here mostly comes from just being able to experience another culture's way of life. I've definatly already learned so much while being here and it has only been 2 weeks. I'm excited to see what Italy has in store for me!
Also, I have tried to post some pictures, but the blog website has had a disagreement with my images and refuses to post them, but I will keep trying anyways.
2/02/2009
Rome and Cooking
So I got to go to Rome on friday! It was great and fortunately the weather was nice and sunny! We got to see:
The Colloseum
Arch of Constantine
Arch of Titus
Roman Forum
Circus Maximus
Capitol Hill
Jewish Ghetto
Fountain of the Turtles
Piazza Nuvona
Pantheon
Trajan's Column/Forum
Victor Emmanuel Monument
Santa Maria Maggiore
And we did all this in 8 short hours! The Colloseum was pretty amazing, but we didn't get to go inside (and I think we would have been waiting in line for 2 hours if we did). My favorite of the day was the Fountain of the Turtles. According to our professor, Marco (who is a walking history book) its actually the most famous Roman fountain it just doesnt attract was many tourists as the Trevi does. He also recommended that we revisit the Pantheon and go to the coffee shop named "The Golden Cup" and order the Granita. So we did. Apparently this is a frozen esspresso drink with lots and lots of whip cream. Its soo good and it kept us awake for quite a while!
Another food trama: we ate at a pizza restaurant and all it had were names of pizzas and a picture right beside it. A couple of us got what was called a "Pizza Napoletana". Never trust the picture. But I was pretty sure that Napolean meant a spicy type of sausage or salami. Wellllll, so we got the pizza and it had globs of something pasty on it. It was really salty and bitter. Not necessarily bad, just.. not what I really wanted on my pizza. Well I went back and looked this up in my Italain phrase book and it turns out that a Pizza Napoletana usually means: a pizza with cheese, tomato and anchovies. *long pause*............... yea... and I ate it all. Never again. But I guess now I can say I've had it.
Cooking Class with Chef Lorenzo at Cafe Zeppelin
Saturday was a full day of cooking with Lorenzo at his cafe, which is, yes, actually named after Led Zeppelin. We got there at 8:45 am and before the noon hour hit, we had already had 2-3 cups of coffee and 2 shots of liquor and 3 glasses of wine... and we were still had to cook our 4 course meal.... lunch. Yes, lunch. I was in charge of the chocolate moose. (which turned out amazing if I do say so myself) It was pretty easy though and I had a lot of help from the main man himself. But our 4-course lunch consisted of: Salad with cheeses, nuts, fruits and beef with bread, Risotta (um... amazing), beef stew and potato flan (also amazing) and of course, my chocolate moose. Then after lunch and being extremely uncomfortably full, we went to a winery and tried a ton of wine. Then to an olive oil press and ate some more samples of their olive oil and their spreads. ... AND THEN.. we headed back for our 4-course dinner prepared by the Chef's team of cooks and students. For dinner we had: Salad with artachokes and peppers, lasagna, a crispy crepe filled with pork and chicken and tomato and basil (again, amazing) and for dessert was an orange pie with lemon gelato (also... amazing). Lets just say that was some of the best food I'd ever had..... but I pretty much waddled home and felt like I was going to burst for quite a while. And I woke up this morning and didn't feel hungry til about around mid-afternoon. Mamma Mia!
The Colloseum
Arch of Constantine
Arch of Titus
Roman Forum
Circus Maximus
Capitol Hill
Jewish Ghetto
Fountain of the Turtles
Piazza Nuvona
Pantheon
Trajan's Column/Forum
Victor Emmanuel Monument
Santa Maria Maggiore
And we did all this in 8 short hours! The Colloseum was pretty amazing, but we didn't get to go inside (and I think we would have been waiting in line for 2 hours if we did). My favorite of the day was the Fountain of the Turtles. According to our professor, Marco (who is a walking history book) its actually the most famous Roman fountain it just doesnt attract was many tourists as the Trevi does. He also recommended that we revisit the Pantheon and go to the coffee shop named "The Golden Cup" and order the Granita. So we did. Apparently this is a frozen esspresso drink with lots and lots of whip cream. Its soo good and it kept us awake for quite a while!
Another food trama: we ate at a pizza restaurant and all it had were names of pizzas and a picture right beside it. A couple of us got what was called a "Pizza Napoletana". Never trust the picture. But I was pretty sure that Napolean meant a spicy type of sausage or salami. Wellllll, so we got the pizza and it had globs of something pasty on it. It was really salty and bitter. Not necessarily bad, just.. not what I really wanted on my pizza. Well I went back and looked this up in my Italain phrase book and it turns out that a Pizza Napoletana usually means: a pizza with cheese, tomato and anchovies. *long pause*............... yea... and I ate it all. Never again. But I guess now I can say I've had it.
Cooking Class with Chef Lorenzo at Cafe Zeppelin
Saturday was a full day of cooking with Lorenzo at his cafe, which is, yes, actually named after Led Zeppelin. We got there at 8:45 am and before the noon hour hit, we had already had 2-3 cups of coffee and 2 shots of liquor and 3 glasses of wine... and we were still had to cook our 4 course meal.... lunch. Yes, lunch. I was in charge of the chocolate moose. (which turned out amazing if I do say so myself) It was pretty easy though and I had a lot of help from the main man himself. But our 4-course lunch consisted of: Salad with cheeses, nuts, fruits and beef with bread, Risotta (um... amazing), beef stew and potato flan (also amazing) and of course, my chocolate moose. Then after lunch and being extremely uncomfortably full, we went to a winery and tried a ton of wine. Then to an olive oil press and ate some more samples of their olive oil and their spreads. ... AND THEN.. we headed back for our 4-course dinner prepared by the Chef's team of cooks and students. For dinner we had: Salad with artachokes and peppers, lasagna, a crispy crepe filled with pork and chicken and tomato and basil (again, amazing) and for dessert was an orange pie with lemon gelato (also... amazing). Lets just say that was some of the best food I'd ever had..... but I pretty much waddled home and felt like I was going to burst for quite a while. And I woke up this morning and didn't feel hungry til about around mid-afternoon. Mamma Mia!
1/28/2009
Italian Food
So I'm devoting this entry to the interesting food incounters I've had so far in Italy, and there are many more to come!
Pizza
Pizza. Italian pizza is wonderful. But don't compare it to America pizza. It is the similar idea, and some pizza is like your typical pepperoni or cheese, but not all (and by not all I mean 80% of the pizza available). My favorite pizzeria in town is just 3-4 blocks from my apartment on the main street, Via Corso Cavour, its owned by a lady in her 70's, who speaks you to in italian and just smiles a lot and I think she's beginning to recognize me, haha. So anways, when you enter a pizzeria they usually have several different kinds laying out. Thats what you have to chose from. You cannot request. You can ask what they are making and when a certain thing will be ready, but they make different things everyday and they may not be making what you want that day, so you take what you get. So today I walked in and asked if they were going to make and salami, and she said no, but margherita will be ready in 3 minutes (I didnt know what that was, so I looked up the word and it means daisy, so I'm pretty sure I misunderstood her, but them again it wouldn't surprise me if they had pizza with daisies on it). But my current selections for pizza at the time were either sausage with pototo, onion and some cheese (no sauce), or sausage with corn and no sauce. (when I say no sauce, I mean it doesnt have red sauce, like America pizza does). So I actually opted on the sausage with potato and onion, its pretty good, I'm enjoying it now. So not only can you find wierd pizza, but usually thats what you have to eat because they dont make pizza by order/request. (I saw french fries on a pizza one time!)
Oranges
So their oranges and clementimes are just like ours. They taste like ours and the outside looks like ours, but... they are red inside... yes not orange.. red. They are called blood oranges. and they really do look like they are bleeding when you eat them. I've never heard of these, but maybe we have them in the states? I'm not sure. I think they're fun.
Coffee
This is more a story of my ignorance rather than wierd food. So I went into an internet cafe called Blue Bar (they have free wireless as long as you order something). I wanted what we called in America a Vanilla latte. So I asked in italian if i could have a vanilla latte. The lady looked confused and said we dont have vanilla, do you want chocolate? Okay sure why not. And she asked again.. you want just latte? with chocolate? and I said.. "yes" and I was thinking.. "why is this a difficult concept?" Well I go my latte cioccolata and sat down and started drinking it. SURPRISE. its chocolate milk. And then I remember that Latte in italian means milk. No wonder she was confused. So I sat in silence drinking my chocolate milk like a 3 year old.
Pizza
Pizza. Italian pizza is wonderful. But don't compare it to America pizza. It is the similar idea, and some pizza is like your typical pepperoni or cheese, but not all (and by not all I mean 80% of the pizza available). My favorite pizzeria in town is just 3-4 blocks from my apartment on the main street, Via Corso Cavour, its owned by a lady in her 70's, who speaks you to in italian and just smiles a lot and I think she's beginning to recognize me, haha. So anways, when you enter a pizzeria they usually have several different kinds laying out. Thats what you have to chose from. You cannot request. You can ask what they are making and when a certain thing will be ready, but they make different things everyday and they may not be making what you want that day, so you take what you get. So today I walked in and asked if they were going to make and salami, and she said no, but margherita will be ready in 3 minutes (I didnt know what that was, so I looked up the word and it means daisy, so I'm pretty sure I misunderstood her, but them again it wouldn't surprise me if they had pizza with daisies on it). But my current selections for pizza at the time were either sausage with pototo, onion and some cheese (no sauce), or sausage with corn and no sauce. (when I say no sauce, I mean it doesnt have red sauce, like America pizza does). So I actually opted on the sausage with potato and onion, its pretty good, I'm enjoying it now. So not only can you find wierd pizza, but usually thats what you have to eat because they dont make pizza by order/request. (I saw french fries on a pizza one time!)
Oranges
So their oranges and clementimes are just like ours. They taste like ours and the outside looks like ours, but... they are red inside... yes not orange.. red. They are called blood oranges. and they really do look like they are bleeding when you eat them. I've never heard of these, but maybe we have them in the states? I'm not sure. I think they're fun.
Coffee
This is more a story of my ignorance rather than wierd food. So I went into an internet cafe called Blue Bar (they have free wireless as long as you order something). I wanted what we called in America a Vanilla latte. So I asked in italian if i could have a vanilla latte. The lady looked confused and said we dont have vanilla, do you want chocolate? Okay sure why not. And she asked again.. you want just latte? with chocolate? and I said.. "yes" and I was thinking.. "why is this a difficult concept?" Well I go my latte cioccolata and sat down and started drinking it. SURPRISE. its chocolate milk. And then I remember that Latte in italian means milk. No wonder she was confused. So I sat in silence drinking my chocolate milk like a 3 year old.
Funny Tid Bits from my first week in Italy
These stories are a collection of things I wrote on my computer while I waiting to have access to the internet for the first week. I thought you would enjoy. :)
January 20: (Settling the Score with Orvieto)
When we arrived in Orvieto we were given a map (a very blurry, not-so-accurate, almost coloring book-like map) and we split into groups with our guides so that we could take our luggage to our apartments. Our guide took Lindsay and I down some ally-ways, through some arches, to the left, to the right, to the right, left, right, and AHA there it was, no problem. Then she proceeded to leave us there alone and told us to meet at the Study Center at 1:00 and she prceeded to give us “easier” directions on how to get to the Piazza where the Center is. Well it went “go right, go right again and then straight and I PROMISE you’ll see it.” Well we found it within minutes, by a stroke of luck. BUT after the welcome lunch at the Study Center we wanted to show some friends where our apartment was. We couldn’t find it … we had the map… this had an arrow pointing to our apartment and street name… we enlisted the help of Ryan, Eric and Josh… we couldn’t find it… and to make matters worse… all the doors look the same (basically) and so we weren’t even sure if we’d recognize our door if we came upon it… so Lindsay just began stabbing her key in every door we passed… didn’t work….by this point it has become so absurb, because we were following exactly what this “map” was saying. Well an hour…. YES an hour later... we finally gave up and went back to the Study Center and asked for help. Well our guide had some troubles too but we finally found it…we were close but the map was missing a street because there are no street names on the map, so you just have to take an educated guess. But anyways… we got some really good laughs out of it and some really strange stares from the locals too. So I’m keeping score and right now it stands : Orvieto – 1 , Maggie and Lindsay – 0.
January 21: (Lesson learned)
Lesson: When you look for it, you won’t find it. When an Italian gives you directions, you won’t find it. When an English speaking Italian gives you directions, you will spend more time looking for it, but you DEFINATLY won’t find it.
I learned this while we were in search of the supermarket, called Coop. One of our instructors from the study center, Serena, gave us directions in class. They went as follows: “Get off funicolare, to the right, go …*random half Italian-English words* .. train station, through an arch… go straight. Its very easy to find.”
So we got off the funicolare, walked straight ahead to the train station, took stairs that went under the station and opened into a parking lot, walked through the parking lot, saw a tunnel that went under a road (aha! “the infamous arch”!), walked through a park with a lake, starting to get a little worried, walked across a bridge, more worried, walked about 100 more feet and stopped to ask for directions. “Dove le Coop?”. Non engliase! But we caught the word possimo, which means to pass through (thank you Italian language book that Eric carried with him), followed her hand motions and finally back tracked about a kilometer and we found a supermarket. However, it was not the Coop. But who cares at this point. So we went shopping.
We boarded the funicolare again at 5:30, which was about 2 and half hours from when we first left. The Coop is only located about 2 blocks from the funicolare. (We did find it on our way back, by the way). PS the Funicolare is the train that runs up to the top of the city.
January 24: The Market
So the market takes place on Thursday and Saturday mornings here from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. So today I decided to go to the market. Let me tell you something about the market. Its very overwhelming and very intimidating. You kind of have to push your way through the crowd and if you want something from a stand you have to push old ladies out of the way. (Don't underestimate old italian women, they are fiesty!) Then they yell somethings at you and give you a bag. Well the point is to fill your bag with whatever you want and then you give the bag back and they weight it and charge you. The good news is this is fairly inexpensive. I bought 3 oranges, 3 bananas, a zucchini, an onion, and 2 potatoes for under 3 Euros. (about 4.50). But I need to work on communicating with the venders, because I pretty much avoided the meat and cheese vendors because I couldn't communicate well enough to tell them what I how wanted and how much I wanted. Next time I'll brave that. There was also one stand that I was sooo tempted to buy from. I call the man who owns it the "candy man". Its a stand that sells all sorts of nuts, dried friuts, gummy candy and hard candy. So tempting. Next time, next time!
January 25: Night Life in Orvieto
Last night we finally got a chance to experience Orvieto night life. On the weekends there are lots of people out and about that are younger and closer to our age. There are also several bars and cafes to go to, but we noticed that they don’t usually start to get busy until 11:00 or midnight. The first place we ventured to was called Emerson and it was mostly a karaoke bar. It was very small but they had good drinks. It was a little different from you typical karaoke bar though. It had a t.v. in the corner that scrolled the words to the songs, but instead of show casing one person who choses the song, the machine played random songs, or by request and the whole bar would chime in and sing along. However, chiming in had its consequences. The fun loving women who were the “karaoke superstars” would find you and insist that you sing with the microphone if you knew the song. And they wanted to you to sing loud and proud! They loved it! And of course half of their songs were American songs so whenever the group of us knew the song, they wanted us to sing. I got stuck singing (very loudly and very badly) to “Beautiful day”. And when “YMCA” came on, they insisted that Meg and I sing along, but we didn’t know the words and the scroll wasn’t on so instead we made up the words and since they didn’t know English, they couldn’t tell anyways! After a few drinks at Emerson we headed to a quieter café called Vin Caffe. There were more people there that we knew so we got a couple bottles of wine for the evening. This café was nicer because they served you appetizers along with your wine. We received nuts and chips and then a little while later we got a plate of bread topped with some salami. Overall, it was a good night in general and I then got lost on my way home and I'm not exactly sure how long it took me to find my apartment. This town is tricky!
January 20: (Settling the Score with Orvieto)
When we arrived in Orvieto we were given a map (a very blurry, not-so-accurate, almost coloring book-like map) and we split into groups with our guides so that we could take our luggage to our apartments. Our guide took Lindsay and I down some ally-ways, through some arches, to the left, to the right, to the right, left, right, and AHA there it was, no problem. Then she proceeded to leave us there alone and told us to meet at the Study Center at 1:00 and she prceeded to give us “easier” directions on how to get to the Piazza where the Center is. Well it went “go right, go right again and then straight and I PROMISE you’ll see it.” Well we found it within minutes, by a stroke of luck. BUT after the welcome lunch at the Study Center we wanted to show some friends where our apartment was. We couldn’t find it … we had the map… this had an arrow pointing to our apartment and street name… we enlisted the help of Ryan, Eric and Josh… we couldn’t find it… and to make matters worse… all the doors look the same (basically) and so we weren’t even sure if we’d recognize our door if we came upon it… so Lindsay just began stabbing her key in every door we passed… didn’t work….by this point it has become so absurb, because we were following exactly what this “map” was saying. Well an hour…. YES an hour later... we finally gave up and went back to the Study Center and asked for help. Well our guide had some troubles too but we finally found it…we were close but the map was missing a street because there are no street names on the map, so you just have to take an educated guess. But anyways… we got some really good laughs out of it and some really strange stares from the locals too. So I’m keeping score and right now it stands : Orvieto – 1 , Maggie and Lindsay – 0.
January 21: (Lesson learned)
Lesson: When you look for it, you won’t find it. When an Italian gives you directions, you won’t find it. When an English speaking Italian gives you directions, you will spend more time looking for it, but you DEFINATLY won’t find it.
I learned this while we were in search of the supermarket, called Coop. One of our instructors from the study center, Serena, gave us directions in class. They went as follows: “Get off funicolare, to the right, go …*random half Italian-English words* .. train station, through an arch… go straight. Its very easy to find.”
So we got off the funicolare, walked straight ahead to the train station, took stairs that went under the station and opened into a parking lot, walked through the parking lot, saw a tunnel that went under a road (aha! “the infamous arch”!), walked through a park with a lake, starting to get a little worried, walked across a bridge, more worried, walked about 100 more feet and stopped to ask for directions. “Dove le Coop?”. Non engliase! But we caught the word possimo, which means to pass through (thank you Italian language book that Eric carried with him), followed her hand motions and finally back tracked about a kilometer and we found a supermarket. However, it was not the Coop. But who cares at this point. So we went shopping.
We boarded the funicolare again at 5:30, which was about 2 and half hours from when we first left. The Coop is only located about 2 blocks from the funicolare. (We did find it on our way back, by the way). PS the Funicolare is the train that runs up to the top of the city.
January 24: The Market
So the market takes place on Thursday and Saturday mornings here from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. So today I decided to go to the market. Let me tell you something about the market. Its very overwhelming and very intimidating. You kind of have to push your way through the crowd and if you want something from a stand you have to push old ladies out of the way. (Don't underestimate old italian women, they are fiesty!) Then they yell somethings at you and give you a bag. Well the point is to fill your bag with whatever you want and then you give the bag back and they weight it and charge you. The good news is this is fairly inexpensive. I bought 3 oranges, 3 bananas, a zucchini, an onion, and 2 potatoes for under 3 Euros. (about 4.50). But I need to work on communicating with the venders, because I pretty much avoided the meat and cheese vendors because I couldn't communicate well enough to tell them what I how wanted and how much I wanted. Next time I'll brave that. There was also one stand that I was sooo tempted to buy from. I call the man who owns it the "candy man". Its a stand that sells all sorts of nuts, dried friuts, gummy candy and hard candy. So tempting. Next time, next time!
January 25: Night Life in Orvieto
Last night we finally got a chance to experience Orvieto night life. On the weekends there are lots of people out and about that are younger and closer to our age. There are also several bars and cafes to go to, but we noticed that they don’t usually start to get busy until 11:00 or midnight. The first place we ventured to was called Emerson and it was mostly a karaoke bar. It was very small but they had good drinks. It was a little different from you typical karaoke bar though. It had a t.v. in the corner that scrolled the words to the songs, but instead of show casing one person who choses the song, the machine played random songs, or by request and the whole bar would chime in and sing along. However, chiming in had its consequences. The fun loving women who were the “karaoke superstars” would find you and insist that you sing with the microphone if you knew the song. And they wanted to you to sing loud and proud! They loved it! And of course half of their songs were American songs so whenever the group of us knew the song, they wanted us to sing. I got stuck singing (very loudly and very badly) to “Beautiful day”. And when “YMCA” came on, they insisted that Meg and I sing along, but we didn’t know the words and the scroll wasn’t on so instead we made up the words and since they didn’t know English, they couldn’t tell anyways! After a few drinks at Emerson we headed to a quieter café called Vin Caffe. There were more people there that we knew so we got a couple bottles of wine for the evening. This café was nicer because they served you appetizers along with your wine. We received nuts and chips and then a little while later we got a plate of bread topped with some salami. Overall, it was a good night in general and I then got lost on my way home and I'm not exactly sure how long it took me to find my apartment. This town is tricky!
1/26/2009
Welcome to Orvieto!
I arrived in Rome 6 days ago and made my way to Orvieto. I have been here for almost a week and I am still getting settled in. The first week mainly consisted of orientation and tours so that we could get to know the town and our Study Center better. We were able to visit Rome on friday for the first time! We were able to visit St. Peter's, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. We are headed back to Rome this friday too to visit the ancient city and the Colosseum. Today is my first day of official class and I'm excited to see what the Study Center has in store for me!
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