I am the Estranged Member of the Von Trapp Family

This past weekend has been nice and relaxing. On Friday, Sarah, Michala, Mariana and I decided to go shopping in Firenze and take an oh so exciting trip to the super Coop, which is the large supermarket in Italy. It was very exciting to finally get some of our own food and get some much needed clothes for myself!
On Saturday, we had an organized trip to Lucca, which is a small town about and hour away from Florence. The town is uber old and the original defensive wall around the city is still intact. We went with a history professor, which was a nice change of pace because he was very relaxed. We only went into 2 churches and barely spent any time in there, a drastic change from our art history professor who likes to talk for hours about one painting.

Then we went to a famous tower that was built by the Guinigi family, which is basically the Medici of Lucca. Anyway, it had beautiful view of the entire city! It was strange though because there were trees planted on the top! The picture below is of Mariana and I on top of the tower.

This below is a view from the tower

After the tower, we went and rented bicycles so we could bike along the top of the wall. Thankfully the sun came out and it was so gorgeous! It was so hilarious too, because most of us have not been on a bike for years, so it must have been such a sight to see 20 girls swaying on their bicycles going around the city on a wall....
Those of us who got used to it quickly went around 2 times, which takes approx 30 minutes, then we followed our professor on a bike tour inside the city. It was a lot tougher to avoid obstacles on crowded streets with lots of people, children, dogs, etc. But it was a blast and definitely the highlight of the week! Below is a picture of Sarah and I on our bikes!

Today was spent at the villa, doing work and preparing for my two midterms this week! Ugh! So this Thursday, spring break starts for me. I won't be bringing my computer with me so I won't be updating for a while. I will be going to Oxford/London Friday-Sunday, then flying to Barcelona. I will be in Barcelona until Thursday when I go to Paris. Sarah and I will be traveling together in Barcelona and Paris and it should be fabulous! I will update once I am back from my adventures!!
Ciao!

Hiking in Chianti

This past Sunday, myself and a group of girls from the Villa took an organized trip to the Chianti region, to a town called Greve. For 35 euro, we had the whole day organized, bus trip to the town, an organized hike, lunch, lots of wine, and of course, a trip home! It was pretty cold when we were traveling to Chianti! We had to get up at 6 am to have enough time and waited for the bus for what seemed like forever! The bus was cold as well, but thankfully, the sun was out once we got off the bus and started our walk. The walk was advertised as a relaxing stroll, but it was quite a workout to go through the vineyards up and down hills! It was too bad that none of the plants were alive and full of grapes, but the countryside was incredibly beautiful, not justified in pictures!

After about 2 hours of hiking, we went to a little church and chilled outside absorbing the view and waiting for mass to be over so we could go inside. This is a picture of Liz, Jenny, and I in front of the church. You can't tell from the picture, but our uber sketchy guide was next to me promoting his club to other girls and asking us if we couldn't wait to get drunk. He was kind of insulting and I know now that some other girls in the program complained about him to the program.

Anyway, after the church, we were exhausted and ready for some wine tasting! We went to a villa in the hills that produces its own wine, and only got to really try the wine they make there. Thankfully it was wonderful! One type of white, two reds, and a dessert sweet wine. In addition, there were meats and cheeses all over the table, and we were served a funky cold bean soup.. bleh, but two types of pasta which were wonderful and chocolate biscotti. This is a picture from my view of the table looking down! We we're hungry!

Lunch was one of the longest ever... 3 hours! It became obvious that they didn't have enough for us to do, so we just sat and got tired after all that wine! But at 3:30 we got up and went to "tour" the vineyard where the wine we drank is from. It was a long walk and there wasn't much to see. It would have been nice if they described the process to us, but no... it was kind of lame for how much we paid, but the scenery was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun with each other! This was a finale to a wonderful weekend and now back to class for a few days before my next adventure!
Ciao!

All that glitters...

Ciao Ragazzi!
This past weekend I made a return trip to Venezia! This time, the entire group went with our Art History professor, Linda Reynolds. It was a very different experience and thankfully, much warmer since the sun was out!!! Below is a picture of San Marco, the famous church in Venezia with the hundreds of pigeons. These birds are the most disgusting things I've ever seen, and yet many people bring bird seed and try to see how many birds they can get to sit on their arms and head... ugh! They are super used to humans too, so they have no problem flying up to you, and I definitely wanted to kick one by the end!

Anyway, our first stop was Palazzo Ducale, where the Venitian head of government sat. The Palace is quite incredible with an enormous amount of detail and gold everywhere! It was fairly obvious that the Venitians were uber wealthy and loved to show it off! The coolest part of the Palazzo Ducale was the dungeons! There was a system in Venezia where there were these drop-box like statues on the walls so that a person could write down a name of a traitor and put it in the statues mouth and it would be deposited in a box on the other side of the wall, where a clerk would collect them and sort through the names. Each person was investigated and if there was really any speculation, they were pretty much condemned.... So we followed the paths of the 'criminals' and walked down to the dungeons. They were pretty neat looking, and pretty creepy when you think of the things that went down in those cells! But don't get the wrong impression, some of the prisoners lived the good life. The famous Cassanova and other aristocrats often had women brought to them and had feather beds and good food. This of course, didn't mean they weren't killed... The prisoners were then taken across a bridge to where they were executed and there is a small window in the bridge. The story goes that prisoners would look out the window, knowing it was the last time they would see their beautiful Venezia, and sigh... Therefore, the bridge is called the Bridge of Sighs. The picture below is Mariana and I with our headphones so that our professor could whisper and we could still hear her... apparently they are pretty picky in Venezia...

Next we were supposed to go to another church and watch the sunset from the clerestory level, but our professor forgot what time the church closed, so we sat bobbing up and down on the water bus (vaporetto) for 45 minutes until we figured out that we couldn't go in... ugh! So then we went back to San Marco and Professor Reynolds told us all about the church. Then we had about 2 hours of free time! This was fantastic because we got to wander and look in all the shops for gifts and stuff like that! I bought a really beautiful necklace of San Marino crystal for myself and a gift or two! Now we come to the best part of the trip! Our professor organized it so that we could see the interior of San Marco at night, with no one else there. We had to wait for mass to end, so we looked around the narthex for a while, the picture below is of the narthex. The entire church is Byzantine influenced, because Venezia had many trading partners outside of Italy. This, of course, means the entire thing is decorated and most of the mosaics are gold!!!

Once inside, we were not allowed to take pictures, hence the 'google image' I found below. We walked in and all the lights were off except for a dim one at the end of the nave. We sat in the first few rows and the turned off all the lights. It was quite creepy to only see red candlelight around us, but then they began to turn the lights on slowly. Unfortunately, words nor pictures can do the experience justice. It was one of the most awe-inspiring and dramatic things I have ever experienced in my life, and is surely one I will never forget. It's easy to understand how so many people were moved by this sight. It's indescribable and was just one of those moments where you're at a loss for words, very moving. Aside from the beauty, the technique and ability of the mosaics is baffling... I know I'm rambling, but it's fascinating that the entire ceiling is made of tiny bits of gold and glass...

After San Marco, the entire group went out to a pizzeria to celebrate some birthdays and then settled in for the night. The next day, we visited the Accademia, but we were all so exhausted, that our Professor cut the day short. A large group went back to Firenze early, but Mariana and I decided to stay in Venice and have a leisurely lunch and see the city. We got gelato (even though it was super cold!) and people watched at the Rialto bridge! Then we made our way home on a 3 hour train ride! Even though it was a whirlwind adventure... our weekend wasn't over yet... Sunday it was off to Chianti!

Piece a Pisa

So, I'm a little behind, but it has been a rough week. I had my first Italian test on Wednesday! Eek! (Not like every day at my host family's house isn't like a test) And Thursday I had two essays due, one for Government and the other for Producing Fascism (history), not to mention I am sick.... I wrote my government paper on the Northern League, a political party in Italy that is in favor of Northern seccession and is quite racist... it was an interesting case study. For fascism, I argued that the fascist movement was not a uniting force, rather, it left out a large majority of the Italian population... this is all probably boring to all of you, but it serves as a reminder that I am actually studying here! In addition to my travels!

So last Friday, myself, Sarah, Mariana, Jenny, Carol, and Liz all took an adventure to Pisa! It was a short train ride away and I must say, there's not much to do there other than the Campo dei Miracoli. We walked around for a while before happening upon the tower. It's actually a lot shorter than we all expected, and the lean is much more severe than I thought! I loved this picture below because the tree is leaning with the tower!

I, of course, took the picture holding up the tower, but the one below is much better! Jenny and I were not strong enough to push it all the way over, but we tried! Right after we took this picture, an asian family on vacation came up to Liz, Mariana, Carol, and I and asked if they could take a picture with us. It was very odd, and the dad was a little too excited to be in the photo! I still don't really know why... but it was hilarious!

After walking around, we decided to get lunch at a tavern-like restaurant that was super yummy! We then got gelato and sat in the sun relaxing before heading back to the Campo. We went in the Duomo (it was free) but the Baptistry was not, so we decided to head home. It was cold and windy that day, so we were perfectly content only spending a few hours in Pisa.

That night, I had my first experience in a Italian club... let's just say, Italian men certainly know how to play their sport well. It got to be pretty annoying after a while, especially when one guy actually used a pick up line on me! I couldn't believe people did that, but he said, "You have beautiful eyes, do you know what I see in them?" I was like... "uh, no?" - "My future." I swear, I started laughing and turned away and went back to my friends. I can't believe they think that works!! Anyway, it was a nice little adventure for one weekend. The next weekend I am off to Venezia again, but this time for class. Then other adventures I will describe in my next post!
Ciao!

Venezia (Part 3)

On Sunday, we woke up early to catch a train to Venezia for Carnevale!! Instead of paying for expensive masks, we all went to the 'Euro Store' and used sharpies and nail polish to decorate them! Not as fancy as some of the other costumes, but we had fun with them! This picture below is of Liz, myself and Michala on the water bus to San Marco.

Unfortunately, the weather was miserable in Venezia. Cold, raining, and way too crowded! My dad would not have been happy there and his part of me was ready to scream at some points! We'll say it was an experience! For most of the day there was a large costume contest and my favorites are the ones depicted below!

After hours of wandering around Venezia and seeing all the costumes, we headed back to the train station to go back to Florence. By this time we were quite tired and had a decent amount of time before we were back home in our beds! This of course did not happen until we endured a slow, smelly train from Bologna to Florence and the sketchy-ist train station experience with crazy hobos.

This week has been quite long since none of us really caught up on sleep, but nevertheless, things are still wonderful here! I am gettign a feel for the area, finally, but the language is still frustrating. I think my host family expects me to be a lot further along and I feel like my Italian class is going too slow, but oh well! I am trying as much as I can with four other classes to worry about. I am heading off for a day trip to Pisa this upcoming weekend - tomorrow actually, so I will post again once I have had that adventure!

Miss you all!
Ci vediamo!

Verona (Part 2)

Thursday night we traveled to Verona and had a low key night so we could be ready for our exciting adventure in Verona during Friday! Our first stop was San Fermo, which had the most incredible ceiling ever! Seen below! The fresco's were so bright and colorful and the overall effect of the church was really awesome!

Then we were off to the Roman Arena, the second largest in the world. It is in preety great shape and Sarah and I had a ball taking funny pictures! We had our own battle of the gladiators... I of course.. won !!

One of the reasons Verona is so famous is because it is the 'home' of the legend of Romeo and Juliet. Shakespear saw the house below and was inspired to write the play. So of course, we had to go and stand on the balcony and watch creepy tourist men grope the statue of Juliet.. apparently its good luck for them... I thought it was crude.

That night, all 20 of us from the villa met up for dinner at a pizzeria for a friend's birthday and had a lot of wine and dessert! The food here is still so fabulous, almost too fabulous!

Bologna (Part 1)

Ciao! Mi dispiace! It's been so long since my last post! There is nothing of substantial interest that occurs during my actual week days, and the last weekend I was traveling for three solid days!After a seemingly long week of classes, our entire group headed to Bologna for an art history field trip. We woke up and got on a chartered bus (which was wonderful) and ventured out into the rainy weather for our 1.5 hour trip to Bologna. In the company of our art history professor, who is slightly odd and a tad boring, we went to our first church, San Dominico, where the 'saint' is entombed. The reason why it is famous is that among the sculptures on the tomb, there are two statuettes by Michelangelo, an angel and David. The angel is below...

We then wandered around all the streets of Bologna underneath the typical porticos that are characteristic of Bologna. Thankfully, by the time we were walking around, the sun came out and it warmed up a little bit! Lunch was fabulous in Bolgona... no bologni for us... but yummy nevertheless! Afterwards we went to a couple galleries which unfortunately, were pretty draining. The paintings were beautiful, but Linda's voice is so boring and we were all tired from standing and walking around for hours!

Finally, we ventured off to the train station where we headed over to Verona! This is a picture of Sarah and Mariana, who I stayed with in Verona.