Capri…Italian for the most perfect place on Earth!

This past weekend I spent three days along the coast of Amalfi. I traveled, along with 45 other students down to the Southwest coast of Italy. The trip took about six hours each way, so there was a lot of down time to say the least. On the way down we stopped in Napoli (Naples). I was thoroughly unimpressed with Napoli. Naples is the third largest city in Italy, only to Milan and Rome. It is also the place where the mafia supposedly currently resides. (Although I think that’s supposed to be a secret. If I don’t make it back to America, we’ll know why…) However, it also happens to be the place where pizza was invented. Their pizza is fabulous!!! But, their city was very dirty because they are attempting to get over a trash strike, and there is so much crime there, I constantly felt on edge. Thankfully we only had a few hours there. Just enough time to eat a pizza, meet the prime minister, and have our first look at the ocean. Then we continued on into Maori, where we would spend the next two nights. Maori is a small coastal town, which is very hard to reach by land. We drove along side of a cliff in a giant coach bus all along the switchbacks of the Italian coast line. Every time we rounded a corner our driver would lay on the horn to announce to the world that a big ass bus was coming around the corner. And, if another car ever drove up at the same time, they were basically screwed because the one lane road didn’t really allow for large buses. So, that was an intense drive, but it was worth it! The coast line is the most breathtaking site to witness in person. These pictures will not even come close to doing it justice! Each small town that we drove through on the way in was more beautiful than the last. Our hotel was right on the beach and my room faced the ocean, so in the mornings I was able to watch the sun rise over the ocean…PERFECTO!! By the time we got to Maori on Friday, the sun had already set, so we only had enough time to run to the ocean and dip our feet in before dinner. However, after dinner, we went back down to the ocean with a bottle of wine to watch the moon reflect off the ocean. My friends Julia, Emily, and I ended up going swimming in our underwear. It was kind of cold, but the water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom – even when it was too deep to touch and even only in the moon light. The whole swimming in the underwear thing sounded like a good idea until we realized that we had no towel and it was really cold outside.

During the day, the ocean was so brilliantly aqua marine, it was indescribable. We had to be awake at 7 AM, but that gave me an excuse to watch the sunrise! We first had to take a small boat along the coast to Amalfi, and then we got on a larger ferry that took us out to the island of Capri. Capri is literally in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea with very few islands surrounding it, so it took forever to get to it, but it was worth the two hour boat ride because this was the most beautiful island ever. The second we got there, we got on another boat that took us to the Blue Grotto. This is a cave that when the sunlight hits the water, it reflects up onto the top of the cave, making the whole thing the most brilliant blue you will ever see. When we reached the entrance of the cave, it was not at all what I thought it was going to be. They moved us all from the boat we were in, into tiny canoes. I got crammed, along with seven other people, into a tiny canoe that I had to lay down in. The entrance to the Grotto was so tiny that our gondolier literally had to lay down on top of us to get into the cave. It was such a cool experience though because once you went through the tiny opening, the cave opened up into a huge room, where our tour guide bega

n singing to show us all how well it echoes in the cave. We didn’t get to spend enough time in the Grotto in my opinion, but it was an unforgettable experience! After the Blue Grotto we hiked to the top of the island and back down the opposite side so we could go to the

beach. It was so surreal to see the rich blue ocean meet with the tallest cliffs without any kind of transition or beach. While on the beach we went cliff diving, which was actually kind of scary, because the water was so clear that it didn’t look like it was deep enough to jump, let alone dive into the ocean. But, in reality, the water was about thirty feet deep! It was a crazy experience. I have never seen water that clear in my life! After swimming, we hiked around the mountains some more taking pictures and taking in the views. After Capri, we boarded the boat again, made a short stop in Amalfi to see their Duomo and crash a wedding, and then headed back to our hotel. In the evening, our teachers set up a beach party for us complete with a bonfire, tunes, and booze. (You have to love European’s ideas of schooling!)

The next morning, we boarded the bus entirely too early to go visit Pompeii. I was pretty impressed with the site, but for some reason I wasn’t expecting it to be so huge! We spent almost three hours inside and I still felt like there was a lot more I could have seen. It was very interesting to learn about Pompeii because I was so unaware about everything before. Silly me, I thought that the lava got the town, but no. Lava never ever reached the town seeing as how it is 10 or 12 kilometers away from Mt. Vesuvius. It was actually the toxic volcanic gases that suffocated the villagers, and the 12 feet of volcanic ash that buried the city. It was so interesting to see the town and all the people who were so unaware of what was going on. It was a little depressing to see. There was a dog that’s apparently famous, but it was tied up outside someone’s house, so it was all curled up in an awful position.

So, that was my weekend. Full of memories I will never forget, and sites I will probably never see anything like again. The absolute perfect weekend!!!

I cannot believe it’s already a week into October!! Where has the time gone?? I sill can’t come to grips with the reality that I am living in another country. I’ve heard that you finally get comfortable with everything about a week before you leave. Sounds about right. This weekend I was supposed to be in Venice, but a train strike stopped that plan. Thanks train workers, you probably should have asked me before you did that one…just saying. But, it worked out ok, because I got to see a lot of “tourist” spots in Florence that I have been dying to see.

On Thursday (and actually, again on Friday and Saturday) there was mini Oktoberfest in the piazza below our school. The school smelled delicious for three days!! They had a ton of booths from Germany and Switzerland, and a few from France. There was lots of German beer (of course!) and the best giant pretzels in the world, and giant wheels of cheese (that actually smelled gross…I know, blasphemy for a McCarty to say…) and a whole pig on a spit, LOTS of wiener schnitzel and sauerkraut, and really awkward booths that sold wooden porcupines. But, it was really fun to go walk around and smell everything and see all the fun, crazy drunk people dancing to German music.

The rest of the weekend we spent time hitting all the hot spots. We finally finished seeing the Accademia (David is one big nude dude…), finished the Uffizzi (Which I probably could spend four more days in and still not be able to take everything in), the Medici Chapel, and San Lorenzo Church. We wanted to go out to the Medici Villas on the outskirts of town, but we didn’t really know what bus to get on and we were not brave enough to just jump on a random one. Plus it was a dreary, rainy weekend, and I wanted to take pictures because it’s so beautiful out there. There are still a ton of churches that I want to see, since that’s where a lot of the most famous Italian Renaissance art is located. You have to pay to go into them, and our card that gets us into all the museums for free doesn’t get us into the churches. But, we have discovered that if you go to mass there, they can’t charge you money. It might be a little blasphemous to only go to mass to admire the art, but it is very interesting to sit in on mass in Italian. I love that they end all the services with “Andiamo in Pace” (Go in Peace). I feel like it sounds so much more elegant in Italian. Well, really, I think everything sounds better with an Italian accent. Even the Italian men who yell, “Hello, kiss me!” in the markets. They don’t really mess around anymore; they go straight for the direct pick up lines.

Next weekend is the Amalfi Coast, which I am so excited about!! I will have to add a ton of pictures to my blog from it. I hope the weather is good. We have been having a bout of nasty weather here. I hear November if ever worse…boo. It has gotten very cold here. Well, cold for a Texan, my Indiana roommate makes fun of me leaving the house in my giant coat every day. During the day it’s not bad because the sun is usually out, but in the mornings and at night it gets pretty chilly. This weekend was especially bad though because the rain came in as well.

My host parents invited us to have dinner with them on Saturday (because we don’t eat with them on the weekends usually) and we were supposed to make a desert for them. So, we chose to make banana bread because they both have “a little bit of diabetes,” as they like to say. It came out really good, considering we weren’t really sure if the ingredients we were putting in were actually right considering the writing on the boxes was in Italian. They have been fattening me up good! The other night they had to go to a dinner party, so they left us a “cold dinner,” which I didn’t think sounded good and was actually kind of scared of. But, this was seriously the best salad I have ever had in my life. It had a layer of proscuto, then a layer of lettuce (but not the normal Italian lettuce, because this had small, sweet leaves, and usually the Italians use arugola…haha Rach) then a layer of corn, then some cheese (of course, because we are in the land of cheese), then it was topped with olive oil and lemon. The most perfect salad on the face of the planet!! Then they fed us these unidentifiable fruits. They are green, with a leafy stem. But you eat them like an apple, and they taste awful!! We have been trying to figure out what they are, but there’s no translation in the dictionary, so I’m pretty sure they don’t exist in America.





Oh...and here's a photo of Mauro...

Under the Tuscan Sun

Saturday was possibly one of the best days I have had since I got here!  I am a total wine snob now.  Especially when it comes to the red wines.  In fact, like the Italians, I won’t even bother with white wines any more! J  I learned so much about how to taste wine, how to describe the tastes, how to smell, how to see the alcohol content of the wine…ect. ect.  We first went to Montecino, a small town North of Siena, about two hours from Florence by bus.  We were first able to tour the ancient Renaissance castle, which the main part is now used for wine tasting.  Then we got to taste our first wine of the day, a Brunello.  

Apparently this is the most famous of the Tuscan wines…I really had a lot to learn considering I had not even heard of this.  We had a 2003 vintage, which I liked, but didn’t happen to be my favorite of the day.  Although I shouldn’t put this wine down because it is possibly o

ne of the best wines I have ever tasted.  Apparently, 2001 was the best year for Tuscan wines and 2002 is “absolute piss,” as Mossimo, our guide told us.  After that, we went to Montepulciano.  Apparently, these two towns have a rivalry going with which one produces the best wine.  I think Montepulciano was best, but I got to taste more wines from the region, so maybe that had something to do with it.  We had lunch in a small restaurant that Jack Nicholson apparently frequents. (so says the restaurant, considering there are large photos of him on the outside…heck, maybe the owner just really loves Jack, who knows…)  We had a huge four course lunch with a different wine pairing for each course.  (Now should be the time to mention that wine tasting in Italy is a little different from in the states.  Instead of getting a sip which you taste and then spit out, the Italians fill your glass and expect you to taste the wine as you drink it.  All of it.)  Needless to say, it was a rowdy bus ride home! J  I had to try chicken liver 

pâté for an appetizer.  It was pretty darn gross.  (And to top that one off, tonight, Monday, Mauro prepared this delicacy for Christy and me as part of our dinner…I just can’t escape the pâté!)  For a first course we had Pici Bolognese, which is basically fat spaghetti, almost worm-like, but it was some of the best pasta ever! For a main course we had pork in a plum sauce.  And for desert, we had the best tiramisu on the face of the planet!!  I think my favorite wine pairing was the pasta course. 

Although I am still not educated enough to know why I liked that pairing more than the others.  After lunch we stumbled on out to the vineyards, where the wine we drank came from.  We got to walk through the vineyards, taste the grapes right off the vine, see all the casks (both metal and oak), and taste their special reserve label wine.  That was actually my favorite wine, but it also happened to be the most expensive.  What can I say, I have expensive tastes…  

But it was cool because the reserve label wines had the photography of a famous photographer from the area.  (Think Jones Soda labels to the extreme…)  The grapes from the vineyard were fantastic.  They were different from a normal grape.  They had very thick skins, which they end up using later to make a liquor called grappa.  And they are possibly the juiciest little morsels ever.  “They even tasted purple.”  Our last stop on the tour was Piensa, where the famous pecorino cheese is made.  The entire town smelled of cheese, which was actually not as good as it sounds.  But it was fantastic to sit, eating fresh cheese, watching the sun go down over the vineyards.  If possible, I will one day own a villa there.  It will happen; I just have to get famous first.  This was definitely one of the best Italy days.  When I pictured Italy in my head, this is exactly the type of day I pictured.

Sunday morning I participated in ‘Corri la Vita,’ ‘Run for Life,’ which was a run/walk supporting beast cancer.  (Well, supporting finding a cure for breast cancer… atleast I don’t think it was in favor of it…)  But it was a 5k that went up over the hill of Piazza le Michelangelo, through the woods, and back down over the Arno river.  It was a very beautiful run!  And such a fabulous way to start a Sunday morning.  Plus, we got free pot holders for participating.  We then ran into a parade on our walk home.  There were lots of men in hats with feathers, wearing plaid.  I thought it was their version of the masons, but no such luck.  Two men saw that Christy and I were dressed the same and still had our numbers on…so they struck up a conversation with us starting off with asking if we won the race.  (No, but thanks for rubbing it in some more…)  but they told us that it was a parade of the Alpini Soldiers.  These are the men (Well, these old fat men were obviously retired) that protect the Italian border of the Alps.  Apparently it’s a big deal, which we happened to know nothing about.  But the old men were cute and they took pictures of us and we got pictures of them…

We probably have the most interesting Sunday nights here.  Last Sunday night we went to Piazza Santo Spiritu, which we renamed Piazza della Hippie.  We had dinner and ended up staying for a concert because he heard the band warming up, and they sounded incredible and the lead singer spoke perfect English.  The bad played a lot of blues stuff like Blues Brothers, some Aretha, etc.  It turns out the lead singer was from New Jersey.  She was so funny because she was announcing all the members of the band, in perfect Italian, saying “on sax, Francesco… on piano, Luca…” and then she said “Mi chiamo SUSAN.”  Whitest name ever! Christy, Kellen, and I just looked at each other and said in unison, “Yup, American”… But we went and talked to her after the concert and she was a really cool woman.  She was a student here like us, over 16 years ago, and she ended up back here and hasn’t left.  I would love to one day have a story like that!  She was such a great sport through the whole concert too because there were lots of people there that were obviously very high or drunk or on something, or needed to be on something.  For some reason there were also quite a few people of questionable gender there as well.  We played a fun game called ‘Man or Woman?’  But there was one woman, who actually liked to be called a man, it turns out, who kept getting up on stage and asking Susan to dance with him.  It was hilarious!  Susan looked a little thrown off, but just kept on singing, until the person took the microphone from here to tell everyone that Susan is a lying American woman.  Possibly the funniest concert ever.  Finally the ‘man’ was thrown out of the free concert, but not before getting angry and throwing chairs.  Oh, Italy.  As Lindsey tells us, “This country is peaceful, but the people here sure have a lot of anger in them!”

Well, then, last night, we decided we needed to have a picnic up on Piazza le Michelangelo and watch the sunset.  So, we are sitting on a blanket enjoying our cheese and crackers, and a German couple walks up and notices that John, a guy in our group has brought his guitar with him.  The man asks if he can play it, and just starts busting out some Simon & Garfunkle, Bob Dylan, John Denver, and basically just puts on a little concert for us all.  His wife buys use three bottles of wine, which they consumed most of, and we just hung out having a picnic with the German hippies.  The guy looked a little like Willie Nelson, but his name was Axil, and his wife was Sabina, who had the longest blondest hair on the planet.  By the end of the night they were both pretty drunk and all the more entertaining.  Sabina kept asking John to play the Rolling Stones’s song Angie because Axil would never play it for her and she just loved that song so much!  She must have asked him like four different times.  Pretty darn entertaining!!  They were apparently camping up there with lots of other hippies.  Apparently that’s hippie central too.  We do know where to find them now!

Project Runway and Secret Tunnels

Even though it’s already Monday, I will fill everyone in on the on goings of last week since I have some catching up to do…I will split these into two blogs so it is easier to read because a lot more happened this past weekend than in the last week.

Last week was fairly uneventful.  I really love going out in the evenings here because there is always something going on.  On Tuesday night we ended up meeting some friends at the Lion’s Fountain, an English pub here – SO un-Italian of us…  They were having a guitar hero contest, which I obviously would have one if I had thought to enter.  Haha…some of you know of my amazing Guitar Hero skillz.  Anyways, we only stayed a few minutes at the Lion’s Fountain, because we are attempting to immerse ourselves in the Italian culture, not the British one.  So, we ended up back at our staple, the Jazz Club.  It was blues night, so basically whoever wanted to play could get up there and bust out some blues.  There was one group of boys who looked as though they couldn’t be older than 13 playing some of the best blues I have heard in a while.  It was pretty funny.  They left a little before 10, because we figured it was a school night.

 

Graphic design on Thursday was a ton of fun.  We are designing word art to be incorporated into the menu at a local restaurant.  We are also designing the menus for a special art show called “Food ‘N Art,” which I aptly renamed FnA…  But we are having a contest and whoever’s they like best is going to get to be the actual menu.  We are basically playing Project Runway, so my teacher keeps walking around saying “Just make it work.”  Haha…Jessie. 

Friday morning we got to tour the Vissarian Corridor, which is a long hallway essentially, that connects Pitti Palace to the town hall.  Pitti Palace was originally supposed to be built for the Pitti family, (hence the name) but then they ran out of money and the palace remained half finished before the Medici family came into power and finished it.  One of the Medici’s built the corridor as a gift for his bride, and now you apparently have to pay a lot to receive a tour of it all, or you just have to know the right people! J  This corridor was a way for the Medici family to walk safely from their house to their private art museum, the Uffizi, and then to the town hall.  Essentially, they never had to come into contact with the commoners, but they were also able to keep tabs on the workers below.  It was a really cool tour, and we finally got to begin looking at all the Uffizi has to offer.  Now the corridor is filled with self portraits from 17^th century painters and some more recent artists.  There was a Chagall self portrait which was my favorite.  But I just loved that I got to do something that I wouldn’t have normally seen had I just been on vacation here.