Venezia

Venice, in a word, was amazing, incredible, perfect, beautiful, pristine, a little dreary, and all around wonderful. Who am I kidding? I can’t describe Venice in one word! Last weekend, Christy, Patricia, David, and I all took a train up to Venice. The train ride was about two and half hours, but it went by quickly because the views were beautiful from the train and because we were sitting next to Fernando, a good looking Spaniard who was making us practice our Spanish for once instead of our Italian. It kind of sucks that since I have been here speaking Italian this whole time that I can no longer find the words for things in Spanish, only Italian. I have heard that it is very hard to be able to speak both languages, and I agree, they are just too similar. Anyways, we got to Venice mid morning, and I immediately loved everything about it! We went on a bit of a dreary, cold, foggy day, but that worked to our advantage because there were hardly any tourists there. I had heard that Venice was smelly, dirty, crowded, and gross. But I never saw any of that. There was hardly any trash around (this might because I am used to Florence which can get pretty dirty…), it didn’t smell at all, and the water was a beautiful color of blueish green. I think I was expecting something more like the river walk where there is brown trashy water. But, this was no San Antonio, this was Venice!!! We decided to first visit St. Mark’s Square, which happened to be on the complete opposite side of town. We could have taken a gondola ride, but it was just too expensive! They jack up the prices because it’s such a “tourist” thing to do now and Europe likes to take tourists for all they have… So, we found our way walking around the city, over bridges, and through some of the tiniest allies I have ever seen!! It was actually quite easy to get around town by foot, although the streets are a joke there because they were built around the canal system. If you ever see a map of Venice, you will know what I am talking about. There are bridges that just stop at someone’s front door step and streets that start out of the middle of no where. It’s quite comical to try to walk in a direct route anywhere in Venice. But, we made it to St Mark’s and got to see a large portion of the city in the process. St. Mark’s was absolutely beautiful. The flying rats (pigeons) that cover the piazza: not so beautiful. The pigeons there are absolutely crazy!! I thought Florence had a problem with flying rats. Nope, Venice has a bigger one. People think it’s fun to feed these gross things, so they constantly fly up to you and land on you and are really brave little suckers. I just ran through them all and watched them fly away, that was my fun for the day. But, the church was absolutely amazing, inside and out. Inside, the ceilings and floors are covered in elaborate mosaics. The floor mosaics are made out marble and the ceilings are done in gold teseri. I doubt it’s real gold, but maybe...it is Venice after all. After we saw St. Mark’s square we did a little more walking around and found a pizzeria that made us a special margarita pizza (because we are awesome…just kidding, I don’t know why.) But it was a darn good pizza. It made me like Venice even a little more. Then we some how found our way back to the other side of the city, to the harbor (although the whole city is basically a harbor…) and we took a water taxi (which is really just like a giant ferry) over to the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano is where the famous Murano blown glass is from (hence the name…) and Burano is famous for their lace. We only stopped very briefly in Murano because it has gotten very touristy since they became known for their glass. However, since Burano is a little more out of the way, it was basically deserted! This was an incredible island! It used to be a very successful and popular fishing town inhabiting over 22,000 people. Now less than 6,000 people live there. (I will one day make it 6,001…) This island was beautiful though. All the houses are painted in bright colors so that when the fishermen come home in the fog or dark, they can still find their house. (So the old story goes…) But it was like being in Venice, because everything was still navigated by canals, but the houses and buildings were painted absurd colors! It was so beautiful and we ended up staying there until dark. If I didn’t find lace so tacky, I probably would have purchased some because their lace working skills were quite incredible! After we came back on the water taxi, we had just enough time to do a little souvenir shopping before we embarked on what became a nightmare of a trip home. We bought cheaper tickets on way home because we didn’t have any place to be and therefore could take a little bit longer. But cheaper tickets meant we had to switch trains in Bologna. Well, that turned out to be a slight issue seeing as how there was a train wreck and all the incoming trains were four hours late. At this point it was already 10 PM (or 22:00 if you’re from Italy) so I was exhausted! We finally, after talking to about twenty different conductors, found the only train that was going to Florence and hopped on it. It turned out to be a sleeper train, so we had to move around to five different cars until we finally found seats. The final part of the journey was that the train didn’t stop at the right train station and we missed the last train to the other station (which is literally two blocks from home). So, we got to walk for an hour before our journey finally came to an end. So, basically, it was a little stressful at the end, to say the least, but I wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world!!!

London Calling...

London was one of the best trips I have taken since I have been here. Although I guess I start every blog with that. We left way too early on Friday morning, but it was good because it got us to London by 9, so we could start our day. The first day we were there we took a walking tour of the downtown area, which might as well be called Times Square. It’s all modern architecture with a giant bright screen that flash advertisements just like New York City. But, after we walked around downtown, we went to Covent Garden Market, a really cool market with very expensive stores. Well, everything is very expensive there because the dollar to pound ratio is a bit ridiculous! But, this was a great market because there are street performers everywhere. Some were really good – doing amazing magic tricks like making melons appear out of no where. But some were quite awful cross dressing comedians who didn’t happen to be funny, but happened to have hairy stomachs shown off by their belly shirts. So, it was great for people watching and absorbing some of the funky culture of the area. That evening, we went and had dinner at a great pub, The Coal Hole, (recommended by my friend Damien!) in down town London. I had a fabulous wild mushroom and asparagus pie. London’s famous for their pies. Afterwards, we headed down to the “hip” area, where all the night life is. We got to see some half naked transvestites pole dancing. Highlight of my night. Haha. We hung out with a friend of mine’s cousin, who was studying abroad in London this semester, so she was able to show us around some. But we were too tired to really stay out that late.
Saturday was my favorite day of the trip. We started off (too early…) at the National Gallery. This was possibly one of the best painting collections in the world. Every room you went into had famous names splashed over every wall. There were whole rooms dedicated to some of the best painters in the world: Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rapheal, Titian, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Monet, Seurat, Cezanne, Van Gogh…the list goes on and on and there were about 70 rooms of these paintings. I probably could have spent a good week and half just in the museum. We also got to see The British Museum, which was great and full of everything England has stolen in the past thousands of years. Including one of the crystal skulls that the new Indiana Jones was written about. (Who knew that didn’t just jump out of George Lucas’s head??) After the museums, we took a stroll through St. James’s park. This was such a beautiful area! However, there were nasty geese/pigeons/ducks everywhere! (And, no, I don’t mean that they were mutant animals, just that there were all of those birds everywhere.) St. James’s park is one of the only areas in London where it’s legal to feed the birds, so they sort of flock there. There was even an old man feeding squirrels out of his hand. But, St. James’s ends at Buckingham Palace (with the flag raised which meant the queen was actually there…) where we got to watch the changing of the guards. This was a cool experience, but a little over the top if you ask me. I mean, twice a day there’s a huge parade all because the soldiers were going off duty. I hope there’s a parade every day for me when I get off work. Anyways, it was a cool experience. After the changing of the guards, we headed to the Tower of London. We got to go inside and do the full tour of the whole tower and castle. Got to see the crown jewels, the ancient weapons, crowns, and armory of the past kings and queens, as well as great views of The London Bridge (which, oddly enough, was NOT falling down…sad day.) and the modern architecture of London. After the tower tour, we went back to the main square to figure out what we were going to do for the evening. We wanted to get Mamma Mia! tickets, but they were all sold out, I’m assuming because the movie made it a bit more popular. But, it ended up working out for the best, because we got tickets to see Wicked instead. This was definitely my favorite part of the trip! We had a hell of a time actually getting to the theatre, because our bus stopped half way there and we were told it was only going to take 20 minutes to walk there when in reality it took 45 minutes to jog there. However, we made it, a little late, but we still got to see the show! This is seriously one of the best musicals I have ever seen! The costumes are incredible, the set is even more impressive, and the two female leads have voices that give you goose bumps every time they opened their mouths!! It was “London’s number 1 musical,” so our little gay ticket seller told us, and I can totally see why! I unfortunately asked the stupid question of “do you think when you see it in the states, the actors all have British accents?” Apparently the answer to that was no. I guess I was just thinking of Spamalot…
Sunday was a short day because we had to get to the nightmare that was the London airport in the afternoon. However, we were still able to cram in so much! We got to see Westminster Abby, Big Ben, and the London Eye, because they are all like a block from each other, who knew, right? And then we got to go up to Camden Road Market, which was an incredible open air market that had everything from things for hippies, goth, and punk rockers, as well as antiques. There was a huge area with foods from every country. (Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Argentinean, Brazilian, Jamaican, Turkish, etc. etc.) It was a really cool place to go people watch, but it was also a great place to shop because the prices were really reasonable (even for the pound!) Plus it was cool because most of the stuff was hand made and all the artists and artisans just sat around making their products all day long.
So, the trip was amazing. The weather held off quite well. It was very cold (yes, I’m from Texas…) the whole time, but it only rained a little bit on Sunday, and we were basically in the airport by that time. I think the best thing about the trip was the people. Everyone in London was so happy, helpful, and just plain kind. Even the people who in America are total jerks, like security guards, policemen, and airport workers, were insanely nice and wanting to be as helpful as possible. It’s a nice change from Italy where people are a bit more hostile and definitely an amazing change from America! I think we should take a note from the Brits and start going out of our way to be friendly!

Calcio

Last Wednesday, me and a few friends finally went to a soccer game here in Florence. It was quite the experience, to say the least. We bought the cheapest tickets possible, because that’s how I roll, but it ended up being really good. We ended up on the first row, separated from the field by only a thin sheet of glass. The entire crowd, including us, was in purple (Fiorentina’s color!), except for a small portion wearing red (Munich’s color…BOO). Munich was the team they were playing and they actually had a large portion of fans in their section, which had to be sectioned off by glass as well, and then guarded by a ton of police in hurt-your-eyes yellow vests, making sure no fights broke out. Apparently, we went to a good game, because Munich is a big rival of Fiorentina, and there were really good yelling matches between the two teams. When we arrived, my favorite player, Mutu, ended up scoring the first goal within the first ten minutes. That’s why he’s my favorite. Well, that, and the fact that he’s ridiculously good looking. So, the rest of the game was a little bit boring, besides the man standing behind us yelling obscenities in Italian. I swear even the worst and ugliest of words sound amazing in Italian. The man standing behind us was constantly yelling “Vaffanculo!” (Pronounced va-fawn-coo-lo) And, this sounded so beautiful, regardless of the fact that he was yelling the worst obscenity that exists in the Italian language. Well, in the last twenty minutes of the game, Munich ended up scoring on a cheap shot (I’m not biased at all…) so the game got pretty intense. But, it ended up being a tie, so all was good and everyone went home happy-ish. So, that was my Italian soccer experience. Despite what some think, there was no cheating. Italians don’t cheat at soccer. Haha. There were quite a few obscenities yelled, lots of purple, lots of really great soccer, and a really good time had by all.

Americans in Italy for Obama

Last night, Christy and I went to a theatre outside of Florence called Sachall.  There was an all night election party going on for anyone who wanted to go.  It was put on by the Tuscan American Association.  Yes, apparently that exists.  We arrived after dinner (which is like 10:30 here because they don't eat until 8:30 or 9) but it was really interesting!  There were hundreds of people at this event!  Students, ex-pats, older couples on vacation, Florentines, and other Europeans.  It was so not what I was expecting.  I guess I just didn't realize how many people are wrapped up in the decisions that our country is making.  There was a ton of free food.  Crappy American food like McDonalds and donuts, but hey, it was free.  There was also free wine, because, duh, we're in Italy!   Live country and western bands played all evening until the race started getting intense, because apparently that's the most "American" music they could think of.  And there were lots of raffles with the grand prize being an all expensive paid trip to America.  But, before the race started, they took an electronic vote of who you wanted to win and 85% of both Americans and Europeans said Obama.  There were shirts and buttons being past out that said "Americans in Italy for Obama," and poor John McCain didn't even have a booth.  I'm pretty sure all his supporters left when they saw the odds were against them.  But, it was surreal to be in a foreign country and seeing how much everyone cares for my country and just how much one decision mattered.  Whenever they would show Obama winning a state the entire room would burst into applause and cheering.  But when they showed McCain everyone booed and flicked off the monitors.  (I didn't ever say the Florentines were classy...)  It was so funny, and a really great experience.  Unfortunately everyone got kicked out at 4 AM because the party had to end before the final results came in, but it was such a fun night!  Or morning...   had a blast and hope that things can start changing in America.  Or else I'm moving here.  :)

Il Tanto

This past week has been exhausting and exciting and perfect! My family met me here in Florence last Sunday afternoon (well, some of them didn't actually make it here until Monday. Damn the French. It wasn't their fault, but I feel as though I need to blame them for everything now.) We hit the ground running and never actually stopped moving until they were safely on the airplane home. They visited me for a week, but it only seemed like a few short days because the time flew by so quickly.

The first few days we had time in Florence to do a little sightseeing. Oh, did I say a little? Opps. Basically we saw almost everything Florence had to offer in two/three days... We had a guided tour of the Accademia (definitely even cooler once you know what everything in the museum is) went to Santa Croce, Santa Spirito, Piazza le Michelangelo, Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, and alot of other places that I can't really remember right now...

Then we went to Chianty. We got a tour of the vineyards from our private guide Guido. Whose name means "guide" in English. Coincidence? I think not. The vineyard was beautiful, despite the rain, and we got to have a fabulous meal of cingàle (wild boar) and lots of vine. Then we got to go into the wine tasting room and taste even MORE wine, grappa (a very strong liquor made from the skins of the grapes), homemade olive oil and the best tasting balsamic vinegar that they make at the vineyard. It takes something like 7 years to make balsamic vinegar right. (I wasn't really listening to that part...I think Colleen and I were distracting each other...) We then left that vineyard and visited a town called Montefiori (Mountain Flower) that only has something like 100 residents. It was an ancient medieval town with the original stone walls still surrounding it. We went inside a small wineshop and I attempted to converse in Italian with the cutest little old man who owned the store and made his own wine with his sons. We got free tastings of three of his wines from 2004 and 2005. I was definitely a fan of these wines, but it may have had something to do with the little old man serving them. After we drank wine he handed me his card and then started telling me to look him up on facebook. Yes, a tiny mountain village in Italy with only 100 people living in, and this old man tells me to find him on facebook. Priceless.

On Thursday we went to Rome, which was possibly one of my favorite days. We started at six in the morning and didn't stop again until we were back on the train at eight thirty that evening. We received a guided tour through the Vatican by Brenda, a former American who now lives in Rome and does research for the Vatican about Christianity and some other big words I didn't really understand. But, she was incredible and so knowledgeable! We got to see the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel, (which I may or may not have taken an illegal photo of...) and St. Peters. It was such a great tour! Then we left Brenda and was shown around the rest of the town by Julio (pronounced 'jew-lee-o', NOT 'who-lee-o' like my dad kept trying to call him...) I was not so impressed by Julio because he kept telling me the things I had learned in class was wrong. And I think I might believe Jeff Fontana who has a degree in the subject rather than this tour guide who writes fiction novels... But, anyways. We got to see the Pantheon, the Colosseum, Trevee Fountain (which I still don't know how to spell...) and the Spanish steps. I saw everything I wanted to see in Rome except for a few art museums that I might have to go back for later, but somehow we did it all in a day!!

On Saturday, my mom's birthday, we went to Cinque Terre. The five villages along the west coast of Italy that is now a National Park. It was so beautiful! These villages are very tiny, with only a few houses, restaurants, hotels, and shops, with narrow winding roads that connect them together. Each town is a little different than the next, but they are all right on the coast and all painted brightly to stand out among the dark stone cliffs. There are also hiking trails that connect them all together, but unfortunately the rain that had hit Florence all the previous week had made the trails too dangerous, so they were closed. However, we were able to drive to three of the five and explore the towns, take a ton of photos, have a FANTASTIC lunch of pesto pasta and pizza, (since these towns are known as the birth place of pesto) and toast to my mom's birthday with some lemoncello on the beach.

The week was so amazing and flew by entirely too fast! I miss my family alot, but I realize I only have less than two months left to see everything else I haven't gotten to see and to make some of the best memories I will ever remember! I am so thankful my family was able to come visit me and I hope they had an equally good time!!

Christy and Megan should not be allowed to travel alone…

So, these past two weekends have been incredible! But, seriously, Christy and I should not be able to travel together. Last weekend we went to Perugia to attend Eurochocolate 2008, the chocolate festival of Europe. (if you didn’t catch onto that one…) The school was sponsoring a trip, but we decided we would save money and make the trip by ourselves. Mistake number 1. We talked our good friend Ben into making the trip with us. First problem, we got to the train station too early. (or maybe late…) We thought there was a nine o’clock train, but it turns out there was only an eight o’clock train and an eleven o’clock train. So, when we finally got on the train, it took about two hours to get to Perugia. Once we reached Perugia, we realized there was another problem. We had no idea where the chocolate festival was taking place in the city, or how to get there. I guess we just expected to step off the train and have there be chocolate everywhere. Well, our friend Kellen was at the train station going to the festival too, but he got on a bus before us and told us just to get on a bus that looked like the one he got on. So, the next time a “coach-like” bus drove by, we hopped on. The only problem? This bus was actually heading to another town. We asked a young boy sitting next to us if the bus was going to the chocolate festival and he just laughed. So, we got off at the next stop, which happened to literally be in the Italian countryside in the middle of nowhere! So, we wandered around the Italian countryside for a while until we found another bus stop going the opposite way and only had to wait about twenty minutes for the next bus, but it was a stressful and all around hilarious situation, and even more funny that it happened to Christy and me. When we finally got to the chocolate festival (about three and half hours after we were expecting to) it was worth it! If I don’t have to look at chocolate for a good long while, I will be happy!! But, there were booths from all over Europe. The Swiss chocolate was probably my favorite. We got a lot of free samples, and I ended up buying some chocolate covered hazelnuts, which happen to be my new favorite nut since it is used in everything here!! There were really cool booths with chocolate everything, like a giant life-sized chess game with the pieces made out of solid white and dark chocolate! It was a very cool festival! Once we finally got there!

This weekend, we decided to visit San Gimingiano because we didn’t have too much time to take an entire day trip, since Christy needed to be back to cook dinner for our host parents. San Gimingiano is a small town on the top of a hill about an hour outside of Florence. So, we took the train there and got off in a little cute town. We hiked around a town and through the woods around old fortress walls and walked all around an ancient castle. It was a really cool hike and it was surrounded by beautiful views of the Italian countryside. But, as we were leaving, we realized that we had not actually made it to the town of San Gimingiano because you cannot reach that town by train. Only buses can go to San Gimingiano. Therefore, we had been walking around the town of Poggibonsi all day not realizing where we were or what we were doing. This is why Christy and Megan are not aloud to travel together. I might find some time to head back to see San Gimingiano, because I still do want to actually see the town someday.
On a different note, my parents are getting here this weekend!!!!! And not only my parents, but my mom, dad, Rachel, Aunt Anne, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Colleen!! Let the fun begin! I can’t wait to share my cute little town with all of them!!