Beautiful Lucca, and Some Everyday Stuff.

Lucca, February 26, 2011. 

Michelle, Molly, and I again jumped on a train and headed out to Lucca on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Sooooooooo gorgeous here! I loved it so much! The most famous thing about this city is that the original city wall is still intact. So we were able to walk around the whole city along the wall.  There's not too terribly much to do here, but it's completely gorgeous and I would love to go back. The main thing we saw people doing was kissing. There were couples everywhere! PDA is so common in Italy, so it was not unusual to see two people sucking face on a bench. I swear I saw at least a hundred couples. Since none of us had a handsome man to love on, we had to entertain ourselves in other ways. After grabbing a delicious lunch of ravioli and tiramisu for dessert (yum!), we set  off exploring the city. Because of it's beauty, it's a perfect place to take pictures, and we took about 200 of them! It was a lot of fun. While searching for a bathroom we came upon a Plaza with a carousel, tons of people milling about, and a few boys playing soccer. After finding the water closet (Toilette), we came back to the plaza and snapped some pictures. In doing so, we found ourselves in the line of fire of children spraying each other with canned foam (similar to silly string, but foam not string...). This is typical during Carnevale. We escaped with our lives, and didn't even get hit with foam! Then we went back to the wall and took a few more photos, Molly tried (unsuccessfully) to climb a tree, we saw a man doing Tai Chi, and we saw more couples making out. All in all... A good day!

Everyday Florence

The other day I was scolded by my boyfriend, well more like lovingly reminded, that I should write in my blog more often. So this is my attempt to write as often as possible. I'm going to try and post once a day or at least once every other day. This is going to be quite a task because not only do I have homework, I'm also keeping a journal for my Italian culture class. I'm also trying to do as much as possible here! So, it's all about time management. 

I've decided that my three main goals here are to find the best gelato, the best tiramisu, and the best cappuccino. So far, my favorite gelato is from Gelateria dei Neri. It is only a five minute walk from our apartment and is absolutely delicious. My favorite flavors are chocolate, hazelnut, and caramel. I'm sure I will be trying more :) Other gelato places we have tried include Vivoli (super famous, and super close to our apartment, but really just ok not great), Festival del Gelato (a PLETHORA of flavors, I was so overwhelmed! The decor is my favorite so far, super colorful and bright, reminds me of the rainbow track course on Mario Kart...), and an unnamed gelateria near the Duomo (first gelato I tried in Florence, I got a delicious scoop of chocolate, just ok, nothing special). Places to try: Carabe, Grom, Perche No?, and any others we find! 

As for the best tiramisu, I haven't tried any in Florence but I had some in Siena and in Lucca... both delicious couldn't decide which was better.

Best cappuccino? My favorite so far is a simple little cafe right by our apartment called Caffe Mario. But some places I have heard are good include Caffe Giacosa (in the fashion district), Il Bigallo, La Loggia (both on Via del Corso), Gilli, and Donnini (both in the Plaza della Republica). 

So I'll keep everyone updated on my search! And will hopefully have a long lists of all "the bests" in Florence.  

As for food and wine... Right now we're trying to keep it as cheap as possible. We've only eaten out a few times, we mainly make food of our own. We're going to try to make our own pasta sauce and go out of comfort zone with a few other things too. And when it comes to wine, we go for cheap. None of us are big "wine-os" but we like to immerse ourselves in the culture and do like the Italians do. We did find a store called "Il Buffalo Trippone" which had a lot of good wine. But we got distracted by the delicious honey, jams, biscotti, and pasta that they had. Seriously the best honey I have ever tasted in my life. But we will have to go back and get some nice wine and olive oil. 

Siena, Viareggio, Pisa.

Siena, February 18, 2011.

I absolutely loved this city! It is super small and quaint but filled with so much history. This was a group trip with about 35 students, so we got to take a private bus and we had a tour guide. Let me just say, this is one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen. It's such typical Tuscan beauty, it's more of the countryside than Florence is. So we started off at a Basilica of San Domenico. At this church, St. Catherine, the patron saint of Italy, is honored. Her actual skull and right thumb are on display here. Super eerie and kind of strange but interesting nonetheless. St. Catherine is pretty popular in Siena because she lived there, we even got to see the outside of her house. Next, we got to walk through a bit of the city, and it was a beautiful day so it made Siena look even more amazing. We took a tour of their Duomo or Cathedral. It is absolutely beautiful on the inside and out. The sculptures and carvings on the outside are so intricate. The inside was so amazing to look at and had a lot of Byzantine influence so it had black (actually dark green) and white stripes. It was huge on the inside and works of art everywhere. Next we went to a museum with some more works of art, and then we got to climb up to the top of this building and we had an amazing view of Siena. It was so surreal because it was one of the most beautiful views ever. Climbing up was a little nerve wracking because of the narrow spiral stair cases but it was so worth it. After we were done with our tour, we went and had a delicious lunch of pizza and fried artichokes, and had our first Italian tiramisu. Delicious! 

Carnevale di Viareggio, February 19, 2011.

Viareggio is a small coastal town about 60 miles west of Florence and it is known for it's Carnevale celebration. It's not as packed as Venice is during Carnevale because not as many tourists go there, it's more locals. My roommates, Michelle and Molly, and I took a train there and it was about an hour and a half train ride. Then we walked from the train station to the main area of celebration, which was right along the coast. So we started our adventure off by going to the beach, which was a lot of fun. It was so beautiful and sunny. We then walked around for a little bit and got some lunch, which was delicious. I had the most amazing bruschetta ever, some delicious salmon, and grilled vegetables. Then we walked around some more and grabbed some gelato. By this time, more and more people were showing up for the festivities. After having a delicious crepe filled with nutella and a disgusting alcoholic coffee drink (definitely not for me), we decided to find a place to watch the firework show we had been hearing about. So, after dodging children spraying each other with foam and being pushed around in a huge crowd, the fireworks finally started. Best. Firework. Show. Ever. I can't even describe this moment. The fireworks were so amazing and were set to music. And we were wearing our Carnevale masks and watching the fireworks over the ocean and it was such an awe inspiring moment. I felt like I was in a movie or something, it didn't even feel real. By the end of the show, the three of us had tears in our eyes. We were all too embarrassed to start crying but we all admitted that we wanted to. After the show, we made our way to the train station. Extremely slowly at first, it was so packed that we could barely move we made a train and just pushed our way through. When we arrived back home, we had a surprise waiting for us. Our other roommate decided to have three boys over. I know these boys and they are all very nice but I wasn't really in the mood to socialize after a long day. Oh the joys of roommates... So we socialized for a little and went to bed. It's always interesting when you live with three other girls...

Pisa, February 21, 2001. 

After a lazy Sunday, we decided to have another adventure on our day off from school. So, we decided to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Michelle, Molly, and me hopped on another train and headed off for the touristy city of Pisa. We grabbed some lunch, which consisted of the most delicious veggie calzone thing and overpriced peach tea, which is super sweet and tastes like those peach rings. Then we headed off to find the tower. We walked for a little and then turned a corner and BAM! There it was all super anti-climatic style. But as we got closer it go cooler. It's really not as big as I was expecting but still pretty darn tall. The courtyard around it is super pretty with green grass and a Cathedral and Baptistry. We took a bunch of pictures, including the super touristy holding up the tower picture. Then we made the decision to climb to the top of the tour. We went and bought our tickets but we had about an hour to spare before our tour started so we went back into town to try some gelato that I heard someone claim is the best gelato in Italy. I don't know if it's the best gelato in Italy but it was pretty delicious. I had coffee and chocolate, yummy. Then we went back and made our excursion up to the top of the Leaning Tower. Alright, just to let everyone know, I have a bit of a phobia of heights. Ok, more than a bit. Walking up the tower wasn't really too bad, just a little nerve wracking because the stairs are so worn down but when we finally got up to the top I kind of started to freak. I don't even think it was the fact that it was so high, but it was the fact that the thing is LEANING and it's about 900ish years old. So we spent a little time up there and took some pictures then we made our way back down. Then we went to a souvenir shop and I went a little overboard. But Pisa is such a good place to buy souvenirs! 

So that was the end of our travel packed weekend. There are more stories to come... 

School and Museums

Boun giorno! Sorry it's been so long. I've been super busy with school and traveling! And all the other things involved in living on your own in  a foreign country. Since it's been so long I'm breaking this up into two different posts. This post is mainly about school and the museums I've been to. The next one will be about my extracurricular travels. 

For one of my classes that I'm taking, Social Science 300, it is all about Italian culture. For this class, every Thursday, and sometimes Tuesdays we go to a different museum or important site in Italy. Last week we went to La Specola and The Accademia Gallery. La Specola was one of the coolest museums I've been too. It's the oldest scientific museum in Italy. It is stuffed full of pinned insects, posed crustaceans, and "stuffed" animals. At the very end there is a human anatomy wing... but I'll get to that in a second. So the first room that I really looked at was the one with all the pretty butterflies and moths. I had an assignment for my Physical Anthropology class to find examples of sexual and natural selection, this was a good place to start. Some of those insects were crazy cool, with all their colors and defensive strategies. There were these butterflies that had transparent wings. Never seen anything like it. We also saw a selection of stick bugs and bugs that looked exactly like leaves. I skipped over the spiders and only just glanced at the crustaceans. Then we came to the mammals. Lots of cool animals to see. There was even a hippopotamus that was a Medici pet in the 17th century that lived in the Boboli Gardens. How crazy is that? The rest of the animal rooms had birds, monkeys, lemurs (a super cool and freaky one called the aye-aye). And a plethora more of "stuffed" animals. So now we come to the final wing... The human anatomy wing. All the figures in here are wax figures of real people. The wax models came out of the Black Plague. Over half of Italy's population was wiped out so these anatomically correct models were representations of Plague sufferers. I had kind of a hard time with this part, because I have a somewhat weak stomach, but at the same time it was intensely interesting. 

The Accademia Gallery is where the real David is. What a hunk... Haha. It was totally insane to actually get to see the REAL David, that Michelangelo sculpted with his one hands. It is the most surreal experience ever. I've seen two replicas in Florence already and nothing can ever compare to the real thing. It's huge! It's 17 feet tall. I have no words to describe seeing the real thing. It's also really cool to learn the historical significance of this statue, and what it meant to Florentines at the time. There were some other statues there by Michelangelo, however they are unfinished. There are four sculptures that mainly people called the Prisoners because they look like they are trying to break out of their marble. And then there is an unfinished Pieta by Michelangelo too. There are some other cool things too, but David was the most important to me. 

So other than going to some crazy cool sites I've just been doing school work. Haven't had too much homework which is good. And I've been keeping up on it pretty well, which is good so I can go travel on the weekends. And now on to my adventures....

The First Week.

Wow. I've already spent one week in Florence. That's so crazy. It's been a lot of fun though. In the first weekend, we experience an open air market and grocery shopping. It's so different here than it is in the US. But I think I'm getting used to it. The open air market is so much fun. Culture shock for sure, but there is a lot of good produce and cheeses there. The grocery store is actually somewhat similar to US grocery stores, but still pretty different. You have to weigh all your own produce and print out a price tag (I haven't done it yet, but have heard about it). I haven't attempted to order meat or cheese at the deli, but I'm sure I will soon.
On Sunday, I believe it was, we took two really long walks. In the morning, we walked across the River Arno, and took a bunch of pictures. Then we just walked up this super steep (at first) and long street. It took us past the Forte di Belvedere and the Boboli Gardens. It was really pretty. On our way back we walked across the Ponte Vecchio and looked in some cool shops, but didn't buy anything... Not yet...
Then in the afternoon, we walked up to the Piazzale di Michelangelo or something like that. I was not prepared for the walk up there. Literally about 500 steps up. Ok maybe not that much, but it was crazy. But the view is so worth it. You are right over Florence and can see everything. Then we walked up to the San Miniato al Monte (a chuch), which was beautiful and we went inside and heard the monks doing their evening vespers (chanting). Really amazing. It was such an experience.
This week we've been in school and it's actually been a lot of fun. I like all of my classes for the most part. My Italian class is all in Italian. It's super intimidating but I'm hoping to be able to pick it up pretty quick. My Physical Anthropology class is super interesting and so is my World History class. The best class is my Italian culture class because we're learning all about Italy's culture, religion, history. And we get to visit so many cool places. Today we went to the Uffizi Museum. Oh my goodness, crazy. So many works of art. I was overwhelmed and I didn't even get to the other floor.
I took a cooking class last night with some other people from our group. So fun! A little intimidating because I'm not much of a cook, but it was still fun. We made pasta, stuffed chicken, and biscotti. I helped make the chicken, which was sooo good. It was stuffed with spinach, cheese, and pine nuts. Then cooked with white wine and lemon juice. The pasta was so good, and they made it from scratch. To top it all off the biscotti was divine. I have another cooking class next week, hopefully I'll learn more!
We've only gone out to a "real" sit down dinner once. But it was absolutely delicious. There's a caffe right by our apartment that I go to like every morning for a cappuccino and a panino or "una pasta" (a pastry). It's so good. I've gotten gelato twice, and it's been delicious both times. There's also a Chocolate Festival at the plaza right by our house. We've gone there a bunch. So much good chocolate! I love it!
Well I think that's it for right now. I have limited internet access at the moment so that's why I haven't updated lately. We're hopefully getting wi-fi tomorrow! So I can update more.

The Flight Pt. 2/ Settling In

So I finally made it to Florence! The flight from Paris to Florence was super quick and painless. I even got to see the Eiffel Tower from the plane. The most exciting part was the cab ride from the airport to the apartment. The cab drivers are crazy here! They don't pay attention to the lines, it's basically a free for all, and they cut other people off on turns and in the streets. And they barely slow for pedestrians! So we have to watch out carefully when crossing the street.
We got settled into our apartment late last night when we arrived. Our apartment is super cute and nice. We have two bedrooms and two bath, which is super nice with four girls. My roommates are super nice too, I have a feeling we're all gonna get along well.
This morning we went and grabbed breakfast at a little cafe. I had a delicious cappuccino and a pastry filled with chocolate. So yummy.
Now, I'm just at the school center using the computer lab until we get wireless in our apartment, which should be soon, hopefully this weekend.
Well, I think we're off to go get lunch and then we have orientation.
Ciao!

The Flight. Pt. 1. Already an Adventure!

Wednesday, February 2nd, 6:45 am. Wake-up. Get ready. Last minute errands. Have a delicious breakfast at Annie's with my wonderful boyfriend. Then we had to say a tearful good-bye :( Left for the San Fran airport at 10am, then we were there by 12pm. There was barely any traffic in the city, we had some good luck. Then I got checked in quickly and relaxed with the parents for a bit. Then had a tearful goodbye with them. Then I was through security by 1:15pm. We didn't board the plane till about 3pm. 

We had a late take-off, not till after 4. I sat next to a very nice lady from Petaluma, who was on her way to visit her dad in Spain. We had dinner and lots of movies to watch. Then about 5 or so hours into the flight we had to make an emergency landing in Montreal, Canada because someone had a heart attack. It was crazy! So we were stuck on a plane in Canada... Where it was snowing.... So then we had to wait even longer to de-ice the plane. We finally took off and were on our way. I got a total of about 2 hours of sleep the entire 15 hour flight.

So, then we missed our connecting flight to Florence. All 30 of us. And I'm pretty sure the majority of the other passengers missed their flights too. Now, we are all sitting in the airport at 4:30, waiting for our flight which leaves at 6:45. I have no service, so I wasn't able to call anyone when I landed. But I'm safely stuck in the Charles de Gaulle airport... Thankfully there's wi-fi! 

Alright everyone, I'll keep you updated on the rest of my trip. Hopefully no more setbacks.... 

The Anticipation....

Is killing me!!! It's 10:30pm the day before I leave, and I still feel unprepared. I unfortunately fell ill this past Friday and didn't think I would get anything done in time. However, thanks to my wonderful mother, I am (mostly) all packed. I have crammed my life for the next three months into one suitcase, a duffel bag, and a backpack. But I still have a few last minute errands to run in the morning, including picking up tissues and some throat lozenges (weirdest word ever.) 

I cannot believe that in about 30 hours I will be landing in Florence, Italy. This has been my dream for I don't know how many years, and now it's finally happening. I do not feel like it's real. Even though I've prepared and prepared, and researched studying abroad and traveling, it still feels surreal. But I'm still super nervous. I'm going to be completely out of my element. I'm totally being forced out of my comfort zone. I'm going to me in a completely unfamiliar environment. Different culture, different language, different time zone, strangers as roommates... But I'm more excited to do this than any other thing in my life. 

I have to be at the San Francisco Airport at 12:30pm. My flight is at 3:30pm. So crazy! It went by so fast!

I'll keep everyone updated of course! 

Ciao!