venezia!

I can't even keep track of how long ago I went to Venice, but here's the post!

My roommate and I decided to go to Venice for a day trip when we didn't have much to do on a weekend. We took the train in the morning and after a slight delay on the train, we finally arrived in Venice at 12:30pm. 

My first impression of Venice was that it was amazing and SO picturesque! It's such a unique city and even though there were a lot of tourists, it still has a lot of charm and character. One of my favorite things to do was to look in the windows and look at all the beautiful Venetian masks for sale:

We basically just walked around and took pictures of all the beautiful bridges and canals.

We had lunch right by the Grand Canal, which was amazing! We had bellinis (peach puree and sparkling wine), which originated in Venice. I have had bellinis before, and these ones were by far the best ever. I had an amazing pasta with mussels, clams, and shrimp. It had been so long since I'd had good seafood, that I was really craving it. The pasta definitely hit the spot!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to go inside of the San Marco cathedral because the lines were too long and we only had until 7pm, but we did get to see all of the disgusting pigeons in Piazza San Marco.

We DID get to see a demonstration of Venetian glass blowing! It was AWESOME! Seriously one of the coolest things I have seen someone do. 

Venice is seriously the most unique place I have ever been to. There is not another place in this world that is anything like Venice and I feel so fortunate that I was able to spend a fabulous day there!

firenze con la mia amica jen!

Still on "catch-up"mode...

Two weekends ago (the same weekend as the Pisa and Lucca trip), Jen came to visit me! She flew into Rome and spent the night there Friday night, and came to Florence Saturday night. We had SO MUCH fun together! It was so great having one of my friends from home here, especially because I have been missing them A LOT. 

So I basically just showed her around Florence and we had lovely dinner dates every night in which we would share various entrees, salad, bruschetta, tiramisu, and of course a bottle of wine! Our favorite meal was at Yellow Bar. Jen got a pasta dish with yellow and green linguine, tomato cream sauce, mushrooms, and ham. I tried a bite of it and it was delicious. I got a calzone (my first one in Italy!) with gorgonzola, mozzarella, and ham. SOOO GOOD. AND of course we shared bruschetta, an arugula and shaved parmesan salad, and a nice bottle of chianti. Everything was amazing!

Il Porcellino!

We took a lovely half-day trip to Greve in Chianti, which is a little town in the hills of Tuscany. After a breathtaking bus ride and confustion about where to get off, we absolutely fell in love with Greve. It had awesome views of the surrounding wineries and olive groves, cute little houses, beautiful foliage, and of course, plenty of wine!

Wine tasting in Greve

So... we basically want to live in Greve! We also went to Panzano, which was about 15 minutes from Greve, when Danielle came to visit. Panzano was great because we went to a gorgeous family-owned and run winery that had delicious wine and wonderful views: 

View from Le Fonti Winery

Then on Friday, we took the train to Rome to hang out with a few different friends. I saw the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's for the second time, and we also went to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.... Roman icons! I didn't feel like I needed to go to the Colosseum again, so Jen and Danielle did that after I left and before they went to Paris.

I was so glad I could have a good friend come visit me, especially after the emotionally trying time the previous few weeks. In late November, I am lucky that two more friends are visiting me! Well, they are also lucky ones to be coming to Italy! 

Next up: Venice!

ciao

the leaning tower of pizza

So that's really what I used to think it was called... 

My school program took us on a trip to Pisa and Lucca for the day. After confusion about where we were supposed to meet for the bus (totally my fault), we finally got on the bus and drove almost 2 hours to Pisa. Before taking a tour, we had to fuel up with a cappuccino... of course! The cathedral was beautiful and so was the cemetery, but the main reason for going there is to take a picture with the Leaning Tower:

Doing my part to help!

Honestly, Pisa was okay, but there isn't much to it besides the tower and the cathedral. We didn't go up the tower due to time constraints,  though my claustrophobia definitely wouldn't have allowed me to go up anyway. 

From Pisa, we went to Lucca, which was a very cute town that is famous for its intact Renaissance-era city walls. One of my roommates and I got lunch at this well-known restaurant called Buca di Sant'Antonio that has existed since 1782. We got a little adventurous with our meal choices: I got braised wild boar (very common in Tuscany) with polenta and my roommate got lamb chops with fried vegetables. The meal was very rich, so I was pretty much full for the rest of the day. After lunch, we walked around and saw a lot of the city. There was a bike tour around the city walls, but we decided to skip out on that because we didn't have very much energy that day. Instead, we ate more! We went to a lovely chocolate place with some of the best chocolate I have ever had in my life (sorry, Ghirardelli). There were also bakeries on every corner! Everything looked so delicious, but I had to regulate myself. 

Mmmm... baked goods in Lucca!

We also went on a walking tour where we went inside a few of the churches. They were definitely not as grand as the ones in Firenze or Roma, but they were still beautiful. It was also fun to look in all of the shops around town, because some of them were a bit different from the ones in Firenze, and it looked like the prices were cheaper, too! Once again, I restrained myself... I try to save money for trips rather than spending it on things... I have enough crap here and at home!

UGH the blogger things SUCKS at uploading pictures EVERY TIME. So I guess two per entry is all I get.

Coming soon: Jen's trip to Europe!

ciao

le bellissime cinque terre

To continue on with my catch-up blogging, this post is about my trip to Cinque Terre, or "Five Lands," which was a few weekends ago. Cinque Terre is in the region of Ligura and it consists of five fishing villages on the coast: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. My roommates and I went with a tour group called Florence for Fun and we took a 3-hour train ride to Cinque Terre with a bunch of other young people form various programs in Florence. There must have been a faster train there, but I think they wanted o give us the cheapest option. Anyway, once we finally arrived we began our hike through the utterly gorgeous fishing towns. 

We followed the Via dell'Amore or "Lover's Path" from Riomaggiore to Manarola. It was originally built during the expansion of the railway lines in the 1920s and it earned its name when a journalist writing for an Italian newspaper came across a sign left by young lovers while following the path. The path was basically carved out of the hills, so the drop to the ocean from the path was a bit frightening, but the beautiful views made it worth it! The vegetation and the blueness of the water made some of the views look exactly like Hawaii... it was so crazy. I can't believe that two VERY different places could look so similar if you photographed it a certain way. 

Next, we hiked from Manarola to Corniglia and the hike got a just a bit more strenuous... we had to walk up a staircase that looked like Lombard Street in San Francisco that was 365 steps! It was tough, but we made it. 

View of Manarola

Our tour guide told us that the houses in these fishing villages are different colors so that when the fishermen are out at sea, they can look back at their houses and be able to pick out which one is theirs so that they can think about their families at home. 

The hike from Corniglia to Vernazza was much more strenuous... I felt like I was in Yosemite doing those hikes! Somehow my roommates and I ended up in the "fast" group, but that actually turned out to be better because we had more time to spend in Vernazza, which was my favorite city. Vernazza had a very intricate layout because it has caruggi or narrow lanes and steep stairways. 

View of Vernazza

By the time we got here we were STARVING because it was around 3pm and the last time I had eaten was an apple on the train at 11:30am. Plus we had been hiking, which makes me even hungrier! I definitely earned that meal! Cinque Terre is in the region of Liguria which is also the region that Genoa is in. Pesto originated in Genoa, so basically anywhere near that has amazing pesto. The four of us got a nice cold beer and my roommate GiGi and I shared a seafood pizza and trofie with pesto. Trofie is a short pasta that is made by rolling the pasta dough in your hand for a couple seconds and then dropping it. It was SO GOOD... hands down the best pesto I have ever had. The area must grow the best-tasting pine nuts and basil for the pesto to be so amazing...

Next, we took a ferry from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare because the hike was supposed to be even more challenging. We didn't get to spend too much time there before catching the train back to Florence, but it was very beautiful. One day, I would love to go back and spend a couple days there and stay in a cute little bed and breakfast that overlooks the beauty of the sea. 

My next post will be about Pisa and Lucca.

ciao

bologna

It's been quite a while since I updated last... mostly because I have been super busy. I have actually had some homework to do for my classes (shocking... I know) including two presentations and a paper. I have also been very busy on the weekends. Three weekends ago, I went to Bologna and Cinque Terre...AMAZING... I will talk about Bologna in this post. The next weekend, I went to Vinci for my daVinci class on Friday and on Saturday I went to Pisa and Lucca with my program... then Jen came to visit me and we went to Rome! Anyway, I will break up the trips in a few posts so it is not overwhelming for me to write or for you to read. 

So, to start with Bologna. First of all, our number one reason for going was the food. I had heard this before and we also learned it in our food and wine class that ragu/bolognese sauce, tortellini, ravioli, lasagne, and basically all the best pastas originated in Bologna. We were definitely eager to try these delicious dishes. Plus, it is only an hour away by train from Firenze, so it was a place that was easy for us to check out. 

We got there around 10:30am and basically walked around for a while until we were very very hungry for lunch. Once again (like in Munich), we did not bring a map because we are hard core travelers and we just know how to get places... haha.  I really liked the architecture and all the streets were lined with covered walkways, or portici, which were great because there was a chance of rain so we would have been saved by them. I wish that Firenze had the portici because once it starts raining, it's going to suck to have to walk everywhere! We went into the church of San Petronio, which I thought was soo beautiful inside! It was much larger than I was expecting, but I liked how it was decorated a bit simpler than some of the churches I went to in Roma. After walking around for a bit more, we found a restaurant that looked good. I decided to get the traditional ragu and it was soooo amazing. I also tried my friends' dishes and they had tortelloni and ravioli and they were very good too, but I liked mine the best! We also were so excited to have salted bread because we've been so used to Tuscan bread. We were lucky that we arrived when we did because they had just taken out a pan of the most delicious bread I have had in a while. It had a sort of biscuit quality where it was crunchy on the outside (with salt granules!) but warm and soft on the inside. We were in food heaven...

After lunch we walked around a bit more and then found the gelato place that my brother's girlfriend Yelena suggested because she used to study in Bologna. They had a lot of flavors and the gelato was truly amazing! They gave us much more generous portions there than they do in Firenze for the same price. So delicious!

We then did a bit of shopping (they had H&M!) and headed back to the train station. We wanted to get in early because all of us were exhausted and/or a bit sick from the previous week at Oktoberfest... and we had a big day ahead of us the next day because we are going to Cinque Terre.

More later! Again, the stupid picture uploader thing isn't working very well, so I can't post anymore photos... LAME!

ciao

prost!

I'm sorry for the delay in the blog post about Oktoberfest, but it has been a rough several days. Long story short, I found out when I got home from Munich on Sunday night that my grandfather from Oregon passed away over the weekend. It brings me comfort that it was a very peaceful passing and that most of the family was by his side when it happened, but it has been very difficult for me to be so far away from my family at a time like this. Talking to my mom through Skype (thank God for modern technology) and the supportive e-mails from all of my friends have been really helpful in the healing process. My grandpa lived a good, long life and I will really miss him... I am glad that I was able to talk to him through Skype last week so he knew I was thinking about him--and praying for him in God-knows-how-many churches all around Italy. I know he's no longer suffering, and he's in a better place now... I love you, Grandpa!

Well, in the spirit of living life to the fullest, let me talk about my weekend that was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. My three roommates and I took the train Thursday night and arrived in Munich at 6:30AM. We stepped of the train into the freezing (well, probably about 45 degrees) cold and were greeted by one of the best sights ever..... STARBUCKS! It has been a month since my last one and while I absolutely adore Italian coffee and cappuccinos, Starbucks feels like home. It's also so much bigger and you can actually carry it around with you! We were so happy, we ordered Ventis to be sure to get our fix. 

My roommate has an American friend from her school that is working in Munich for several months, so it was really awesome having a contact there who could tell us where to go and show us around and provide us with free lodging! Friday, he had to work, so the four of us went sightseeing around Munich. We were totally hardcore and did it without a map, and surprisingly hit up some of the most important spots.

All of us were so taken aback by how clean Munich was, though it made sense after learning that about 50% of everyone's income goes to taxes (maybe the US should do that... j/k). After wandering around for a bit, we found the English Gardens that we had wanted to go to. They were absolutely gorgeous! It was more like a park than gardens though, but still amazing!

The English Gardens, or Englischer Garten:

After our lovely stroll through the park, we went on search for Hofbräuhaus, which is the oldest beer hall in Munich. Thirty minutes later, after asking several people, we found it and it was awesome! People of all ages and nationalities were there enjoying beer, food, music, and a general environment of merriment. The beer was amazing, especially the Hefeweizen I had. Best. Hefe. EVER. 

Afterward, we took a little rest on a grassy knoll near yet another Starbucks, which was nice because we could use the restroom facilities without anyone noticing. It was still quite cold out, but it was sunny so it was enjoyable. Later, we went to a bar, but we did not stay out too late because we had an early and long day of beer drinking ahead of us!

We planned on meeting our group at around 8AM the morning of Oktoberfest. My roommates and I went with the guy we were staying with, his co-workers, and some of their mutual friends. When we arrived at the festival, it was so cold and there were so many people around... and way too early for me. Anyway, after waiting for a while to get into the Spaten beer hall, we finally got our awesome table--right next to the band!  We got really hooked up for our Oktoberfest experience: one of the guys knew a guy who is very good friends with the waiter who waited our table. This means that we got a sweet table in the most legit beer hall in the festival, which would typically cost 1000 euro ($1500) and it has to be reserved one year in advance. Needless to say, we felt very lucky to be there! W Unfortunately, by this time it was 10AM and the first beer is not served until 12PM, so we idled away the time shivering and talking about how excited we were for the party to start. The beer hall was enormous. I don't know how many people were there, but there were A LOT. Once it was just before 12PM, the mayor of Munich came and gave a speech (though obviously I couldn't understand a word) and then he tapped the first keg of Oktoberfest!!!!! Drums were sounded to signal to the other beer tents in the area that they were allowed to start serving beer. Our first mass (the liter-sized mug) was served!

Enjoying my first mass. 

Hmm... for some strange reason the blog site won't let me post more pictures... like it just keeps loading without ever finishing. Very annoying! Well, I will try again another time. 

So our plan was to stay out all night and go out to bars afterward. However, we ended up getting back to the apartment we were staying at around 10PM and passing out by 11PM. So much for staying out all night! Whatever, we were exhausted. We got up the next morning to go to the train station, had our last Starbucks lattes in Munich, and departed on our 8 hour train ride back to Firenze. 

My roommates and I all have colds now because a girl in our train car on the way up to Munich was sick and we were breathing in her sick air for eight hours... that in conjunction with drinking and not sleeping very well all weekend made us feel like crap! Hopefully, we are better by this weekend because we are going hiking in Cinque Terre and that is not going to be fun if we are sick!

Anyway, I am very glad that I got to experience Oktoberfest. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, especially being able to get such a great table at the main beer hall of the festival. I feel so grateful that I am able to be over here and going to different countries while I am here, but obviously it comes with consequences like being so far away from my family during a saddening time like this. Well, I know for sure that my grandpa would have wanted me to have the best time here because he never got to visit Italy. I am hoping to visit in Bologna this weekend the church of San Giacomo, the Italian name for Saint James, which was his name. 

ciao

una bella città

This week was pretty relaxed. I've been getting settled into my classes and they are going fairly well. The teachers are nice and the material is interesting, though it has definitely made me appreciate my past classes at Cal because the high quality of the teachers and the interaction with students of high work ethic is not something I would really get anywhere else except a top university. I guess it's okay in the sense that I won't have Berkeley-sized workloads, but I think it might also mean that I need to take my education into my own hands so that I can get out of it what I want. A lot of the people in my program (not all, thankfully) are much more interested in Long Island Iced Teas than Leonardo's Ginevra de'Benci, which would be fine if those people didn't come into class the next day and ask a million questions and have the professor repeat herself ten times because they are too hungover to absorb the information. I am happy that my roommates and my next-door neighbors are not some of those people, but rather they are mature and interested in academics. 

Anyway, I've been quite busy this week still getting settled and accustomed to going to classes after having a whole summer and couple of weeks in Italy doing nothing but having fun. Last Sunday, two of my roommates and I went to Mass at Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo). It was in Italian and there were actually a lot of people there even though it was an evening Mass. That cathedral is very beautiful and huge. It's not nearly as big as Saint Peter's (the Vatican), but my professor told me that it's the third or fourth largest in Europe. I am planning on going to the 10:30am Mass tomorrow because it's supposed to be in Latin and there will be Gregorian Monk chanting. I'm not quite sure what to expect, but I know I want to do it at least once while I am here and since I didn't do any traveling or partying this weekend, I figured tomorrow would be one of my only chances. 

On Thursday, my program took us on a boat tour of the Arno River. Unfortunately, I am an idiot and I forgot my camera, but I think I would have been too nervous to take pictures anyway... we were so close to the water, that I would have been scared that I would drop my camera in the disgusting swamp water. Anyway, we piled into a 100 year-old boat and I was sitting on the end of my row and I was freaking out for a bit since I was about 3 inches from the gross water. Thank God no one fell in! The views were beautiful because we were going along the river as the sun was setting and the lights in the city began to turn on. It was a good experience followed by a great pizza at a place suggested by a local who thinks it's one of the best pizza places in Firenze. 

Yesterday, I hiked up the hill to Piazzale Michelangelo, where the other fake David is. At the top of that hill, there are also a couple churches, including San Salvatore and the beautiful San Miniato. The hike through the hills of the city across the Arno was kind of intense in the heat, but one of my travel books mapped out this cool path where I went the back way around the city walls. 

View of the Medieval city walls on my hike.

After about 45 minutes, I finally made it to the top of the hill and the view was amazing! It was totally worth looking like a hot sweaty mess:

Unfortunately, it was a rather overcast day, so it would look better on a nice day or at night, but it was still an amazing view. Luckily it wasn't raining because about 10 minutes after I got home it started POURING. Anyway, also on the hill near the Piazzale Michelangelo, there were two churches that I went into. The first, San Salvatore, was simple, small, and not overly-decorated. The second, San Miniato al Monte, was very beautiful and ornate inside. It was interesting because there were three accessible levels and two altars. Most churches I have been to have only had one accessible level and one altar. In this church, you could walk downstairs to a catacomb-like area and you could also walk upstairs to basically another church with it's own altar. Maybe that's where the rich people went to Mass.

San Miniato al Monte.

Building on the church began in the 11th century and the marble facade on the front was added in the 13th century. There was also a huge cemetery outside and apparently some of the sculptures out there were made by Michelangelo himself. It was a very beautiful church... and it's called "al Monte" for a reason: because it's up a freaking mountain! Haha... it was definitely worth it though. I would like to do the hike again at night and be able to see the whole city lit up from the hill. 

Today, it was all rainy and gross so I decided to cancel my solo trip to a garden outside Florence and instead I slept in and went to the Boboli Gardens again. When I went the first time with Valerie, it seems that we only went to about one-third of the whole gardens because they are so huge. Today I meandered around the places I hadn't explored and everything looked even more beautiful because of the rain and the left-over dew. Even though there were many people visiting, the property is so big that there were few people in my general vicinity, so it was nice to have some time alone in such a beautiful place. 

L'Isolotto (little island). 

Pretty trees.

There were these French girls petting a cat in the gardens, so I went to go pet it too and it was so sweet! She wasn't a gross feral cat, but a nice one that looked clean and normal. She followed me to a bench and jumped up on my lap and purred on my lap for about 20 minutes while I petted her. I named her Juliet and I wanted to take her home with me, but I'm pretty sure she belongs to someone who lives on the property. I saw three other cats that were friendly and wanted attention, but Juliet was my favorite. 

Juliet the kitty. I couldn't get a good one of her face... she's camera-shy.

Well, it's getting quite late and I think the people upstairs have finally stopped their dance party of the most RANDOM music I have ever heard. The played a mix of 90s and 70s including the YMCA, Men in Black, Mambo Number 5, and the Macarena. I don't know who these people are, but they should be fined. Now without Euro-pop or songs from my middle school days blaring into my window, I should go to sleep.

ciao