Venezia: le maschere e l'acqua fredda.

This past weekend was a beautiful one that I'm not likely to ever forget. If you ever get a chance to go to Venice for carnevale, I highly recommend it. Apparently Time magazine ranked it the number one destination in the world last weekend, and for good reason...it was a phenomenal experience.

We got off Friday morning to a rather rocky start, considering that we had to (a) get up at 6:30 and be ready to get on the buses by 8, and (b) the buses themselves didn't show up until well after nine. But after that and a fairly uneventful three and a half hour bus ride, we made it to Fusina, an industrial-looking port about twenty minutes away from Venice by ferry. We checked in to our campsite there, which was actually much less of a campsite and more like a little trailer park, and jumped straight on the ferry for a tour of Venice. The ferry itself though was freezing! We sat on top to get the view, but didn't bet on such a cold wind. I had to wrap myself up in my scarf like a bubushka to try not to freeze!


I don't think I ever got warm again all of Friday, even though the weather was gorgeous. When we got to Venice, chilled but excited, people everywhere were wearing masks and the elaborate costumes were just starting to come out. We walked and walked and took lots of pictures and got ourselves all kinds of lost. We saw St. Mark's Cathedral and another gorgeous baroque church across the grand canal, and all sorts of people in costumes in Piazza San Marco, where there was a competition going on for the best costume. Unfortunately, it got much too chilly as soon as the sun went down, so we gave up on our sightseeing and ate at a little trattoria a little off the beaten path with phenomenal pizza and bruschetta. After dinner we took the ferry back to warm up with a shower and crash early to be ready for a full day of masquerading on Saturday. Unfortunately, there was no hot water in the campsite, so I went to bed as freezing as I had been all day and hoped for warmer weather Saturday. [Here's a few pictures from the first day]

(a band of costumed musicians playing on a ponte)

(St. Mark's Cathedral -- sunset)

(the baroque church across the canal)
(crossing the canal by gondola)
(one of Friday's crazier costumes)

Saturday was perhaps one of the craziest days I've ever had, but so much fun. It started out pretty low-key, with a fairly full ferry ride to Venice full of masked and costumed people, and then another packed ferry ride to Murano, an island about twenty minutes away from Venice. We spent a few hours walking around and getting a feel for the beautiful island complete with canals just like Venice and doing some blown-glass shopping, as this is the island famous for what the rest of the world calls "Venetian Glass." Venice itself actually doesn't have any glass blowing, because the furnaces were all moved to Murano in the 1400s for fear that the wooden houses in Venice would all catch fire and burn down the whole city. I actually liked Murano itself better than I liked Venice, as it was a little more laid back and cozy feeling. It might have just been because it was away from the crowds though. There were beautiful blown glass statues all over the town, some gorgeous churches, and lots of fun blown glass shops. We intended to take a ferry back at 2pm but through a series of strange mishaps and irritating ferry drivers, we didn't get on one until almost 3. When we got back to San Marco, the piazza was literally PACKED. Like sardines. It took us near an hour to get from the ferry stop on the grand canal across Piazza San Marco to the Rialto Bridge, which if you've ever been to Venice before, you'll know is ridiculous. We finally gave up on walking after Rialto and decided to take the ferry back to Piazza San Marco to find some food. The ferry was a ridiculous idea as well, because it was just as packed as the square itself. We rode for about an hour, getting shoved around and packed in close, but everyone was in such a good mood, it was actually kind of fun. I also got some beautiful pictures from the grand canal, since luckily I was near the edge of the boat.

(Rob and me in Murano)

(Walking back to Piazza San Marco)
(View of the Grand Canal from the ferry)

When we returned to Piazza San Marco, we were so excited to try and get food at the Hard Rock Cafe, which would have been our first non-Italian food since being in Italy. Inconveniently, it was closed for the whole month, so with our hopes dashed, we went out to wander aimlessly to search for food. We happened upon a mostly empty chinese restaurant that was fairly inexpensive and stopped to warm up and rest for a while. The food ended up being delicious, and the stop was entertaining as well since some very drunk Italian men in bear costumes (not the Venetian norm) came in and asked us questions about American culture and whether we were enjoying carnevale. After our long dinner break, we went in search of masks (actually, we'd been in search of masks since Friday but hadn't found the perfect mask for fifteen euro or less, which was my budget, unless I found something impossible to pass up. I finally found one I liked for ten euro and promptly snapped it up and wore it for the rest of the night. It's amazing how wearing a mask automatically improves your level of fun. I was enjoying myself before, but somehow everything seems a little crazier and you feel a little more free to be silly while wearing a mask. After the mask escapades, we went in search of a ledgendary wine shop where the man who worked there poured your wine of choice in to 1.5 L water bottles for three euro. Sure enough, we found it, and the wine was delicious and inexpensive and it seemed by the end of the night, everyone had one and was having quite a good time. Since 1.5 L of wine is much more than I can drink, Rob and I shared, but still ended up coming home with half a bottle. We're silly enough on our own...we don't need alcohol to have fun.

(our masks!)
(explanation of how huge the wine was. Notice that (a) the bottle is full, and (b) Rob's nose is actually too long for him to take more than a drink. It was a funny attempt though)

After the wine escapade, we had a string of ridiculous experiences people watching and just wandering the streets. We stopped to look at an artist's paintings, and all he said to us in a very raspy voice was "'ello!," and then, seeing our giant water bottle full of wine, pointed to us and said "Red Wine," as though it was our name. Highly amused by this whole exchange, we spent the rest of the night calling everyone in our group and that we saw on the street by their drink name. I'm pretty sure this is one of those stories that is only funny if you were there, but to us, it was incredibly amusing. I swear, there was just something in the air that night. Everyone was in the best mood, everything was funny, and the whole city just really seemed to be alive and celebrating. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Large groups of costumed people were singing at the top of their lungs parading through the streets, and any person was free to join in and sing, whether they knew the words or not. Piazzas were full of candy vendors and there were masked musicians of every kind on every street corner. It was as if everyone was high on adrenaline and a little bit drunk, but with none of the negative aspects of anyone getting 'out of control'. Granted, we left the city at 9:30, before it got crazy, but it seemed like even the people who stayed out until 2 or 3 in the morning came back with the same impression.

A note about getting back: there were only two ways to get back to the campsite: taking the ferry which came every half hour until 9:30, or taking an hour-long bus ride, which ran every half an hour or so until 1am. Any time after that, a person was trapped in the city until the boats started running again at 6:30 or the buses at 4:30. I heard some pretty crazy stories about people's missing transportation and being stuck in the city, but there were two that were outstanding. First, one (I assume, fairly drunk) girl missed the last ferry and was distraught. Apparently she sat on the dock for an hour sobbing hysterically and inconsolably until, apparently, a taxi driver took pity on her and drove her the twenty minutes back to Fusina free of charge. Another girl got stuck, wandered in to a hotel, and paid 100 euro for a room for the night. Crazy. I'm glad we made it back okay.

When we got back, inconveniently, the power was out, so it was frigid in the cabins and still no hot water. We just crashed and woke up early again Sunday to wander once again. It was our intention do to church for Palm Sunday but it was hard to find which churches were open when and which lines were for tourists and which were for mass, so we wandered with Kate and Megan looking for a mask Kate had seen a few days before and fallen in love with. She couldn't find the mask, so we went wandering along the grand canal to find one comparable. Instead of finding one, we ended up going art shopping! Rob and I found a gorgeous oil painting that the guy sold to us for only twenty five euro, and then we found another artist who made etchings and then made prints using watercolor and acid. They were so original and gorgeous, and so we bought a few with the intention of giving them as gifts or keeping a few ourselves. Art is the one thing that we are trying to bring home as souveneirs, and the weekend ended up being much less expensive than expected (since we forgot to eat for most of it), so it was a good use of the extra money.

Much too soon, Sunday afternoon came, and we headed back to Florence. We got home about seven pm, grabbed some quick chinese food (not sure what was up with Chinese this weekend), and ran to a concert at Teatro della Pergola of Andras Schiff playing Mozart Rondi and Sonati. He was SO incredble. He hardly looked like he was playing, he was so composed, and I've honestly never heard Mozart so incredibly, well, Mozart-y. It was cheeky and crazy while still being brilliant, and it really felt like the man himself was coming out of the music. He's playing two more concerts the next two weekends, all of Mozart, and while I'll be gone this upcoming weekend, I plan to catch the last one, if I can.

As for this week...BAH. Midterms, midterms, midterms. I had one that I felt really great about on Monday, and then for the rest of the week I just have class as usual and crazy amounts of studying. Thursday morning I have three back to back: an Italian oral exam, a history comprehensive midterm with an essay due that same day, and then an Italian written comprehensive test. I've also got a term paper proposal due that day as well. It's a little crazy. I should be done by noon though, and then at seven, we leave for Prague! I can't wait.

Sorry again for the marathon post. Hope you're enjoying the pictures...it's something I'm trying. You probably won't hear from me until well after Prague, since I'm going to be (a) exhausted, and (b) recovering from midterms and getting back on track with school. I think if I stay on top of things and do fine this Thursday, I may actually end up with a 4.0 this semester. It'd be really great, since next year's going to be rough. I started looking at grad schools and other post-grad options today and got a bit overwhelmed, so I'm leaving that for this summer/next year and just doing my best for now to enjoy where I'm at. It's not too difficult, considering how wonderful it is to be in Europe out exploring.

Well, I'm off to fill my brain with Renaissance politics, Italian directions and prepositions, and hopefully some good ideas for papers and creative writing pieces. Ciao!

Here's to the nights we felt alive.

Yesterday I had one of the best days since I've been in Florence. It's so interesting, because nothing really 'eventful' or 'life-changing' happened, I didn't see something I'll never get to see again...it was just the feeling of the day and the people in it that made it wonderful.

First off, I woke up super sick and missed my morning classes. I was pretty sure it was going to doom the day, but I ended up just getting a few hours extra sleep and feeling much better with just a few remnants of headache. Then, lunch was a delicious pesto pasta and a really large chicken breast, so that was a delicious treat. After lunch, Rob and I walked and talked and had a really good time just running errands and getting gelato in Florence. It was a gorgeous day, which helped, but it was the company that really made it good :)

After errands, we came back to school and met for a backstage tour of the Pergola theater, a gorgeous little theater from the 1600s off the beaten path in Florence. It had incredible acoustics, and the woman leading the tour let me sing a scale on stage to test them. It really was a treat -- I'd love to get to sing there again, only maybe next time it will be for real! Mostly they just do plays there now, but they still do one opera a year to preserve tradition, so there's hope for me yet. Other cool things about the theater: there's a mechanism under the orchestra seats that literally raises the floor up to the level of the stage so the whole theater can be used as one big dance hall. Also, they have a hollow pipe embedded in a pillar on the side of the stage so that the stage manager can talk up to people on the catwalk controlling the curtain and the lights. This is incredible because apparently it was the guy who invented this who then went on to invent the telephone. Was it Alexander Graham Bell, you ask? Actually, no. Apparently ten years ago the Supreme Court of New York ruled that it was, in fact, this Italian man's intellectual property, he just hadn't paid for the patent, so Bell got all the credit. Interesting, no?

After the Pergola we ran a few more errands and came home with the intention of having a quiet night in. However, we got invited to a pizza place about ten blocks away which apparently won a world competition in 2003. We had to check it out, so away we went. The place ended up being closed when we went (6:30), so we went to play soccer in a park nearby until it opened, and I got to chat with Rob's roommate's girlfriend Emily for a half hour and finally get to know her better. It was really relaxing and great. Some Italian guys about our age even played with them for a little while!

Then we went to get the pizza. It was SO worth the wait...and I forsee myself going there quite often. It was just five euro for a giant prosciutto pizza to go, and they even sold us their house wine (which is ridiculously inexpensive but nonetheless delicious as well) for 4.50 euro per liter. They couldn't let us take the bottles outside though, so they just filled water bottles up with wine for us, which was a ridiculous but very amusing situation. We took the pizzas back to the park but realized a little too late that they hadn't cut them. Thus, everyone just had to fold theirs in half and eat it like a gargantuan calzone. It was so much fun. While we were eating, the Italian guys who played soccer came over and chatted with us for a half an hour. They were really nice and eager to practice their English, which is actually something that's really difficult to find in the city center. They were the first nice Italians who weren't either shop owners or working at our hotel. Such a treat.

After, most of the group walked to the soccer game, but we went home with Rob's roommate to play a card game called Swiss Joss (pronounced yoss). It's such a complex game, but really fun. We played with our friend Allison for a while, since you need four people, but she had to go to dinner, so we invited the guy who works at the front desk at night, Marco, to play with us. It was so fun to get to know him better. We spoke in a mix of Italian and English, and he promised to teach us some Italian card games as well. He also made us Italian coffee and told us about some places to find Italian friends (one of my goals while I'm here). He actually suggested finding a few conversation partners at the language school nearby, which is really a great idea.

Overall, I just had a really fun night getting to know some really fun people. Like I said, not super life changing, but just a really nice change. It's been difficult to find like minded people here interested in the same kinds of things I am (namely, having fun just exploring and talking and playing games, rather than bar hopping). Last night was proof that it can happen and they're out there, even if you have to catch them on the one night they aren't drinking. I'm optimistic. Hopefully there will be lots more nights like that one in the future.

As for today...I'm off to Venice for Carnevale! I can't wait. I wish I could do the whole gorgeous old-fashioned costume thing like they do, but they're horribly expensive to rent and rather impractical when travelling with a group. I just brought all black and white clothes with dark jeans though, and I intend to buy a mask as soon as I get there. It should be such a blast. We're also going to tour Murano and a few more of the islands where they make the blown glass, so I should come home with all sorts of fun things. We're also making a game out of seeing how well we can eat for how little money, especially since we want to buy so many fun things in Venice. We'll see how that goes. As for me, I'm off to grab some breakfast and meet the bus, since we leave in half an hour. Be back Sunday night, so look for really great pictures and an update on Monday!

Non capisco il tempo qui a Firenze. GR.

So far, my favorite thing about Florence (not) is that it rains EVERY TUESDAY. How do I know this, you ask? Well, Tuesday is the weekday afternoon I don't have class, and so it's been my intention to go out and explore Florence, but so far every Tuesday I've had free has poured. However, the one Tuesday I had to study, two weeks ago, it was sunny. Go figure.

In any case, I'll quit my complaining, because it's a gorgeous day now, and I have exciting news! I've received an email back from Luke, the executive director at the Alpine Theater Project, and he's asked for references who can speak to my costume construction abilities and my work ethic. Conveniently, I have two such people who I'm 99% certain will give raving reviews (Patty, my boss from the Bookstore, and Summer, my costume professor). In any case, I'd love for everyone to keep their fingers crossed for me - I really think this would be a great opportunity for the summer, to be close to the largest concentration of my family and to be making connections in the theater business.

Other than that, I've had a pretty decent week as weeks go. Monday I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the Odeon Theater in English with Italian subtitles, and I can honestly say it was the best made move I have seen in years. It's an incredibly beautiful movie, and I'm putting it on the top of my list of favorites. I swear almost every shot in that movie could be a gorgeous photograph, which is, I think, how a movie should be shot. My only complaint: it didn't start until 9pm on a Monday night, which made Tuesday morning's 8:30 am Italian class pretty painful. Then it kind of happened again last night - I went to a piano recital of Russian woman oltrarno at the Accademia Bartolomeo Cristoforo, a museum for fortepiano and pianoforte, and after three encores, we didn't make it home until almost midnight. Luckily, tonight's free, so I'll get all caught up on homework and sleep. Tomorrow night I'm going to try to get last minute tickets to the opera, since it's sold out, and if I fail, I'll go sing karaoke at a bar near the Piazza della Signoria.

I'm a little skeptical/tentative about going to Venice this weekend for carnevale. I'm really excited for Venice itself and for carnevale, but I'm not as excited for going with all of GIF. Both my roommates are really nice girls that I don't know very well, so I'm sure that will be fun to get to know them, but I'm worried about the alcohol thing. Everyone here seems to drink like it's going out of style, and I don't ever drink more than wine with dinner because (a) I like keeping control of myself and knowing my surroundings, (b) I don't think you need alcohol to have a good time, and (c) it makes me horribly sick after more than a glass or so. I just hope I can find a group of people who want to have fun sober. There's so much to do and see in Venice, I think it's such a shame to only come home with stories of how much you drank.

Oh! one more thing before I get back to work. I forgot to mention that last week I got hit by a car! It's okay, I didn't really get hurt, since he really just clobbered me with his mirror and I bounced off the side of his car, but it's kind of a crazy story nonetheless. Luckily I only came out with some bruises and some frustration at the driver, who didn't even stop to see if I was okay. I'm currently writing on it for my creative writing class, so I'll post that when I finish it in the next week or so and you can get the whole story there. Suffice to say, the roads in Italy are not very wide and the drivers not very cautious and if you ever step off the sidewalk, even for a minute, you should watch your back if you value your life.

Hope all is well in the states, and that your day will be as gorgeous as mine is. Here's hoping sping comes early for us all this year!

Buon San Valentino (abbastanza tarde)

I tried to write a quick post before I left on Friday morning, but apparently it didn't make it through. Cursed pensione internet connection. Thus, today I'll be playing catch-up for last Sunday's trip to Viareggio, all of last week, and this glorious past weekend.

Viareggio was a really, really fun day trip. We took the train on Sunday morning for about two hours to the coast with twenty or so people from school. Rob and I sat across from a really nice middle aged woman who was reading the bible, and Rob tried to start up a conversation in Italian with her that turned in to about an hour of chatting back and forth. She was Romanian and had just moved to Florence a few months ago but had granddaughters in Viareggio. It was difficult to communicate but she was really patient with us, and it helped that she didn't speak any English, so it was Italian or nothing. We got some really good practice and met someone really nice, so it worked out well. Once we arrived in Viareggio, we walked around and got the feel for the town, grabbed lunch at a stand on the corner with a really nice guy at the grill who discussed the differences (in Italian) between American and Italian hot dogs. They also let us sample porchetta, a tuscan tradition for carnevale, which is pork that is seasoned and roasted on a spit for a whole day and a whole night before it's sliced and placed on a bun and fed to happy people like me.


That afternoon the Carnival itself started. Almost everyone was dressed up, from ages one to ninety-nine, most in these strange fur suits meant to look like varying animals. Most families matched, it was cute but very strange. The women wore the same fur suits as the men, but theirs were cut off in to very short shorts, then they wore matching tights and fur legwarmers. Very interesting look. Also popular for teenagers was the soccer player look or girls in tutus. The real point of the carnival, however, is the floats. They make these gigantic floats, hundreds of feet high with hundreds of people riding on them, made entirely out of paper-mache. Complete with sound systems, moving parts, and wheels, they parade them for hours down the main street near the ocean. Most of them are politically satirical, so many were difficult for us to understand, but we did our best to guess. You can see all my pictures from Viareggio here, though I'll throw up the craziest of the floats, just so you get the idea. Notice that there are communist hammer and sickles in his eyes. So creepy. Also notice how huge it is in comparison to all the little people on it.


After Viareggio, the week was rather uneventful. Classes went fairly well...Italian is sometimes really great and sometimes really frustrating, as some days we can hardly write fast enough for all we're learning and other days we do the same thing in both classes and learn nothing new. I'm still loving my music history class, mostly because the professor is so passionate about music and about really getting to know composers for who they were and associating that with their music. It's been really inspirational, and I'm falling in love all over again with classical (well, actually late-Romantic) music. I finally had a successful voice lesson this past week, and I'm starting to see the merits of having a different approach. Even if I'm not learning a ton in the way of theory, I am learning to emote and to really put myself in the music, which is starting to pay off, though it took a few awkward weeks to get used to. I'm also getting comfortable with a huge amount of new repertoire, which makes me confident that I may, in fact, be ready for my senior recital. We'll see! My other class is the Writing Traveler, which hasn't turned out at all how I expected, but is actually pretty great. I had writer's block for about a month, which made it miserable, but last week I finally wrote three pieces I was pretty happy with, which was a great way to end a week.

This weekend started Thursday night, when Rob and I walked around town, did a little shopping, went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, il Gatto e la Volpe, and then caught Frost/Nixon in English at the Odeon (which I liked, for the most part, but had some issues with the construction and character development). After, we came home and packed our backpacks and turned in early, as our train left Friday morning at ten to nine. Friday morning we woke up early, grabbed a bit of breakfast, and had a pretty relaxing three hour train ride through the countryside with a short transfer in Pisa to Riomaggiore, the first of the five Cinque Terre. If you haven't heard of it, Cinque Terre is a small section of the Ligurian coastline up in the North of Italy where it touches the mainland of Europe (on the American, not the Asian side). It's a series of five tiny coastal towns built on cliffs, and they're incredibly beautiful and full of charm. It's the off-season right now, so there was hardly anything open, but I actually think it was better that way. We got to see the natural beauty of the place without any of the crowds, though I'd love to go back and get a feel for each of the cities when they're full of life.


After getting off the train, we hiked up the hill and found our hotel, a little locanda right next to a church. It was all locked up, but there was a sign right next to the door listing phone numbers and saying you could call to be let in. That would have worked great, had either Rob or I had a phone (which, by the way, has been 95% relaxing, but 5% irritating, mostly because of situations like this). We waited about fifteen minutes, then decided to go to lunch just down the hill and come back later. One prosciutto pizza and an hour later, there was still noone there. We went back to the restaurant and tried to ask if we could use the phone, which was met with very little success. I did manage to convince him to call the number himself though and he let them know that we wanted in. Ten minutes later, a harried woman ran in, unlocked the door, gave us the key and indicated that it also opened the front door, and left as quickly as she'd came. Despite the very strange checking-in experience, the hotel was very clean and comfortable and worked out quite well for our stay. After getting unpacked, we decided to go wandering. We got a feel for Riomaggiore, then went down to the beginning of the #2 trail, which connects all five of the cities and walks right along the ocean. Unfortunately, only the path between Riomaggiore and Manarola, the next town over, was open...the rest was closed due to landslides. We bought a three-day park and train pass anyway and hiked our way over to Manarola to see what we could see. It was a gorgeous day, so we just did lots of hiking and sitting in the sun. We walked back from Manarola to Riomaggiore right around sunset on what's aptly named Via Dell'Amore, or Lover's Lane. I swear it was the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. The colors couldn't have been more perfect, and the setting was incredibly beautiful. We were the only ones out as well, which made it all the more peaceful.


After sunset we hiked back to the hotel, changed, and went to the only other restaurant open in town, Il Grottino (because after that afternoon's telephone debaucle, there was no way I was going back to the first restaurant). It was a seafood restaurant and considering Cinque Terre is famous for its seafood and pesto, we decided to be adventurous and order the equivalent of Prawn Soup. Now, neither one of us has ever eaten prawns, but we figured it wouldn't be that hard. Boy were we wrong! Out came a clay pot full of broth and six whole prawns. We were completely stumped, but decided to put them on our plates, at least cut off the heads, and go scavenging for any meat we could find in the middle. It was definitely comical. The best part is that we have NO idea whether people were looking at us like we were crazy or not, but what can you do? Luckily, we also ordered a chestnut-flour pasta with pesto which was delicious, and neither of us was too terribly hungry, so it was more of an adventure than anything.


The next day we did lots more hiking and exploring. In the morning we headed up the mountain above Riomaggiore to a little church on the crest of the hill. At the top there was a visitor's center which was inconveniently closed but which during the tourist season rents out horses or mountain bikes to use on the upper trails. I think we may try to come back and do this, because it sounds really fun! Then, on the way down, we decided to try to take a different trail. In Cinque Terre, the trails are supposed to be marked with a red and white stripe and a number to indicate where to go, but the Italians are phenomenal at making this little white red and white stripe almost impossible to find. We had quite an expedition trying to get down the mountain this way, but it was great fun.


After the hike we took the afternoon to town-hop and get the feel for each individual "terra". We walked again to Manarola and decided it felt much like an extension of Riomaggiore with a few more boats. We then took a train to Vernazza, which my lovely friend Sarah had told me was her favorite, and I quickly saw why. The town has a main road with cute little shops that opens up on a really beautiful marina with a little church. The waves were crashing up over the dock and the sun was out, so we sat for a while and I wrote a while in my journal. On our way back to the train station, we were waylaid in a little shop selling gorgeous hand-painted pottery. We were tempted to buy the whole store, but instead came out with a few key pieces for ourselves and as gifts. When it came time to pay, I asked in Italian and the guy gave me a blank stare. For a moment I thought I'd said something totally wrong, but then he answered in a thick, Irish accent "I don't speak Italian yet, sorry." Turned out he had fallen in love with Eva, the woman who ran the shop, and had moved to Vernazza to be with her. Pretty cute story for Valentine's day. He wrapped up all our stuff and we headed out to catch the train. We were about ten minutes too late though, so we had an hour to kill before the next train. We decided to wander the city, which was actually a really great decision. The coolest thing about Vernazza is that it's built entirely on a hill, so it seems much smaller than it actually is. Once you walk up what seems to be a tiny footpath, you find a whole network of 'streets' just wide enough for one person to walk on. At the top is a castle and a gorgeous little piazza on a cliff with a bench overlooking the ocean. It was gorgeous.


After Vernazza we took the train to Corniglia, the only one of the towns that's actually on the hill above the train station. We hiked up, got a delicious panino in a bar, and then climbed a tower and sat for an hour. Rob sketched the coastline, and I read Harry Potter. We hiked back down to the train station with just enough time to catch the train back to Riomaggiore. We left Monterrosso for last, because we had plans to go to a restaurant Peter reccommended for Valentine's Day dinner there. After getting cleaned up and hopping the train back to Monterrosso, we hiked over to the restaurant and settled in for a delicious meal. We had tons more pesto - pesto linguini and a pesto minestrone soup, and then shared house wine and a steak. It was delicious!

The next morning we got up early and headed home, since we wanted to be back in time to do some homework and get lots of sleep before starting the week. We took the train to Pisa and intended to switch trains and get back to Florence, but at the last minute, we decided to get out and go see the leaning tower, since it was such a beautiful day. After about a thirty minute walk across the city (which I really enjoyed!), we ended up at the tower. First of all, let me tell you that all sorts of people have told me that (a) there is nothing good in Pisa but the tower, and (b) it's not even really worth seeing, but I feel that neither one is true. Maybe it's because it was such a beautiful day, maybe it's because it was Sunday morning and everyone was out strolling, but I really liked Pisa, maybe even more so than Florence. First of all, it was quite a bit warmer than Florence. The streets were a little wider, it was a little bit smaller, and the entire center of the city is all for foot traffic, just like Florence. It was basically a more laid-back, smaller version of Florence, with a little bit less to see in terms of culture. For living though, it would have been nice. I think I'm realizing that I just like a little bit slower pace of life, and I'm not much of a city girl. It doesn't make me any less happy to be in Florence, and it doesn't mean I'll never live right in the middle of a city again, but I do think it's an interesting thing to learn about myself.

As for the tower, it was everything we expected. Actually, more than I had expected. It really is crazy how far it leans! They also still let people climb it, which seems totally crazy to me. Must be more solid than it looks. I can't imagine how sad it would be and how much of a mess it would be if it fell. It'd be an epic story though. It's funny to see how many people were there, especially considering how cozy and free of tourists the rest of the city felt. Walking in to that piazza was like stumbling on a sea of tourists...very surreal. It's also funny because everyone is taking the traditional 'look, I'm holding up the tower!' picture. I thought we were going to look goofy, and of course we did, but so did everyone else. We took a lot of really fun pictures, especially Rob, since I wasn't wearing great shoes for being up on the pillars. Here are my favorites of the bunch:



I also took a picture in front of the least visited museum in Italy, the national museum right next to the tower. Rob's mom sent me a news article on the musem, and so I meant to go in and visit it just to say I'd been there, but we didn't have time, so it still remains the least visited museum in Italy, no thanks to me.

After that I looked at my watch and realized we had about twenty minutes to get back to catch the train or we'd have to wait another hour. Though it'd taken a half hour to get there, I thought if we hurried we could make it. This was not the most brilliant of decisions considering I was (a) wearing knee-high leather boots with heels, (b) still sore from the weekend's gallavanting in Cinque Terre, and (c) we were still carrying everything we brought with us, but we did it anyway. We made it back to the train station limping but with two minutes to spare and ran to our platform. When we got there, there was no train. Thinking we'd missed it, we checked the board and realized it'd been cancelled. Thus, we got a really great workout, but we had to wait an hour anyway for the train. Ridiculous, but it made for a really good story.

So, you're pretty much caught up on life as I know it in Florence. Last night was positively frigid, so it's a little chilly still in the pensione. Everyone is complaining about the food and not getting enough, but I'm fairly content. I haven't had much of an appetite lately though, so I'm not sure if I'm really a fair judge. It's not fabulous food by any stretch, but it's much better than the COG, so I'm not complaining.

Next week is midterms, so I'm trying to get as much studying done this week as I can, since we'll be in Venice for carnevale this weekend. I'm excited! The weekend after midterms Rob and I are going with a tour group based out of Florence to Prague, which I am so excited to see as well. My roommate Meredith and our friend Leanna may come as well, we'll see. Then the next weekend, I'm going to Vienna! It will be a musical pilgrimage, I can't wait. I'm going to see the Marriage of Figaro (one of Mozart's most famous operas) in the first theater it ever played in! Then the next week is spring break, which Rob and I are spending in Germany. It's going to be a very busy month, but I can't wait!

P.S. If you'd like to see the rest of the pictures from Cinque Terre, you can catch the whole album here.

Prego per il sole.

It's been a fairly uneventful week as weeks go, mostly because it's been horribly dismal weather. I had a killer migraine on Wednesday which kept me in bed most of the day, but by Thursday I finally started to feel better. Thanks for all the well wishes, I think they really did me well.

This weekend has been primarily spent wandering around the city and getting to know it better. We've gone to gelato every night since we found the gelato place on Tuesday, but because it's a 35 minute walk away, I never feel bad about it. It practically walks itself off (or so I tell myself). Thursday we did a little shopping and ate at this buffet place around the corner called Kitch. Friday we slept in and went to lunch at this incredible pizza "by the slice" place (2.50 for each of us, and so great). Here they make pizzas in long strips instead of circles like home, so a slice is really just a square of whatever size you'd like, and then you purchase it by weight. It's delicious though. Rob managed to find a pizza with what looks like hot dog slices on top...surprisingly, delicious. After we meant to go do laundry but just started to wander through new districts of the city and through bookstores. We also went to the Pitti Palace and looked at some of the art in the museum there. It'll take several trips to see it all though.

Last night (I suppose it was still Friday), we went to a really fancy, delicious restaurant across the Arno called Quattro Leone. It was pretty expensive, but such good food, so it was worth it for just a one-time thing. Their specialty is a sort of pasta pouch filled with, of all things, pear. They serve it with a cream sauce and it's unexpectedly divine. I think we're finally getting used to the pace of dinner here...we were at that restaurant for two and a half hours and it hardly seemed like any time at all. When we get back to the states we'll probably feel so rushed, we won't know what to do with ourselves.

Today I accidentally slept in again, and then we went for a walk with the intention of just getting lunch and some groceries. We ended up going to get gelato again (surprise, surprise), but I've been feeling tired, so we came back to the pensione. I still feel jealous spending daylight hours inside, but when I think about how far we walk on a daily basis (it's at least a mile to the gelato place alone), I don't feel as bad about it.

Other than that, not much to report. Tomorrow is our long-awaited trip to Viareggio for carnevale, so I should have lots to say after that. We finally chose where to go for Valentine's day (next weekend!): Cinque Terre. We booked the hotel today and the train is only ten euro to get there and back, so that should be easy. I can't wait to do some hiking and just enjoy the beautiful sights. I also can't wait to see the ocean! I've been working on booking some of our other trips, since they're only going to get more expensive, but so far haven't had too much luck. We're running out of weekends though! We're still looking for inexpensive tickets to Athens for our last week after school gets out, and we're also keeping our eye on tickets either to Prague or to Scotland. With those two or three trips plus our spring break in Germany and our school trips to Southern France and possibly Vienna, we're going to be really busy!

Anyway, I'm off to take a nap and finally do my laundry. Hope all is well in the States!

I knew this would happen...

Curse it all, my body's finally given up on me.

After the development of last week's cold, I figured I'd rest up as much as I could and be back on my feet as soon as possible. Unfortunately, just as I was starting to get better, my stomach threw a mutiny of epic proportions and has continued to do so since Saturday. I suppose this is what I get for enjoying a full month of fairly decent health. I must be making up for it now, I guess. Ugh.

I never thought the lovely half hour walks to anywhere and everywhere in the city would become an issue, but it's even been hard for me to walk to school this week. I dutifully dragged myself to all my classes this week regardless but spent the majority of the rest of my time in bed, drinking water, eating fruit, being grouchy about not being out and about, and sleeping for as long as it took to get better. This morning I finally thought I had kicked it, and was stoked to get back to class and get back to my explorations of Florence. Of course, half an hour in to my first class I developed my first migraine since leaving the states. I made it through class and my voice lesson and squinted my way back to the pensione just in time to take meds and lock myself in a dark room. It's just now beginning to subside, halfway through my stupid writing class, the one I missed last week. I'm really going to have to talk to the professor. Ugh. I had high hopes that I would do really well health-wise while I was here, and I'm going to keep praying that I will, but I'm starting to get a little nervous that I'll never get better again. I'm going to try to forget that thought though and just take it easy.

Let me tell you though that Europe is the MOST inconvenient place to be even a little sick. Europe doesn't understand the concept of 24 hour food or medicine places, inexpensive medication, or public restrooms. I don't have a car and I can't get myself home from anywhere relatively quickly, nor can anyone come pick me up if I've gotten myself stranded. I can't turn up the heat and I can't control the amount of noise, since I basically live in a dorm. Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad I'm here...it's just an awful place to be sick.

I do, however, have better news to report as well. Last night I dragged myself out of bed and went to see Lucia di Lammermoor, an opera put on at the Maggio. It was phenomenal! I think it was actually the first opera I've ever seen without being on stage as well, so it was a great experience. The soprano was very talented, both tenors were very good actors, and it gave me lots to think about and work on in my own vocal life. The theater, however, has the worst acoustics of any theater I've ever been in. Not that I wouldn't love to return to Florence someday, but I think if I'm ever offered a position here I may have to think twice about it. That's wishful thinking though, haha.

The other good news from last night is that on the way to the opera, we stopped at a gelato place on the Arno that has just reopened after some remodeling. I am happy to report that it is now officially the only good tasting gelato I have had in Florence itself, and it was also the cheapest: 1 euro for a small (but not actually that small) cone. I'm excited to go back. It's about a thirty-five minute walk away from the pensione, so by the time I get there and back, I've practically worked the whole thing off!

Also, the sun has finally come out (literally, as I wrote this post) for the first time since Sunday. It's amazing how much better the sun can make a person feel. It makes bedrest so much more pleasant.

In any case, I should rest my eyes again before I make my headache worse. I just wanted to do a quick news post and ask for your prayers for my health, so I can make the best of this experience here in Europe. Miss and love you all.

Che brutta giornata!

It was a very, very eventful weekend for how little I intended to do. And I thought staying in Florence would be restful! Well, I mean, it was. It was just a different kind of restful than I'm used to at home, I suppose.

Thursday kind of began the weekend, as both Rob and I were sick and couldn't make it to class. I slept most of the morning and then worked on my Italian, got my pictures all organized and online, and blogged from bed, which was very relaxing. After lunch I napped and then went to Piazza Santa Croce to get some sun and sketch, but then headed back after a few hours because we had signed up to go to a traditional Tuscan dinner put on by the Italian department at school. We went at seven to this delicious trattoria and had course after course of incredible Italian food...it was such a blessing, especially on a Thursday night, when we usually have to start scavenging for ourselves. The only bummer is that because we waited for some other people in our pensione to walk with us, we were almost late, which meant we got the last seats at the head of the very long table with all of the professors. It turned out alright, as the Italian professor who put the whole thing on was such a great guy, so we talked to him most of the night, but it was really awkward at first, especially because we hadn't had any of those professors before. Such is life.

After dinner we went to trivia night at Finnegan, the Irish pub near school. We mostly just wanted to try our hand at the questions and hadn't assembled an expert team, so we met some new people there who were entirely unhelpful but still played on our team, so it was pretty much just us. If you've never done pub trivia, let me tell you that it's super difficult! I thought I had enough random knowledge for a lifetime, but clearly not so much. I think it's aimed at a different generation, which probably makes it so difficult. In any case, it was the first time I've actually had a good time at a bar, probably because everyone was there for trivia and not to get really drunk. I'm looking forward to some day going to a bar where it isn't 90% Americans, just to see if we are really that obnoxious or if it's just bar culture in general. I'll let you know what I find out.

After pub trivia I headed home to get some sleep, as I was completely wiped out after an eventful night and a week of being sick. Rob walked me back to my room and I tiptoed in, thinking my roommate would be asleep, but I was treated to a really, really great surprise. She was in a heap on the floor between her bed and the bathroom in a pile of her own vomit. Really attractive. Apparently she drank way too much and passed out, still throwing up. I mean, it happens that sometimes you can misjudge how much you drink, but it was pretty ridiculous. Luckily I had a cold, so I couldn't smell it, and Rob helped me get her out of her top layer of clothes, pull back her hair, and get her in bed. The next half hour was spent trying to get everything cleaned up with a mop we borrowed from the front desk and sheer willpower. It was probably the worst way I have ever spent an evening, though I was glad I was there just so that someone could take care of her and she didn't die or anything. I really hope she's learned her lesson though, because I'd rather not ever do that EVER again. We all make mistakes though, and she's a really nice girl, so I have high hopes. Anyway, after that there was no way I could sleep in there, so we left her tucked in with the garbage can next to her and I crashed on Rob's floor.

The next morning, Rob and I slept in and when we woke up, had breakfast at a really cute cafe and then headed up to Boboli Gardens. It was a gorgeous day, so much so that after we wandered a while we found an area with a beautiful view and a lot of sun and sat for a few hours. Rob sketched and I read Harry Potter (in Italian! It's going really well, actually). Speaking of Rob sketching, it's amazing how great he is after hardly ever sketching in his life before. We've been looking for local art everywhere we go, and a lot of it he's been saying "I feel like I could do that if I put my mind to it," so finally he picked up a sketchbook and actually put his mind to it. I hope he does it our whole trip, because I think his sketches will be a really great memory to have of our trip.

Later that afternoon we headed down to one of our favorite restaurants from the first weekend of the trip, Santo Spirito. We had the fresh spaghetti we adored again and marvelled at how much had changed since we first got here. For starters, it was 2:30 and we were just sitting down to lunch -- amazing how schedules can change in only a month! We had wine with lunch, which when we first got here seemed incredibly gratuitous, but now just seems normal. We spoke only Italian with all the wait staff and were never once answered in English, which is actually a pretty recent development, now that we're feeling comfortable with our elementary Italian skills. We also actually ate the olive paste they gave us, which grossed us out last time we were there but was delicious on second try. It's so nice to see yourself growing and changing, getting more comfortable being somewhere new. I'm so glad I decided to come to Europe -- it's broadened my horizons in ways I hardly thought possible.

After lunch on Friday I did something totally fun and new for me being here -- I finally did some shopping! With Rob's encouragement I got myself some skinny jeans, a really cute, extra-long cardigan sweater, and a long sleeved cotton dress. I also finally picked out a leather jacket, and I totally love it. Everything was actually pretty inexpensive considering prices in the states (and yes, I factored in the exchange rate). I have lots of better things to do with my money than spend it all on shopping, but here and there it's a lot of fun, especially to pick up things I would have never worn in the states but now feel more comfortable with.

Friday night was spent watching movies and relaxing and going to bed early, since we had big plans for Saturday. That morning we got up fairly early, packed a bag for the day and headed down to the train station to make our way to Lucca. That, let me tell you, was quite the experience. First, we kind of got a slow start, so we made it to the train station with no tickets and only ten minutes to spare. After a mishap with the ticket machine (it wouldn't take our bills, so we had to start over with my credit card) and some confusion about validation (mainly, where the heck we get them validated) and which train to take (Lucca was an intermediate stop, and the end stops are the only ones listed on the departure board), we had pretty much given up and resigned ourselves to lose ten euro and start again with the next train. However, we walked over to one of the two trains leaving then that I felt was just maybe the right one and talked to a guy on the platform (in Italian, as he spoke no English) as the doors were closing and he let us know that it did, in fact, go to Lucca so without any validation and without being sure we were even on the right train, we just jumped on.

Thank goodness it was the right train and no one ever checked tickets, so an hour and a half later, we made it to Lucca! We walked on the old walls and took in the scenery, ran in to a really cool open air market where there were literally tons of Italians and no Americans (so hard to find! Almost everything in Italy is overrun by tourists), and just had a really relaxing, wonderful morning. We spoke only Italian to each other for about an hour and worked on learning the words that came up that we didn't know. About 1pm we got really hungry and went looking for food, but couldn't find anything. We finally stopped for food at a little cafe with no menu, but we just ordered some pasta and called it good. Unfortunately, it was not even a little good -- it was in fact the worst food I've ever had in Italy. It smelled, frankly, a lot like the vomit I cleaned up two days prior, but we had to choke some of it down to be polite and then paid quickly (ugh -- 14 euro) and left. After lunch we were feeling pretty awful, so we headed back to the train station, repeated the confusing ticket process, and headed back to Firenze.

After the horrid food experience that afternoon, we decided to stick to what we knew, and went back to our favorite restaurant - Il Gatto e La Volpe. The waiters there are so friendly, the food is always delicious, and they always give us a discount just because we're such regular customers. It's nice to have somewhere to feel comfortable and welcome in Florence -- it really is starting to feel like home in lots of ways. I still get pretty homesick sometimes and if I didn't know I was going to come back to the states in a few months I might feel a little more displaced, but for now I feel just comfortable enough.

Saturday night and Sunday were spent relaxing, walking around Florence, getting caught up on homework, watching movies, and trying to feel better. I wanted to stay up and watch the Super Bowl, but it didn't start here until midnight, and I didn't want to sabotage my health so soon after I was feeling better.

Today...ugh. Today was frustrating. School is not as lovely as it used to be. It has nothing to do with the classes and everything to do with the students. 95% of the students here are just here to travel and party, which is really fun for them but really frustrating for me. Our Italian classes inch by, and the atmosphere in my history class is downright hostile. It makes me wish I had chosen a bit more of an academically challenging institution to study at for college in general, just because I'm sick of being around people who think being stupid and not working is really cool. I miss intelligent conversation and people who care about knowledge for knowledge's sake. Oh well. I suppose I wouldn't want to work that hard while I'm studying abroad anyway, so I have time to see everything and relax. But it would be nice if we could all meet somewhere in the middle, not having too much work but still everyone doing enough work for the class to go at a decent pace and not make those of us who stay caught up waste our time while the professors fill in the idiot students who are still drunk from the night before.

I apologize for the short rant...it was a really frustrating morning. It's a very cold and rainy day, so I'm going to curl up in my sweats and read Harry Potter in Italian until music class this afternoon. Sorry again for the long post...I get so carried away sometimes, and I want to write it all down so I can go back and read if ever I forget what it was like to be in Florence, in case I never get the chance to live abroad again. So, until I feel like writing another novel post...ciao!