I've spent two consecutive weekends in Florence for the first time since our first weeks here. Our advisors recommended staying last weekend because they were taking our group to the AC Milan vs. Florence soccer game -- which was def worth staying in town for. And, since so many Davidson students migrate to Florence every Fall, it has become a little tradition for all of our friends in other cities of Europe to come to Florence for Thanksgiving. So, that is what we did.
In the last month that we're here, we are cramming in restaraunts that we want to try, last minute trips, must-see-museums, Christmas shopping, and final papers. It seems like once we've finally gotten settled and into a routine, it's almost time to leave! So after a long week of class (seriously, all the way to Friday because of a make-up day), Milva and Lucca drove us to two designer outlets in the suburbs of Florence. While it was fun to try on 500 euro dresses or fantasize about Prada boots, one had to be willing to spend a small fortune on these "steals". While they were marked down 50-75% of in-store costs, when you're talking about a 10,000 euro dress, its still expensive. After a full day of shopping, I came home with only a gold Ferragamo bracelet. Afterward, we headed to the soccer game via the city bus system. Earlier in the week, Caroline and I went to the outdoor market to buy something purple with Florence on it to wear to the game. We weren't exactly dressed to the 9s. More like sweatpants and UGGS (a big no-no in Italian fashion) and poor Caroline was bombarded by questions (in English) from one male vendor: "Ooooh girl I like your outfit. Next time I see you in the disco, I'll be like 'dammmn, that's unexpected!'" So with our purple t-shirts, we met the crew and headed to the bus stop. Apparently its impossible to drive/walk to the soccer stadium, so everyone in Florence hopped on the same city bus as us. Even though it was sub-artic outside, the windows of the bus fogged with the number of fans crammed inside. Leave it to a soccer player of 14 years to call a 0-0 tie an exciting game... but it was! Europeans indeed love their sport.
A week of school work procrastination followed our lazy Sunday as we waited for a yummy Thanksgiving meal and our friends to arrive on Friday. James had booked a ticket for Wednesday, forgetting that he'd be on a required trip with his program in Madrid, so he booked another flight for Thursday, which Ryanair kindly moved to Friday. So, he had two tickets to fly to Florence. Since his program trip was required, he convinced me that he would be coming on Friday when the rest of the crew was to arrive. However, around 6 PM on Wednesday night, my boyfriend walked into my apartment. Surprise!
Thursday, we had to "pick up" our Permit of Stay from the Police Dept (yes, 23 days before we leave...). Our appointment time was at 2:15, but we weren't seen until 4:45, leaving James to his own devices for the afternoon. Before we left for Milva and Luca's house for Thanksgiving dinner, he spilled exactly how he had spent his afternoon. My birthday is tomorrow, and while James is a great gift-giver, he isn't a good secret-keeper. He couldn't contain himself. In 9th grade, he came on a school trip to Florence and they went to a leather factory and learned about the tanning process, how to evaluate nice leather, etc. He found their showroom in the Piazza near Santa Croce on his last trip to Florence and made his way over there while I was stuck in the Police Station. I now have a beautiful chocolate brown patent leather bag. James forgot to mention the coolest thing about the purse in his description, but Keena informed me that the style is called the "Grace Kelly" because it is the same bag she carried on her wedding day. Thoughtful boy. And did I mention the gold-leaf monogram? Oh yeah, he knows me all too well.
Thursday night, we took yet another city bus to Milva and Lucca's house for an American Thanksgiving meal. Milva is a cooking professor at LdM, so we knew we were in for a treat. We ate pumpkin soup, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce, along with some side dishes that had an Italian flare before apple and pumpkin pie for dessert. Certainly not a meal from my Mother's kitchen, but it made the day feel more like home nonetheless.
Our friends arrived mid-afternoon on Friday, which only created a more familiar atmosphere. We gave them a quick walking tour of the city before a dinner of pizza and pasta at Gatto e Volpe, one of our favorite spots. Myki will never again confuse rigatoni and rissotto. We hung out at the boys before heading out to the discotecas. I'm not sure Europe was ready to handle a Davidson court party. An agressive bouncer, tears on the curbside, and a 4 AM bedtime summarized our night. By popular demand, I made loaded grits on Saturday for everyone, followed by gelato from our favorite spot on our street. We sent our friends off to do some touristy things while I indulged in a much-needed nap. Before dinner, Elle, Carlin, Meredith, Caroline and I grabbed some baguettes, olives, and a variety of cheeses and sat on the Duomo steps. Good thing too. We decided not to eat at the resturaunt we made reservations for, so trying to find a place that could seat 14 at 9 PM on a Saturday night proved to be challenging. After more gelato and a sit on the bridge facing the Ponte Vecchio, James and I called it a night.
Sunday, we walked around only to find the Florence marathon blocking nearly every street in the city. Luckily, we grabbed some lunch just in time to get Elle on her bus to the airport. Naturally, there was a train strike, but James made it on his train to Bologna for his flight home.
The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind and its hard to believe that we have less than 3 left. 2 papers and my 21st birthday stand in between me and Sicily this weekend.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Sangria-filled fin de semana
Everytime I leave Italy, I find it hard to break the "grazies" and "ciaos" that so eagerly and naturally flow from my mouth. It takes a good 24 hours before I can start with "gracias" and "holas". I flew to Barcelona this weekend for a relaxing weekend on the coast with James. This blog post will be brief only because we had a quiet weekend of eating and enjoying each other's company combined with a little touring.
Ryanair flies from Pisa to Girona, two cities (cheaper, I'm sure) with small airports not far from the larger cities of Florence and Barcelona, respectively. So, I took a train from Pisa early Thursday morning, a flight to Girona, and a bus to Barcelona where I was supposed to meet James. After a fun night out, the boy overslept his alarm and had no way to get in contact with me. I am known for my plans, and in this case, third-back-up plan. I found myself at the bus station only with my luggage and some free wifi. After an hour of waiting around and a quick-address-look-up, I hailed a taxi and went to our hotel. Only 30 mins of Spanish MTV had to occupy my time before I got a call from James at the bus station. To the average reader, this seems like no major feat, but a diversion in a plan can send this Type A personality over the edge. And I could've taken this stress out on James when he arrived, but he brought Geoff, a Davidson Kappa Sig studying in Barcelona, with him to buffer the brunt of my wrath. In reality, we had only missed each other by a few mins, but I was proud of myself for being resourceful and not getting upset or angry. #abroadlessons
The three of us headed out for a 3:30 lunch. Luckily, this is almost appropriate in Spain. We spent the rest of the evening getting settled and taking a walk down Las Ramblas to meet Geoff and Myki for a late Chinese dinner. You'd think that by now I would have learned not to wear shoes that I am not certain of their comfortability out on what could've turned into a long night. After a 5:45 AM wake-up and a 6 blister evening, I pooped out on our "night out". Friday, we found a cute little lunch place where we spent all of our lunches in Barcelona testing out different cuisines. We decided to tour the city on one of the hop-on, hop-off buses. A tour of the port and some of Gaudi's architecture filled our afternoon followed by a night of people watching, 11 euro glasses of Sangria, and tapas on Las Ramblas. Saturday, we took the bus that takes tourists out of the city center to La Sagrada Familia (Gaudi's famous and unfinished church), Park Guell, and the Barcelona Club Stadium. We ate a yummy seafood dinner in the port (and a chocolate crepe if that wasn't enough). Sunday, my flight wasn't until around 7, but because of the additional transportation, I had to head to Girona at 3:30. We enjoyed a quiet lunch in the rain. Otherwise we had beautiful, sunny, 75 degree weather all weekend -- that's the kind of November I like. We tried to fill the time between check-out and bus-departure with some Spanish TV watching in the lounge of our hotel and we ended up on a cooking channel. Truly, food is universal.
I wasn't expecting the vastness of modernista architecture around every corner. Even our hotel boasted a modern white and black theme with red-lighting. Definitely a modern yet cultural city. I told James Barcelona seems to be a bustling city with a productive economy (unlike the rest of Spain unfortunately) but somehow able to preserve its rich Catalan culture. Barcelona proved to be the perfect place for a relaxing weekend without the overwhelming number of must-sees (like Paris or Rome for instance).
This weekend (and the next) we are in Florence! Our group heads to the Designer Outlets and the AC Milan vs. Florence soccer game on Saturday before all of our Davidson friends come to visit for Thanksgiving, a weekend I've been looking forward to all semester. Like I said when my family visit, it'll be nice to share all the reasons we love Florence with the people that are important to us. After that, only a few days until my 21st birthday, Sicily with James, finals, the back to the States. A little over a month to go and I'm appreciating everyday that I have here.
Ryanair flies from Pisa to Girona, two cities (cheaper, I'm sure) with small airports not far from the larger cities of Florence and Barcelona, respectively. So, I took a train from Pisa early Thursday morning, a flight to Girona, and a bus to Barcelona where I was supposed to meet James. After a fun night out, the boy overslept his alarm and had no way to get in contact with me. I am known for my plans, and in this case, third-back-up plan. I found myself at the bus station only with my luggage and some free wifi. After an hour of waiting around and a quick-address-look-up, I hailed a taxi and went to our hotel. Only 30 mins of Spanish MTV had to occupy my time before I got a call from James at the bus station. To the average reader, this seems like no major feat, but a diversion in a plan can send this Type A personality over the edge. And I could've taken this stress out on James when he arrived, but he brought Geoff, a Davidson Kappa Sig studying in Barcelona, with him to buffer the brunt of my wrath. In reality, we had only missed each other by a few mins, but I was proud of myself for being resourceful and not getting upset or angry. #abroadlessons
The three of us headed out for a 3:30 lunch. Luckily, this is almost appropriate in Spain. We spent the rest of the evening getting settled and taking a walk down Las Ramblas to meet Geoff and Myki for a late Chinese dinner. You'd think that by now I would have learned not to wear shoes that I am not certain of their comfortability out on what could've turned into a long night. After a 5:45 AM wake-up and a 6 blister evening, I pooped out on our "night out". Friday, we found a cute little lunch place where we spent all of our lunches in Barcelona testing out different cuisines. We decided to tour the city on one of the hop-on, hop-off buses. A tour of the port and some of Gaudi's architecture filled our afternoon followed by a night of people watching, 11 euro glasses of Sangria, and tapas on Las Ramblas. Saturday, we took the bus that takes tourists out of the city center to La Sagrada Familia (Gaudi's famous and unfinished church), Park Guell, and the Barcelona Club Stadium. We ate a yummy seafood dinner in the port (and a chocolate crepe if that wasn't enough). Sunday, my flight wasn't until around 7, but because of the additional transportation, I had to head to Girona at 3:30. We enjoyed a quiet lunch in the rain. Otherwise we had beautiful, sunny, 75 degree weather all weekend -- that's the kind of November I like. We tried to fill the time between check-out and bus-departure with some Spanish TV watching in the lounge of our hotel and we ended up on a cooking channel. Truly, food is universal.
I wasn't expecting the vastness of modernista architecture around every corner. Even our hotel boasted a modern white and black theme with red-lighting. Definitely a modern yet cultural city. I told James Barcelona seems to be a bustling city with a productive economy (unlike the rest of Spain unfortunately) but somehow able to preserve its rich Catalan culture. Barcelona proved to be the perfect place for a relaxing weekend without the overwhelming number of must-sees (like Paris or Rome for instance).
This weekend (and the next) we are in Florence! Our group heads to the Designer Outlets and the AC Milan vs. Florence soccer game on Saturday before all of our Davidson friends come to visit for Thanksgiving, a weekend I've been looking forward to all semester. Like I said when my family visit, it'll be nice to share all the reasons we love Florence with the people that are important to us. After that, only a few days until my 21st birthday, Sicily with James, finals, the back to the States. A little over a month to go and I'm appreciating everyday that I have here.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Paris: Must Bring Baguette
After 10 days in Italy with my family and a brief week of class, I find it hard to break myself out of "vacation-mode" since fall break. Four and half days in Paris with James did not help. For the first time during my semester abroad, I've finally fallen in love with a "big city". Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed everywhere I've been (other than maybe an unimpressionable and crowded Venice), but Paris fully lived up and exceeded every expectation I had. I was pretty sick last week and hoped to rebound before taking off but Paris seemed to be my cure. We hit the highlights, but I could've spent weeks enjoying French cuisine and architecture.
Everything in Italy is old. Like, really old, and boasting centuries of history. And by American standards, Paris is too. But, Napolean's Arc de Triomphe is only 300 years old. A modern, but classical city with a rich and beautiful history. And great food. That's my take-away message from Paris.
So, yes, we arrived Wednesday night and after an hour or two of walking the streets of Paris, we navigated from the nearest metro stop to our hotel. We began Thursday with a 80% chance of rain all day, so we decided to try and stay indoors, but since the Arc de Triomphe was just down the road.... we couldn't resist. So, we climbed to the top (a surprising number of spiral staircases!). The view from the top is a unique one: Upwards of 6 or so roads converge in Place Charles de Gaulle. Not only can you see the layout of the city, but you have a perfect view of the Eiffel tower. Once it started drizzling, we ducked into the metro and made our way to the Louvre. Another nice aspect of Paris: its very student-friendly. Other than the Arc and Eiffel tower tickets, we got into most places free simply for being students living in Europe under the age of 25. Don't hate that. Like the Uffizi, the Louvre is massive and simply impossible to take in in one afternoon. After nearly a semester of museum or church boasting famous religious art after religious art after reglious art, we walked through the Louvre, pausing at interesting pieces (and of course the most famous ones), but we didn't spend the entire day being art critics. Amoung the many things that I love about James, one of my favorites is his ability to whip out names and dates and stories throughout history by the end of my question. He's like my personal tour guide, and if we both are stumped on something that interests us, we've both, nearly in unison at this point, say, "We'll look it up when we get home." He's taught me to have an even more inquisitive mind and here, you can learn everywhere.
One problem with France.... is French. Having taken Spanish and grown up with a couple of Italian pharses tossed around, I was not in the slightest concerned before coming to Italy or traveling to Spain. I'm familiar enough with "food words" and I can always point to a map or in a direction, but in France, James and I were both completely clueless. On our first night, we stopped at a small mini-market to grab some waters. The owner told us what I hope to be "thanks, goodnight." James and I replied the only way we could, with a smile and a wave. Translated menus or understanding waiters with broken English became my best friend. And once we found a good thing, we didn't let go. We ate at the same lunch spot 3 of the days we were there and at the same place for dinner twice. Luckily, we were looking for typical French cuisine. We managed to try onion soup, chocolate mousse, escargot, crepes, and beef tartar during our weekend, as well as American, Japanese, and Italian meals.
Friday, we went to Notre Dome where we happened to catch a service. The incense burning and sounds of a children's choir singing, the Gothic church was awe-inspiring. After a Nutella crepe and a "35 minute walk" along the Seine River, we made it to the Eiffle Tower for a trip to the top. After several days of pestering James about making reservations for the Eiffle Tower, he finally succumbed, and we were both satisfied to see the line wrapped around the tower. Bypassing the crowds, we headed up quickly to the top where we snapped a few photos, enjoyed the view, and became infected with hypothermia. While the ground temperature was pleasant in a sweater, I was frigid at the top. A brief lightshow and sushi later, we navigated the metro and called it a night.
Saturday, we went to the ornate Versailles Palace. The only comparison I can make is that of the Biltmore, but the lavishness of the King and Queen's quarters, the Hall of Mirrors, and other rooms on display accurately depict the wealth around 17th C France. The audiotour was managable and informative which I very much appreciated. We walked some of the famous gardens before sunset and headed back for our final night in France.
One final observation of Paris: Everyone is either carrying a baguette, pinching off bites as they walk, on their way to a bakery, or wishing they had one. We saw lines wrapped around street corners of the bakeries. France wins, I will admit, in the bread department.
Everything in Italy is old. Like, really old, and boasting centuries of history. And by American standards, Paris is too. But, Napolean's Arc de Triomphe is only 300 years old. A modern, but classical city with a rich and beautiful history. And great food. That's my take-away message from Paris.
So, yes, we arrived Wednesday night and after an hour or two of walking the streets of Paris, we navigated from the nearest metro stop to our hotel. We began Thursday with a 80% chance of rain all day, so we decided to try and stay indoors, but since the Arc de Triomphe was just down the road.... we couldn't resist. So, we climbed to the top (a surprising number of spiral staircases!). The view from the top is a unique one: Upwards of 6 or so roads converge in Place Charles de Gaulle. Not only can you see the layout of the city, but you have a perfect view of the Eiffel tower. Once it started drizzling, we ducked into the metro and made our way to the Louvre. Another nice aspect of Paris: its very student-friendly. Other than the Arc and Eiffel tower tickets, we got into most places free simply for being students living in Europe under the age of 25. Don't hate that. Like the Uffizi, the Louvre is massive and simply impossible to take in in one afternoon. After nearly a semester of museum or church boasting famous religious art after religious art after reglious art, we walked through the Louvre, pausing at interesting pieces (and of course the most famous ones), but we didn't spend the entire day being art critics. Amoung the many things that I love about James, one of my favorites is his ability to whip out names and dates and stories throughout history by the end of my question. He's like my personal tour guide, and if we both are stumped on something that interests us, we've both, nearly in unison at this point, say, "We'll look it up when we get home." He's taught me to have an even more inquisitive mind and here, you can learn everywhere.
One problem with France.... is French. Having taken Spanish and grown up with a couple of Italian pharses tossed around, I was not in the slightest concerned before coming to Italy or traveling to Spain. I'm familiar enough with "food words" and I can always point to a map or in a direction, but in France, James and I were both completely clueless. On our first night, we stopped at a small mini-market to grab some waters. The owner told us what I hope to be "thanks, goodnight." James and I replied the only way we could, with a smile and a wave. Translated menus or understanding waiters with broken English became my best friend. And once we found a good thing, we didn't let go. We ate at the same lunch spot 3 of the days we were there and at the same place for dinner twice. Luckily, we were looking for typical French cuisine. We managed to try onion soup, chocolate mousse, escargot, crepes, and beef tartar during our weekend, as well as American, Japanese, and Italian meals.
Friday, we went to Notre Dome where we happened to catch a service. The incense burning and sounds of a children's choir singing, the Gothic church was awe-inspiring. After a Nutella crepe and a "35 minute walk" along the Seine River, we made it to the Eiffle Tower for a trip to the top. After several days of pestering James about making reservations for the Eiffle Tower, he finally succumbed, and we were both satisfied to see the line wrapped around the tower. Bypassing the crowds, we headed up quickly to the top where we snapped a few photos, enjoyed the view, and became infected with hypothermia. While the ground temperature was pleasant in a sweater, I was frigid at the top. A brief lightshow and sushi later, we navigated the metro and called it a night.
Saturday, we went to the ornate Versailles Palace. The only comparison I can make is that of the Biltmore, but the lavishness of the King and Queen's quarters, the Hall of Mirrors, and other rooms on display accurately depict the wealth around 17th C France. The audiotour was managable and informative which I very much appreciated. We walked some of the famous gardens before sunset and headed back for our final night in France.
One final observation of Paris: Everyone is either carrying a baguette, pinching off bites as they walk, on their way to a bakery, or wishing they had one. We saw lines wrapped around street corners of the bakeries. France wins, I will admit, in the bread department.
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