Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri

Lots and lots of words.

POMPEII

On Friday we had to take a bus to Pompeii for the day and from there we would be released for the weekend.  The day started out with Kelsey and me sleeping in as late as possible, since we had to leave for the bus at 7:00am.  We began walking down the stairs at 7:03am, sure that they had waited for us.  We got to the bottom of the stairs, and everyone was gone.  Marissa had just been down there with the group, and said they must have just left.  We decided to walk to another hotel where the A&M students were staying.  Nobody was there either.  Kelsey called up Andres, who didn’t answer, and then called Ryan whose number we had luckily gotten the night before.  He answered and we asked where they were.  He said walking to the bus.  Kelsey said, “Where is the bus? We are at the other hotel.” Ryan responds, “Oh, uh guys…we left Kelsey and them at the hotel…” We quickly started walking in the direction they told us, and came around a corner where we found Chip running towards us. Apparently, as they had found out that we weren’t with them, they saw another bus parked where we were supposed to meet ours.  Sharon, one of the women in charge at Santa Chiara, started freaking out because buses in Rome can’t stop for very long, or they get fined 250 euro.  She yelled at Chip that he’d better have us running there or he was paying the fine. The image of him as we turned that corner, yelling at us to hurry and motioning for us to run will be forever stuck in my mind, like a track coach encouraging his runners to pull ahead in the state championship track meet.  Chip is one of our teachers, and he happens to be the one that runs 4 miles a day, so he had no mercy for us as we waddled along with our backpacks full of clothes and toiletries.  It was a little difficult to run on the cobblestone roads, not to mention Kelsey is 4’11” and her backpack is as big as her.

We came around the corner where the bus was, Kelsey and I a good block behind Chip and Marissa, and saw them stop running.  The bus Sharon had seen earlier wasn’t ours, and as we slowly caught our breath and walked towards the group, our bus pulled up.  Perfect timing. 

We slept through most of the bus ride to Pompeii, and when we got there we met up with our tour guide for the day, Giavonni (history teacher).  Pompeii was an amazing experience, and it was much larger than I expected.  I assumed it would be maybe a mile in circumference with just a few ruins, like a lot of things in Rome, but Pompeii is a huge city!  And they haven’t even uncovered a quarter of the city!  We began our tour, and I listened to Giavonni and followed along with Rick Steves so I could get the most out of my time there.  It was a little dangerous trying to read while walking on those first century streets, I almost twisted my ankle a couple times.  Giavonni told us the scientific and technological aspects of Pompeii, while I was in the back of the group reading the interesting facts about first century fast food and brothels.  Everyone makes fun of me for reading aloud, but I think they secretly like knowing what he has to say - I’ll be calling Rick Steves for my diploma in May.

We saw the forum, the basilica, and the baths, walked past the brothel but unfortunately didn’t go inside, and saw other various houses and shops.  We went past what used to be the market, which now houses all the vases and furniture, etc., retrieved from the ruins. This is also where they display plaster figures of people in the position they were in when they died.  Rick Steves taught me that when they were excavating Pompeii, they kept finding mounds with nothing in them.  Somebody smart decided to drill a hole in the mound and fill it with plaster.  When they broke the lava rock off the plaster, they found a perfectly formed person.  They realized that these are the molds of people in the position they were in when the volcano erupted, and then they decomposed leaving no sign they were there.  A couple of the plaster people were just lying down, covering their heads.  One was a dog with its legs tangled up in each other, as if it was begin blown away, and it was frozen in an instant.  The one that was especially moving was the mold of a person sitting down, knees pulled in to their chest, with their hands over their nose and mouth.  These showed how instantaneous the tragedy was, people not being able to see, run away or even breathe with all the thick ash and debris falling from the sky.  The position of that person was the position they died in, which was quite a concept for all of us to grasp.

After a while we started going on a different path than Rick Steve’s self-guided tour, so I got a little lost and started paying more attention to Giavonni.  We came to a house that was gated off to the public, but Giavonni hooked us up and we went into the courtyard.  He explained to us that this was the laboratory (luh-BORRR-ah-tory in his accent) where they keep findings from Pompeii and make lots of cool discoveries.  We were able to see, and sometimes touch, the remains that they have found.  We saw anything and everything they are working with, from a full loaf of bread to 3 human skulls, one of a pregnant woman.  There were dates, wheat, nuts, pomegranate, beans, fish net, ropes, a little turtle shell, a big sea turtle shell, a wick from a lamp, sea shells (including ones with paint in them because that is what artists used to hold their paints), a bear’s tooth, a deer’s antler, a flower pot complete with holes for water drainage, a basket made out of grape vines, an ax, and imprints of leaves in the rock.  All of these items were charred black, as you’ll see when pictures make their way to Facebook, but the scientists have discovered what they are from looking at the chemical makeup of each item.  There was some fish sauce people in Pompeii used to make, and the scientists have found the ingredients and re-created what the sauce would have been.  It smelled disgusting, but the people that tasted it said it was like a fishy soy sauce.   

There was also an urn they had found with the ash of a dead person.  In the ash was one bronze coin, because they believed you needed one coin for your final journey.  We got to pass the coin around, and I got to hold, in my hand, a bronze coin from the first century (prior to 79 AD when Mt. Vesuvius erupted).  Very cool!

We finished our day at Pompeii with a visit to the renovated Little Theater, and saw the outside of the Amphitheater (it was closed) and the facility where the gladiators trained.  Then we (6 boys and 3 girls including myself) began our weekend in southern Italy. 

SORRENTO

We caught a train to Sorrento and searched out our hostel.  It was in a building that we thought was vacant at first, until a woman in a café below directed us to the second floor.  This hostel was much nicer than our first hostel – it was much smaller, and therefore much quieter.  When we were checking in, they asked if it was okay if we all shared one room.  Andres said yes so that we wouldn’t have to worry about other people in our rooms.  We went down the little hallway and opened the door to find 4 bunk beds and one single bed in a room the size of my dorm at Santa Chiara (very little).  There was one bathroom that we had to share with the boys - yuck.  It was a great experience – like camp, and we are all oversized kids.  Unfortunately I chose a bottom bunk, and Zach (6’3”) chose the bunk on top of mine, and whenever he got on his bed, the space I had to sit up in shrunk drastically.  There was more than one occasion that he sat on my head.

By the time we all got settled it was beginning to get dark, so we bought some wine and went to the bay to watch the sun set.  We met up with our professor, Chip, who happened to be visiting the same town as us, and he hung out with us the rest of the weekend.  We ate dinner at Rick-Steves-recommended English Inn, where I had some decent fish and chips. 

CAPRI

The next day, we got on a ferry (more like a cruise ship) to go to Capri.  It’s about a 20 minute boat ride, and there was great scenery the whole time.  Capri is a-MAZE-ing. It is sooo pretty everywhere you look, but you pay for that view so beware!  It’s a very expensive island, and a true tourist trap.  Since it’s the off season, a lot of places were closed, so we had very few options when getting lunch.  We ended up at a very nice restaurant that had decent prices, until we got the service charge.  Also might have gotten pricey because we couldn’t resist dessert.  We were a little bored at first, since so many shops were closed, but we eventually walked to a park that had a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding land.  The day only got better, as we looked down the side of the cliff and spotted some tiny, tiny people, waving at us.  It was Chip, Sarah, Andres and Jeff (who we call Hollywood because he is from Landscape Architecture (LA)).  They motioned for us to make our way down. 

Looking down over the cliff, there was a path that weaved back and forth down the side of the hill.  We walked and walked down this ramp, until we were as low as we could go before the path curved around the hill out of sight.  We stood there confused, seeing that the only way down was a path that had been blocked off with a “Falling Rocks” sign and a locked gate.  We got their attention, and they gave us the go-ahead for the illegal path.  We slid through the gate (the frame was all that remained of the gate) and began hiking down the steep hill (me wearing my cute black flats).  I hadn’t expected to be rock climbing today.  Surprisingly, my shoes made it pretty easy to climb as long as I avoided the broken glass.  I was able to carefully slide down the gravel steps and used a rope when it was provided, but when I got to the big boulder-like rocks it was very easy for me to hop from rock to rock and make my way to the others.  When we arrived at the bottom of the cliff, we got to lay down on one of the rocks and touch the water.  I decided to take my shoes off and stick my feet in.  I left my shoes off for a while and walked around barefoot, pretending I wasn’t freezing from the strong winds. 

The boys explored a little and found a cave (complete with man-made toilet) and a shelter that looked like Tom Hanks had made it in Cast Away.  After relaxing for a while, we gathered our things, I put my shoes back on, and we hiked back up to the path.  It was much easier to go up than down.  We wandered around some more and found access to a pebble beach.  I threw my things down, kicked my shoes off, and ran around in the water some more.  We hung out on the beach and collected rocks until we had to catch a bus back to the top of the hill to go back down the other side and catch our ferry. 

We went back to Sorrento and had a deliciously inexpensive meal at a family-owned restaurant just off the main road.  It was called Ristorante dell’800 and I highly recommend it! I’m going to call Rick Steves up as soon as I get his number.

We went to the famous gelato place, Gelateria Primavera, where they serve huge cones to lots of famous people, and still have time to make the Pope pastries.  The gelateria is covered floor to ceiling with pictures of everyone famous that has been there, and there is video playing of all the events the gelateria has been involved with.  I had Snickers and it was super.  Did I mention they make 70 different flavors daily?

We finished the night by visiting an Irish Pub where we ran into the A&M people.  We tried to go to a discoteca, but they were all closed. Very sad.  The next morning we packed up and headed back to Santa Chiara.  We made it home for a deliciously free 3 course meal.  Dessert was ice cream sandwiches – I’m concerned our cooks are getting lazy.

This week we actually have to work on studio stuff, and have to go to all our classes.  In jewelry class I’ve already made a rose ring out of bronze that is just lovely, and I plan to put one of the stones I picked up in Capri into a ring or necklace. I’m super excited for a weekend visit from the one and only Rachel Cooper.  She’ll be here Thursday night to Sunday, and we plan on going to the Arezzo antique fair.  Kelsey and I are going to push our beds together so we can have a weekend full of cuddle parties.  Or as Rachel put it, a play pen. 

We won’t be traveling for two weeks, but then we’ll be very busy – Venice one week, Barcelona and Valencia the next week.  It will be exhausting and I will be extremely broke, but hey – once in a lifetime opportunity, right mom and dad??

Love you all!!!!!

Cara Marie

Roma!

Since I didn't have internet in the hotel in Rome, here is what happened the last couple days.  We are currently in our hostel in Sorrento, where the Wifi is free, so I will update you on Pompeii later!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

We arrived in Rome yesterday.  We checked into our hotel (2-star and still nicer than our dorm room) and then explored the area for some food.  We checked out the market where we each bought a bottle of wine to prepare for the week, and tasted some Limoncello, the drink of southern Italy.   After getting a slice of pizza, we met for a tour of central Rome.  Our hotel is in what Rick Steves considers the heart of Italy.  (I’ve become a personal tour guide for my friends, reading what Rick Steves has to say about everything).  We had a tour guide named Eva, and she was very cute!  She had a sparkly purple scarf tied to a stick, so we officially looked like all the tourists we make fun of. 

We went to a bunch of churches, saw some paintings, saw a lot of the political buildings, including the house of the President of the Senate, the Prime Minister’s office, and the building where Parliament meets.  Then we winded through all the tiny confusing streets of Italy, turned a corner, and ta-da! There was the PANTHEON! My personal favorite building we’ve studied.  Except for Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which is designed with the Pantheon as a precedent.  (Montecello is also designed after the Pantheon).  We stood outside, where there was a band playing, accordion included, and admired the giant solid stone columns.  Then we moved in closer, and I might have hugged one of the pillars.  We walked (ran) inside and looked up to the amazing dome.  You’ll have to look up the Pantheon if you don’t know what I am talking about, because no picture can give it justice.  It was breathtaking.  I could just sit and stare at that huge dome for hours.  There is an intentional hole in the top of the dome, and it was a beautiful day, so the blue sky and sun only made the experience more wonderful.  This was the highlight of my life.

We saw a lot of other things, included the Trevi Fountain, and ended at the Spanish Steps.  At the Trevi Fountain, I tried another one of my gelato combinations – this time, coconut and chocolate.  This was in honor of my mom, who has an obsession with Russell Stover’s coconut clusters.  It was quite successful!  The chocolate was actually called “Melting Chocolate,” so it was very rich, and the coconut was refreshing. 

It was getting dark when we got to the Trevi Fountain, so we’ll take pictures another time, and throw our coins in.  Eva said the first coin you throw in is so you will return to Rome.  The second one is so you will find a good man/woman, and the third is for a divorce, so she said to throw as many as necessary.  Rachel told me she couldn’t stop throwing coins in, so when I told her about this, she said she’s going to end up with 12 divorces.  I’ll just throw one coin in!

At the end of the tour we followed the boys back to a place that had a pizza and beer deal for dinner.  I don’t know why we let the boys lead, we had already learned our lesson on the Milan trip.  We walked in lots of circles with stubborn boys not listening to the girls.  The thing is, us girls pay attention to every store and street vendor we pass, so we used landmarks to lead everyone back to the restaurant.  We got a table for all ten of us, and our waiter was Pascualo.  He is AWESOME!  He gave us a free pizza, free beer, and then we tipped him so much he gave us each a beer for the road and a keychain and told us to come back tomorrow night for free drinks!  He told us he was the password to the city.  We saw him later at the place he told us to go to, Sloppy Sam’s, where all the drinks were extremely overpriced.  There were waitresses there that are students in Rome from Minnesota, so they gave us some pointers on discoteca’s we can go to for a dance party.

Today Kelsey and I followed Rick Steve’s advice and relaxed, because Rome can wear a person out.  We’re about to go get lunch before meeting the group to go to the Vatican!  I’m excited to see everything, and hopefully we will have time to climb the 323 steps to the top of the dome.  I’m not sure what else we have planned for today, but yesterday was a great day, so hopefully the rest of the Rome trip will go just as well!

Cara Marie

Thursday February 24, 2011

Yesterday we had a terrible tour guide at the Vatican, worst one we’ve ever had. He was from Pennsylvania, a history major, and married to an Italian woman. He kept talking down on the Catholic church, while we were at the Vatican….a little odd.  He talked way too much about things that we didn’t care about, like tapestries and random sculptures (including a giant toe).  He took two hours to get us to the Sistine Chapel, and we only had 15 minutes there.  And some girls got yelled at for laying down and looking up at the ceiling – the guards were really mean.  He talked so much that by the time we were done, the stairs to the top of the dome were closed. Hopefully we will have time to go up in the dome today, but we’re supposed to go to the Colosseum, Campidoglio and the MAXXI.  When we were finally free from our terrible tour guide, I had time to walk around inside St. Peter’s Basilica.  I saw Michaelangelo’s Pieta, some dead saints in glass boxes, and was lucky enough to see Cardinals putting on a Mass.  They were all singing and the organ was playing and it made the atmosphere wonderful.  Also saw St. Peter’s tomb. 

Hopefully today will be better, because the more I think about how much time that tour guide wasted the more sad I get.  We will be going to Hadrian’s Villa, in Tivoli, in April or May, so if all else fails I’ll try to come back then.

Cara Marie

-

Thursday February 24, 2011

Today was a long and tiring day, but we saw a lot of fascinating things.  We began this morning at Capitoline Hill. Michaelangelo…

Past She-Wolf, Romulus Ramus, prostitute…

Old Roman Forum. Ruins. Treasury. Four arches. Lots of stuff, learned how Rome developed over the years…

Colosseum. Triumval Arch.  Didn’t go inside, went to San Clemente.  VERY COOL. Quote Rick Steves and discuss.

Went on our own, very happy, went inside Colosseum, took pics, saw lots of ruins, saw Russell Crowe.

Took a bus to Vatican City, climbed up 221 steps to the roof, then 323 steps to the top of the dome.  Steps were crazy, chlostraphobic, angled, walked at a slant.  Last flight of stairs was a spiral with a rope to hold on to and hoist yourself up.

Went home, to dinner, back home and passed out for a couple hours.  Tomorrow we go to Pompeii, then we’re free for the weekend in Sorrento and Capri!

Cara Marie

Longest Post in the World

Where to begin? This weekend we tackled seven cities in three days.  They included Arezzo, Bologna, Modena, whatever town the Ferrari Museum was in, Milan, Varenna, and Bellagio.  We leave for Rome tomorrow at 7:55 in the morning, so I have laundry and packing and sleeping to do, so pictures will just be uploaded on Facebook in a week or two.  Enjoy this novel of a post!

On Friday, our adventure began bright and early, rushing to the train station to catch the 8:05 train to Arezzo.  We hopped on the train for the 15 minute ride, where we were serenaded by some accordion players asking for money.  Apparently accordions are a big deal here, because a couple weeks ago a famous accordion player came to Santa Chiara during dinner. 

In Arezzo, we were supposed to catch a train to Bologna, but the boys who planned this trip obviously didn’t do their research.  I don’t remember if it wasn’t a direct train or it cost more, but we had to sit in Arezzo for 2 or 3 hours extra waiting for the right train.  We sat on the steps of a church for a while and watched the Italians slowly make their way to work, watched groups of elementary students being corralled for a field trip to the church, and watched an older woman with a cane and floor-length fur coat get harassed by a panhandler until she gave him money.  He said he just needed it for one coffee, and the woman was walking at the speed of snail, so she gave him a euro or two so he would leave her alone.  He then walked away from her and the cafe and back to his post by the church steps.  It was at this point I decided to give no mercy to panhandlers.

After wandering around Arezzo looking for places that were open, we made our way back to the train station and headed to Bologna.  In Bologna we had to catch another train to Modena, where the Ferrari Museum is.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat, some of us (me included) grabbed some pizza, while others went to McDonald’s – I refused to do that.  Got back on a train, where we accidentally sat in first class, got offered a piece of paper with a prayer on it, got asked if we wanted to buy the piece of paper, and finally made our way to a wonderful place called Modena.  

In Modena, we stepped off the train to the most disgusting place I have EVER been to, and I’ve been to Lawrence, Kansas.  It was trashy and dirty and the people were scary.  We got on a bus that would take us to the bus station where we would get on a bus to take us to the Ferrari Museum.  Seeing as boys were in charge of this, it didn’t go so well.  First, we missed our stop at the bus station and ended up taking a tour of the entire bus route.  Every time we would stop, the boys (mostly Andres) would say, “Maybe it’s the next one…”  It was never the next one.  We finally stopped by another bus and the bus driver got out, told us to get on the other bus, and told the other bus driver where to take us.  We finally got to the bus station, where we found out the next bus wasn’t for an hour or so.  We went to a café where some people got beers and some people went to the bathroom (which was just a hole in the floor with foot grips and a plastic guard around it).  We also saw a man stuck in time, he was about 80 years old, and just sitting at the bar staring out the window with a toothless grin on his face.  MY theory is that he got stuck in the mud about 60 years ago and nobody unstuck him.

Our bus finally came and we had PDA in front of our faces for what seemed like hours, almost got out at the wrong stop, and then got off the bus and were instructed by the bus police (who check your tickets and take your passport if you don’t have one) where to walk to get to the museum.  We made it to the Ferrari Museum where we got a discount for showing up an hour before they close.  At this point we were about 6 hours behind schedule.

The Ferrari Museum was cool, although I do wish I had known ANYTHING about cars.  It was just a bunch of shiny, pretty, fast machines to me.  It was still interesting to see the progression of all the different cars and all the history that comes with a Ferrari.  We saw Ferrari’s from every decade, saw Enzo Ferrari’s office (they moved the whole thing to the museum), saw engines and tires and awards and lots of overpriced Ferrari merchandise.  Also saw a car that apparently you can’t get unless you already own 4 or 5 Ferrari’s. 

After the Ferrari Museum, we made our way back to the train station.  We needed to get something to eat, because our train wasn’t until later in the evening (since we missed a total of 3 trains and 2 buses we had planned on making) and wouldn’t arrive until 10pm.  We walked down a loggia for about 3 minutes where we saw a lot of non-Italian creeps hanging around ghetto hair salons, “sexy shops” and ghetto clothing stores.  We realized we should probably turn back and go to the only safe (dreaded) choice, McDonald’s at the train station.  I ordered a Happy Meal for 4 euro which included a Hello Kitty toy, and a kiwi on a stick.  Best choice ever!  Unfortunately, my toy didn’t light up like it was supposed to, which just added to the list of things that went wrong in the hell on earth, Modena, Italy. 

Lesson learned: Ferrari Museum is not worth it, and never let boys plan trips. 

We finally arrived in Milan after 2 or 3 hours of train ride and were ecstatic when we de-trained.  It was the most beautiful sight!  We had finally arrived, and we were taking pictures of everything we saw, just grateful to be out of Modena and at our destination.  The train station was wonderfully clean, lit and thriving with people despite the late hour.  We were 2 hours late for our reservation at our hostel, so we got some 2-day Metro passes and booked it to our stop.  (Side note – Ryan was offered some Italian guy’s e-mail address because he loved America so much, I guess he had studied in New York).  When we came out of the Subway, we walked past some transvestites at a bus stop (who took a liking to Zach), and walked about half a mile to our hostel.  Last thing I wrote in my journal sums it up pretty well, “12:23am Saturday - Just got to our hostel.  Tired and feel gross but room is okay.”  Pictures will be posted on Facebook of the hostel, so check there for a tour of our lovely abode.  It was just like Goodnow Hall, but there were loud foreign people screaming at all hours of the night.

On Sunday we woke up early and got a head start on our day in Milan.  We began by going to the Duomo.  We took the subway, and when we walked up the steps we arrived right next to the Piazza in front of the Duomo.  It was a beautiful day and the Duomo was magnificent!  We began walking towards it in awe, and all of a sudden African men kept trying to give us bird seed and bracelets.  They would actually try to put the bracelets on people’s wrists and then make them pay.  They kept shoving bird seed in people’s hands, and they were very pushy and rude.  Since I had already made my no mercy rule in Arezzo, every time they came close I would yell at them to go away.  There had to have been 20 of them or more, because I would yell at a few of them to leave us alone, and then more would come up to us. SO ANNOYING.  I might have told them to get a real job once or twice. 

Once we got rid of the scoundrels as best we could, we took some pics inside and out of the Duomo.  This is my new favorite church.  So beautiful and intricate, and on the inside there were pieces of art work hanging between the arches.  Pictures, once again, will be on Facebook eventually.  The carving that was done on this cathedral was ridiculous.  While inside the church, we saw some monks, lit some candles, saw a body in a shiny box (St. Charles Borromeo), admired the details, and took many illegal pictures.  There was actually a sign on the outside of the church that had a bunch of symbols of things you can’t do, including a picture of the comedy and tragedy masks, interpreted as “no drama” in the cathedral! 

Then we went to the top of the Duomo, walking up 160 steps in a narrow stairway (with people going back down at the same time).  The first part of the roof tour was at the level of the buttresses of the cathedral.  It was very cool to see all the detail put into the parts of the church that can’t even be seen.  There were intricate carvings on everything, even on the back side of pillars and walls.  We walked up some more steps and reached the very top of the Duomo.  It was definitely worth all the energy and time to get up there.  We could see all of the historic buildings around the Duomo, including the Galleria, as well as the modern sky scrapers in the distance.  We could also see Switzerland!  It was a beautiful view, and we took lots of pictures so be looking for those!

Milan is a historic city, but also the fashion capital of the world, so it could be related to NYC in size and structure. There were huge high-end stores all around the Duomo, and they were setting up for Fashion Week in the piazza next to the Duomo.  We visited the Galleria, but felt too low-class to even go near the shops there.  There was everything from a Mercedes-Benz store to Dolce and Gabbana. 

We went away from the Galleria and closer to the university (which was a bust) to find something to eat.  We found a new favorite, Doner Kebab, and we got to eat outside since it was so nice out.  The kebabs we got here where much bigger than the ones in Florence.  I could barely handle it.  I had to hold it with one hand and I couldn’t set it down because I knew it would lose its shape and I would be in big trouble.  So instead I had to have Andres, who we called “dad” the whole trip since he always seems to be running the show, open my water bottle.  He didn’t put the cap back on, and my first thought was “Cara, you are going to spill that.”  Two seconds after that thought crossed my mind, I went to reach for it and spilt the entire bottle on my leg and off the table.  [SPILL OF THE DAY ALERT].  It was very embarrassing, seeing as we had a group of 14 people and the workers at Doner Kebab were making fun of us the whole time.  For some reason, Geoff Ekey felt the need to poke his head out of the café and yell, “Spill of the day!” Thanks, Geoff, for pointing it out, as if it wasn’t obvious enough.  So we started heading for the castle in Milan, me with I had a giant wet spot on my leg. 

On our way to the castle, we saw a giant art piece of a tree with a face.  It was by some American. Go USA!  In front of the castle there were a lot of people trying to sell cheap toys and sunglasses, just like you would find in New York.  There was a large fountain we sat by for a while, soaking up the sun since it was such a beautiful day.  The castle with pretty lame, just a big wall basically, we didn’t go inside, I think they are restoring it because there was scaffolding everywhere.  Once we got through the castle walls, however, we came to a large park.  It was huge and beautiful and there was an arch at the other end and lots of grassy green fields and paths, and there was even a carnival!  This was clearly the happening place to be, and we walked through the park to the arch at the other end, and back.  Then some people played bumper cars, which was very entertaining for everyone.  As we were leaving the park we noticed all the people selling things had disappeared, and there were police vans driving on the sidewalk.  Silly gypsies.

We walked to a gelato place we had spotted on the way to the castle, and I tried one of the combinations on my list – strawberry and lemon.  It tasted like heaven!  It was like strawberry lemonade, or a lemonberry slush from Sonic.  So good!!  I also realized that I need to add mint and chocolate to my poll.

Annie had a book she found in Santa Chiara that talked about the shopping streets in Milan.  We walked down the one with all the stores we can’t afford, and window shopped for things that we can’t buy.  Then we found the semi-affordable street, and hit up some sales.  We returned later that night while the boys, Annie, Brit and Sarah were at a soccer game.  We went to H&M and an expensive restaurant, where we confused the waiter by only ordering first course.  He said, “For starters? Orrr….no?”  No, sir, just the first course, because we are broke.

We went back to the hostel to meet everyone to go out, and then we all passed out from exhaustion.  This is getting excessively long, so I’m going to sum up Sunday.  We woke up, checked out, went to a train station, got tickets for a day at Lake Como (important note – we decided it was a good idea to leave 5 minutes between arriving in Milan and departing for Arezzo to switch trains), sat on a bench but then realized we were sitting by the homeless people’s toilet (a spinning advertisement), moved to a café where they had strobe lights and a high pitched buzzing to keep the pigeons out, bought a 5 euro bottle of wine from a street vendor, bought a focaccia sandwich, got on the train to Varenna, and took a ferry to Bellagio.  Unfortunately, Sunday was foggy and rainy, so all the beautiful sights were just a little less beautiful.  In case you don’t know, Lake Como is just south of Switzerland, so we could see the Swiss Alps through the fog.  This is also the lake that Villa Balbienello is at, which is where Star Wars II and a scene in Casino Royale were filmed at.  Also the lake that George Clooney has a house at, but for some reason he didn’t answer our calls as we yelled for him when walking between beautiful mansions. 

In Bellagio we strolled down to Punta Spartivento, which is the point that splits Laka Como and Lake Lenno.  We popped open the cheap wine as we stood on a pier and used plastic cups, juggling our umbrellas at the same time.  Basically, we are very classy.  We didn’t have much time here because we had to get all the way back to Castiglion F.no that night.  We strolled through a loggia full of scarves, sunglasses and ties, and other things we can’t afford, and made our way back to the ferry where we opened another bottle of wine.  Our classiness leaves me in awe. 

Keeping in mind that we had 5 minutes to switch trains in Milan, we began getting very nervous as the minutes ticked away and our train had not shown up yet.  The train in Varenna ended up being 3 minutes late, which cut our time to get to our next train down to two minutes.  As we approached the Milan station, we started walking towards the front of the train so we could get closer to the platform to switch trains.  There was a line of about 9 of us, backpacks and umbrellas and all, walking car to car through all the people (and boy scouts, who didn’t seem to know they had seats that were out of the aisles) trying to get to the front of the train.  As we began to slow down, we started getting more nervous.  If we didn’t make this train, we would have to wait a few hours to leave on a more expensive train that would get us to Arezzo at 5 am, where we would have to wait another hour for the train to Castiglion F.no.  We had to get off the train, go find the board to find out what platform our train was on, validate our tickets, and get on the train.  All in two minutes.  We decided to have a designated runner, Luke.  He led the pack of us, darting through confused Italians, as we ran to our train.  It all went so fast I don’t know how we found our train, but I remember turning the corner to our platform as the conductor was blowing his whistle.  We all got on and realized we were missing two people – Annie and Zach.  They were nowhere in sight, so I said to the conductor, “Due mas!” and he just stared at me as I pointed behind me, at nothing because they weren’t there.  Luckily, a man had about 5 suitcases to load onto the train, which postponed the conductor from leaving, and Luke ran and found Annie and Zach.  We all crammed onto the train, waiting for the conductor because we decided not to validate our tickets.  If you don’t validate your ticket, it is a 50 euro fine and they can take your passport.  The conductor told us to go sit down, so I think he just wanted all 11 of us out of the way.  I couldn’t believe we made it to our train.  I still can’t believe we pulled that off.  We may or may not have finished a third bottle of wine on the 5 hour train. 

We had half an hour in Arezzo and then a 15 minute train ride home sweet home to Castiglion Fiorentino.  We all went to Pirate Bar because we hadn’t eaten since noon, and it was about midnight.  We found everyone there, all ready to party, but we were just exhausted and hungry.  We had some pizzas and then went back to Santa Chiara and went to bed.  What a weekend.

Tomorrow we leave for Rome at 7:55 am, and will be there until Thursday.  On Friday we go to Pompeii, and then this weekend Kelsey and I are going to Sorrento and Capri with some other people.  I’m excited to visit the inspiration for CapriSun.

If you just read this whole post you win a prize.

Cara Marie

Siena, Socks and String

[Ignore the numbers in parenthesis, pictures will be posted eventually...]

Today we went to Siena with our tour guide from Arezzo, Giavonni.  He’s our favorite tour guide.  He spent the first ten minutes of our bus ride talking about the Japanese tourists, and every time someone that works at a church tells him in Italian we can’t take pictures, he translates it to, “Oh, did I mention you can’t take any pictures, no flash, no breathing, no laughing, no enjoyment of any kind.”  Then he goes on with our tour. 

[613]  View of a part of the lovely city!

Today was our first day of rain.  It has been drizzling the last couple days, but today it rained until water starting dripping through my umbrella, and the wind flipped my umbrella inside out about 13 times.  We went to a lot of places today, but I was more focused on not slipping on the excessive amount of marble rather than where we were going or what I was taking pictures of.  The pictures I did take don’t do the city justice.  From what we did see, I can imagine that Siena is absolutely breathtaking when the sun is shining.  Too bad the one day we did come, everyone was hiding under clouds or umbrellas and our free time was during the siesta. 

[629] Lots of rain and lots of umbrellas.

We went to a few churches, Piazza del Campo where the Palio horse race is held, saw where Saint Catherine of Siena spent most of her time, also saw her head and a finger, and went past way too many shops with way too little time to stop.

[620] Room where Saint Catherine spent most of her time, with a memorial and frescoes dedicated to her.

Giavonni doesn’t care if we take pictures as long as there is no flash.  When we were in this little bitty room, however, people were filing out and some guy came in and yelled at us in Italian.  I quickly slid my camera in my pocket and walked out like I didn’t know what he was saying, but some people behind me got yelled at and “shoo’d” out of the room.  Kelsey didn’t even get to go inside. 

After that unknown place we went to another unknown place, where we looked at lots of rooms of frescoes and restorations and stuff.

[641] View from the tower of some place where Parliament was held and there were a lot of frescoes. 

Anyways, all this is making me bored, so we’ll get back to my laundry situation.  I ended up making a clothesline in studio, where I hung all my shirts up and they dried within a few hours.  What was left of my socks and undies that were still wet I took to the Laundromat (which is adorable, the washers are covered in flowers) and paid 2 euro for 15 minutes of drying time.  Unfortunately, all the socks I own are either wool or fuzzy, so I had to throw them in with another girl’s laundry for 15 minutes more.  Then I hiked up a steep hill with my laundry bag, which is still difficult after three weeks of Olympic training.

[Laundry, Laundry 2]

Spill of the day yesterday was not food, but rather my fork flying at me and almost cutting my trachea open.  I have no recollection of how the fork got to its mid-air position, but it landed in my lap and I was not injured.  Close call. 

Spending today with Giavonni led to an addition to the list of words Italians can’t pronounce.

Cinnamon (SEE-no-mone).

Government (Go-VERNA-ment). 

Developed (dee-vull-upped, say very quickly). 

Heartbeats (Herpes).

As for what is happening in studio, some people have been getting bored in our small little town during the rain, and have decided to build a tensile archway in the middle of our studio out of string.  Boredom has turned it into a massive trail of yarn going up the stairs by our studio and I imagine they will be heading into the hallway soon.  Thank goodness for no fire code in Italy!  Unfortunately this is bringing unwanted traffic into our secret little studio, aka art majors.  If I haven’t mentioned it yet, our studio is at the end of a hallway down a flight of stairs all by itself.  We’ve been here three weeks and just today the other schools realized we were down here.  They’ve also realized they can steal our internet.

This weekend we have a LOT planned!  We’ve booked hostels and trains and made our itinerary for a jam packed expensive weekend!  First we’re going to the Ferrari Museum to buy some cars, and then we’re driving the cars to Milan.  When we get to Milan we’re checking into our lovely hostel.  On Saturday we’re going to do the tourist things, look at some churches and art galleries and some famous stuff.  Then we’ll go shopping and to dinner.  The boys are going to a soccer game, but we didn’t get tickets so we’re debating between shopping ORRRRRR……..going to an OPERA!  We found out that if we go an hour before show time we can get the left over tickets 25% off, and the nosebleeds are only 12 euro!  So we’ll see how that goes.  Then on Sunday we’re hopefully taking a train to Lake Como, where Star Wars and Casino Royale were filmed.  It will be the first garden we go to, and I am very excited!  We will be very close to Switzerland, so I’ll holler to the yodelers for you all.

I think this is getting too long.

Cara Marie

Carrots were a bad idea.

Last night I went to bed sad because I knew there was going to be a butt-whooping of K-State basketball later that night, and woke up in shock to find an e-mail from my mom saying we had won! I looked on my news feed, and low and behold it was at the top of the popular stories! I read the whole story at 7:45 am and woke my roommates up to start spreading the great news.  I am still wondering why we had class today, we should have been celebrating like they were in Aggieville at the same time I was in class.  Oh well, we'll celebrate with some wine at dinner (as usual), GO CATS!

For lunch today we had a delicious type of risotto, some cole-slaw-like stuff, pigs in a blanket, and quiche.  The quiche....where to begin.  We have found that whatever we don't eat one day, such as spinach or, in this case, carrots, ends up in our meals the next day, usually in the form of soup or pasta.  The first time we had quiche there were slivers of potatoes on top, and it was delicious! We've had spinach quiche, ham and potatoes quiche, but today there was carrot quiche.  Terrible idea.  They didn't bother cutting the carrots into smaller pieces, so in the midst of scrambled eggs trying to hold themselves together were thick slices of carrots, from the fresh veggies of yesterday.  Every time anyone tried to serve themselves, they would get a small chunk of egg and then the carrots would spill out of the quiche, pulling the piece apart and creating a pile of orange and yellow confusion.  Point being, don't try this at home.  I stuck to the risotto and piggies after a massive quiche failure. 

Laundry is still on the line, but some of it is almost dry...I've been bringing in whatever I want to wear the next day and drying it overnight with the vent on in our bathroom.  Tonight I'm going to have to bring it all in, because there is rain in the forecast for tomorrow!  Trip to Sienna tomorrow, and this weekend we have booked a trip to Milan! We will be stopping in the Ferrari Factory on the way to Milan, and while the boys are at a soccer game, my roomies and I will be hitting up the shops!  So excited!

Cara Marie

Buon San Valentino!

Today was our first jewelry and bronze class.  We had to ride a school bus to Andrea’s house, because it was too far to walk to.  The school bus, unfortunately, was so loud the engine might as well have been inside the vehicle, and I swear the sides of the bus were going to fall off at any second.  Since I live at the top of a hill, we had to go down some steep streets.  We weaved back and forth and turned a corner to the same hill Kelsey and I had to hike up from La Pievuccia (where we took several stops but reluctantly survived).  As we started down the hill, I was frantically looking around for things to hold on to and begging for a seat belt – I honestly thought we were going to die.  Hauling down this hill in a rickety old school bus and I was in the front seat watching the street fly past.  We barely made it to the bottom of the hill, squeaked past other cars on the narrow roads, and safely arrived at our teacher’s house.  When we went inside there were art pieces everywhere, finished and unfinished, of beautiful bronze pieces.  Andrea is preparing for an exhibit so he was very busy today, but we got to play with wax and fire, molding small pieces getting used to the medium.  We made rings with little roses on them, and they will be cast into bronze when we got back next week!

Since it is Valentine’s Day, we got little treats from La Perla café for dessert at lunch.  They were adorable little pastries and were super tasty!  Tonight A&M is putting on a Valentine’s day party at Pirate Bar where only students from Santa Chiara are admitted (in other words no creepy Italians staring at us).  I am currently in studio listening to loud music on the speakers we found with the K-State stuff, sub-woofers included, so I might be here for a while.  (Current song is Walkin' on Broken Glass)

Another thing I am going to start is a list of words Italians have trouble pronouncing.  Our current favorites are unique and focus.  Unique always comes out "EU-nich," making us all think twice before understanding the sentence.  With "focus," well they all seem to put too much emphasis on the first syllable.  I'll let you imagine how that one comes out.   Very hard to hold back laughter, especially in the museums and cathedrals.

Buon San Valentino!!

Cara Marie

Almost forgot...spill of the day!  Tonight we had red sauce on our pasta, and I got a little ambitious and tried to wipe up a bunch of it onto my bread, but I failed in getting it to my mouth in time, and it spilled on my jacket...right on the zipper. IMPOSSIBLE to get out.  And I had three spills in one day this weekend, again, but I don't remember what they were.  Too much traveling! 

Watercolor

Today I attempted to water color for the first time this semester.  The only other time I've water colored was in gradeschool, where it's acceptable to suck, and in my visual communications class 2 years ago, where I did something abstract, like a line and a circle.  Today I tried to make Valentines.  I ended up just making a giant checkerboard of pink and purple squares that I plan to cut into individual pieces.  Unfortunately, my watercoloring is the caliber of a 2nd grader, and since there's art majors running around this place I am going to hide in studio and color hearts on them tonight.  Maybe I just won't sign them.

Recently at meal times it's been a battle to get seconds.  The only rule in the cafeteria is to wait until everyone has been served before refilling your table's platter.  People have been breaking that rule and running to the kitchen to get seconds like they're starving children, usually before my table has been served.  Tonight we're having french fries, so I expect a riot to break out.

Anyways, laundry is still wet on the line, so I don't know what I'm going to wear tomorrow....

Cara Marie

Mountain Climbing in Cortona

Today we went to Cortona for the afternoon.  This is a nearby hill town, and is actually our town's rival because of the controversy over who has more historical Etruscan ruins.  We took a bus, which I learned today costs less than one load of laundry in Italy. The bus dropped us off in town, and I was told we were going to hike to the top.  I figured it couldn't be worse than Castiglion Fiorentino, and I was VERY wrong.  All I can say is I definitely deserved that gelato I had tonight.

We stopped for a bite to eat on the steps of the church in town.  We actually found some American students studying in Cortona, and they told us about a discoteca they found - we will definitely have to check that out!  They just got to Italy 4 days ago, and start school on Monday.

After our little snack, we started our trek to the top of the hill.  We had to take three or four pit stops, but we made it.  We also made a furry friend.  There was a dalmation running around with a pink bedazzled collar, she was very friendly and adorable and followed us around for a while.  At the top of the hill there were great views of Cortona and a nearby lake, although it was a foggy day so pictures weren't the best.  We found some grave stones with ancient writing on them, and we used them as a playground.

We hiked back down to catch our bus home, and I found that pretending to be an airplane makes the downhill trip go much quicker.  While we were waiting for the bus we went to a beautiful park and played on a playground for a bit.  Then we almost got run over by the bus - note to self, do not approach the bus until it is in park with the doors open.

When we got home I decided I should probably do my laundry, since I have literally run out of shirts and have worn the same pair of jeans for three weeks.  I had the option of going to the laundromat and paying 8 euro for one load of laundry, or washing my clothes by hand and hanging them to dry outside.  Since I have had the influence of one Eric Smeltzer for a few years, I lugged my laundry down five flights of stairs to the outdoor wash room, which turned out to be a sink.  There was no hot water, so after my hands went numb I just washed away.  I realized after an hour that it was getting dark and harder to see and I really had no idea what I was washing.  I would just wash, rinse, throw on the line, and repeat.  I successfully washed all my laundry and hung it on the line to dry, even though it was dark out, and now my entire wardrobe is hanging outside under a tent, in the rain....

We had a tasty dinner and played a game of poker and have been fighting with the internet since.  There is a chocolate festival in Perugia that the Orvieto group wants us to meet them at, but with all this travel we're feeling exhausted so that probably won't happen.  I will be wearing sweatpants for the next couple days while my clothes dry, which is another reason Perugia isn't looking like a good idea. 

Cara Marie

Eat, Relax, Love

Hello America!

I spent Friday morning at the vineyard I will be working with for my studio project.  I talked about it previously, but there is SO much more to tell about it!  The entire time we were getting a tour, all I could think was, "this is so cool!"  Riccardo Papini, the owner, said that his marketing strategy is to cater to the kids, because if they have fun, they will go home and tell their friends about it and their friends will beg their parents to go.  He does a good job at it, too.  There are just patches of grass with trees and plants scattered around, and hidden playgrounds around every corner - there is even a tree house Riccardo built himself.  There is a pool, too.  The best part about this resort is that it doesn't have to be to-code or follow ADA standards - which makes everything ugly.  The best way I can explain it is raw nature, where kids are free to play outside without having a leash on them or a medic around the corner.  The resort takes up an extensive amount of land, so kids have the freedom to explore and run around without bothering the parents. 

The vineyard is also 100% organic and self-sustaining.  They use photovoltaics for all the electricity, and don't use any chemicals whatsoever.  Riccardo explained to us that in order to be considered organic wine, you just have to grow organic grapes.  He told us that after they are certified organic grapes, other chemicals can be added to the wine to purify it, add color or a specific flavor.  La Pievuccia, his vineyard, doesn't do any additives.  His wine is 100% organic grapes, not even natural puritants added.  (He also told us that in France they add egg whites to the wine, so if you're allergic to eggs you would never know not to drink the wine). 

If you were to stay at the resort, you would rent out a "flat" for a week, and would have an immense amount of ammenities available.  There is a vegetable garden that guests can go pick their own vegetables, there are wine tastings for free, and you can be as involved or uninvolved as you want with the vineyard.  Riccardo said some guests come and he sees them when he gives them the key and doesn't see them again until they pay at the end of their stay.  Other guests come and ask what they can do each day, and they help work at the vineyard.  If you are interested in helping at the vineyard, Riccardo will teach you how to do everything, and you will learn as much or as little as you like.  As we were touring the winery, he told us that someone interested in renting a flat asked him how close to the beach it was.  He said it was 2 hours away, and they responded by asking what they could do at the vineyard.  Riccardo responded with, "Eat, relax and love." They said, "Sounds good."  Perfect example of the Italian way of life, something America needs to learn more about.

I learned a lot of stuff at the vineyard that I won't bore you with, including how to organically fertilize the grapes and how to ferment white wine versus red wine.  I saw the different flats you can rent out (there are only 5 but they are all adorable, each with their own kitchen and outdoor seating area), the wine tasting area, the playgrounds and vineyards and cellar where all the wine is made, bottled and labeled by hand.  He doesn't produce enough wine for large distribution, he said he only has a couple distributors in nearby cities but mostly sells to locals and guests.  To wrap this all up, I am now obsessed with this vineyard/resort and plan to vacation there when I am rich with kids, because then I will have an excuse to play in the tree house. 

After we visited the best vineyard in Italy, Riccardo thankfully gave us a ride back to town (it's a 45 minute walk).  I did my Italian duty and took a nap, then ate another delicious dinner, went to a pirate bar, and went to bed.

Cara Marie

Spills come in 3's

Today was our second class trip to Florence.  The day started with spill #1.Every Wednesday the center provides us with a little breakfast, since the whole school is gone for lunch.  It is usually a packaged pastry and a juice box. Last time they gave us juice boxes, I guess I put the straw in too hard, because it shot out at me.  Today, I made sure I was very careful putting the straw in the box.  I made sure the bendy part was upright, I slowly pierced the little straw into the hole, and set the juice box carefully on the provided ledge in the train on our way to Florence.  I then proceeded to dig into the pastry, but right when I opened the package crumbs fell out all over my jacket, lap and into my purse.  After cleaning up the crumbs, as much as I could, I decided to take a drink of my juice box (that I had been so cautious with).  As soon as I picked it up, there was a stream of juice squirting all over my lap, arm and once again into my purse. For some reason I couldn’t figure out how to stop it for a good five seconds, until I realized I should just put the juice box down. I guess I should just avoid the juice boxes from now on.

When we arrived to Florence we headed to the museum of the Duomo.  This museum houses most of the original statues and marble architectural pieces that were being damaged from pollution.  The pieces currently on the Duomo are all replicas.  (Makes me wonder if there is going to be a completely fake Duomo sometime in the future).  It was interesting to see how pollution damages the statues so much, some of them were unrecognizable.  The most interesting piece we saw in that museum was the Pieta by Michaelangelo.   It was the first one he did, and the same one that he was unhappy with so he broke the arm of Jesus off of it.  His apprentice collected all the pieces and put it back together, and this was the first piece of stone work that was unfinished and still displayed.  Or something along those lines.

Then we went inside the Duomo, and it was a big church with a lot of nothing in it.  We got to see the inside of the dome, and found a bunch of cracks in it.  A little concerning.  We didn’t get to go up the 400-some stairs to the top of the dome, but maybe if I start gaining an excessive amount of weight I’ll consider joining that gym.

We went to lunch at I Fratellini (Little Brothers) which is the same stand that I told you about the other day, and this time I got the Panini with truffle cream in it.  A truffle in Italy is not what you would think it is.  It is a type of mushroom that is very coveted.  And with good reason! It was DELICIOUS!  Apparently they are so hard to find, they have to feed them to pigs when they are babies so when they grow up they can go find them.  It is impossible for humans to find them.  Dogs are also used, but pigs are more interesting.

After we got an appetizer of a Panini we decided to search out a place called Doner Kebab, recommended by my Rick Steve’s book and by Geoff Ekey who ate at one in Orvieto.  In my book it said that ethnic food is becoming more popular with immigration from the Middle East.  I had the responsibility of finding the place, but my trusty Droid died and I had to look at a map and guide us from memory.  Yes – I was leading the pack.  After going down a few wrong roads, we lost hope and decided to look for a different place to eat.  We turned the corner and walked past a dark alley that had a sunshiny market on the other end, which immediately attracted us to see what they had.  All of a sudden, the people at the back of the pack pointed out that we were right beside Doner Kebab – we found it!  I am such a good navigator.  Anyways, this “fast food” wasn’t Italian at all, but rather like a confused Chipotle.  There was some kind of meat spinning on a spit (Andres said it was lamb) and they carved it off as it spun around into your choice of a Panini or tortilla.  Then they put lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, purple thingies, French fries and some white sauce in it.  Hot sauce is another option, but I can hardly handle honey barbeque sauce so that was a negative.  It turned out to be pretty tasty! As I was digging in to my tortilla of deliciousness, Andres and Sarah told me I was dripping…. Uh oh, spill #2.  White sauce dribbled out of the foil, down the napkin wrapped around it, hit my jacket and landed right in my open purse.  Awesome.  Guess I just have some for later.

After lunch we had to go to history class in the Museo Galileo again.  This time we went straight downstairs and saw demonstrations of machines made a long time ago.  They were all replicas, of course, but they were really cool.  I have video that I might upload sometime, but basically one showed centrifugal force and the other produced electricity!  I made sure to video all the demonstrations for the nerds in my life.  After the demonstrations we went to our little classroom area and our professor Giovanni had a shelf full of really old books.  I won’t list them all out, but they included the complete collection of all of Galileo’s work, printed in the 1600’s by the Medici family.  There were also really old books of maps with diagrams of the universe and lots of cool stuff.  Don’t worry, you nerds out there, I have video of everything.

Giavonni showing us an old scroll with a map of Europe and northern Africa on it, showing the Atlantic Ocean as the edge of the world.  Everything else was fairly accurate.  Burned edges and everything - very cool!

After class we had some free time so we headed to Ponte Vecchio to see what it was all about.  There were beautiful views of the river, and also beautiful views of jewelry!  Ponte Vecchio is known for its shops of gold, silver and jewels, and other shiny pretty things.  We could have spent a whole day looking in the windows.  They have displays packed with jewelry.  Everything from diamond rings to octopus necklaces and broaches that have a mini Duomo in them.  I will definitely be returning to Ponte Vecchio sometime so I can stare at shiny things again!

Ponte Vecchio is also the site you will find locks of love all over (not hair).  I guess the tradition is to buy a lock and key, go to the bridge, write you and your lover’s names on the lock, attach it to something and throw the key into the river. Very romantic!  Some were engraved, some were rainbow and one was a bike lock…not sure they got the memo.  It is a 160 euro fine if you’re caught!

We got back on the train and I took a great nap until we rolled into the “Castiglion F.no” station (that is what the signs say, and it is becoming quite a fond name).  For dinner we had delicious broccoli pasta and some cheesy meat with peas and salad.  Spill #3 was the meat and cheese.  As I was trying to serve myself with the awkward fork and spoon they give us, I decided to serve the table instead of myself.  Landed right in between my plate and the platter of food.  Since they don’t wash the table clothes every day, there will now be a lovely reminder until next week. 

Buona Notte!

Cara Marie

Went on a Walk

We were supposed to begin our art classes today, but my jewelry and bronze teacher wasn't available today.  His name is Andrea Roggi, you can look him up online, and his work is seen all over the region.  He mostly does bronze statues but will be helping us with whatever we choose to focus on. 

Since we had the afternoon off, Kelsey and I decided to venture to the vineyard we will be studying.  We got a ride from Sharon, one of the women in the office, to the bottom of the hill, but had a 2 mile walk from there.  It was a different experience having little technology guide us to our destination.  After Sharon dropped us off, she just sent us on our way and told us to keep walking straight.  We walked through some housing, some warehouses, and then started to get to the countryside.  There were beautiful houses with perfectly manicured lawns next to fields of olive and cyprus trees and vineyards.  Some houses were enclosed with stone gates and others had driveways lined with cyprus trees leading to the house.  It was clear that these were the wealthy farmers!

As we walked, we would pass other people walking every once in a while, and when we came to a fork in the road I got to use some Italian and ask for directions to La Pievuccia, the resort.  We followed her direction and kept walking a quarter mile longer.  We finally came to a driveway with a sign that said "La Pievuccia." Yayyy!  It was beautiful, so I'm a little worried about how much we can do for a project.  We have another meeting this Friday all day, to learn all about the company and get a tour of the resort and see how it all works.  Our professors want to come with us, I think it's going to be difficult to get work done with our professors wanting to hang out at the vineyard all the time!

Well, that's about all that's happened lately.  We go to Florence again on Wednesday so I've been reading my Rick Steve's Italy book and found out there's a family style dinner (3 courses with water and drink) for 12 euro!  We're also looking into cooking classes in the area we can take the weekend before we go to Venice.  Cortona is looking hopeful! (That's my town's rival town)

Cara Marie

No spill today, but on a related note I've been craving fresh vegetables.  All we get is cooked veggies.  A lot of them, but usually cooked and sometimes they serve them cold.  Like green beans.  That is my only complaint - I still get a freshly cooked meal twice a day!!!

Chocolate Festival

Saturday was the chocolate festival in Florence, Italy.  We had a rough start since everyone was trying to get tickets to leave for either the Chocolate Festival or the Antique Fair in Arezzo.  There are no workers at the train stations on Saturdays.  There are two machines at our stop to use, and it was most people’s first time using them, so the machines kept freezing and we ended up missing the 9am train, and instead waited a couple hours for the 11am train.  Unfortunately, the earlier train was only an hour, and the train we got on stopped at every station we passed, doubling the time.  So after two hours, we finally arrived in Florence.  Next time we plan on buying tickets far in advance.

We headed towards Santa Croce where the festival is held, and stopped on the way at this (literally) hole-in-the-wall Panini stand.  There was enough room behind the counter for two men to stand, and that was all.  I peeked behind them, and there was a very steep stairway leading to a lower level, where they must store everything and access a real shop.  Panini was yummy.

We arrived at the fair where there were at least 40 stands of different venders, giving samples and selling quite the variety of treats.  We met up with the Orvieto girls, and then made our way around the stands.  I got a chocolate and nut covered banana on a stick, delicious!  There were also chocolate shoes, tools, chocolate covered fruits, fondue kabobs, and even marijuana flavored chocolate.  There was chocolate beer, and shots of absinthe out of chocolate shot glasses.  Don’t worry, mom and dad, I stuck to the fruits.

After we explored the chocolate a bit, we went shopping.  There is a ton of shopping to be done in Florence, and we are excited to go back.  I bought a new leather purse that was 50% off, hopefully it’s real leather, I can't tell the difference.  There are so many leather shops, with purses, coats, wallets, coin purses – beautiful stuff, all far out of my price range but fun to look at.  One of the shops offered Kelsey a 400 euro discount on an adorable jacket, and it was still pricey, but it was so cute we’ll probably have to check back another time.  There was also a store called Coin that looked like a Forever 21 and had a lot of cute stuff, and we almost got lost in the store it was so big. 

After shopping we headed back to the Chocolate Fest for some people watching.  When evening rolled around, the amount of people at the festival seemed to double and triple.  It got crazy trying to see all the stands, so we went to the steps of Santa Croce (CROW-chay, since I’m sure you’ve been saying something Oklahomian), and watched all the chaos.  After a while we started to hear drums, and then it seemed like a band was forming, but we couldn’t see on the other side of the tents.  Soon there was marching coming around the corner, men and women in tights holding flags or playing an instrument.  We have no idea what it was but it was pretty entertaining.  There were some talented flag twirlers. They even threw them up in the air, and there was one guy doing tricks with three at a time.

As it started to get dark we headed towards our meeting spot with the rest of the group I was with, and we chose a restaurant to eat some dinner.  It was a birreria (brewery) and I had some spaghetti.  We got wine for the table and I added another page to my wine journal, yay!  By the end of the night I found some red sauce on my jacket, don’t know where the rest of the noodle went but that’s your spill of the day. 

We took a train back to Castiglion Fiorentino and hiked up to our study center.  My roommates and I slept for a long time, since it was such an eventful weekend.  We found that in Florence, most people you come across speak English, especially the shopkeepers, obviously.  This was very different from my town, where almost nobody speaks English.  If they do, it is usually very broken English, or they mix Italian and English together.  I have been so used to speaking in Italian that I didn't realize when the shopkeeper said, "Can I help you?" and I replied with, "Si, quanto costa?"  It will be interesting when I get back to the states and say, "Scusi, Grazie!" 

Ciao,

Cara Marie

P.S.  While I have been writing this there has been a soccer game going on outside.  They have almost constantly been banging drums and cheering, and now it is quiet except for lots of cars honking horns. I guess we won! Yay!  Tonight I will be watching the Super Bowl at the Velvet Underground bar, they are keeping it open until the game is over.  We'll see if I can stay up that late!