Verona: Romeo and Juliet, the Arena, and a Stick-Shift Jeep Ride from Hell

A few weekends ago, Annie and I decided to travel to Verona. It hadn't originally been on our list of places to see, but SO many people have raved about it since we've been here. We had also heard that the Arena in Verona, an old Roman amphitheater, hosted a summer opera festival that was not to be missed!

We left for Verona on Friday night - it was about 4 hours by train. When we arrived, we attempted to locate our hotel on a city map. That didn't work out so well and after walking around for about a half hour, we decided to take a cab. The cab driver then informed us that our hotel was actually pretty far outside of the city, not technically even in Verona - I'm glad we only spent a half hour looking! Still, the cab fare wasn't bad, and the place was really cool. It was a huge old villa that had been converted into a bed and breakfast. Luckily, it was on street with several restaurants, and we found a great place to grab a late dinner.

One of the former Italian grad students that I know well from OSU actually lives in Verona - her name is Camilla and she is amazing - she was born and raised in Verona, studied Japanese during undergrad at a university in Venice, moved to Japan for a few months, and then decided to pursue a masters and PhD in Italian cinema! I had emailed her to let her know we were coming and she offered to show us around for the day. She came to get us early Saturday morning and drove us back to her house. Then, her dad dropped us off in the city - parking is absolutely impossible in Italy! We started up by some old forts that overlook most of the city and then worked our way down to the large piazzas. We stopped to shop in a few stores and also saw Juliet's house (yes - of Romeo and Juliet!) Camilla walked us over to see the Arena in the daylight and showed us an old medieval castle in the city. We had lunch a great outdoor cafe and then later in the day had drinks - called spritzs - they were interesting!

Around dinner, Camilla pointed us in the direction of the Arena. You're allowed to "picknick" (yes, they spell it that way) during the show, so Annie and I got pizza to go. We had to go into the theater pretty early because our tickets were for opening seating and we wanted a good view. The Arena was amazing - we saw Aida, an opera by Giuseppe Verdi about an Ethiopian princess/slave who loves an Egyptian warrior. The scenery was incredible and the singers were fantastic. It was great to people watch too - the floor seats are for the Italian elite, and they all stroll in right before show time in gorgeous evening wear. It made me, in my jean shorts, feel rather inadequate. My favorite moment of the evening was just before the show started when everyone in the stands lit candles that were handed out on the way in. Apparently, this is a tradition that goes way back. The opera didn't end until around 1:00 am, so we caught a late cab back to the hotel and crashed.

The next morning, we got up early to take a bus to Lake Garda, about 10 miles outside of Verona. We had planned to visit an Italian zoo right by the lake first. Let's just say that I have a new moment embarrassing moment. Picture this: The zoo has a safari section that you can drive your own car through. We obviously do not have a car, so we rent one. After filling out a ton of paperwork and paying, we get in the car to discover that it is a stick shift. We clearly do not know how to drive a stick, but the Italian guy working tells us that we'll be fine and shows us how to shift. We get going into the park and then Annie stalls. And then she stalls again. and again. and again. This happened roughly 8 times. Finally, frustrated she pulls over so Italian families can pass us. As they are passing us, THEY ARE FILMING US WITH THEIR VIDEOCAMERAS. I could not have been more embarrassed! We decided that we needed better instructions, so Annie called her dad to ask how to drive a manual. At this time it was 4:45 am back home, so she wakes him up and says, "Dad, I am trapped in manual car that I can't drive and I can't get out of the car because I'm in a safari zoo surrounded by zebras and buffalo and giraffes." Then, her dad yells so loud that I can hear it too, "ARE YOU NUTS??" Eventually a park ranger had to rescue us. I was mortified!

After making completely fools of ourselves at the zoo, we grabbed lunch and hopped on another bus to Lazise, one of the towns along the coast of the Lake. We walked down by the walked and some yummy granita (lemon slushies). Camilla picked us up afterward and took us back to the train station so we could make the 5:00 back to Siena.

Minus the zoo incident (which at least makes for a great story), the weekend was perfect! Verona is definitely on the list of favorite cities!

I'll be home in 5 days - lots of updating to do!

Brittany

Southern Italy: A whole new world!

Annie and I decided that we could summarize Southern Italy in a few choice words: lemons, beaches, heat, the mafia, short tempers, and midly creepy guys - quite a mix, huh?

It takes about 6 hours to get to Naples, so our only option was to go during our 4 day break between July and August classes. We left early on Friday and got to the Naples train station around noon. From there, we walked to the center of town, to go to the restaurant that supposedly invented pizza. We split a pepperoni-style pizza, which was one of the best I've had in Italy. Just down the street from the pizza restaurant was the tour office for Sotterranea Napoli which does underground tours of the city. We started our tour by visiting the ruins of an old Roman theater that now have apartment buildings built on top of it. Then, we descended into the former Greek and Roman aqueducts of the city. When mass epidemics of cholera broke out in the 1800s, the 5,000 year-old aqueducts were no longer used as a water supply and were turned into an underground garabage dump. Next, during World War II, the garbage was covered with some form of concrete and the tunnels were turned into a bomb shelther. We got to see a small stretch of the tunnels - one part of our tour was through a 100-m tunnel that was unlit, so we had to carry candles! Of all of the tours that I have spent money on in Italy this was definitely one of the most unique and worthwhile choices. After the tour, Annie and I wandered around Napoli, making our way toward the water. Tons of American cruise ships were lined up along the harbor. While we were walking, we noticed how on edge everyone in Naples seemed to be - people honked their cars like crazy and yelled out the windows at one another. It really was night and day different from Siena where everyone keeps to themselves. It was hilarious to finally see some Italian passion in action.

Close to the water in Naples, is an old castle called the Castel Nuovo. We checked out an art museum there and took and elevator to the roof for a view of the whole city. Annie wanted to check out some designer stores, so we did a little shopping before hopping on a bus back to the train station for our connection to Sorrento.

Because Naples has a pretty well-known reputation for crime, we decided to stay across the harbor in the vacation-friendly town of Sorrento. Our hotel was high up on the mountain, but we had a free shuttle to and from the center of town. Plus we had a pool! When we got off the train in Sorrento Friday night, we were starved and found a place to eat. After dinner, we stopped by a dessert shop where I ate a very delicious cannoli - one of the South's specialities. On Saturday, we lazed around by the pool and ate lunch at the hotel restaurant. In the evening, we took the free shuttle to city and explored Sorrento. I was amazed at how many people were out and about and how late everything stayed open - it was very different from the north! We had risotto for dinner and then sampled limoncello (a very acidic liquor famous in the South) at an outdoor bar. I can't say that I was crazy about the limoncello but I did rather enjoy my non-alcoholic lemon granita, which is just like a slushie. Sitting at the bar, it was great to just sit and people watch.

On Sunday, we had decided to get up early and head to Capri, a gorgeous resort island about 20 minutes off the coast. Again, we took the free shuttle down from the hotel to the center. On the way, we met a really friend British couple who were taking a "second honeymoon." They have kids close to our age and wanted to hear all about our trip. Coincidentally, they were also heading to Capri, so we followed them to the ferry, which saved us from tring to figure the way out on our own. Once on Capri, we immediately decided to take a boat cruise around the island. A particularly famous spot at Capri is the Blue Grotto, a grotto that you can go into by rowboat that shimmers a bright blue. We selected an island cruise that included a stop there. Jetting around Capri was unreal - I felt like I couldn't snap enough pictures; everything just seemed so breath-taking. When we got to the Blue Grotto, we climbed off our big boat and into row boats in groups of four. Of course, I almost fell into the ocean trying to move from one boat to other. Once in the rowboat, we had to lie almost completely flat because it was high tide and the entrance to the grotto was very small. I was really nervous going in, becasue the water seemes rough, but our guide definitely knew what he was doing. Inside the Grottto, the color was incredible. It was like being underwater looking up at the sun. Also, the whole time we were inside the guides sang songs like "That's Amore." We paddled around in there for a few minutes and then had to squeeze back out. Back on the main cruise, we saw a bunch of neat things including Capri's lovers arch and the Dolce and Gabanna yacht. After the cruise, we took a long hike to main town center where we caught a bus to the far side of the island. There, we could rent a beach chair right on the water for the whole afternoon. I spent my time reading Harry Potter and taking occasional dips into the crystal blue water. We took a 6:00 ferry back to Sorrento, grabbed some dinner, and went back to our hotel.

On Monday, we packed up our bags and headed to the train station in Sorrento. Our plan was to go to Pompeii for the day, leaving our bags in Sorrento at the bagagge hold in the train station. Then, we could return to Sorrento for dinner before catching a late train to Naples. On the shuttle ride down to the train station from our hotel, Annie and I started talking to Giorgio, a guy who had been working the front desk of our hotel. He was heading to the train station to meet his sister and told us that he could show us the way. He turned out to be extremely helpful - the whole way to the train station he carried my bag and once we got there he bought both Annie and I cappucino's. We had some time to kill before the train to Pompeii, so we sat at a table with him while he waited for his sister to arrive from Naples. While we were talking, he told us all about how he was originally from Georgia (the country) and moved to Italy to work. He also asked about our travel plans for the rest of the day, and when we told him that we had tickets to catch a late bus out of Naples, he seemed really worried. He told us that we need to be extra careful around the Naples train station at night and that we should let him know as soon as we got back to Siena. Even though it was nice to have someone concerned for our safety, I definitely didn't feel good about travelling to Naples after our conversation!

Around noon, we said goodbye to Giorgio and caught a train to Pompeii. Let me just say that if you are every anywhere near southern Italy, Pompeii is a must-see. The ruins are INCREDIBLE. I could not believe how advanced their society was in 79 AD! They even had their own version of McDonald's, where people stopped in to pick up hot food "to go." The temples and judicial buildings were also incredible. Perhaps one of the most interesting, but heart-wrenching parts were the bodies frozen in volcanic ash. We also got to see the insides of elaborately painted houses and the Roman-style theater in town.

After Pompeii, we arrived back in Sorrento for a quick meal. Dreading our trip back to Naples, we finally boarded a train around 10:30. This gave us just enough to get to Naples and make our bus without having to kill any time there. When we first got on the train, I remember thinking to myself "This isn't so bad" - there were tons of families and people around. However, as we got closer and closer to Naples over the next hour, almost everyone got off the train. When we finally pulled into the Naples train station, there were only 2 other people in our car, and neither of them looked very friendly. Toward the end of the train, Annie and I spotted a family with small twin boys. The dad looked like he could handle a threat, so we decided to stick close to them while were we walking out of the station to the bus stop. That planned worked until we reached the entrance of the train station, and the family peeled off and went the opposite way. We were left standing outside in Naples close to midnight with the eyes of about 35 creepy looking cab drivers and other random guys locked on us. I told Annie to just walk as quickly as possible to the hotel across the street where the bus was picking us up without making any eye contact. We managed to get over there pretty easily, but as we were heading into the hotel to wait, a police car pulled up behind us. One of the officers got out, approached us, and asked me if I spoke English. I said yes, and he says "THIS AREA IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS." I wish I were kidding! He then went on to tell us the Italian version of 911 and made sure that we got into the hotel OK. I could not have been more relieved when the bus pulled up and we were safely on our way back to Siena!

More updates soon!

Love,

Brittany

Pizza In Naples!

Underground Tour in Naples

At the top of the Castel Nuovo in Naples - overlooking the whole city!

The Blue Grotto in Capri

Hanging out on our island cruise around Capri!

Contrada parties and fun with friends!

I have been focusing on my weekend travels in my last couple entries, so I wanted to give some updates on my life in Siena. Currently, the whole city is buzzing over the Palio – the horse race that I continue to mention. It is taking place next weekend and each neighborhood or contrada is preparing with decorations, parties, and baptisms. Each of the 17 contrade have their own animal and color combination, and Siena is decked to the nines with contrada spirit!

My evenings in the city are typically spent either studying and working on medical school applications or travelling to the city center for dinner/drinks/contrada parties. Take a guess which of these are more fun J Annie has a magazine article from back home that lists tons of great restaurants in the city. Mara, Annie, and I tried one of them – Osteria della Logge – a few weeks ago. Most of our friends (ie, all of the Canadians and girls that lived at the Villa) were only here through July and left at the end of the month. To celebrate the end of classes and exams, Marie and Maja came up with an idea to have a potluck dinner. Everyone from the Villa prepared a different type of food, mostly things they would eat at home, and we all ate together. I made Swedish meatballs which were a HUGE hit J. It was crazy trying to prepare so many dishes in a tiny little kitchen with two burners and one oven, but we made it work! Even Stefano, who works the front desk of the Villa, joined us – he brought the wine, like a typical Italian.

Also, before everyone parted ways at the end of July, we went to another restaurant from Annie’s list – Osteria dal Divo – for one last night out. Even though both restaurants had great food, I definitely preferred the second one. Throughout the night, they served us free Prosecco (a kind of fizzy white wine), puff pastries with cheese, and dessert cookies. The atmosphere in the restaurant was incredible; the building used to be an Etruscan grotto, so the walls and ceiling reminded me of a cave. For dinner, Annie and I split an appetizer of mushrooms and melted cheese in a crunchy shell, and I had risotto with cheese and zucchini. The man who served the risotto spooned it out of this huge cheese wheel; I had never seen anything like that before. He also kind of looked like a member of the Addams family (see pic!)

After our dinner at Osteria della Logge, a large group of us went to a contrada party for Nicchio – the Shell contrada. We danced to great mix of American and Italian music, trying to make the most of our last night together. The party was packed with people, and we ran into a lot of other students from our school. It was a great way to enjoy our last night all together!

More updates coming soon! Ciao :-)

Brittany

PS - I was hoping to include more pictures, but the internet here continues to hate me!

Florence, the city of breath-taking art & Bologna, the city of good food and filth

Last weekend, Mara, Annie, and I left for Florence after class on Friday. We had booked a hostel close to the train station which turned out to be adorable. We had a large room with three beds and its own bathroom - not bad for only 35 euro a night! After dropping our stuff off, we went straight to the Florence leather market. I anticipated a lot of vendors and shopping, but I could not believe how large the market was! It stretched down 4 different streets and vendors lined the sides, selling leather, jewelry, t-shirts, ceramics, and trinkets. When you shop there, you have to haggle, and it helps if you can speak Italian. One guy told me that they have two prices - the "American" one and the one for everybody else - I'm sure you can guess which is higher. I ended up buying a few small gifts, a pink leather bound journal, and a black leather purse. I got a great deal on the purse because I talked to guy at length in Italian about studying in Siena. He gave me a "student discount" which essentially means he knocked the price down from unreasonable to reasonable. After we had all reached our spending limit for the day, we met up with Annie's friend Clay for dinner. He took us to a great restaurant close to the market, and I had some fantastic pasta. Next, we went to his favorite gelato spot in the city, which was also fantastic (they had raspberry which is SO hard to find here!)

The next day, we headed for the Uffizi gallery, Florence's most famous art museum. We had to wait in a Cedar Point style line to get in, but it was definitely worth it. While in the Uffizi, we saw work by Boticelli, Raphael, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and so many other great artists. My favorites were Botitcelli's Primavera and La Nascita di Venere (in English - Spring and The Birth of Venus). Both were larger than life! It helped that Annie and I had both written papers on Botticelli for a class this year.

Saturday afternoon, we left Florence for Bologna. We arrived there in the early evening, and got settled into our bed and breakfast. The area we were staying in seemed cute - all of the sidewalks were covered and there was a huge fountain in the center of a nearby piazza. One of our biggest reasons for going to Bologna was the food - Bologna is the home of tagliatelle al ragu (also called pasta bolognese) which is essentially spaghetti in a tomato and meat sauce unlike anything available in the USA. Walking to the restaurant, we immediately started to notice that Bologna did not quite live up to our initial expectations - it was filthy! Trash was scattered everywhere, and everything looked so dirty. The food at the restaurant was incredible though! It was easily one of the best meals that I've had here :-) I topped of my tagliatelle al ragu with some chocolate mousse.

On Sunday, we headed to the center of Bologna for church at the main cathedral. The church wasn't particularly pretty from the outside but the inside was gorgeous! The largest sundial in Italy is inlaid in the floor there. Mass in Bologna wasn't a good as in Siena - they didn't give us anything but the readings in Italian, so we had no idea how to say the Our Father or Creed or anything. I did, however, completely understand the gospel - which was about Jesus feeding the crowd of people with loaves and fish. That was a personal triumph :-) Our next stop was another great restaurant - this time I got the Bolognese version of lasagna. Annie, Mara, and I also split a spread of meats, cheeses, and bruschetta. At the restaurant, we opted to sit inside where there was air conditioning. Apparently, Italians tend to use the words "air conditioning" fairly loosely - the restaurant felt hotter than the outside with the expection of a light breeze coming from a box fan. It left a lot to be desired.

In Bologna, we also went to the Museo Civico Medioevale which was the medieval museum. Admission was free, which was a first for Italy, and the exhibits were really interesting. My favorite objects were the armor, weapons, song books, and jewelry. We spent a good three hours there and then decided to check out the university in Bologna, which is the oldest in Europe. After walking to where the university appeared to be on my map, the three us were very confused. All we could see were buildings covered in graffiti and fliers. There was not a sign for the university anywhere. We decided to walk down the street and explore further. Then, I realized that next to the door of one of the buildings was a small plaque that said "Universita' di Bologna, Relazioni internationali" - the gross building covered in graffiti was their International Relations building! Looking around, we figured out a couple of other buildings, all of which were as disgusting as the first. I couldn't believe how trashed the university looked - I was expecting something on the level of Harvard or Yale. After all, it's the oldest university in Europe! Apparently, campus upkeep isn't a priority in Bologna.

Before leaving Bologna, we had some time to kill, so we stopped in a local park to sit and relax. The park was circular and there was a small path that went around the circumference. There was this dorky looking Italian guy on a bicycle, riding around the path. Every time he passed our bench, he tried to do a different trick, but they were absolutely horrible. We cracked up whenever he rode by and Annie recorded a video of his "stunts."

Overall, Bologna was 1. dirty, 2. delicious, 3. full of strange people. It was definitely a departure from the cities we had already seen, so I'm glad I went. Next time though, I think I'll stay long enough for a dinner and then head somewhere else!

Here are some pics of the weekend!

A cool sign by the theater and university in Bologna that says "The real land of barbarians is not that which has never known art, but that which is full of masterpieces and doesn't know to appreciate or conserve them."

Annie and I doing what we do best - eat gelato!

Cool painting at the museum in Bologna

Chocolate mousse

YUM!

Cinque Terre

The weekend that Andrew was here, we left immediately after my class on Friday for Cinque Terre, five small costal cities on the Italian Riveria. Along the coast, cliffs jut up against the sea, creating beautiful views. All five the cities are connected by a series of paths and hiking trails that make up one of Italy's most famous national parks. After some pretty hectic train rides, we arrived in Cinque Terre early Friday evening. Andrew and I went to check into our hotel, based on the address I had seen online. When we arrived at the building, we discovered that it was only the hotel's office and that our room was in a different spot in town. The hotel owner told us to follow her, and we started heading up one of the steep hills in town. At this point, I was thinking "Yikes - this could be a rough walk." Little did I know that I would have to climb three sets of long stairs, and walk up two more hills to get to the room. Essentially, we were the highest point in town. The upside was, that we had awesome views of the town and ocean from our room.

After we dropped our bags off, both Andrew and I were starving, so we decided to climb back down to main area of town for dinner. We went to a cozy little restaurant, and I ordered a type of pasta that was listed on the menu as a Ligurian (the name of the region we were in) specialty. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I figured I should eat like the locals. When the meal came out, my dish was SO strange. It was two large flat pieces of pasta that were shaped like pancakes. It was delicious though!

The next day we went from our town (Riomaggiore) to Monterosso, the town most noted for its beaches. We rented some chairs and relaxed into the evening. The water was really rough that day, so we weren't able to do much swimming, but we made the most of it. Right behind our beach chairs was an enclosed soccer field - it was hilarious to watch little Italian kids in Azzuri jerseys play.

That night, we met up with a large group of my friends from school at an outdoor restaurant in Riomaggiore. After we all ordered different types of pasta, the waiter started bringing them out one by one. This seemed really strange, but we figured they just served entrees as they were ready. When Andrew went inside the restaurant to look for a bathroom, he noticed that the "cook" was placing frozen dinners into a microwave and them dumping them into fancy bowls. Essentially, I paid 6 Euro to eat a Lean Cuisine. The whole situation turned out to pretty hilarious, and we all had a good laugh about our microwaved meals.

On Sunday, Andrew and I checked out of the hotel and headed toward the entrance to the national park. We had decided to hike the first couple stretches and explore the neighboring cities. The walk from Riomaggiore to the second city, Monarola, was called Via dell'Amore - the Lover's Path. It was a easy walk, paved sidewalks cut into the side of ocean cliffs. All along the walk, people had carved their intials with hearts and messages of love. The next stretch of trail, from Monarola to Corniglia was supposed to be signficantly more difficult with lots of inclines. It started out pretty easy and stayed that way until we got all the way to Corniglia. Then, all of sudden we were at the bottom of a ridiculous high cliff - and the city was all the way at the top. We had to climb a TON of stairs (not fun) but we took some great pictures from the city center. Even though the next stretch was supposed to be even harder, we decided to hike from Corniglia to Vernazza, the fourth town. It was still early in the day, and Vernazza was the last town we had to see. The hike was definitely hard - it felt like we went straight up a hill and then straigt down it on the other side. Getting to Vernazza was such an accomplishment though - it was my favorite city of the five! We celebrated by eating lunch at an adorable outdoor cafe. Then, we took the train back to Riomaggiore and bought some souveniers. I found these awesome salt and pepper shakers that are two people hugging :-)

Around 4:00 pm, we took a train to Pisa. We had booked a hotel there for the night because Andrew was flying out of the Pisa airport early the next morning, and I could take a train back in time for class. When we got to Pisa, we immediately got some dinner (Andrew wanted pizza and gelato one more time!) and then we walked out to see the leaning tower. Even though it was my second time there, I loved checking out the city.

The next day, I got up early to take my train back to class. I was supposed to arrive in plenty of time to drop my stuff off at the Villa and head to university - but of course that didn't happen. My train broke down for AN HOUR - so I ended up getting to Siena 20 minutes after class started and making it class about an hour late. I explained the whole situation to my professor, and she was really understanding. In fact, she said the same thing has happened to her multiples times - I'm beginning to think Italian transportation may not be particularly reliable.

At any rate, I'm gonna try and do a back-to-back update, so my next entry should be coming tonight!

Ciao!

Brittany

The half-blood prince, $70 steak, and a late night run

Clearly, I am far behind on this thing. I've been trying to use my free time to medical school essays. I got invited to fill out secondary applications from 12/13 schools that I applied to. (I'm still waiting to hear back from the other one, which is UNC). Each of the secondaries has 2-5 essays, so I'm writing a lot. I thought I'd take a break and get caught up on my blog for today though :-)

Now, on to some updates!

Last Thursday, Andrew and I caught a 1:18 train to Florence. We were just going for the evening to see Harry Potter, have dinner, and sight-see. As soon as we got there we walked to theater, called the Odeon, to scope out the location. Then, we walked a few blocks over to Florence's main church - also called a Duomo. This Duomo, however, is easily one of the most famous church's in Italy, second only to the Vatican. It was HUGE! We were able to go inside and peek around for a bit. Our next stop was Piazza Santa Maria Novella which has a ton of famous statues. There's a replica of Michelangelo's David there - the original used to stand in the Piazza but was moved to an indoor museum to protect it from the elements.

After taking a bunch of pictures, it was time to head back to the Odeon. The theater was really gorgeous - it used to be an opera house. With the movie showing in English, it was almost exclusivly American tourists. Overall, I did really like the film - I thought it could have been better, but I also tend to have the opinion when the books are compared to the movies. I did think that this HP was funnier than a lot of the others, but it seemed like they added so much humor that they had to cut back on the time they devoted to the ending. I definitely glad that I got to see it this summer though!

At 8:00, Andrew and I met up with Annie, Mara, Jackline (a girl from Slovakia in their class), and Annie's friend Clay who is studying in Florence. Clay had asked one of his teachers for suggestions on a restaurant for dinner, so we started heading in that direction. The restaurant was pretty far outside of the city so we walked for a quite a bit. The location was great though - we were on the edge of town so it felt like were almost in the Tuscan countryside. Florence is famous for it's steak, called bistecca fiorentina, so Andrew and I decided to splurge and share one (they're about 2 pounds each). Before the main course even came out, they brought us a huge plate of cheeses, meats, breads, and veggies. Of course it was delicious :-) Then, they brought the steak out - it was SO BIG. The style of cooking steak in Florence is to place over really high heat for a short period of time, so the instead is pretty rare, but reallllly good. When the brought the bill out, Andrew and I just had to laugh. Our steak was 54 euro - about $75. We knew it would be expensive, and Clay said that price was typical. Honestly though, to try something that specific to Tuscany was definitely worth it - it's just a one time thing!

Because the dinner was really far outside of the city, we had to hurry back to the train station to make the last train of the evening. We started walking, with about a full half hour, thinking that would be plenty of time. As it got later, we realized that we would be cutting close, so Andrew and I literally had to run to the train. When we got there, we had 2 minutes to find the train - we were hopping on as it was pulling out of the station. Unfortunately, Annie, Mara, and Jackline didn't make it and had to stay with Clay that night. They were able to take an early train back the next morning though!

Right now, I'm heading to Bologna - more catching up to do later!

Brittany

Getting Caught Up: Andrew's Arrival and My Birthday

Due to my lack of internet last week and my crazy busy weekend, I haven't had a chance to update in a little while. During my one night stay in Pisa, I had a fantastic internet connection, so all of the pictures from my weekend in Milan through my weekend in Cinque Terre are posted.

Now, on to the updates :-)

On Tuesday morning, class was mildly chaotic. Because level C had so many students in it, the school decided to break the class up into two separate sections. I happened to be one of the people moved out of our old classroom and into a new one. At first, I was a little bummed, because I really liked Marco as a teacher - he was just so great at explaining things and making class fun. I will admit, though, that I was happy to be done with Sandra - she just got worse and worse. My new teacher's name is Lucia, and she's teaching us all day instead of breaking down the day into two separate lessons. Right away, I could tell that I was going to like her. She speaks very clearly and integrates all of the boring grammar and language lessons into fun culture topics. Last week we continued Marco's discussion on Rome and also had discussions on the environment (I now know how to say global warming and recycling in Italian!), and we learned about "abused" words and phrases of the Italian language - comparable to the American, "like", "you know", and "stuff like that." Marie, my friend from Belgium, is in my class as well. We always sit next to each other and work as partners on exercises.

After class on Tuesday, I went to the train station to wait for Andrew. I was pretty nervous that even with my two page word document of instructions, he would get lost somewhere between Pisa and Siena - but he made it! I was so excited to see him :-) Immediately, we headed to check into a hotel just outside of Siena. We were both starving, so our next stop was dinner - I had some four cheese gnocchi with truffle sauce, obviously yummy! When we were done eating,

I really wanted to show off the city, so I took Andrew to the main piazza to enjoy some gelato.

The next day was my birthday! (Side note - Thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes! I really appreciated them :-D ) My professor had a doctor's appointment that morning, so she cancelled classes - lucky for me! Andrew and I went to the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena's town hall, and climbed it's 100+ meter tower - La Torre Del Mangia. I saw my life flash before my eyes during that ascent and descent. The stairs were so skinny and tall, and the ceilings were sloped to a medieval person's height (Side note #2 - I am taller than a medieval person). Coming down was even worse than going up because there was only one stairwell for both groups of people. I will say, though, that the views from the top of the tower were amazing. We got a ton of great pictures - some of which are posted in the entry below.

Also in the Palazzo Pubblico is one of Siena's main museums, the Museo Civico. It's essentially a gallery of all of the old Renaissance rooms that were used by the ruling body, the Council of Nine. Andrew and I decided to check that out as well. One of the rooms, called the Peace Room, is especially famous for its frescoes which show the effects of Good Government on one side of the room and Bad Goverment on the other side. The Bad Goverment painting has all of the citizens suffering from the plague and fammine, while the Good Goverment one shows them all happy and farming.

Following my class on Wednesday, Andrew, Annie, Mara, and I went out to dinner and then over to Jennifer's apartment to enjoy her rooftop terrace again :-) Then, we met up with my other friends from OSU in the main piazza for wine and good conversation. While we were hanging out, a guy from my class named Robbie came by. He mentioned that he was heading to a local contrada party and that we should join. (Side note number #3 - Siena is broken up into 17 neighborhoods, called contrada. These neighborhoods are all represented in the Palio, Siena's horse race that I mentioned briefly a few entries ago. Leading up to the Palio in August, each contrada has a week of parties and festivals which are supposedly the highlight of the summer) I was SO excited to find out about a contrada party during the week - so far, the only ones that I had heard of were on the weekends when I'm typically travelling outside of the city. We all decided to head over to Bruco, the name of the contrada hosting the party. Robbie said that we would know we were heading the right way by the volume of the music coming from the party. We wandered down a sloping street, and then all of a sudden there was a huge garden packed with people. A cover band played some cheesy American music, and there were all kinds of stands - food, drinks, gelato, gambling. We stuck to dancing and people watching - which were both very enjoyable :-) I think my favorite part about the party was that it is truly something unique to Siena that is far from touristy or contrived. It felt like we were actually part of the city life and not just visitors.

Overall, my 21st birthday was a blast! More updates from last week to come, but for now I am exhausted!

Miss you all! Ciao :-)

Brittany

Warning: Picture Overload!

I finally have good internet! Andrew and I are staying a night in Pisa before he departs for the US and my class starts again - our hotel has an AMAZING internet connection. So, I finally have the ability to upload pictures. I'm posting a ton from Milan as well as a few from this entire week - Siena, Florence, and Cinque Terre (five small towns on the Italian Riviera connected by hiking paths). As soon as I get back to the Villa tomorrow, I'll start posting updates from the last week as well :-)

My purchases :-) A blue trench and a blue blouse

Annie and I headed out on the town in Milan

Me, on the steps of Milan's Duomo, wearing inappropriate church attire

The top of the Duomo in Milan!

Annie, Mara, and I at the top of the Duomo

Amy - this is for you! A subway sign in Milan :-)

Ready to shop at the Galleria - the world's first indoor mall!

Ready to dance the night away Italian style :-)

The view from the top of La Torre del Mangia - Siena's famous tower

Another view

Andrew and I out to dinner on my birthday :-)

YUM!

Florence's Duomo - perhaps the most famous Italian church outside of the Vatican!
Florence's Ponte Vecchio

A restaurant we stopped at for lunch in Cinque Terre
Vernazza - the fourth town in Cinque Terre
While hiking in Cinque Terre

me - "I'm pretty much Indiana Jones"

Andrew - "Um, sure you are"

More hiking!
Between Manarola and Corniglia - the second and third cities

Getting ready to walk Via dell'amore - "the lover's path" (which should be renamed "the tourists' path")

Enjoying a glass of wine in Riomaggiore - the town we stayed in while at Cinque Terre
Beach!
More beach!

Riomaggiore :-)

Milan: The city of high fashion, never-ending nightlife, and McDonald's

On Saturday morning, Annie, Mara, and I woke up early to catch a 7:15 bus to Milan. I was really excited to see a different region of Italy, up until that point I had only seen Tuscany. Milan is situated in Lombardy, an extremely wealthy region of northern Italy known for its industrialization and modernism. It took about 4 1/2 hours to get there by bus - only 15 minutes longer than by train and 50 euro cheaper. I spent most of the bus ride zoning out to my I-pod. When we arrived, we had to deal with the task of locating our hotel. The bus had dropped us off at a metro station so we checked the map there and were able to locate the correct street and metro stop - it's amazing how resourceful one can be without a cell phone or good internet. From the Metro station, we had a 10 minute to the Mariott, where we were staying. (Side note: As a poor college student, I am obviously not forking over the 200 euro per night that the Mariott costs. Rather, Mara's dad covered one night for us, and Annie's mom covered the other night - it was definitely a special treat - the breakfast was delicious and they brought free strawberries to our room - but it also was a luxury that I'll likely only have once while travelling this summer.) We freshened up, and I changed into a much cuter outfit than the comfortable sweats I threw on for the bus ride. When you're in Milan, you have to look good :-)

Our first stop was Porta Venezia, one of the city's shopping districts. All of us were absolutely starving, so we grabbed some piadine, Italian flatbread sandwiches. Then, we hit the stores. There was a great mix of options: smaller botiques with really original pieces, larger stores similar to Express or the Limited, second-hand designer stores, and speciality shops. For the most part, I stuck to browsing, but I did make a few purchases. In a store called Motivi, I bought an Italian made blue trench coat, and in a store called Miss Marilyn, I bought a blue ruffled blouse (see pics!). Annie and Mara got some great dresses/tops/jeans - overall it was a blast just checking out stores that we don't have back home.

That night, we got dressed up and went to bar/restaurant just south of the city. I ate some fettucine ai quattro formaggi (4 cheese), which surprisingly was the first time that I've bought pasta at a restaurant this whole trip. Annie and I have made it at the apartment, so that's probably not as bad as it sounds. The food was great and the area was fun - afterward, we attempted to find the Navigli neighboorhood that has canals and supposedly good nightlife, but we didn't have much success. Around 12:30, we decided that it would be best to head home and catch some sleep.

On Sunday, we got dressed in church attire for mass at the Duomo. (Another Side Note - Many different cities have a main church called "the Duomo" - this is just a nickname, they all are named after saints formally. Siena's got one that I've already mentioned, and so does Florence) When we arrived for mass, I was told I couldn't go in because my knees were showing. SERIOUSLY. I was dressed in manner that most would consider fairly conservative - a dress that had sleaves and no cleavage. But apparently, knees are the kicker. What's worse is that they were letting people in wearing jeans - jeans?! in a church?! but and extra 5 inches of leg flesh isn't permitted?? I was upset, but Mara was told the same thing, so at least I didn't hold up the group.

The Galleria, the world's first indoor mall and the center of fashion in Milan, is literally next door to the Duomo, and we were determined to find some kind of legging to put on for the next mass. We wandered through the Galleria and I snapped some pictures of all of the high-end designer stores. In the center of the Galleria there is a circle area that has four shops surrounding it. The four stores were Louis Vuitton, Prada, a famous Italian interior design company, and a McDonald's. I wish whole-heartedly that I was joking, but there it was. Honestly, during the whole trip, I saw more McDonald's restaurants in Milan than any other city I've been in - at least 15 over the course of a weekend. Directly next to the Galleria is an outdoor shopping area called the Golden Quadrilateral. It has even more high-end stores, but it also has a good mix of places that I can afford. We found a store that sold leggings, I bought a pair and a few other items :-) After changing, we trucked it back to the Duomo - only to find out that Mass was nearly halfway over. We ducked into to catch what we could. The next thing on the list was taking an elevator to the top of the Duomo. The views were gorgeous and the sculptures on the church's exterior were breath-taking. The last thing to see in the center of town was the Teatro alla Scala, Italy's most important opera house. My favorite part of the Teatro was the museum which included letters from Mozart to his mother and costumes from old showings of Aida and Carmen.

Sunday evening, we went back to the Mariott to relax and get ready for our night on the town - Annie's old teacher, Simone, who lives in Italy each summer had made plans to meet us at a discoteca (dance club) called Karma. The club was AMAZING and so huge! There were four different dance floor areas and each played a different kind of music, my favorites were the R&B floor that played current American music and the main dance floor that played a mix of everything. Apparently, Sunday nights are a big night for the homosexual crowd to go out to this particular club - the group was definitely a good mix! I made friends with an Italian gay guy named Fabrizio and we danced to Lady Gaga. He also told the DJ that it was my birthday, even though I explained that my birthday is acutally on Wednesday; they made an announcement, saying "a girl from Ohio is having her special day! Happy Birthday, Brittany!" - it was SO much fun. Simone was also great to talk to and told us all about how to turn down persitent Italian boys. (He said to make a gagging sign, and they'll get the point.)

Overall, Milan was a blast - a great mix of nightlife, shopping, and sight-seeing!

Boo - the internet isn't allowing me to post pictures, so they'll have to wait!

Miss you all!

Brittany

PS - Andrew made it here in one piece :-)

Picture Update

Here are the pictures that I wanted to post along with my last entry!

Annie, Mara, and I on the rooftop terrace

My new favorite guilty pleasure!

View from Jennifer's apartment during the day - that's the Duomo in the distance

Annie, Mara, and I in the piazza

The duomo after mass

An update on Milan is coming soon!

Brittany

A rooftop terrace and night at the Piazza

If possible, I love Siena more and more everyday. There's always some new street to wander down or different flavor of gelato to try (current favorite - strawberry and white chocolate!)

On Wednesday, I had my first full day of classes. My day is broken in half with a short, round woman named Sandra teaching us grammar and language for 2 hours in the morning and a very funny man named Marco leading thematics discussions in the afternoon. The grammar has definitely been a challenge - we're covering some very tricky verb tenses right now. I feel like with some effort, it shouldn't be too hard for me to keep up with everything, and I'll definitely get a lot out of it. As far as our afternoon lessons go, every week or so we have a different thematics topic. Right now, we're studying and discussing the history and architecture of Roma - Marco's hometown. The thematics portion of my day is definitely the best part - it's been extremely interesting and informative so far. I also like the way Marco teaches better than the way Sandra does. She's very kind and friendly, but speaks very quickly without repeating herself or using the board. Marco, on the other hand, is great at explaining strange vocabulary or going over tricky passages.

We have optional culture classes in the evenings that we can attend as well. So far, I've only been to one - a class on the Palio, Siena's world famous horse race. There are a few culture classes at the end of the month on cinema and definitely want to check those out!

Outside of class, I have spent my afternoons walking throughout the center of town, taking in the architecture and atmosphere. Yesterday, I went with Maja, Camila, and Marie to a small restaurant in the wine valley that lies just south of the city center. The nature was gorgeous and the prosciutto panino that I had was quite tasty. Then, later last night, after I had made dinner and worked on homework (yes, I have homework!) at the Villa, I went back down to the center with a group of girls to meet up with friends from Ohio State who are participating in a different program in Siena. We had wine in the piazza and told stories about our adventures thus far - the other OSU students have been here for almost a month, so they had lots of great advice on restaurants and places to visit. After spending a few hours in the piazza, we moved to Jennifer's apartment - she's an adorable girl from Canada who's in Annie's language class. Unbelievably, she had a rooftop terrace that overlooked the entire city! We plugged an I-pod into her apartment's speaker system and had a blast dancing to the music :-)

Tonight, I'm going the center with Annie and a few other girls from the Villa to meet Giancarlo and Giacomo - two of guys from OSU for dinner. Then, tomorrow we're off to Milan for the weekend! I can't wait to go to the world's first indoor mall!

Side note - I learned something really interesting in class the other day that I thought I'd share. I'm sure you are all familiar with the English word grotesque. But I bet you don't know where it comes from. The origin is an Italian word - grottesco. Moreover, the root of grottesco is grotto - another Italian word that we now use meaning cave or cavern. Apparently, at some point during the Reinassance, an old palace of Nero's was discovered. For the most part, the building was underground and seemed like a huge cave or grotto. When the artists of the time went down to explore the area, they found tons of paintings of people that were disfigured or had animal body parts. Rafael was obsessed with the paintings and decided to duplicate them, calling them arte grottesche simply because they were in the same style. Eventually, the term evolved meaning and became associated with the creepy people in the paintings instead of the underground palace. Then, it morphed into the word we use today. (I know this had very little to do with my life in Italy - but hopefully you feel a little bit wiser!)

I miss everyone lots! Please leave comments or email me :-)

Brittany

PS - I tried to put pictures up, but the internet is not cooperating - I'll do a separate post of some pics later tonight if possible!

Life in Siena and my Impending Gelato Addiction

It's hard to believe that a week has already passed since I left home - it some ways it seems as though so much has happened in the last few days, but in other ways I can't believe how quickly time slipped by.

On Sunday, Annie and I ventured into the center of town for second time. Our plan was to attend mass at the Duomo (pictures to come - my camera ran out of batteries that day!) and then grab lunch. Surprisingly, mass was pretty easy to follow. They printed out everything in a little booklet, and obviously it all follows the same order as in the US. The only part that was over my head was the homily, but the priest was old and the church was large and echo-y, so I'm going to blame it partially on those things. We grabbed hot sandwiches and a glass of Spumente (fizzy wine) at a local restaurant and then window shopped throughout the city. I did end uppurchasing one item - see photos to below to find out what :-)

Finally, I'm feeling settled in here. Everything is unpacked, there are groceries in the refrigerator, and I know how to get on and off the bus. Also, our villa has become much more crowded - a whole slew of people moved in on Sunday for class on Monday and then a group of 40 Brazilians who are starting at the beginning level moved in yesterday. I tried to talk to one of the Brazilians, but he literally knew NO Italian and only a little bit of English. When he asked my name and I said "Brittany," he said, "OH, like Britney Spears!" I just nodded and laughed. I also attempted to talk about soccer with him, but that got no where. Luckily, I have met some people I can communicate with - I've become close with three girls in particular - Camila from Argentina, Maja from Macedonia, and Marie from Belgium. What I like most is that they aren't great at speaking English, so we speakly only in Italiano - it's been so nice to practice outside the classroom.

As far as school goes, I took my placement test yesterday and was put in the highest level offered - it was so nice to know that 50 credit hours of Italian at OSU have actually made a difference! My first class was today, but it was abbreviated - only introductions and such. I LOVE my professor already - she's short and round and told us that she used to love skiing before she "became fat." Camila, Maja, and Marie are also all in my level, and after class the three of us wandered around the city eating gelato and peaking in stores. Seriously, I think I have a gelato addiction. It is SO delicious. Already, my favorite flavor is strawberry - but you can get more than one flavor in a cup so I keep trying different combinations - strawberry and banana, strawberry and mango, strawberry and lemon - they're all great :-)

Other than buying gelato in town, I've been doing most of my "cooking" - aka eating nutella and fresh mozzerella cheese (Dad - it's seriously $2 here). Tonight, Annie and I are making pasta which should be interesting given we don't have collander to work with and at least one of our burners doesn't actually get hot. No worries - we have full access to the villa's main kitchen if something goes wrong!

Here are some pictures from the centro (center) of Siena:

Annie, Maja, and I

The main square, Piazza del Campo

Another view

Siena's City Hall - Palazzo Pubblico

And last but not least - my purchase!

Pizza in Pisa and the Marathon Trek for Groceries

Picking up where I left off in my last entry, Pisa was fantastic. Immediately, I could tell that I liked Italy more than France. Water was cheap, and I could actually carry on a conversation without making a fool out of myself or encouraging exsisting American stereotypes.

After our plane from Paris landed, Annie and I managed to find a taxi that could take us to our hotel. The hotel itself was pretty nice - we had our own bedroom and shared a bathroom across the hall with a few other rooms. The only downside was the twisty-turny set of stairs up which we had to drag our luggage. When we got to our room, we had a realllly hard time getting the door open. For some reason, the lock was stuck, and neither of us had the muscle to move it. We must have been making some noise, because a guy down the hall poked his head out of his room and asked in Italian if we needed help. When he turned the key, the door slid open easily, making us look silly. We immediately tossed our bags in the room and decided to find food. The guy, whose name was Fabio, offered to show us a cheap pizzeria, which sounded perfect. The pizza was SO delicious - it was brick oven style with a nice, yummy crust :-) After we ate, Fabio pointed out the Leaning Tower and the train station so that we knew where to head the following day.

Walking through Pisa, I was suprised at how picturesque every part of the town looked - and the number of people out and about. Most of them seemed to be enjoying gelato and just strolling up and down the Arno River - which runs right through town. The Tower looked gorgeous at night - but I hadn't planned on needing my camera and just left it back at the hotel.

The next day, Annie and I walked back out to the tower to take pictures in the day light. Of course, I did a cheesy one of me pretending to hold it up (see below!). Then, anxious to get to Siena, we headed to the train station. The train ride wasn't bad - only about 2 hours with stops throughout the Tuscan countryside. When we arrived at Siena, we had NO idea how to get to our dormority - we had the address, but couldn't find the street on any of the maps around. Finally, we settled on taking a taxi to get there, which was probably better than attempting to get our luggage on and off of the city bus. Our dormority is really nice; it sits up on a hill just outside the center of town. It's called Villa Il Pino and is a converted Villa, broken up into small rooms and apartments. Annie and were lucky enough to get an apartment that has a large bathroom and small kitchen. The main building has an area for studying and using the internet- where I'm at now :-) - as well as a kitchen free for students to use.

That brings me up to today - the day of the trek for groceries. We asked a few of the other girls staying here how to go about getting groceries, and they suggested a store located across the street from the train station. When we asked them how to get to the train station, they responded "by bus," and when we asked them where to get bus tickets they said "at the train station." Clearly, this caused a sticky situtation. We needed a pass to take the bus to the train station, which is also where needed to buy the pass - Ultimately, we came up with two options - 1) we could take the bus to the train station without a ticket and risk huge fines or 2) we could walk. Walking seemed like a better option - that is until we got lost and ended up outside a local hospital. After regrouping and reorienting ourselves, we managed to find the station, buy tickets, and buy groceries. In total, the trip there took about an hour; then, we had to figure out how to get on the bus back. Thinking that the number 17 would get us to the villa, we hopped on that bus. Unfortunately, it blew right by our place and out into the suburbs. Eventually, after about 30 minutes and a lengthy stop out by some apartments, we made to the villa.

To sum it all - getting groceries was as it easy as one might have hoped :-/

Here's some pictures to make up for it though!

Baptistry in Pisa right behind the tower

The Arno River running right through the city

Holding up the tower! So cheesy :-)

Our villa

The main building (view from my front door!)