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!