Verona

I just got back from Verona aka "suburbia of Florence". I loved it there! But let me start from the beginning.

Our train was scheduled to leave at 4:30 in the morning. I was supposed to wake up at 3:30 but when my phone rang at 4 am because Kaitlyn was calling me I knew I was in trouble. We were supposed to leave 15 minutes earlier. I jumped out of bed, threw on whatever clothes I found, grabbed my bag and a banana and stumbled out the door. Luckily we made it there in time. We slept the whole way there and then when the train stopped in Bologna, we knew something was wrong because we thought we were supposed to have a one-way ticket, but apparantly we had to switch trains. Again, by luck, we were able to find the right train in time and got to Verona in an hour.

Once we got there, we took a taxi to our hostel. We were sooo nervous about this because hostels could be fantastic or terrible. When we got there and saw that we were basically staying in a nicer apartment than the one we had in Florence, we were so thrilled. We dropped off our stuff and went out for the day.


First we walked around and saw the beautiful downtown part of Verona. It was so clean and nice and the colosseum was stunning. There were so many street performers and lots of amazing shopping. Somehow I kept myself from buying everything I saw. Our first destination was to visit Juliet's House from Romeo and Juliet. If you've seen Letters to Juliet, it's very similar but the movie makes it look very different. Probably a hollywood made version. There was so much grafitti from couple signing their names in hearts and the number of tourists was outstanding. We had no elbow room but were able to get the picture of each of us standing by the statue of Juliet.
After that we ventured around the city a bit. At one of the vendors, we were trying on masks and apparantly the store owner did not like this because he snatched it from my face and yelled at me in italian. Oh well, he lost my business.
We then got some lunch and walked by the bridge overlooking the river. It was very calm there as not so many tourists walk around this city. It seemed they were all on buses or surrounding the colosseum in the center of town. The three of us like to venture out more and find unique places. I loved walking by that bridge because it was so peaceful and unlike Florences brown river, this one was beautifully blue. We sat down by the river and just enjoyed the view. It's really beautiful and relaxing there. After awhile we walked down the medieval bridge that crosses the river.

The bridge over there was very medieval and even had a moat surrounding it. We wandered inside and I found a well that had a grate in it so I decided to jump in. For awhile it seemed ok until I realized it didn't feel to stable and decided to climb back out.

Then we went back to the hostel to take a nap because we were absolutly exhausted. After the nap, we went to the recommended restaurant for dinner and let me tell you this place was perfect.

It's called the Grill and it's in a suburban area (I loved that). The menu was all in italian but the awesome waitor translated it all for us and gave us the recommendation of the meat selection. We got two plates of that and when it arrived, it was soooo good. Ribs, steak, sausage, ham, lamb, everything and with such good grilled vegetables. I haven't eaten that great in so long. I couldn't get enough of it. We then got dessert which was an ice cake, very different but so good with chocolate and whipped cream. The whole meal was to die for.
Verona is just a wonderful little suburban city. Lots of beautiful flowers and vineyards everywhere. I'd definatly go back if I could!

Italy: a city of smoke

It is absolutely disgusting how much italians smoke. All my professors do except my professor from England. Before and after class, during the 10 minute break, as they work, as they walk, everywhere. I'm bitter because it is causing me daily headaches. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy I get the opportunity here to see new places but I've learned so far that I'll never live in a city anywhere without access to fresh air.

FUTBOL!

Yesterday Britni, Kaitlyn, and I went to the Fiorentina Futbol Match! I've been wanting to do that forever and could not wait to get there. We had to take the bus for the first time and we're nervous we'd get on the wrong one and get lost but luckily when we got off we saw the swarms of purple all heading in the same direction and could hear the distant sounds of a stadium. It was all in italian and we didn't understand a word but once we hit the tailgate we knew we'd made it.It was like a college football game in a different language. Everyone was so pumped for the game vs. Rome. I couldn't wait! We had no idea which gate to go in so we had some of the workers directing us and we had to walk all the way around but that's ok now we know for future reference. The fans are nuts, they never sit in their seats and are constantly singing and cheering and getting into fights with the other teams fans. It was quite the experience. It was such a beautiful stadium too, situated perfectly with the tuscany mountains surrounding us. Very pretty. Unfortunatly Florence lost but we'll be going back soon!

Capri

Early in the morning, we all woke up and packed up our stuff to head off to the island of Capri. We ate a delicious breakfast at the hotel and then walked down to the ferry. The water there is so beautiful and so is the town. We got on a huge ferry and though we felt like herded cattle we enjoyed the beautiful view from the boat of all the water, boats, the islands, and the sun just glowing on the water.

The time flew by and in no time we were pulling up to the most beautiful island I've ever been to. It was tall and all sorts of buildings were built into the sides of the mountain and I've never seen so many nice boats. After being a waterfront intern for a summer, those boats got me very excited and I just wanted to drive all of them. But we got off the ferry and soon as a group jumped on another small boat for a tour around the island. It was so much fun and the island was so gorgeous, I could never describe it well enough and pictures do not do it justice.

As we came around the island we stopped at what is known as the "blue cove" aka the coolest thing I've ever seen. We pulled up and there were a ton of other groups waiting for a turn. Basically all these trained experts had these tiny boats that held four and they were going to row us under the cavetop and into this tiny cave with the prettiest blue water you can find. Literally the hole was about 3 feet when the tide was down so they had to time it so you go in right as the wave goes down. It's very dangerous but very very worth it. After waiting for what seemed like forever and watching an interesting group of chinese tourists dance around on their boat, Britni, Kaitlyn, myself, and Luca's nephew got onto a boat and made our way over to the entrace. We had to lay flat while we went in so we wouldn't hit our heads. I was extremely nervous but once we got in there, it was spectacular. All I could keep saying was "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, it's so pretty it's so pretty". I couldn't get enough of it. It almost didn't seem real. I wanted to jump in so badly but our rower was not a very nice man and didn't let us unless we paid him 10 euro. Nonetheless the experience was awesome and we then set off for the rest of the tour around the island.

The whole area was just stunning and I could try to explain it but it's one of those places you can't compare to anywhere else and just have to experience on your own. So once the tour was over, we had time to wander around the island. The group of us from dinner immediately went to the beach and for the first time in my life I got to swim in the ocean. There was no sand just rocks and as soon as I jumped in, the taste and the burn of the salt shocked me. But it was the clearest and bluest water I've ever seen. After working on a lake all summer, this was a totally new experience. I loved it, I could see the bottom and it was just endless. We got out as soon as we heard there was a group of jellyfish swimming around which was new to me, I'm used to lakefish but still exciting. We laid on the rocks and then we had to leave sadly to head home. The trip home was very long and we experienced some rude italian women at a food stop but the trip was well worth it. If I ever could afford it, I'd be back at Capri in no time.

Sorrento

After our tour in Pompei we jumped back on the bus for another 2 hours off to the city of Sorrento. We drove up a mountain to get to the other side and as the sun was setting, we got the most spectacular view of the island. It was absolutely gorgeous. We saw some 5 star hotels along the way and seriously considered spending our fall break there. When we arrived at our (4 star) hotel we were so excited for the yummy 3 course dinner we were about to eat. Myself and my 3 other roommates got all dressed up nice for dinner in the hotel. As we were waiting for our food to come, we saw two guys who were sitting alone and invited them to sit with us. They were both from Hawaii and absolutely hilarious. We drank some white wine and I ate the seabass and ate some other delicious good food and we just all had a fantastic time laughing and enjoying being in such a nice place. After dinner, Luca, our professor/tour guide led us to a limoncello shop to taste some limoncello. It was the most disguisting stuff I've ever tasted but it was a great experience. I guess limoncello is very popular in that area. Afterwards we all went out for a night in Sorrento which was so much fun. We found a place called the English Inn which was an outdoor bar in a garden. It was really pretty and I got to know some more people in our group. Then headed in for the night. We had to wake up very early again to head off on a ferry to the island of Capri.

Pompei

So this weekend was my first field trip to the southern parts of Italy! On saturday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn (actually it was still dark out) at 5 am to walk to the bus which we left on at 5:30. I am still experiencing some jet lag so since I was so excited to leave for the weekend I didn't fall asleep until 3 am. Needless to say I was exhausted but I got some sleep on the 5 hour bus ride until we reached Pompei.

The sight of Mt. Vesuvius was incredible, it's so big and I remember learning about it in a few of my geography classes. We started off on a tour by one of my professors in the ruins that was hit by the volcano eruption years and years ago. It was very very hot but it was such a beautiful day and all the ruins were so interesting to look at. I saw so many things I've seen in pictures in lectures before and heard about, it was really cool to put two and two together and experience it in person.

We got pretty silly after an hour and a half (of what was a 3 hour tour) and were dancing around in the ruins which was a lot of fun. At one point the large group of us were in a tomb and there was another tour of elderly french people behind us who were extremely disrespectful to my professor and were making fun of us americans, saying "you americans don't even know what country you're in". We just laughed and kept saying "where can we get some american fries and how far were we from new york?". Even our professor said he "hated the french". It was very amusing. There were also a ton of stray dogs running around and at one point I guess one of the dogs were racist because we saw it barking and scaring an african american family which was the same dog we'd been playing with earlier. It was bad.

But nonetheless by the end I got an amazing freshly squeezed orange juice slushie and headed off for Sorrento.

Trips, Statues, and Food

I haven't blogged in a few days and I have so much to update on. One, my mom sent me some recipes so I can be a grown up and finally start cooking my own meals and I must say I'm quite a cooking success. I've made ravioli, spaghetti, fiesta bean dip, applesauce, and french toast. All very delicious by the way. I have more to learn but I have the basics down which is exciting to me.

Classes are going to be difficult but since I don't have tv and I do have a 4 day weekend it should be fairly easy to keep up (or so I hope). After my first classes I have about 200 pages to read total for my classes. There's just going to be a lot of reading. I started reading the Iliad for my "Age of the Heros" class which is confusing but interesting. I ventured out of my apartment yesterday to read out by a statue (as there are many in Florence) on a park bench. I got distracted a few times by people watching. Let me tell you there are many guidos in Florence, which I didn't really expect but there here. It was nice to sit outside and get some "fresh" air (a lot of people smoke here) and just be apart of florence. I'm pretty sure I ended up in about 50 tourist pictures of that statue.

But anyway, yesterday Jess and I went to talk to a travel agency about our plans for fall break. We don't know where we want to go exactly but we know we have a budget and that limits us. We were thinking Paris and one of the trips offered through the travel agency which would be very safe and secure goes from florence to prague, prague to amsterdam, amsterdam to paris. We would have a tour guide, stay in 3 star hotels, and get the most for our buck but it's a little over what I wanted to spend. So I tried figuring out some ways to do it on my own. I looked up flights for madrid, madrid to paris, and paris to stockholm. That was pretty inexpensive, but the tricky part is figuring out the right hostels to stay in. If I go that route I'm probably going to be visiting the travel agency a lot to get some tips. There are two many choices and I wish I could do it all but let's face it I'm not a millionaire.

I'll just figure that out sometime later and prepare for my exciting journey to capri, pompei, and sorrento tomorrow! I can't wait to go on my first field trip and see some southern parts of Italy. All of ISU is going so it'll be fun to get to know some of the other ISU students that are here as well.

Yesterday Jess and I went for a walk to see if we could find the river which led us on quite the adventure. We took a wrong turn and stumbled upon the "quad of naked people" as I like to call it aka the quad of famous statues. It was a place where I've never seen so many statues before in my life and that was pretty funny to see but exciting that we could. I took many pictures and they are all on facebook so check em out! We then kept going and finally found the river...right at sunset. It was beautiful and so breathtaking. The clouds looked fanominal and the sun was setting just over the buildings that it looked stunning. I also found out thats where most of Florence goes for a run, perfect! I've been looking for places to go run! So then we walked across the bridge and walked around on that side of town which is just as beautiful and way less touristy. I also found my intern friend, Anna, a smooshed penny for her smooshed penny collection. When we walked across another bridge to head home, we found a very pretty spot with live music playing. All sorts of couples were over there and it was just a beautiful time. We then headed home for the night.

Later on, the neighbors, Kaitlyn and Britni, came over and asked us to go out for a night in Florence with them which we couldn't resist. It was fun seeing the city at night without the million tourists roaming around. Well I've written a lot and now I'm off to find the park and do some more reading! Ciao!