Florence... again

So Saturday and Sunday I spent my last two days in Florence for the remainder of my time in Italy. I cannot see myself going back there as I have been there three times already and seen just about everything major. The city grew on me overtime as in the beginning I thought it was quite dirty and crowded- now I realize Rome is much more disgusting and Florence is actually quite lovely.
So instead of boring you with all the churches and frescos that I saw (it was an art trip after all) I will show you pictures from the very last thing I saw in Florence... a re-enactment march of the Medici royal family- complete with drums and trumpets and flag twirlers and full costumes! It was amazing! So without further ado, my farewall fanfare of Florence:










I'm going to Paris this weekend to see Laura and many exciting things so if I don't post before then, expect a lengthy french post upon my arrival. Ciao!

Lake Trasimeno

So I realized that I never updated all of you about my weekend. Don't worry, I am still alive! I've just been really busy with papers and work that has thankfully all ended today!
The last time I left you was before this past weekend, where I had been planning on taking it easy and doing my work while going to Ravenna and Rimini for the day. Well, I did take it easy, but I did not go to Ravenna and Rimini mainly because they are 5 hours away. I really hope that I will still be able to go, maybe in April when classes are over and we have those "study" days... I can study on the beach, right?
So anyway, my friend Meg's friend Chris came to visit and I joined them in going to Castiglion del Lago, which is right on Lake Trasimeno, Italy's 4th largest lake- and right next door to Perugia. We took the bus which took us to the town, really pretty and right on the water. We had then wanted to take a boat to Isola Maggiore, the large island in the middle of the lake to do some hiking. However, because it was both off season and because it is easier to get there from the train station (oops) we decided to stay where we were and explore the castle and fortress. I'm glad we stayed. It was an absolutely beautiful day- and we weren't running around looking at things, it was all very relaxing. We climbed up the fortress and I took some beautiful pictures which I will display below. There were sailboats and even families out enjoying the beautiful day. The lakeside was basically a giant park so there were benches and nice places to sit and relax. The lake doesn't even look like a lake, it looks like a gorgeous blue sea or ocean. I can't wait to go to Sicily and the Amalfi coast and experience the blue water there!

(this picture just shows how clear the water was- you could see all the rocks)

As for this weekend, I am going to Florence Saturday and Sunday for my Art Renaissance trip. Hopefully it will be interesting, sometimes my teacher is really dull- but Meg is going on the trip with me so that will be fun. I'm having a low key night with friends and then tomorrow I may go up Garibaldi to the overlook of Perugia, weather depending... the weather here has been really weird lately- it was so warm last weekend, then all of a sudden it got extremely cold- it even snowed! Crazy.
Well that's all I've really got here. As always, the rest of my pictures are up on my yahoo photo account so be sure to check out the rest of the beautiful lake pictures there!
Ciao! :)

Back in the swing of things

This week has been a weird one, as we all returned from Spring break and were expected to actually work? Yes, that is what I should be doing now, writing my 10 page paper which is due thursday or my case study (also 10 pages) which is due wednesday. But instead I am procrastinating and updating this blog- although there is not all that much to update on.
Classes have been going pretty well, I got back all my midterms and did really well on a few, and decent on the rest. I figure I should do better on finals since we have more time to study for them and I know what to expect now. I hope.
It's been weird to be back in Italy even after just a weekend in London. It was almost like experiencing what they call "culture shock" all over again- even though I was pretty convinced I never really felt any of that when I first came to Italy. I even forgot a lot of stuff from class, which is probably why most of my professors were calling it the week of tolerance and letting dumb things slide (especially in Italian class).
All of my friends seemed to have good spring breaks although this week was pretty busy and flew by for the most part and we have still not all discussed our spring breaks (since most of us did different things). However, I proposed we have slideshow presentations of our pictures so that may happen sometime this weekend- if we are all not too busy with this paper (most of us are in the food class so we all have to write the stupid paper).
Yesterday my friend Margaux got her hair cut in an Italian salon and I went to watch after I got our of class early and it was so much fun. The hairdresser was ridiculous and kept dancing with Meg and I and then started hitting on Meg which was kind of awkward but also funny. He made her his assistant and when we weren't sliding around on the floor she was helping him blow dry Margaux's hair-- which is now amazing. Who knew haircuts could be so much fun?
Then last night we cooked dinner for my professor (the one we ate dinner with a while back) and it was a lot of fun.
I think he was impressed with our cooking abilities (and the amount of food we made-aparently Italians only really eat one dish at home, which is weird because when they eat out there are all those courses)- I made fried eggplant for the appetizer and dan made some baked apple skins (as well as his world famous apple crisp for dessert), meg made the pasta concoction which was really good- sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers, in a mushroom wine sauce with spaghetti, and margaux made salad. Yum. I love our dinners. It started at 8 and lasted till around 11:30 which was nice (and unexpected), and we had a large range of conversation topics.
Today (and hopefully Sunday) is more of a laid back day supposedly dedicated to working on my paper... and tomorrow the plan is to go to Ravenna and Rimini, two east coast towns in Italy. In Ravenna you can rent bikes for free and ride them around the town and Rimini is right on the water (also where Federico Fellini is from-- writer/director of La Dolce Vita... he's amazing) and the beach is supposed to be beautiful. I'm excited!
Hope everyone is doing well, I know the Elon spring break just started so I hope everyone has a fantastic break and that I hear from you all sometime soon!
Mi Manchi! (I miss you)

LONDON!

After spending the week with my parents in Italy I was ready to finally leave the country and see something new. I've always wanted to go to London and since I was so close and tickets weren't too expensive I knew I had to go. My really good friend Lily is studying there this semester and it was the perfect opportunity to go visit London and stay with her. So Friday morning I woke up early and got all my stuff together and headed down to Garibaldi to get my taxi (we had arranged for a taxi to pick me up to take me to the Perugia airport). The Perugia airport was only 15 minutes away but it was actually in Assisi, and way up in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. I twas a cute little airport, with only one gate and no real terminal and to get on the plane we went outside onto the giant windy platform and climbed the steps up to the plane. The flight wasn't bad (I didn't realize that London is an hour behind us) and I was there in no time. I followed the directions that Lily had given me- had a slight problem figuring out how to buy my tube ticket and how to use the pounds and pence... luckily the tube worker was really nice and helped me with both. I changed lines and made my way to Warwick Ave. stop and Clifton Gardens which is where Lily's flat is. I found her flat and met her friend Keiko who is also her roommate and she went with me to Soho to meet Lily and Lily's parents who were also there for the week. Soho is like a big area with lots of restaurants and we found a really good Indian restaurant for dinner. Lily's parents had bought tickets to ride the London Eye so we headed to the tube and took it to the London eye, got a little lost, but eventually found it. It was basically a giant ferris wheel that took 30 minutes to ride and had AMAZING panoramic views of the city.
I took SO many pictures, it was incredible. After riding the eye, Lily Keiko and I said goodbye to Lily's parents and sister who were doing their own thing the next day, and headed over to Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey which were just across the Thames.
The buildings were really pretty at night and I took a lot of pictures. We walked along the water a little bit and then decided to head back because I had a lot of things I wanted to see the next day and we needed to plan out how we were going to go about doing everything. However, upon walking along we decided it would be fun to take the bus back (which was also on my list) so I bought a ticket and we took the tube to Trafalgar square
which was neat and then we took the bus from Piccadilly Circus all the way back to Lily's flat. I got to see a lot of London that way and got to ride on the double decker bus, whoo hoo! When we got back, Lily and I made a list and wrote down all the tube spots and decided to conquer the city from west to east, seeing as much as we could. I just want to say now, how proud of all of us I am- not only did we see everything on my list, but we saw it in style and without any real problems or freak outs! :) So without further ado, I call this:
Seeing everything there is to see in London in one day.
We woke up pretty early, had breakfast, and with my directions, map, and list in hand, headed off towards our first stop: Abbey Road.
Now, Ellen (thank you!) had given me directions since it was really close to the Elon flats. We eventually found it and realized it was going to be a little difficult to get our pictures what with traffic and everything. When we were about to cross to street to switch taking pictures of each other, three girls came walking up the street and asked if we could take each others pictures doing the traditional Beatles walk and then vice versa.. it was really good timing! I also saw the sign for abbey road as well as abbey road studios- amazing! So we took a bunch of pictures and then were on our way yet again. The next stop: Notting Hill and Portobello Road.
We took the tube to Notting hill Gate and wandered along following the signs for portobello market until we came across a massive line of carts and tables in the street with tons and tons of street vendors. It was a really nice area and a gorgeous day so we walked all the way down, stopping to look at all the crazy things people were selling, everything from telescopes to purses to make-up to the most delicious brownies and pastries (for only a few pounds we bought tons of goodies) and even clothes and shoes. That was really cool, you could have spent the whole day there. But since I only had the day, we were off to our next stop: Buckingham Palace. After getting off the tube and walking through Green Park (the parks in London are really nice!) and stopping to take pictures with the pretty flowers, we came to the palace.

They don't do the changing of the guards on Saturdays- but I did see one of them marching around and we walked around and I took some pictures before we left for Harrods.
Because I knew we would be spending more than a few minutes in the store, we decided to grab something to eat. We went to EAT. (this was it's name) and had sandwiches and this really good noodle salad thing before heading into Harrods. Oh man, what a CRAZY store. The food halls were definitely my favorite- they had candy, chocolate, tea, coffee, meats, cheese, pastries... you name it. And it was all themed and we just wandered from one to the other. Then we went from the basement straight up to the top floor- going through the really fashionable clothing lines to furniture to electronics to TOYS! to sporting goods. It was definitely an experience. We left Harrods and made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral which wad very different than the cathedrals I have been used to seeing here in Italy.
We walked around the outside and then went inside, the baroque style was very pretty. However, after only looking around we decided not to pay to go in (which I didn't realize we even had to do) and headed to the little park behind the cathedral to eat some of our brownies from Portobello road (which some lady commented on how good they looked) before walking towards the Millennium bridge and The Globe Theatre. The bridge was pretty cool and I took a lot of neat pictures of St. Paul's from the bridge and of the Globe theatre. We didn't actually go in the globe because you had to take a tour, plus it isn't even the original globe- however we did spend some time in their really cool gift shop and I bought some fun Shakespeare gifts.
We decided to head for another tube stop so we could head to the tower of London and tower bridge however after walking all the way there, the underground stop was not only closed but the line we wanted to take was closed for the weekend- there was just no way to get there besides walking and we were too far away. Instead we decided to walk along the Thames towards the direction of the tower of london and tower bridge.
While walking we came across signs for Burrough market (which is only open on the weekends) and wasn't even on our list, but we ran in long enough to get lots of free samples, buy a ton of organic fruit, and really good organic pear juice! yum!
We continued to walk along the water, stopping in several arcades (shopping areas) along the water for me to buy random souvenirs. After a while we made it close enough to get some good shots of the tower bridge and we also passed by the actual London bridge, which is not all that impressive. Thank goodness it was such a beautiful day outside or all this running around may have not happened and we may have spent the whole day in a museum- which is what I had been doing for the past week in Italy- so hooray for that!
Anyway, after our last bit of shopping we took the tube to where the theatre was for our show! Lily and Keiko had bought us tickets to see the Blue Man group and we tried to find a pub so I could get fish and chips but unfortunately they were all packed. We decided to have something quick and light to eat before the show and to eat dinner after the show. So we went in and the lady checked our tickets and told us we had to go to coat check and check all our plastic bags. The coat check guy was really cute and funny and got a real kick out of checking our plastic bags full of pears and apples which he called uncommon items.
The show was really cool, we had amazing seats- 6th row right in the middle, not bad for only getting them a few days in advance. After hearing so much about the Blue Man group I wasn't sure what to expect but I liked all their little acts- especially the music and things they did with paint. I wish there was more music, but I liked all the various acts they had- and I especially liked when they came out and interacted with the audience. Towards the very end there was a really weird part with tons of (recycled) paper that came shooting out of the back of the stage and all these crazy lights and music and the paper made it all the way from the back of the auditorium to the front, we had to hoist it over our heads. It was very strange, but a lot of fun.
After the show we headed back to the flat (after getting our checked apples of course) and dropped everything off before heading to Piccadilly circus for dinner.

After wandering around (and in and out of closing pubs) we decided on a Thai restaurant which was really good- I had delicious chicken pad Thai. Then we went to a Japanese restaurant that Lily and Keiko like for some desert: really good chocolate wasabi cake, white chocolate and ginger cheesecake, and coconut ice cream with mango sauce. Afterwards we walked around Piccadilly circus which was extremely crowded (it was a Saturday night after all) and then decided to head back to the flat. It was a great end to a long and eventful day.
The next morning I had to wake up really early and get everything ready to leave. I took the tube back to Liverpool St. Station which is where I had been dropped off by a Stansted shuttle bus that I took back to the airport again. The shuttle service worked out really well, I had gotten tickets before leaving Italy. However, I missed the first bus and after getting on the second one was running a little late for the airport. The check in lines were a bit long but I finally made it to security who were extremely tight. Not only did I get a full pat down (when I say full I mean full) but they pulled me aside to go through every single part of my bag because something looked strange in the x-ray in my bag. That something turned out to be the golf balls I bought for my dad in Harrods- so I hope he likes them because they almost made me miss my flight. The woman went through all my stuff and kept commenting on the things I had bought and had "oh this tea smells good" "oh you went to the globe theatre!" and yada yada meanwhile I was worrying about my flight. But no worries, I made it to the gate (after a bit of quick sprinting) without a problem. I met up with two girls I know who were also on my flight, one of which is in my Italian class, and we were talking a bit. After boarding we got split up and then my friend Dan boarded the plane and sat next to me. I had no idea so many people were on my flight. There was also another girl right behind us from Umbra. The five of us gathered together after we landed and decided to take a taxi back to the center of town. Our driver was from Assisi and kept talking to Dan about Corvettes and how nice (but boring) Assisi is and was really funny. Finally Finally we made it back and I have spent the rest of my day loading my many many pictures on the computer and catching up with all the things I have to do. I have to register for classes back at Elon soon and I've been trying to figure out my schedule. I think I will take senior seminar fall semester to get it over with. Thank god they are offering the next level of Italian that I need to take- I hope Lanzoni is teaching it. I wish my Italian professor here could come teach at Elon, I've learned the language so much better in his class- however, living in the country while learning the language doesn't hurt either.
Well, it's been a long and amazing spring break and I am happy that everything went as planned and that I have enough street smarts and map smarts to navigate around a city I have never been to before (I did all of London without a map- only with a tube map). Hooray. The rest of my pictures are all up on my yahoo photo account so you definetely should check that out!
Hope everyone else is doing well and that you all have great spring breaks (I think everyone's are coming up in a week or so). Love and miss you all!!

To sum up Spring break with my parents...

So where was I? The last time you left me and my parents we were going to Florence for the day. After getting sick and then getting my dad sick, we decided to move Florence to Tuesday and see Perugia and Assisi on Monday. As you read in my last post, we saw Saint Francis' basilica and crypt in Assisi and then came back to Perugia. I took my parents to Mediterranea and we had some amazing pizza and then went to see "The Pursuit of Happyness" at the converted opera house theatre. The movie was actually really good- and the pizza was amazing of course.
The next day we woke up early and caught an early train to Florence. Luckily I still had my map from the weekend I had spent there a while ago and I navigated our way around the city. We started out by going to wait in line at the Academia to see David. We waited about an hour and then saw David and several of the other works inside the Academia. After this we found a little cafe for sandwiches, pizza, and snacks and then headed toward the giant open air market. I wanted to buy dry fruit so we found the stand and I got pineapples, coconut, kiwi (so good), figs, and mangos. They are all delicious. We then shopped around all the little booths and I picked out a few odds and ends for gifts and for myself. My dad haggled with a guy for a really nice belt and wallet and my mom even got a deal on some scarves.
After the market we walked towards the Duomo and went inside. I love the Florence Duomo (Duomo is the main church for all of those who have been lost in my many past blogs), the ceiling of the dome is so amazing. The next time I go to Florence (on my art trip) I am definetely climbing up to the top of the dome because you can get really close to the fresco around the ceiling. After going inside the duomo we headed down one of the roads towards Palazzo Vecchio and window shopped (stopping in the disney store of course) and went to my favorite gelato place where we all had really good gelato- strawberry mousse and dark chocolate, mmmm! We saw the copies of famous statues (included David) outside of Palazzo Vecchio and then got in the extremely long line for The Ufizi. A note to everyone: If you plan on seeing any of these major sights and a ticket reservation is "recommended"- then you should probably get them in advance. We waited for around an hour and a half just to get inside. It was rather ridiculous and I really think they need a better system.
However, the several works inside the museum were amazing and I can't wait to go back with my art class and analyze the different paintings with my professor- hopefully it will be more informative than class... hopefully.
The weather was kind of iffy as it looked like it was going to rain, it kept dripping on and off. We headed towards Ponte Vecchio which is the bridge with all the gold stores and window shopped. Then we found a Tavolo Caldo, which means Hot Table, kind of like a cafeteria where you pick out what you want and then sit down and eat. It was really good and not too expensive considering it was Florence. We took the train home after a long day and tried to plan for the next day which was supposed to be Siena. However, my dad was still not feeling good and I was still sick so we decided that because of the gross weather and difficulty in even getting to Siena that it would be better to stay in Perugia for the day.
So on Wednesday I met my parents and we went to the national art gallery of umbria which is right here in Perugia- it was really really nice. We bought a museum hopper pass and ended up going to the etruscan well, raphael's first fresco, the merchant's guild, the exchange guild, and another smaller but still interesting art/archeology museum.
For Thursday we decided that we would go to Cortona, which is a small town just a few train stops and bus ride away. However, we had a few problems with transportation but we eventually found it. It's a beautiful town up in the hills and it was actually where Under the Tuscan Sun was written and filmed. You could see Lake Trasimeno (the lake next to Perugia) from the top of the hill and I took a lot of great pictures. We went to the Etruscan museum which was pretty cool and had a lot of archeological artifacts. We also had the most amazing lunch- I had the best gnocchi since I have been here in Italy- and we also had really good gelato in a place called Gelateria Snoopy- no I'm not joking. It was a pretty nice birthday, we came back to Perugia and had dinner at a really good restaurant that I had eaten at with the Arcadia people when we first came to Perugia. So we had dinner and then said our goodbyes because I had to head back to finish packing and go to bed to wake up bright and early for LONDON (see next blog).
(P.S. All pictures from when my parents came to visit are on my yahoo photo page)

Roma!

So spring break started thursday after classes. I had dinner with my friends, Jackie made me a birthday cake with nutella icing and little sugar people and 21 candles. Then they proceeded to sing happy birthday to me at least 3 or 4 times because they realized that I really don't like birthdays or being sung the birthday song. Next thursday when spring break is over, we're having dinner with my professor again and apparently celebrating my birthday again (ew hopefully no more singing).
Anyway, my parents arrived friday morning in Rome where I met them at the train station. Rome is so big (even bigger than Florence) and smoky and even kind of smelly but full of amazing historical buildings and sights that I learned about in my ancient history and art classes: the colosseum, the roman forums, the vatican, st. peter's basilica, trevi fountain, palatine hill, etc. etc. etc. We took two three hour tours of rome: one ancient city tour and one of the vatican. We spent the weekend there and now we are here in Perugia for the week. My parents are staying in the Brufani Hotel (really nice 5 star hotel that Mussolini stayed in) and got an upgrade to a junior suite which is bigger than my apartment...
Today I gave them a small tour of Perugia- the school buildings, my grocery store, Parma (we had some panini) etc. Then we went to Assisi to see Saint Francis' Basilica and ended up taking the wrong bus and walking a bit to the top, but it was cool we saw a bit of the town and then took the bus and train back.
Tomorrow we are going to Florence for the whole day.
I would (or perhaps will in the future) write more about Rome but we did so much and I am very tired and getting sick :(
I will upload my pictures from Rome (all 250) on the yahoo photo page when I get a chance.
Talk to you all soon!