Cinque Terre!

     When you say to someone, “I’m going to Cinque Terre” and they say “Oh, it’s the most beautiful place in  Italy, or even in the world,” you know you are going some place amazing. Cinque Terre, literally meaning 5 lands, is a cluster of 5 coastal tiny towns. These colorful tall buildings are built into the massive rock coast. Shades of pink, yellow and orange light up the coast. Magnificent! The towns are so tiny, with one market each, with no wifi locations, and the most amazing pesto and seafood.

On Thursday morning, Brent, Sadie, Victoria, Stephanie and I ventured to Cinque Terre for the long weekend. Thursday April 25 is Italy’s liberation day form the Fascists and is thus an important holiday in Italy. Unfortunately our luck with weather while traveling (as usually) was going to complicate things. While we arrived on Thursday, the weather was pretty decent, so we decided to do our hike that day. There are these amazing hikes that you can take from town to town. Unfortunately due to these gigantic mudslides last year, major parts of the towns and the trails were destroyed. There was only one part of the hike open, the hike from Vernazza to Monterrosso. We were staying in Vernazza, so after some delicious pizza for lunch, we ventured on our hike. Brent and I got separated from Victoria and Sadie, but we ended up finishing around the same time. The hike had the most AMAZING views!! The first half of the hike was hard- straight up the hill, with lots and lots of stairs. BUT COMPLETELY WORTH IT- amazing view of Vernazza from above. Up and down stairs, over bridges over creeks, through the trees and through a vineyard and along the coast…. Wowow… a fabulous hike! At the end, we arrived in Monterrosso, the largest of the five towns. We rewarded ourselves with gelato and rain into some other IES people who were headed to the Monterrosso beach. We looked around at the different shops and then took the train back to Vernazza to meet up with Stephanie for dinner. There is a great train system that connects all the different towns. We went to this really cute restauarant for dinner. I got delicious homemade pasta with pesto—yummy! What a long day after that hike; we crashed so early that night.

      On Friday morning, we explored Vernazza a little. We went through this mini-cave that ended at this rocky beach. AMAZING. The water was sooo blue! We climbed up to the top of this huge rock and had a major photoshoot (of course!) lol. Afterwards, we took a boat ferrie to the furthest town, Riomaggiore. The other IES people (Alexis, Erin,  Najah, Anna, Julie and Cassie) were also on the boat. We passed each of the towns and had a beautiful view of them from the water. Riomaggiore was a cute townp lots of little tourist shops and restaurants. Brent and Victoria got some amazing fried seafood, while I had some fabulous homemade pasta. Nothing beats homemade pasta!!! We decided to venture to the next town north, Montorola. Pretty small- not much there. But we found this landing on the water that we chilled at. Brent cliff-dove into the FREEZING water. We took a short walk along the coast and saw a beautiful view of Montorola. We decided to train back to Vernazza afterwards. We changed for dinner, ran to the train station to catch the train and accidently took the train going in the wrong direction! We got off at the next stop, Corniglia, the only town we hadn’t seen yet. We were supposed to be going to Monterrosso to meet up with the other IES people for dinner. But the next train back that direction wasn’t for another hour! OY! The town of Corniglia was way up the hill and requires a bus. We took the bus and did a little exploration and ate dinner at a cute café. Sadie had pesto lasagna J (EVERYTHING IS PESTO THERE – pesto pizza, pesto lasagna, pesto pasta, pesto focaccia, even PESTO GELATO!!!... GOOD THING I LOVE PESTO!) We made the bus back and the train back and then took a nap back at our apartment. Around 8:15pm, Brent and I ventured back on that hike, back to the famous photo location of Vernazza, at the top of the mountain. Photographers were already camped our waiting for sunset to get the perfect photo. There was no room for us there so we had to keep climbing to the top of the mountain. We literally did the entire hard part of the hike again…and we were going pretty fast because we had to make it there for sunset at the perfect time. Huffing and puffing up that hill for the perfect picture! We ended at this huge overlook at the top of the mountain. Brent and I are both in the photo class at IES, so we were trying to get the perfect photo given all the knowledge we had learned. Brent has a super legit dSLR camera so he got super amazing photos. It got really dark very fast and we had a super scary hike down. The only light we had was from Brent’s tiny flip-phone. At the bottom, we grabbed delicious gelato. We all went to bed early again… there is literally no nightlife in Cinque Terre. I hadn’t gone to bed this early all semester.

      On Saturday morning, it was raining. BOOO! All day Saturday it rained. BOOO! But at this point, the rain doesn’t even faze me. But the others were not so happy about exploring in the rain. We decided to go to Portavenere, another coastal town, but not one of the five Cinque Terre towns. We had to take a train to La Spezia and then take a bus from there to Portavenere. Throughout this whole trip, we met and talked with such interesting people. On that boat ride the day before, talked with an old couple from Seattle who was travelling in Italy. In La Spezia, on our way to Porta Venere, we followed this group of middle aged ladies in full out hiking gear- each lady had a different colored waterproof gear. After talking with them, we learned that once a year, the group of them (from Holland) goes on a week hiking trip in a different country. They had done Scotland, Austria, etc. There were so great- I hope I can be like them, still an explorer, when I get older. Portavenere was BEAUTIFUL! Like the other towns, the buildings were colorful and the town was on the water. We explored the little streets and saw the church on the edge of the water. When we got there, a wedding was ending. We saw everyone throwing rice and we saw the bride, who was wearing a bright lime green dress, and the groom leave the church. Up the stairs on the side of the church was the most amazing view of the Mediterranean and the waves hitting the massive rock coast. Of course it was really raining at this point! OH JOY! We wandered back through the streets and stumbled across this pesto shop, literally only selling pesto. We tasted the best pesto IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! Of course I had to get some to take back to the US. Expensive bottle of pesto! BUT WORTH EVERY EURO! Afterwards, we took the bus back to La Spezia and then the train back to Cinque Terre. We rain into Ryan at the train station and she came back to Vernazza with Stephanie and Victoria. Brent, Sadie and I stayed on the train to Monterrrosso where we went on this walk- we heard about this walk that would take us to be able to see all give towns down the coast. Unfortunately due to the major cloudy rainy sky, it was only possible to see a few towns down the coast. But still very cool. Afterwards, eventhough it was freezing both outside and int the water, Brent jumped into the sea! BURR and the waves were really rough! Afterwards we went back to Vernazza and took a long long nap. Brent and I walked around Vernazza before dinner and go to see a beautiful sunset. The water and the waves were so rough- the waves came up onto the landing all of us tourists were on. We all went to this fabulous really authentic hole in the wall restaurant in Vernazza. Expecting everyone to be locals, we walked in hearing all English! Every single customer was an American- all ages, a young couple, a middle aged couple, a group of elderly couple from West Palm Beach! We talked with the cute old couples for a bit about their trip. Cinque terre was such a tourist destination, but it wasn’t filled with college students like us. It was filled with more older travellers. Super interesting. Well our food was super delicious. I had this ravioli with pesto- OMG.  So delicious! Definitely in the top pasta dishes I’ve had in my life. We had an early early night because Sunday was going to be a busy busy day.

      On Sunday morning, we took the slow slow inter-city train (well multiple trains because we had to transfer several times) to Bologna. We couldn’t live in Italy and not get to Bologna, especially when you are best friends with a girl who is OBSESSED with lasagna. Bologna is where lasagna is originally from. Several hours later we made it to sunny Bologna! Next stop: food! All day: food! We went straightaway to Trattoria del Rosso for lunch, which came with good recommendaitons. We had a bit of a wait, but it was well worth it. Well, we had our Bologna lasagna- and it was certainly not what we expected. There wasn’t really any sauce. There were just layers of a super super super cheesy béchamel sauce, green noodles and ground beef.  It was delicious, just definitely not what we expected. Afterwards, completely full, we embarked on our short walking tour of Bologna. It mainly consisted of a bunch of beautiful churches and piazzas. Every single building in Bologna was a different shade of brown, red and yellow. What I loved about the buildings was that every building had this covered arched walkway attached to it. Bologna was really a beautiful city! We wandered through alleyways and ended up finding the Jewish ghetto. Sadie says I have a 6^th sense, always able to feel that I stumbled upon something Jewish The main highlight of our stay in Bologna was climbing the major tower in Bologna. 498 stairs!!! It literally winded and winded up the tower forever! I don’t know how many stories that it is, but boy was it exhausting and really scary!! The view at the top was 100% worth it. We were SO HIGH UP!  We could see the whole city around us; rows and rows of brown buildings and roofs. AND WE HAD THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE SKY! Oh it was so great; but let me reiterate that it was an incredibly tiring way up and A VERY VERY SCARY CLIMB DOWN! My feel barely fit on the stairs and the stairs were wooden and so steep! After our climb, we rewarded ourselves with dinner. We went to Osteria dell’Orso, which got amazing reviews. Well the first hiccup was- they don’t serve lasagna. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE! IT’S A RESTAURANT IN BOLOGNA?! Well, I think everyone like their meals anyway. But I ended up with a pasta filled with pork, and I didn’t realize that when I ordered it. Oh well! Everyone else enjoyed eating it. Stuffed and content, we wondered around Bologna until our train back to Milan. Another LONG inter-city train. OY! Well, overall it was a fabulous adventure to Cinque Terre and Bologna! Boy are we tired- travelling it hard work J

     Now the next few weeks are going to be bitter sweet. L I don’t want to say good-bye to everyone! And I’m not done with Italy- the food, the language, the people, the art, the history, the beauty! AHH! Also trying to fit in everything into these last few weeks, while I am being overloaded with daily homework, group projects, and finals! AHH! Culture and cuisine or school-work? Hmmm….(parents please don’t kill meJ) Anyway, grazie mille for sticking with me and reading about all my adventures.

Ciao for now,

~E

Cold Copenhagen Conquered

Ciao!
(This blog post is being posted late- it is actually from the week of March 8-10).

Last time, I updated you on my amazing experience skiing in the Alps. Just three days later I hopped on a plane (alone!) and landed in Copenhagen. Before I tell you about that trip, that morning, on Friday, Sadie, Chris, Joe, and I went to the church of Santa Maria della Grazie to see the Last Supper! Getting tickets to the Last Supper is so difficult. You have to book months and months in advance. Somehow we got lucky and got tickets. Only a small group of people are allowed in at a time, for only 15 minutes total, and no pictures are allowed. Tight rules! I mean all I can say is that it is amazing. The work itself is very faint, but the details are still just exquisite. Sadie and I had just watched the DaVinci Code, which dedicated a decent portion of the movie towards an interpretation of the painting, so it was cool to see the movie and then see this painting in person! I SAW THE LAST SUPPER! Many people don't get to say that. Most people don't know that the Last Supper is located in Milan!
After class on Friday, I hopped on a plane to Copenhagen. It used to be that travel in Europe was done by trains because everything is fairly close to each other and flying was too expensive. Now, there are  budget airlines that fly all around Europe for cheap. These are airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet. The flight is cheap but then they really hit you with costs like checking a bag, printing your boarding pass, etc. Also their carry-on regulations are different than standard American regulations, so if your bag doesn't fit in the designated box, you'll end up paying to check your bag. I had heard numerous horror stories about flying with these airlines and I was a bit nervous to fly on one for the first time by myself. I am so thankful- everything went very smoothly!! 

I landed in Copenhagen and boy was I hit was a surprise. It is as cold as the North Pole up there! I had not packed correctly- I wanted to pack as little and as light as possible to avoid having to check my bag- I didn't bring gloves, a scarf, a hat, warm clothes. I thought the weather would be like Milan's which was cold- but I didn't expect this amount cold! 

Kayla, my friend who I was visiting in Copenhagen, wasn't going to return to Copenhagen from her own trip until 11pm, but I arrived in Copenhagen at 5:30pm. Because it was so cold, I ended up passing the 5 five hours getting dinner and then in a cute coffee shop, the Living Room, that Kayla recommended. Coffee shops are your best friend in Copenhagen. It's too cold to ever be outside, so coffee shops are there for you to warm up. Unlike in Milan, where going in and sitting down without ordering anything would be rude, in Copenhagen, it is pretty common for people to hangout in the coffeeshop without having purchased anything. The time went by pretty quickly and I met up with Kayla at Norreport Station.

Let me say that Copenhagen and Danish people look exactly like you would expect Scandinavian people to look like. The people are angelic- bleach blond hair and beautiful pale skin. Everyone is so beautiful.
Copenhagen is a weird mix, having the old regal buildings- tons of palaces- and very modern architecture- silver and platinum mixed with clear glass. Also, my favorite part of Copenhagen were the fabulously colorful buildings. Every building is a new light color- it's so cute! Picturesque!
Copenhagen is one of the most of bike friendly cities. You would expect that having negative degree weather would deter people from biking; nope- the city was designed to be as sustainable as possible, so bike lanes are just as important as the lanes for cars. Everyone bikes everywhere! The downtown city itself is not very big and it was possible to walk everywhere inside the city center. It was only necessary to use the bus system to get to Kayla's apartment outside of the city center. 

Copenhagen is a huge study abroad destination, particularly through the program DIS. DIS has a lot of cool elements; mainly that their program organizes trips for them through their classes. Kayla's class about health care had gone to Vienna and Budapest and had learned about the health care system in those cities. I wish that IES would plan more trips for us- while I loved going to Florence and Venice with my friends, I wish that IES had organized it and had given us tours. 

Anyway, we woke up on Saturday morning (I don't think that Kayla knew what she was getting into) and I wanted to see EVERYTHING. I only had Saturday to do it since my flight was midday on Sunday. I had a long to do list and Kayla was a great sport, schlepping me all over the city to see it all! When I say I went on a whirlwind tour, I really mean it. 

We started at Tivoli gardens. Unfortunately it was closed until April. BOO. Then we stopped by the Copenhagen City Hall. Then the beautiful Christianborg Castle!! CASTLES IN COPENHAGEN ARE CASTLES!! After a warm-up break with lunch eating Samoas, which in the future don't ever let me eat because Samoas= not yummy to Erika. We got to Rosenborg Castle just in time to take photos before it closed! After some hot chocolate, we made it to Nyhavn, the colorful and picturesque harbor. We also walked to see the the Royal Danish Theatre and the Copenhagen opera house. We ended at the Amalienborg Palaces, which is where the actual Queen of Denmark lives! Really cool! Since we braved the cold for so long, we warmed up in a coffeeshop before we met Tom and Therese, two other Skidmore students studying in Copenhagen, for dinner. We went to dinner at this fabulous restaurant- it was having a sale of getting a drink with dinner. The restaurant had a line down the street... it was so popular. Midway through the dinner, the waiter asked us to move to the table next to us, and in return he gave us complementary dessert! So we had a fabulous dinner! It was too cold to go out, so we went back to Kayla's apartment and finished watching Eurotrip :)
Early the next morning, I had a flight back to Milan. Eventhough I was so glad to have spent the weekend visiting Kayla and seeing Copenhagen, boy I could not wait to get back to Italy, where they used the euro, people were speaking Italian (which is a much more beautiful language than the weird Danish), and it was less cold outside!
I am sorry that this blog post was so late, but I think it hit the highlights!
Great trip!
xoxo,
~E

Parmesan from Parma! What what?!?!

Hi all,
I officially only have 1 month left studying abroad in Italy! Ahh! How is this happening? When I ask other people how they feel about it, most say it will be very bitter-sweet; they feel ready to come home and see their friends and family, but are sad to leave the people they met here and the amazing European life they are living here. Not that I don't love and miss you all, but I really really don't want this experience to end; for me, it will mostly be a bitter farewell. Sadie lives in California, so chances of me seeing her any time soon are very slim :( But luckily I do have an amazing month following the end of this program. Did you hear? I got placed on Birthright trip! So... after my finals, I am off to Budapest, Vienna, and Prague with Zoe, and then to Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruges, and Paris with my mom, and then will return to Baltimore for all 7 hours to then hop on a plane with Birthright to go to Israel for 10 days! Can life be any more exciting? So yes I am excited to start that whirlwind travel experience, but I am sad to be having my life in Milan slowly come to an end. There are still so many aperitivo places and clubs that I haven't tried, and there are still major sites and museums that I haven't been to. Now that it's nice out, I finally can enjoy it... there's only this little thing called school work getting in my way!
The last time I wrote, I detailed about my fabulous spring break experience. Well, it's been two weeks since then, and I didn't write because I spent the following week (including the weekend) shut up in my room hibernating! I never left my apartment, well I barely left my bed, for that entire weekend. I did make yummy pizza again with Sadie on Thursday night, although it wasn't as good as the first time we made it. We watched Roman Holiday, which I LOVED, in order for us to recall our amazing time exploring Rome! We kept showing Colosseum... we were there! Trevi fountain... we were there! Other than that fun part, I was super productive and caught up on a lot of necessary sleep. The work is starting to pile on- I have three major projects (two of them group projects) that need to get done, on top of the busy work that they give us. It is a lot harder to do work here, not just because there are so many exciting things distracting us, but because there really isn't a good study environment here for me. The library closes at 8pm- Italians don't do work there like Americans do. At Skidmore, I'll get to the library at 10pm to work there until 1 am. That doesn't exist here. Here, I either have to get work done in between classes at the IES center or at home. It's hard to get work done between classes because that's when I need to eat, but if I go home to eat then that's an hour of travel time and no time to do work. OY. And getting work done at home is hard because 6 girls in an apartment doesn't really provide for the best study environment. In any case, I have lots of work to do in the next month and seemingly no time to do! But hey, that's college.
During this past week, other than getting work done, I finished creating my photobook on shutterfly of all my trips prior to spring break. If you know me well enough, you know that I used to scrapbook all my trips, but since the fabulous invention of shutterfly, I've moved to doing an online scrapbook. The book came out pretty good, even if it was a bit rushed. I also have been participating (I've done it twice) in a weekly skype session being trained to be a dialogue facilitator through Soliya. Last semester, I skype weekly with other Americans and Muslim students from around the world to dialogue about the relationship between the West and the Middle East. Having gone through that experience, I am now being trained as a facilitator for these dialogues. It has been really great so far, meeting lots of interesting people and gaining a lot of new skills in communication.
This past week was very special in Milan. It was Milan Design Week, which is a huge fair of major furniture designers. There were exhibitions all over the city. Milan was packed! So many people came in for the design show. On Thursday after class, Sadie and I went to several free exhibitions of the Salone del Mobile in one area of the show by Porta Genova. We saw some super interesting and innovating interior decor and furniture. It was really fun- interesting to see who will be the hip new designers and to experience this major cultural experience in Milan. This fair is the largest design fair in the world!! Milan = fashion and design!!
This past weekend, I went on a trip that was organized by IES that went to Cremona, Parma, and Mantova. On Friday morning, we left fairly early and drove for about an hour and a half to Cremona. Interestingly, my Fascism professor lives in Cremona (and commutes to Milan for my class!). He met us and gave us a tour of the Cremona Duomo. We were split into two groups; Sadie and I were ambitious and decided to join the tour with Professor Malletta that was being given in Italian (designed for the students in 200 and up). Well being in 100 Italian... we surprisingly caught more than we thought we would, but really only caught bits and pieces of the information. Anyway, bravo to me for understanding what I did!
Cremona is famous for violin makers! I think there are over 100 violin makers from all over the world that have settled in Cremona. It is very cool. We went to a violin maker's store and he gave us an explanation of how he makes his violins. He taught us about the different woods and the process to carve and shape what we see in stores. He makes his varnish from scratch! It was really really cool! Then, Lindsey, because she plays the violin, tried one of the artist's violins for all of us. The artist told us that many famous concert violinists had played on that same violin. The scales and music Lindsey played were beautiful! It was really cool!
Afterwards, we got a tour of the Cremona theatre, Teatro Ponchielli. So beautiful inside! It was not quite shaped in semi-circle, like usual. It was more ovally- the tour guide said it allowed for people on the sides to see better that way. (So why aren't all theatres built like that??) I believe the theatre had burned down twice before, so it wasn't the original theatre. The stage is very famous, one of the deepest stages. We got to go back there and we were shocked at how far back the stage went! Really cool! Afterwards, we got super delicious pizza! Definitely in the top 4 I've had so far. Of course it was HUGE, but don't worry, I still got the clean plate award. It would be a crime to leave any bufala mozzarella pizza!
We then drove to Parma, and checked into our hotel. How nice to be in a hotel and not in a hostel! :). After a much needed nap, IES took us to a nice restaurant for dinner called Trattoria Corrieri. The primo piatto- first dish- was a pasta with ragu sauce. Was YUMM YUMM! The second dish... mmm.. some kind of meat- maybe veal?- noone was sure- but not so yummy. What was great was the wine, of course. Boy am I going to miss the wine!
After dinner, Sadie and I went with AJ and Bryan S. to this outdoor concert in Piazza Garibaldi. It was actually really cute; the band mixed American pop music and Italian- it was kind of confusing, but great. Also weirdly, there were people wearing capes at the event, not sure why. Joe, Matt, and Chris met us there and so it was a good time.
On Saturday morning, we got a tour of Parma. We went to the Palazzo della Pilotta and the Teatro Farnese, which was the great beautiful theatre built by the Duke for a Medici family visit. The theatre was destroyed in World War II, but they reconstructed it. We of course also went to the Parma Duomo and Baptistery.
After the tour we drove to Mantova, known as Mantua in English. I had learned just a few days before from the guest lecture for my Fascism class that all the Jews who came to Milan when Jews were finally permitted to live in Milan came from Mantova. We grabbed lunch and gelato and then walked through Palazzo Ducale, which is this great beautiful Palace of the Gonzaga family. The rooms were decadent and beautiful! Sadie and I ballroom danced in the ballroom, and we all wanted to jump on the fabulously magnificent bed in the bedroom. No pictures were allowed in Palazzo Ducale :( Palazzo Ducale also had two beautiful gardens.
After Palazzo Ducale, Sadie and Chris came with me to find the synagogue, since I had just learned that Mantova had a significant Jewish population. We found it but it was closed (it was Saturday, silly me). It was just one of the houses in the block of row houses, hidden, no sign- it was weird.
Let me say- WE HAD BEAUTIFUL WEATHER!! Since we had a few hours of free time in Mantova, we sat in a park for a while soaking up the sun, and walked down the major shopping streets. We ended at the side of the lake- where coincidentally most of the rest of the IESers were relaxing as well. We rested in the beautiful sun and then headed to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere for an epic feast. All of the food was made from locally grown products! All anyone would say was that we would eat very well tonight... The restaurant, called Agriturismo "Corte Belfiore" in Viadana, gave us two first dishes, two second dishes, and two desserts. Well, the second dishes were both pork dishes, which I couldn't eat...they nicely gave me a fish meal, which was really nice of them, but I also don't eat fish. So... I very much enjoyed the risotto that they served, but I think most people enjoyed the meal more than I did. Following the dinner, we played this funny game called 'mingle.' All of IES played it- in the courtyard area of the restaurant we all had to walk around until Susanna or Walter called a number, and we had to get into a group of that many. Those who couldn't get in a group, was out. The game got super intense- people were pushing and shoving to stay in the game- but it was really fun!
On Sunday, we had to wake up very early in order to get to the parmigiano reggiano factory, in time for us to watch them make the cheese. WOOO Coolest part of the trip. Also, smelliest part of the trip- not a good smell of heated milk, etc. turning into cheese. We saw the cheese being stored, and the men working in the factory to make the cheese. I bought some 36 month aged cheese- which was the oldest you could buy there. I hope it tastes good. :)
Afterwards we went to Castell'Arquato, which was this castle on top of a hill. It was beautiful! The view of the Italian countryside was exquisite. There was a little artisanal market at the top of the hill as well that was really cute. After delicious pizza, Sadie, Mary, Julien and I sat and relaxed in the park. While relaxing, an old crazy man came up to us and started yelling and flailing his cane around. SCARY! Julien is fluent in Italian, and even he didn't understand what the crazy man was saying! OY! At least we had a great laugh about that. We got home to beautiful sunny Milan, packed with tourists because of the Furniture fair. We ended the weekend on some fabulous Shockolat gelato! Well... back to real life... of study abroad :)

Only 1 month left! EEEK. Well I am off to Dublin tomorrow! I am going to get to kiss the blarney stone and hear some great Irish accents! I'll keep you updated!

Ciao for now!
~E

When in Roma... Do as the Romans Do...

Ciao regazzi,
Could the last few days have been more of a whirlwind? Probably not... I want to tell you about my amazing experience in Rome!

I SAW THE POPE!
... sorry just needed to get that out there!
Here's a picture that my friend Chris took of the pope when we saw him! WOWZERS!! AMAZING RIGHT?

Photo Credit: Chris DeFilippi  

Ok, well maybe I should start from the beginning. I had a flight out of Sevilla on Saturday morning at 7am!... which meant I woke up at 3:45am! Sì, sono stata stanca! I found Sadie at the Rome train station at 1:30pm. She was frantic! So much to achieve in the next few hours! So... Chris got us tickets to Easter Vigil Mass at St. Peter's Basilica for that night (amazing right??). Mass started at 8:30pm, but they started letting people in at 7pm. Chris and Joe got in line at 3pm! Sadie, frantic when she met me, told me that we would only have the next two hours to get into the Vatican Museums to see the Sistine Chapel, but our apartment that we rented for the weekend was far away, and we had a huge debate about what to do with my bags in order to get to the Vatican Museums before it closed at 4pm for Easter. Well, we ran, and rushed, and sprinted until we had no breath left... We got to the Vatican Museums at 4:02pm and it was closed! :( Our hearts broke. We tried SO hard! Well... this was the opportunity cost associated with coming to Rome for Easter and seeing the Pope. At 4:02pm, starving, bummed, and tired, we headed back to a gelato shop that we had ran past, which happened to be considered one of the best gelato shops in Rome. Epic? YES! Amazing? YES! Delicious? YES! Dear Old Bridge Gelato, thank you for giving me the greatest gift of all, your amazing gelato! My gelato worker was a beautiful flirty Italian guy, who gave me a delicious cone of stracciatella, cookies, and nutella flavors gelato. YUMM YUMM! After we gobbled that up, we realized that Easter... Sunday... Rome... = food stores, restaurants, etc = closed! We frantically found a supermarket to stock-up on some lunch food for the next day, when we were to conquer Rome. We gobbled down Margherita pizza at a tourist restaurant near the Vatican, since of course we were still starving, even after 3 scoops of gelato. Then again, even if we weren't starving, who could turn down pizza in Italy? 

After pizza, Sadie and I found Joe and Chris in the very VERY very long line that had wrapped around the Vatican square. Languages from all over the world were being spoken around us. Everyone was forced into this same line, which had been started since hours before we had gotten there. Priests and nuns were in squished in the same line as us; we were all anxiously waiting to get into the Basilica. Remember that time when I told you that wherever I travel to the rain seems to follow me? Yes, as we waiting in line, it started to pour! I don't mean drizzle, or rain, or rain hard. I mean, it downpoured. Initially it was just raining, and everyone put their umbrellas up, and it made for a sort of overarching cover for everyone. It was actually quite cool.

 While we waited in line, people would chant and sing, kind of as if we were at a soccer or football game. I know that there were some in line that felt that the chanting was disrespectful and were not pleased. Understandingly. But if we hadn’t been standing outside of the Vatican to wait for mass, it would have been perfect. Because everyone was gearing up for a stampede. First ones into the Basilica got the best seats and the best views. Plus, we heard that they gave out 3x as many tickets as seats, so no one wanted to get stuck standing for the three hour mass with a horrible view. In any case, just around 7pm, when they started letting everyone in, it downpoured x1,000. We were drenched. The rain drenched us, umbrellas pouring their water directly on us drenched us. We were wet, cold, and anxious to finally just get inside! Security was letting very small groups in at a time, so it took a very long time to finally get through. Right before we got let in, I am not really sure what happened, but either someone got trampled, or someone snuck through security, but something very scary happened because we heard a lot of screaming and were pushed ferociously hard. It was actually really scary. 
We finally pushed our way through! We got to security and Sadie yells and tells me that she lost her ticket in that mess of a crowd when we got pushed! Oh that poor girl, my heart broke. I seriously thought there was no way she was going to get in! After not getting to see the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, and not getting in to see the pope, this trip would have gone so sour in 5 hours! Heart breaking every beating second. At each step of security, they kept asking to see tickets; so even though, the first nice man waved her through, she kept getting stopped at the next ticket stop. Heart still breaking. Still breaking. We got to one ticket stop and the guy tells us there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY TO GET IN WITHOUT A TICKET. WE ARE PLEADING. IM YELLING AND SCREAMING: “LOOK HERE’S MY TICKET. HERE’S GOT LOST IN THE CROWD.” He keeps saying you must wait on the side, there’s no way you are getting in. Poor Sadie. She starts crying, my heart is breaking. We pleaded and waited and pleaded. The security man saw Sadie crying and waived us through, OH THAT MAN IS A MENCH! Bless his heart!

WE MADE IT IN! Sadie sidestepped the last ticket check, and we found the boys and got pretty good seats. Not on the aisle, like they were trying, but not so far back. At the entrance, we were given a candle, and a prayer book. What an amazing experience this was about to be! First let me say, St. Peter’s Basilica is the most beautiful building I have ever been in. It’s so decorative, and yet it’s not overwhelmingly so. It’s just so beautiful. I love the gold, but it’s not too much. Joe said that it has a lot of Baroque details in it. 

Joe had already seen the pope 3 times this week! He had went to mass with pope the previous days! ... very dedicated! So this didn't seem like that big of a deal to him, but to Sadie and I... we were freaking out! How often do you get to see the pope! Joe is very knowledgable about Rome, Catholicism, and Italy in general. He is fluent in Italian and recently became an dual-Italian citizen! He taught me a lot about Catholicism as we were waiting for the mass to start. What is really cool about the Easter Vigil service is that it starts in darkness, because its during the time that Christ is dead, and then everyone's candles are lit to bring light into the room. This sounds very beautiful; during the service, it wasn't quite executed as such. It started in darkness, as the pope walked in, but everyone was flashing their cameras that it distracted the mood away from this symbolic element of the service. Also, they turned the lights of the Basilica on before all of our candles had gotten lit, which was a bit disappointing. The service itself was extremely interesting and really moving. It had readings and songs in several different languages, in order to appeal to all the different nationalities in the room. There was Spanish, Italian, Latin, and English readings. I thought that was really beautiful. The service was very long, longer than a usual Easter Vigil Mass, according to Joe, who said this service had a lot of fancy add-ins (which makes sense... it was mass with the pope!). Everyone stood whenever the pope spoke. His homily, what I gather was like a sermon, was in Italian, but Joe understood it and what he summarized to me was a beautiful message about openness and being receptive to change. I felt very inspired and moved by the tunes sung in the service. The song, Alleluia, tune and words sounded fairly similar to the hallelujah song I am familiar with from the Jewish tradition. Overall, the service was very nice and it was an amazing experience, to be exposed to and to learn about another faith and to have had the opportunity to see the Pope! There were some Argentinians in the row in front of us; when the pope exited the mass, everyone was standing and trying to take pictures. They yelled and screamed and showed their Argentinian flag, and he loved it and engaged with them! I know that there are lots of conversations about "the good, the bad, and the ugly" about his past, but it seems as if he's going to take the Catholic Church in a good different direction. What an amazing it experience that night was. We exited the Basilica and the Vatican was beautifully lit! How beautiful! Well, what an amazing day. The next day would be the day we would conquer Rome! 

On Sunday morning, Sadie and I woke up early (thanks to daylight savings, we also lost an hour of sleep) to conquer Rome. We kept saying to each other, Rome wasn't built in a day, but it was conquered in one by us. Sadie knows that I don't half-ass my travel; I wasn't going to let us leave without having seen everything. And in our case, see everything twice, since we went back everywhere at night too. LOL. We started at the Colosseum, then the Roman Forum. We didn't go inside either because we were pressed for time and the lines were long. Joe and Chris were making us an Easter dinner around 4pm, so we had to be back at the apartment fairly early. On our way to find the Pantheon, we stumbled upon a bakery that was open (WOO!.. I was so nervous everything was going to be closed!). Since being in Italy, I hadn't had a cannoli yet and it was breaking my heart that I might leave Italy without having one. Cannolis are really a southern Italy thing, and I didn't have any plans to be in southern Italy during my time. The woman stuffed the cannolis right there in front of us, filling my cannolis with chocolate chip cannoli cream and then adding more chocolate chips on the sides as well! BOY WAS I EXCITED! Sadie got one chocolate chip one and one chocolate one. Yummy yummy! 


We got to Piazza Navona, which is a beautiful square. There were paintings being sold everywhere in the square, which gave the square an artsy feel. The fountain in the middle, the Fountain of the Four Rivers, was beautiful, which is a masterpiece of Bernini. Each statue represented a major river on four continents. After Piazza Navona, we made it to the Pantheon. There was a mass being held in the Pantheon when we got there, so no visitors were being let in. We made it there in good time, because only five minutes later, the mass ended and they started letting us visitors in. We were in the front of the line, so we got into the Pantheon before a massive crowd filled it. BEAUTIFUL! After the pantheon, we headed to the Trevi Fountain and did out best to get our perfect pictures with the Trevi. Of course, we were hurried by the millions of other tourists trying to get their perfect pictures too. After the Trevi, we went to the Spanish steps, where we sat on the beautiful, white steps for lunch. We had packed our lunch, fearing nothing would be open, but turns out that a lot of the tourist restaurants were open. After lunch, we walked to Piazza del Popolo, our final destination. We saw an overlook above Piazza del Popolo. We went up there, and saw a beautiful view of Rome. At this point, it was nearing 3pm, and our feet were starting to really hurt after walking around Rome all day. We did it; we saw everything that we had wanted to that day! 
Rome was surprisingly very walkable; once you get to one major site, it is very easy to walk to all of the rest. The public transportation system in Rome is horrendous. There are two metro lines- expansion is nearly impossible because all of the historic landmarks get in the way. The bus system is horrible- buses in general are just really unreliable. In general, the buses and metros that I was in were really dirty, like it really isn't clean or well-kept. The city itself is beautiful, its well-lit and there are beautiful buildings everywhere, but outside of the tourist areas, it's really not very clean or well-kept. We headed back to our apartment which took a long time, because we had to take the metro, switch lines half way, then take a bus to our apartment. Took maybe 30-40 minutes I guess. Except for waiting for the bus, which could last anywhere from a minute to an hour! We were greeted at our apartment with a wonderful dinner prepared by Joe. Joe's friend studying in Rome joined us for dinner, which was very nice! She had seen the Pope that morning when he rode around in the "pope-mobile" around Vatican Square. After some delicious dinner and dessert, Sadie and I, joined by Joe's friend, headed out to conquer Rome again, but at night. 
We started at Old Bridge Gelato by the Vatican. We couldn't leave Rome without seeing if our favorite gelato place was open. It was! Yum yumm and the cute gelato guy took my order again :) After seeing the Vatican again for one last time, we walked to Castel Sant'Angelo and across the Tiber River. The Castle was beautifully lit that night. The rest of our stops were short walks from each other. Again, we walked to Piazza Navona, and then to Pantheon, and then ended at the Trevi Fountain. Going to the Trevi at night was one of my main goals for Rome. I had never been there at night. BOY IS IT MAGICAL AT NIGHT. Beautifully lit! I threw my coins and made my wished and we got lots and lots of pictures! Sadie and I parted ways with Joe's friend afterwards; Sadie and I ended the day with seeing the colosseum (AMAZING!) and rushed on the metro to make it to our stop before the metro closed. We had to wait a good 45 minutes for our bus to the apartment. We were so happy to make it home- what a long and tiring day! Who knew we could conquer Rome twice in one day? Well, what an amazing end to the day; what an amazing end to spring break. 
We left for Milano early the next morning (and sadly left our last cannoli there!). I was so thankful to get home, to be in my own bed, and to have a break from being on the go 24-7. I got home, and was greeted by Alessandra and lots of her friends, who were putting together a Pasquetta party in the apartment. In Italy, the Monday after Easter is a holiday; many people go on picnics or have gatherings with friends. The party went all afternoon and evening. It was quite an event. 
Well, that concludes my summary of my spring break. Pretty awesome, huh? It was an amazing 11 days, a whirlwind cultural experience, and a fantastic time with friends exploring new cities. Once again, came and conquered and left my mark! 
What's up for the next few weeks? Well, IES has a trip planned for us to go to Parma and see how parmesan cheese is made and then the following weekend I am going to Dublin with Sadie and Chris. So lots more coming up. But for now, it's back to semi-real-life of school work and editing photos and living my amazing life in Europe :)
Ciao amici,
~E

Espana: Granada and Sevilla!

     Today is my last day of spring break and I am finally back in Milano and resting after a fabulous 11 days! I love travelling and exploring so much, but I am not a casual and restful traveller; I am a wake-up at the crack of dawn traveller, who explores and conquers the entire city in a day. So... I am exhausted and I am so glad to have finally slept in my own bed and had a full nights sleep.
     I want to spend this blog post devoted to my time spent in Granada and Sevilla, and dedicate another blog post to my time in Rome. As you know, my spring break coincided with holy week. Spain is an extremely devoted and religious country, and holy week is one of the busiest and touristy times for places like Granada and Sevilla. We got into Granada late on Tuesday evening. We woke up on Wednesday to learn that it would be very difficult to get tickets to visit the Alhambra, the main tourist site in Granada. This, of course, was very disappointing to learn, but we decided we'd go and stand in line and try to get tickets for that day anyway. On Wednesday, we hiked up the mountain where the Alhambra stands, only to get lost in a beautiful gardens. Thinking that it would connect to the Alhambra, we wasted a good hour circling the gardens. It was beautiful, so wasted is not really the appropriate word, but we did not manage to arrive at the Alhambra ticket office until much later than expected. When we did arrive, of course, tickets were sold out, so we explored the Medieval Moorish neighborhood of Albayzín.  I love this area of Granada. The streets were narrow and winding and were exactly what I pictured a quaint town in Spain to look like. A typical street looks like the picture below:

    How adorable, right? Granada, like a lot of the south of Spain, has Muslim influences since the Muslims ruled over Iberia for a long time in early history. So there were markets, reminding me those I saw in Tunisia, hookah bars, and henna stations along the little streets of Albayzín.The Alhambra itself is a fortress and Islamic palace dating back to as early as roughly 900 ad, I think. We ate a local restaurant serving all different kinds of tapas. In Granada, there was a law made by the king many years ago that required restaurants to give tapas to those who ordered a drink, because the king didnot want people to waste their income on just drinks without having food and nourishments. We had heard that typically a good serving of food is provided, but at this little restaurant that we attended, I only got one falafel as my tapas, and Zoe only got a tiny scoop of humus with her one pita chip. Oh well. It was good to not be eating patatas bravas and hamburgers. Falafel was a nice break. Anyway, I loved exploring the little streets of Albayzín. On our way through the Albayzín neighborhood, we encountered a procession. It was very solemn...very funeral like. Holy week in Spain is certainly an experience. We continued exploring and eventually made it to the top of a hill in the Albayzín district, called Mirador de San Nicolas, which was an overlook over Granada and gave a great view of Alhambra. It is important to note, IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY! Finally, we had great weather, and were enjoying the sunshine in Spain! The people at the Mirador de San Nicolas were great- there were a lot of hippie artists selling their work (but as soon as the police stopped, by they all quickily hid it and sat like tourists); we could smell pot just sitting in the square, and there were people playing guitar and singing. It was a great place to sit and enjoy the day. A sample picture of the view of the Alhambra from the top of Mirador de San Nicolas is below. Wonderful right!?

     We decided to continue exploring and go to the area called Sacromonte, which the man at our hostel described was full of Gypsy caves, that usually held Flamenco shows for tourists. We walked along the main street and saw the houses built into the hill. I wouldn't really call it caves, at least not in the way I was expecting. It was a beautiful long walk that we really enjoyed. We headed back to the hostel afterwards to get some rest and to plan the rest of our time in Granada. We decided that we were not going to leave Granada without having visited the Alhambra. All of the tickets for the Alhambra was booked online, all of the tours were booked, and the Granada card which would provide access as well was all sold out. After doing a lot of research, it came down to we would have to either go and visit the palaces at night or to get in line at 6am for the ticket office that would open at 8am. OY. Well, guess what we ended up doing...
     Zoe's stomach had been hurting a lot for the past few days and since it wasn't going away or getting better, we went to the emergency room to have a doctor look at it. This was around 7:30pm. 4 hours later, at 11:30, she was finally seen by a doctor, who basically gave her ibprofin and told her to eat simple foods. We got back to the hostel at 12:30am, and decided that we would have to be up at the Alhambra in 5 and a half hours in order to get in tomorrow. The reviews online said that if you are there during holy week and want to get tickets, you would have to be in line by 6am. If it was not holy week, then maybe get there at 7am. Well, we got there at 6am and were the second people in line! There was an Italian couple ahead of us who had gotten there at 5am! Well a painful 2 hours of sitting and waiting in the cold and rain paid off since we were the second ones into the Alhambra that day!
     The Alhambra was wonderful. The intricacies of the mosaics and the carvings in the palaces were exquisite. It was detailed and ornate and yet not overwhelming or distasteful. From the outside the Alhambra does not look like anything spectacular, but on the inside, it's beautiful! Also, the view of teh city of Granada below was so amazing! Luckily the rain in the early morning cleared up by the time we got into the Alhambra so the view was beautiful! We probably zipped through the palaces too quickly, but having we were tired and a bit irritable from being up so early. We spent about 2 hours at the Alhambra total, when it usually takes 3-4 hours. After the palaces, we explored the gardens of the Generalife, which were absolutely beautiful. Overall, I think the wait in line was totally worth it; it is definitely a must-visit if you are ever in Granada. Below are a tiny select sample pictures of what I saw at the Alhambra. There were so many other beautiful things, but this is just to give you a taste!

      For the rest of the day in Granada, we explored the little streets. We had a big tapas lunch and froyo, and then boarded the bus to Sevilla! We were so tired when we arrived in Sevilla. It was the first time that we were staying in a "real" hostel like hostel. The hostel in Sevilla was a frat party hostel, meaning it was full of college students travelling. The hostel had all these organized events like a pub crawl every night, and tours of the city. It had a bar on the terrace where they gave you a free welcome drink. Well we were way to tired for anything like that; we grabbed pizza (oh thank god because we were sick of Spanish food at that point) and went straight to sleep real early!
     It was our last day in Spain together :(. We got up and was ready to conquer Sevilla. But, it was good friday... meaning everything was basically closed. Our first stop was to find the Alcazar, which similar to the Alhambra in Granada, was a royal palace of Moorish origins. Well once we finally did find it, it was closed because of good friday. Also the huge amazing Cathedral of Sevilla had a line wrapped around it that would have taken hours to get in. It is an understatement to say that I was bummed. The two biggest landmarks seems impossible to get into. To top it off, a bird pooped on my head. OY...the day was not looking too bright. We headed off to explore the rest of the city. First stop of Plaza de Espana in Parque de María Luisa. Boy was this plaza beautiful! Exquisite. But of course, it started raining when we got there. The plaza had a beautiful fountain and exquisite mosaics. We waited for it to stop raining to take our pictures and to head off to keep exploring. We went into the historical part of the city and stopped at a lot of the major sites, like Plaza Mayor, which has the largest wooden structure like in the world, the bull fighting ring, and a bar that has the cheapest beer in Spain (a beer for 40 cents). We headed back to the Cathedral to see if we could get in for good friday mass, so that we could see the inside of the Cathedral. Turns out, we think, that the procession for during the day got cancelled because of the rain, so they had the altar of Mary that was supposed to go in the procession on display in the Cathedral. They were letting visitors into the Cathedral to see the altar. Great luck for us! We were able to see the inside of the Cathedral and see the altar! The downside of the procession getting cancelled was that we didn't get to see it. We did see a lot of people dressed up, wearing these clothes that scared us very much. Remember the very first scene in the Da Vinci Code, when the professor shows a symbol and the audience guesses the symbol, and he tells them where its origins come from. Heres the link to the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hWzLksAWUI. Well the very first symbol in that scene is that of the KKK robe, which in Spain, he explains, is worn by priests. Well we saw people wearing these robes everywhere in Sevilla! I unfortunately didn't get a picture :( but it was very very interesting to see!
    That evening, we use the hostel's kitchen to whip up some simple pasta, and then we attended a Flamenco show!! FINALLY! This is what we were waiting for. Definitely some authentic Spanish culture in front of us. The dancers were fabulous, the singer was great, and the guitarist was just wonderful. We almost didn't get in, but we were fairly aggressive, getting the last two seats! Here's a picture of the flamenco show!

The show was great! These obnoxious drunk American girls were behind us being very loud and were clapping during the show, which could have easily distracted and gotten the dancers off-beat. They started talking to us during intermission. They were teaching English in Palma de Mallorca. WOW, that is a fabulous experience- that is something that I would like to do. Anyway, the show was great. We learned that being a flamenco, is a way of life, not  a hobby, and we learned that all four of the participants, the singer, guitarist, and the dancers, their expression is a form of communication to each other. The show was a great end to our trip in Spain! By the time we got back to our hostel that night, I had to get up in 3 hours for my flight to Rome! OY, what a whirlwind of a spring break, but fabulous for every minute!

Can't wait to tell you about Rome!
Adios!
~E