back on Track

Sorry for the lack of bloggage recently (because I know your days absolutely revolve around reading my blog) but I've been having issues: I booked my return flight for March instead of May and had to deal with all the issues that go along with that. So, I really haven't been in the mood for blogging (or really anything for that matter). I've just watched so much slip away from me (and I have to add a shout out of extreme gratefulness to Alaina's parents, if they ever read this. I am rarely speechless out of gratitude ((intrestingly enough this year had a grand total of two instances for whatever karmic reason)) and even here, in the written word where I am usually infinitely more eloquent I am still at a loss for words) including my sanity a couple of times. THIS IS WHY I'M NOT ALLOWED TO PLAN THINGS. So if you want a general summup (and you know you do) of my feelings over the past few days, I need few words. Merely: GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR... ARRRGGGGGGGHHHHH. (a few general sobs, a thrown object or two... or three.. maybe more...). But now its better.

I was able to find cheap enough tickets back home (God Bless Ireland) but will spending some nights in airports. My bank account is severly depleted but, after some careful and acrobatic math I should be able to continue ethnic Tuesdays and Wednesday kebabs but my gelato intake will suffer. But all that matters is that I am in ITALY, right? And I still get to go to Barcelona.

I have to add this: the next few weeks of bloggage will either be either slim or overfull because of the work I have to do so I will either be posting like crazy to avoid doing work or not posting at all in order to do the work. I have a presentation, a paper based on that presentation and three other eight page research papers due then all my exams. (None of which I'm actually worried about, I did wonderfully with little preperation on my midterms and I can't see that these will be any harder). But you're not here to listen to my woes, you're here to hear about ITALY!!!!

What have I done recently? Well, there's the tour of the gelataria, but you don't want to hear about that... you do? Well, duh, you do. Sponsored by LDM, we headed over to a gelateria near the lovely Santa Maria Novella, the church the train station is named for. We went "behind the scenes", behind the counter and into a small room where all the magic happens. Our demonstrator made for us a strawberry gelato in front of our eyes. It took frozen strawberries, a TON of sugar and water, all blended with a mixer that looked more like a three foot drill then mixed for eight minutes in a giant blender.

And waa-laa! Gelatoey goodness:

(we got free cones)

The exciting part (besides the free cones and watching the gelato being made) was the fact that the man spoke no english and I understood VIRTUALLY ALL OF IT! We had a translator but I rarely had to listen to her. It really helps to have a set context to listen in because that makes a lot of the vocabulary more clear. And that really is what holds me back. Even though I have good grammer (in the areas we've covered, that is), my vocabulary is just too small and there is no time to do much about it.

So this is me, signing off and promising not to leave you vita della marissaless in the future.

To some of you the pictures in this blog may look awfully familiar. Thats because I straight up stole them from Alaina's blog. teeheehee

relaxing for the weekend

I just got back from an excellent lunch at Marios's (ribollita). This place is becoming one of my favorites and will be something greatly missed when I am forced back on that plane for America. After lunch I finally went to Vestri which, I have been told, has some of the best gelato in Florence. Were they wrong? No. Not at all.

But let's focus on the weekend. API took us on a trip to Siena, the thermal baths, Perugia and a vineyard for wine tasting. It was a relaxing, well done trip despite the long time spent on buses. Siena is a nice little city that is built completely in the ancient style in order to preserve the heritage. We saw the requisite churches including the basilica (brief lesson on churches: a basilica is a church that has relics, a duomo is the main church of the town/city, a church is any Christian house of worship (chiesa in Italian), and a cathedral is a church that seats the bishop). The relics in this particular church were the head and thumb of saint Catherine, one of Italy's most important saints because she was one of only two to receive stigmata.

One of the interesting parts of the city is the large, seashell shaped main piazza where a horse race takes place every year. Usually abotu 30,000 people show up to watch this race, which is over in about a minute. While we were there some sort of karate exhibition and dance recital was taking place at one end to such amazing music as Pirates of the Caribbean and "I like to move it". Good times.

After touring the city (and a rather disappointing lunch) I bought a flag for one of the various contrade, the Civetta, who are represented by an owl and were historically formed by shoemakers (I bought it because I liked the owl, not because I have thing for making shoes.) and tried some panforte, a kind of bread made for soldiers with nuts, fruit and other ingredients. Then it was time for the thermal baths!

Despite the smell (which I got used to quickly) the water was amazing. Not boiling hot but very warm and comfortable, especially in the outdoor baths where the air is chilly but the water is so nice and warm. This particular bath used water beneficial for the skin (and my skin got really soft afterward) kidneys and liver. An appropriate combination for the weekend because of Sunday's wine tasting. After the baths we went to our hotel where API was providing dinner (and they actually did, unlike in Venice where they said they would be providing dinner and never did, the liars). And boy, did we have dinner. A full four courses, antipasti (bread, cheese and fried/breaded vegetables and rice balls) primi piatti (vegetable soup, not that great, and an excellent vegetarian lasagna that was really creamy and good) then the main course (chicken and french fries for them, a spinach pie thing for the vegetarian me... really really yummy but I was so stuffed I couldn't finish it) then dessert... tiramasu cake! It was moist and delicious.

We then had to wake up for the bus at 9 for Perugia, the capital of the nearby region of Umbria. Yes, that's where the whole Amanda Knox thing happened and we saw her house, but that's the unimportant part. Perugia is a really cool city built in three layers: Etruscan, Roman and more-or-less modern. These layers are distinct and can be seen on the buildings with the bottom being Etruscan, the middle Roman, and the top any time after that. The neatest things I saw were the enormous Etruscan arch, still standing and functional after 2,000 plus years and the Roman aqueduct that is still used as a road.

There wasn't much to do in Perugia after the tour besides buy the chocolate the city is known for at Perugina, the chocolate store par excellence. (heehee I like that phrase, especially since my Age of Heroes/Mythology prof uses it at least twenty times per class.) Usually we find a good lunch place and try some of the local cuisine but because we were all full from last night and the large hotel breakfast we decided to sandwich it up closer to our departure. So we chilled and had gelato (duh).

On to the vinyard! Called Castello Verrazzano, the man who "discovered" the bay of New York once lived there. (I use quotes because he only discovered it for the Europeans, other peoples already knew of it.) Four stones from their tower are in the Verrazzano bridge and four of its stones were here. Its beautiful with many flowers and fountains. The current owner, before showing us the cellars where the wine is aged in oak barrels, admonished us to taste the wine, to experience it, the color, the smell, and not just get drunk. Anyone can get drunk, he said, but few can enjoy the flavor and its many subtleties, in which he included violets, the oak, cherry and so much else beside the alcohol. Along with the wine, we were served foods that compliment wine well like cheeses, salami (which I abstained from), salad, biscotti with the dessert wine, bread (of course) toasted bread with olive oil and garlic and beans with pepper and oil. We were also taught how to properly taste the wine: first you look at its color against something white, then you swirl it to let air touch every part of it, then you take a small sip and "chew" the wine in order to properly taste it, last you let a little air into your mouth so the scent can enter your nose. Its a complicated process. But now that I'm an experience sommelier (NOT) wine tasting has no secrets from me (and... cue laughter).

Good trip, API. You did a lot to make up for your Venice disaster.

grrrrrr... ok, Its still a Happy post

These bloody mosquitos are driving me up the wall! And under my covers every night. I usually sleep buried under massive amounts of blankets and have to be covered by something most of the time. I generally sleep with my head under the covers anyway. But when it gets warmer (as it has been lately) it gets too hot to stay completely buried, after all, my comfortor is "filled with ducks" (meaning duck feathers but our landlord didn't know how to say that). But any part left exposed is bitten, then bitten again, and, just to be sure, is bitten again. Many a time is spent thrusting various body parts in eachother's faces going, look at this bite then scratching madly while vocalizing our displeasure through various animal sounds (not unlike grr.) Or, my roommate's face swells in the morning or another friend develops an absurd rash. Again, grr.

Wait a minute, Marissa, you say, shouldn't you be pretty used to mosquitos by now? I mean, hardly a year of your life went by when you didn't go camping. You've gone to Oak Openings a lot (a state forest near where I live for those who don't know) and were a 4-H camp counselor for many years. And, oh, I don't know, you grew up in a part of Ohio that USED TO BE A SWAMP. Suck it up and live with it already!

Yes, all of the above are correct. But just let me rant, okay? I mean, the mosquitos are inside. In my bedroom. On the walls of my shower and floating around the kitchen. No wonder malaria is/was so rampant here (Italy in general, not neccesarily Florence)-- they've obviously never heard of screens. Sure, they hang their laundry out the window but they can make "screen shutters" where they can swing the things open and shut or whatever. Ok, rant of the day finished. Time to move on. (But first, allow me to direct your attention to an organization called Nothing But Nets, an organization that raises money to provide mosquito nets to places where malaria is a serious threat: www.nothingbutnets.net.)

I apologize for not having blogged about Pompei yet but I will (hopefully). While waiting for that, let's go to Lucca. Last weekend, the day before Cinque Terre, API took us on a trip to the walled city of Lucca and a nearby olive farm for some olive oil tasting! Lucca was a pretty little city surrounded by the massive walls that make it famous. The city has expanded outside the walls but its historical center (which most Italian cities/towns have) and the parts most interesting to tourists is found inside. The wide city walls, built to protect against bigger cities in an ununified Italy (mostly Florence) have been turned into a public park. The government wanted to tear these walls down but the Luccans, horrified at the thought, raised the neccesary funds to keep them. They decided to create the park and planted trees and grass. When you're up on the walls you hardly notice you're there because it looks and feels like a park. Only when you look out and over the edges do you realize, hey, I'm on a wall (and, its really tall and, I gotta wonderful view of Tuscan mountains ... my little attempt to rewrite "I'm on a boat"). Our guide was a little crazy and spoke her English with an English accent, something that made me super happy.

The churches inside Lucca are lovely, as are every other church in Italy. What distinguishes their Cathedral, Duomo di San Martino, from other cathedrals is the relic they have: A wooden carving of Jesus on the cross or the Volto Santo di Lucca. Apparantly this relic was so important, so holy, it was part of the pilgrimage from Canterbury to Rome that thousands upon thousands took every year in the middle ages (think Canterbury Tales by Chaucer). What makes this cross so holy, I believe, is that is was carved by a contemporary of Jesus. Another fascinating aspect to the churches in Lucca is the mumified body of one of their patron saints, Zita. It was more than a little gross to see this dead woman, encased behind glass. Another interesting tidbit about the town: Napolean's sister lived there for a while and completely restructured on of its main piazzas by ordering the demolition of several buildings. Also interesting, another main piazza was built over the ruins of a Roman ampitheater which gave the piazza its unique oval shape. A part of the ampitheater can still be seen as the outside wall of one of the surrounding buildings.

We ate lunch at a little restaurant called Leo's. I had a delicious ravioli in spinach cream sauce. The ravioli tasted a bit eggy for me but the sauce was really good and made it work. Up til now, most places had provided basalmic vinegar along with olive oil for the bread but this place had a red wine vinegar. I had never tried such a thing before but I did and it was good.

Onward! We headed back to the buses (after gelato and shopping at Lucca's central market of course). Our guide at the farm was absolutely hilarious, she declared the film Under the Tuscan Sun to be full of bullshit. She told us to roar in order to properly taste the olive oil (another reason for the title grr, besides my opening rant). To go with the oil we were provided a veritable feast: bread, two types of salami (which I abstained from) olives and cookies as the finishing touch. (But not cookies in the American sense.) I highly enjoyed the repast.

And what would a visit anywhere be without checking out the local products? I bought myself a small bottle of olive oil to take home with me because God knows thats one of the things I'll miss most about the food here. But donìt expect me to do much sharing people at home! Maybe a little but I plan on making it last as long as I can. And, as our guide said, olive oil will last longer than most men and women will together. A good day? I think yes. Especially since we had great weather! What's up next in this fabulous life of mine? Sienna and Perugia aka thermal baths and wine tasting.

I apologize for the lack of picturage but Blogger is being mean and I don't feel like wrestling with it anymore.

the five lands

Let's go for a walk, shall we...

We begin at 7:15 am in the Santa Maria Novella train station. It is chilly, rainy but you and I, we're confident it will get better. Once the group is together we set off, by train, on the three hour ride to Cinque Terre.

Let's sleep and make the ride go fast but just as we drift off fully we arrive at Riomaggiore, the first town. It is still cold, the wind bites us through but we grit our teeth and stand through it. The hike will warm us. Follow our guide as we embark on the firt leg, the "Via dell'Amore". Look for the many locks clasped among other, creative, ties on the sides of the path. They are symbols: when a couple attatches their lock along this path and tosses the key into the sea below, it means their love will endure forever.

This path is straight, easy, so go ahead and fix your eyes on the scenery. Here is the first glimpse of Meditteranean, grey under the leaden sky. When you look down you can see the large boulders that jumble on the sea's edge. But the path is not confined to the visual-- listen to the muted, humble roar of the waves crashing onto the rocks. This will be the background music for most of the hike.

Here. Let's take a break and a few pictures on this bench, carved to show two lovers kissing. And note the likeness in green of the Beatles, crossing Abbey Road, and the song lyrics below. Its too far to read them and we have to take a photo so we can't get up but seeing it is enough: from here it is too far to notice the lewd graffiti.

Still cold? Yes, but we can see the blue sky and its prayed for companion, the sun, struggling to poke through over our destination, Manarola. And now we're here. Look at the streets. Instead of cars their boats are parked along the street. There are no cars in Manarola.

But let's move quickly through the town, we have a schedule to keep. We go up to a lookout to gaze back at the bright little town. But let's go through here, to the cemetary, there's a better view and its less crowded.

The group's moving off so let's go down, past Manarola, and to the start of the path to Corniglia. Don't get too excited, Corniglia is where we'll have lunch but we have to get there first.While the group pauses I play on the playground... But we soon move on.

Look! The sky is clearing and its getting warmer. The cool breeze feels good as the path gets harder.

Its the sea that catches your attention here. Its not satisfied with one or even two shades of blue. Its many under the now shining sun. Don't forget to breathe in the sea air-- its free of pollutants and is salted by the Meditteranean.

Careful, the rocks that form the path are slippery at times, worn smooth by feet and time. Its hard not to take the small paths that jaunt happily away, down to the sea or up in the hillside but we have a train to catch at the end of all this. Make a promise to yourself to come back.

Let's take a breather before climbing the 385 steps to Corniglia. Out of breath? Then don't look out over the sea or you'll lose what little you have left. As we go up and up and up we see the coastline and the sea. The sea, under the sun, is smooth and glistens like paint on the verge of drying. But what painter has these astonishing hues of blue on his palette? The steep coastline undulates above the sea, steep and green. It's lined by the many walls built by the locals to create terraces for their vines and fields. Put together, they're longer than the "China Wall" our guide tells us.

Now that we're at the top the sea is hidden so let's walk into the town. We have an hour and a half to find a good lunch. Cinque Terre is known for its pesto and white wine: these can be found anywhere here. But let's not be satisfied with the first places we see, out in the center, where the tourists immediately settle. Let's move our weary feet onward and upward and be rewarded with pesto nirvana in the form of a small upstairs trattoria away from the beaten path. Tagliatelle con pomodoro e pesto. Let's take a moment to savor... and then we must go. Go easy on the wine! There's more hiking to do!

The next path is the hardest of those we will hike today but there's not time to let our stomachs settle. Say goodbye to the sea as we'll be walking among the trees. Run your hands along the wall lining the path and feel the silky greenery. Your hands, like mine, will smell like earth.

Climbing isn't too bad. Its warm and the path is rough in places where the rocks don't lie smoothly. Sometimes the steps are too high or long for comfort but they're negotiable. Here there isn't much view to focus on so eyes on your feet. Keep breathing in that pure, clean air. Fill your lungs and steady on.

The path rewards us with a look back over the coast at what we've been.

The sea, as vast as ever, can't decide what blue it wants to be. If you look, you can see a line where it changes from green-hued and light to a deep, dark blue that shimmers just as much. Every color here is stronger: the sea, the sky, the brown and multi-greened hills and the myriad of hues found in the astonishing variety of flowers along the path.

A few more twisted ankles, aching knees, and ups and downs of the path and we're there, at Vernazza. The town is picturesque. So much of this walk is made for postcards-- as it nestles between two rises in the coast and flows out onto the sea on a jut of rock, this town is no exception. The surf is louder now but we can't listen: let's move away from the sea and into town.

We go down stairs into the narrow, hallway sized streets of Vernazza. These towns are built on multiple levels so we climb many stairs to get to the main part of town. At the bottom we find the main piazza and its miniature beach: behind the small slice of Meditteranean slopes a cliff and it echoes back the bells of the unique church.

Let's explore more of Cinque Terre's tastes. We get gelato, three flavors, and are pleased. The tiramasu is okay but tastes too much like rum but the straciatella (chocolate chip) and kit kat flavors are amazing, smooth, creamy and cold enough to counteract the heat. Its perfect after the hot, thirsty hike. Let's shop too, see what this little town has to offer and make friends with a cat. There isn't time to see very much before we're back at the main piazza, staring at the waves, waiting to leave.

The hike between Vernazza and the last town, Monterosso is far more challenging than the last one, so challenging that our tour does not take us on it. So let's go wait for the train; its only a five minute ride to Monterosso.

Away from the stop we are immediately greeted by the music of the waves on the beach. Here, we are close to the water; the blue is right in front of our faces, tempting, a siren's song: come in, come in. Let's deny the watery call and walk down the street. Dinner isn't for a while and we need food for the train ride home. So we buy focaccia, a specialty of the town. Pomodoro e formaggio, a brilliant combination. Its crunchy and full of flavor. The cheese is light and the best part and the focaccia stays good even after it cools.

Prepare yourself for a farewell now. Our time in Cinque Terre is up. But we can try some limoncino, the northern version of limoncello, and have a goodbye gelato. The hike was long, I say we earned a second scoop of creamy goodness. Chocolate and pistachio, one of my fallbacks, is my choice. Don't be too sad, I know I've planned on returning, so let's make a date of it. Get on the train with me and try to sleep. I know I'm tired but I don't care. The day was gorgeous, the five lands astonishingly, breathtakingly, wondrously beautiful and the physical exertion made me feel alive in the sea air.

Our little journey is over and I hope you enjoyed walking with me through Cinque Terre (the five lands) and one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

A few coherent Ramblings by your Favorite Me.

The weather the past few days has been astonishing. Clear blue skies, warm, almost hot temperatures, little breezes. I have spent a lot of time (well as much time as possible) outside in the sun. I just got back from a long walk around Florence... which was not complete without a break for gelato: tiramasu and coffee crunch. Delightful. I did my best to stick to the small sidestreets though I did end up in Tourist Alley for a bit. What is Tourist Alley you ask? Named (by me) for the infamous "Tornado Alley" in the U.S. it closesly resembles its namesake except its whirlwinds of disaster are not weather phenomema but people, namely tourists. It includes the street between San Lorenzo and the Duomo and continues from la Piazza del Duomo to the Ponte Vecchio. Tourist Alley also includes the street that begins from the Duomo and ends in Piazza Signorina and continues by the Uffizi and turns towards the Ponte Vecchio. If you want, you can include most of Il Mercato Centrale as well.

I promise a blog on Pompei is forthcoming but I have to wait on my friend to upload her pictures. Pompei is one of those places that needs images to fully show how incredible it is. Though, of course, the best way to really know the place is to go. I know there are other things I need to write about but with all this skipping around I no longer know what I have and haven't written about. Well, when I know, you'll know, no worries.

I want to end with a little adventure that hails back to our trip to Fiesole. These pictures are just really funny and I thought you would enjoy them too. Sono io, your wonderful blogging Marissa, climbing the wall to break into the ruins at Fiesole. A fail, but an amusing one.

Good times, thats for sure. These are the memories people, these are the memories.

the past few Days...

Lets play quick catch-up shall we? Most of my recent blogs have been focusing on the past, on what I haven't gotten to because I've been busy. But what have I been doing lately that's been exciting?

Several things, actually. I went to Florence's National Archaeology Museum with my Mythology class to finally see the Francoise vase. We talk about this vase at least once a class, in both classes I have with this professor and our textbook constantly references it so it was nice to finally see the real thing. The vase is this GIANT vase, originally used for mixing wine and water, that depicts many scenes from mythology. Most of these are from the Trojan war but there are also scenes showing other heroes such as Theseus (the guy who killed the minotaur for those who don't know). The class did presentations in front of the vase and also by these little figures found in temples of worshippers and Heracles about the scenes on the vase and the heroes associated with the figures. Last of all we saw the chimera that had been found in Fiesole. Its a poor representation of a chimera, where the goat head had been stuck on haphazardly, but that was because half of the statue had been made by a sculptor hired by the Medicis. When it was found it was only half finished and that was a huge no-no in Renassaince culture so they did their best to make the bronze look finished.

After class was over I did some exploring on my own. Through the class we had gotten into the museum for free and I was going to take full advantage of my time there as I highly doubt I would ever be going back. We had covered most of the museum that was open at the time, with one exception: the Egyptian rooms. Remember how I freaked out about touching the super old Etruscan ruins? Yeah, well, the stuff I found in that room trumped those by about a thousand years. There was a mini-pyramid, bronze statues of heads, obelisks, all preceding Christ by about 1,500 years, give or take a couple centuries in each individual case. The largest artifact, and one of the most interesting, was a full-sized, completely intact chariot. Yes. A chariot. But before I reached that room I made a couple of friends... that had been dead for millenia. Four mummies, two of which had half their bandages peeled away so you could see the dried out and blackened husk of what had been a prominant Egyptian. Really gross but super cool. Also in the museum were papyrus fragments written on in heiroglyphics, pendants and jewelry, paintings and frescos (or the Egyptian equivalent of) statues, everyday objects like headrests and plates... the list goes on but I won't.

Sorry for the lack of pictures but I was without people with cameras.

One last thing before I let you go. Last night I went to a ballet. And when I say ballet, I mean it in the loosest sense of the word. API took us to see Momix, a dance company who uses light, funky costumes, dance and a lot of artistically draped and blowing cloths. It was utterly fascinating but not a ballet in the traditional sense at all. Often, the dancing was overshadowed by some funky effect and the dancing itself was only loosely balletish, as in they did a lot of moves that are not ballet steps. I found it delighful despite some of its weirder moments.

So, ladies and gentlemen, be prepared for a blog on Pompei, then I should be all caught up. (fingers crossed) This weekend API is shepherding us to Lucca for some wine and olive oil tasting! Life is good, and the weather BEAUTIFUL here in Tuscany. (I spent the afternoon laying outside after a fantastic lunch at Mario's. Mmmm...)

this is How we do

Where was I? Umm... Oh, the rest of spring break. Well, now the problem is where to start? One of the other places we hit over our week of classlessness was Dante's house and museum. What kind of an English major would I be if I didn't end up there at some point? We went to his house after one of our failed attempts to go to the Uffizi (the line is really long and you basically have to get there at like 8 in the morning if you want to get in sometime before you turn fifty). The house is a lot different than it was in Dante's time but there were a couple of rooms (well, one) set up to look like they would have in his time. The rest of the museum mainly consisted of information on what Florence would have been like in Dante's time including maps of Florence and a mini replica of the city. There were a few nice paintings of the guy and a copy of the book listing the people exiled from Florence, including Dante. I was really excited because I thought it was the real thing then I realized it wasn't. Sad day. The coolest part of the museum was mainly knowing that I was walking in a place Dante had lived and being able to say hey! I was were Dante was!

map of old florence

outside of the divine poet's house

At the end of spring break I received a wonderful suprise: Danielle and Caitlin and their friend Megan came! Totally suprising me and waking me up, I might add. They weren't going to come to Florence because they couldn't squeeze it in but when their train to Bari (to catch the ferry; it rhymes heehee) didn't pan out-- apparantly the entire railroad was broken or something-- they came to see me! Yay! So I took them on the grand tour of Florence. We hit San Lorenzo and its market, the Duomo, Piazza Signorina, Dante's house (just the outside this time), the Uffizi/Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti with a grand finale at Piazzale Michaelangelo. On the way back, I performed an encore by taking them to get gelato and eating it on the steps of Santa Croce. (Sidebar. I did not notice, silly me, that there is a GIANT statue of Dante just chillin alongside Santa Croce. Weird.) We attempted to see my good friend David but the line was way too long and the kiddos were really tired. So we put him on the list for later and headed home for some r&r before dinner.

what is going on here? it would be me, creeping on those gentlemen
lemme esplain. for italian class i had to listen in on 3 conversations of native italians
i am attempting to do that here
and failing cause the wind is too loud
despite the look on that guy's face he has no idea

Day 2 was just as action packed as the first. The plan was to hit the David, then hurry on over to Fiesole so I could show them the awesomeness that is the few and the Etruscan ruins. After I was done with class that is. (Yep, my spring break was over and I had to do real life again but I ignored it in favor of pretending I was still unencumbered by silly things such as classes.) However, the Accademia is closed on Mondays so we headed straight for Fiesole. We played on the playground, then got gelato (I'm pretty sure I had gelato more with these kids then the past month combined) before heading to the tombs we found last time I was there. After having our fill of the tombs we wandered off to find the other ruins that we knew were around there somewhere. Well. We found them. But... it was pretty darn expensive to get in and walk among them. So we walked along the outside, taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful day. And I may or may not have tried to climb the wall with Caitlin's help.

big ruins at fiesole

Sidebar again. Across from our break-in point was a shrine to the local saint, Sant'Anna. I managed to ignore that, though I did pay a little homage to her... whoever she is. I admit I have no idea:


After attempting to enter the ruins (and failing miserably) we decided now was the time for the big reveal, the pièce de résistance, the view that trumphs all views and we climbed the hill of death to look out over Florence and its surrounding hills and sigh with longing.

Even farther above the amazing view was an old monastery. We chilled on its steps for a little while, soaking the sun and the view, before deciding it was time to call it quits and head home. But not before a little jewelry shopping. The man selling the jewelry was all cute and old... and a little scary. While we were sitting on the bus waiting to head back down to Florence, he leaves his wares behind, crosses the street and proceeds to yell at the bus driver very angrily and vehemently. He was mad about something, that's for sure. I was a little frightened that he might try to board the bus and attack the driver! But all's well that ends well and we headed home to a night of pesto pasta and fun.

But wait! There's more! But this blog has been entirely too long and my other adventures with these kiddies (POMPEI) will have to wait for later, along with everything else I have to catch you up on. I also have no pictures for that yet so you're just going to have to wait...

me, caitlin, dan, megan

Floatin in a green paradiso

Buona Pasqua! I am so behind on my blog and I offer my most deep and profound apologies to my fans (assuming I have fans that is). But this begins a series of "catch up" blogs that will, hopefully bring you up to the present. But no promises. I have to cover the remainder of spring break, the week after spring break in which I ushered around my friends from Ireland (who are studying in Ireland), Dante's house, Pompei, my trip to the Archaelogical Museum of Florence, Indian ethnic Tuesday, the list goes on. But don't worry, I'll stick to the big stuff.

Let's begin with the remainder of spring break, shall we? Well, some of it anyway. The Tuesday after arriving I felt sick so I basically lay in bed doing nothing, only emerging for food. But what else did I do? Laundry. Well, yes, but that's not exciting. Just get to the point you say? Okay, I went to the Boboli Gardens and guess who got in for free? That would be me.

Let me just say, we picked the perfect day to visit the gardens. Not too hot, not too cold, plenty of gorgeous sunshine. The Gardens (located behind the Palazzo Pitti, home of the Medicis and their private playground) are lovely. Crowned by a statue of who we guessed to be Ceres (Roman version of Demeter, goddess of nature, the harvest and the seasons) they stretch forever. Words are silly for this blog so I'll give you a pictoral tour.

entering the gardens: the first view from the bottom

the view from the top of the hill

a bench

one of the paths

an obelisk

no doubt from egypt

they (meaning any italian civilization) were obsessed with bringing these things here

art

me and my friend the kitty

ceres

a lovely torquise something we found

view from next to the torquise "house"

another path

me chillin on a bench

one of the medici grottos

There were so many little paths in the Gardens to take, though it was laid out pretty uniformly, no surprises. One of the interesting sights in the Gardens not pictured was a really old, and I mean old, vinyard but I'm not sure if it still produces or not. But what really fascinated me was the random gigantic stone bathtubs floating around. Some were big enough to bathe Babe the blue ox in and Paul too, if they were willing to squeeze. But, Paul loved that ox of his, so I'm sure he wouldn't have minded snuggling in the bath.

I'll leave you with a picture of me standing under the passageway connecting the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Vecchio. It was used by the Medicis so they wouldn't have to pass through the crowd to get from home (Pitti) to work (Vecchio) and therefore avoid assasination and interaction with the riff-raff. That, however, is not the focus of the picture. Note what is above my head. Yes. That would be Darth Vader.

It comes in Pints? Irish blog 2: my Master adventures on the Emerald isle

Yes, the title references Lord of the Rings. But, as you can see in this picture, the Guiness may come in pints...
...but the Irish certaintly don't stop there.

Shall we begin with Limerick? While there everything seemed strangely familiar. Recognizable. And I realized something. Ireland is just like America but with accents. I don't know if it just felt that way because I'm used to being surrounded by a much more different culture (though not too different) so Ireland felt Americanish by comparison? I think it had a lot to do with all the chain places, especially restaurants. Outside of pubs (which don't really serve "Irish food") Ireland kinda lacks a food culture especially in comparison with Italy. I was excited to see a grocery store called Spar, which was the exact same store as Despar here. I didn't really get to see much of Limerick becuase of my limited time in the country. Instead of focusing on the large city we travelled to Adare, a small town nearby, which was more indicative of "traditional" or stereotypical Ireland:a street in adare

a little stream that ran through the town

one of the thatched roof houses

Adare was just about the cutest thing I had ever seen. I think I've decided I'm going to live in Ireland... when I'm not living in Italy of course. When we reached Adare our tummies told us it was time for some lunch especially since the tourist office was closed for the same purpose. We wandered and searched, searched and wandered and decided on Aunty Lena's:

Irish cuisine doesn't provide very well for vegetarians so I ended up ordering spring rolls. (Weird, I know). I did, however order some "mash sans bangers" or otherwise known as mashed potatoes so I could get my potato on. Best part? I got them for free. What! Next stop, a Trinitarian Monastary:

Inside was a rather well done copy of the Pieta (see Rome blogs) as well as this:

which I affectionally nicknamed " the Jesus Stone" because:

Afterwards we kept up our wandering, hoping to access the Adare castle. We couldn't figure out how to get in or even how to get close! On the way out we did hit this little gem:

st nicholas church &

It was built in 1202 as a castle became an augustinian abbey/friaryand is now a church that is open to the public. Something which was very misleading, by the way. The only parts accessible were a little courtyard in the middle, the surrounding hallways and another little room that led to this modern building. Lame. It did have a cool small door though.

outside view

one of the halls/ a piece of the courtyard

another hall

me indside the courtyard where i found:

a super old grave i forget the exact age of

Continuing towards the bridge, we could see the castle sitting there, mocking us. I really wanted to visit a castle while in Ireland. Desperate for one more try we crossed the bridge, a very risky venture as there were no sidewalks and on side was coming from a blind curve. For about a quarter of the way across I walked on top of the bridge wall but was too afraid of falling in the river after the wall became clogged with plantlife.

the adare castle

Fortunately, we found the castle's entrance. Unfortunately... the castle is only open in the summer. I guess getting to a castle was just jam on my egg. No worries! We make our own fun! Next to the river was the "river bank walk" so we crossed back over the bridge and decided to take a dander, explore and get a hefty dose of wild Irish riverside. Despite the cloudy day (it had been sunny earlier) the weather was nice (not as nice as Italy though) and only the slightest bit chilly. We saw a man (of indeterminate age) fishing and another man playing with his dogs in the river, throwing bright balls into the water. We found a sign that indicated the river was called Maigue and had a lovely poem:

"Where guides the Maigue as silver clear

Among the elms so sweetly flowing

There fragrant in the early year

Wild roses on the banks are blowing."

me

me, megan, dan on the sweetly flowing maigue

The path took us back to lovely Adare. Earlier we had seen a sign pointing towards a creamery and we immediately thought ice cream! Or some sort of dairy farm. Either way, we wanted to go. The building was painted a vibrant purple that stood out against the gray sky but it did not sell ice cream. It used to be a dairy something or the other. Now it was an expensive shop that sold very interesting kinick knacks and the like, including this guy

or, rather, the cd he was quoting, some Irish comedian. We stood there and listened to him for several minutes. He was quite funny. The first thing upon entering the Creamery, we were greeted by a deer's head singing Garth Brook's "I've Got Friends in Low Places". How awesome is that?

After we had fully explored the shop and the interested members of our party had procured some fudge, we headed back into Adare. Checking bus times, we decided to head back home since dinner was approaching. And so I experienced my first Irish grocery store experience. Relatively similair to an American grocery store experience actually, with different product names. It was rather expensive. Food there definitely costs more than it does here. We finished out the evening with quesadillas (thanks Amanda!) and ice cream. (good ice cream but gelato outclasses it in its sleep.)

The next day was not nearly as exciting as the previous. It was a chill day and Dan and I went to lunch since we could eat a baby's arse through the bars of a cot. We sat outside and I did my best to absorb as much Irish accent as I could (I rather think I do quite well at it now) and breathe the Irish air. I had a "roasted toasted veg" sandwich that was really, really good, suprisingly. It had feta, an assortment of peppers, tomato and a few other vegetables. Being in Ireland I also got potatos, these amazing crispy chips that I highly enjoyed.

Not having time to do much else, I helped Dan and Meg plan their Italy trip (trying to find a way that they could hit Florence, more on that later) and watched Alladin on Youtube while finishing my ice cream.

All in all, Ireland rocked but I really wish I had had more time to spend there.

It was great to see Dan and Cait again. It felt like donkey's years since we'd last seen each other.

arent we cute

pictures curtesy of danielle hinckley and caitlin curry

i did my best to integrate irish slang. i hope a real irish person doesn't read this and make total fun of me