Ciao!!!

 

My roommates and I fresh off the bus and ready to begin a new year!!!  Kristin, Lauren, and I (left to right)

It has been a month since my arrival here in Italy, and wow time has flown by.  My Pensione has grown on me and I have made some really good friends over the past weeks.  Our room has been updated with another dresser and closet, and the doors were taken off of our metal filing cabinet and replaced with curtains.  :) 
<-- Our giant red metal filing cabinet.  The doors are now off with curtains, but this was pretty horrific.


This was another amazing element of our room... its on wheels and had all sorts of interesting hangers.  It's now out on our balcony.


School has been picking up speed and we have midterms coming up next week (yikes).  I think I have decided to change my minor from Philosophy to Italian, which means I have to take a few more Italian classes next semester, but what better place to do it than here in Italia?  We have become pretty familiar with the heart of Florence, and I walk by the Duomo almost every day in search of Gelato or roaming the local markets.  It is still relatively warm here, but winter is slowly creeping in. 
Out with a group of friends near the Duomo!

 

The first weekend trip we took was to the Isle of Elba.  Elba was absolutely gorgeous and very relaxing.  There was a gorgeous beach just a 5 minute walk from my hotel. 


Beach near the hotel we stayed out

The water was a crystal blue combined with sea green, and I got to spend a couple of lazy afternoons just admiring the beauty of it.  We also swam in the salty, salty water of the Ligurian Sea.  It was so warm.  To compliment those lazy afternoons, however, that Saturday I made the decision to hike up Mount Capponne. 

View on the way up!

My roommate Kristin and I at the top!!

We pretty much scaled the rockface of a mountain, it was kind of scary at points and a very challenging hike, especially having been 3 weeks since my last visit to the gym.  On the way up, some Italians were coming down and making comments I'm sure they did not think we understood, but we did.  They called us "bambini", aka children, as well as "ritardo", self explanatory, and that we looked like we were in pain.  Haha!  Nevertheless, I made it to the top, which was supposed to be the most rewarding view ever, but it was very cloudy and so all I could see was a mist. 


It was kind of a bummer, especially since the other option for the day took people to a beautiful sandy beach.  Oh well. 


That night, we ate at a delicious seafood restaurant sitting right on the water, but I just had some tortellini.  The next morning, my friend Kristin and I found a cafe to do homework in that was overlooking the water.  I wanted some coffee, so when the waiter came I asked for "caffe con cioccolato?" trying to get a mocha-esque thing (later I discovered you can ask for a mochachinno or cappuccino with chocolate).  However, the man looked at me very oddly.  In a rush, I looked at the menu and ordered a latte.  Now, I know latte means milk, but for some reason it didn't occur to me at the time.  He asked if he should sprinkle some chocolate on the top of it.  Now, he clearly knew I wanted coffee, and kind of smirked at me, so I think he was being evil bringing me that cup of warm milk without enough chocolate to make it a hot chocolate.  But oh well.  Live and learn. Elba was gorgeous!

 

The following weekend, we went to Cinque Terre!  We stayed in the waterfront town of Monterosso.  One day we hiked the trails, which were pretty challenging but I got some amazing pictures!  The nature was very relaxing and the towns were small and colorful.  It is amazing seeing towns located on cliffs overlooking the water.  The last leg of the hike, to the last town, Riamaggiore, was called Via Dell'Amore, or the Street of Love!  It was a leisurely hike, with views of the endless ocean and graffitti of people who love eachother.  Rumor has it that if you walk the Via Dell'Amore on your honeymoon or while engaged, you will be with eachother forever.  My friend Kristin and I sat in the Chair of Looove.  Haha, it was a fun time.  Later that night we swam in the Mediterannean, which was again, very salty, and refreshing.  That night we had a program dinner with the 120 or so students on the trip.  We had a delicious pesto pasta followed by swordfish.  Now, let me tell you, that was the start of a new relationship between me and pesto.  I guess that area of Italy is famous for the pesto, so I proceeded to buy quite a bit of it for later use.  :)  After dinner they gave us Lemoncello, which is a very lemony liquor famous in Italy, i guess.  I'm not too fond of it, however.  I think I will stick to the wine.  Speaking of wine, I found the best kind ever - Brachetto D'Acqui.  It's like a bubbly strawberry taste.  Anyway, I also encountered my first Turkish toilet at a train station in Cinque Terre.  Basically, it is a toilet on the ground, with a tiny hole you have to aim for.  It was very, um, interesting.  The next day we took the train to Lavanto and layed on the beach and swam all day and had gelato.  That night, we took the train to Bonasola for a festival in memory of sailors who have lost their lives at sea.  They set candles out to the ocean.  It was a very interesting thing to witness, as children and families gathered on the beach, helping light candles, hand them to people, and put them in the ocean.  It was kind of creepy, however, because some of my pictures have strange white dots which I believe to be ghosts.  Cinque Terre was a ton of fun!

 

This past weekend we went to Sorrento, Almafi, and Pompei.  We stayed in Sorrento each night in this "campground"... we were basically crammed into tiny cabins with 4 people.  I was seriously clostrophobic in there, and the bathroom was nasty.  The first day we took the ferry to Almafi, and I pretty much had the best day of the entire trip so far.  We broke off from the massive group of college students and I hung out with 3 friends and Fr. Paul.  It was a very relaxing day and we took a bus up to a local town called Ravello.  On the windy bus ride, I met a couple who just got married, the woman from Australia, the man from Scotland.  I also spoke with 4 or 5 Italian pre-teens in basic Italian and English.  It was exciting.  I really have a newfound drive and energy to learn Italian, and its the little things like interacting with local kids that make me want to learn it even more.  In Ravello, I bought a little ceramic, hand-painted tea/coffee set which I love, and again I spoke some Italian with the woman in the store.  We had a leisurely lunch, explored some churches, etc.  To top it off, I found a kitty in Ravello who took to me and I got to hold and pet it, while overlooking the ocean and Italia, and at that moment, I was ridiculously full of excitement and love of life.  It was very picturesque and fun to leave the huge group.  Travelling with so many people gets exhausting.  And going at Fr. Paul's pace for the day was relaxing.  That night I had my first meal with no carbs I think since I have been here - grilled chicken and tomatoes.  YUM!  The next day we took the ferry to the Isle of Capri!  It was a beautiful island, but a little too commercialized for my liking, especially after the day before.  We took a bus to Anacapri (on Capri) and wandered around and decided to walk to the Blue Grotto.  Now, we heard it was a 20 min walk from Anacapri, but apparently there is a trail.  We, instead, wound up taking the windy roads you're supposed to DRIVE on all the way down to the Grotto.  It took over an hour, and sure, we admit, we were a bit lost, but it was an adventure.  The Blue Grotto was gorgeous, and we took a tiny 4-person boat in, and you have to lay down low because the entrance is through a tiny hole.  It was a bit anti-climactic because I had high expectations, but the color was tremendous.  Apparently, the limestone rock does not reach all the way to the bottom of the ocean, and so the light from the sun reflects through the small opening and there is a radiant blue in this cave.  Some friends of mine conned the Gondolier into letting them swim in it for an extra 5 euro.  I kind of regret not doing that, but for future notice to you all - you can swim in there!  We then took a chairlift to the highest part of the island and it was a GORGEOUS view!  The chairlift was kind of a dinky little thing where your feet dangle and you are in a chair all by yourself, but it was a very relaxing ride and very scenic.  On the way down, I looked over and saw a local family in the yard celebrating a birthday.  :)  We went back to Sorrento for the evening, and went to the Fish Festival at Marina Grande that night!  I got swordfish and wine for only 5 Euro!!!!  It was delicious.  The festival was exciting, and there was a live band and lots of dancing.  Everyone from age 5 to 95 was out there getting their jig on.  It was a very happy evening.  Sunday morning we went to Pompei, where we only had 2 hours to run around and see as much as we could!  NOT enough time, by far.  I was not imagining Pompei to be so large, either.  The ruins were very impressive, and it was incredible to imagine a thriving city being alive almost 1,000 years ago.  Mount Vesuvius errupted in 79 AC, and those were what remained of the town of Pompei.  I saw a Brothel, a lot of houses, where the Parliament would meet, and the city center.  We then booked it to see this garden where they have an exhibit of bodies which have been preserved.  You can see the form of their bodies at the time of death, and it is very spooky!  This place is an archaeologists DREAM!  I wish I had spent more time there.  We had a 6 hour bus ride back to Firenze, aka home sweet home, and here I am now, at school.

 

Firenze life is good.  I also have a conversation partner, named Irene, who is a college student studying German at the U. of Firenze.  She is very friendly, and we are going to try and meet on Wednesdays.  The point is to help one another with English and Italian.  When we met last week, I spoke in very broken Italian, but I tried at least.  Then she would answer in English.  She lives only a few blocks from my Pensione, and invited me to come to dinner at her apartment one night.  I think that would be a really cool experience and WOW, talk about experiencing the culture.  :)  I have also joined an Italian gym, and go whenever I can.  They offer classes for members, and my friend and I took Pilates last week, and that was an experience... the woman babbled on in Italian.  I understood a word here and there from when we learned body parts. 

 

If anyone wants to mail me anything, I love getting mail!!  Also, I got a new phone number:

 

389 150 5519

 

And it is free for me to receive calls, so they are more than welcome.  I believe the country code is 39?? 

 

Upcoming trips include a weekend here in Firenze, Southern Tuscany, Bosnia/Croatia, London, Rome, and Paris. 

 

Buongiorno everybody!!

 

First of all, I apologize in advance for the length of this post.  I might recommend reading it in bits and pieces, or if you have enough free time you can pummel through it, but I will be impressed. 

 

I have finally sat down after 10 days of travelling to update you all on my travels!  I hope everything is going well back in the states; I miss you all already.  Although there are often so many distractions and things to do/see its hard to be homesick at all.  The Opening Tour was a ton of fun, although its interesting how much they just dont tell us (for example: Poland and Czech dont take Euro, how long of a bus ride we have, that our tour is going to end in the middle of the city and you need to find your own way back to the hotel, or even sometimes where we are going).  Im also not looking forward to getting used to paying to use public restrooms and order water.  But regardless, it has been a LOT of fun!!!

 

I will start with Opening Tour.  I flew out on the 7th and arrived in Berlin on the 8th.  Our hotel was NICE!  We had one bus tour of Berlin and other than that, we were pretty much left to fend for our own.  I saw many German Shephards (in Germany!!) and was pretty excited about that.  Although a great number of Germans speak English, I still wished (throughout most of the tour) that i could speak the language.  On the 9th we had a guided tour of Berlin which was very interesting.  Most of old Berlin was torn down, so the city is very modern, with speckles of old.  We stopped at a few places in memory of the Holocaust (a theme throughout the entire tour).  One place was rather hopeful, as opposed to depressing as many of the other places were.  This was a place where thousands of women "protested" and wanted their husbands back.  It was one of the only acts of civil disobedience during that time that actually ended in favor of the people - their husbands were actually released.  We also visited the main Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, which consists of these giant cement blocks that are stacked next to each other and of different sizes, widths, heights, etc.  The entire thing as a whole is supposed to remind you of tombstones, or a graveyard.  The ground is uneven, and as you walk through you are supposed to get a feeling of uneasiness (which, i can say, definitely happened to me).  They didnt write any names on the memorial because they only know names of 3 million, and the other 3 million are still unknown.  I am impressed how much this country owns up to what happened and how they carry it in their memory through memorials, etc.  We also visited the Humboldt Universitaet, which has produced many Noble Prize winners, and is also where Einstein lectured!!!  This university is located in the square where the Burning of the Books took place, and there is a very neat memorial to that which is underground and you look down from the square and see empty bookcases which would hold the amount of books burned.  I also got the chance to see two different spots where the Berlin Wall still stands.  We saw one spot during the tour, and decided to venture out to find the second spot on our own.  So three of us attempted to take the subway and had a little adventure.  We got off at the right stop, but after we got outside we could not find that darn wall!  We had to ask about 7 different people, 3 of which didnt speak English, and all of whom gave us rather disapproving glances.  It took us about an hour and a half in the POURING rain to find the wall, which was only about 100 steps past one of the places we had been.  It literally was right across from the station, we just missed it.  Oops.  The food in Berlin is good but HEARTY!  Good thing we were only there for 3 days and walking the entire time.  I tried Bratworst, Schnitzel, and Curryworst... all of which were delicious.  Funny how a simple thing like sausage can taste so different.  The Germans also have Cake Time, which I kind of love.  Between 3 and 6pm every afternoon is called "Cake Time"... We went to this really delicious place that had a selection of 70 types of cake, and of course split only 1 piece between us.  It was soooooo good!  The Germans also know how to make chocolate.  Ive also found it true in Europe that they are in no rush at restaurants to get you in and out in any sort of a timely fashion.  So we spent a leisurely 2 hours at the cake place before we got our check.  Even then, we needed to ask for the check.  But it was one of my favorite afternoons, sitting outside on the only nice weather we had in Berlin, watching the little birds take over the cake crumbs on the table next to us (and actually land on this womans table while she was sitting there) and we also watched a bee land in our sugar.  Sorry, random.  I also, of course, had to try my first German Beer.  It wasnt half bad, but I dont really like the taste of beer.  There was a giant store called the Galleria next door to our hotel which we explored, and in it we went to the bathroom.  There was an attendant who wiped the seat after each person uses it.  It was interesting. 

 

Berlin was a lot of fun, but it wasnt until Krakow, Poland I really started finding my niche in this group of 140 college students.  It all started out with a 10 hour bus ride (soooo exhausting) which consisted of a lunch break where they literally just dropped us in the middle of a parking lot near an IKEA, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut.  I had to resort to Pizza Hut because we were not informed to convert out money at the border, so I needed to find a place that took cards.  This Pizza Hut, however, was not as you would imagine - it was actually really really nice and restaurant style with a good menu.  The Polish countryside, I might note, really is not all that special.  We finally arrived in Krakow around 7pm, where I entered my very first Hostel.  They divided us into two hostels, one called Nathans Villa, and mine, called MoMo Town!  MoMo Town was awesome and very quirky.  That first night, I hung out with my now two best friends on the trip, Lena and Kristen.  The next morning, we went on a walking tour of Krakow.  This city, compared to Berlin, is extremely old.  We got a change to see the "Jewish Quarters" where arond 60,000 Jews used to occupy but now only around 150 do.  I cannt believe so much of this change has happened so recently.  Our guide talked about changes occuring all the way intot he 90s and some are still even happening today.  After that tour, we scrambled for hot dogs for lunch and jumped back on the bus around 2pm for a trip to Auschwitz.  Auschwitz.  I cannot believe I was at Auschwitz.  It was probably the 2 most depressing and emotional hours of my entire life.  To be standing on the soil where 1.5 million people were bruttaly murdered was not only shocking but chilling.  The grounds are so cold and unwelcoming.  The gate at the main entrance says, in German, "Work Brings Freedom".  Psh.  The whole trip there was a whirlwind of emotion because one minute I was extremely pissed off that this could happen, and the next I would be somber and sad.  How could people be so cold and heartless. We were taken through a couple of barracks, which was a very chilling experience.  They have renovated some to make it more like a museum, but we also saw one that has not been changed.  So the people were apparently separated into groups upon arrival - those fit for work and then the elderly or sick who wereu nfit.  The fit were sent to registration and then  through the gates into the camp.  Those who were not fit were sent automatically to execution.  The execution process included the following: rooms where people were to leave all of their belongings, washroom where they were stripped of clothing and given a bar of soap and a towel (to distract them and make them think they were for some reason not going to be executed?), and then shoved like cattle into gas chambers.  We stood in a gas chamber that held over 800 people at a time.  We saw in the museum remnants of the execution process that have been saved.  We saw a wall of pils and piles of this grey hair... the actual hair they cut off the executed corpses, and which the Germans would use to make blankets with and sell for money.  You could even see some braids in the piles of hair.  We entered rooms which held other remnants found in the "Canada Buildings", which were so named because they thought Canada was very rich at that time.  We saw rows and rows of peopls belongings that were saved in the burning of a Canada Building.  These included piles and piles of shoes, luggage (you could see the names peopple wrote on them), baby clothes and accessories, pots and pands, etc.  It was shocking to stand there looking at the actual belongings of those who were murdered.  The guide also told us what we saw was less than 1% of what occurred.  The one other stricking thing I saw was in the basement of one of the preserved barracks we saw suffication cells, starvation cells, and standing cells.  The standing cells were small tiny places where they shoved 4 people who were left there standing arm and arm until they died.  We also briefly saw Auschwitz II, the bigger camp about 5 minutes away.  Here we saw just rows and rows and rows of barracks.  We didnt get to spend much time there, but the enormity really struck me.  After that rather depressing afternoon, we ate at an adorable Polish restaurant.  They had music playing and it was this wooden little place that was really peppy.  We had an "authentic Polish meal", however this food, like the German food, is ridiculously rich, greasy, and carb filled.  I didnt eat too much of it, but the little I had was yummy.  The next day we saw the big Salt Mine here in Krakow.  That was AMAZING!  We went down 40 flights of stairs down into the earth.  Apparently 2 hours spent down there equates to 2 extra weeks of life.  Wahoo!  I didnt know salt looked like that down in the earth.  They made sculptures out of the salt, and there was this giant church/ballroom we went into which was GORGEOUS!  I guess they hold weddings, etc there.  They even have chandeliers made out of salt crystals.  It was just beautiful and natural.  A quote on one of the walls really stuck out to me "There must be something holy about salt.  We find it in our tears and we find it in the ocean."  My Krakow souvenir is an amber ring because amber is famous in Krakow.

 

The next 10 hour bus ride was long, but I slept most of the way.  The Czech Republic countryside was by far more beautiful than Poland.  We arrived in Prague that night, got dinner at the hotel, and explored the city.  Its interesting traveling in 3 day increments because just as you get your bearings in one place, its onto the next.  We spent the rest of that night just hanging out and bonding at the hotel.  The next day we had a tour of Prague.  What a beautiful, beautiful city.  It was by far my favorite of the three.  It has so much history, and I am basically in love with the castle there.  Note - our tour guide looked exactly like Felicity Huffman.  Sorry.  Anyway, we saw the Castle and the giant chapel, but didnt get to go int he chapel because of the LONG line.  We then saw the gardens at the castle, which also led us to the most GORGEOUS view of the entire city.  AH!  We crossed the bridge, of course, and we heard of the legend of touching the stars on the bridge, and our tour guide showed us the real place (not where just all the tourists go) and made wishes.  Our guide dropped us in the middle of the city and was just like... bye!  We had arrived by bus to her, so we were not informed that we had to find out own way back to the hotel.  Luckily, we jumped on the subway and managed to make it back.  That afternoon we had roommate lottery.  I am living with two other girls, Kristen and Lauren, in a Pensione named "My Friends House".  Hah.  Yes, thats what ist called.  We also signed up for China over Christmas, which I am officially going.  We didnt do a whole lot that night, just hung out and played cards.  The next day we went on a church tour in the morning, which was very nice and the churches were beautiful.  We watched a video on the Nazi occupation in Czech, which was intresting because I didnt know much about it.  We saw a Krypt in this church where a couple of Czech soldiers were hidden who were resisting Nazi rule.  I later found my Czech souvenier, a necklace which is made of swarovski components.  Pretty cheap, but really cute. 

 

We flew from Prague to Florence on Monday, and here I am!!  It was kind of a hectic first 24 hours.  Our luggage did not arrive until Tuesday morning, so we had to go yet another day of reworn clothing and live off our backpacks from the trip. Classes started today and things are definitely very happy.  I am so EXCITED to be here!!!!

 

Now, to tell you a bit about staying at "My Friends House".  Our Pensione is very small... 12 people in total.  Its about a 5 minute walk from school.  6 girls and 6 guys.  We share bathrooms and eat together for lunch and dinner every day.  We have meal times.  Lunch is at 1pm and Dinner is at 7pm.  Our Pensione owners are absolutely adorable and friendly!  We are joined to the Pensione Gallo D'Oro, who have the same owners.  Their names are Sylvia and Massimo.  Massimo takes care of us at My Friends House.  They make the most delicious pasta I have ever tasted, and we get salad and some sort of fruit with each meal.  I can tell its going to be fun getting to know them... they are apparently the most beloved owners of all the Pensiones.  Which makes the following situation 1,000 times better.  Our rooms.  Yeah.  Um, not really up to par.  We arrived to see three beds each about a foot apart, a giant red filing cabinet/locker, one dresser with 4 drawers, one table, and this awkward metal pole on wheels with a few dangling hangers.  Ahem.  Yes.  The big red filing cabinet, that makes a very locker-esque sound when you touch it.  So the first night was kind of depressing, seeing as our other friends have rooms with their own bathrooms, carpeting, multiple desks, and one even has FRESCOS on the ceilings!  Its kind of ridiculous.  We also have to pay 30£ a month for internet, which I should be able to access on my laptop (FINALLY) by tomorrow.  =)  Which means Skype is to come very soon people, not to worry.  Anyway, My Friends House is definitely growing on me.  Massimo told us at lunch today if we had any suggestions or changes we wanted to make we could ask him.  So we mentioned getting another type of dresser thing... and also taking the doors off of the giant red locker.  He was more than happy to hear our suggestions and is apparently going tos tart tomorrow.  Hes even going to attempt to put a rod on my side of the locker so I can hang things up!  Wahoo! We are going to attempt to go with them to IKEA on Friday, and purchase some other necessities for the room.  Such as a comfortable comforter.  Im excited to settle in.  Ive got two of the best roommates ever, as well.  We have had a lot of fun the first couple of days.

 

One last story before I end the longest email ever.  Today my friends and I were wondering about after classes (which went very well, by the way - Happiness is very happy, and Italian is coming back to me).  We found the Duomo and ate some Gelato.  I love this place.  Anyway, I was very impressed with myself because I held an entire "conversation" with someone when I bought a small leather coin purse.  I asked "quanto costa?" and he answered "sei" and we said grazie and I told him "buonasera".  It was fun!  Then I overheard a woman in a store with her dog, who was spazzing out, tell the children watching the dog "vuole giocare" which means he wants to play!!!  And later she looked at the dog while picking him up and said "tu sei un bambino" which means you are a baby!  It made my day.  Many things have made my day today.  Everything has gone just as planned and better.  I couldnt ask for a better group of people to share this experience with.

 

Well I hope you are all doing well and I really do apologize for the length of this, Ive just been having such a good time and wanted to share some of my adventures.  Please email me and let me know what you all are up to and how things have been going!  Also, if you have a Skype ID let me know and we can chat.  I miss you all and think of you as I travel throughout Europe!  I still cant believe I am actually here.  I will send an email later in the week with a link to some of the photos I have taken.

 

Ciao,

Alessandra