Bella Italia

Starting the trip off right: Pizza.


The Roman Colosseum!


RUINS!! The Forum, Colosseum, (and pretty flowers)


Very cool central plaza - Piazza Navona (cafes, street artists, people watching...)


St. Peters, most beautiful cathedral (inside)


The Pantheon


The Trevi Fountain


Finishing the last day in Rome with a lovely cappuccino


The winding roads of Siena


On our beautiful bike ride outside of Siena


The massive Duomo in Florence - reminded me of a HUGE candy shop


The Italian singer on the Ponte Veccio


Kristina and Whitties showing off our whip cream mustaches - melted chocolate topped with whip cream in a square in Florence :) :) :)


Awesome food markets


The gelato was a work of art in Florence

The Ponte Vecchio

View of Florence

Little Colosseum in Verona

View over Verona

Juliet's Balcony

Duomo in Venice

Gondolas in the Grand Canal

Canals in Venice

Venice at night and high-tide




Hello everyone!

This was my first week back at school, Spain (and many parts of Europe) celebrated "Semana Santa/Pascua" aka Easter Week aka SPRING BREAK! But no Cancun/Maimi Beach here, I was attending church services and seeing some of the coolest, oldest, most beautiful places in the world! A girlfriend Kristina (met her at the Spanish university) and I planned a 9 day, intensive tour of Italy - Rome on up, and it was a blast. We flew into Rome the night of the earthquake actually - it hit in L'Aquila, about 70 miles from Rome, a 6.3 - did a lot of damage. We were lucky enough not to be affected, Kristina and I didn't even wake up/feel it, but others in our hostel said they did. Anyway, on a happier note, Rome was amazing. My favorite city in Italy. We had a good 3 days there and used every minute of it! We walked the streets/hopped "free" buses wherever we could, and braved the metro once, and only once. There are two, yes, 2 metro lines in Rome, and it's a total fiasco. One of the main things I noticed about that country is that things are pretty badly run/disorganized, they don't even clearly mark things! I guess it's something I had taken for granted being in the US where everything is essentially bran spankin' new compared to here. For example we went to the Uffizi museum in Florence, which had obtained paintings before our country existed, kinda weird to think about...

Anyway, Rome, as I was saying, was a blast. We went to the Vatican, saw St. Peters, the Colosseum, Forum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and checked out many cool neighborhoods and Piazzas. The pizza was delicious there, but the best gelato we had was definitely Florence - I randomly ran into a girl from Whitman there (totally by accident, so fun!) and we ended up going out with other Whitties who were studying abroad there AKA they showed us the best gelato, EVER. Oh I'm getting side tracked...

One of my favorite things in Rome was one night when Kristina and I were wandering another adorable street near the Piazza Navona, we ran into two of the coolest thrift stores I've ever seen. They were just chock-full of everything from leather bags belts and cowboy boots to beautiful 50s dresses, hats, old converse shoes, great scarves, dirt-bike suits, you name it. We had a blast going through everything and at closing, the owner who had been chatting with us invited us to stay for wine after they closed! So we did of course. We sat around with him, his wife, their son, his friend and their two dogs, talking in a combination of English Italian and Spanish to get our points across, it was pretty fun.

I noticed that most people in Italy spoke at least a little English - even when I would try and ask things in Italian I would get an immediate response in English, like I had "dumb American" written across my forehead. But in the end it was easier that way, and when they didn't speak English it was fun to try and say things in Spanish/what I thought might be the Italian equivalent, I probably sounded idiotic at times, but it was fun nonetheless.

Best food in Rome: a slice of mozzarella, basil and tomato pizza (they cut it with scissors and weigh it for the price), and ricotta-nutella dessert calzone. yum.

We headed up to Siena on our way to Florence and were there pretty much all day. It was an adorable city in the Tuscan country side: lots of winding, cobblestone roads, old buildings, a cute piazza, and the best food we ate. We found a restaurant our guide book (which a girl in our Rome hostel handed down to us) and I say found because it was IMPOSSIBLE to find - tucked up in some corner of something they thought they could call a street. But it was worth it! Kristina had the fattest spaghetti I've ever seen, chewy, delicious, and home made that morning. I had a bow-tie pasta with artichokes and thyme, and oh my god. Just the simplest ingredients and flavors, the Italians really know what they're doing.

We rented bikes and attempted a "ride in the Tuscan countryside". We were wearing jeans and not at all ready to take on the hills we were about to face, and thus went about half the distance we had planned, but it was still fun and amazingly gorgeous. Just a mile or two out of Siena and you're in the countryside, winding through the roads and enjoying the scenery. It was so green! Unfortunately we were too early for all the blooming flowers but it was still breathtaking. We found a nice field and stopped for an orange. It was great.

Best food in Siena: the lunch I mentioned, SOOOO good.

That evening we bused to Florence and upon arrival were told by the lovely man at the hostel that they were overbooked, even though we had made our reservations a month earlier. SO, with little help from him, we went about the streets of Florence, assaulting every group of Americans until we found some staying in a hostel! And that worked out nicely - out of all the hostels we stayed in, the ones we booked the night of, not knowing anything, were the best.

We did Florence in a day. We crossed the Ponte Vecchio and climbed Piazza Michelangelo for a great view of Florence, and headed back down to the Uffizi, where a man gave us a free ticket! Kristina had the brains to march on in and ask if she could get another one with this one that "she had already reserved" and we paid 10 euros and walked right in, bypassing the line and everything. It was AWESOME. After enjoying the Uffizi we headed over, through some popular piazzas, to the Galleria Academia which houses Michelangelo's David. Got there an hour before closing, waited in line 15 minutes, and had the rest of the time to enjoy Him. The David was amazing, I was taken aback by him, definitely my favorite piece of art (Michelangelo's painting in the Sistine of God giving life to Adam was also up there). I spend a good half hour gazing up at the statue, and happened to look over and see a familiar face! It was my friend Liz from Whitman, who is studying abroad in France and was also on spring break in Italy. What a coincidence. We went out that night and the next day with more Whitties and had a blast, seeing the less touristy parts of the city.

One of my favorite things was spending an hour on the Ponte Vecchio that night, listening to an Italian singer/guitarist do his thing. He was amazing, great voice, could have been there for hours if it weren't for the cold... and I could smell the waffles down the street...

Best food in Florence: a seafood dinner we had at a fish restaurant (spaghetti with clams and muscles and a shrimp risotto) and home-made gelato, the REAL stuff.

We headed out the next morning to Verona, a nice stop on the way to Venice. We saw the cute piazzas/food markets, got fruit cups, checked out Juliet's Balcony and climbed and hill/archaeology museum/roman theatre to get a great view of the city. It was very cute, but small - we were only there about 4 hours. It was fun walking around there and seeing old tombs/ruins every once in a while.

Best food in Verona: snacks from the market-a fried ball shaped "thing" with rice meat and veggies inside...still a mystery

We trained to Venice that evening and got in just in time for one of the last Vaporettos (water bus-the only form of public transportation) to our hostel. I. LOVED. VENICE. What a beautiful, unique place to be. The main thing we did in Venice was wander...we would get lost, find our way, get lost again etc, and that was the best way to see some cool parts of the city and escape all the tourists. The Duomo was amazing, the floor completely covered in mosaic tiles, and the walls and ceiling all gold mosaics, it was absolutely beautiful. We fed pigeons in St. Marco's square and found a great leather shop on the Rialto bridge, where they make everything in the attic. We also made it out to Murano, the island famous for it's glass. We got to see a glass-blowing demonstration where a middle-aged guy in a tight blue shirt, jean shorts, flip flops and a gold chain hummed and worked scorching hot glass like it was nothing. The cute salesman inside the store convinced both of us to get gifts, I guess he was good at his job!

We went back the next day to see more glass blowing demonstrations, and so Kristina could get more gifts for friends ;) We also found a gelato place (in our guide book) that was pretty famous and really delicious. I went back for a second cone...

Best food in Venice: scallops au gratin and that gelato...both times

And that concludes Italy! It was full of fun and adventure and beauty and my feet were SO glad to return to Madrid (to think, I was complaining at the beginning of the year of how much I walk here!). This week I've been trying to catch up and plan trips for the future...my parents come to visit in May and we're heading up to La Rioja (the wine country of Spain) and Barcelona, and shortly after that (and finals) I go to London, meet with my friend Katie there, and we head over to Sweden for the summer internship!

I did get the chance to go out last night and see some friends who I haven't seen in a while. A lot of them help out with the organization that plans all the trips/events for the international students, so I know them from past trips etc. They are all Spaniards who have already done their semester abroad. We chatted over chips, olives, pizza and "calimocho" (red wine and coca cola, disgusting combination and total waste of red wine, but "the drink" for youth in Spain) and I got to practice my Spanish again, which was refreshing. Even though I'm taking classes in Spanish etc, being with people your age who are speaking the language amongst themselves, as friends, is totally different. It's a lot faster, there is a lot more slang, and it's harder to keep up, but I did ok and had a really good time seeing all of them.

I need to go do some actual homework now! I'm still interning at the bilingual school and it's a blast, working on an evolution unit right now, and continuing with conversation classes. My classes at the university are good, but seem to be getting harder...things are just getting down to the wire so I've got a lot more to do/turn in now! But it's all good! Still having lots of fun. I'll post pics and try to do the captions, we'll see how it goes...

Ciao!
Alex


Ok, that took me like an hour, so I'll leave you hanging at Florence, Siena and Rome to come, must sleep...