What a wonderful weekend :-)

Ciao!

It was quite an amazing weekend in Florence. On Friday I developed my very first picture! It's not of anything special, just the handlebars of a bicycle, but my teacher said "Brava!" which is a good sign. It took 2.5 hours to develop it! I'm sure I won't remember the process on Monday, but it'll be really great to do it again. I have a lot more admiration for those who develop their own pictures-it takes a lot of precision, effort and attention to every detail.

After class on Friday morning, I went to the Uffizi Museum to pick up my pass. 40 Euros for a "Friends of the Uffizi" pass, and I can get in to any museum in Florence with it, and bypass lines! What a deal! I explored the museum for a while, and then explored the Boboli Gardens. It was so nice to stroll through the gardens and take pictures. It's a very soothing place, and very well kept. It's an escape from the bustle that goes on in the center of Florence. It reminded me of gardens I've seen in London. I spent Friday evening with some friends. One of them has a friend who is training to become a chef and will be in Florence for two years! (!) He made eggplant parmesan, which was absolutely amazing. All the ingredients in Florence are so fresh and delicious. I have a feeling even if someone didn't follow directions from a recipe, the food would still be delicious because the ingredients are so natural.

Saturday was a great day. I woke up and went to the Santa Maria Novella church. It's stunning, just like everything else I've seen in Florence. I then hopped on a train to Siena to meet a friend for lunch. Stephanie and I wandered the city, which is gorgeous. It's not quite as touristy as Florence, and is a lot smaller. It's cleaner and has a calmer atmosphere. It's known for its horse races, and it has a grand stadium for them. I actually think I prefer Siena to Florence. They have a medieval festival this weekend complete with dancing, magic and a horse race! I may go with Angela and Stephanie on Friday!

And today was absolutely leisurely and perfect. I woke up, responded to some emails from home, and spent 3 hours walking/hiking around the Piazzale Michelangelo, Palazzo Pitti, and Boboli Gardens. It was beautiful and definitely a good way to work off all the pasta I've been eating.

A few of my thoughts! I'm making some headway on learning the language. I talked to an Italian today and got as far as: Buon Giorno! (Good morning/day) How are you? (Come sta?) I am fine (Sto bene). I know, a very short and small conversation, but it's something!

I've also learned: Sono vegetariano (I'm vegetarian), Che significa? (What does it mean?) and Come si dice in Italiano? (How do you say this in Italian?)

These are all basics, but hopefully I'll learn more and more. Italian is really similar to Spanish, so I can understand the general meanings of things-but its confusing to differentiate the two. I accidentally said "por favor" instead of "per favore/permesso", and I got an angry look from the person I said it to. I take it they do not like being confused with the Spanish, which is understandable, and I'm going to be a lot more careful about that from now on.

A few random things I've learned: "trattorias" and "osterias" generally have better quality food than other places and places that have large amounts of gelato piled are not quality gelato places. The best gelato places I've found (from exploring and advice from locals) are: La Carraia, Rivareno, and Grom.

Moving on, an Italian custom is to eat appetizers and drink wine between 7-9 pm, and it's called "aperitivo". It's similar to tapas. It's a great way to sample Italian foods, try wines and meet Italian locals who always go to get aperitivos without fail. I've gone a few times, and I love this tradtion. The only thing is that you're supposed to get dinner afterwards, but aperitivos is always more than enough food for me and I'm too full to eat dinner.

The only few unfortunate things that have happened lately are that my roommate had bed bugs and our apartment was fumigated yesterday. I've been lucky so far (let's hope it stays that way) and my room has been okay. Also, I continually have smoke blown into my face when I'm wandering the streets, and it's not very enjoyable. I know smoking is prevalent everywhere, but Europeans seem to smoke quite a lot more. Or at least I notice is a lot more. It's a truly disgusting habit, and the one thing I won't miss about Italy.

These few unfortunate things are insignificant in comparison to the wonderful experience I'm having here. I know I'm really lucky to be here, meet Italian people, and learn about the culture here. (Thank you mom and dad! I love you!)

I think that's enough rambling for now. :-)

Buona notte! (Good night!)

p.s. I finally figured out how to post pictures! That's a picture of me overlooking Vernazza, one of the cities along Cinque Terre.

Cinque Terre + San Giovanni!

Ciao a Tutti!

Wow, I don't even know where to begin. I went to Cinque Terre yesterday, and it was by far one of the most absolutely gorgeous places I've ever seen in my life. Cinque Terre is on the coast of Italy, and its about a 5-7 mile hike that goes through 5 coastal cities. It's a pretty tough hike, going up and down cliffs, but its simply amazing. The five cities are: Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso, and Riomaggiore. We got to the train station around 7: 10 yesterday, and spent the whole day Cinque Terre. From the train station, we took a 2 hour bus to Manarola, which is where the day began. (We went on a tour because Cinque Terre is pretty large, and we figured it'd be nice to have someone to help us navigate.) Our tour guide's name was Douglas, and he was really wonderful. We ate breakfast on the bus, and stopped for coffee along the way. (Now we had no excuses for not having energy during the hike!)

Once we stopped in Manarola, we began the day by hiking to Corniglia, which took about an hour and a half. We spent some time in Corniglia, ate lunch there, and then hiked for 2 hours to Vernazza. The hike from Manarola to Corniglia wasn't too tough, and it was a pretty comfortable temperature, which was perfect. During the last part of this leg of the hike was a staircase built into the cliffs that was 382 stairs. It definitely worked up an appetite. We ate lunch at a beautiful restaurant on a cliff, overlooking the water. How much better could this day get? We then did the hardest part of the hike to Vernazza. It was pretty hot, and we were walking on pretty narrow pathways up and down the cliffs. When we got to Vernazza, the first thing we did was eat gelato, and it was by far the best gelato I've had yet. (Good thing I went hiking yesterday!) We explored the city of Vernazza for a while, which had a beautiful clock tower that's been there since 1318! How incredible is that? We then took a 5 minute train ride to Monteroose and spent some time at the beach there. This beach was apparently rated the sexist beach in the world in 2009. After that, we took a 40 minute boat ride to Riomaggiore. Not only was this whole day wonderful with the hike, beach, amazing food and train ride-but we also went on a boat ride!! It was beautiful because we went back past all the cities we hiked through, and it was amazing to be able to see them from the opposite perspective. Once we docked in Riomaggiore, we walked back to Manarola.

The pathway from Riomaggiore to Manarola is called "Lovers Lane". On lovers lane, its a custom to hang a lock along the fence and throw the key in the ocean. It's supposed to signify that couples will stay together forever. Our tour guide joked that these days people have combination locks in case they want to break up. :-) I happened to have a lock in my backpack, so I hung it on the fence and threw my key in the ocean, just for my own good luck! Hopefully my lock will still be there one day when I come back!

Two hours later, we arrived back in Florence. After hiking in the sun all day, you would think we were done for the day-but we weren't! Yesterday was a Florentine holiday in honor of the Patron Saint of Florence, San Giovanni. There was a festival throughout the city all day, mock medieval fighting matches, and fireworks over the river at night. We missed most of the festival, but we showered quickly and made it to one of the bridges to see the fireworks. The fireworks lasted for about 40 minutes, and were absolutely beautiful. The city shoots them from the Piazzale Michealangelo, which is one of the highest points in the city.

What a day right? The only way to describe it is perfect. A gorgeous hike at one of the most beautiful places on earth, amazing fireworks, and all of it with really wonderful people. I'll never forget it. (Hopefully I'll be able to post a link to pictures soon!)

Arrivaderci!

random ramblings on a wednesday afternoon

Saluti!

Just within a few hours or so, I have so many thoughts about the life and culture of Italy that I don't want to forget. Today was the first day that I've had a lot of alone time, which was really wonderful. Of course I love meeting new people, but it's really wonderful to be able to escape on my own and soak in the culture.

Coffee! The coffee culture here is so different from in the united states. Along all the streets and roads here are several cafes, mostly called bars. But they aren't bars for alcoholic drinks, they're bars for coffee and a pastry, sometimes a small panini. The majority of these bars do not give coffee to go, and people stand at the bar and drink their coffee quickly. It doesn't seem to be a usual thing to go to a coffee shop and get something to go, or spend a long time drinking the coffee. Coffee cups are also a great deal smaller here. My coffee habit from the states of drinking 2 or 3 large cups of coffee a day is slowly being defeated here.

The quality of the coffee here is really rich and amazing. The majority of the coffees I've had here are sweeter and stronger. I have yet to navigate different coffee beans and asking for different roasts, but I haven't seen many people do that here.

I'm officially friends with the morning barista at a place called "Italian Bar" across the street from the building where I have class. He's been teaching me a few words every time I go in to get an espresso. (Who knew I'd start drinking espresso!) Today he taught me spoon, "cucchiaio". I'm slowly on my way to speaking with the locals! My goal is to have a basic conversation with a local by the time I leave. :-)

Moving on to the Mercato Centrale! I finally went today, and it was the best place I've ever been to. I'm officially in love with it. I love grocery shopping, and all of the grocery stores here have been really great to go to. Grocery stores work a lot more efficiently here than they do in the U.S. When you grab vegetables or fruits, you're supposed to weigh them and price them yourself before you go to the register. Also, you're supposed to bag your own groceries yourself, and its common knowledge to go quickly. I didn't know this the other day, and went a little bit slowly as I was juggling my purchases and wallet. A lady came up to help me move out of the way, and I thought she was being really kind-but apparently she was irritated with me haha. Anyways, the Mercato Centrale is the best place I've ever been to. There are fresh vegetables and fruits from several local farmers, fresh meat for those who want that, and all sorts of cheese and wine shops. I got an apple, some grapes, some dried fruit and some tomatoes. I can't even begin to describe how delicious ALL of it is. Everything here is sweeter, fresher, crisper and just overall delicious. It's clearly obvious that there are no preservatives or anything added to make the food last longer. The only downside for someone who likes to shop only once a week is that all of these fruits and vegetables last for only a day or two.

On to community service. I think it would be really wonderful to try and do some community service while I'm here. It would be both something that I'd love to do, and help immerse me in the culture here and speak with more locals. My apartment is on the north side of the river, which is more touristy, so its hard to engage people because they start speaking English as soon as they realize you don't speak Italian. The south side is a lot better for trying to learn the language, however I need some practice before I jump in.

And finally, my photography class. My teacher, Cossimo Bargilone, is quite amusing and really helpful. We took a roll of film yesterday, and we began the process of developing our pictures today! I'm not a great photographer in the least and this is an art form that I have absolutely no experience in, so I'm a bit wary. We took the caps off our film, and loaded the reel into a black canister that we would wash with all sorts of chemicals that would help the pictures show up onto the reel. Note: we did all of this in the dark so as not to expose the film. This was pretty difficult for me, as its a delicate process and you have to be careful not to touch the film. I needed some help with it, and at one point I dropped my film on the ground today, so I'm not expecting any masterpieces for my first roll. After I finally finished this, I went to the sink to wash the reel. We washed it for about 20-25 minutes with 4 different chemicals. Its a very precise process, and I had to time every step. I would list out the steps here, but they were so confusing that I can't quite remember them yet. Hopefully soon.

After all the washing, we were able to take the film out of the canister, and place them on a heated drying rack. After 20 minutes of drying, they were ready to cut and place onto negative sliders. On Friday, we will look at them on lighted tables to see which pictures we want to blow up and develop. Our first assignment is to have at least 4 shots that have demonstrated a good balance of aperture with shutter speed, something that is "curious and unique", and something that has a nice contrast of light and dark. I think I'll be lucky if all my pictures aren't blurry.

I think that's all for now!

Arrivaderci signores e signoras!

hoping the rain will go away!

Saluti!

So Alyssa came to Florence to visit on Saturday night. She flew into Pisa, and then took a train into Florence. The train station is 5 minutes from my apartment which is convenient. We just chatted and caught up on life for a while.

Sunday was fun. She and I wandered about Florence for about 2 and a half hours. We went to the Piazza della Liberta, and then walked through the eastern side of Florence which is a lot more residential. We had lunch at an outdoor cafe by the river, and then ventured to the Ponte Vecchio and through the shopping district. It was raining on and off all day.

Today I had my first class! I'm taking Classical Photography. This class is a bit out of my league as I've never taken a Film Photography class before and I've never developed pictures myself before. My professor seems really nice and helpful, although a bit eccentric. He is very flamboyant, loud and uses a lot of hand gestures, but very friendly. The darkroom facilities are really nice here and seem to be completely up to date. Class meets everyday from 9 to 11:30. After class, Alyssa and I went to lunch at a place called Pino's Sandwiches. It was a tiny little place, but it was really cheap and amazing. I can't get over how amazing the mozzarella is here. After that we went to the Duomo, and walked up one of the towers. It has 414 stairs, and it was a bit tiring during the hike up-but the view from the top was well worth it. I could see all of Florence from there.

We then went to the Leather Market in the Piazza de San Lorenzo which has all sorts of Italian goods, including cart after cart full of genuine leather goods. It was really difficult not to whip out my wallet and buy everything I liked. I resisted and didn't buy anything! I figure if I'm going to be here for a while, I will have time to look around and find the really rare and beautiful things I really like.

I'm getting a little more situated about the city now and get to all the class buildings without a map (which is a feat for me). The people on the other side of the river are really nice and helpful with tourists trying to learn Italian. I'm really hoping I can learn a few more words and have basic conversations with people, instead of constantly asking "Parla Inglese?" which means "Do you speak English?"

I had gelato at a place called La Carraia today, and it was by far the best gelato I've ever had in my life. Apparently its a well known shop in Florence and everyone thinks its amazing. I've learned that certain gelaterias that have mounds of gelato in their glass cases do not actually have good gelato. Those types of gelaterias just plop new gelato on top of the old gelato without making everything fresh everyday. I'm going to become a gelato snob soon! :-)

Tomorrow I'm going to walk the city during class to practice taking pictures, and later will go to a "Tabbachio" to get stamps to mail out some postcards! A tabbachio is a little shop that is on about every block, and has little things like stamps, a few drinks, snacks, cigarettes etc. The italian post system is apparently very inefficient, so I'll just drop the postcards in a post box instead of going to the post office. Apparently if I go to the post office, I'll be waiting in line for 2-3 hours.

I've officially signed up for the Rome trip and will be visiting on July 3rd and 4th! I'm really excited to see the Colosseum, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Vatican and more. I'm also going on a day trip to Siena with Adriana (one of my roommates) next Monday. On Thursday, I'm going to Cinque Terre. Thursday is an official Florentine (not Italian) holiday. Apparently there is a festival, and fireworks over the river at night. Hopefully we'll be back from Cinque Terre to see the fireworks.

My mom, dad and brother called last night, and it was really really nice to talk to them, even if it was only for a few minutes. I'm happy I got to say Happy Father's Day to my dad! (Love you Dad!) :-)

Anyways, I think that's all for now. Alyssa is leaving Florence tomorrow! A Presto Alyssa (See you soon).

Arrivaderci!

Saturday Afternoon In Florence

Hello!

It's been a fun few days in Florence! I got here on Tuesday night, stayed in a hostel called Plus Florence, and moved into my apartment on Wednesday morning. I live on Via San Zanobi! It's about a 25-30 minute walk to the main school buildings. It's about 10 minutes away from the Duomo, and 5 minutes away from the central train station here. It's a really beautiful apartment. There are 4 bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a little lobby in front of the main door. Italian buildings and streets are gorgeous. The doors are all really large, and the keys are very large as well. All street signs are on the sides of buildings. It gets a little confusing sometimes because two buildings will have two different names for the same street. The other interesting thing about streets in Italy is that each street name only lasts for 2 or 3 blocks, and the street name changes even though the street doesn't turn. It makes it easier to find buildings and new streets. I love that the streets are all cobbled. You can see the history in everything here.

On Wednesday I settled into my apartment, met some of my roommates, and just relaxed. On Thursday, I set up internet in the apartment, went to orientation, and met more of the people in my program. It's a pretty small program, only about 40 of us. That's in the FUA (Florence University of the Arts) program. SAI-Study Abroad Italy, connects several of the universities in Florence together so we can meet each other. I'll be taking Classic Photography the first session. Hopefully my prints will out nicely so they can be my souvenirs!

I've already seen the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio which are both absolutely gorgeous. I'm planning on going to Cinque Terra on Thursday which is about a 5 mile hike between 5 cities on the coast. It's supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. I'm hoping to go on a Rome trip on July 3rd and 4th. It's 250 Euros, but they cover hotel and food, and let us see everything from the Vatican, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Colosseum, Sistine Chapel and S. Peter's Basilica. I'm really excited.

The food has been really amazing so far. Everything is really fresh and natural, and tastes delicious. I've never had such good food in my life. It's not heavy like Italian food at home, which is wonderful. I had a chocolate muffin yesterday, and it was by far the best muffin I've ever eaten in my life. I also had gelato, and everyone who says its amazing has not lied. I can't even describe how good it tastes. I'm definitely going to get fat while I'm here. haha :-)

My apartment is located really close to the Mercato Centrale which is in the Piazza San Lorenzo. It's the biggest market In Florence and has all of the freshest food and produce. Italians generally go grocery shopping everyday and only buy what they need for the day, so that they can always have the freshest food possible. I'm hoping to go see it soon.

I think that's all for now!

Arrivaderci!