Exciting Times a Firenze!

The following weeks in Florence provided me with some of the fun and excitement I'd been looking to find around town all semester. It started to sink in for me just how little time I had left and I made it a point to get out and do interesting things around this beautiful city.

One of my favorite things to do was hike to Piazzale Michelangelo, and on one occasion I visited the church above it, San Miniato al Monte, and took in the breathtaking view of my little city below.

One week the Mostra Internazionale dell'Artigianato (which will from now on be referred to as the Craft Fair) came to the Fortezza di Basso in Florence. I didn't expect this to be quite as fun and exciting as it turned out to be for me. It reminded me of craft shows back home and there were soooo many neat little things that I really didn't need but really wanted to buy. Also, I guess the 'theme' this year had something to do with balloon art, because we wandered into a building full of nothing but huge balloon sculptures of everything from the Mona Lisa to Ratatouille.

Balloon Mask

Balloon Remy the Rat!

In later days, I made it my goal to climb all those things in Florence I set out to do in the first place. I decided if I could climb 1000 steps to the top of the isle of Capri, 400 something steps in the Campanile or the Duomo were definitely not a challenge. Still, I worked my way up, starting with Giotto's Belltower, or the Campanile. I knew this would be a good trek because I'd get a nice view of Florence as well as a closer look at Brunelleschi's incredible dome next door. Favorite moment: sneezing in the stairwell and hearing 'bless you' from a multitude of tourists in at least 3 different languages. I used to get frustrated with all the tourists blocking my route to class, but on this occasion I found it really remarkable that so many completely different people were all in this tiny little stairwell sharing this experience with me.

Campanile

Looking through a grate in the floor

Hello, Duomo.

Piazza della Repubblica from the sky

Next on my to-do list was to climb the Duomo. I'd heard plenty of scary things about this climb, that the line to get in is really long, that it's really cramped, that it's poorly lit, that some of the steps are difficult to climb, that sometimes the people in front of you are really sweaty and you're pretty much stuck behind them until you get to the top. It really wasn't bad, and surprisingly when I went there was no one in line ahead of me, so it was a pretty quick 20 minute climb in between the layers of the cupola before finally popping out at the top. I had fun looking out over the city and trying to locate things from above like my apartment, my classes, my favorite sandwich stand, that place where I sprained my ankle, etc. It was also fun to listen to the tourists at the top state very matter-of-factly (and very incorrectly) what all of the major buildings they could see were.

View of the huge mural from one of the inside terraces

Leetle stairways

Over the edge

Piazza della Repubblica from inside the dome

I wished I'd made these climbs much much sooner in my stay (though the weather for the most part of the semester really was not conducive to climbing big marble structures) because I'd do them over and over again if I had had time. Those last couple of weeks in Florence, while maybe a little bittersweet, were some of my favorite because they really encouraged me to dive into everything the city had to offer that I hadn't gotten into yet. I'm glad I had those opportunities, because those are the little things I'll love and remember the most about Florence.

Next up: Last minute trip to Cinque Terre!

Amalfi Coast, or "Eat, Pray, and Loooove"

My trip to the Amalfi Coast was one I had been looking forward to for a long, long time, and it almost didn't happen for me. My class schedule this semester kept me in class on Thursday evenings until 8:30 at night, and pretty much any trip through either EuroAdventures or Bus2Alps departed Florence at 7:30pm at the latest. I had to do a good deal of bartering and begging with my professor to "please please let me leave early because all I want in life is to go to Amalfi".

So anyway, Thursday night I hopped on a bus with some new friends headed for Sorrento, in the Campania region of Italy. It was on this bus that I was first introduced to the incredible, adorable, inspiring, incredible Father Bruno. Father Bruno is 70+ years old, he is a painter, a priest, a wine maker, a teacher, and, recently, a tour guide to a bunch of college kids. He exuded energy and I'm sure this trip would not have been the same without him.

So we checked into our 'hotel' around 2am, which turned out to be a beautiful villa in Positano located on a lemon orchard overlooking the ocean. Incredible. The next morning we woke up early, met Bruno downstairs, and accompanied him on a bus trip to nearby "Po-si-ta-no"(Bruno made sure we could pronounce it properly, as he did with many other words on this trip). The day was overcast and rainy, but the beach and the town was beautiful. We played in the (freezing cold) water for a while, then warmed up with some pizza and panini.

Beautiful Positano

We then hopped on a bus to visit the town of Amalfi before heading back to Sorrento for a lovely dinner with Bruno. The next morning we woke up extremely early to catch a ferry to the island of "CAH-pri" (not like the pants). On the agenda for today was taking in some beautiful sights, climbing 1000 steps to the town of Anacapri, taking in some more beautiful sights, and hopefully swimming. Well, I greatly underestimated the intensity of climbing the Phoenecian steps, because for whatever reason 1000 didn't sound like a lot. Once someone mentioned that we only climb something like 87 steps to our Italian class twice a week, I knew I was gonna have a problem. And yeah, the climb kicked my ass, but it was breezy and beautiful the whole way up. Once our whole group, Father Bruno included, reached the top our next activity was to... climb back down the other side of the island (haha!) and visit the Blue Grotto, hopefully do some cliff jumping. Unfortunately the water was too choppy and it wasn't safe for us to do either of those things so we headed back to the town center to lay on the beach for a while. I took it upon myself to go for a scaled down version of cliff jumping, more like rock hopping, into the once again extremely cold water.

Beautiful Capri

View from something like 600 steps up

Beautiful beach, and the rocks I hopped off

That evening, Bruno invited us all to join him on a trip to Naples for what he mostly only described as "Eat, Pray and Loooooove, with Juulia!" We visited the original pizzeria, where Julia Roberts once ate when she came to Italy. It was delicious pizza, but I'm not gonna lie, I still think Gusta Pizza in Florence is better. This side of Naples was pretty sketchy (though I've heard other parts are beautiful) so we pretty much went right back to Sorrento as soon as we finished eating our pizza.

The accordianist in our train car

Pizzeria da Michele, authentic Neapolitan pizza

Sunday morning we packed our bags and made a pit stop in Pompeii on the way back to Florence. Pompeii was, of course, a very interesting experience, and we enjoyed such wonderful sights as penis pavers, a mummified pregnant girl, and an ancient McDonald's. It was really one of the coolest cities I've ever seen or probably ever will see.

Leading the way to the Lupanaria

Ancient people, stored on shelves with ancient pottery

Besides all the touristy stuff, Pompeii was also really beautiful

This trip was so much fun, and I was glad to spend time with some new friends and challenge myself with new experiences (climbing 1000 steps, rock hopping into the Mediterranean Sea, "Abbey Road" across Pompeii stepping stones). Easily one of the most fulfilling and memorable weekends of my life.

Up next: the International Craft Show, and climbing stuff around Florence

Spring Break in Italy

Hello, readers.

3 months ago I'm sure I left you all eagerly waiting to hear about my Spring Break adventures, and then every adventure I didn't tell you about in the weeks following. There are plenty of posts coming, but I'll just pick up where I left off for now.

On March 18th my wonderful parents arrived in Florence to spend their spring break gallivanting around Italy. I was so incredibly glad to finally have my family back for a while, and I'm so glad I could give them this opportunity to travel with me (this was mom's first time in Europe :]). Unfortunately I didn't take too many pictures of this week because I was too focused on enjoying my time with them.

First things first, I had to spend the evening showing them around my new little 'hometown'. We grabbed lunch at one of the patio restaurants in Piazza della Repubblica, where mom and dad had their first taste of 'real' Italian food (note: 'real' to Americans, 'touristy' to Italians) as we sat and people watched for a while. Then we hopped over to the San Lorenzo leather market, which we probably walked through 5 times the whole week because mom loves to shop, where I finally bit the bullet and purchased a real Italian leather jacket.

The next day we headed back into the city center to meet our guide for our fantastic Segway tour. Yeah, we were 'those people', and I have to say it was fun to play tourist in a city I'd gotten so 'used to' over the past couple of months. I impressed myself with how much I already knew about the city, and learned a bunch of little facts to impress everyone I knew who hadn't gone on an official tour of the city yet.

Tuesday we hopped on a train and headed to Rome. Mom and Dad took plenty of goofy iPad pictures to celebrate their first Italian train ride, and we had fun trying to talk to the Italian lady across from us who brought her puppy with her.

Our first day in Rome we toured the Vatican, natch, got gelato, and I showed them around some of my favorite places in Rome, like the Trevi fountain and Piazza Navona. The next day we toured the Colosseum and the ancient ruins, and dad and I made a trip to the top of the 'wedding cake', or the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele. I'd day this offered us the best view of Rome, since we could see ancient Rome, the Piazzas, as well as St. Peter's Basilica.

View from the Vittorio

After a whirlwind couple of days in Rome we packed our bags and headed to Venice. After unloading and wandering around Piazza San Marco for a while we grabbed dinner a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves, and took a gondola ride through the canals of the city. :] Dad had mentioned before that the one thing he wanted to do when he came to Italy was ride in a gondola, and it was really a great experience. Our Gondolier was wonderful and we learned so many cool things about when Venice was built, and which notables and celebrities (Casanova, Andrea Palladio, Brangelina....) had lived where.

The next morning we headed to the island of Murano, where mom and I once again did tons and tons of shopping while dad took in the sights. That afternoon we headed back to Firenze and enjoyed a relaxing evening before mom and dad headed back to America.

It was really neat being able to show them around Italy, and I was so glad to be able to share my experiences with them.

My next few weeks were 'uneventful' compared to much of my time abroad. I spent more time getting to know Florence and taking little local field trips, which I hope to post about when I finish all my big 'vacation' stories.

Next up: Amalfi Coast!