Orvieto

This week was considerably less crazy than the last month. Everyone had a five day weekend but me, so most everyone traveled leaving me alone to my own devices.

Did make it to the Bargello and Pitti Palace last Tuesday for the free event. Both were wonderful and nearly empty which was fabulous. The Caravaggio exhibit at the palace was awesome and the household items exhibit at the Bargello was so interesting. Combined they are better the Uffizzi.

Thursday night, about 7 or 8 of us decided to go to aperitivo and then out on the town. As usual, aperitivo was a stunning array of awesomeness. I had a margarita that was borderline terrible but terrifically alcoholic and ate a crazy amount of appetizers. Appetizers are one of my favorite food groups, so aperitivo and I get along very nicely. We were there for about 2 hours stuffing our faces with meatballs, mini calzones, focaccia sandwiches, pasta dishes, caprese, olives, and some kind of mashed potato casserole and we got a huge cocktail for only 10 euro. We went to Goldenview again which has a lovely view of the Arno and Ponte Vecchio.

From there, Kate and I went to Via Romana (the student housing) to freshen up and then met everyone at the Lion's Fountain near school. It's an Irish pub that I've mentioned before and the only reason I continue to go there is because they give us unbelievable drink specials. Later on we decided to leave and try a couple of bars by my house only to find them completely empty and expensive, so back to Lion's. Here's Joey doing some very impressive Karaoke. Notice the Halloween decorations, which are not uncommon around Firenze. All of the dollar stores are full of cheap costumes and decorations which surprised me. I couldn't figure out how the kids would actually trick or treat considering that all the apartment buildings are guarded by locked doors. Turns out the little darlings simply run from building to building mashing on ALL the buzzers until some poor soul comes down at least 2 flights of stairs to give them candy -- which, I gather, doesn't actually happen that often. They also hit every open business they can find. I think the restaurant I was in gave out cookies or biscotti or something in lieu of candy.

It is decidedly Fall here and I've turned on the heat in my apartment. If we had any trees in Firenze there would be Fall leaves -- I have had the pleasure of seeing them in other places. The rainy season is also officially upon us. It rained most of this weekend which kept me indoors probably more so than the past two months combined.

Luckily, we had a lovely day on Saturday. Andrea and I headed to Orvieto to look around. It is in Umbria, the green heart of Italy and it was, in fact, very green compared to Tuscany and very beautiful. We got on the train around 9am and ended up in Orvieto around noon. For 15 euro we purchased a combined student pass to all of the major sites. We started in the Orvieto Underground. The city sits atop a butte of compressed volcanic ash, not to be confused with volcanic rock. The compressed ash is easy to excavate and the city's inhabitants have been digging tunnels, water shifts, cellars, and escape routes for thousands of years. Orvieto has been inhabited on and off since the Etruscan Era -- the local archeology museum houses many pots, a few murals, and even some armor.
The first underground room we entered acted as an olive oil mill (see mill stone to the left of the first picture) for a couple hundred years, then a wine cellar. The room itself was originally dug out by the Etruscans as a place of worship, then repurposed as needed over the centuries. The other picture shows a room with a bunch of little square holes in the wall. These rooms were plentiful and used to house and farm pigeons. The young birds were a delicacy and apparently pigeon farmers made a tidy profit. The stairs led to the farmers home on top of the butte. A small tunnel opened to the valley below so the pigeons could gather food for their chicks.

It was really interesting and it also gave us some great views of the valley and an ancient monastery-turned-hotel at the bottom of the valley. Since the volcanic ash is so easy to dig into, you can also imagine how unstable it is. Scholars believe that the butte has already lost over 1/3 of its original area. In many places the underground tunnels have caved in, damaging homes above. All around the outside of the butte you can see where layers of the butte have fallen away into the valley exposing old caverns. Apparently, there was also some mining that occured in the 17th century (the ash was used to make concrete) which also compromised the stability of the town above.

From there we explored Orvieto's Duomo, which was truly stunning. The mosaic and marble work outside are exquisite. The back and sites of the church are pleasantly striped, which I can't seem to get enough of. Inside was an interesting chapel housing reliquaries (whole skull!!), another chapel has very interesting frescoes -- the colors are extremely brilliant and the figures are more cartoonish. They seemed very contemporary but were actually painted in the 15th century. One scene shows the horrors of hell, complete with demon carrying the whore of the apocalypse on his back. Whoa.

We stopped for lunch at lovely bistro. There was no sign, it was tucked back on a little street, and it was packed with Italians, so we figured we picked a good place. Andrea had gnocchi with spinach and truffles and I had potato and taleggio ravioli with a zucchini sauce that I could not figure out. It was super good but I have no idea what I was actually eating. The sauce tasted buttery but was also creamy but clearly did not have cream in it. Seemed like the texture of grated onion but it wasn't oniony. I don't know. It was awesome.

We visited the three museums in town and also climbed to the top of the clock tower (240 steps!!). My thighs were burning but I made it and it was well worth the view. 365 degrees of beautiful countryside complete with rolling hills, vineyards, olive groves, and distant mountain views. It was a really beautiful day and we were up there all by ourselves! On the way down the stairs we passed a black lab on his way up with his owners. Italy is ridiculously dog friendly. I've seen them in grocery stores, in bars, wandering around by themselves in shoe stores (don't all dogs instinctually chew shoes?) and now at historical monuments. Piazzas are dog playgrounds. Bring Conifer when you visit, Kristen.

All in all a lovely day. We got back to Firenze around 9. The next morning, I awoke to soaking rain and stayed inside all day. Every time I tried to leave it was absolutely pouring. Around 7, I met Andrea for dinner (still raining). I donned my new rain boots and slogged my way about a mile to the restaurant. The boots are heavy and acted like ankle weights but after a long day laying down I really wanted the exercise. I had amazing meatloaf with a balsamic vinegar/onion reduction and roasted potatoes. Dude. It was so good.

After dinner, we walked around for a while hoping to see some Halloween revelers. I think we were out around 9 and I think we were in between the trick or treaters and the party set because no one was out. We walked the circuit between the Duomo and the Piazza Signoria twice and didn't see much going on -- except for the carabinieri chasing off the guys selling designer knock off bags near Piazza Repubblica per usual.

Despite the rain, it was a great weekend. A big change from all the running around I have been doing. It's good to take a break and slow down a little but really it's also boring. I'm totally used to traveling all the time now and I don't want to stop! Trying now to organize trips for the Winter Break. If anyone is planning on visiting, let me know soon so I'll stay in town! Otherwise, trying to get together trips to Seville, Prague, Amsterdam, and Warsaw. Bologna this weekend!

Venezia and International Festival

Venezia!!! Had a wonderful weekend in one of the most beautiful cities in the world! Took the Eurostar from Firenze to Venezia and arrived in just 2 hours. I love train travel. Luckily, the train strike that was to take place last weekend never materialized. We stayed in a little hotel just outside of Venezia and I had my own little room with a twin bed. It was positively tiny but the perfect size for a single traveler. The day was a little gray and it rained for a short time while we were at the hotel.

We headed to Venezia (about a 10 minute train ride away) in the afternoon and emerged from the train station to see our private water taxi waiting for us, complete with drop dead gorgeous skipper. He took each one of our hands and helped us on to the boat. Needless to say, we all swooned. The short boat ride took us to a dock near Piazza San Marco. We disembarked (with a hand from the skipper- yeah!) and walked a short distance to the square passing the Bridge of Sighs along the way. Venezia is constantly undergoing preservation and restoration. Currently, they have scaffolding etc covering every inch of brick and mortar around the Bridge of Sighs so the bridge seems to float in mid air. Sort of disappointing. There is also a ton on work going on around the Campanile in Piazza San Marco which mars the view. But NOTHING could damage the overall aesthetic of the exquisite square.

Snapped some quick pictures and then we hustled into the Basilica to look around before it closed. The wealth of mosaics and marble was absolutely staggering. We climbed the steep steps to the balcony to view the Greek horse statues and get a little closer to the mosaics. Pictures were forbidden but I stole a couple here and there. We stepped out onto the exterior balcony and snapped some more pictures of the beautiful view.

After exiting the basilica we had a couple of hours to ourselves to sight-see, and Kate, Justyn and I wandered off into Venezia. We browsed the narrow passageways between buildings and watched gondolas glide past. We did a little shopping and eventually found the Ponte di Rialto. Justyn talked a gondolier into letting us walk out onto his little dock to take pictures. Then we headed back to meet the group at Piazza San Marco.

From there we walked for about 40 minutes, snaking our way through the streets and past the canals of Venezia, to a restaurant for a group dinner. Venezia is much larger that I expected! The group meal was great: mushroom risotto and pasta duo, stewed pork with roasted potatoes, salad, wine and molten chocolate cake for dessert. I'm not sure how Venetian it was but it was certainly good.

For all of you who are wondering if I got on a gondola -- the answer is no. They were (surprise) insanely expensive -- about 60 euro for 20 minutes -- and I could not stomach the cost. I am doing a lot of traveling in the next couple of weeks and have been doing a little too much shopping and the costs are piling up! I would rather spend a day a Versailles this weekend for half the cost of the gondola. Decisions, decisions.

After dinner we walked for another 4o minutes back to the train station, waited around for a ticketing crisis to be sorted out and headed home. I sat up half the night coughing my head off and was grateful that I didn't have any roommates to annoy with my hacking. But I had CNN so it was nice to catch up on the news.

The next morning had a continental breakfast at the hotel then took the train back into Venezia. The group broke up and I headed to the Museo dell'Accademia with a small group and a guide. Most of the kids wanted to explore the streets and I have to say I wanted to as well, but I can never pass up a museum. I wasn't disappointed. The collection was amazing.

From there, the guide took us over to the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, which houses a few important works by Titian as well as tombs and relics. It had an absolutely massive reliquary case housing 6 or 8 whole hands and various bones. So interesting! No pictures though. They never let you take pictures of the really weird stuff. The church also houses a statue of St John the Baptist by Donatello. Loved, loved, loved this church and its amazing funerary monuments to a few doge's and other Venetian notables, including Titian himself.

We grabbed a quick pizza and gelato lunch. I finally got my hands on spicy chocolate gelato. I guess it had cayenne powder in it or something and it was so good! Headed to Peggy Guggenheim Collection next. I quickly browsed the collection of Modern/contemporary art which includes Dali's, Picasso's, Kandinsky's, etc and spent the rest of the time standing on the patio overlooking the canal behind the villa. The view was absolutely exquisite. Took more pictures, shopped a little more, then started the long walk to the train station. I don't know how any one finds their way in Venezia! There are so few landmarks and the little alleys prevent you from getting a lay of the land. Thank goodness for our guides because I never had any idea where I was. Hopped back on the Eurostar for a lovely trip back to Firenze. It was a great weekend but I really feel like I needed WAY more time. The good news is that I will be traveling to Venezia next semester as well. I want more time to explore the city.

When I got back to town, I headed back to my house and stumbled upon yet another awesome fair in Piazza di Santa Croce! It was an international food fair! I browsed the stalls of French, German, Spanish, Polish, Greek, etc stalls all offering food and products for sale. There was lavender from Provence, paella from Spain, Crepes, pretzels, wool products, jewelry, etc, etc, etc. I finally settled on a bratwurst and ate it as I walked around. I debated about having a crepe but then remembered that I will be in Paris on Friday and will wait until then. Finally, headed upstairs and collapsed into bed.

The next morning, Kate came over and we looked around the international fair some more. I bought a ridiculous hat and we ate some German sausages and shared a weird pretzel. We shopped around my neighborhood a little more then headed to the San Lorenzo market to um... shop some more. Tried on a million pairs of shoes --nothing fits my giant American feet -- bought a little belt, scarf, and fun Firenze tourist crap. Then we headed to work for the afternoon. Ate dinner at lovely corner bistro where I had tartufo (truffles) once again. This dish was soooo truffle -y that I probably won't eat truffles again for a very long time. It was good but I think I've tired my tastebuds out. Went back to Santa Croce to people watch and talk then finally headed to bed.

Here I am today finishing up my work day. Finally booked the hostel for my trip to Dublin and tickets to Versailles for Saturday. I am really excited about Versailles and hoping that it won't be overrun with people. Yeah, Paris!

Santa Croce and weekend

Another wonderful week in Firenze! On Thursday, Carolyn and Kimmie and I had our first night on the town after a lovely dinner of 5 Euro pasta this time at Trattoria Anita. Our appetizer was this amazing molten bowl of pecorino and proscuitto with truffle sauce that we slathered on bread. So good!

We went to an English pub (of all places). It was crammed with American girls (mostly students ranging in age from 18 to 21 probably) and smarmy Italian guys trying to make time with the tourists. We did see a couple of American guys who ordered budweiser - totally lame. It was incredibly crowed but in Europe you can drink openly in the streets so we headed outside to finish our drinks in the piazza. A few Italians tried in vain to talk to Carolyn and Kimmie in broken English. They are 18, so needless to say they are new to the bar scene and I look like their chaperone or something. Later a guy slapped me on the butt. I was definitely ready to go.

We headed back towards Santa Croce (my neighborhood) which is heavily populated by bars and clubs and found another pub that was much more low key and populated by locals. It was another English pub (go figure - there are tons here) and I had a Pimm's. Yeah! Overall, the night wasn't a total bust but I am just getting my feet wet here so I'm a little apprehensive and feeling out the nightlife. Carolyn and Kimmie slept over because their place is about a 25 minute walk and I didn't want them walking home by themselves at 2 in the morning. Momma Alexis strikes again.


The next day, Friday, I worked for most of the day then off to dinner with the girls. I headed home after that for me time and ended up cleaning my house for 3 hours. I rearranged some more and ended up finding some things left by the previous tennant tucked away in drawers that will definitely come in handy, like extra soap and lightbulbs. I also found a little set of speakers that I can hook up to my ipod so I can use it like a stereo. Yeah! By the way, the $300 bucks I spent on my Ipod has turned out to be the best money I've ever spent. I use it constantly and have downloaded apps for skype and free texting so I can keep in touch with every one back home. Not to mention the hours I spend listening to the 12 G's of music I put on it before I left. It's practically paying for itself.

On Saturday I got up early and headed out to look around town for a while. I ended up in the leather store at the end of my street and fell in love with a purse and bought it. It was pricey but well worth it. I love it and will probably carry it everyday. I got a sandwich and sat down to eat it in piazza Santa Croce and ended up having a conversation with a really nice American retiree visiting from Ohio with his wife on a tour. He was very excited because he had just found a cafe that served American style coffee and we talked while his wife was looking for jewelry. It was really nice to have a conversation with a fellow American because when I'm by myself I usually don't speak to anyone for hours.

I finished my sandwich and decided to head into Santa Croce Basilica to finally have a look around. It is one of the most beautiful churches in all of Italy and contains the tombs and mortal remains of Galileo, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli to just name a few. It also has a small museum and leather factory. I walked around for a couple of hours. It was so beautiful. One of the small chapels inside the church held the relics of Umiliana, a first female franciscan monk in Firenze. I took a picture of the sign for all of you and because I am nerd. It was totally creepy but also amazing -- the relics not the sign.

This is one of the large works housed in the museum at the back of the basilica. Unfortunately, I don't remember who it's by but I sat and stared at it for a while because it was unbelievably beautiful and the colors were so vibrant. Favorite painting so far.

I left the church, took a nap and tried to cook myself dinner which turned out to be a total fiasco and failure. I finally figured out how to work the gas range but kept accidentally snuffing out the flame by having the window open or turning the heat too low. I made boring spaghetti which cost twice as much and tasted half as good as any pasta I can find at any trattoria in Firenze. I think I may just snuff grocery shopping all together. It turns out to be so much more expensive and troublesome. Anyway, I ended up eating gelato and pizza like I do almost everyday. And it was excellent. Oh and I found my favorite pizza place finally. Gusta Pizza! It's about a 25 minute walk away but so worth it. Wood fired oven pizza, bubbly and crunchy. So good!

On Sunday, after yet another failed attempt to get to Ikea (I NEED a mattress topper and more pillows -- I wake up every morning in pain and I almost never sleep through the night) Carolyn and I headed for the leather market around Mercado Centrale. Later, had amazing chicken Cacciatore and tuscan white beans at Za Za's which I have heard is kind of famous. Definitely going back there! Then high-tailed it to work after which I headed home to eat the rest of my cacciatore and to bed early.

And here I am today. I tried to return some foam padding I bought for my bed that didn't work out for about the 50th time today but the store is never open when the posted hours says it will be. That is something that is sooooo common here. Stores open and close as they please which is aggravating. Really though, I like the pace of life here where nothing is really THAT big of a deal that you can't put it off until later. I think everyone can benefit from a little less stress and Italy is teaching me that.

This weekend I am heading to Pienza, Montepulciano and Sant'Antimo with the students and then hopefully to Munich on Saturday for the kickoff of Oktoberfest if we can get train tickets. Yeah!!!

Sorry the order of the pictures is totally messed up. They are impossible to wrangle.

Ravenna photos!!!

My front door.


I did manage to get a couple of photos of Ravenna off my camera after all! The other two are of the Mercado Centrale. We visited there last week to get some things for dinner.

Ravenna

On Friday, we headed to Ravenna. We visited some beautiful historic sites: the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Arian Baptistry, the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, the Basilica of San Vitale, and the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe. All of these shared one common characteristic: astoundingly detailed and beautiful byzantine-era mosaics. Good news -- it was totally amazing. Bad news -- my camera died about 15 feet in the first church, so I didn't get to take any pictures that day. I took a bunch of photos with a friends camera but those somehow got erased. Ah, life.

That day we had a beautiful lunch which I also don't have pictures of. We started with "misti" sort of like antipasto. Beautiful cured meats and parmigiana with fig jam and piadina (which are the Italian version of flatbread -- sort of like a pita) served with grilled peppers, zucchini, and roasted San Marzano tomatoes. 2nd course was a pasta course with a creamy meat sauce. Sounds weird but was totally delicious. Dessert was yogurt panna cotta with wild berry sauce and espresso. The coffee was so good. Everything was really good. Best meal yet, for sure.


The next day a few of us went to the Mercado Centrale to go food shopping. Along the way we did some shopping at the leather/tourist stuff market that surrounds the Mercado. Inside, we made our way to the food stalls. The produce here is so beautiful and astoundingly cheap. We bought 3 San Marzano tomatoes and a giant red pepper for only $0.67! Total. I couldn't believe it. I thought I misunderstood her Italian so I had her write down the total. You can't even buy a red pepper for less than 2 bucks in the states, let alone the tomatoes. Plus the quality here is FAR superior. Everything just tastes brighter. Anyway, we picked up some other things from the butcher and a bakery stall. We also managed to find fresh pasta, also unbelievably cheap.

Later that night, Carolyn, Kimmie, and Rae came over and we cooked some pasta and tossed it with olive oil and veggies. I think the whole meal for 4, including bread and wine, cost about 10 euros. Crazy. After dinner, we went for a stroll around the piazza Santa Croce and had gelato. A pretty good day to say the least.

This week marks the first week for my student assistants. Hiring is finalized - 5 total assistants (Betsi, Alyssa, Kate, Carolyn and Kimmie) - now I just have to train them so I can get a whole 2 days off and cut down my hours a little so that I'm not technically working overtime and not getting paid for it.

In other news, most of the businesses that were closed for the summer are officially re-opening today. I definitely noticed a sizable difference in the traffic volume on my way to work today. The good news is that the mattress store that is near my house will re-open so I can finally buy the eggcrate and pillows I have been dying for. I don't want to be a diva but I need four pillows to be happy.

Also, today is Kristen's birthday and I miss her. This is the kind of thing that makes it hard to be away. Anyway, Kristen I hope you have a great day today and I'll be thinking of you. I have a present for you but you have to come to Italy to pick it up!

This weekend I may go horseback riding. We shall see.

San Miniato al Monte and Piazzale Michelangleo

I wanted to post some of the pictures from last Sunday that didn't make it into the last post. This basilica was truly beautiful and the views were amazing. The pictures don't do it justice. Perched up on the hill, Firenze in the valley below seems so close that you could reach out and touch the duomo.

This week I am finalizing the selection of 4 more student assistants and running some updates on the computers. Once I get the student assistants up and running next week, I will be able to focus more on creating a new book display and do some other marketing via facebook. Really, I would also like to see the the leisure fiction section weeded and updated. I have some books that I plan to sell to a local anglo bookstore for store credit which I then can translate into new purchases. I'm not sure how much these kids plan to read while they are here but I want make sure they have some of the classics at their fingertips instead of the weird donated books that are currently available.

This week I also started Italian classes. Four days a week I head to the New Wing of the study center for an hour and half of intense Italiano. Of course, my previous years of Espanol are helping but they also keep getting in the way as I keep pronouncing everything in Spanish. Ah well. At least I'm learning.

Last night I left work for my evening stroll around the duomo. To change it up, I decided to find Mercado Nuovo before heading home. I walked a few blocks, rounded the corner and there he was -il Porcellino. Tradition says that a rub on the nose will ensure that you will someday return to Firenze. Leaving the mercado I f0und a busy shopping street and was window shopping my way up the street until I realized I was standing on il Ponte Vecchio. One of the most amazing parts of Firenze is how truly small it is. No matter which way you turn you end up stopped in front of some world famous historical sight.

Leaving the Ponte Vecchio, I headed home and stumbled upon a grocery store that is about 5 times closer to my house than the one I had been going to. It's also much cleaner and less crowded! God, I'm so relieved. Anyway, picked up some stuff for dinner and a 3 euro bottle of chianti (which, by the way, is pretty tasty). I also found some beautiful little strawberries and - get this - the international foods section of the store! They have soy sauce, ketchup, taco sauce and tabasco sauce!!! At least I know I can get some form of hot sauce if need be.

Looking forward to Ravenna and its mosaics on Friday and a relaxing Saturday off. Hope to finally get inside Santa Croce at some point this weekend. A domani!

Florence, I'm Yours

Well, I have arrived! My apartment is very Italian and adorable but not very photogenic. I'm on the top floor and it's quite a climb but the view of Santa Croce from my bedroom window makes it totally worth it! I've never had a little apartment to myself before (let alone one in Europe) and this one is everything I've ever wanted. Check out my door!

Last night at 9:30, after a hectic day at work attempting to get my bearings before the students arrived, I treated my self to a 2 euro gelato and a stroll around Piazza Santa Croce. It was definitely a "this is one of the best moments of my life" experiences. Santa Croce is literally about 10 steps from my front door and it is always populated by tourists, but at night a lot of Italians come out to have a stroll, too. I feel so lucky to live in this area. The presence of tourists may mean higher prices in some cases but it also means extended hours, lots of people around, and tons of cute restaurants and bars.

I'm really liking everyone here and getting acquainted with the city is an adventure. My credit card has already been declined twice (both times I was told so in Italian - so I had no idea what they were saying). I've fixed it for now. The language barrier is getting more cumbersome by the day. Hopefully, I will be able to sit in on Italian classes this semester if I can get the student assistants' schedules figured out. I want to learn how to speak or at least understand Italian NOW! I really wish I had pursued it more while I was still in the states.

Overall, I'm settling into my job and my new city very nicely except for the vomiting and jet lag.

My library is lovely. Really excited to get to know the collection and the daily ins and outs of the place. Here is a picture of the 10,000 keys I have to open all the doors at my apt and the library. So cool ... and this is just the beginning!