Che bella vacanza!

This past weekend definitely ranks among my favorites this fall. The festivities started on Thursday night, when we all went to Teatro Del Sale, a dinner-theater in Florence, for Emily's birthday! On the way there, Nell and I stopped several times to admire the Christmas lights that have gone up all over the city!


The dinner part was completely bewildering. It was a buffet (Italians can't even wait in line at the post office, did anyone REALLY expect them to line up when food entered the equation?) with a chef famous not only for his delicious food but his propensity to yell (I personally was yelled at twice, once for being American and once for drinking coffee; people tried to assure me it was because he liked me, but it was LOUD). Needles to say that was fun, and the show was GREAT--it was a series of funny songs, most of which we couldn't understand but liked anyway. The lineup also included an Italian version of "I Will Survive," which we were VERY excited about. The chorus translated to "When I imagine for myself a life without you, I will miss you, but you know that"--not quite what Gloria Gaynor was going for, I think, but it rhymes in Italian. As this picture will attest, we were all very jolly:


We couldn't stay out too late because Amanda, Carolyn, Meghan and I had an obscenely early flight the next morning to Paris--making it perhaps the only time I've set my alarm for 4am without resentment. In Paris we met up with Nana, Jenna, and Carly--as well as various people we knew from school studying in Paris--and did/saw as much as we possibly could in about 48 hours. One of my favorite things we saw was Notre Dame.

The Italian cathedrals are beautiful, but Gothic never really found its way to the peninsula, which means Italy is severely lacking in stained glass. I went a little overboard with window-pictures, so here's just one (my favorite):

As we were leaving, we ran into Nana and Carly a couple hours before we expected to, and were so pleased we immediately took a picture with the cathedral and its Christmas tree:


Later that afternoon we went the Louvre...

...and did what would have been one of the fastest tours ever (we'd already been to a museum that day, in our defense, and even a fast tour of the Louvre is pretty long) if we hadn't gotten COMPLETELY lost trying to find our way out.

After that, we went to the Eiffel Tower to see the light show (at night, it's lit up every hour on the hour). Unfortunately, we got there at 8:15 and had to wait until 9:00, but it was worth it!


While there was more to the weekend, I have two papers to write by this time next week, so I need to get going. There may be another entry or two, but there may not--I guess you'll just have to sit through all my stories in person after this!

Bacioni, bacini, alla settimana prossima!

Il Giorno di Ringrazimento a Zermatt

Happy late Thanksgiving! I hope you all enjoyed the time off/festivities/food back home; I was pretty sad to miss Thanksgiving in the States, not gonna lie. But, in celebration of our long weekend, Amanda, Devon and I headed off to Zermatt, Switzerland to meet up with Wes & Cole (who flew from Berlin to Geneva and then DROVE, better them than me), and Julie (who flew into Milan and thus got in on the excellent early-morning-trains-to-Switzerland part of the adventure).

Wes found us a chalet to stay in for the weekend, which was really adorable. It was sooo nice to have a place all of our own for the weekend (and, since it was Thanksgiving, really handy to have a kitchenette--the Swiss aren't big on American holidays, go figure.) Here's a view of the chalet from the street:

In addition to its cuteness, it had two balconies with GREAT views. Here is the view from Amanda's and my balcony:


The whole town, to be honest, was pretty adorable. It was mostly a main street, with a few blocks of chalets on either side, and wonderful views of the Alps (including the Matterhorn!).


But (unlike your average Swiss hamlet, I think) everything was a ski shop, a ski gear shop, a ski rental shop, a souvenier shop, a chocolate shop, or a restaurant--a little odd, but then again, I'm not sure the town has much of a native population to speak of.

Since Thursday was our first night in Zermatt, we decided to do what we could to make an American Thanksgiving dinner--luckily the town had a decent-sized grocery store, and although there were some substitutions (cranberry jam for cranberry sauce and chicken for turkey, to name two), it was both delicious and REALLY fun to make. The girls made the food...


...we all sat down to eat...



...and then the boys had to do the dishes.


Even the train ride to and from Zermatt was very quaint and Swiss; we sort of felt like we were on a toy-train going through a fake Christmas landscape, bright red train and all. Although I slept most of the ride back to Brig, I did manage to get a few pictures in:



Since I'm currently in class, I think I'll get back to work. Less than 3 weeks until home! Baci, a prestissimo!

Una Reunione a Ginevra

This weekend I visited my friend Emily in Geneva! Having never been to Switzerland before, I was pretty excited. And here we are, as happy as very rained-on clams (there's been a lot of rain in this part of the world this past week or two):


Stevie visited that weekend too (it was a veritable mini-reunion), as did Emily's friend Mabel from Wellesley. Emily took the three of us to all the touristy spots. One of my favorites was the Red Cross museum; "fun" isn't quite the way to describe it, but it was fascinating. We also went outside the UN (apparently the tour isn't so great)...

...and to the Reformation Wall...

...which is according to Emily the most visited tourist attraction in Geneva. It's a wall, with sculptures of the main Reformation guys. They're not jolly guys, neither as theologians nor as art, but they can still draw their fair share of crowds, it seems.

My favorite thing in Geneva (aside from the company, of course) was the scenery: trees, hills, water. (Any of you who have had the misfortune of driving with me on 280 or 92 in California will know how excited I get about these three things.) Emily took us to the Geneva Botanical Gardens, which I was sooo happy about; there are no trees in Florence (or, apparently there ARE trees, but only in private gardens so I can't see them) so I'd missed autumn foliage, but it was everywhere in Geneva. As was the lake. And hills that just happened to be in France.



Emily's least favorite thing is the Jet D'Eau--a wonderfully inventive name for a really tall jet of water. I'm not quite sure what it's for, but... it's there.


I also saw my first Christmas lights of the season in Geneva! (They've since been put up in Florence, too.) Here are the lights on a grocery store, that seemed like a good Christmas-Hannukah hybrid:


Now I'm off to my last class before Thanksgiving, and then to the Alps for the long weekend! Please eat extra Thanksgiving food on my behalf. :)

Un'avventura a Venezia!

Two weekends ago, my parents came to visit! It was sooo good to see them! (For one thing, they're excellent travel buddies, and for another thing, they're the only people in Italy who complement my Italian!) They got to spend one day in Florence without me (I was on a fieldtrip to Rome--don't worry, it wasn't actually exciting, although I did learn that hearing about the Italian budget is almost more interesting when you can't understand the language well), and then we went to Venice for the weekend!

Our B&B was very close to Basilico San Marco--which was by far my favorite single thing in Venice. I've seen a LOT of cathedrals and basilicos and duomos and chapels of every size and kind in the past two months, and the only one I've liked as much as San Marco is the Medici Chapel in Florence. Although no pictures were allowed inside, no one could stop us from taking pictures of the mosaics over the door...

We also got to climb up to the little balcony up near the roof, which had cool mosaics, too:

And here's a shot of the parents!


One of the scarier parts of Venice was how clearly it was sinking. When we were waiting in line to visit St. Mark's, there were little makeshift plank walkways set up in the piazza, because the whole piazza was a few inches deep in water. Apparently this happens fairly often, when wind blows water from the canals into the city.


One handy thing about a city on the water is that it's very photogenic, especially around sunset:




That's all I have now; get ready for Geneva pictures next week!!!

Il Viaggio Bing!

So, I've been slacking off a bit about the posting--sorry :(

Two weeks ago was our Bing Trip, when all of us here in the Stanford in Florence program get a weekend of travel paid for by the Bings, who are very, VERY rich alums. This quarter the trip was to Naples, Pompeii, and the Amalfi Coast. Pretty much amazing.

After a long (very long) train ride to Naples, the first thing we did was get on a bus to go to Pompeii--and promptly sit for 25 minutes in a traffic jam IN THE PARKING LOT. I'm not even kidding. Pompeii was 100% worth the effort, though; it was far and away my favorite part of the trip. It was just so... impressive, both how well preserved everything was and how advanced the urban design and the technology were, considering it was a fairly small and unimportant town built over two millenia ago... Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the ruins:





One thing that really freaked me out about Pompeii was that there were stray dogs everywhere. For the most part they lay completely motionless, but every once in a while they would suddenly start following us or chasing each other. Here's a picture of several of them fighting in front of the remains of the forum and Mt. Vesuivius.


The next day was our tour of the Amalfi coast; we drove along tiny, TINY little cliff roads along the coast and stopped at a few of the towns. The only thing to say about this is that it was ridiculously beautiful. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea:




On our third and final day, we went to Naples. And by "went to Naples" I mean "went to a monastery and then a pizzeria outside the city and again saw Naples through the bus windows." The Stanford Center staff didn't want to give any of us the opportunity to be robbed or hit by a car in Naples (two things they warned us about extensively and assured us would happen to anyone who was in Naples for a significant amount of time). I can't say I'm too disappointed, though; when I got back to Florence, I saw a story about cops and bodybags in Naples. It turns out we left just before the Mafia turf war started there... Not too sorry to miss it, to be honest.

Now I actually have to study, seeing as I have a midterm in two hours, but be on the lookout for my next post: The Ross-Sullivan family (sadly minus Jocelyn) does Venice!

Bacioni, a presto!

Un Weekend Qua a Firenze

This weekend my friend Stevie and her roommate came down from Milan to see Florence, so I got to see them! We spent all of Saturday doing touristy things; the one downside was the twelve hours of POURING rain. Here is a view from my habitual spot in the covered statue display (I'm sure it has a real name, but I don't know it) in Piazza della Signoria, looking out at all the poor soaking tourists.


After the Uffizi, we went to the Medici Chapels--they're my favorite museum/church in Florence, and yet they don't allow pictures. No big deal. I'm not really upset about it or anything. After that we went to the Duomo:


The inside of the Duomo is too dark to be particularly photographable, but there are two photos that actually came out: a view of the nave of the cathedral and a votive-candle tree.



It sounds ridiculous, but I found the Duomo, which is AMAZING from the outside, relatively unimpressive on the inside (compared to the rest of Florence--I guess I'm getting spoiled). After that we went to the leather market at San Lorenzo (Stevie and Sarah got leather jackets) and then out to Florence's most famous Mexican restaurant for dinner. It would've been intolerable in the US, but somehow it hit the spot.

This weekend is the Bing Trip to Naples, Pompei, and the Amalfi Coast--YAY! Pictures next week :)

Parli Italiano?

I’ve realized that my blog is thus far long on photos and short on stories, so this entry will be photo-free. In general, Florence is wonderful; I’m so so so SO happy I decided to study abroad here. I live less than 10 minutes from Michelangelo’s David, I live within one hour of the Mediterranean and two of the Adriatic, and the province I'm staying in is famous for wine; that’s a good indication of just how amazing my quarter is. Perhaps my only source of stress, and my main source of stories, is my struggle with the Italian language.

The only thing I truly fear in Italy (aside from strikes) is dinner parties. My host mom has a lot of friends, and likes to have them over for dinner; so far, so good. They’re very nice, and the few who are over fairly often realize I have some trouble and speak slowly to me, and I am able to participate at least marginally in the conversation. But on the nights I’m beckoned to dinner in the dining room—not the table in the kitchen where we usually eat—I realize the night will be full of well-educated. rapidly-speaking Italians, making puns and telling jokes and discussing politics and the aging of cheeses in all sorts of ways I don’t understand. This was the case last night (and yes, the cheese discussion was real, and horrendously confusing, with everyone making all sorts of gestures that cannot possibly be related in any way to cheese but were clearly very important and expressive). At the beginning of the meal, when everyone said “Buon Appetito!”, my roommate and I were called on to supply the American equivalent. I tried to explain that there wasn’t one, exactly; the Italians were skeptical and kept rephrasing the question, thinking I didn’t understand. As the meal went on, things only got more complicated. I focused so intently on everyone as they spoke (both in the hopes of understanding ANYTHING and to be ready for the occasional question asked of me) that Francesca likened me following the conversation to someone watching a soccer game. (It might have been embarrassing if it weren’t so true.) When I left the table to go study, I tried to explain to the guests: “I have to read a book for my classroom about the history of Italy. There is an exam next week.” One guest politely asked if the class is on art history or general history. “General history, yes. From the Unification until today. I like it very much. And, the street near here named Cavour, and I did not know of Cavour—One day we have studied Cavour in class, and after I was learned what that means, I am happy.” Well done, me.

And now, I am off to be learned more for my classroom. Bacioni, a presto!