Italy

Hola everybody!

After hectic finals and a fun last few nights with the Rome kids, it was time for a new adventure to begin. My best friend Stephanie from Notre Dame met up with me in Rome on Saturday morning before we set off to Spain for our month of research in Madrid and Barcelona. I can't believe we are finally here! We have been working on our grants and planning this trip for months! I waited for Steph at the arrivals gate and we had one of those movie-style reunions. It was so good to see her again! Even though she was jet-lagged, I dragged her all through Rome to show her what my life has been like for the past few months. We stopped at the market to pick up some fresh ciabatta bread, prosciutto, mozzarella and tomato to make ourselves some sandwiches for lunch. Then, I made her do the 2.1 mile walk to school...I'm kind of evil like that. On the way over we stopped for Old Bridge one last time to get some gelato. How sad! ...and then we stopped at the Vatican to get the classic photo in front of St. Peter's...

Then, we wandered around Trastevere for a while, and I showed her JCU. I finally took some photos, so you can get an idea of what my school was like:

The main hallway of the Guarini Campus

The Lemon Tree Courtyard, where we ate lunch, hung out between classes, etc...

The view over Trastevere from the Top Terrace of school

Then, we headed back to the apartment so Steph could take a quick nap and I could do some final packing. We went out to dinner with some of the Rome girls that decided to stay a couple extra nights as well. We went to Da Baffetto for dinner (which is one of the best pizza places in Rome) for some authentic Italian pizza. Later, we met up with my Italian friend Pier for one last night of fun in Rome! Pier is an oral surgeon I met while doing a language exchange a few weeks ago; I proofread an English article for him in exchange for a mini-cooper tour of the city. He picked us up in his brand new red mini-cooper and took us to some places we wouldn't have known about unless we were native Romans. We went to an Italian bar (which I don't think had ever served an American before) and had some fun walking around the neighborhood with all the embassies. Since we both were tired from a long day and had to get up really early the next morning to leave for Spain, we headed back early to try and jam more than 20kilos into each of our suitcases!

Buon giorno a tutti!

So yesterday, I decided to take an excursion that my hostel offered to Capri. I am told to wait downstairs in the lobby at 9:30am for the car to come pick me up and take me to the boat. Well, at 9:30, an Italian guy with a helmet under his arm comes walking into the lobby, and asks me if I’m taking to the tour to Capri. I say yes, he says, ok, ciao, I’m Agostino, I pick you up in scooter since you’re the only one from here today. (Sure enough, there was a little black Vespa waiting outside.) Are you ok with that? He asked. Little did he know he was fulfilling my Italian dreams of riding around Italy on a Vespa! I’m fine, I said, just let me wear the helmet. So I climbed onto the motorino held on to Agostino for dear life, and we were off, zooming down the coastline on the motorino. It was SO FUN! Why haven’t I ridden a motorino before???

Anyway, then we arrive at the port. Agostino leads me up the dock, and introduces me to all the old, weathered, ship captains. They kiss me on my two cheeks; it’s now like I’m a part of their big happy, Italian seafaring family. We keep going, and arrive at Agostino’s boat. It’s medium-sized, about big enough for 10-12 people aboard. Agostino gets the boat ready to depart while I relax and observe the port. It’s turning out to be a sunny day: a beautiful day for a boat ride.

Finally, the guests arrive from the other hotels. We were 10 in all. There were 2 middle-aged ladies from the UK with their elderly mother (every year they give their Mom a trip to somewhere exotic for Christmas, how nice?), a woman from Canada, and 5 kids my age from the Boston-area who were in Italy to visit their friend, who had just finished her study abroad program in Perugia. Agostino and Francesco were our boat captains for the day. All in all, we were an eclectic mix, but by the end of the day, it seemed like we had all been life-long friends.

Next, we started up the engines, and took off from the port in Piano di Sorrento, a little port outside of Sorrento. Agostino drove the boat piano, piano (slowly, slowly), as we navigated our way along the coastline to catch views of Sorrento from the water.

That's the park in Sorrento I was at the day before!

I took about a million photographs. Everything just seemed so beautiful and intriguing!

After reaching the tip of the peninsula, the boat took off high speed toward the island of Capri. Agostino let one of the UK ladies, Allison drive the boat. Has she ever driven a boat before, no? But it’s no problem, not hard to drive boat, says Agostino. That’s the laid-back, Italian mindset here. Luckily we didn’t die. Haha.

Reaching the harbor, we docked and disembarked. We had 3.5 hours to go explore Capri, and meet the boat back where it left us. I immediately ran to catch the bus to Anacapri. All of my friends had been to Capri already, and told me Anacapri was lest touristy. The bus ride was a bit nerve-wracking; the streets are carved into the sides of the cliff, so sometimes, it seems as if the bus is jutting out right over the ocean, and all you can see under you is blue see, hundreds of meters down, but as always, we made it to Capri just fine. All my friends also had handmade Caprese sandals from Anacapri. So I had the man’s name written down on a little piece of paper, and was determined to find him. First I got lost, and accidentally ended up at a villa/museum. It was Axel Munthe’s villa. Apparently he was a Scandanavian guy who was a big deal here…I should really wikipedia him. But anyway, he had great views of the island from his villa!

The Cliff-side Roads...

I backtracked to the main square, and tried another off-shoot street. Anacapri’s TINY, so I knew I’d find this guy eventually. Sure enough, two stores down: L’arte del sandalo di Antonio Viva. (The art of the sandal, by Antonio Viva) I walk up to this old-guy, just chilling outside and making sandals. I say in Italian, all my friends told me to come here to get your sandals. He replies, Your friends tell you right! So he shows me all his different sandal styles. He picks up one green sandal, and says, this is the kind I make for Giada when she come, you American girl, you know Giada? I say yes, of course I know the chef Giada Di Laurentis, from her show Everyday Italian on the Food Network. I love that show! I guess she brought her show to Capri once, and filmed him making sandals for her. Antonio has his young helper guy bring me into his shop, where I try on sample sandals in different styles. Then I get to choose the colors of leather I want and everything! I sit down, and watch Antonio make my sandals, while the young guy runs next door and gets us espresso. I asked him how much the espresso was, so I could reimburse him, but he says, no, on me. This is part of our services, you know, sandals and espresso (yeah, right…). Anyway, I talk to Antonio as he’s making my sandals, and find out he’s being doing this since he was 8 or 9 years old, when he helped his dad. Now, he’s been making sandals for over 50 years, and a lot of famous people have come to his shop, you can see them in the photographs pasted all over the windows. In 10 minutes flat, I had a brand new pair of sandals. I try them on, they left me extra room since I have high arches, but there is a little too much room. No problem, Antonio takes them back and adjusts them until they're perfect. So at the end of the day, I have a pair of handmade leather sandals, custom-fitted for my feet. Can’t beat that!

Then I decided to call and check in with Mom. They like to hear that I haven’t gotten hit by a car or anything…(not actually funny though, because my friend did get hit by a car when she was visiting Greece). Anyway, as I’m recounting my latest adventures to Mom, I accidentally get lost among the twisty, turny alleyways. She’ll tell you, I kept saying to her, “yeah, so I don’t really know where I am right now, but I am just going to keep walking…” Eventually, I saw a sign for the blue grotto, so I know I had gotten waaay off course. But I did rather easily find my way back to Anacapri, I’m getting so good at getting un-lost in foreign countries now! I caught the bus, got off at Capri and walked around for about 10 minutes, and then took the funicular back down to the marina. Right on schedule, the boat comes floating into the harbor.

We all jump back in, and then the boat takes off, this time, touring around the coast of the island. Agostino and Francesco first stop at the White Grotto, where we jumped off the boat and walked up some perilous stairs carved into the cliff, up to the cave, where Francesco had to lead us through the dark abyss, everyone holding hands, until we reached the light again. The inside of the grotto was so cool! You could tell from up there how brilliantly blue the water was.

We got back on the boat, and they dropped anchor nearby the grotto. So we stopped for a while to eat some lunch they packed for us, and to go swimming. I was being a scaredy-cat, afraid of the cold water, but Agostino kept saying, it’s only cold for 20 seconds, then you’re fine. The Canadian woman told me she’d jump if I jumped, so on the count of three, we jumped into the water together. I actually have some videos of this event, because I asked Allison to take photos, and she accidentally took video. I'll post them when I get back to Rome and can actually upload them.

After swimming, I ate a delicious Caprese sandwich, and the best orange I’ll probably ever eat in my whole life. I’m going to miss Italian produce! Then, we took off again, and continued our tour of the island. We passed by some rocks, which are supposed to mark the place where, according to legend, Ulysses encountered the Cyclops on his odyssey home.

Then we passed into the Emerald Grotto. Agostino kept saying, the green bay, the green bay, and I was thought it was hilarious. So I took a bunch of pictures for the Packer fans back home.

Eventually, after passing the northern point of the island, with the lighthouse, we cruised up to the Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto is probably one of the sights Capri is most famous for. Usually, you have to catch a bus there, walk down stairs, where you are required to pay 10€ to get in a little dinghy which takes you in for about a minute before the next dinghy comes. It’s literally a little hole in the rock. You can’t even get in with a dinghy on a day when the waters are choppy. Well, after 4:30, the dinghy guys leave. So the Canadian woman and I jumped off the boat and swam into the grotto ourselves. I was definitely scared, because they kept saying, it’ll be dark, but just keep swimming…yeah, ok. But we did as told, and sure enough, we keep swimming into the darkness, asking each other, are we there yet? I turn around to keep an eye on Canadian lady, and I suddenly realize, the water is glowing blue. I tell her, just turn around, we’re already here! So I guess it’s kind of an optical illusion, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s the best one ever. After swimming around in awe for like two minutes, we high-tailed it out of there, because there were big, dark, scary caverns all around us, creeping us out. We got back on board, and zoomed away.

This is what the little hole in the rock looks like, and that's one of the dinghy's they use to get in there...but there weren't any when I was there...

This is what the Blue Grotto looks like from inside.

This time, we left Capri, and Agostino drove the boat as fast as he could back to Sorrento because there were some very, very ominous clouds in the distance. He kept saying, “Tempesta, Cazzo!”, basically, “Shit, what a storm!”. But we managed to get back to port before the rain hit.

Overall, it was probably one of the best days of my life. What an amazing boat tour!

Ciao, ciao for now. Alyssa.

Ciao belli!

Guess what? I’m baaack!!! Sorry about the hiatus, I have been swamped with final papers, presentations, and tests. But I’m here now to tell you all about my current adventures!

So since last week was so crazy, I actually had a pretty light finals schedule. That meant, that while everyone is now studying frantically for finals, I have no exams. Therefore, I decided I couldn’t leave Italy without seeing some kind of coast, whether the Amalfi or the Cinque Terre. So after hearing from everyone how great Sorrento was, I decided to check it out. Everyone’s already been, so I couldn’t find a travel buddy, but I now feel confident enough to go it alone. (well, maybe confident's not the word...but I knew I could do it!) It’s kind of lonely sometimes, but on the other hand, I get to do whatever I want! It’s fun!

First, I took the train down from Rome to Naples. I got to Termini Station early, and bumped into this interesting artwork:

After a two-hour train ride, I arrived in Napoli (Naples), and switched to the Circumvesuviana train. *Circumvesuviana means “around Vesuvius”

Another hour later, I arrived in a small town outside Sorrento called Sant’Agnello, where my hostel was located. As I walked to the hostel, I passed by several groves of lemon trees, where the lemons are used to make limoncello, yum! As you can imagine, it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, and the air was fragrant with the smell of citrus. Heavenly!

Then I arrived at my accommodation. Seven Hostel. The hostel is located in a renovated building that is attached to the church. But as I discovered, this wasn’t really a hostel in the sense I’m used to. The Seven is more like a resort with the word “hostel” tacked onto its name. Seriously, this place is immaculate compared to most of the places I’ve been to; and, it had a sundeck with amazing views!

After dropping off my stuff, I decided to walk into Sorrento. It was a nice day, and only a 25-minute walk. As I wound my way through the narrow streets back toward the train station, I encountered an old-man on his porch, singing as he watered his flowers. As I was about to turn the corner, I caught his eye, and he cried out “Hello! Hello!” I said a big “Ciao!” back to him, and kept walking with a smile on my face. I love running into pleasant people! I decided to take the main road, because there were supposed to be cute little shops, etc…, but the traffic-noise was just a bit overwhelming. I diverted from the main road, and ran into a lemon grove, where they were offering free tastes of their homemade limoncello. They serve it ICE COLD. I never realized this was the proper way to serve it, but it tastes much better this way, less burning as it goes down! Finally, I reached Sorrento, which is a quaint little sea-port town, with a LOT of tourist traps! Too many high-priced limoncello and souvenir shops for me, but it was definitely clean and pretty with all the flower boxes everywhere. I accidentally stumbled into a public park, and found a stairway down the cliff-side and to the water. The water is so BLUE! I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s so iridescent and beautiful.

It was getting pretty near sunset then, so I hiked back up the cliff and decided to take a quieter way home on the back streets by the hotels. This route was also way more picturesque, and I caught these great seaside views.

When I got back to my hostel, I met my roommates for the night: Loisa, a teacher from Melbourne, Australia, Lauren from Toronto, Canada, who’s studying in Denmark, and another Lauren from New Jersey, USA, who’s studying in Perugia. We lounged in our room for a while and got to know each other, and then headed down to the hostel’s bar to have dinner together. I was so glad to make fast friends! It’s very reassuring when you’re traveling by yourself!

Now, I’m sitting out in the courtyard with the stars twinkling above me writing this post to you guys. Ahhh, la vita è veramente bella!

A domani!

Hey everyone,

So by now, I am sure that some of you have heard about the devastating earthquake that hit central Italy this morning. I just want to let you all know that I am thankfully safe and unharmed.

Ciao,
Alyssa

Ciao a tutti!

On last Friday morning, my friends, Charlie, Fatima, Mark, Renae, and I boarded a train to Florence. Charlie and Renae are in an on-site art history class about the Renaissance, so they were going for a class field trip, and Fatima, Mark, and I decided to tag along for a weekend of sightseeing. I once read the classic novel, Room With A View, and I remember the plot being centered on a young woman’s first trip to Florence. So I downloaded the audio book version to my ipod and listened to it during the train ride. Between hearing about the character’s visits to Florence’s famous sites, and watching the Tuscan countryside pass by through the window, I couldn’t have spent a better 3 hours in preparation for my arrival to this famous city.

"He had asked the girl whether she knew Florence well, and was informed at some length, that she had never been there before..." -Room with a View

After disembarking from the train, we first decided to find our hostel. We noticed that Florence seemed to be more open and green than Rome. We ended up walking along the city’s bike path to get to our hostel. I wish Rome had trails and bike paths! 15 minutes later, we located our hostel. It’s called DanyHouse B&B, and it was more on the outskirts of Florence. It was another small, homey, kind of place. When we walked in, the people who ran the place asked if we were hungry, and set us down at the kitchen table with plates of pasta carbonara and some vino da tavola (the stuff in the box). The owners of the hostel were very nice and laid back. They spoke English well, but once they found out we spoke a little Italian, they wouldn’t let us speak English anymore, saying we should practice our Italian! They gave us a map of the city, and circled all the sights worth seeing, and suggested their favorite places in the city for gelato and dinner.

Our friends in the Rome program, Maria and Christina, have three uncles in Florence who run a coffee bar. They gave us the address and told us to check it out while we were in Florence. Well, we found out that the caffè bar was only about two blocks from our B&B! So we decided to head over there first thing for an afternoon dose of espresso to wake us up. Once we got in the bar, we mentioned Maria and Christina to the guys working there, and they looked really excited and started chattering away in Italian. They only spoke Italian, so it was a little more difficult explaining how we knew the girls than we expected! I had a caffè latte, and when we went up to the register to pay they said of course not! It was on them! And they entreated us to come back tomorrow morning for breakfast! We promised to see them on the morrow, and then parted to do some sight-seeing.

The largest and most imposing sight in Florence is the Duomo. This Duomo is MASSIVE, it's impossible to capture it in one photo! This Duomo's name is Santa Maria del Fiore, and it is set right in the heart of Florence. It's size was meant to stand as a testament to Florentine determination to lead in all things, and even today, there are no buildings in the city taller than the Duomo. The Duomo has a Neo-Gothic marble façade The sanctuary inside is shaped like an octagon, and the entire interior was built to house 20,000 people! But by far the most impressive part of the Duomo is the dome itself. It was designed by Brunelleschi. This dome was a revolutionary achievement, because it was actually built without scaffolding! There's an inner shell that provides a platform for the timbers of the outer shell. It's a 463 step climb to the top, but it was worth every exasperated breath for the breathtaking view!

Next door to the Duomo is the Baptistry. It's known for its famous Doors of Paradise. The Baptistry is actually one of Florence's oldest buildings. It dates back to the 4th century! The doors of the Baptistry were commissoned in 1401 to mark Florence's deliverance from the plague, and Ghiberti was chosen from among the likes of Donatello and Brunelleschi for the honor of crafting them. Ghiberti worked on the doors for over 21 years. They were actually dubbed the "Doors of Paradise" by Michelangelo himself! Since the artistic style of the doors was so different from the Gothic art of the time, these doors were said to be the first product of the Renaissance.

The Campanile is the bell tower that stands next to the Duomo, it was designed by Giotto in 1334, and it was completed in 1359, 22 years after he died.

After exploring the Duomo, we checked out the San Lorenzo market. The San Lorenzo market gets its name from the San Lorenzo church in the center of all the shopping. This whole area is connected with the Medici family, especially Cosimo il Vecchio, who was the founder of the Medici dynasty. He commissioned San Lorenzo as well as the Palazzo Medici Riccardi which is located in the same area. This market is one of the best in Florence. Florence is known for its cows apparently; their specialties are Florentine steak, and Florentine leather! We would have loved to check out the interior of San Lorenzo, but unfortunately, every single church and monument in Florence has an entrance fee. During our trip, we had lots of WWJD? moments. If Jesus came back today he would totally be turning over tables all over Florence! After bargaining with market vendors for some souvenirs, and eating some delicious pear & chocolate gelato, we met up with our friends after they finished class and headed for dinner at the restaurant our hostel owner recommended. It was a delicious meal!

After dinner, we decided to walk down and see the Ponte Vecchio at night. It's this really old bridge with lots of expensive jewelry shops on it! We were all really beat from a day of traveling, but on our way back to the hostel, we heard music floating to our ears from the direction of the Uffizi Gallery, so we followed and much to our surprise, found an American folk singer playing Paul Simon on his guitar. He looked like a backpacker, and had only one amp, but the way the Uffizi gallery is situated, it naturally amplifies everything, so it sounded like a concert hall for the evening. He was really good, so we decided to hang out for a while, which ended up being over an hour! This guy played all our favorites, from Paul Simon, to Led Zeppelin, to James Taylor, to the Beatles, and even U2! Every time we got up to leave, he started playing another song that we loved, so we would sit back down! All in all, it was a great way to finish the evening, and get a wholesome dose of Americana to treat my homesickness.

For the life of me I cannot figure out how my computer turns these photos around the wrong way, so please don't look at the picture, and just enjoy the music!

On Saturday morning, we did indeed go back to our friends' uncles' bar, Caffè Guirovich, for breakfast. It was very busy that morning, and when we walked in we were greeted with a hearty Buon giorno! from the uncles. They were so glad to have us back! We drank the best cappuccinos of our lives! I'm serious, I've never had a cappuccino as good as this one, and one of the girls' uncles also recommended a delicious homemade pastry to go with it. I know now why Maria and Christina have such a penchant for baking! The uncles asked us what we had done the day before, and what our plans were for today, and I told him we were interested in going outside the city to the hill town of Fiesole. The uncle was so helpful, drawing us a map, and giving us directions to get to the bus stop, and of course, once again, they wouldn't let us pay for our wonderful breakfast! It was such a pleasure to meet them, they were so generous to people they didn't even know!

"It is delightful to advise a new-comer, and he was first in the field...'Don't neglect the country round,' said Mr. Beebe, 'the first fine afternoon drive up to Fiesole'"-Room with a View

As I just mentioned, that day I wanted to explore the hill town of Fiesole. It was only a short bus ride from Florence, and supposedly offered beautiful views. It was a gorgeous day, and Fiesole was beautiful as well! They had a quaint church, and a cool museum-park of an ancient ampitheater, and some Etruscan ruins. We followed a sign that said "passeggiata panoramica", "scenic walk", and found an awesome overlook of Florence. Unfortunately, the day was a bit hazy and we couldn't see the Duomo as clearly as we would have liked.

"Presently Mr. Eager gave a signal for the carriages to stop and marshalled the party for their ramble on the hill. A hollow like a great amphitheatre, full of terraced steps and misty olives, now lay between them and the heights of Fiesole, and the road, still following its curve, was about to sweep on to a promontory which stood out in the plain."-Room with a View

Ever since I watched Samantha Brown's Passport to Europe Florence episode on Travel Channel, I have wanted to check out the little Tuscan restaurant she visited on her trip. Well, we found out from the Travel Channel website that it was called Le Cave di Maiano, and was located just outside of Fiesole. We had an address, but no map, so we relied on directions from Italian people we asked to get there. They ended up entailing a 1 km walk down the hill on the main road to Florence, and then another 1 km walk on a narrow, winding country road to reach the village of Maiano. On our way, we saw a huge tract of fenced off property, and found out it belonged to the famous Italian shoemaker, Salvatore Ferragamo! This was probably the most beautiful walk I have ever taken along a country road, with views of the Tuscan countryside and Florence the whole way. Eventually, we reached Maiano, and found the street we were looking for. It was an even smaller country road that looked like it led to nowhere! I was starting to get nervous, considering the restaurant was #16, and building #14 was an abandoned olive press...but a lot further down the road, we turned a corner and discovered the cutest little Tuscan restaurant you ever saw. To check out the clip that started this whole adventure, visit: http://www.travelchannel.com/Video_%26_Photos/Video_Detail?videoRef=TITLE52

At the restaurant, we probably had one of the best meals we'll eat in Italy. Everything was fresh and homemade. The liver pâté crostini was scrumptious, and I don't even like pâté! My mom would have really appreciated it! Mark and I tried the Pappardelle alla cinghiale. A typical Tuscan dish of broad noodles covered in wild boar ragù. We washed it all down with a nice bottle of Chianti: the wine of the Tuscan region.

After our excursion up into the foothills, we were wiped out. We decided to take a short siesta before heading back out to sight-see! After a refreshing nap, we walked into Florence, and met up with our friend Renae to go see Dante's House. I'm studying Dante right now in a Dante's Divine Comedy class taught in Italian. Dante is EVERYWHERE in Florence, so the whole weekend was sort of a Dante pilgrimage for those of us in the class! Next to Dante's House, was Dante's Church, where his famed lady-love, Beatrice, is laid to rest. For the rest of the evening, we wandered around the city center, stopping it at shops, etc... while we passed the time before dinner. We saw the piazza di Santa Croce, where there is a huge statue of Dante, and is also the location where Roberto Benigni recited the entire Divine Comedy in front of all of Florence. He does a passionate rendition of it. Dinner was free at our hostel that night, so we returned and met up with a large group of our friends who had also traveled with us to Florence while on their spring break for the London Study Abroad Program. It was great to hang out in the hostel and talk, and for dessert we had some Cantucci, sweet almond biscotti, dipped in Vin Santo, a special Italian dessert wine. It was heavenly!

"The clever lady then said that she was going to spend a long morning in Santa Croce, and if Lucy would come too, she would be delighted."-Room with a View

On our final morning in Florence, we headed out early go to mass, and then to check out the museums. We attended mass at Santa Croce, because this was one of the churches you have to pay to get into, and it has lots of great things to see, such as some Giotto frescoes, and the tombs of Galileo, Machiavelli, and Michelangelo. After mass we wanted to see both the Uffizi and the Accademia, but the line at the Uffizi Gallery was so long that we realized we had to choose one, and went to the Accademia instead. You can't go to Florence and not see the David! Michelangelo's David is HUGE! I had never realized it was so big! I was mostly impressed how such a large sculpture could support itself and not fall over. Iwish I could have taken some pictures of David, but unfortunately, taking pictures in the Accademia is a death wish! Lining the hallway to the David was Michelangelo's Prigioni, Prisoners. These were sculptures Michelangelo never took the time to finish, so they were still "imprisoned" within the marble. These figures were really interesting, because you could sort of visualize how a sculpture comes to life out of the block of stone. After spending sufficient time admiring David, we took one last trip to the Ponte Vecchio during the day to say goodbye to Florence, and ran to catch the train to Rome.