Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Spring Break!
Hi gang! Hope all is well back home. It's almost Easter and I am definitely missing family as well as going to miss the brunch and get-together. Since I am leaving Tonight for Nice I thought I should give you guys some details about my spring break week... especially because mom dad and Paul are going to be doing the same thing I did very very soon! So my friend Erica arrived mid-day on Thursday the 19th. She wasn't jet-lagged at all (until the next day, at least) and so she immediately wanted to walk around and see the sights and do some shopping. That night we went to dinner at our favorite pizzeria (Erica was very impressed). The next day, we had to wake her at 2 to make sure she kind of got back to her regular sleeping schedule... hope that doesn't happen to you guys! It was Friday so we spent that day walking around, doing more shopping, etc. We even discovered this one street that has all these little vintage shops on it. I didn't buy anything, but it was cool to look. We ended up eating in that night and going to bed early (on our walk during the day we had noticed how people looked like their dogs... that gave us an urge to watch 101 dalmations, so we found it in 9 parts on youtube and Erica and Carrie both fell asleep while watching.) The next day I had to wake up early to go meet Charlie at the airport!! you have to walk to the train station and take a bus there, but it's cheap and not that hard. His flight ended up being delayed, and they lost his baggage, but he made it ok. By the time we got back to my apartment it was evening so we headed to dinner. We went to this nicer place that I've been dying to try and I got bistecca alla fiorentina (traditional florentine steak with balsamic sauce)... Soo good! Then we got some wine and walked up to the Piazzale Michelangelo. It was so cool pointing everything out to Charlie and telling him what we were going to do and see in the next week. He loved the panoramic view and kept asking for my camera so he could take pictures! The next day, Sunday, I took him around to all the sights. We saw the Santa Croce, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, Baptistry, and Campanile, and a lot of little things like my favorite antique market, the leather market (where the Medici used to set up their banking stands), my favorite sandwich shop and gelato places, the shopping district, etc. He was impressed by how many little churches are just hiding around corners. In walking around with him it was cool because I got to remember that first-time feeling of amazement I had when I arrived... and it made me even more excited to show you guys around! I want to show you guys even more stuff, though : ) San Miniato al Monte, and the Palazzo Pitti, for example. Anyways, we also had to go to the airport to get his baggage, which was no fun, but we needed to get it since we were leaving for ROME in the morning! (Me, Charlie, Erica, Carrie, and Carrie's best friend from home, Hannah, who arrived Sunday night.) Rome was awesome. It's only about a 2 hour train ride from Florence so we were there by around 11:30. I had a lot of preconceived notions about Rome because so many people advised me to choose Florence over Rome, as Rome was bigger, dirtier, etc. I loved it! When we arrived it was sunny and nice outside.. T-shirt weather even. Our hotel was nicer than we expected, and the streets were clean, beautiful, wide, and edged with orange trees and tall buildings. We checked into our hotel and started walking, in the general direction of the Spanish steps. On the way we tried to pick oranges, but they were sour, and stopped to take pictures of everything, from fountains and churches to the American Embassy. When we finally realized that we were starving, nothing appeared until (ta-da!) there was the Hard Rock Cafe. We stopped and pondered on getting something Italian instead until we realized that there were hamburgers inside, which pretty much sealed the deal. It was my first in over 2 months, and it was delicious! Granted it cost 14 euros, but oh well. After that, we went to the Spanish steps, walked around the area for a bit, and ended up at this huge park called the Villa Borghese. It was absolutely beautiful (tall trees, grass, statues, flowers, a lake, etc.) so we decided to rent a 5 person bike for an hour and explore! We looked goofy, I'm sure, but it was fun. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Trevi Fountain, which was gorgeous, but decided we needed to come back at night to see it all lit up. We ate a light dinner and went out, ending up at an Irish pub near Piazza Navona. The next day, we wanted to go to the Vatican, but realized it would be about a 40 minute walk from our hotel. So.... we decided to hop on a sightseeing bus! Yes, one of those big dorky buses that you can sit on top of and take pictures. It was actually a really fun way to be complete tourists and laugh about that but at the same time see more of the city (Rome is HUGE). Plus, it was only 15 euros for 24 hours, so we rode it to the Vatican and back, and were able to take it to the Pantheon the next morning. From the Pantheon, we walked to the Forum (a bunch of Roman ruins) and the Colosseum, which were my favorite parts of the trip by far. I took way too many pictures of the ruins. Oops! Anyways, that night was Carrie's 21st birthday, so we went and got a nice dinner at this wine bar with "live music" ... turned out to be one big Italian guy sitting there singing Phil Collins-esque songs on his keyboard, but still entertaining. From there we walked to the Trevi Fountain and took some pictures... it was much prettier at night. It was a long night, so Charlie and I ended up missing our (6am) train to Venice, and had to take one at around 11. We tried to just stay up, since we got home at 5, but it didn't work. We spent most of that Thursday on the train, since it's about 5 hours one way, but ended up arriving and taking the "boat bus" to our hotel at sunset, so the view along the Grand Canal was gorgeous. We wandered around town for a while and picked a place to have dinner later... I finally got my nice seafood dinner that I never got the first time in Venice! We split this amazing salmon dish and some spaghetti with clams, and I introduced Charlie to Caprese salad (my favorite). The next day, we wandered some more, got lunch along the canal, and took an evening train home. The weekend in Florence was all about relaxing with Charlie, Erica, and Hannah, and it was a lot of fun. The only bummer was that Charlie and I were planning on renting mopeds and driving around in the hills and having a picnic on Sunday - but it poured all day! So we went and got some hot chocolate instead : ) This weekend, I'm going with Carrie to Nice, with stops in Eze, Monaco, Cannes, and Antibes! Very excited! Lots of love, Charlotte
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Updates...
Sorry I haven't posted anything new in a while, guys. I'm just now getting a bunch of new pictures on my computer, they're all really great. I'm going to try to put them up soon, when I get the time. If I have time tonight (currently packing to go to Munich this weekend) I'll post the ones from my trip to Cinque Terre. I guess I should tell you guys about it! Ok - here goes - mom and dad you already heard all about it but oh well.
Cinque Terre - mom and dad, I really want to bring you guys here if you come- inlet on the Adriatic (?) with 5 tiny tiny towns all together, separated by a mile or 2 of coast in between. We arrived super early on friday in the town our hostel was in, Riomaggiore, and explored there for a while. We ended up just taking this little path we found up a hill through all this country - vineyards, flowers, tiny little whitewashed houses... basically everything you would imagine from the seaside in like Greece it was GORGEOUS. And it was the most beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. We took the path up for about a half hour before we got to a main road. We hiked down that for a while and got the most breathtaking views of the coastline from up high. Then we followed that road down back into town, got some focaccia ...mine had tomatoes, garlic, cheese, and fresh caught ANCHOVIES: I usually hate them, but tried it, and it was really good. Then we hiked down the "via dell'amore" (lover's walk) along the coast for about a half hour to the next town, Manarola. The walk was right by the water and paved, and graffiti'd all the way down with peoples names and stuff. From Manarola we walked around for a bit, watched the sun set over the beach, and walked back to Riomaggiore. We got dinner there for a "fixed price" of 15 euro for a first course, second course, water (which you always have to pay for here at restaurants) and wine. I got gnocchi with pesto and then sausage with cheese and potatoes. REALLL healthy. We stayed super late at dinner watching this bizarre Italian "American Idol"-style show but with old people (??) and then by the time we were done it was 10, so we walked to the "bar centrale" and and it was CLOSED. Haha! Apparently it isnt tourist season. So we just called it a night. Saturday we got up and took the local train to the 4th town, Vernazza. The 3rd 4th and 5th towns are all pretty far from each other and we had heard the 3rd town is small and nothing really to see so we just skipped it. The 4thn town, Vernazza, was bigger than any yet and more touristy. The hiking trail between it and the last town was closed cause of a landslide (boo) so we decided to brave the hike that goes up into the hills and back down into the next town. It took no less than 5 hours... but it was sooo pretty and it felt good to get the super hard exercise. Most of it was uphill. But we got so high up that the views of the ocean were really cool. We actually stumbled across 2 hidden-away churches along the way, too. One of them was way cool cause it was a convent in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to take a picture of the nuns but didnt want to be uber-rude and American. It was cool though. We got to the last town, Monterosso-al-Mare, by the time the sun had gone down. We walked on its beach for a while and werent that hungry so went to get an apertif (this great European concept where if you buy a pre-dinner drink they offer you a huge buffet of appetizers/dishes -our favorite aperitivo spot is at Piazza
Beccaria, right by our apartment, and it has really good pastas and vegetable dishes... mmm.
And you can load up your plate... amazing). We went into this little hole in the wall that was a wine shop too and this older guy came up to us and started chatting with us immediately (he was the owner... everyone is WAY more hospitable here than in America. its unreal.) He offered us a wine tasting of the special white wines only made in Cinque Terre with appetizers. He gave us each 4 glasses of different wine to try (all AMAZING, I usually don't like white wine but this was really good)
then came back and was all,. "which was your favorite"? So we told him and he brought us a free bottle of that. Then he brought us a free bottle of red. BASICALLY... by the time dinner rolled around we were pretty tipsy. None of us had had lunch and we had been hiking allll day. We looked like absolute crap, sitting there in this super nice little wine bar, and befriended ALL the old men in the room and had them laughing at us. SO much fun. The guy told us to look for him at the bar after dinner, so we left and made asses of ourselves at dinner, of course, and scarfed our food. So that was my weekend there in a nutshell.
This past weekend, my friend Nancy from high school visited me from Modena, a small town about an hour away. She studied in Milan last semester, and liked Italy so much she decided to stay on and get a job! She's currently an au pair.
First off, Friday i don't have class, so i went to Siena with Carrie and just explored. You take like an hour and a half bus through the country and get there and walk around... there wasn't that much to see, just a really cute central piazza with like a bowl shape, a palace, a duomo, a couple churches, some pretty views of the hillside... super cute little town. Very rustic and pretty. You're supposed to try the wild boar when you're there (its apparently their specialty. I didnt even know those things still existed) but i was too big of a pansy. Nonetheless a good day. When I got back, Nancy's train was arriving in half an hour, so
I waited at the train station. I was soooo excited to see her and it was fun catching up on the walk home and stuff. Going out that night, we asked this young Italian couple where a club was... Nancy made fun of my Italian... the girl seems like she knows where it is and motions for us to come with her. So next thing we know its me Carrie and Nancy only and we're walking like 10 feet behind them, and its been like 25 minutes, the girl keeps glancing back at us, and we realize we're walking in circles. We'd been so caught up in conversation that we didnt realize. Then this crowd of people kinda came between us and them and they start running away! They thought we were stalking them! So then we gave up and went to the secret bakery. Have i told you about that? Its a florence legend. Its this place that's only open from like 1 to 5 am. They make pastries and pizza and it is sooo fresh made and always warm and delicioso. BUT it's a secret location! You have to find it! (our first time, we had the guys we were with show us where, so we cheated). You can smell it from about 2 "blocks" away. i say :blocks" cause its like tucked in a little alleyway. Its an unmarked door, you knock, they let you in, you order, and you have to leave. And if you're too loud outside, they won't let you in. That happened to us our first time there cause those guys were kind of drunk. You could hear people talking quietly inside and the machines going but they didnt open the door! We went back the next night and pronto! hehe. Nance was so impressed. The next day i did all the things she wanted to do. She's been to Florence a couple times before so of course we had to hit up the outdoor market, her fave gelato spot (also mine, and hands down the best - "Grom"), and we wrote a postcard for Sally (a friend of mine from high school, and Nancy's roommate in San Diego, where they go to school. Mom is friends with Sally's mom... they are in the same book club - nerds!) Then we decided to do the top of the duomo. It costs 8 euros and so I was waiting for an opportune moment cause its not like I can afford to just do it whenever but we went for it, you climb up a stone staircase, very cool and old, narrow and twisty, for a while (like 500 steps) and get to see the inside of the dome (very pretty, huge and painted with a big fresco of heaven and hell) and then you get to the top and you're outside on top of the dome! Panoramic views of the city all around! It was the nicest weather we've had so far, maybe 60 outside and sunny, and it was gorgeouuussss. So saturday night we wanted to try this place my friend Kelli reccommended called Dante's, which was a pretty far walk but apparently gives students all you can drink wine. AND THEY DID! Nancy me Erin Carrie and Erins friend Jen who was visiting from Barcelona had an amazing dinner and wine, and then Tiramisu. So good! I'm already addicted to Tiramisu. We were eating in the downstairs floor of this restaurant having a pretty late dinner and a pretty long one and eventually we were the last ones down there and the restaurant owner comes down and starts making friends with us! I love it, Italian bar and restaurant owners LOOVVE americans and always give us free stuff. So he brings us down a pitcher of "Limoncello" this Italian liqueur thats made with lemons that they love here, youre supposed to take some of it between courses to cleanse your pallate. So then the guy leaves and goes upstairs... and puts on rap on the entire lower floor. The restaurant was still busy upstairs but he shut off the lower floor for us! Next thing we know we're having a little dance party!
He brought us free hats too! baseball caps that say Dante's.
It was a fun dinner, and really fun to see Nancy. She left in the morning.
So there's an update for ya! I'm very very excited about my trip to Germany. We're visiting
the castle that Disney used as a model for his. We have to hike through the snowy Alps to get there. We're getting to go to 3 other castles, too. It's supposed to snow all weekend! And the tour guide man (very nice old German man) said we can even stop in Salzburg, in Austria, for a few hours on the way back. None of us were expecting that and it's gonna be so cool. I've heard it's beautiful. I'll definitely put pictures up next week, cause I'm getting tired now and have to wake up early. Sorry about the weird formatting. I don't know how to get it to stop.
Ciao a tutti! Look in your mailboxes for postcards! : )
Cinque Terre - mom and dad, I really want to bring you guys here if you come- inlet on the Adriatic (?) with 5 tiny tiny towns all together, separated by a mile or 2 of coast in between. We arrived super early on friday in the town our hostel was in, Riomaggiore, and explored there for a while. We ended up just taking this little path we found up a hill through all this country - vineyards, flowers, tiny little whitewashed houses... basically everything you would imagine from the seaside in like Greece it was GORGEOUS. And it was the most beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. We took the path up for about a half hour before we got to a main road. We hiked down that for a while and got the most breathtaking views of the coastline from up high. Then we followed that road down back into town, got some focaccia ...mine had tomatoes, garlic, cheese, and fresh caught ANCHOVIES: I usually hate them, but tried it, and it was really good. Then we hiked down the "via dell'amore" (lover's walk) along the coast for about a half hour to the next town, Manarola. The walk was right by the water and paved, and graffiti'd all the way down with peoples names and stuff. From Manarola we walked around for a bit, watched the sun set over the beach, and walked back to Riomaggiore. We got dinner there for a "fixed price" of 15 euro for a first course, second course, water (which you always have to pay for here at restaurants) and wine. I got gnocchi with pesto and then sausage with cheese and potatoes. REALLL healthy. We stayed super late at dinner watching this bizarre Italian "American Idol"-style show but with old people (??) and then by the time we were done it was 10, so we walked to the "bar centrale" and and it was CLOSED. Haha! Apparently it isnt tourist season. So we just called it a night. Saturday we got up and took the local train to the 4th town, Vernazza. The 3rd 4th and 5th towns are all pretty far from each other and we had heard the 3rd town is small and nothing really to see so we just skipped it. The 4thn town, Vernazza, was bigger than any yet and more touristy. The hiking trail between it and the last town was closed cause of a landslide (boo) so we decided to brave the hike that goes up into the hills and back down into the next town. It took no less than 5 hours... but it was sooo pretty and it felt good to get the super hard exercise. Most of it was uphill. But we got so high up that the views of the ocean were really cool. We actually stumbled across 2 hidden-away churches along the way, too. One of them was way cool cause it was a convent in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to take a picture of the nuns but didnt want to be uber-rude and American. It was cool though. We got to the last town, Monterosso-al-Mare, by the time the sun had gone down. We walked on its beach for a while and werent that hungry so went to get an apertif (this great European concept where if you buy a pre-dinner drink they offer you a huge buffet of appetizers/dishes -our favorite aperitivo spot is at Piazza
Beccaria, right by our apartment, and it has really good pastas and vegetable dishes... mmm.
And you can load up your plate... amazing). We went into this little hole in the wall that was a wine shop too and this older guy came up to us and started chatting with us immediately (he was the owner... everyone is WAY more hospitable here than in America. its unreal.) He offered us a wine tasting of the special white wines only made in Cinque Terre with appetizers. He gave us each 4 glasses of different wine to try (all AMAZING, I usually don't like white wine but this was really good)
then came back and was all,. "which was your favorite"? So we told him and he brought us a free bottle of that. Then he brought us a free bottle of red. BASICALLY... by the time dinner rolled around we were pretty tipsy. None of us had had lunch and we had been hiking allll day. We looked like absolute crap, sitting there in this super nice little wine bar, and befriended ALL the old men in the room and had them laughing at us. SO much fun. The guy told us to look for him at the bar after dinner, so we left and made asses of ourselves at dinner, of course, and scarfed our food. So that was my weekend there in a nutshell.
This past weekend, my friend Nancy from high school visited me from Modena, a small town about an hour away. She studied in Milan last semester, and liked Italy so much she decided to stay on and get a job! She's currently an au pair.
First off, Friday i don't have class, so i went to Siena with Carrie and just explored. You take like an hour and a half bus through the country and get there and walk around... there wasn't that much to see, just a really cute central piazza with like a bowl shape, a palace, a duomo, a couple churches, some pretty views of the hillside... super cute little town. Very rustic and pretty. You're supposed to try the wild boar when you're there (its apparently their specialty. I didnt even know those things still existed) but i was too big of a pansy. Nonetheless a good day. When I got back, Nancy's train was arriving in half an hour, so
I waited at the train station. I was soooo excited to see her and it was fun catching up on the walk home and stuff. Going out that night, we asked this young Italian couple where a club was... Nancy made fun of my Italian... the girl seems like she knows where it is and motions for us to come with her. So next thing we know its me Carrie and Nancy only and we're walking like 10 feet behind them, and its been like 25 minutes, the girl keeps glancing back at us, and we realize we're walking in circles. We'd been so caught up in conversation that we didnt realize. Then this crowd of people kinda came between us and them and they start running away! They thought we were stalking them! So then we gave up and went to the secret bakery. Have i told you about that? Its a florence legend. Its this place that's only open from like 1 to 5 am. They make pastries and pizza and it is sooo fresh made and always warm and delicioso. BUT it's a secret location! You have to find it! (our first time, we had the guys we were with show us where, so we cheated). You can smell it from about 2 "blocks" away. i say :blocks" cause its like tucked in a little alleyway. Its an unmarked door, you knock, they let you in, you order, and you have to leave. And if you're too loud outside, they won't let you in. That happened to us our first time there cause those guys were kind of drunk. You could hear people talking quietly inside and the machines going but they didnt open the door! We went back the next night and pronto! hehe. Nance was so impressed. The next day i did all the things she wanted to do. She's been to Florence a couple times before so of course we had to hit up the outdoor market, her fave gelato spot (also mine, and hands down the best - "Grom"), and we wrote a postcard for Sally (a friend of mine from high school, and Nancy's roommate in San Diego, where they go to school. Mom is friends with Sally's mom... they are in the same book club - nerds!) Then we decided to do the top of the duomo. It costs 8 euros and so I was waiting for an opportune moment cause its not like I can afford to just do it whenever but we went for it, you climb up a stone staircase, very cool and old, narrow and twisty, for a while (like 500 steps) and get to see the inside of the dome (very pretty, huge and painted with a big fresco of heaven and hell) and then you get to the top and you're outside on top of the dome! Panoramic views of the city all around! It was the nicest weather we've had so far, maybe 60 outside and sunny, and it was gorgeouuussss. So saturday night we wanted to try this place my friend Kelli reccommended called Dante's, which was a pretty far walk but apparently gives students all you can drink wine. AND THEY DID! Nancy me Erin Carrie and Erins friend Jen who was visiting from Barcelona had an amazing dinner and wine, and then Tiramisu. So good! I'm already addicted to Tiramisu. We were eating in the downstairs floor of this restaurant having a pretty late dinner and a pretty long one and eventually we were the last ones down there and the restaurant owner comes down and starts making friends with us! I love it, Italian bar and restaurant owners LOOVVE americans and always give us free stuff. So he brings us down a pitcher of "Limoncello" this Italian liqueur thats made with lemons that they love here, youre supposed to take some of it between courses to cleanse your pallate. So then the guy leaves and goes upstairs... and puts on rap on the entire lower floor. The restaurant was still busy upstairs but he shut off the lower floor for us! Next thing we know we're having a little dance party!
He brought us free hats too! baseball caps that say Dante's.
It was a fun dinner, and really fun to see Nancy. She left in the morning.
So there's an update for ya! I'm very very excited about my trip to Germany. We're visiting
the castle that Disney used as a model for his. We have to hike through the snowy Alps to get there. We're getting to go to 3 other castles, too. It's supposed to snow all weekend! And the tour guide man (very nice old German man) said we can even stop in Salzburg, in Austria, for a few hours on the way back. None of us were expecting that and it's gonna be so cool. I've heard it's beautiful. I'll definitely put pictures up next week, cause I'm getting tired now and have to wake up early. Sorry about the weird formatting. I don't know how to get it to stop.
Ciao a tutti! Look in your mailboxes for postcards! : )
Monday, February 23, 2009
PIctures?
I was trying to sync my pictures from Venice, but it somehow deleted my previous album of pictures from Piazzale Michelangelo. I guess that's ok cause you guys already saw those... but it makes me nervous about trying to post pics from Cinque Terre. Dad, what should I do? Baci e abbracci
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Victory!!
We have found the Secret Bakery!!!! I had a brioche con cioccolate... you guys officially need to come so i can share the secret. XOXO
Sunday, February 15, 2009
My Weekend in VENICE!
Hey all! I know it's been a long time since I sat down to actually write out some news, so I thought the trip to Venice would be a good time to put down some details for you guys. Venice was AMAAAAAZINGGG!!! I can't even describe ... if I made Florence sound like a fairy tale town, that was nothing compared to this. I wasn't sure what to expect, since Carrie had been like 6 years ago and said it was sort of dingy and old, and smelled bad. But that might have been good that she said that cause I was absolutely taken aback when we got to Venice. It is beautiful. So we stayed in a little hotel that's located in the tiny town of Marghera, on the Mestre, or Venice's mainland. To get to the island area, we took a bus that runs from the Mestre (which we worked out so that the stop and the train station were walking distance from our hotel) every ten minutes. It took about 15 minutes, and dropped us off at the Piazza le Roma, the basic starting point of the Grand Canal. From there, we spent 23 euro to get a 36-hour "boat bus" pass, which gave us unlimited access to the boat buses, which run all over the city. The boat bus was amazing... we got seats outside on the front and it was a 20 minute or so ride through the city to Saint Mark's Square, the last stop. Everything was gorgeous. It was a beautiful day and really clear out (despite it being 40 degrees and chilly!) and I took way too many pictures. From there, we took the boat bus to the Rialto Bridge, to the Accademia, etc. We covered all the sights pretty fast (Venice is apparently pretty small for the tourist crowd) and ended up just walking around, taking in how beautiful everything is and looking in to all the shops. They had the cooooolest mask shops and shops full of Baroque clothing to wear during Carnevale. There were also a bunch of blown glass shops since Venice is apparently famous for its glass factory. We thought about going on Saturday but you had to take a special ferry out and it seemed kinda time-consuming. We got a pretty cheap dinner at this cute pizzeria (mine was spicy salami, brie, fresh tomatoes, and sweet bell peppers... mmm) and called it a pretty early night since it was my 21st birthday thursday night (yay!) and we woke up early on Friday to get to our hotel, check in, and get to the island. We were pretty tired and wanted to save up energy for Saturday, since that was the official start of Carnevale and we were told by everyone it would be a crazy day. I guess I should give you guys details on my birthday! It was fun... my roommates surprised me and I woke up early to go to class to a kitchen decorated with streamers, balloons, and a little tiara for me to wear on my box of cereal. Hahah. I had class from 9-3, then had to run some errands, come home, pack for Venice, and then we went to a nice dinner at this cute Spanish restaurant/bar. Erin surprised me with a bottle of champagne, and the owner of Salamanca (the place we ate at) gave us another free bottle and some tequila shots (sorry mom!) and another free round of drinks. Then he made me stand on the table and take another shot while the bar sang happy birthday... kinda silly but fun. The food though was soooo good! I got chicken fajitas, and it was amazing. Then we went dancing, where I got more champagne, and a VIP table! It is definitely true that Italians are very hospitable. Anyways, on Saturday we got to Venice around 11, and it was PACKED. it was hard to walk anywhere! everyone was out in their crazy costumes and masks, and it was really cool to see. We ate an early, cheap dinner because at 7 there was a concert in Saint Mark's Square followed by a Carnevale circus show. The "concert" turned out to be more of a creepy performance by around 15 musicians in a roped-off space... they wore full-length black robes and had torches attached to their heads, and were conducted by a crazy lady with two long torches she waved around. The wierd part was they were on segways or something... they moved around in circles and in and out of each other, back and forth, playing creepy sort of chamber music... then they played Kashmir by Led Zeppelin... I recognized it immediately. It's hard to describe the effect but it was very creepy and cool. After that, these guys we met told us about this piazza on the other side of the river where they were going, so we headed there, and there was an outdoor concert in this old Renaissance-looking square by a rock/blues band, which was a really neat contrast. We got some Bellini (very fruity champagne made in Venice) and danced for a while to fun rock music (think Cajun-esque blues and rock, ie. When the Saints Come Marching In, lots of fast fun music.) It was fun when the guy (who spoke Italian and English) sang "Stand By Me", we were singing along and dancing and I looked around and none of the Italians were singing... they didnt know the words! But all the American tourists were loving it. It was wierd to see the crowd dancing around in masks and long black robes and feathers and such. The main singer wore a 3-cornered hat and full ensemble. Anyways, we stayed there for a while, dancing and hanging out, and ended up walking back to Piazza le Roma (which was about 10 miuntes away) and getting back into the mainland around 4. Very fun night. Then we got up, got on a train, and got back to Florence around 3 this afternoon. It's almost ten here and I'm gonna go to bed soon... long weekend! I will make sure and post some pictures asap in the next couple days. Oh, and I got masks for Mom and Dad. Cool ones. Cooler than mine... : ). I tried to get some cool pictures of all the dressed-up people, but they didn't turn out too great. Oh well! Love and miss you all!!! CIAO!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Pictures!
I added some pictures! It must have taken me forever and I still couldn't figure out how to edit which pictures I put up so I just ended up putting up all the pictures I've taken. So, sorry if there are some random going-out pictures. However, those might be almost the only pictures I've taken with people in them. My roommates (Carrie, Erin, Elizabeth, Amber, Bekah) are all very very nice and fun. A few pictures are of my apartment (one of the view from our balcony), a couple of our doorman (with puppies!) and the rest of are street views, and churches I've seen. I haven't been around to all the places, just the Duomo, Santa Croce, San Lorenzo, etc. But the pictures are here! Arrividerci!
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