So 7 o'clock saturday morning we were getting on a bus heading to Cinque Terre on a trip with the school, and it ended up being the most laid-back school trip i think of the semester. it was nice. The ride wasnt too long. 3 hours, including a half an hour break. lol. So we got to Santo Margherita Ligure which is where our hotel was at like 10. we hung out there for alittle bit, and met the bus...right by the beach. It was gorgeous. I mean, they dont have sand, they have rocks. but it was still realyl nice and the water was gorgeous. The thing with the italian riviera is that its the seacoast and the water is crystal clear and a gorgeous blue, but that its also mountainy. so sometimes your like ona cliff looking at this amazing view. bella.
So we take the boat to this other place called...comogli. We hung out there for a lunch time. right on the beach. ate a salad at this restaurant outside. pretty good stuff. and then we went and put our feet in the water, it was pretty chilly, but refreshing. and then we got gelato and just sat on this wall and looked out over the cliffs and at the water and stuff. then we got on a boat...which was ridiculous. lot of laughs on that one. stef you know why! lol. and then we went to some other place. i dont know the name...possibly san fruttuoso. but i really have no clue. lol. there we just took a tour of this abbey and monastary and stuff and it was right on the cliffs and it was gorgeous. we were onyl there for liek 45 minutes before we got back on the boat and went to portofino. which is where all the rich people live and bring their yachts to port. so we watched this one yacht come in. and then we took some pictures. and then got nonalcoholic pina coladas. I apparently dont like pina coladas and wasted 10 euro on it! stinkin portofino and their expensive places.
then we took the boat back to santo margherita ligure where we took naps and then went to a hotel around the corner for our local cuisine dinner. we had lasagna pesto which was ridiculously good. swordfish, which i didnt eat, and potatoes, and then tiramisu. it was good.
after, we went to the solarium, which was basically the really nice roof on our hotel. and hung out there, took some action shots cuz stef likes to do that, and they usually come out pretty hilarious.....we actually got to go to bed early and sleep on this trip, so that was nice.
we got up at 7:30 and had breakfast, checked out and were on the bus by 8:30. we drove about an hour to levanto. There, stefano and franco (the leaders on the trip) handed everybody a pass that gets you on the trains or the hiking trails from one village to another. there are 5 villages along the coast that make up cinque terre (levanto was not one of them). So we hung around in levanto a while. which basically means, we laid on the beach for an hour and half. took the train to the last of the 5 villages an dworked out way back. so 25 minutes later, we're getting off the train in Riomaggiore. We bought some icecream there. It was a cute little town. Then we took the hiking path (which was basically a sidewalk...kim walked barefoot lol). It was called Via del Amore *street of love. and it was up in the cliffs along the edge, overlooking the sea. it was gorgeous.
That took us to Manarola where we had lunch. So the italian riviera is also known for its faccacia and olives, so i got a pizza on faccacia bread with olives on it. it was divine. we sat and ate it outside overlooking the coast. it was just really pretty.
from there, we took the train to Corniglia. which is one thats way up in the cliffs, but we didnt have much time there because of the train schedule and its a 20 minutes hike up, that we just stayed around the train station...finally found a bathroom lol....took some pics cuz we were already up pretty high.
train to Vernazza where we got this lemon ice drink, cuz cinque terre is also known for its lemons. lol. it was sooo good. it takes like those lemon italian ices we used to get as kids on the beach. we were walking along when we heard somebody playing instruments and singing Stand by Me. so we went back and there was a guy on the viola, the base, and the guitar singing and stuff. they were really good. so we hung out there for a while. then went and did a little shopping. danielle got a really pretty necklace. then we hung out down by the water.
Fromt here we took the train to the last of the cinque terre, monterosso. there we bought some postcards and hung out on the beach. stuck our feet int hew ater. it was really pretty. from there, you could see all five villages down the coast and up on the cliffs. it was pretty sweet. the bus picked us up there and we left at about 6. we got home at about 9:15. took showers, ate a little, did a little homework and passed out.
it was a great weekend, and im really glad we went on the trip.
two days and im off to capri!
miss you guys. be back in 3 and a half weeks!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Ceramics field trip.
So this past friday I had a field trip with my ceramics class that I was really not looking forward to at all. It turned out to be ok.
We took a train about an hour away to this little town called certaldo on the way to siena. then we had to take two cars for about 15-20 minutes on these curvy, hilly streets. We got to the place to do the raku firing (its when the pots turn black and look crackly where the colored glaze was applied), and it was beautiful. It was totally in the middle of tuscany. Surrounded by all these vineyards and groves and things. bella.
So the guy takes us into the gallery and shows us some stuff, we sit outside having tea and coffee and cookies. and then we go and we put the glazes on the pots. they go into the kiln. so while the kiln is slowly heating up, we go have lunch. we had to walk to it and it was a half an hour walk cuz we were in the middle of nowhere. but it was pretty and i actually saw in italian squirrel, which is really rare...they look different than the squirrels in the US. anyway, lunch was good...fresh bread, then pasta with like a meat sauce, then a different kind of pasta, then salad and proscuitto and cheeses. then coffee. not too bad for 12 euro.
so we walk back and we jack up the heat. like all theway. i played with the dogs that were there. this one, charlie. he didnt look like a puppy anymore, but he totally still was. the guy that worked there threw this stick down all the way in the backyard and there was a lake down there! it was really pretty. well the stick went into the lake, and so did the dog. so the dog comes running back up and we're all sprinting all over the place cuz he was soaked. he was a cool dog. i became friends with him. wouldnt leave me alone. kept having to throw that stinkin stick. lol.
so after they were in the kiln for a while, we took them out and stuck them in a pile of sawdust and they lit on fire! then we covered them with the sawdust so that they would be black and crackly. put them in water, cleaned them off. hung out for a little while and went home.
it was a pretty fun day. I think the fact that the 7 of us in the class get along really well helps. most of us are actually going to see a beatles coverband together tonight. should be fun.
We took a train about an hour away to this little town called certaldo on the way to siena. then we had to take two cars for about 15-20 minutes on these curvy, hilly streets. We got to the place to do the raku firing (its when the pots turn black and look crackly where the colored glaze was applied), and it was beautiful. It was totally in the middle of tuscany. Surrounded by all these vineyards and groves and things. bella.
So the guy takes us into the gallery and shows us some stuff, we sit outside having tea and coffee and cookies. and then we go and we put the glazes on the pots. they go into the kiln. so while the kiln is slowly heating up, we go have lunch. we had to walk to it and it was a half an hour walk cuz we were in the middle of nowhere. but it was pretty and i actually saw in italian squirrel, which is really rare...they look different than the squirrels in the US. anyway, lunch was good...fresh bread, then pasta with like a meat sauce, then a different kind of pasta, then salad and proscuitto and cheeses. then coffee. not too bad for 12 euro.
so we walk back and we jack up the heat. like all theway. i played with the dogs that were there. this one, charlie. he didnt look like a puppy anymore, but he totally still was. the guy that worked there threw this stick down all the way in the backyard and there was a lake down there! it was really pretty. well the stick went into the lake, and so did the dog. so the dog comes running back up and we're all sprinting all over the place cuz he was soaked. he was a cool dog. i became friends with him. wouldnt leave me alone. kept having to throw that stinkin stick. lol.
so after they were in the kiln for a while, we took them out and stuck them in a pile of sawdust and they lit on fire! then we covered them with the sawdust so that they would be black and crackly. put them in water, cleaned them off. hung out for a little while and went home.
it was a pretty fun day. I think the fact that the 7 of us in the class get along really well helps. most of us are actually going to see a beatles coverband together tonight. should be fun.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Perugia and Assisi
So this weekend, Stefanie and I went to Perugia and Assisi from Saturday to Sunday.
Saturday morning we caught the 11:00 train and got into Perugia at 1. So we go and we ask the woman at the information booth what bus we take to get to the street with our hostel on it, but she has no idea, and she wasnt very nice. so we decided we'd walk around, try to find some food, maybe walk to the city center and just try to figure it out from there. So we start walking and we see signs for the city center, but things start to get sketchy, so we turn around and start walking in a different direction and its not working, so we go to this park, sit down and have some toast and nutella (thank you Old Florence Inn for those! lol). It was beautiful in the park. but by this point, we're all turned around and cant really figure out how to get back to the train station to get tickets and catch the bus somewhere...anywhere at this point. so i ask some random guy. and i guess he could tell my italian wasnt that good so he gave me the simplest directions ever. "Qui. (points down a path) Sinestro." which just means "here. left." lol.
So we managed to get back to the train station, so we went inside the train station and found a different information booth, so we hand the guy the paper with the hostel's address on it, and apparently that place is outside of perugia. so he tells us to take bus number 8 to this other bus terminal. so we do that and go and find another information guy, he sells us tickets for bus 8c. but i saw this big arrow painted on the ground that said, Escalators to the city center. so since we were there, we decided to do that and then just head to the hostel when we're done with perugia. so we start talking all these escalators. underground. outside. up. down. inside cave-like buildings. weird. but we come out and the historic city center of perugia is really nice. so theres a perugina store, so of course i buy some baci candy, cuz how can you not? so we see some parliament places, some churches, a fountain. then we walk to th is church and see a raphael fresco...and our ticket is good for this underground etruscan well....so we go there. it was so cool. you have to like climb down these stairs and its damp and pretty dark and everythign is wet. and you actually get to like stand on this bridge over this ginormous really old well and it seriously felt like somethign out of an indiana jones movie. it was by far my favorite part of perugia. oh, and i had the best gelato ever there. the pizza i bought had a gnat in it, but everything was really cheap there, so that was pretty cool.
So we are at the bus stop for bus 8c. and we dont know what stop we get off or if it even goes to our street, so we call friends and family and finally get the number of the hostel and call them as we're gettin gon the bus, and they tell us to ask the driver to drop us off there! lol, so stef said it was my turn since she called the hostel. so i walk up to the guy an dim like...When....here? (only in italian) and i point to the address on the paper and im hysterically laughing an dhe starts laughing at me, and he asks (in italian) if im talking about the hostel. yes. so he is like near...something or other that i have no idea what he said, so i just stare at him and he tells me twenty minutes. and then tells me twenty minutes in english. i think he thought i was really stupid. but i probably was acting the part, so ya know... lol.
so stef is hysterically laughing at me in the middle of the bus cuz she could tell it wasnt going well lol. so we just laugh about it and more people get off so we move up and stef is behind him and im like practically next to him and every time he turned he saw me and laughed. so he did drop us off right outside the hostel and he pointed it out for us too. my friend the bus driver. lol
but the hostel was really nice. we stayed in the building that looked liek a castle! it was cool, and we practically had the room to ourselves. it was sweet. we went to the food store and bought some chips and bought tickets for the bus in th emorning and went to a pizzeria...no gnats, so that was good lol. then we just played cards for hours cuz we were in a small town an dthere as nothing to do. some spit. some blackjack. we used the baci and as our bets. lol. so we went to bed at about 11 and got up at 7. checked out. 7:25. had breakfast. at the bus stop 7:50. bus gets there 8:15ish. we get back tot he train station. 8:50 to find out that cuz its sunday, the earliest train to assisi is 10:21. so we walk to mcdonalds which apparently isnt open early in perugia. so we sit and read and stand and play war. lol. it was greeeeaaat. lol.
so we get on the train and like 20 minutes later get off in assisi. bought tickets and got on the bus just in time. so we got there and we walked to a church. san francesco. it was really pretty. i felt funny walking through it. there was a service going on. but it was a nice church. from there we walked and got lunch. sandwiches. prosciutto. and ate in the most awkward place ever. then we decide we'd try to catch the 1:19 train. and run around and get lost and cant even find the bus stop. so we took it a little slower. bought some post cards. stef bought some stuff for her grandma and this realyl cool wooden necklace an di bought this big green cross necklace. lol. its pretty.
then we found the bus, got back to teh station, bought our tickets, and went to mcdonalds. of coruse. lol. then we got on the train. an dit was the hottest train ride ever! so it was sleeping on and off and on and off and we were wide awake for th elast hour cuz it just got so hot and stef couldnt feel her hands and i kept slidding off the seat cuz i couldnt take the heat. lol. so we played air war to pass the time and three italian guys next to us just stared at us th ewhole time. we probably looked like we werent doign anything but handing each other random cards. it was a never ending game and we got back, ran to the food store, and then ran home.
it was a fun weekend.
this weekend...cinque terre! only with the school, so that means less problems! lol. hopefully.
oh, and possibly ravenna tomorrow. so i'll write later.
miss you all....4 and a half weeks i think!
ciao.
Saturday morning we caught the 11:00 train and got into Perugia at 1. So we go and we ask the woman at the information booth what bus we take to get to the street with our hostel on it, but she has no idea, and she wasnt very nice. so we decided we'd walk around, try to find some food, maybe walk to the city center and just try to figure it out from there. So we start walking and we see signs for the city center, but things start to get sketchy, so we turn around and start walking in a different direction and its not working, so we go to this park, sit down and have some toast and nutella (thank you Old Florence Inn for those! lol). It was beautiful in the park. but by this point, we're all turned around and cant really figure out how to get back to the train station to get tickets and catch the bus somewhere...anywhere at this point. so i ask some random guy. and i guess he could tell my italian wasnt that good so he gave me the simplest directions ever. "Qui. (points down a path) Sinestro." which just means "here. left." lol.
So we managed to get back to the train station, so we went inside the train station and found a different information booth, so we hand the guy the paper with the hostel's address on it, and apparently that place is outside of perugia. so he tells us to take bus number 8 to this other bus terminal. so we do that and go and find another information guy, he sells us tickets for bus 8c. but i saw this big arrow painted on the ground that said, Escalators to the city center. so since we were there, we decided to do that and then just head to the hostel when we're done with perugia. so we start talking all these escalators. underground. outside. up. down. inside cave-like buildings. weird. but we come out and the historic city center of perugia is really nice. so theres a perugina store, so of course i buy some baci candy, cuz how can you not? so we see some parliament places, some churches, a fountain. then we walk to th is church and see a raphael fresco...and our ticket is good for this underground etruscan well....so we go there. it was so cool. you have to like climb down these stairs and its damp and pretty dark and everythign is wet. and you actually get to like stand on this bridge over this ginormous really old well and it seriously felt like somethign out of an indiana jones movie. it was by far my favorite part of perugia. oh, and i had the best gelato ever there. the pizza i bought had a gnat in it, but everything was really cheap there, so that was pretty cool.
So we are at the bus stop for bus 8c. and we dont know what stop we get off or if it even goes to our street, so we call friends and family and finally get the number of the hostel and call them as we're gettin gon the bus, and they tell us to ask the driver to drop us off there! lol, so stef said it was my turn since she called the hostel. so i walk up to the guy an dim like...When....here? (only in italian) and i point to the address on the paper and im hysterically laughing an dhe starts laughing at me, and he asks (in italian) if im talking about the hostel. yes. so he is like near...something or other that i have no idea what he said, so i just stare at him and he tells me twenty minutes. and then tells me twenty minutes in english. i think he thought i was really stupid. but i probably was acting the part, so ya know... lol.
so stef is hysterically laughing at me in the middle of the bus cuz she could tell it wasnt going well lol. so we just laugh about it and more people get off so we move up and stef is behind him and im like practically next to him and every time he turned he saw me and laughed. so he did drop us off right outside the hostel and he pointed it out for us too. my friend the bus driver. lol
but the hostel was really nice. we stayed in the building that looked liek a castle! it was cool, and we practically had the room to ourselves. it was sweet. we went to the food store and bought some chips and bought tickets for the bus in th emorning and went to a pizzeria...no gnats, so that was good lol. then we just played cards for hours cuz we were in a small town an dthere as nothing to do. some spit. some blackjack. we used the baci and as our bets. lol. so we went to bed at about 11 and got up at 7. checked out. 7:25. had breakfast. at the bus stop 7:50. bus gets there 8:15ish. we get back tot he train station. 8:50 to find out that cuz its sunday, the earliest train to assisi is 10:21. so we walk to mcdonalds which apparently isnt open early in perugia. so we sit and read and stand and play war. lol. it was greeeeaaat. lol.
so we get on the train and like 20 minutes later get off in assisi. bought tickets and got on the bus just in time. so we got there and we walked to a church. san francesco. it was really pretty. i felt funny walking through it. there was a service going on. but it was a nice church. from there we walked and got lunch. sandwiches. prosciutto. and ate in the most awkward place ever. then we decide we'd try to catch the 1:19 train. and run around and get lost and cant even find the bus stop. so we took it a little slower. bought some post cards. stef bought some stuff for her grandma and this realyl cool wooden necklace an di bought this big green cross necklace. lol. its pretty.
then we found the bus, got back to teh station, bought our tickets, and went to mcdonalds. of coruse. lol. then we got on the train. an dit was the hottest train ride ever! so it was sleeping on and off and on and off and we were wide awake for th elast hour cuz it just got so hot and stef couldnt feel her hands and i kept slidding off the seat cuz i couldnt take the heat. lol. so we played air war to pass the time and three italian guys next to us just stared at us th ewhole time. we probably looked like we werent doign anything but handing each other random cards. it was a never ending game and we got back, ran to the food store, and then ran home.
it was a fun weekend.
this weekend...cinque terre! only with the school, so that means less problems! lol. hopefully.
oh, and possibly ravenna tomorrow. so i'll write later.
miss you all....4 and a half weeks i think!
ciao.
Easter
So sorry it ha staken me so long to write again. things have gotten crazy here lately!
So easter in florence.
Jess and Lindsay got here Friday night, so we of course went out to celebrate lindsay's 20th birthday! I took them to reginella where lindsay had gnocchi for the first time, in the pesto sauce. the guy picked on her a little bit cuz its hard to pronounce but gave her a hug at the end and said happy birthday lol. he also gave her some brandy candy...that apparently tasted ok when you first put it in, but then you had to spit it out when you got to the center...it tasted like brandy.
after we tried to get a hold of brandon, but couldnt...so we just went to his apartment to pick him up and he came with lindsay, jess, and i to festival del gelato! soo good. lindsay loved it and we ate a ton of gelato that weekend! lol. after, we just hung out at my house talking and goofing around until about 3 in the morning.
Saturday we woke up late, had mcdonalds lol, and went to the Boboli gardens! it was beautiful and sunny and we took tons of crazy pictures with lindsay in her neon pink tights! lol. From there we rushed to the food store for stuff for dinner and back to my apartment cuz we were meeting brandon to see the sunset from piazzale michelangelo. so we walked over there and kidna missed it, but saw it actually set. and it was gorgeous! we hung out there for a while an dit started to get chilly, so we went home. hung out and went to bed.
Easter Sunday we woke up early and Brandon, Lindsay, Jess, Kim, Natalie, Cassie, Laura, Traci, and I all went to the duomo to see the festivities. it was crazy! we saw like parades and people playing instruments and throwing their flags and stuff, and the cardinal came and blessed the flowers and eggs, and they handed them out and brandon caught the flower head that was for the next person who is going to get married! so funny. And the oxen pulled the cart out and they hooked up all the fireworks while this was going on and they moved the oxen. and then this dove came out of the church on like a zipline (a mechanical dove, lol). It hit the cart, shot back into the church and then the fireworks began! and it was ridiculous. it went off for a few mintues and then stopped and we were in this thick red smoke. like i could hardly see the people around me! and then that stopped coming adn the fireworks started again (luckily the wind shifted so we could see what was happening the whoel time lol). and this cart seriously exploded for liek 15 mintues. it was pure insanity!
After, we showered and took naps. walked around the market. Went to a park area near my house and saw the cute little ducks in the pond near the fountain and i sketched. then we came back and made lazy man's lasagna for dinner. with bruschetta and lindsay and i had a competetion to see who could eat more. i ate more for dinner, but we did establish that she is in fact, bigger than i am and probably could beat me up. we went back to festival for gelato. lol. that was easter.
Monday we went shopping! and hung out with kim for a little bit. we also climbed the duomo so that was fun and tiring.
Tuesday, their last day, we went to danielle's house to check on stuff for venice cuz thats where they were flying out of. and then we went to the good sandwich place on faenza for lunch. then it was to the market for more gift shopping and a homework assignment for me for my photography class. after that, we walked over to piazzale michelangelo again and saw the half of the sunset we missed saturday night. it was absolutely beautiful. we went up to san miniato (the churhc up there too) and the view from there was even better.
after we waited for kim and then met her at the restaurant next to our house where we had a really really good dinner and some gelato (this was our third time of having gelato that day lol).
Wednesday I had class in the morning and they got up early and headed to venice to spend the day before they had to fly back to ireland.
it was good times and im glad i got to spend easter with some friends... :-)
miss you girls already!
So easter in florence.
Jess and Lindsay got here Friday night, so we of course went out to celebrate lindsay's 20th birthday! I took them to reginella where lindsay had gnocchi for the first time, in the pesto sauce. the guy picked on her a little bit cuz its hard to pronounce but gave her a hug at the end and said happy birthday lol. he also gave her some brandy candy...that apparently tasted ok when you first put it in, but then you had to spit it out when you got to the center...it tasted like brandy.
after we tried to get a hold of brandon, but couldnt...so we just went to his apartment to pick him up and he came with lindsay, jess, and i to festival del gelato! soo good. lindsay loved it and we ate a ton of gelato that weekend! lol. after, we just hung out at my house talking and goofing around until about 3 in the morning.
Saturday we woke up late, had mcdonalds lol, and went to the Boboli gardens! it was beautiful and sunny and we took tons of crazy pictures with lindsay in her neon pink tights! lol. From there we rushed to the food store for stuff for dinner and back to my apartment cuz we were meeting brandon to see the sunset from piazzale michelangelo. so we walked over there and kidna missed it, but saw it actually set. and it was gorgeous! we hung out there for a while an dit started to get chilly, so we went home. hung out and went to bed.
Easter Sunday we woke up early and Brandon, Lindsay, Jess, Kim, Natalie, Cassie, Laura, Traci, and I all went to the duomo to see the festivities. it was crazy! we saw like parades and people playing instruments and throwing their flags and stuff, and the cardinal came and blessed the flowers and eggs, and they handed them out and brandon caught the flower head that was for the next person who is going to get married! so funny. And the oxen pulled the cart out and they hooked up all the fireworks while this was going on and they moved the oxen. and then this dove came out of the church on like a zipline (a mechanical dove, lol). It hit the cart, shot back into the church and then the fireworks began! and it was ridiculous. it went off for a few mintues and then stopped and we were in this thick red smoke. like i could hardly see the people around me! and then that stopped coming adn the fireworks started again (luckily the wind shifted so we could see what was happening the whoel time lol). and this cart seriously exploded for liek 15 mintues. it was pure insanity!
After, we showered and took naps. walked around the market. Went to a park area near my house and saw the cute little ducks in the pond near the fountain and i sketched. then we came back and made lazy man's lasagna for dinner. with bruschetta and lindsay and i had a competetion to see who could eat more. i ate more for dinner, but we did establish that she is in fact, bigger than i am and probably could beat me up. we went back to festival for gelato. lol. that was easter.
Monday we went shopping! and hung out with kim for a little bit. we also climbed the duomo so that was fun and tiring.
Tuesday, their last day, we went to danielle's house to check on stuff for venice cuz thats where they were flying out of. and then we went to the good sandwich place on faenza for lunch. then it was to the market for more gift shopping and a homework assignment for me for my photography class. after that, we walked over to piazzale michelangelo again and saw the half of the sunset we missed saturday night. it was absolutely beautiful. we went up to san miniato (the churhc up there too) and the view from there was even better.
after we waited for kim and then met her at the restaurant next to our house where we had a really really good dinner and some gelato (this was our third time of having gelato that day lol).
Wednesday I had class in the morning and they got up early and headed to venice to spend the day before they had to fly back to ireland.
it was good times and im glad i got to spend easter with some friends... :-)
miss you girls already!
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
pics stolen from efren...
Here are some pictures from my spring break with the family....if you want to see the rest of the pics...check out..http://travel.webshots.com/album/558494290ilfWxL oh, the captions are underneath the pics....and their in no particular order, sorry! but enjoy! :-)
resting in rome. we look funny in this pic....me, grandma, mom, cait, and jess...jess, what are you doing? lol.
random parade we saw outside the duomo on their first day of arrival...
grandpa leaning on the tower of pisa...
tower leaning on uncle bob...
cait, grandma, dad, and pamela on top of leaning tower of pisa...
efren, grandpa, and dad on way to church...san miniato...
mom and grandma in boboli gardens...
efren thinks we look hungry...jess, pamela, me. piazza le michelangelo...
jess and efren on the way to piazza le michelangelo...
jess and pamela at piazza le michelangelo...
some kids in rome :-)
efren holding the tower...
group decision time...
jess and efren on top of duomo!
erica and gelato...
jess, mom, me, pamela, and caitlyn in florence on the way to piazza le michelangelo...
me, jess, pamela and cait in pisa...
merry go round...
Me and the random cat that laid on my feet in the boboli gardens...
Uncle Bob, Aunt Sharon, Rachel, Erica...
my cousins, Rachel and Erica...
Dad with the camera of course....
stairwell of bell tower....jess, cait, and pamela
resting in rome. we look funny in this pic....me, grandma, mom, cait, and jess...jess, what are you doing? lol.
on top of the tower of pisa...dad, me, caitlyn, grandma, and pamela...
jess and efren at fountain of trevi...
random parade we saw outside the duomo on their first day of arrival...
efren punching the statue....what else?
me, jess, and caitlyn outside san miniato...
erica asleep. this was the only way her head wouldnt fall down. lol...
efren being a statue now...boboli gardens, by the way...
grandpa leaning on the tower of pisa...
tower leaning on uncle bob...
cait, grandma, dad, and pamela on top of leaning tower of pisa...
efren, grandpa, and dad on way to church...san miniato...
mom and grandma in boboli gardens...
efren thinks we look hungry...jess, pamela, me. piazza le michelangelo...
jess and efren on the way to piazza le michelangelo...
jess and pamela at piazza le michelangelo...
some kids in rome :-)
efren holding the tower...
group decision time...
jess and efren on top of duomo!
erica and gelato...
jess, mom, me, pamela, and caitlyn in florence on the way to piazza le michelangelo...
me, jess, pamela and cait in pisa...
merry go round...
Me and the random cat that laid on my feet in the boboli gardens...
Uncle Bob, Aunt Sharon, Rachel, Erica...
my cousins, Rachel and Erica...
Dad with the camera of course....
stairwell of bell tower....jess, cait, and pamela
top of bell tower, me, jess, dad, and cait.
efren giving the lucky boar a kiss...
pamela patting the boars nose...
boboli gardens... bella.
Spring Break...
So this is the third time I am attempting to post about spring break, so it may not be as long or as good as the first two were...sorry guys, tired of typing, and tired of this internet. lol.
so thursday i finished my midterms which went smoothly enough for being midterms...all of my housemates left thursday night, so what did i do with myself? 5 loads of laundry, cleaned everything i could get my hands on, had a quiet dinner, read a book, and slept. it was beautiful.
Friday mom called to tell me Aunt Sharon got in and had been trying to reach me, so i called them at their hotel...i like to call it a villa cuz it was that nice..dont know if it was or not, but thats what we're going to refer to it as...so she told me to come over, so i threw some clothes in a bag, literally...i ended up forgetting pajamas cuz i was so excited and in such a rush to get there. i got on the bus and asked the girl next to me where fiesole was...she said it was the last stop, so i got comfortable for the twenty minutes bus ride. lol. well its a good thing i didnt take out my book because i saw the sign for their villa, and we werent in fiesole yet! so i got off the bus and walked down this curvy crazy street. it definitely should have been a one-wayer, but it wasnt. lol. so i see another sign, so i start walking down this crazy steep curvy driveway...it was really long! so im thinking to myself, this better be the correct because 1. i didnt want to have to walk back up that hill for no reason, and 2. i didnt want to waste time. but as iwas about to walk over to this old man who was like pruning a tree or something, I hear, "ciao bella!" and look up to see Aunt Sharon and Erica and Rachel in a window. so as i wait for uncle bob to open the door, I hear a scream and turn to see a dog sprinting at me. there were three dogs there...all nice ones, and ive basically gotten over my fear of big dogs being in italy.
so we went to fiesole where i passed as an 18 year old (big surprise, right?) to be a part of a family discount to go and see this old theatre..it was awesome. like an ampitheatre. and then there were all these things..like the pool and the hot, warm, and cold baths, the toilet, the ovens. it was just interesting. like roman times an dstuff...we ate there, walked around and went back to the villa. had dinner there. it was good.
saturday we decided to go to siena for the day, so we went to florence, bought the train tickets and then killed the hour wait by going to my apartment to get clothes for me for the next day and for pajamas, which i ended up forgetting again. lol. anyway, we went to siena. we saw piazza del campo, where they race the horses while we were looking for this restaurant to have lunch at. we ended up asking an old lady for directions, and she walked us there. up the hills and steps. cane and all. aunt sharon tried to tell her that she didnt have to walk us cuz we felt bad, and the woman didnt speak english so she didnt understand and thought we were asking about the horses that race in the piazza. lol. i laughed pretty hard at that one.
we ate near st. catherine's house. it was good. then we were heading to the bus station and past st. domenico's. so i went in to show st. catherines head to aunt sharon. then uncle bob came out, and couldnt find it, so i went in with him to see it and he showed me the finger he found in there...hers. gross. so then we came out and then aunt sharon wanted to see the finger. we're freaks. i know. lol. it was pretty funny though.
we got back to florence, then to fiesole. and then started walking to this restaurant we had reservations at which was supposed to be right up the street, but totally wasnt. so we're walking on the same street i described earlier, only this time in the rain, in the dark, with little hungry kids in strollers. we got to what we thought was the restaurant, but wasnt. tried to call and get directions, but couldnt figure it out, stopped a car, and the guy happened to be the owner of the restaurant (not the bus driver aunt sharon ;-P ) so he gave us a ride! and then he translated the entire menu for us, and the food was divine! i know im always talking about how great the food is, but this was seriously the best meal i have eatten since i got here in italy, and i told him that. so its official. i had gnocchi in a cheese sauce. delicious. oh, and we had some bread and chicken and a dessert sampler. they should have them in the US,. forget appetizer samplers...dessert samplers are so much better! so we asked about a taxi, and hes like, no! that iwll cost 15 euro...i'll drive you back. so he did. nicest man alive.
sunday we woke up and forgot about the time change and i ended up being late to the bus station to pick up the rest of my family...but they called from the hotel, so i met them there....then we went to my apartment. they took naps. we went to the duomo, piazza signoria, and the ponte vecchio. oh! and by the duomo, we're wlkaing away and im like, "is that drums??" and we turn around and theres a random parade....still have to research what that was all about. lol. we ate at reginella's. i got a heart shaped pizza. the food was good, they liked it. but it was salty. so we didnt go back. they've got salty food there...but i like salty, so i like it there.
after we went and got gelato of course. it was great seeing efrens face. i think it was the best. we went to festival of course, and everybody had a hard time picking from the 74 flavors. bed.
so monday, we decided we'd go to the uffizi..its closed on monday. plan A. (and take 1) then we were like, ok boboli gardens...closed the first and last monday of the month. plan B. piazza le Michelangelo for lunch at the nice restaurant...closed. plan C. go back tot he hotel to see if aunt sharon and uncle bob arrived...ran into the by the duomo, never made it to the hotel. plan D. climb the duomo....line was too long. plan E. so plan F finally worked and we climbed the bell tower instead. and of course, we're almost at the top, and right on the other side of the wall of the staircase we're in is the bells, and they start ringing. pamela and i both jumped and flew into the wall. it echoed and was so loud in there! if you want to have a taste of what it was like, dad has a video of it on his camera....lol. there was also a lil merry-go-round action in there somewhere.
we had dinner at my apartment. awesome huge dining room was finally filled! bought some sandwiches, cut them up, some bruschetta, and pasta. and gelato and snacks from the snack fairy (my dad lol).
tuesday we went to venice, but the ride there was so long and we decided to walk to san marco (where all the pigeons are), that we got to see that, the grand canal, eat by the grand canal and then walk back to catch the last train home. oh, funny story. we were eating outside and there was a finch on the umbrella above efren and pamela was like, that bird is going to poop on you, and he leans back and opens his mouth, and the next thing we knew, there was poop falling onto his coat. all this happened in like a split second. it was hysterical. he was so lucky...a few inches over, it woulda been in his mouth and if pamela didnt say anything, it coulda been on his head. lol....oh we laughed. got back, and had gelato of course.
wednesday we went to pisa. climbed the tower. that has to be one of the bizarrest things to climb on the face of the earth. we putzed around, goofed off, took lots of pictures, had lunch. it was fun. rachel and erica and caitlyn got to run around on the grass so that was good too :-)
got back, and had baci mcflurries!
Thursday we stayed in Florence. we went to the boboli gardens. i love it there. definitely will be spending more an dmore time there as the weather gets better. after we tried the uffizi, but the line was ridiculous and we wouldnt have gotten in before it closed, so we left (take 2). so we shopped instead. oh, we ate at this place. so funny. aunt sharon found it in a book, so we go and its the tiniest thing ever. i was at the head of the table and didnt have room to take my coat off, and there was some random drunk guy at the other end of the table for the first few minutes. the food was decent and came out ridiculously fast, but the waitors didnt seem to like us. i dont know if it was cuz we were tourists or american, but either way, if you dont like them...you should get your restaurant out of a tourist book. gelato.
friday we went to rome. went on a tour of the colosseum, which was really interesting...better than the last one i had in there...then the roman forum. then we went to the trevi fountain and threw coins in. then the pantheon, which we ate near. fettucini alfredo! which turned out to pe spaghetti in a butter and parmesian sauce. lol. we got fries too. random, but not bad. then the spanish steps. i think the italian universities were on spring break too cuz there were a ton of college age italians there, singing and stuff. random. we climbed the steps. managed to get on the last train to the station in florence we needed after some interesting experiences trying to find the bus to the train station lol. no gelato that night. too tired and late.
saturday morning we climbed the duomo! awesome. same view as the bell tower only higher. and the climb is never dull with the random walls jutting out at your head when you are in the actual dome part. at one point we were stopping on this spiral staircase for a good ten minutes or so. no clue why. you could only see th etwo people in front of you, and the two behind you. turns out there was a guy up there directing traffic between the people going up the dome, and down the dome. it was cool. after we tried the uffizi and the same thing as thursday happened (take 3) and no, we never got in it. sorry mom :-( but we went shopping instead :-) we had dinner and gelato and said goodbye ...it was sad.
saturday night i did get to have dinner and gelato with aunt sharon and uncle bob and rachel and erica, so that was very nice. then it was back to classes. kinda boring. nothing is really going on. i dont even have any homework. so i have read two books since my family left. lol. va bene. i have friends coming on friday who are studying in ireland, so that will be nice to celebrate easter with them....alright, well thats all for now. i'll write if i think of anything else....or after i see the exploding cart outside the duomo for easter!
miss you all and love you.
see you next month!
baci!
so thursday i finished my midterms which went smoothly enough for being midterms...all of my housemates left thursday night, so what did i do with myself? 5 loads of laundry, cleaned everything i could get my hands on, had a quiet dinner, read a book, and slept. it was beautiful.
Friday mom called to tell me Aunt Sharon got in and had been trying to reach me, so i called them at their hotel...i like to call it a villa cuz it was that nice..dont know if it was or not, but thats what we're going to refer to it as...so she told me to come over, so i threw some clothes in a bag, literally...i ended up forgetting pajamas cuz i was so excited and in such a rush to get there. i got on the bus and asked the girl next to me where fiesole was...she said it was the last stop, so i got comfortable for the twenty minutes bus ride. lol. well its a good thing i didnt take out my book because i saw the sign for their villa, and we werent in fiesole yet! so i got off the bus and walked down this curvy crazy street. it definitely should have been a one-wayer, but it wasnt. lol. so i see another sign, so i start walking down this crazy steep curvy driveway...it was really long! so im thinking to myself, this better be the correct because 1. i didnt want to have to walk back up that hill for no reason, and 2. i didnt want to waste time. but as iwas about to walk over to this old man who was like pruning a tree or something, I hear, "ciao bella!" and look up to see Aunt Sharon and Erica and Rachel in a window. so as i wait for uncle bob to open the door, I hear a scream and turn to see a dog sprinting at me. there were three dogs there...all nice ones, and ive basically gotten over my fear of big dogs being in italy.
so we went to fiesole where i passed as an 18 year old (big surprise, right?) to be a part of a family discount to go and see this old theatre..it was awesome. like an ampitheatre. and then there were all these things..like the pool and the hot, warm, and cold baths, the toilet, the ovens. it was just interesting. like roman times an dstuff...we ate there, walked around and went back to the villa. had dinner there. it was good.
saturday we decided to go to siena for the day, so we went to florence, bought the train tickets and then killed the hour wait by going to my apartment to get clothes for me for the next day and for pajamas, which i ended up forgetting again. lol. anyway, we went to siena. we saw piazza del campo, where they race the horses while we were looking for this restaurant to have lunch at. we ended up asking an old lady for directions, and she walked us there. up the hills and steps. cane and all. aunt sharon tried to tell her that she didnt have to walk us cuz we felt bad, and the woman didnt speak english so she didnt understand and thought we were asking about the horses that race in the piazza. lol. i laughed pretty hard at that one.
we ate near st. catherine's house. it was good. then we were heading to the bus station and past st. domenico's. so i went in to show st. catherines head to aunt sharon. then uncle bob came out, and couldnt find it, so i went in with him to see it and he showed me the finger he found in there...hers. gross. so then we came out and then aunt sharon wanted to see the finger. we're freaks. i know. lol. it was pretty funny though.
we got back to florence, then to fiesole. and then started walking to this restaurant we had reservations at which was supposed to be right up the street, but totally wasnt. so we're walking on the same street i described earlier, only this time in the rain, in the dark, with little hungry kids in strollers. we got to what we thought was the restaurant, but wasnt. tried to call and get directions, but couldnt figure it out, stopped a car, and the guy happened to be the owner of the restaurant (not the bus driver aunt sharon ;-P ) so he gave us a ride! and then he translated the entire menu for us, and the food was divine! i know im always talking about how great the food is, but this was seriously the best meal i have eatten since i got here in italy, and i told him that. so its official. i had gnocchi in a cheese sauce. delicious. oh, and we had some bread and chicken and a dessert sampler. they should have them in the US,. forget appetizer samplers...dessert samplers are so much better! so we asked about a taxi, and hes like, no! that iwll cost 15 euro...i'll drive you back. so he did. nicest man alive.
sunday we woke up and forgot about the time change and i ended up being late to the bus station to pick up the rest of my family...but they called from the hotel, so i met them there....then we went to my apartment. they took naps. we went to the duomo, piazza signoria, and the ponte vecchio. oh! and by the duomo, we're wlkaing away and im like, "is that drums??" and we turn around and theres a random parade....still have to research what that was all about. lol. we ate at reginella's. i got a heart shaped pizza. the food was good, they liked it. but it was salty. so we didnt go back. they've got salty food there...but i like salty, so i like it there.
after we went and got gelato of course. it was great seeing efrens face. i think it was the best. we went to festival of course, and everybody had a hard time picking from the 74 flavors. bed.
so monday, we decided we'd go to the uffizi..its closed on monday. plan A. (and take 1) then we were like, ok boboli gardens...closed the first and last monday of the month. plan B. piazza le Michelangelo for lunch at the nice restaurant...closed. plan C. go back tot he hotel to see if aunt sharon and uncle bob arrived...ran into the by the duomo, never made it to the hotel. plan D. climb the duomo....line was too long. plan E. so plan F finally worked and we climbed the bell tower instead. and of course, we're almost at the top, and right on the other side of the wall of the staircase we're in is the bells, and they start ringing. pamela and i both jumped and flew into the wall. it echoed and was so loud in there! if you want to have a taste of what it was like, dad has a video of it on his camera....lol. there was also a lil merry-go-round action in there somewhere.
we had dinner at my apartment. awesome huge dining room was finally filled! bought some sandwiches, cut them up, some bruschetta, and pasta. and gelato and snacks from the snack fairy (my dad lol).
tuesday we went to venice, but the ride there was so long and we decided to walk to san marco (where all the pigeons are), that we got to see that, the grand canal, eat by the grand canal and then walk back to catch the last train home. oh, funny story. we were eating outside and there was a finch on the umbrella above efren and pamela was like, that bird is going to poop on you, and he leans back and opens his mouth, and the next thing we knew, there was poop falling onto his coat. all this happened in like a split second. it was hysterical. he was so lucky...a few inches over, it woulda been in his mouth and if pamela didnt say anything, it coulda been on his head. lol....oh we laughed. got back, and had gelato of course.
wednesday we went to pisa. climbed the tower. that has to be one of the bizarrest things to climb on the face of the earth. we putzed around, goofed off, took lots of pictures, had lunch. it was fun. rachel and erica and caitlyn got to run around on the grass so that was good too :-)
got back, and had baci mcflurries!
Thursday we stayed in Florence. we went to the boboli gardens. i love it there. definitely will be spending more an dmore time there as the weather gets better. after we tried the uffizi, but the line was ridiculous and we wouldnt have gotten in before it closed, so we left (take 2). so we shopped instead. oh, we ate at this place. so funny. aunt sharon found it in a book, so we go and its the tiniest thing ever. i was at the head of the table and didnt have room to take my coat off, and there was some random drunk guy at the other end of the table for the first few minutes. the food was decent and came out ridiculously fast, but the waitors didnt seem to like us. i dont know if it was cuz we were tourists or american, but either way, if you dont like them...you should get your restaurant out of a tourist book. gelato.
friday we went to rome. went on a tour of the colosseum, which was really interesting...better than the last one i had in there...then the roman forum. then we went to the trevi fountain and threw coins in. then the pantheon, which we ate near. fettucini alfredo! which turned out to pe spaghetti in a butter and parmesian sauce. lol. we got fries too. random, but not bad. then the spanish steps. i think the italian universities were on spring break too cuz there were a ton of college age italians there, singing and stuff. random. we climbed the steps. managed to get on the last train to the station in florence we needed after some interesting experiences trying to find the bus to the train station lol. no gelato that night. too tired and late.
saturday morning we climbed the duomo! awesome. same view as the bell tower only higher. and the climb is never dull with the random walls jutting out at your head when you are in the actual dome part. at one point we were stopping on this spiral staircase for a good ten minutes or so. no clue why. you could only see th etwo people in front of you, and the two behind you. turns out there was a guy up there directing traffic between the people going up the dome, and down the dome. it was cool. after we tried the uffizi and the same thing as thursday happened (take 3) and no, we never got in it. sorry mom :-( but we went shopping instead :-) we had dinner and gelato and said goodbye ...it was sad.
saturday night i did get to have dinner and gelato with aunt sharon and uncle bob and rachel and erica, so that was very nice. then it was back to classes. kinda boring. nothing is really going on. i dont even have any homework. so i have read two books since my family left. lol. va bene. i have friends coming on friday who are studying in ireland, so that will be nice to celebrate easter with them....alright, well thats all for now. i'll write if i think of anything else....or after i see the exploding cart outside the duomo for easter!
miss you all and love you.
see you next month!
baci!
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