I've Been Gone for a Minute...

... now I'm back with the jump off

Just kidding.  But seriously, I've heard so much complaining from everyone, especially my mother who I just spent the week with, about how I haven't written in so long.  WELL SORRY PEOPLE.. who would have thought that studying abroad comes with actual homework.  Um, not what I signed up for?  It turns out this was my hardest semester yet! Jokes again, but seriously I wanted to f'ing kill myself when I realized halfway through February that i had three 3,500 word research papers to due on the same day!  Not to mention that day came after one straight month of traveling Thursday to Sunday night and two consecutive weeks of hosting visitors.  Like come on.  So besides from having nearly no internet, which we didn't, every spare minute used to be on the web was consumed with google searches on Roberto Cavalli and Ravioli.  I know what your thinking rough life right? but tell me how many peer reviewed sources you find on either.  Don't even mind the paper for Women's Studies.  That one me and Dani made up on the couch the morning before.  I was impressed it only took us three hours.  Grades have not yet been received for that paper but the others I got 90s.  Now you have to be proud that I did good instead of being mad that I haven't posted.

So I'll start at the beginning of the middle, in a few posts.

After those two field trips and two consecutive weekends in Florence we had had it.  We were ready to travel.  Switzerland was the perfect pregame to the party that would be the duration of our abroad experience.  It was beautiful and fun and exciting and relaxing and we tried so many new things it left us drooling for more, starting with a trip to Rome that was included in our program.

heh

I'll get the bad out of the way first: our hotel was VILE.  I would feel too bad listing the name but the room was dark and scary with uncomfortable looking furniture and pleasant blend of cream and scuff mark walls and a shower that could make you want to commit suicide.  I refuse to go into further detail.  The sights we saw were amazing.  I know from The Lizzie McGuire Movie that there are approximately 27 monuments or landmark thingies in Rome.  Not really morning people, and usually ones for long afternoon naps, we had a tough time keeping up with the school tours so we had to navigate the eternal city ourselves. First we hit up the Trevie Fountain and the Spanish steps.  We had a lot of fun playing on those, progressing up and down the levels taking pictures traditional tourist style.  It must have looked like we were having so much fun because a guy from Finland (not a Confessions of a Shopaholic joke!) decided to put his son in between Dani and Joey for a picture.  Good times.

with that running start i swear he was going over

We continued on to the Vittoriano which was the prettiest pearl in all of Rome.  Not literally but it was the shiniest white building I have ever seen. So preeeety. Seriously, Rome was like an ancient playground.

We met up with friends from Towson, Caroline and Dani who are also in Joey's sorority.  Amazing hosts from the get go, THEY TOOK US FOR CHICKEN PARM.  It was so good we went back two more times all in the span of three days.  I don't know the full name but we called it Tony's in Rome.  Next, we went to this cool shots bar where you can get dollar- I'm sorry- one euro shots.  Naturally that was a blast,  but the rest was a blurr.  We ended up splitting up.  Me and Caroline momentarily went into a club that no one else was going in and ventured to another bar which I called Shipwreck but I think it was called Drunk Ship (this may be vice versa) to wait online for the bathroom until the bar closed.  We continued to get some type of either  koolaid or red slurpie shot.  The red part is clear the rest I can't quiet remember.  {It was Feburary, I can even remember yesterday.}  The other girls got severely lost and winded up jumping in a fountain.  So pissed, I would have loved to do that, I love water.  When we finally reunited is was overdue cab time and back on our way to the hotel.  Thank god I was tired enough to knock out like a light because that room was seriously scary to fall alseep in.  1408.

hehe... it almost says my name

The next morning we decided to be good sports and go on a school tour to the Vatican at the crack of dawn.  Being "those" girls, we let everyone else wait on the line for the museum and we went to a cafe across the street for breakfast.  We hopped back on when the class got considerably close to the entrance.    The church was great, I was just tired and tired of paintings about Jesus.  They could have switched it up a little bit you know.  What about that guy Joseph and his really pretty coat?  I could have used to see a couple of wall sized paintings of that.  Saint Peters square was really beautiful though.  I can seriously picture all those people in Eurotrip filling that plaza up!  That was when we took a prenap lunch break for another round of Tony's chicken parm and penne alla vodka, only this time to be accompanied by delicious mussels.  Like after any traditional thanksgiving dinner, we returned to the hotel for a nap and late sushi dinner/pregame before heading to the club with what I thought was the best DJ I had ever heard.



Our final full day in Rome was spent exploring Rome's as Corey likes to call it "ancient shit" and jumping on a guided American tour of the Colosseum.  So worth being on a tour because not only would I have no idea what the heck I was looking at, I needed a professional to tell me where the lion elevators were.  He told me :0)

this dysfunctional thing costs 30 euro, but i love it

That night we met Joey's parents for dinner at this delicious place Gusto in which the four of us (in twos) shared tenderloin on top of a potato latke mountain and parmesan gnocchi.  So delicious.  We then proceeded up the Spanish steps in heels to their gorgeous hotel fit for a king for drinks in the salon.  Oh you fancy, huh? We laughed so hard at jokes about Joey and stories of abroad.  It was definitely one of the best pregames yet.  The club that we went to after was basically in a subway station but one of the nicer clubs in europe that we've been too.  THIS was the best DJ I have ever heard with remixes from the 90's and beginning of the 2000s you haven't heard in so long mixed to the best beats. Bliss. However it was very hot and way too crowded so after procrastinating "the next song"after "the next song" we left to get a goodnight sleep before getting a bad nap on the bus.  Unfortunately for us, right after we left Leonardo DiCaprio showed up.  Apparently he was in town for a friends wedding and needed to party.  Oh how I would have loved to have seen him, he is so sexy.

I can hear him saying "I'll never let go"

Screwing up the first time, we had to go throw another two coins in the Trevie Fountain after finding out you had to throw three for your wish to come true.  After throwing our wish sealing two coins we hunted for our souvenirs and headed to a bon voyage lunch at (drum roll please), Tonys.

Rome was sick.  A lot of ancient stuff, a lot of Jesus stuff but still a lot of fun.  I seriously love to travel.

Next stop Madrid. Beep beep!

First Field Trips Since 08

Things have been pretty low-key for the past two weeks in preparation for the next two months.  The weekend before last we did not travel because arrangements didn’t work out on time so we spent the time getting used to the streets of Florence and experiencing the weekend nightlife, which wasn’t more exciting than the weekday nightlife, but definitely more crowded.  This past weekend Mr. and Mrs. Smith aka Roni and Steve came to visit and whisked Joey away to Bologna (home of the deli meat- I think, I actually have no idea) while we went on two class field trips.

The first trip was on Friday morning to the Textile Museum in Prato with our Fashion class.  We took a 9:07 am train out of Florence about 20 minutes to historical Prato.  

Train station breakfast of champions... could not be any happier

On our way to the museum we passed the birthplace of everyone’s favorite coffee cookie, the biscotti.  It is called Antonio Mattei where the smell of fresh baked biscotti hits you from down the block.  The store opened with its signature sweet in 1858. 

“Made exclusively with Mediterranean almonds (the most flavorful in the world), fresh eggs, Italian pine nuts (not the cheaper, Chinese version) and sugar, you can taste the rich nuts over the flour and sugar that dominate the flavor of most biscotti."
"In the Florence area they're known as biscotti di Prato, probably since the greatest version of this cookie comes from the historic bakery Mattei in Prato."


-Faith Willinger, The Atlantic Food Channel

When we arrived at the textile museum we first learned about the process of taking a plant or a silk worm and making it into a specific garment.  We got to feel the different types of cotton, hemp, and silk strands before they are made into what we use to create clothing.  We saw a preserved energy something or other that powered the factory back when it was a factory (it looked like something out of Ellis Island, I was creeped) and a bunch of different types of clothing and fabrics they’ve made throughout the years.  We even saw floor to ceiling examples of fabric that they use for handbags.  One in particular had a very distinct logo of the letter F.  Can you guess? Yupp, it’s Fendi.  Towards the end I came across a glass case with a small coin collection.  It turns out that the factory in Prato was also really big in recycling clothing and reusing the fabric to make something new.  They would get shipments in from all over the world of old clothing and the coins sitting in front of me were a collection of loose change left in the pockets.  I thought that was pretty cool. 

After that we went to this little store called Opificio JM which houses cool and unique things made right in Prato by the local merchants.  Overall the store was strange and artsy.  It was opened last June by the actor John Malcovich (Lenny from “Of Mice and Men” and Cyrus the Virus in my all time favorite “Con Air”, ugh I love that movie).  Hence the name Opificio JM.  That was interesting for a hot sec, and then it was back to the train and home to Florence. 

Like okay John Malcovich, your crazy

The next morning we woke up bright and early once again and headed to the Salvatore Ferragamo store where a bus would pick us up to take us to the Ferrari Museum in Maranello with our Made in Italy class.  The bus ride was two hours but it was fine because it gave us a chance to get a few more minutes of sleep.  Maranello is basically Ferrari town.  A huge statue of the Ferrari logo horsie welcomed you to a town fully dedicated to the expensive Italian car.  We passed stores like Vroom Vroom Gelato and Ferrari Red Nail Salon.  Just kidding- but seriously this place was crazy about Ferrari. When you first walk in there is a huge gift shop where everything is either red, yellow, black or white (you can find the occasional green if the Italian flag is being sported).  The rest of the museum is basically a car show like they have at the Javits Center in New York City.  They have one or two cars from each decade or a car from each time they adapted the style or mechanics.  Out of 50 or so cars, only three of them were remade because they had been damaged or were not able to obtain the original models.  The rest were owned by Ferrari or belonged to private collectors.  They had trophies, engines, racing gear, steering wheels and leather swatches and paint samples of all the choices one has when custom making a Ferrari.  Amongst these pretty shiny toys were tons of Formula 1’s (not that I know what that means either), Grand Tourers and Sport-Prototypes that have made Prancing Horse history.  I didn’t listen to a lot of what they were saying because I was too busy taking pictures and imagining me in the passenger seat, the wind blowing in my long blonde hair and Vin Diesel driving fast and furiously next to me.

My initials (teeheehee)

 photography

After the museum I hit the gift shop hard and picked up a few things for my favorite boys.  Then we had lunch at the Ferrari restaurant with the rest of our class.  It was one of those prepaid things so we were served several courses rather than ordering off a menu.  When we first sat down at the long white clothed tables we were given rolls that were hard as a rock outside and soft, light, and fluffy inside.  My discouragement for hard foods caused me to not enjoy this one as much as I would have hoped.  Next they brought out a little muffin-looking thing with rucola, hard Parmesan and thick balsamic dressing.  The muffin thing I assume was a quiche of some sort.  It tasted like fluffy egg yolk or cheese or both but it was warm and delicious and I could have easily had four.  After that was risotto in a white sauce but not a creamy sauce just like a simple I have no idea what it was but it was decent.  Our last course was triangle ravioli with what we guessed was cheddar cheese inside in a plump tomato sauce, very delicious.  I was tempted to take the Ferrari plate home for a souvenir but decided against it. Yay Ferrari!

Okay here’s the worst part…

We’re finally done with the field trip and arrived back at the Ferragamo store.  The bus was like a double-decker but there were no seats on the bottom level, just a bathroom and a side door exit.  We were just about to walk down the side door exit when the girl in front of Dani stops and says, “I think I hear banging.  No I definitely hear someone knocking on the bathroom door.”  It turns out that some girl was locked in the bathroom for FOURTY-FIVE MINUTES!!  I suppose she wasn’t with any friends who were wondering where she was, the boy sitting next to her didn’t even think twice and the tiny bathroom (were talking tiny like broom closet with no room for a sink) was next to the engine so no one could hear her banging.  She had a few overwhelmed tears when she came out but she was fine.  I however was not.  My heart broke for her and I could not imagine sitting in that gross box for nearly an hour.  Then I left my e-Reader on the bus but I got it back :0)

Enjoy your fortieth snow of the winter New York and your week off from school America!

Siena, So Far

I’ve been in Siena since Saturday but haven’t blogged once, except to tell you about London, so here’s the deal…

Siena is beautiful, there’s no doubt about that.  The city is old and remotely quiet with cobblestone roads built on upwards and downwards hills that are getting easier to walk- and regain my breath- as the days go on.  The windows have those wooden shutters painted in blues and reds and greens with tiny pots of flowers on the windowsills like something out of My House in Umbria.  The streets look like big alleyways with storefront and restaurant windows except these main road alleyways also serve as highways being that cars, buses, and motorcycles whip around the corners and speed down the streets.  Joey knows a girl who got her foot run over by a car in Florence and like… now I get how that happened.

It was a total culture shock when we went to a restaurant and ordered chicken parmesan to be stared at like we had three heads.  No chicken parm? No calamari fritti? I thought these were classic Italian dishes? WTF? Cul-ture shock.  We did manage to find some good gnocchi in a four-cheese sauce, a caprice salad (not really a salad just mozzarella and tomato), a pizza appetizer from every place we go and I even got a white slice with prosciutto.  So delish.  It’s been really hard to find chicken here too! We finally got a good piece of grilled chicken with a little bit of olive oil and lemon on it.  The gelato is fabulous!  I had hazelnut gelato on a cone with homemade whipped cream that was out of this world.  Speaking of hazelnut- to those of you camp people who only got Nutella as a special visiting day treat and finished it by the time Olympics broke out like us Lokanda-ers- they have it here like its strawberry jam or Skippy peanut butter, favorite.  Other than that tonight me and Joey split the grilled chicken and this cheese and pesto ravioli with a tomato cream and black truffle sauce on top.  Basically, we were licking the plate. 

The central point of the “city” is the Piazza del Campo.  Us dumb Americans just call it “the circle”.  There are restaurants and souvenir shops lining the circle on one side and a big church with a bell and tower clock on the other.  All of the restaurants have nice outdoor seating and they are all connected with similar menus.  After asking for tiramisu and watching our waiter go from our restaurant to the one next door, I’m convinced they’re all the same thing.  The middle of the campo is an open field except its cobblestone and not grass.  Still kids and couples and families sit and lay on the stone and talk or eat gelato or do homework or kiss.  Being single and living in this city must be devastating because the PDA is an orange on the terrorist scale and every beautiful guy is with a fugly girl.  Other than seeing couples there are so many cute dogs.  These dogs aren’t like the obese slobbery American dogs.  They’re posh and polished and even a not so big animal lover like myself finds them adorable. 

Like usual Pinot Grigio accompanies us at most dinners and some of our checks can be paid in AIFS food stamps… were on Italian welfare. 

TGIF.  We signed up for a cooking class for tonight and a tour in San Gimignano tomorrow .  Sunday were supposed to go to the torture museum so we should be in for a fun filled weekend.  More about that and classes later.

Grandma: Since the TV here is all in Italian, I've decided to start watching Parenthood.  Just one more show for us to talk about!!

Daddie: I've fallen asleep without the TV two nights in a row now.  Italy changes you.

Ciao Bella!

P.S. IT’S SNOWING IN SIENA!!