I feel blogalicious

So lucky you a second blog on the same day! yay!!

Gonzaga-in-Florence (GIF from now on) students are housed in one of seven Pensioni. The one I live in is called Manola’s House. It is amazing here! I’ll be sure to take pictures soon and give like a virtual tour of the place but here’s an overview…

Manola is about 4 or 5 blocks from school, so it’s really close. From outside we ring a bell to be let in the door and then walk up to the second floor of the building. Inside we have a large common room divided into a sitting area and a dining area. All over the walls are works of art and the ceiling is a beautiful fresco! I never thought I could live in someplace so beautiful as a college student! Manola is in charge of the place and her parents cook for us, and they are the best! The food here is INCREDIBLE! For breakfast we just get cereal, toast, coffee, juice, and sometimes fruit. I’ve found a new fruit here that I don’t know what it is, but they are so good! It looks like a plum except its yellow and redish. Big seed in the middle. Ok name that fruit!

At lunch and dinner there is a first plate and a second plate (eating a major event in Italy). The first plate is a pasta dish and the second plate is a meat dish with a vegetable. My favorite meal so far was a lunch this week. We had risotto for the first plate and then chicken with zucchini for the second. I didn’t even know I liked zucchini! One night at dinner we had these really delicious carrots, they just have a way of cooking here in Tuscany.

Ok my room. My room mate and I (Sayuri – she’s from Japan originally) live in the only girls double in Manola. We are upstairs in almost like an attic. But we get our own bathroom and we have huge closets! The bathroom is very interesting to say the least. The shower is just a faucet head on the wall next to the toilet. So when we take showers the whole bathroom gets wet! But we have discovered that if we shower at night, it’s dry by morning.

There about 4 other people that work at Manola letting us in when we ring the bell. There’s no curfew here, but when it gets late you can’t be coming and going all night. Once you are in, you are supposed to be in for the night. Also, it’s against Italian law to have anyone not registered be in a pensione overnight. It’s the law for all hotels/hostels/inns/whatever in Italy. It’s a form of tax evasion here.

Another thing I love about the Pensione is we have a library, most of the books are in Italian, but some are English. And it’s full of travel books that students have left behind. I have taken Rick Steeves Best of Europe 2007 and 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I also found an Italian Phrasebook too, by Rick Steeves. Oh and I took a book on Spain, it’s a few years old, but I figure the buildings are still there! Haha. That one is not Rick Steeves, however I think it will be fine.

There are so many vespas mad scooters here in Florence! It is insane! They are just littering the streets. But what scares me about the streets is that the sidewalks are so narrow and there’s no shoulder, so I’m afraid of getting hit by a bus! And when you want to cross the street, no one stops for you, they don’t care one bit that you are in a crosswalk.

As for school and my classes:

1. Italian: I am loving learning the language! It is difficult at times though, partly because of the Spanish I took in high school. Italian and Spanish are similar but not the same at all. We have had 2 quizzes in class and I got an A- and an A on them.
2. Operations: I hate it. Mostly I hate my professor. He’s basically making it into an online class and he just wastes our class time talking about nonsense and himself. Last Thursday in class I took a tally of all the times he said “I.” 91.
3. Intro to Florence: It is because of this class that I know my way around the city. But I only know my way around based on the nearest cathedral. Every Wednesday we go on a tour of a historical place in Florence. So far we have been to: Archeological Museum, Santa Trinita, Badia Fiorentina, Santa Maria Novella, and Santa Croce. Also, I am now a tour guide for Santa Maria Novella. How cool is that?! I get to guide tourists around the church and show them the frescoes and things.
4. Management: Taught by the same professor as Operations so I hate it.
5. Global Economics: I love and adore the professor. He’s an Italian man and I call him Andrea because I can’t remember his last name. The class is three hours on Monday nights, which is a long time to do the same activity. But he is just so entertaining that I love it all. Sometimes I sit in the front row and am seriously afraid of being hit in the face because of his use of hand gestures.

This weekend:

Today my room mate and I went to Bologna. GREAT shopping! They have one of the largest outdoor markets in Europe. And it is huge! We kept getting lost actually. Bologna also has a lot of good stores, some the same as in America (H&M for example). We also had a delicious lunch and incredible dessert at a Pasticceria. The main square in Bologna is also home to the 3^rd largest cathedral in the world! And it’s free to go in. Inside I lit a candle for each of my grandmothers. Let me tell you it was gigantic!

Midterms start on Monday so I should spend most of tomorrow studying.

Thursday I am going to Barcelona for the weekend! Very excited about that!!!

Finally….

Things I miss about America:

- Free glasses of water at restaurants

- Ease of doing laundry (costs €3.50/load here to wash)

- Showers where the water doesn’t run out on you

- Public bathrooms that are free and have toilet seats.

- And of course, all of you! J

Italian Coastline, numbero 3

My weekend trip to Southern Italy was so beautiful!! I think I may like Cinque Terre a little better though. Some of the southern italy stuff was overrated, in my opinion.

The trip began with a seven hour bus ride from Florence to Sorrento. It took us what felt like forever to get to Sorrento. Oh and in Sorrento we stayed in cabins at a campground. Almost like summer camp. It was really really cold, so I brought my sleeping bag with me. It was a good inagural use of my bag. We got to the campground late at night, so I just passed out in bed at soon as I could.

Friday morning we took a ferry to the town of Amalfi:


From Amalfi, I took a boat over to the Emerald Grotto. It was really awesome! My pictures didn't come out very well though. The best part was the guides who ran the boats sang for us. So we had such a fun time!

Here I am under a rock! in the grotto!

After the Emerald Grotto we got some lunch and went to the beach. Amalfi didn't have the best of beaches. They are very picturesque, but not that great to hang out at and swim on. There was a sandy beach on the other side of town but you have to pay to use it. Nothing is free in Italy.

The campground was very dark. Thank god I had my headlamp. Friday night we played Uno at the campground after a fun dinner with Father Paul. At dinner Father Paul paid for 2 bottles of wine for our table. Such a nice Jesuit.

Saturday morning we went to Capri! So famous! The ferry to Capri was shorter than the one to Amalfi, so I didnt get to have my ferry nap. From the port where the ferries drop everyone off, we took a bus over to Anacapri to hit up the blue grotto. Whether or not the blue grotto is one of the wonders of the world is still under debate with all 137 Gonzaga students. So the bus over to Anacapri dropped us off on a shopping street. From there you are supposed to take another bus down to the grotto. Not us. We WALKED. It was probably an hour or so from the town to the grotto. It was all downhill so it wasn't that bad, but it took forever. The road was just switchbacks down the hillside for the longest time. When we finally got down to where you get in the rowboats I saw a cat. I named her Misty D'Italia, because she looks almost exactly like the real Misty at home.

The rowboats waiting to get into the blue grotto. You have to lay down in the boat and they take you in. You can only go in on days when the sea is calm enough. Peter (one of the Gonzaga staffers, he's Austrain and I'm sure part mountain goat) told us the next day that they had to close the grotto, so we were lucky to have been there on Saturday.

Inside the grotto. In my opinion it's over rated. The rowboat guides are jerks to you and practically force you to tip them. You only get to be in the grotto for a few minutes and it's not that big. Yes it is GORGEOUS inside, but the total experience is not worth it. I liked the less famous Emerald Grotto much better.

My favorite part of Carpi was taking the chairlift to the top of Monte Solaro. It was the best 7€ I've ever spent. It was so spectatular up there. The lift is about 12 minutes up and you go by yourself in a little chair (sorry you can't see the actual chairs in this picture). People who have gardens under the chairlift build all these little gardens and the views are just too cool.

From the top of the mountain I took this picture looking down over the cliff. The water is perfectly clear, just look at that!!

From up on Monte Solaro you can't tell where the sky and sea meet, it all just blends together somewhere with the clouds.

Oh and there was a cactus.

Sorrento was having a fish festival while we were there. Basically everyone but me enjoyed it. I had to buy bread and cheese from a little store for dinner. But I did take a fun picture with a fish:

POMPEI!!! It was really cool. We all got an audiogiude to walk around the site with. It was cool to wander around and see the ancient city. We went into people's houses and tons of public buildings. We also got to see a lot of the molds made of people who were in town when Vesuvius blew. Like this guy.

The ruins of Pompei. This was baths back before the volcano blew.

Posing in what used to be someone's house in Pompei. Very eerie....

Cinque Terre

Hi everyone! I'm going to have to make this a short one. I want to get my Cinque Terre blog before I leave for Sorrento (tomorrow).

But here's some pictures and story.

We stayed in the town of Monterosso. It's the norther most town on the Cinque Terre. It is also the one with a sandy beach and has the most to do. Which is not a lot. Also the sandy beack has a strech of rocks about 5 feet wide just before the ocean. So watch your feet! But swimming in the water there is so cool. Its so clear and blue. And its not exacly warm, but compared to Oregon's Pacific, its a sauna!

On the hike! Above Vernazza! The hike from Monterosso to Vernazza is the most difficult leg of the hike.



The last leg of the hike (or first depending where you start) is called the Via Dell' Amore. It's the walk of love. So if you walk on it with your husband/wife you'll be together forever. How sweet. There's a tunnel thing you walk through and its full of couples' names who have been there.

Just one of the MANY spectacular views. These cliff sides go on for miles and if you spend the 5 or so hours hiking it is well worth it! Taking the train or ferry boar in between the towns is nice, but you have to do the hike! Just go slow and take long breaks in each of the towns.


This is my room mate. And that's our train home leaving without us.
At a group dinner. We went to the restaurant Belvedere. They have really good seafood, but I don't eat seafood so I just have to take the work of everyone else. But I had the pesto and it was basically amazing. Cinque Terre also has really good white wine. I usually go for red. But the white was delicious!

It was Oktoberfest weekend and a bar in town (one of like 3) was having a special Oktoberfest night. The hats say "God save the beer" on the side.

View from my hotel balcony.

The weekend we were in Cinque Terre there was a festival in the town of Bonassola. Its on the riviera but not part of the five towns. The festival was Madonna of the Rosary. It was for the fishermen lost at sea and safe return for the ones. Those are hundreds, maybe thousands of candles floated out to sea. I had the opportunity to help light some of the candles.

The festival in Bonassola also included an AMAZING fireworks show. It was the best show I've ever seen and may ever see again. I am NOT kidding here people. The sounds of the fireworks were echoing off the cliffs and it was just incredible. They had fireworks that bounced off the water and the show lasted a really long time.

On the way home in the morning I stopped in the wine store and took a picture with a cool hat. Notice my sweet backpack with many straps and nifty things.


On the way home we took the train which goes through Pisa and some of us went to check out the leaning tower! We checked our bags at the train station and spend about 2 hours in the town of Pisa. All there is to do in Pisa is look at the leaning tower and church. It costs 15€ to climb the tower so I didn't do it. I just took my pictures and went home to Florence.
There's more pictures on my shutterfly if you just can't get enough Cinque Terre! Also I didn't really spell check this entry, so I am VERY sorry if you find it completely error ridden! I promise to do better.

Isola d'Elba

Before I get into Elba, I had a conversation all in Italian yesterday! I went to buy stamps and here’s what happened:

Man: Ciao
Jess: francobolli? (stamps) per favore
Man: A America?
Jess: Si.
Man: Quanto? (How many?)
Jess: Tre (three)
Man: due cinquentacinque (2.55)
I had him €3.
He gives me my stamps and a receipt.
Man: Grazie
Jess: Grazie
Man: Ciao
Jess: Ciao.

Are you proud of me?

Ok so Isle of Elba!

I’ll let pictures tell the story this time....

Ferry over the island

It was really windy on the ferry. For about 2 days before the trip to Elba we had been having on and off thunderstorms in Florence, so it wasnt exactly smooth seas on the boat!

I'm king of the Ferry!!

Getting my sea legs?

Views from the ferry. The hour ride over to Elba was incredibly gorgeous! The Italian Coast is simple to die for!

This is Porto Ferraio. The ferry pulls up here, its a much more resorty side of the island. We stayed in Porta Azzuro a few kilometers away.

Pulling into Porto Ferraio. It almost looks like the picture is upside down, like the sea could be the sky and the sky could be the sea.


View from my hotel window in Porto Azzurro.

This cat pretty much sums up life on Elba. If you are late to lunch time, ZERO restaurants are open between 3 and 6pm.

Barbarossa Beach. I swam in the Mediterranian!!! Technically its the Tyrrhenian Sea on this coast of Italy, but its all connected, so whatev.

I am trying to point at the rock that I swan out to and jumped off. I'm a pretty hardcore girl like that. I jumped off the back side from probably about 15 feet up. I landed on my knees and it stung a little.


Photo op with some mountains on the walk back to town from the beach. So thats why my shirt is all wet.


The sun is just starting to set over the beach.


A Neptune statue in town. I'm still wet from the beach in this picture.


Hike up Monte Capanne. The circle of buildings in the middle is where we started from, so I took this after about an half hour of walking.

Another view from up on Monte Capanne. This is before we climbed so high we were in the clouds. Monte Capanne is just over 1000 meters high, the highest point on the Isle of Elba.

Check out the rocky and steep terrain we hiked up for several hours. (okay, about 2 hours, but still). It was much more difficult than I had anticipated. Plus I didnt bring hiking boots or tail shoes to Europe so I was hiking in some walking shoes (and they were so white before this hike too!)


View from the top. Its not very impressive, but I liked it. On a clear day you can see to Corsica from up there.


This is the oldest religious building on Elba. And it had something to do with chestnuts.

Me on the docks on the last day in Elba!! I hope know you understand why I not coming home, I going to start my sailboat company on Isola d'Elba!!


I've also been working on a blog about daily life here in Florence, so stay tuned! I'm leaving Thursday afternoon for Cinque Terre and I have high expectations for that place!