Pasqua nel Lazio

Living with the Fenati-Raminella family in Milano certainly has its advantages, many in fact. One of these is that I was offered to opportunity to spend the break for Pasqua (Easter) with Giovanna's parents at their home in Roma and then south to their house on the coast of Lazio--the region in which you find Roma--in a small town called Circeo. Needless to say, I immediately accepted.

The Thursday before Easter, we set off from Milano for Roma on a train, arriving in a mere three and a half hours (a big improvement from the slow train I took to get to Milano in January that took six hours). The taxi from the station dropped us off in the midst of tourist madness, and I felt immediately overwhelmed as I ducked foreigners rushing through with camera's and maps in hand while simultaneously repeating "No grazie"to the street vendors attempts to sell me fake Gucci bags. But as I took a deep breath and looked around, I realized just why this street was so chaotic--not thirty feet from the their front door was the Piazza di Trevi and the famous fountain. I didn't have much time to look around as we had to haul the bags up a couple flights of stairs and get everyone settled in. Being lunch time, we quickly organized ourselves to head back down for lunch. We didn't have to go far--across the street in fact to a restaurant owned by neighbors and friends of their family. That afternoon and the next day, I got some free time to explore by myself with a few destinations recommended by Giovanna's father, Cristiano, including the Fontana di Trevi (obviously), Piazza Colonna and the neighboring Piazza di Montecitorio where the lower house of Parliament sits, the Pantheon, the Quirinale where the President lives (not to be confused with the more powerful Prime Minister), the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, il Vaticano, Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps), il Colosseo, and il Foro Romano (The Forum), just to name a few ;)

 
 








I'm pretty proud that I managed to get myself around to see most of Roma's main sights in just seven hours total and am very happy to get to go back before returning to Colorado in June! I really like Roma, despite how touristy it can be at times. The culture is so starkly different than that of Milano, but in a way I liked, at least at first glance--much louder, much more extroverted, much more concentrated. It was certainly a quick journey through such an amazing city, but I can't lament getting to fall asleep with the sounds of the Piazza di Trevi right outside my window.


Saturday was travel day to Circeo. I drove with Cristiano and Stefania as the other car was already at capacity. It was a nice drive, not too long, and with beautiful scenery right through the car window. As we got close to town, we stopped at a market to load up on produce and a few other necessities. The market of the borghetti (little villages) are incredibly different from those of Milano, much less of Colorado, with all the produce of your wildest dreams grown ten minutes from where you're buying it. Going "inside" to pay, I discovered buckets of olives and mozzarella di bufala. On request, they dipped in a big slotted spoon and brought out three little mozzarelline for us to taste. I swear the world stopped when i bit into it. I thought I'd had good mozzarella here before, but THIS, this was something else. It may be the thing I miss most about Italia when I get back to the States. 

After a short drive, we took a tight, winding road up and up before arriving at their gate with a little ceramic painted nameplate. We unloaded the car of the bags and groceries into their elevator--motorized cart really--that took everything down to the house while we took the cactus, aloe, and bush lined steps. The house was truly picture perfect: white stucco walls with bright blue accents and white tiled floors. The walls were decorated with varying stiles of ship and port paintings as well as giant windows that looked out onto the sea down below. Once everything was inside, they showed me to my room--or should I say house. Situated below the main house, it contained a big entrance room with a kitchenette, then a second room with the bedroom and a bathroom. Obviously there was no complaining on my part. 

main balcony

my little house

After getting situated, I decided to go on a walk while we waited for the rest of the family, so I took the road that went around this big hill and down to the ocean. As I was returning, I even had a close encounter with another inhabitant of Circeo: the wild boar. Fortunately it crossed the road a good twenty feet ahead and there was no confrontation. As I got back to the house, Giovanna, Livio, and the girls were driving up so I helped them unload and get down. Everyone got settled in and we did a nice aperitivo before a dinner of grilled skewers.

Easter morning I woke up (looking out the window in front of me onto the sea) and headed to Mass with Cristiano, Stefania, and Ginny. The small church filled up--and then some--but it was nice to see a service in a small, community church. As incredible as the cathedrals are here, I sometimes miss that smaller, intimate feeling. After the service we struggled to make our way out of the church as the crowd for the next Mass was trying to get in and then we met up with the rest of the family at the beach nearby their house. The weather wasn't incredible but it was warm enough with the sun shining to hang out for a while, so the girls an I walked the beach, picking up shells in our own version of an Easter Egg Hunt. As Cristiano had been coming to this same beach from the time he was twelve, the family has a lot of history there and a lot of friends to see and talk with.

Stefania and Cristiano had to go to the nearby port to check on their boat, which I got to see as I accompanied them. Unfortunately the weather wasn't nice enough to take it out the whole time we were there, so I didn't get to see the boat in action. For lunch, we all returned home for a traditional Easter meal, much more casual and less complicated than our American one. The table was full of a mixture of cheeses (mozzarella, pecorino, provolone); meats (salame, prosciutto); a savory tart with spinach, anchovies, and olives; a selection of sottolio and sottaceto (artichokes, pearl onions, mushrooms kept sealed in jars under oil or vinegar), and of course bread and wine. After lunch, the girls opened their Easter gifts and the afternoon was spent relaxing at the house as the clouds and wind rolled in. The weather stayed nasty for the next couple days, so there was a lot of time hanging out at the lovely house, but I did get to take a small excursion with the family to the city center to get a cappucino, walk around a bit, and find a new swimming suit for Ginny. Afterwards we returned to the same beach for lunch at the little restaurant there of spaghetti di vongole (clams) which was wonderfully tasty. The girls played on the trampoline for a bit before we moved to a park. We then drove to see another section of beach, long and straight and perfect for walks when the weather cooperates, but it was too windy and we had to head back home. The rest of our time at Circeo was largely spent, like I said, relaxing at the house, reading, playing an English-learning board game that Ginny got from her grandparents, and me studying a new card game that they enjoy playing called, Burraco. We returned to Roma on the Wednesday after Easter to catch our train back to Milano. 

Tired Gaia--almost back to Milano!

I was excited to be back as I was meeting up with my friend from Colorado, Cecilia! More on our adventures soon....

Dei laghi

I have come to really like Milan for many reasons. One of these is the proximity of Milan to so many different types of nature destinations: beautiful beaches, the famous Alps, and lovely lakes all within an hour and a half drive. I decided to tackle the lakes, taking two separate trips to two different lakes that are found within an hour from the busy city.

Ieva atop the hill

The first, Lago Maggiore, I saw from the small town of Laveno with my friend from class, Ieva. Taking the train out of Milan one early Saturday morning, both of us groggily watched the landscapes become greener and denser until arriving at the end of the line. The forecast promised sunshine, but unfortanately the day was a stereotypical Lombardian gray with patches of low laying clouds. The environment that resulted was actually quite mystical and magical looking out onto the water. The lakes in this northern region of Lombardia are at the foot of the Alps, so each lake is surrounded by hills or small mountains rising up all around. With clouds encircling the steep inclines of the land where it meets water, it led for a very esoteric scene. Walking around the waterfront, we clumsily found our way up the surrounding hills upon which the town is built and, by chance, arrived at a little park that houses bit of castle ruins. There happened to be some sort of event going on, seemingly historical or political or both, with a procession of musicians that played the Italian national anthem towards the flag that was raised only at half mast. After watching to procession a bit, we got some pictures of the beautiful views from the top of the hill before taking a winding street down and through the small town. We grabbed a gelato to eat while retracing our steps around the lake and chatting a bit before heading back to the station to catch the train back to Milano

una stradina (little street) in Bellagio

 

Lecco

A few weeks after, I had arranged an excursion to Lago di Como with my friends Marco and Katie. After taking a train to Triuggio, the small town where they live with  Marco's parents, we drove all together to Bellagio, the town which inspired the Las Vegas hotel and casino. It's a very small town that was first built up as a vacation destination for European nobility and now is largely a tourist destination for Italians and non-Italians alike. The lake was really just stunning and the town quite cute. We did a walk up the steep steps of one of the town streets and then around the lake a bit as far as we could without getting on a boat. We actually did look at taking a ferry, but the prices were a bit high and the times inconvenient. We were happy to wander our way back to the car to drive to our next stop, Lecco. I really liked Lecco, I must say, more than Bellagio. While Bellagio is more aesthetically beautiful, I liked that Lecco is its own town, one where people really live instead of just travel to. We walked around the waterfront where everyone else was walking as well and enjoying the nice, spring weather. We stopped part of the way down the path to drink a beer together and enjoy our surroundings. After talking for a bit, we paid and made our way back to the car for the drive back to Milano for a quick dinner. 

It's really one of the great things about Milano: that there are such beautiful things so close by. It's really the only way I could live in a large city because I'm so used to having beautiful nature like the Rockies right outside my window. Milano does offer a lot, however, and not only in it's famous reputation for fashion....

...Coming up: Things to do on your day off in Milano 

A Minnesotan in Paris: Part 2

We started our third day quite early, as it was the day dedicated to the reason why Evan came out to Paris in the first place: an international competition for solo tuba. Now is a good time to mention a source of stress that had been hanging over our shoulders for the last couple days: his tuba landed in Paris with a problem. The large changes in air pressure and temperature that are normal in the undercarriage of the plane had caused a part of his instrument to malfunction. He had been trying to oil the piece to get it to move correctly, but it hadn't been working and we were reduced to praying. The competition was not actually in Paris, but in another suburb outside that we needed to reach by train. We left with a good sense of what we needed to do to get their--metro--train--walk, however we encountered a few problems buying the train tickets (the machines often don't accept cash and only specifically French credit cards) while the ticket office we found was closed for the day. We did however, after a good amount of panicking and swearing, find another ticket office inside the train station where we bought our ticket there. Upon arrival, I had a list of directions complete with a simple hand-drawn map of where we needed to go. My sense of scale, however, was off and what seemed like a five/ten minute walk turned into a thirty minute uphill sprint trying to get to the competition in time for him to warm up for a couple minutes before playing.

waiting to play

Fortunately, he did get a later spot that he thought and ended up having more time to warm up before being called in to play. Unfortunately his tuba still was really functioning, which really negates anything the musician can do. After many laborious attempts on the part of Evan as well as the competition, he really had to accept that he wasn't going to be able to play the way he should have been able to play. It was a huge disappointment, but at the same time not all was wasted. He really got an opportunity to meet other players from all over the world and to hear how they were playing, which is really invaluable. After a long day in this tiny town, we decided to head back to Nanterre and call it a night after a delicious fondue dinner and a couple sweets bought from a Nanterre pastry shop. 

Our next day in Paris was occupied mostly with finding a couple famous dwellings and finishing with Mass at a very famous Parisian cathedral (with a lot of meandering in between). We managed to find first the house of Igor Stravinsky, a Romantic Russian composer, on our way to the oldest square in Paris and the house of Victor Hugo. Our route had us pass the Bastille where one finds another of the huge opera houses of Paris and ended at la Place des Vosges and the House of Victor Hugo. It actually took us quite a long time to find this house, as there really weren't any signs to be seen apart from the namesake restaurant on the corner. Tucked away in one of the covered corners of this square is the apartment of Victor Hugo. It was really wonderful to look out the windows to see the same view that such a great, historical mind saw hundreds of years ago.

Bastille

Place des Vosges

Leaving the ancient square, we headed towards the Pantéon, which I actually found to be very strange. I'm semi-used to seeing Roman architecture, but I'm not used to seeing faux-Roman architecture made thousands of years after the Romans. Maybe a good history lesson of this building would help me, but I didn't really understand why such a thing was built in the middle of this French city.

Down the hill from the Pantéon, we made it to the famous Notre Dame cathedral. We managed to spend a good amount of time walking all around it, takings far too many pictures from every angle possible, like one often does when seeing something that they've seen often before in pictures.  We managed to get ourselves inside with the rest of the masses to see how the interior rivaled the outside. My first impression was just of the huge space that there is inside; how incredibly high the ceilings are and how wide the aisles. I've learned by now after a hundred of blurry, dark, disappointing photos that capturing the kind of beauty inside this stunning cathedrals is near impossible. It really is near incommunicable, something that someone can only feel. We made our quick pass around the inside and then headed back out into the light of the day. With an hour still before the Sunday evening mass, we walked around a little big of the Latin quarter just on the other side of the river. There I had my first ever French crepe (!) from a window on one of the streets. We decided on the banana nutella crepe to split and were not disappointed. Really, you put bananas and nutella together and there is really no way to go wrong. After savoring the last bits of chocolaty goodness, we sat by the Seine until it was time to go in for Mass. The service was really beautiful, although obviously we understood nothing that was being said, the atmosphere is really hard to beat. It's easy to understand after going to a good amount of Masses in other countries why the Catholic Church has so much of it structured and standardized--I didn't need to understand the words to still feel at home eve.

Notre Dame

The next morning we headed off to the train station and grabbed a train to the small city of Valence (Some may remember that I have already stayed in Valence, on accident, last semester).  Valence is my black hole. It must have some need to suck me in without ever wanting to let me go because also this time we had problems connecting to our friend, Cecilia's, town of Die. Fortunately this time I didn't have to find a hotel for the night and we made it to Die by 4pm. Actually, we didn't make it to Die and got off instead at the slightly larger town of Crest to meet up with the other language assistants that I had met during my previous stay. Cecilia first took us on a little walk up and up, with gorgeous views of Crest and the mountains the whole way.

After a quick descent we met up with the assistants, where we had an all-American dinner of hamburgers, cooked by one of the other American assistants. Joining us were a French brother and sister, bringing the nations represented to: U.S., Colombia, U.K, Italy, AND France. Everyone in the room could speak in at least two languages, which lead to another great, international experience in Crest. We ended up sleeping there and left for Die the next morning. We dropped our stuff off at Cecilia's house before going out for a lunch with one of the other assistants. Cecilia had to work for a little bit after lunch, so she showed Evan and I a path that we wandered along while she was teaching. It was lovely to be surrounded by farms, vineyards, and, of course, mountains (although I always prefer Colorado's).

Once she finished up, she took us to Jaillance to do a tasting of the Clairette de Die and the Cremant, two sparkling white wines unique to Die. As you may remember, I had done that once before with her in December, but am always up for a free tasting of good wines! We grabbed some food for a dinner, along with the mandatory baguette, and ate together at her house. It had started to rain, but we decided to venture out and do a short climb up to a tower that sits right above the little town. It was after sunset, so it was a bit tricky seeing the trail, but we made it up and got to see how beautiful this little old tower is at night, all lit up. It was a great end to our day in Die and definitely worth a little rain.

At the tower

The next morning we went to one of the weekly markets. It was a gorgeous morning, so we sat out with an espresso before perusing the offerings of the market, including local cheeses, breads, fruits, vegetables, and preserves. After walking around the town a little bit as well, we returned to the market and grabbed our second crepe of the trip, from a little stand. This time we picked one filled with the "crepe-lady's" homemade preserves and were not disappointed. Soon after we went to Cecilia's school to sit in on one of her classes. Her students were doing presentations in English about Die and the surrounding region. It was great to get to see what she's been doing this year and how great of a teacher she is, as well as the type of students she has been teaching as they talked about their home.

We did another walk with Cecilia around the remains of the ancient city walls, spotting some little donkeys along the way and some more beautiful views of the area. That night we made ourselves another dinner and watched the film "The Last King of Scotland." Those who have seen the film know that it has nothing to do with France and was sort of a "downer" for our last night together in Die, but it was still a movie worth watching.

We had to leave early the next morning to get a bus to Valence and then our train back into Paris for our last day. We made it back to Randall and Monique's house in Nanterre, where they were kind enough to take us to the nearby American Cemetery of WWI and WWII soldiers. It was beautiful and made me feel incredibly proud of my country. It was wonderful to know that at least a couple Parisians still hold Americans in high esteem in it's role during those two wars. The rest of the day was spent talking to Randall and Monique about--everything really--plus preparing all of our stuff to leave the next day. After dinner and a night of sleep, we got ourselves up early and were helped to the train station by Monique and Randall where we said our adieu's. A chaotic series of trains later, we got ourselves to our respective gates and said goodbye. Fortunately, it was made less difficult having had such an amazing trip and knowing that we would get to have yet another European adventure just two months later.

 

 

Randall, Monique, and Evan at the American Cemetery

A Minnesotan in Paris: Part 1

As it is already well known, a couple of weeks ago I left lovely Italia and headed up north to neighboring France, Paris to be exact. Evan decided to compete in an international music competition there, and I couldn't miss the opportunity to take only an hour long plane ride to meet him.

We both arrived at Charles de Gaulle, but on (obviously) separate planes and him without a cell phone. We had a plan in place that I would try to meet him at his gate, but in lieu of that, we would meet at the train station that is attached to the airport. For those who haven't been to CDG airport, it isn't set up at all how I am used to, with three different terminals and terminal 2 consisting of areas 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, etc. All of these different areas had arrival and departure boards only for the flights in their specific section and information desks also only equipped with information on the flights in that section of the airport and with no centralized entrance or information center (at least that I found). It turned out that there were, as well, TWO different train stations, therefore ruining even our backup plan. After walking around trying to find Evan's gate, I headed over to the train station and decided to sit down and stay in one place. Fortunately, only fifteen minutes or so after I sat down, Evan found me there.

Living room in Nanterre

From this station we took a train into Paris and then transferred to another that took us just outside the city to the suburb of Nanterre. There I had arranged for us to stay with a couple in their house through a website (so kindly brought to my attention by Mary Beth!). Once there, we called our host, Randall, who came to meet us at the station to get us back to the apartment where he and his wife, Monique, live. Randall helped us figure out which transportation pass was the best value for our needs, helped us buy it, and then gave us a quick tour of Nanterre. Randall is a native of Montreal in Quebec, while Monique is originally from Normandy, so it was really perfect to be able to talk to both of them, making sure we understood everything through Randall and then clumsily practicing our French with Monique. Soon after we arrived there, we ended up having to leave again so that Evan could get to a practice session with an accompanist in another Paris suburb.  We ended up navigating there successfully, although a little late, and had the pleasure of meeting David, a very nice man and a really excellent musician. After returning to Nanterre, we cooked ourselves a simple dinner at home with food that we had bought at the grocery store accompanied by, of course, French wine.

The next morning, Evan practiced a bit in the morning, so I took breakfast upon myself and headed into Nanterre center to find a patisserie. There I bought us a croissant aux amande (with almonds) and a pain au chocolat and brought them back to the house to have with some good ol' Starbucks Via (donated by the lovely Margaret Mills) that I had brought along. Happy with our breakfast, caffeinated, with a list of things to see as well as our trusty map, we headed into Paris. Getting off at Charles de Gaulle-Étoile stop, we headed up the stairs to start our day at one end of Avenue des Champs-Élysées at the Arc de Triomphe. It was really a wonderful introduction to Paris to see such an iconic monument and a great place to start our exploration. Not stopping there, we decided to head over towards the Eiffel Tower. It sure doesn't disappoint, that's for sure. That being said, the crowds of tourists and almost as many people selling various sizes of Eiffel Tower souvenirs, made it difficult to stick around longer than the time it took to take a couple pictures. We headed down towards the Seine, we and crossed it to walk under the tour but decided save some money and time in long lines, and we skipped the elevator trip to the top.

From the Parc du Champs de Mars in front of the tower, we continued our course, only slightly planned and crossed over the river again on the beautiful Pont Alexandre III towards the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais that both have free art exhibitions. Unfortunately the Grand Palais ended up being closed, but we aren't particular palace snobs so we were more than happy to head across the street and saw the exhibition at the Petit Palais.  From there we reconnected to the Champs-Élysées continued down to end where we found the gold tipped Obélisque, framed by two black and gold fountains.

Point Alexandre III

Le petit palais

At this point in the day, we decided to head back to the Arc, where nearby there is the main concert hall for the Orchestre de Paris. Early that morning, we had researched online whether or not there was a concert and found that there would be one that evening and that there is a special youth price of only 10euro for those under 26 years. We couldn't pass this up, so we got our tickets an hour before the concert and had just enough time to grab a sandwich at a nearby café before the concert started at 8pm. The orchestra was really incredible, playing an Beethoven overture, a violin concerto by Alban Berg, and finally Beethoven's 4th symphony. Satisfied but tired--as you should be on vacation--we took the train back to Nanterre and almost immediately headed to bed.

At the Obélisque

The next morning, we kept our routine: tuba practice, breakfast from patisserie, train into Paris. This time we got off at the Paris Opera, where we tried to take a tour that included a view of the hall, however, a rehearsal kept us from seeing it. From the opera we got a little lost a couple time, found ourselves a couple times, making our way slowly up to the Montmatre district. There we found the Moulin Rouge, which I have to admit was quite disappointing. We continued up to the big hill of this artist district, home to the studios of artists such as Dalì and Monet reaching the Place de Tetre, filled with colorful umbrellas and works of modern Parisian artists. Past the square, we found Sacre Coeur, the lovely cathedral looking over all of Paris like a guardian. We stopped for a few minutes for an espresso back in Place de Tetre, costly at that, but not too much considering the environment that you are really paying to enjoy.

Sacre Coeur

In front of the Paris Opera

We made our way down the hill back towards the Seine. Here we stopped by the Musée d'Orsay and then crossing over the bridge to the Louvre. We were planning on taking part in the special Friday evening hours and free youth admission from 6-9pm, so we walked around and explored the huge palace courtyard before we went into see the famous collections. We found only one flaw in our plan of the day: we were so tired from all of our walking, that by evening it was hard to focus of the great works that we were seeing. We did, however, with strength and great courage see a good deal of the collections offered. Afterwards, we had a quick (and incidentally our only) dinner out where I tried the restaurants croque madame, while Evan had the classic steak frites with a Belgium beer. Very happy and very full, we made our way back to a train station and back to Nanterre.

Louvre

To come: the competition and another day in Paris before heading off the the mountains!

Carnevale a Venezia

The Sunday before departing for Paris, I went with a couple friends to Venezia to see the famous Carnivale celebration. Similar to Mardi Gras, Carnivale is a ten day festival that ends on Fat Tuesday, the day before the beginning of the Lenten season. Many Italian cities celebrate, however the most famous Carnivale is that of Venezia. Originally I wanted to find accommodations for a night or two so that I could really get the full experience, but in the end it didn't work out. Fortunately there are numerous trains to and from Venezia from Milano, so I decided to just take the first and last train of the day to try and see as much as I could.
The first train ended up being at 7:25am, so I got up early to go to meet the friends at the main station. We ended up barely finding places to sit on the crowded train as Italy's regional trains don't have assigned places nor an assigned number of tickets that they will sell for a specific train. This usually works out well and allows for more flexibility if you change your mind or miss your planned train, however for this particular trip it ended up being a huge problem. At about two stops into the ride, the train was completely full of people going to Venezia, with another ten or so stops to go. Even though there was absolutely no available space, the train stopped at every stop and for a long period of time. By the end, our journey time increased from the normal 3 hours to 4 hours.

Marco and Katie

The streets filled to capacity

We did, however finally arrive and the initial sight was immediately rewarding. As you step out of the Santa Lucia station, you are facing the Grand Canal and the beautiful Venetian streets and buildings. This time, we were facing the same beauty, but with streets and bridges completely full of people in costumes, with faces painted or masked. The energy was really quite incredible.

Katie and I decided to stop at one of the numerous stands to get our faces painted by the young artists of Venezia as we made our way walking through the crowded streets toward the eventual destination of Piazza San Marco. One of the things I love the most about Venezia is that even as one of the most visited towns in Italia, how easy it is to find yourself alone with the canals and old churches by just taking a quick turn off the main routes. This held true even during this especially busy day. Whenever we wanted a break from the claustrophobic conditions, we just ducked around a random corner or over a small bridge and found ourselves almost alone. It is infamously easy to get lost in that city, but most of the time, you don't mind.

After a few hours of getting lost and then finding the chaotic crowds again, we made it to the even more chaotic Piazza San Marco, the true belly of the beast. The Carnivale Veneziana is historically based in the masked festivals from hundreds of years ago. The masks gave the opportunity to disguise social classes and allow everyone to be equals for at least a couple days. Now it is an occasion for which those who live in and around Venezia work almost year round on intricate traditional costumes and masks (as well as the more non-traditional, including a family of Smurfs and Shrek with Fiona). We had enough time for a circle around the Piazza before taking a different route back to the station with enough time to get a seat for the long ride home. We were very lucky again to have found seats as the train was very full again.  It took another long 4-4.5 hours to get back to Milano, finishing with a total of 8-8.5 hours of travel for about 4 hours in Venezia. Next Carnivale I might just work a bit harder to find accommodations and avoid taking trains twice in one day, but I'm very glad to have experienced this huge Italian festival all the same.

Toscana con degli amici

Through this class, I have been lucky to find a couple intelligent, nice, like-minded people to hang out with! As you know, I went to Torino with Katie, an American girl from Minnesota (of all places) who is here with her Italian boyfriend, Marco. One of the other people from my class that I'm getting to know better is Ieva, a girl from Latvia who is living here with her Italian husband. He teaches in Pisa every Saturday, so one day Ieva invited Katie and I to come along and drive down there to spend the day. I agreed with no hesitation, as did Katie.
So off we went, Saturday morning at the lovely hour of 5:30am for the two and a half hour drive from Lombardia to Liguria and finally to Toscana. After a quick breakfast at a cafè, we left Ieva's husband, Lorenzo, at the school and set out to take some pictures of the famous torre pendente--leaning tower--and the beautiful Piazza dei Miracoli--miracles--and then took a walk around town. It really is quite a beautiful, quaint town but after a couple of hours we were out of things to do without spending money on museums. Since we had a car with us, we had the option of going to see another town, so we decided to drive to the nearby town of Lucca. I had heard from a couple people that is was a beautiful town, so I was completely content with our plan.


Lucca is a city similar to Ferrara in that it is still completely walled. On top of the walls there is a beautiful, wide pathway with plenty of people biking, walking, and running. The town itself was simply stunning. It is now one of my favorite Italian towns that I have been able to visit. The streets are narrow and bustling with people going to stores, cafès, or restaurants. We walked up to the top of one of the towers in the town that was unique because of the trees they had growing on the top. From there we got to see a wide, clear panoramic of the city and surrounding hills.

Katie, Marco, Ieva

A statue of Giacomo Puccini near his house

We stopped for lunch and I must say that the food was some of the best I've had as well, or at least the most suited to my taste, with choices such as lentil and spinach soup and pasta with rabbit ragù. I ended up with the soup and was not disappointed. After a little more meandering, we drove back to Pisa to regroup before deciding to make one more stop before the return to Milano. We made a quick, 30 minute drive to see the small ocean town of Viareggio. The town wasn't anything special, but it was an opportunity to see the ocean, even if it was right after the sun went down. All in all a great day with an opportunity to see three different places in Toscana as well as getting to know people from different places in the world!

Here in Milano, just had my second exam at school that (hopefully) went well! Giovanna's has been nice enough to cook some tasty Thai food twice in the past week for Livio, her, and me with the skills she's acquired from some cooking classes her in Milano! I got to go with her to shop for the ingredients at the market and then watch a bit of the process--as much as I like Italian food, a change in flavors was very welcome!
The girls are finally feeling back to 100% and the family is getting ready to head to the mountains for a week. I won't be joining them as I will be taking my own trip next Wednesday to Paris to find a certain Minnesotan!

The Little Bull

After being in Milano for a month, I decided to take my first day trip to see a city other than Champoluc. The family headed down to Roma to visit grandparents while I headed by train with a new friend from my language school, Katie, to see the nearby city of Torino (Turin) which translates to "the little bull."

Cute Alpini on bike

Gli Alpini at the station

After a two hour train ride, we arrived and immediately outside the station saw a group of people collected, mostly consisting of Alpini, a elite, mountaineering sector of the Italian army (in fact the oldest mountaineering infantry in the world). It's always fun to see them because their uniform is so particular and to me really quite charming. We set out from the station to find something to eat at one of the restaurants recommended by my Lonely Planet guide book. After a little discussion, we decided on one of the more economic options that also happened to by nearby, 8 3/4. It was a cute little place with color coded rooms and a menu of tasty looking options, but we both settled on the very affordable pizzas. With full stomachs, we headed out to see what this new place would offer.

Torino is a large city and was actually Italia's first capital before it moved to Firenze and then finally Roma. With Milano and Genova, it makes the triangle of Italia's major industry. However, in comparison to Milano it is much more esthetically pleasing. I really enjoyed Torino's green spaces and smaller, pedestrian-only streets lined with different shops and café's.

The gates of Palazzo Reale

The main square in Torino is huge and very beautiful, with the Palazzo Reale lining one side. This palace was inhabited by the Savoy royalty and really has more of a French feel to it than I've seen elsewhere in Italia.  Attached to this palace is a cathedral that housed the famous Shroud of Turin, which only is shown when the papa, Pope, decides so. The last time was 2000 and the next estimated showing is 2025. Needless to says, we didn't see it.




Next we headed over to the Mole Antonelliana, which was originally designed to be a Jewish synagogue, but funding ran out part of the way through it's construction. It was finished, but now houses instead the National Museum of Cinema. We bypassed the museum, more for financial reasons than anything else, and took the high speed elevator to the top of it's spire to get a panoramic view. It was beautiful to see the city and it's surrounding hills from up above all the buildings, but the smog unfortunately prevented a clear view of everything.

Mole Antonelliana in the distance

Katie at the top of the Mole Antonelliana

After wandering around for a bit, getting lost a few times, we made our way back to the train station, grabbing a cappuccino before catching an evening train back to Milano. There we met up with Katie's boyfriend, Marco, for dinner. He had just arrived from Paris where he was working on a project for his job. He and Katie had met at the University of Minnesota, where he was doing his masters. It was great to get to meet another Italian, practice the language a bit more, and hear about his impressions of America.

I've been keeping busy with my classes as well as at home with the girls. All three were home sick last week with varying degrees of colds/fevers. They were feeling better, but now one has yet another fever. Hopefully we'll all be healthy by the end of the week!

UP NEXT: I meet up with Katie and Marco again, as well as another mixed-nationality couple, for a day in Toscana.