Cinque Terre Pictures

Here's the link to the pictures I took on our hike of Cinque Terre.
Just a note: The pictures where you are looking down upon a city are taken from the trail...we had to go all the way back down after climbing the mountain to get to the city.

http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/567130828MKcefi

Take a Looksy...

Okay...I'm gradually working through the hundreds of pictures that I've taken. Here's some pictures from Siena. I'll try and get the Cinque Terre pictures up sometime this weekend.

http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow/567034636cuYbNl

I went for my first run in Italy this morning. It was fun and refreshing.

Be brave, and don't look down

Friday was our day-trip to Cinque Terre, a stretch of mountainous coast that five cities have been established. Our goal was to hike the trail that connects the first city to the fifth. We took a bus from our Villa to the coast, then took a boat to the farthest Cinque Terre city. Then we started our hike. They said it would be "strenuous"; they were kidding. Between the first and second, second and third cities, the trail was up and then back down. There was no flat parts. So we climbed up the mountain, were able to the next city, and had to go back down. After the third city, the trail was easy. You can only imagine how sweaty and gross we all were, hiking up the mountain with the sun pounding down on us, all carrying backpacks of food and bottles of water...The trail was not for those with weak legs, or small of heart. Some of the pathes were maybe a foot wide, with a rock wall on one side and a shear drop-off on the other...and no handrails. But the five towns were the quaintest things I have ever seen. They were picture-perfect Italian villages. (I will get pictures up as soon as I sort through the 200 or something that I took.) When we finally got to the fifth city, all we wanted to do was jump in the water. So, we followed some signs, came to a rocky "beach" and started jumping in...clothes and all. Oh, salt water...feels great when it gets in your eyes. After refreshing in the sea, we still had some time before our train out. A friend and I wandered the city. She stopped to buy a bottle of white wine (I guess the area is famous for their white wine) and I bought some Limoncino, which is a lemon-flavoured liquor. I was informed by several people that it was delicious. I will get back to you on that. The bus ride back to the Villa was probably the most uncomfortable thing in my life. I was still a little bit damp from the water and the bus was blasting the AC. I was dead tired and the seats were not very comfortable. Regardless, I still fell asleep. When we arrived at the villa, we ate some dinner, and I (after showering) went straight to bed. It was the earliest I've been to bed for a long time.

Who Knew?

So I go into the Villa's computer lab to download some files out of the student folders for one of my classes. All is running smooth until a program will not open. I go to hit CTRL + ALT + Delete--I couldn't find the Delete button. Reason: the keyboard was in Italian. I mean, who knows the Italian word for "delete" after three Italian classes?

Sesto in Pictures

After many, many tears and curses, I have finally given up trying to embed a web album into my blog. You guys now have to do some extra work and click the link I am giving you. I really think those programs have it in for me.

http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow/566599572eNnZNn;jsessionid=abcsNSIlaHVo3fxf2w_Wr

The Italian Night Life

It was decided that we were going to find and go to an Italian night club on Saturday night. Somehow of another, someone found/ was told about the night club Centrale. Funny thing about European clubs is they do not open until late--midnight or later. So about 2300, we all (there was about twenty of us) walk to the bus stop to catch a bus to Florence, where the club is. About and hour later we finally get to the club, between waiting for the bus, the bus ride, and trying to find the club. I was wondering how much this excusion was going to run me, when all of a sudden we are sheparded to the front of the line and given passes to get in free. Turns out, a few people from our group and met and talked with one of the guys that worked at the club earlier that day in Florence. He had given them his card and told them his name, "Eugene". So when we arrived, they saw Eugene and he helped us Americans out. The club was outside in this open pavilion-like thing. But even though it was open, with no walls, the dance floor was sooo warm! We had so much fun; the place was crazy! Everywhere you turned, you saw attractive Italians! We danced for about 3 hours straight, then decided it was late and we probably should head back. It wasn't until after 0400 that I finally crawled into bed. But it was worth it!

Some More Italy

On Saturday, we went into Florence for the first time. It was a pretty big thing, since we are going to be spending the majority of our free time there. Florence is only six miles away from our Villa, and the closest big city. We started off by touring a church on a hill overlooking Florence. This was the first church that we visited that also had a graveyard. I was extremely excited and wanted to visit it, but we only had a few minutes to explore before we moved on. Thankfully, one of my professors told me the the Experiencing the City class (which I am in) will visit the same church and check out the graveyard. I was extremely happy. From there we walked into Florence, starting on the "Other side" and crossing the river to "This side" (these are the names the Italians gave to the two sides of Florence). We pretty much got a quick "Here's this building, this church, and this how you get back to the bus stop" before we got to explore the city on our own. The group that I ended up with decided that we were going to postpone the visits to the cathedral and museums for another time, and just walk around, taking in the city and getting to know it better. During our exploration, we found an excellent Gelateria (Italian ice cream store), the expensive district (with Gucci, Louis Viton, Guess, etc), and obtained the directions to a nightclub in Florence from some locals. We also ate some EXCELLENT pizza. And out of all the brilliant and cool things we found and discovered, there was one thing we could not find, as hard and desparately as we searched: a bathroom. It is not polite to walk into a cafe or restaurant to use the bathroom without first buying something, but we couldn't find a sign for the public "W.C."s either! By this point, we were getting tired and thinking about heading back home, so we decided to hold it. Unfortunatly, getting back to the bus stop was a bit of a problem; there was construction where the bus stop used to be, so it was moved. In addition, we had to walk through the market to get to the area of the bus stop, so we made numerous "pauses" while we were walking. One of these pauses was my doing: I saw an absolutely gorgeous scarf and had to get. A nice part chasmere, part silk scarf for only 6 euro. I was happy. To end this story happily, we found the bus stop, went back to the Villa, took a nap, freshened up (it was HOT), ate some dinner in Sesto, and got ready for out night out!

Sesto and the Villa

The Cozy Little Town that is Siena

Today we took a day trip to frolick around Siena. The day did not start well. The first place we visited was the church of St. Catherine, where her actually head is chilling in a glass box. I, of course was very excited about seeing the decaying head of a really old person. But, as soon as we walked into the church, about 10 of us were yelled at in Italian and herded out the door again. Turns out, the Italians don't appreciate bare shoulders in their churchs; some of us were wearing tank tops. One girl went and bought a shawl to put over her shoulders and the rest of us waited for someone with a coat/shawl to come out so we could borrow it and see inside. Needless to say, I did get to see the head of St. Catherine. We spent the rest of the day seeing all the churches and museums and touristy places of Siena, while being lectured at by our Art History professor here at the Villa. A few places later, I began to think "I really don't care what kind of arches those are, nor care about the use of prespective in that painting...just tell me the history and let me explore on my own!" We did get a short time to run through the city by ourselves, and ended up getting hollared at by an Italian boy. He was rather persistent. After Siena, we went to a winery up in the hills somewhere between Siena and Florence and toured the place and tasted the wine. Delicious! The best stuff was the extra virgin olive oil though. Oh! I have never tasted something soooo good. All in all, it was an interesting day...hot, tiring, educational, fascinating, etc, etc. Tomorrow we shall finally go into Florence and walk around there. People are saying it's supposed to 98 degress. I sure hope they are joking.

So it begins...

I could probably write a novel about the time since I took off from Detroit to now, sitting in my bed at the Villa Corsi Salviati. But I won't bore you. Instead, here are some interesting observations I have made about my journey and the ways of the Europeans:
1. Air plane food really isn't that bad
2. It really is bread and cheese (or meat) for meals
3. European toliet paper is not kind to your behind
4. There are lizards in Italy
5. City people cannot tell the difference between hens and roosters
6. 2 Euros is a coin
7. German secruity is waaay more lax than American
8. I am the only one at the Villa staying for the entire year
9. I'm living in a Italian-type castle
10. Really? CAN you drink the water?
11. I have a Frankfurt stamp in my passport!
12. There were pumpkin seeds on my roll
Today I suffer from jet lag and time zone confusion...tomorrow is Orientation...and Friday, I'm going to Siena!