Here's some pictures from last weekend. We took a day trip to Assisi on Friday, and then I hiked up Mt Morello (the mountain that is right out our front door) on Saturday. I promise I will get a ancedote up soon!
http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/568082753qlaext
Friday, October 17, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
We're violating about 50 health codes right now...
This morning we visited a biscotti making company in Prato for my Experiencing the City class. Observations:
1. Yummy, yummy biscotti
2. The kitchen of this company was about as big as my room, my suite-mates' room, and our bathroom--in other words: tiny
3. We walked right into the kitchen and stood right next to the mixer and oven with no hair nets, no shoe covers, no masks
4. Our tour guide reached into a bunch of cookies with her bare hands and picked up a handful to give to us, then threw the extras back in with the rest (I hope her hands were clean!)
5. Everything was handmade and the cookies are made fresh everyday
6. The biscotti was only made of five ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, pine nuts, almonds
7. Everyone walked out of the store with a small bag of free biscotti
Today was also our second day of Nino's choir. Nino is our chef who makes our amazing meals everyday. He is also an aspiring opera singer and has an amazing voice. On Monday there was about 12 of us; today there was only 6. We are singing a song in Italian, which is sort of difficult when you are still in the process of learning the language. I sort of miss a real choir setting; where we are able to work through phrases and trouble in sections and at request. Nino doesn't speak English at all and most of us are in Italian 101. Some things just get lost...and we just nod our heads and smile.
1. Yummy, yummy biscotti
2. The kitchen of this company was about as big as my room, my suite-mates' room, and our bathroom--in other words: tiny
3. We walked right into the kitchen and stood right next to the mixer and oven with no hair nets, no shoe covers, no masks
4. Our tour guide reached into a bunch of cookies with her bare hands and picked up a handful to give to us, then threw the extras back in with the rest (I hope her hands were clean!)
5. Everything was handmade and the cookies are made fresh everyday
6. The biscotti was only made of five ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, pine nuts, almonds
7. Everyone walked out of the store with a small bag of free biscotti
Today was also our second day of Nino's choir. Nino is our chef who makes our amazing meals everyday. He is also an aspiring opera singer and has an amazing voice. On Monday there was about 12 of us; today there was only 6. We are singing a song in Italian, which is sort of difficult when you are still in the process of learning the language. I sort of miss a real choir setting; where we are able to work through phrases and trouble in sections and at request. Nino doesn't speak English at all and most of us are in Italian 101. Some things just get lost...and we just nod our heads and smile.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Lions fly; Pigeons walk, Part II
Sunday morning dawned and we had to check out of our hotel. We stashed our luggage in a random side room of the hotel (I didn't feel to safe about this; the door didn't even lock). We had a little bit of free time before we had to rendevous for a museum tour with our Art History professor, so I did a little bit of souvenir shopping. After our tour of the art museum, I was pretty much art-ed out and wasn't going to make it through the next two optional museum tours...so I wandered off. One of my main goals in going to Venice was to buy a Carnaval mask. I spent the next two hours going into every mask shop I could find in Venice and trying on masks. Of course, I found gorgeous masks that I fell in love with...and they were 100 euro and more. I fought with my the entire time, trying to figure out how much money I was willing to spend on a mask. When I finally came up with a sum, I realized I didn't have that much money in my pocket. I guess I'm buying a mask next semester when I go back to Venice. I'm hoping to actually visit Venice during Carnaval and maybe I'll buy a mask then and wear all day. After window shopping, I ended up in the Piazza San Marco and people and pigeon watched. About 1700, we all crowded back onto our water taxi and headed back to the mainland. A long bus ride later, we were home, and happy to be so.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Why didn't my map have a compass rose?
I am attempting to put my thoughts together to write Part II of Venice, but in the mean time, I've uploaded all my pictures. Here is a slideshow of less than a quarter of what I took.
http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/567583591LUELxG
http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/567583591LUELxG
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Everything in Venice is leaning, Part 1
So on Sept 20 and 21, our group took a weekend trip to Venice. Venice, the city that floats on water. After an extremely long bus ride, we transfered to a water taxi. Every form of transportation in Venice was a boat/ship: water bus, water taxi, gondolas, motor boats. I was in heaven. Before we went into Venice proper, we visited a small island next to the city, Murano. Murano is the island where the Venitian glass is made. We watched a glass-blowing demonstration and then and a little bit of free time to explore the island. Every couple of feet there was a gift shop selling everything made of glass. You want a glass pen--got it. Glass flower--got it. Want to drop 3000 euro and buy a glass chandlier--go ahead. Everything was gorgeous though. After Murano, we took the water taxi to Venice proper and checked into our hotel. Not a big surprise there; it looked like an American hotel. Thank God there were toliet seats on the toliets. The cool thing about my room was that it overlooked the tiny street on which our hotel was located. From here we traveled through the city to the Piazza San Marco. First observation: streets in Venice are not even close to straight. Second observation: you want grandeur and breath-taking views, go to Piazza San Marco. I have plenty of pictures of it at all hours of the day so you can see what I mean. The piazza was surrounded on three sides by this huge pillared building, and then it opened up to the Church of San Marco. We met a tour guide here who took us through the "town hall" of the city, for lack of the proper name. The most interesting part of this tour was that we toured the jail cells below the building. These drafty, stone cells were actually used up until the 1940s. I couldn't believe that. We got free time after our tour. After turning down Burger King for lunch, I ended up eating pizza and gelato. The group I was with had mixed opinions on what to do next, and I ended up wandering away...through the non-logical layout of the city. Needless to say, I became lost in some residential sector of the city--which didn't bother me until it was about 10 minutes before we had to regroup for our next tour. But, Megan has an amazing sense of direction (and with the help of a compass and a map with no compass rose) and she made it to the tour on time.
I have to take a moment and pause before I describe this next experience. It was absolutely amazing. Our art history professor here is amazing and knows how to pull strings to get us into cool places. For Venice, she got it so that we had the entire Church of San Marco to ourselves, with no other tourists. It was about 1900 when we went into the church, and it was getting dark. We were told to sit down in the main part of the church while they turned on the lights. Side note: the ceiling in the church are gorgeous; all mosaic with pieces covered with gold foil. So we sit down. First they turn off all the day lights, so we are sitting in complete darkness. Then they start turning the lights on, a little at a time. We are sitting in complete silence, and the church slowly lights up...first dim, then a little brighter, and then the lights on the side, and the lights in the back, until the entire church is lit. It was an absolutely breath taking experience.
After the church, we all kind of meandered our way back to the hotel. Then, after "freshening up" we went out to experience the night life of Venice. My group found this piazza that was pretty much all pubs. It was pretty cool.
I have to take a moment and pause before I describe this next experience. It was absolutely amazing. Our art history professor here is amazing and knows how to pull strings to get us into cool places. For Venice, she got it so that we had the entire Church of San Marco to ourselves, with no other tourists. It was about 1900 when we went into the church, and it was getting dark. We were told to sit down in the main part of the church while they turned on the lights. Side note: the ceiling in the church are gorgeous; all mosaic with pieces covered with gold foil. So we sit down. First they turn off all the day lights, so we are sitting in complete darkness. Then they start turning the lights on, a little at a time. We are sitting in complete silence, and the church slowly lights up...first dim, then a little brighter, and then the lights on the side, and the lights in the back, until the entire church is lit. It was an absolutely breath taking experience.
After the church, we all kind of meandered our way back to the hotel. Then, after "freshening up" we went out to experience the night life of Venice. My group found this piazza that was pretty much all pubs. It was pretty cool.
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