This Sunday we went to a concert for our music in history class. It was my favorite concert that we have been to so far (we’ve been to 3) probably because it was just a guy playing his guitar instead of classical music. Anyways, afterwards we ended up meeting an English-speaking couple (Steve and Debby) who are from Lancaster, PA! I could not believe it when they told us! They retired here and have a house in the hills about 15 minutes from Alba. They even invited us over to their house for wine, badminton, food, and American TV haha. We were all pretty excited about it because they were super friendly and entertaining and I think we will definitely be taking them up on their offer later in the semester.
Firenze!
So I’ve come to the conclusion that if I don’t move on to writing about Florence I’m never going to get anywhere with this blog, so you will just have to trust me that the rest of my time in Rome was absolutely amazing!
We left for Florence Thursday morning and on the way we stopped in Genoa and Pisa.
The leaning tower!
We ended up getting to Florence around 4 pm and had the rest of the night to do whatever we wanted. We spent some time getting settled into our hotel rooms and then went out to find dinner. We ended up finding a very traditional Italian trattoria, which we all loved. Their bruschetta was delicious and I even tried rabbit for the first time! After dinner we got gelato and sat in front of the beautiful Duomo eating it. This trip was sponsored by the school, so they paid for all of our meals, one night in a hotel, and our train tickets. We still had a bunch of free time though, and we only had a tour of the city on Friday morning planned with the whole group. During the tour we walked over the Ponte Vecchio bridge..which is a bridge with nothing but super expensive jewelry shops.
The view from the bridge!
After the tour we went to find our hostel that we would be staying at for the night to drop off some of our stuff. Then we got lunch at a little sandwich shop (I had a pumpkin and ricotta sandwich!) and ate it while sitting on the steps in a piazza.
We saw this performer everywhere this weekend! He was a pretty awesome guitar player and we listened to him while we ate lunch.
After lunch we did some shopping in the huge street market that had a bunch of leather goods. I was tempted to buy many purses, but somehow I restrained myself. Later that night we walked up to Piazza Michelangelo, which had a beautiful view of the whole city, and then went in search of an irish pub that Meghan’s friend (who studied in Florence last semester) had told us we should go to. We didn’t have the greatest idea of where it was, so when we found it we were happily surprised!
The next day was our last day in Florence and we spent most of it at the Pitti Palace, which has huge gardens called the Boboli Gardens. We took our time walking around the gardens, and really enjoying the beautiful weather and green scenery which we all miss so much in Alba.
After the gardens we did a bit of walking around the city, getting nutella and banana crepes from street venders, and wandering into a few shops. Then we met up with another St. Mary’s student who is spending the semester in Florence, who took us to dinner at one of her favorite restaurants. After dinner we went with her to an international students pub and then left for the train station to catch our 2 am train. We finally got back to Alba at 11 the next morning and after grabbing a quick lunch most of us spent the rest of the day napping/recovering from a long night on the train.
Roma!
Okay so this is quite a bit overdue (since I went to Rome two weekends ago) and I’m only finished talking about half of this trip, but I figured I better publish this now before I get any farther behind!
So two weekends ago me and most of the other people in my program went to Rome! After class we left on a bus Thursday night headed for the Torino train station. We then took an eight hour overnight train and got to Rome at about 6 in the morning..just in time see the sunrise in Rome! We took our time walking to our Bed and Breakfast..stopping to take a bunch of pictures along the way. Our B&B was awesome..only a ten minute walk away from Vatican City..and we were definitely happy that we choose it instead of a hostel. We spent some time resting since we were all pretty tired from not sleeping much on the train the night before and then mapped out a tour of the city including everything we wanted to see that afternoon.
We left the B&B around 2:30 and got back around 10 that night. During that time we saw the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, a bunch of other fountains, and even people rowing on the Tiber river! We also realized that earlier that morning we had actually seen the Spanish Steps, but from above them instead of below. We had a great laugh about that once we realized this. At some point we stopped for panini at a cute little sandwich shop that had combinations like nutella and banana.
Emily and Kristin in front of the Pantheon!
The Spanish Steps.
Throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain and making wishes!
Once it started to get dark out we made our way to Piazza Navona, which we had heard looked beautiful in the dark (so true!). This piazza has a beautiful main fountain, people set up their art to be sold, and a lot of people sing and play instruments. We watched this one woman sing a few songs..she even played stand by me and we all sang along and had a great time. We found a place for dinner on the way back to the B&B and we were all happy to sit down and eat for the first time in hours. We played cards for a bit once we got back to the B&B while we waited for Sarah’s friend Maureen (who is studying abroad in France this semester) to get to Rome because she was visiting us! Maureen got there around 12:30 and we went to sleep pretty much right away because we were all exhausted.
Piazza Navona.
Saturday morning we decided to do Vatican City, which was my favorite part of the whole trip. The day was simply amazing and I’m probably going to fail at making it sound as amazing as it was, but I’ll try. We spent some time touring through the Vatican Museum seeing many many statues and paintings. The day before leaving for this trip we had learned about a type of fresco painting where the artist makes the painting look 3D in our religion class. They had this in the museum and it was really cool seeing this in person because they honestly looked like they were sculptures plastered onto the walls and ceilings.
One of the paintings.
After taking our time going through the museum we went to St. Peter’s Basilica. After looking around for a while a few of us decided to climb the dome for 5 euros. It was beyond a doubt the best 5 euros I have ever spent. The view was absolutely stunning and climbing up a dome through slanted stairways was an experience I will never forget.
The staircase.
View from the top!
Later that night we went back to Piazza Novona and the Trevi fountain to see it lit up at night. We got to the fountain a bit after midnight, so I got to spend the first few minutes of my birthday at the Trevi fountain!
So that’s all I have for now, but I will update on the rest of this trip and the Florence trip we took this weekend soon!
Instead of class on Thursday we went to Baio, which is a type of parade/carnival that takes place in the town of Sempyre (about an hour away from Alba in the Alps). The parade happens every 5 years and is done to celebrate the moment when the surrounding villages banded together to revolt against their oppressors. Only males participate in it; meaning there are quite a few who have to wear dresses.
Little boys in their costumes being adorable.
A lot of dancing happens during the parade.
We watched the parade in one village, visited the church, then had an impromptu lecture about Baio given to us by the priest of that church on the steps right outside. We then drove 5 minutes to watch the parade in another town where we listened to a speech given in a dialect that not even our professors could understand. Needless to say, we left before it was over.
The church.
View of the mountains from the town.
On the way home we stopped at a medieval town. We all fell asleep on the ride there so we were a bit grumpy when we had to get off the bus. Once we did though, we actually had a good time exploring another church and then walking around the more modern part of the town. It was a long day of walking up hills and hearing people shout “BAIO” so we were all pretty tired when we got home.
Today Kristin, Emily, Jimmy and I went walking around parts of Alba that we normally don’t see because they are farther from the center. We found a bigger grocery store than the two we normally go to, which made us pretty excited. They even had brands of body wash that we recognized! It was a good find and is definitely worth the extra walking to get there.
This weekend is Ryan’s birthday and we are attempting to make him a cake. Baking in Italy is slightly challenging (we can’t seem to find powdered sugar anywhere), but we’re learning how to cope! You can look forward to updates on all the baking!
Today at La Mensa I got a little folded paper frog from an old man named Massimo. After dinner we all exchanged valentines and then we had crab walk races down the hallway. It was a good day.
This morning me and Kristin went for a walk down by the river while everyone else was sleeping. It snowed again last night so everything was covered with a fresh layer of white and it was beautiful. We had to make our own path and my uggs got soaked, but it reminded me of the river back at school and it was so worth it. I wish I took my camera so I could show you pictures, but I’m sure I’ll be down there again very soon.
We’re starting to plan trips we want to take this semester and I’m getting excited for all the traveling! We might even be in Rome for my birthday. This all still feels unreal.
Today we had Cinema for four hours and we watched Don Camillo (an Italian classic), which we all found hysterical. All the snow is starting to melt finalllly, so everywhere we walk water is dripping on us and I’m pretty sure we couldn’t be happier. We have our first exam in Italian class tomorrow.
Io ho paura.
Pasta pasta pasta
Virginia and Meghan rolling out their pasta.
So excited!
Tonight we’re going to eat it for dinner with some type of homemade sauce that is to be determined.
This is how much snow we got last week.
We have all been enjoying the snow-less weekend, but it is still verrry cold (like 10 degrees..feels like 5 degrees..at night kind of cold). Yesterday we all did some shopping..I didn’t buy anything, but I did try on a few sequin shirts. It makes me happy that they enjoy sequins here as much as at home.
Tomorrow instead of our first class we’re having a pasta workshop at our apartment at 8:30 am. We all just want to roll out into the kitchen in our pajamas and I think there is a very great chance of that happening.
This morning we did our weekly brunch at Akash and Andrea (the waiter who is always there) wasn’t supposed to let us split brunches (that are too huge to eat by yourself) but he did anyway because he is super nice. Oh and he gave Meghan an American coffee in an American flag cup.
Ending this post with a picture of some of my favorite peopleee.
I finally mastered the word “orange”
arancione.
