Pisa and Lucca

Leaning Tower of Pisa

We had our first free weekend, and decided to stay in Italy and explore the wonderful area we get to live in. Friday, a group of 5 of us hopped on a train to Pisa, where we walked about 30 minutes to see the infamous leaning tower. Along the way, we followed Rick Steves' self-guided tour, step-by-step, which informed us of the history of where we were, stopping at each spot along the way. It took us a good bit of time, once we stopped laughing about the large amount of tourists holding their hands up and leaning, to find the right side and angle to take the picture at. We'd all seen so many pictures of others with the tower, but it wasn't as easy as it looks, and we still think we did it wrong, not using the 'get on ground level' technique that would've added the cool proportion effect. We snapped a few shots with the tower, and headed back to the train station. For the second time that morning, we were practically running to catch the train, but making sure that we got our tickets validated this time. On the first train ride, in our frantic rush to catch it, we didn't realize we needed to validate our tickets, and got a fine once on board.

We took the train to the beautiful town of Lucca, where walking into the walls of the town elicited such beauty, making the history I was reading about the town become so real. It is Italy's most impressive fortress city, keeping out traffic as well as the stress of the modern world. With no single monumental sight to attract tourists, it's simply a uniquely human and undamaged, never bombed city with Romanesque churches from the 12th century on nearly every corner. We ate a wonderful home-cooking, Mel's diner style trattoria, where I got the fixed price special of the day, including Pasta with pine nuts and tomatoes for the first course, veal with potatoes for the second, water, espresso, and wine. It was an awesome meal, which ended by a surprise visit by the rest of the guys who came from Florence.

Biking the ramparts of Lucca

We all went to rent bikes to bike the ramparts! These Renaissance walls are Lucca's most remarkable feature, protecting them for 2,000 years, beginning when the town invested one third of their income for more than a century to construct the walls. The walls were turned into a fine city park, stretching 2.5 miles around the perimeter of the city. It was so much fun to bike around with everyone, seeing the beautiful view and monuments surrounding us, while looking over the city on the inside. It was definitely much better than walking, and a great experience to get to do something different. We came back to dinner at the restaurant next to our apartment, where the owner lives and keeps all his supplies in the basement of our building. Our waiter was an American who came to study abroad for a semester, met a friend, came back to visit often, and now is dating her brother, living in Florence, and working at his parents' restaurant! She said she never actually made the decision to move here, rather, all of her stuff just gradually accumulated amongst her visits, that she just kind of stayed one day. Doesn't sound too bad to me! (kidding mom and dad...partially)

Ciao,

Tarra

1st day of class in Firenze

Definitely just had the best first day of classes I've ever had...

Our first class was Pairing Food & Wine and our teacher, Marco, who is so wonderfully passionate about food and wine individually and combined, taught us so much just within the first hour of being there. He educated us on critically thinking about where everything comes from and how it's made, as well as the main ingredient to take note of when pairing food with wine. We also learned about the few food ingredients that have no match when it comes to trying to pair a wine with them. For the second half of class, we got to prepare a meal and dessert! We made a rigatoni in a tomato, basil, onion, and garlic sauce paired with a blush wine from Florence. We also made a special type of Italian cookie with nutella and rasberries, paired with a wonderful rose dessert wine. Both wines matched the color of food they were paired with, making for a great match. This class looks like it's going to be the best class I've ever taken, and the best part is we get to eat everything we make!

We saw Caroline!

Our next class was Anthropology of Fashion and our teacher was spectacular! She is an anthropologist herself as well as an artist. She taught us about how fashion is so much more than clothes and brands, but about one's own body, with modifications, and how its been portrayed in society since the beginning of time. She invited us to toast to her exhibit opening at gallery night after our tour of the artisan area on Wednesday. She is going to be a fascinating teacher. We went to our Lorenzo de'Medici welcome dinner this evening where we saw how many other American students went to our school that weren't in our API program. They mostly consist of students from N.C. State and UNC, which is quite ironic because I met a girl who lives 2 streets over from me at home. The world really is so small!

Ciao,
Tarra

Cinque Terre

Today we had our day trip with API to the beautiful Cinque Terre, the area in Italy famous for the 5 villages, interconnected and walkable in about 5 hours time. We met at Piazza San Marco at 7am, a tad but on the early side for most of us. The bus ride was about two hours, but there was a wreck in the area, causing us to detour, making us behind schedule for the day. We heard it was supposed to rain all day, so prayed for it to hold off, which it luckily did for the most part.

We arrived at La Spezia, where we took a ferry to our first town, Portovenere, passing by Giorgio Armani's yacht! We walked with the guide up to an outer tip of the town to a church where we could see a panoramic view of the Mediterranean Sea and coastline. She told us that on a day like today, we would most likely see dolphins, but I didn't spot any. We were also educated on the flood that happened in Cinque Terre in October, that damaged much of the area, causing them to reconstruct so many historic towns, with some being much worse than others.

Via dell'amore

On the way down, we stopped at a pesto shop, where we got to try the best pesto I have ever tasted, while watching it be made. Cinque Terre is known for their pesto, seafood, sciacchetra (a dessert wine) and trofie (a pasta shape). It was so wonderful, we ordered a vegetable focaccia with pesto on top as well as a jar to take home. We later saw that it was ranked best pesto in the world by the NY Times! We departed by boat to Monterosso, where we were given free time to enjoy a wonderful seafood and pesto lunch followed by sharing a bottle of wine on the high rocks by the beach. It was an adventure to get up there, but was a spectacular experience to share with others. It started to drizzle as we were getting down and heading to Manarola by train. We walked down the Love Lane/Via dell'amore (from Romeo and Juliet) which connects Manarola to the next town, Riomaggiore. It was neat to see all of the locks and trinkets people have placed on the Love Lane over the years. Cinque Terre is a very beautiful place on the water that reminded me a lot of the Amalfi Coast.

Ciao,
Tarra

FIRENZE!

...It's everything I've ever dreamed of and then so much more!

The Duomo

We made it to Florence by bus which took 4 hours, but it seemed like a lot longer. Once arriving in Florence, the anticipation was dragged out because we had to get off the big bus and wait at a bus stop for a smaller van (which could fit down the alleys) to come get us. Of course we were the last apartment out of 80 people to get picked up. We waited 2 and a half hours for this van, making the eventual arrival to our apartment that much more exciting. Our apartment is adorable, and a lot different than I expected, but in a good way. We are on a quiet, authentic street with all Italian families living around us. At first we didn't like the fact that we weren't near everyone else in our group, but now we appreciate it, and are glad that we aren't in a new and renovated touristy area on the river. To be living with 8 other people would just be too overwhelming, so having just 4 is a good size for us. Our apartment has 2 bedrooms with 2 twin beds in each, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a living area, and a balcony! Our balcony, which is connected to the living area as well as our bedroom, overlooks a little square with other apartments backing up to it. We cannot see the Duomo or the river from apartment, but it is very quaint, private, and authentic Italian living.

On the Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River

The good luck to return to Florence pig

We turned on the Italian radio while unpacking, and then headed to a corner cafe (which has become one of our favorite spots) and got a panini and glass of wine for only 5 euros! That evening, we headed to our orientation, which was followed by our welcome dinner on the terrace of a hotel, overlooking all of Florence. The next morning, we had a guided walking tour through the historical center of Florence, seeing all the markets, gardens, museums, statue of David, and much more. I touched the nose and put a coin in the mouth of the pig for good luck to bring me back to Florence (an old tale). We learned about the history and architecture of the Duomo and ended by enjoying a light breakfast at a place called Oblate. The Duomo was built in 1436, by 8 teams of men who worked all hours of every day and only got to leave every 15 days. We then had a very long academic orientation, receiving all the information on our classes and Lorenzo de' Medici school services and activities offered. After this, Carly and I walked around collecting necessities for the apartment and some prosciutto and melon to bring back for later.

Our group cooking class

That evening, we met on the bridge and went to our group cooking class with about 25 others at La Tavola. We were divided into smaller groups and our group got to go in the private kitchen to cook while everyone else was in one big room. We made from scratch an appetizer of eggplant stuffed with potatoes, zucchini, and cheese. For the entree, two pasta dishes where we hand cut and rolled every noodle after making the dough, tossing them in a meat sauce as well as a light tomato garlic sauce. For dessert, we made tiramisu which was so unbelievably easy to make. It tasted delicious and we were all so proud of ourselves and excited that they gave us the recipes to take home with us. API has done such a wonderful job so far, planning cultural and welcome activities to get us accustomed to the Italian lifestyle, I had no idea all of this was included, but so glad that I picked the best program!

Carly & Travis in the street act

After dinner, we watched men on roller skates do tricks and then a separate street performance. We were sitting on the curb when he picked out of the crowd our friend Travis who was across the road and then Carly. It was so ironic out of the hundreds of people there that the two of them got picked. He made them do funny things in his acts, but they were up there for a very long time. On the way home, a few of us sat outside at a cafe, and chatted over a glass of wine. Florence is an amazing place and I couldn't have picked a better city to study abroad in. I must live here someday!

La vita e bella (Life is good) in Italy!

Ciao,
Tarra

When in Rome

Tossing coins into the Trevi Fountain

Piazza Navona

Roma is definitely a large, crowded, touristy city that I would not want to stay in more than a few days but it was good to see such a historical place. Our first night, we had an orientation followed by our welcome dinner where we got to meet each other and then got rested for the day ahead of us. Monday, we went on a guided walking tour through the historical center of Rome, going through the Piazza Navona which was built in the 1st century A.D. on the Stadium of Domitian. We also saw the Pantheon (Basilica di Santa Maria ad Martyres). We ended the tour at the Trevi fountain where we threw pennies in the fountain for good luck! Afterwards, we took a bus ride to the Coliseum which was fascinating to see and be in after seeing so many pictures of it all my life. The architecture involved was so intricate and detailed; I was very amazed to hear that no one is sure who the architect actually was (poor guy is receiving no credit).

Coliseum

Tuesday we went to the Vatican City. It was raining so hard all day off an on unfortunately. We took a bus from the hotel to the Vatican area and upon arrival we received headsets so that we could listen to our tour guide throughout the day. We first saw the St. Angel Castle which was so beautifully built and when we reached the top, we were able to see all of the Vatican city (see picture). We had a 20 minute lunch break before going into the Vatican city, so Carly and I sat down at a restaurant, not realizing how long it would take to get our food and have time to eat it too. It was very delicious though! 

View of the Vatican City from St. Angel Castle

We waited in the long line, in the pouring rain, very anxious to get into the sacred Vatican City. It was so unbelievable being in such a holy place, and being able to look up and see the pope's studio where he can be seen at times and I have seen him on tv. St. Peter church is the most beautiful place I have ever been, with the sacredness adding to the experience. As we walked around the church, we learned the history of the building, heard stories of the saints, and saw the statues all around us. There was a map engraved in the ground on the center of the floor with all the churches around the world and size of them each. We got to touch the feet of St. Peter and say a prayer in one of the chapels in the front of the Vatican. To end, we walked through the basement of the Vatican seeing the late popes and the tombs they are still buried in. It was so fascinating to relate all of the stories and history of the Catholic religion that I grew up learning all my life and now to see it makes it so much more real. 

St. Peters Cathedral

Unfortunately, we didn't get to go to the Sistine Chapel because it was raining way too hard and had already been such a long day, and we had a 30 minute walk in the pouring rain to get home ahead of us. To finish off the day, a group of us walked across Rome in the rain to find a hole-in-wall authentic Italian restaurant, where we shared a family-style meal. We split into 2 tables of 5, getting to know one another a bit more, and then walked home in the downpour with the streets almost flooding around us. I was very anxious to get to Florence and out of such a large city and to be able to not live out of a suitcase like I had been doing for the past 10 days. Tomorrow is like Christmas, with Florence awaiting us, a dream I have dreamt for many, many months now! 

Ciao,

Tarra