Vino in Chianti

On Friday, I had the opportunity to go on a class trip (yes, I get credit for this stuff) to the Tuscan countryside of Chianti to visit a wine and olive oil estate. Wow. 

When we first got out of Florence and into the countryside, the bus driver stopped our bus (as per the request of my insane German professor) and had us all get out to just look at the landscape. It was stunning. While there, the son of the owners of the estate we were visiting came and met us and explained what the different valleys and rows that we were looking at are. We looked over while hearing about which areas were for olives, which were for wine, and why flowers were planted where they were. We even watched some of the workers using the vibrating rakes to get the olives off of the trees (it's olive oil season here in Italy and the new oil is amazing!) We then tried the raw olives...ew. Never have I tasted something so bitter. It is nearly impossible to believe that something so gross tasting can be transformed into something so delicious! 

After examining the land from afar, we got back on the bus to head to the villa/estate. Two big black labs greeted us at the doors and followed us around while the mother and son of the estate showed us around the property. The villa was absolutely amazing. Attached to the place where these people live, are the basements and machines where they also make the wine and olive oil. I can't imagine the life they live. At one point when the mother was leading us to the bathroom, she stopped at a Chapel IN THE HOUSE and led us in, while telling us that this was "a special place to her because it is where she was married." Like, wow. You can just feel the history and lineage and wealth of this home, but also the passion the family has for what they do. The property surrounding the home was covered in flowers and beautiful trees and other gardens with tomatoes and pumpkins (the first pumpkins I've seen this fall!) and lemons and limes. It was so different from Amalfi or Cinque Terre, but so beautiful at the same time. Italy never ceases to amaze me with it's diversity and beauty everywhere I go. 

After exploring for a couple hours ("Imagine yourself as a grape," my crazy professor yells out as we walk through the cellar exploring the barrels and machinery and presses), they invited us to a tasting of their wines and the new olive oil. There was a layout of the wines they have created from the past 5 years (we tried them all!), breads, antipasti, and of course the new olive oil. It was all amazing, but I just have to explain trying this new olive oil. First, we each took a piece of the traditional tuscan unsalted bread. Then we took full cloves of garlic and rubbed them along the edges of the bread using the crust to break it apart. After that, we poured some olive oil around the bread until it was covering it, and then we took pinches of salt from a bowl and spread it around the piece. That first bite was so amazing. The new oil is a little spicy, but there is such a fresh and unique taste to it and it was so delicious. Along with a glass of delicious wine, my favorite was the 2005, we snacked and talked for another couple hours while enjoying the beautiful landscape beyond us. 

Wow.

Fall Break with mia mama e mio papa!: Amalfi Coast

After our couple days in Florence, we got on a train and headed to the Amalfi Coast! Of course it wasn't as easy as just getting on a train from point A to point B. It was Florence to Rome, Rome to Naples, Naples to Salerno, and then a boat taxi to Amalfi (we opted for the boat taxi because the roads are literally terrifying along the coast!) And the food along the way was the worst I have had in Italy...
Not to mention my dad was dragging along a suitcase whose wheels had given out on the Florence cobblestones and he had done a makeshift repair job on them..

But once we finally were on the boat to Amalfi...WOW is all I can say. The coast is so breathtaking, and the weather was absolutely perfect (we bought flip flops and sundresses and bathing suits when we finally got there!) We were so enamored by it that we ended up cancelling the trips we had planned to Naples and Rome for after Amalfi and just staying in Amalfi. We were that amazed by it.

From the colorful buildings to the side alleys that are neither inside nor out (and I really don't know how to describe them other than old, beautiful, outdoor hallways), to the friendly and welcoming people, we were absolutely in love. And the food was amazing. The restaurants were so small and the home cooking was just absolutely amazing.

One day, we took a private boat tour with only 4 other people along the coast all the way to Capri. We saw Positano, Sorrento, Capri, and the grottos. We even got to go into the Blue Grotto by way of small row boat type thing. That was possibly my favorite part of the trip. Once inside the cave, the water quite literally glows because of the way the sunlight shines under the rocks that don't reach the bottom (see this website if curious because my pictures don't do it justice! http://www.capri.com/en/s/la-grotta-azzurra). That day we also spent a couple hours in Capri, which was bellissimo! I can absolutely understand why the rich and famous spend their holidays there. It was expensive, but so beautiful. The flowers were still completely in bloom and the views after taking the ski lift type contraption were so magnificent. We loved it.

While there, we also took a bus ride up to Ravello. This was our ONLY time on a bus for this trip, and for good reason. The roads were absolutely ridiculous. The way the roads twist and turn along the cliffs is enough to make you pray for your life and simultaneously focus on not throwing up. But Ravello was so beautiful. Again, the weather was absolutely perfect so I'm sure that had a lot to do with it. But really, the coast is the most beautiful place I have ever been and I highly recommend that everyone try to go at least once in their life. I already want to go back. While we were up in Ravello (it's up in the mountain, not on the water), we went into the Villa Rudolfo, and wow. Words won't do it justice, so I'll post pictures to try to explain how great it was. The views were magnificent, and the flowers and layout and old buildings were so much fun to explore. Plus I was with my parents, which already had me on cloud 9.

It was so amazing to have them here in Italy with me. I knew that I would miss them, but you don't realize how much until you actually get abroad and only have a few hours each day where you can try to fit in some time to talk because of the time differences and school and work. And then of course since my mom is probably my best friend in the world, it's of course hard to be without her for that long. But that being said, I don't know if I have ever been happier to see them. When they got off that train from Bologna, I could not stop smiling. This is by far the longest I had gone without seeing them, and it was just so wonderful having them here. I love Italy, but I wish I could just have the whole crew here with me enjoying this beautiful country. 

Fall Break with mia mama e mio papa!: Florence

From October 24-November 1, my parents came to visit! We spent the first couple days in Florence, which was absolutely incredible. It was such a special experience to be able to show my parents the city where I have been living, and essentially my second home (or third after Gettysburg...!) The first night they came and met my mom which was absolutely a blast. Since she speaks no English, and they speak no Italian, it was absolutely hilarious. But we all managed to communicate somehow :)

Their first taste of Gelato!

Our first day, we went to the Boboli gardens and Pitti Palace in Florence. It was so beautiful. I had heard that it was a great place to go and that I would be amazed...but really, it's fabulous. To anyone planning on going to Florence, I highly recommend it!
It was pretty funny, because my parents came clad all in sweaters, and it turned out to be the hottest couple days in a month when they were here. We had to go shopping for tank tops before we explored Boboli...it was THAT hot. Like 76 degrees in October/November...
At one point, my dad and I ran up a huge hill, full speed ahead. It was such a special moment that I don't think I will ever forget. Mama decided against the run, but I think she was just as amused as we were. The view from the top of Boboli was such a special perspective.

While they were in Florence, we also went to the Duomo, went into Santa Reparata (old church under the Duomo), went to the Baptistery (my first time), and climbed the Giotto Tower! I wasn't sure we were all going to make it up to the top...there were a couple struggling points, but we did it! And just the same as last time I climbed it, it was absolutely worth it. I also took them to Piazza Vecchia, the carousel, the leather markets (of course) and the market. I think the market might have been one of their favorite parts. I remember the first I went and how shocked I was at all the fresh food and the women making pasta right there in front of you...I think they were just as shocked as I was the first time. You just can't find that type of place in the U.S. We had sandwiches there, and they were absolutely wonderful....as is most of the food here! :) So that was the first three days of our trip!

Walking over the Ponte Vecchio!

Mom at the Market!

The crew outside the Duomo

Papa Pags and me on our way up the Giotto Tower!

The Crew struggling as we go up the stairs of the tower!

Mommy and me overlooking the Arno!

London!

I haven't posted in a while, and have done a lot so I'll make a few quick posts about my past couple weeks!

Three weekends ago, I went to London to visit my friends Christian and Emily (the same ones that came to Cinque Terre with me!) While I don't think I would want to study abroad there for a whole semester (it seemed very similar to the US to me!), I had so much fun!

First of all, it was fantastic to be in a completely English speaking country for a few days. I forgot about that a bunch and attempted to speak Italian to people who had NO idea what I was talking about. That being said, English was GOOD! And they also have street signs in London...something I have missed dearly here in good ole Italy. AND they have Starbucks. Now, I'm not usually a Starbucks person. But I have not had a "to go" coffee in a cup with a lid in almost two months...so the venti Starbucks cup in my hand was a wonderful feeling. Honestly, besides people there are very few things I miss about the US....the coffee to go is one of those things. Unfortunately in London, you sacrifice good food for the to-go coffee. The food in London just sucks. My host mom warned me before hand, but I couldn't imagine how it could actually be that bad. I'll put it to you this way: I actually saw a pizza made with CHEDDAR CHEESE. For someone studying in Italy, this is practically sacrilege...

Here's a rundown of what I saw/did on my weekend in London!:
-Big Ben! SO COOL.
-Parliament
-Buckingham Palace
-Piccadilly Circus

-Trafalgar Square
-City Hall
-Ate fish and chips...not good.
-Walked the Tower Bridge
-Saw the London Tower
-Walked the London Bridge
-Walked Millenium Bridge

-St. Paul's Cathedral
-Saw the London Eye
-Walked through St. James Park
-drank espresso maritinis overlooking Covent Garden
-Went to a cider bar. I LOVE CIDER!
-Went to Ministry of Sound club
....and of course some other stuff through in here, but those were the highlights!

........and of course it rained. It is London after all.
So glad I got to go, though. It was a fantastic weekend!

Being a Tourist in Florence

Drinks at the Duomo

On Friday night, Emily, Christian and I took a train from the town of Vernazza in Cinque Terre to Florence! While they were here I played tour guide. It was so great to be walking around the city and realize that I actually know where I'm going for the most part and be able to talk about things a bit. We visited the Palazzo Vecchio, Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, and Santa Maria Novella, among many other places. We walked A LOT. On Saturday, it absolutely poured. I have not seen this much rain in Florence since I arrived. Figures that when the people visiting from rainy London visit it pours in Florence. But we decided to climb the Duomo on Saturday, which was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, the rain made the top a little chilly. The climb up is 463 stairs, and my legs were already burning from the previous days' hike in Cinque Terre, but it was absolutely worth it. Such a cool perspective of the Duomo and the city. After that we found a place for dinner where we ate pasta and drank wine and eventually received complimentary limoncello (my first time having it in Italy!) After that we got drinks and sat on the stairs of the Duomo to recount our past couple days. It felt like such a Florence thing to do...it was the perfect end to the day.

View from the top of the Duomo

The Giotto Tower 

On Sunday, we did another climb, to the top of the belltower (Giotto tower). This one was only a mere 414 steps. My legs still haven't recovered, and muscles hurt that I didn't even know I had. But Sunday was sunny, so the view was absolutely amazing. You could see everything for miles and miles, including the countryside beyond Florence. I think I actually liked the belltower views better
, because you could see the Duomo from up close as well, which was very cool.

The climb up these monuments, however, was slightly difficult. They are old buildings, with very narrow staircases that often times are spiral, and people are trying to go up and down them which means you literally have to hold on to the walls at times. Honestly, some of the people trying to get up and down these staircases past other people were brutal. On my way up the stairs of the Duomo I had a little British girl counting every step. For the first 50 it was cute, for the last 413, not so much. And the 15 person tour groups trying to clamor their way up these itty bitty stairs were equally interesting. On the way up to the top of the belltower I watched a man be taken out with the hiking poles sticking out of the backpack of another hiker. And even when I was flat against the wall waiting for people to pass me, there was a constant touching. This is not an activity for people who are claustrophobic...There is no personal space. Despite this, I'm so glad I did it. The views from the top were enough to make me forget how trying the climb was.
 Another Florence tourist necessity checked off!

View from the top of Giotto Tower

XOXO

Cinque Terre

The town of Monterosso

This past Thursday I had my first experience on the train! After class I hopped on a train to Pisa to meet my friends Christian and Emily who are studying abroad in London. From there, we headed to Cinque Terre. After a lot of confusion and a couple train rides, we arrived in the beach town of Monterosso around 6:30PM. We explored the town a bit before going to drop off our things at our ho
tel and then head to dinner. We ate dinner overlooking the Mediterranean sea. This trip was actually my first time seeing the Mediterranean sea, and it was everything I could have imagined. The water was so blue and gorgeous and the cliffsides were magnificent. For dinner I had salmon, and obviously it was the most fresh fish I have ever eaten and we drank white wine. That night we brought Emily for her first ever gelato as well :) Coming from London, they fell in love with the food.

On Friday we woke up early and packed up our things for our journey to Vernazza. Originally we weren't exactly sure how we were going to get to Vernazza, since we didn't really have any specific plans. So we asked the owner of the hotel who looked at us and said "you're young, you can do the walk." We thought that sounded lovely and strapped on our backpacks and headed in the direction she sent us. As we approached the trail we realized people were using hiking poles and had on some serious hiking boots, but we decided to take on the trail anyway. Well, I now understand the hiking poles and boots. We weren't prepared for this trek at all, but it was still absolutely amazing. I would do it again in a heart beat. This
hike was the most incredible thing
I have ever done. "Rustic" would be an understatement. There are hundreds of stairs that are really just rocks carved into the side of the mountain as you literally hike up these coastal cliffs. And the foliage was breathtaking. Every time we came around another corner we had to stop just to take pictures because everything was so beautiful. Between the waterfalls, flowers, grape vines, and ocean views, there aren't words to describe the experience. Even though my legs were on fire and I was trying not to fall off the side of some of the more narrow parts of the trail, I was in complete bliss. Finally, we came around one turn and saw that typical "Cinque Terre" picture of the colorful buildings around the harbor. I couldn't believe that this picture actually exists. In fact, pictures don't do it justice.

A house completely split in half by the mudslides.

As we got closer to the town of Vernazza, we saw where the mudslide and flooding of October 2011 devastated homes and building. While most of the town has been put back together, it was incredible to see the power of nature while walking along these paths.

When we finally arrived in the town of Vernazza, we were starving. We had hiked for about 3 hours, and it was definitely the most physically tiring thing I have done in months. Almost none of it was flat ground and the rock and stairs made it tough. So we found a waterfront restaurant and took my host moms advice: order the pesto. Oh my God, it was amazing. I have never had pesto this delicious in my life. I don't even know how to explain how wonderful it was. When I get back to the US, I am on a mission to make pesto that can even be compared to the pesto I ate in Vernazza. Afterwards we wandered the town until we found a little tunnel/cave. We decided to explore and went in, and that's where we found the beautiful Vernazza beach. It was all rocks and pebbles, and there were giant boulders that Christian and I decided to climb and explore. They were right over the turquoise water and were so much fun to navigate around. We finally found a flat rock and sat down to admire the beauty of the Mediterranean before taking on the climb down. After our climb, the three of us decided to go into the water. The sun was beautiful and warm, and the water was perfect. We climbed over the stones and ran into the cold water. I swam in the Mediterranean.

Finally, it was time for us to head to Florence. Christian and Emily would be visiting Florence for Saturday and Sunday, with me as their tour guide. Unfortunately we missed our first train (oops!), and had to figure out plan B, which included getting back to Florence around 9:30PM. Pizza for dinner :) 

Munich: Oktoberfest and Dachau!

Oktoberfest!!

Day 1: We left Firenze late Thursday night en route to Munich, Germany. We drove through the night and arrived bright and early at 6:45AM. We threw our stuff in the luggage room of the hostel (my first hostel experience!) and headed directly to Oktoberfest! When we arrived at the giant carnival, we chose the Hackerbrucke tent, a very German tent. But first let me describe the setting. Munich is significantly colder than Florence. And the language is so different than anything I've seen before, it was nearly impossible to figure anything out. Luckily most people in Germany speak at least a little bit of English. Oktoberfest is like the biggest carnival you have ever been to. Food stands, rides, and of course, the tents which are much more than tents...more like buildings. We waited in line at hacker for over an hour, and when they finally opened the door we ran in and got a table. When they started coming around with the beers, I was amazed at how huge these things were. Women in the traditional dresses were carrying at least 8 of them (and these women are JACKED). We sat with a bunch of Germans and started to make friends while we drank beer, which I'm not going to lie, I didn't love. I'm not really a beer person. The Italian wine is much more my speed...

For dinner this first night, we went to a biergarten where we ate the BEST chicken. So much chicken this weekend. 

Day 2: We woke up by 6:30 and were at Oktoberfest in line by 7:45. Today we decided to go to Hofbrauhaus tent, a notoriously American tent. The line was significantly longer, but we managed to get near the front after being yelled at by a massive security guard to go "theees way or theeeeesss way NOW." Note to self: German security guards are terrifying. 

By 9:00AM, the doors were open and I didn't even have a chance to walk the crowd was so pushy. I just got carried along. We somehow managed to get a table and they almost immediately started serving the liters of beer. This tent was significantly more rowdy and almost all study abroad students. The people sitting next to us were from Summit, New Jersey. I have never seen so many drunk people all at once, most standing on the long picnic style benches, singing a combination of German and American songs. The band rotated between some classic Americans, like Sweet Caroline, and some German chants. Preppy boys dressed in lederhos'n and girls in their drindls all sang while drinking beers that require two hands. It was like the biggest day party ever. WOW. 

Today I was definitely outside of my comfort zone a bit. SO much fun, but so many people. This was a crowd unlike any other, and if you ended up outside somehow, there was a line to get in line to get back in, no matter how many stamps you had on your hand. Security guards carted too-drunk or too-obnoxious people out, while people stood on tables to chug their liters of beer. If you didn't finish, you'd be booed and have things thrown at you. Oktoberfest is NOT real life. But it was such an incredible experience. People were so very happy. Walking down the street, police vans would have German music playing over their loudspeakers and people in full garb would be dancing in front of them. It was wonderful. 

Day 3: On my third and final day in Germany, we took a trip to the Dachau Concentration camp memorial site. I don't think anything could have been more of a contrast to the past two days, but I am so glad I went. We started the trip with a look inside the museum, which detailed how the camp came to be and how it progressed, along with information about the prisoners and leaders of the camp. We watched a movie about the camp, and then moved outside to wander around the camp. We decided to go into the barracks where the prisoners slept, as well as the maintenance buildings and role-call grounds. The memorial site is incredible in the sense that you are able to just walk around on your own, without having anyone lead you. You can explore the grounds completely. But it is such a sombering experience. To see pictures of bodies piled up on the exact ground where you're standing is unbelievable. It is something I will never forget.