Give me a break (a Fall Break, that is!)

Tomorrow is the day! We are off on our grand adventure through Europe after a week of mid-terms. I take my last test in a few hours (yikes!) and then have to figure out how to fit 10 days worth of clothes in a tiny backpack to appease airline restrictions and the like. Oh wait, I packed clothes for 26 days in this backpack for Running Through History. This should be a breeze (key word: SHOULD). Minus the fact that summer high school clothes might take up a little less space than my winter clothes. Minor detail.

Anyways, we have a few more kinks to work out in travel plans, some boarding passes and confirmation numbers to print out, and then we will be off! We being Christie, Amy, Mary Raine, Margaret and I. I could not be more excited.

Here is our plan of attack:

• Munich (via Rome) for barely 24 hours....a big travel day including trains buses planes and more buses to get there, but a pleasant day in the city the next morning
  
• Leave by train for Salzburg Saturday night for a 2 night stay, Sound of Music Tour included...perhaps the stop I look most forward to!! We may watch the movie tonight in preparation.
  
• Train to Prague (on Halloween!) for a 3 night visit...itinerary of sight-seeing TBD (any hot tips would be appreciated! Email me please!)
  
• Early morning flight to Paris for a 2 night stay in the land of Secco baguettes and pain au chocolat out the wazoo. So very excited.
  
• Sunday afternoon, flight to Pisa and train back to Florence
  

I WOULD be very sad for the end of Fall Break as we have been looking so forward to it for so long, buuuuut my parents will be arriving in Florence the very next day!! (Sans Eliza. Which is sad) I am so excited to see them and take them around for the week!

Looking forward to updating you on all of our adventures.

Until next time,
Grace

Cho-co-late (choco, choco)

In case you were curious where I was yesterday, listen the following:

Chocolate, by Soul Control (You can ignore the silly video that goes along with it)

This was a song that we heard yesterday afternoon on our day trip....to Perugia for the Eurochocolate Festival 2011! It was really something. Picture a beautiful, quaint Italian town packed with happy people wandering the streets eating chocolate, tent after tent after tent of chocolate vendors, and everything chocolate. Literally everything! With our handy-dandy ChocoCards supplied to us by our program director, we got samples at various tents throughout the festival plus a souvenir picture frame....made of chocolate! At the festival, you could find chocolate churros, hot chocolate (of every variety- including hot nutella!), chocolate kebabs, chocolate muffins, chocolate liqueur, chocolate bars, chocolate gear (?), chocolate covered nuts/fruit/espresso beans, crepes with chocolate, chocolate juice, chocolate bears, chocolate truffles, and chocolate anything else you can imagine. It was truly a sight to behold (and taste!). I even sampled an onion flavored chocolate (not by choice- the lady behind the counter said, "Here, try this! Can you guess what is in this chocolate?" I don't recommend it if you've never had onion chocolate).

We had a blast sampling and buying various chocolate products and salivating while eyeballing what we didn't. The look on Caroline's face said it all when she took the bite into that (first) Lindt chocolate truffle. We were happy as could be.

And chocolate is good for you, right? That's what I've always heard, anyways...

Ciao for now,
Grace

...on an evening in ROMA

This past weekend I went on a 4-day "traveling seminar" to Rome with my Imagery and Public Spaces class (or Imagery IN Public Spaces? I have never been sure). There were 10 of us girls all together, plus our English professor, whom I love, and Anna, the wonderful director of CET.

We had a ball! We had such a nice time powering through churches, museums, parks, and ruins and kept our sanity by breaking for the best cappuccino in Rome (Sant' Eustachio Il Caffe) and the best gelato in Rome (Giolitti). We came back for the gelato several times after that.

A very excited Kara and Annie amongst the ruins of the Forum

We saw so much that I can't even begin to discuss each place and what we saw, so here is quick break down of our stops:

Colosseum
Forum
Capitoline Hill
Trajan's Column
Pantheon
Vatican City
Sistine Chapel
St. Peter's Basilica
S. Maria della Vittoria
S. Luigi de' Francesi
Santa Maria del Popolo
Borghese Gallery

Some Post-Rome Reflections:

1) Caravaggio is my new favorite painter. Love him. Love his paintings. Especially the chapel with his paintings in S. Luigi de' Francesi. Or maybe his Madonna of the Pilgrims. That's a nice one. But I probably couldn't pick a favorite anyways.

2) I love cappuccinos. I technically knew this before going to Rome, but the cappuccinos I drank during our stay (from Sant' Eustachio or even just from the machine at the hotel breakfast) were just delightful. If only it wasn't a faux-pas to drink them all day long. (Coffee with milk is a morning thing and morning thing ONLY here in Italy).

3) Bernini is my new favorite sculptor. Appolo and Dafne?? Talk about awesome. One of the most amazing things I have ever looked at. The Rape of Proserpina?? Equally amazing (if not more). The David? Another great one. And then there is the Ecstasy of St. Theresa. Bernini rocks (pun intended). He turns rocks into these incredibly complicated, delicate, detailed figures that are so beautiful and wonderful to look at. Amazing.

4) In my next life, I might like to study abroad in Rome. Rome rocks! It is beautiful and vibrant and colorful and exciting and just feels so very Italian. There are obviously a lot of tourists there, as there are in Florence, but it just feels much more Italian since there is more space for everyone to just be. Now, don't get me wrong, the Vatican was a total zoo, like the Ponte Vecchio multiplied by however many square kilometers the Vatican City occupies. But otherwise, I just felt that I was getting gelato and the Italians were getting gelato and I was walking around and the Italians were walking around and it was just wonderful. It's hard to explain, but all I know is that I loved Rome even more than I remembered loving it last time. I hope that I will get a chance to go back there before I go home!

5) Comfortable walking shoes are necessary in Rome when keeping a schedule like the one we did. I unfortunately did not take this into account when packing. Lesson learned.

Taylor, Mary Raine, and I, so happy despite how much our feet hurt from a full day of touring the city

Margaret, MR, and I looking towards the Pantheon. (It's behind the photographer.)

About to toss our coins into the Trevi Fountain to ensure that we will come back to Rome one day!

In case I haven't been clear enough, I love Rome and had a wonderful time. Now it is crunch time- mid-terms, papers, and getting organized for FALL BREAK! (We leave in exactly one week for Munich, Salzburg, Prague, and Paris!!)

Ciao!
Grace (or Gra-che, as Caroline has speculated is the true Italian pronunciation)

Disposable camera (#2) but memories that will last forever...

A few weeks ago (3 and a half!! It's hard to believe..!), I journeyed to the Amalfi Coast with a group called Florence For Fun, which organizes group trips to various destinations in Italy and throughout Europe. We braved the unknown and got to see Sorrento, Capri, Positano, and Pompeii. With consistently gorgeous backdrops, we had many, many adventures, like going into the Blue Grotto (one of the 7 Natural Wonders of Italy?) in a row boat through a tiny hole in a cliff, surviving the surprises of Hotel Cavour (including broken keys and bad, baaad coffee), slurping down delicious granites, seeing the amazing ruins in Pompeii, and climbing Mt. Vesuvius.

We had good fun but were exhausted upon our return to Florence late Sunday night and were very glad to catch a few hours of shuteye before I had to be up and at 'em bright and early Monday for my class trip to Venice! Bleary-eyed but ready to go, I arrived at the train station at 8am, looking forward to an intensive day of visits to various churches and sites throughout the city (with our English professor who is married to a Venetian and lives right outside of the city--we were so lucky to have such an experienced guide who knew exactly where she was going in the maze of a city). After a full day exploring lovely, gorgeous, magical Venice, I was ready to go back again! I am hoping to make another stop there before I leave Italy in December.

Here are a few pictures I cranked and snapped disposable camera style throughout the weekend:

AMALFI COAST WEEKEND:

Caroline and I with a stormy Capri behind us (the weather cleared up, don't worry!)

The "Blue" Grotto, which, if you can imagine, was actually the most gorgeous, glowing aqua blue that I have ever seen. See that black section over there on the left hand side? Yeah, it was BLUE. Like really, really blue. Look it up, I promise I'm not making this up.

A cute little pooch we spotted in the town of Positano. (Mom? Dad? Can we get one?)

Mary Raine, Caroline, and I with the lovely backdrop for our afternoon at the beach. We decided it was fairly attractive.

A view down one of the main streets in the city of Pompeii. Super cool, right?

Posing in front of the crater (word choice?) of Mt. Vesuvius. We virtually walked straight uphill on a giant pile of tiny volcanic rocks and almost fell multiple times. Don't worry, as expected, the Italian women plowed straight up the thing in their 4-inch wedges and heels.


DAY TRIP TO VENICE:

Margaret and I extra happy on our one-minute-cross-the-canal gondola ride! (That's my professor's shoulder in the corner)

Just one of the many views in Venice that left me speechless.

MR and I on the balcony at San Marco

A glance out the window on our water taxi back to the train station. Just lovely.

All in all, it was a truly wonderful jam-packed weekend. I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to visit so many remarkable and beautiful places while I am here. It's really something.

Ciao for now,
Grace

My next adventure...

I'm telling you, this is what dreams are made of. There is never a dull moment over here!

Just watched The Lizzie McGuire Movie in preparation for my departure for ROMA with my Imagery in Public Spaces class tomorrow morning. We will be there until Sunday following an intensive, jam-packed, awesome schedule. Looking most forward to going to St. Peter's Basilica as I was very sick when my family went and had to stay in the hotel. And, in case you didn't know, I love Rome as much as Lizzie does in the movie. (Or maybe more!) I'm pretty pumped. Maybe I will meet my own Paolo (hopefully a little nicer than the one in the movie) while we're there! Or my own Gordo, whichever.

In any case, bags are packed, itinerary printed, readings (mostly) completed--I'm ready. Bring it, Rome!

Buonanotte,

Grace

But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? Not Verona but...San Gimignano!

All week, we have been anticipating our journey to Verona, the place Caroline has been referencing as "The Most Romantic City in the World." You know, where Romeo and Juliet fell in love. And where you can write letters to Juliet and stick them on the wall and cross your fingers that Juliet's Secretaries might write you back. Caroline and I even watched "Letters to Juliet" yesterday in preparation. We were ready.

Well, a bump in the road came, and I goofed up the train schedule and prices. Whoops. BUT do not fear; our day did not in fact end as tragically as did the story of Romeo and Juliet. Instead of Verona we decided after a quick pow-wow to journey to SAN GIMIGNANO, a wonderful little medieval hillside town just a two short (I use that term lightly) bus rides away from Florence. Apart from a few slight (again, I use these terms lightly) delays in the busing system, Caroline, Amy, Christie, Margaret, MR and I had a lovely, relaxing day poking around the town, dining at an absolutely picturesque cafe on a beautiful square, shopping for terra cotta pottery, and eating World Champion grade gelato. At the end of the day, I'd say it was a success.

A view down one of the many scenic streets in San Gimignano.

Christie and Amy just glowing at our very pleasant lunch spot.

Caroline and I at the "punto panoramico." Talk about beautiful countryside!

Margaret with her gelato from the "World Champion" gelatria. I got stracciatella and cinnamon (in honor of you, Mom!). It was pretty darn good!

Ciao til next time,
Grace

A burn-your-fingers, melt-in-your-mouth, exploding-with-chocolate cioccolato croissant

We (Amy, Caroline, MR and I) did it. We went to the Secret Bakery (the place I posted about earlier in the fall where the bakers serve people freshly baked goods out of the back door as they bake for their morning opening). We went at the wrong time, but we were willing to wait as tensions rose, the line grew, and volume became a problem. There were mixed thoughts about how the system of this underground, back door in a tiny alley, middle of the night bakery worked amongst the people in line (who also happened to be primarily American).

Some were sure that the bakers won't serve people if it's too loud. People who believed this were the shushers of the evening. News flash, people, but shushing is just as loud if not louder than the people talking.

Some (well one boy in particular) were sure that the bakers didn't know that we were out there. Said boy proceeded to knock on the door every few minutes. News flash, buddy, but all the windows of the bakery are open, and there are fifty people standing out here. They know we're here.

Others were generally debating the time the door opened and the bakers began bringing out the freshly baked goodness to serve the hungry crowd. "I came at four last night, and it was open." "Well, that girl said she was served at 1:15 once!" Nobody seemed to know, but nobody wanted to leave in the off chance that the door would open any minute.

So we waited. We waited for quite a while. Legs got tired. People got tired. We had moments of doubt ("Should we just come back another time?" "Do we really want to wait any longer?").

But the smells were what kept us hanging around. We were more or less standing directly outside of the kitchen of a bakery where they were baking the fresh goods for the next morning. The smell wafting out the windows was so heavenly that we decided that we should stay.

Then, the moment arrived. The door opened, and one of the bakers took the first group's orders. We were the third group and were instantly so glad that we had stuck around.

Finally, it was our time to shine. Caroline ordered two plain croissants for her and Amy and two chocolate croissants for MR and me. (Why get plain when you can get cioccolato..?!) The man shut the door and returned shortly with two paper bags with our treats in them. Each item costs a euro, so we paid him and headed on our way.

The croissant was hot and buttery and soft-- fresh out of the oven. It was the most divine thing I had eaten all day. Perhaps in my top five pastries of all time (that's a list I might have to think about). The thing literally melted in my mouth, and I devoured it in no time. It tasted like pure goodness. We were astounded at how delicious and worth the wait these treats had been.

Feeling pleased with ourselves and very happy, we hopped in a cab and headed back to our apartments. We talked about our treats from the Secret Bakery the whole way home.

A day with lots of laughter

Today (my day off of class) was truly simple but truly delightful. It started off with a delicious bowl of cereal, a quick load of laundry, a bit of Italian homework, and a post card in the mail. I then made myself a truly simple but delicious salad and met Margaret at her apartment to run to the Mercato Centrale and then explore the city.

We browsed around the market for quite a bit, eying all the mounds of produce and interesting cuts of meat you can buy there (or not buy if it was up to me...stomach/hoof/muzzle is not my cup of tea). After Margaret picked out some things, we dropped her stuff off at her apartment and set out again for the afternoon.

We walked all over, poked into a few shops, found a jacket I might like to buy, split a goat cheese sun-dried tomato panino at Il Due Fratellini (my favorite panino spot, as of right now anyways), had a really good laugh that included a few tears about the "brothers" that work the panino shop (while Margaret claims they are different brothers each time she goes, we realized that actually the original brothers must be dead since the place was started in 1875...don't worry, you probably had to be there), got limone granites, walked through the Giardino Botanico that we pass on the way to Italian class, then called it an afternoon.

I came back to my apartment and watched the most recent episode of Modern Family (it's absolutely hysterical if you haven't seen it yet) and laughed really really loudly by myself. Nobody else was home, so nobody thought I was crazy.

Then the girls came back, and we ate a quick dinner before Christie and I headed out with Caroline to support her in her endeavors on the soccer field as she played on the CET-Georgetown soccer team in a match against another team of Americans. This was so much fun--there are two small soccer fields in a courtyard above the Duomo where all sorts of American study abroad students can join leagues and play soccer! While our team (apparently called "Vandy-town"--Vanderbilt and Georgetown combined) may not have dominated the soccer field, Christie and I were in total cahoots on the sidelines as we watched our friends out on the seemingly VERY slippery field... I won't use any names, but some people may have fallen a few times out there in the very first few minutes of the match, but with great honor and dignity. The other team was also incredibly serious and aggressive in contrast to our fun-loving, low-key demeanor...so of course there were many moments that had Christie and I crying laughing. It was so much fun, and we are excited to go support Vandytown in the future! And also get some more good laughs.

After that, we met up with MR and Margaret and went to (you guessed it!) Cantina del Gelato. We always seem to laugh here when we go because the two men who work the shop tease us and shake their heads when we attempt to speak in broken Italian. Tonight, the younger of the two men who work there tricked me into believing that he had run out of marscapone-nutella gelato, forcing me to order something different. I got caramello and cioccolato (Margaret's signature combo) and was not disappointed in the slightest, but it was not until Mary Raine was ordering and I had practically devoured my entire cono piccolo that he let on that he had pulled my leg and actually had a full tub of my favorite flavor. We laughed and laughed, and he seemed quite pleased with himself. Caroline then told him that she had an Italian test tomorrow, and he said, "Tomorrow? Ay...."

After all this laughing and exploring and cheering and eating, I am feeling totally satisfied and so very happy to be where I am. It was a truly delightful day filled with easy time with sweet friends in a fabulous city.

Ciao until next time!

Grace

Did somebody say gelato???

Yesterday, a group of us took a day trip to Lucca, a lovely, quaint little walled town in Tuscany about an hour and a half train outside of Florence. This was a blast from the past because when the Granade-Turman clan took Italy back when I was in elementary school, we rented a beautiful villa on a hill just outside the town for about a week. From that vacation, a lot of "Granade-isms" and "Turman-isms" were born.

For those of you who are in on these moments, here are a few things that you will understand that happened in that very city:

"Did somebody say gelato??"

"Uh, scuzi. I'll take the local pudding, too!"

"Do we look the type?"

"And I know Ferragamo."

For those of you who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, don't worry. You had to be there.

Anyways, Lucca was just as delightful as I remembered it from fifth grade, if not more! We spent the morning strolling around the town, poking into a few churches, moseying through the markets, popping into a few shops, and munching on some delectable pizza at the recommendation of Gillis. I had asked for a slice of pizza with salami on it (surprise, surprise) but was presented with slice of margherita with a large piece of proscuitto on top. While I was initially disappointed, this slice of pizza was divine. I scarfed it down, and we moved on in search of a bike rental shop.

Mary Raine, Christie, Amy, Taylor, and Caroline outside of Pizza da Felice post-yummy lunch

The main thing I remember from when my family came to Lucca was riding bikes around the walls of the city. Eager to do this again, we grabbed bikes and set off through the town to get onto the wall. After weaving through a few pedestrians, we rode up onto the wall. The views of both the town and the mountains and countryside were just amazing. We had the best time zooming around and trying to take pictures of each other on our cute Italian bikes.

MR and I looking tres sportifs (sorry, I don't know how to say that in Italian yet) on our bicycles

A view into Lucca from on top of the wall

Caroline looking good on her bike as she zoomed ahead

Also, the weather here in Italy is just perfect right now. It's not hot, but it isn't cold, either. It's that cool beginning of fall sort of breeze that keeps us feeling happy and comfortable as we explore more and more of this wonderful country. Christie has been occasionally stopping dead in her tracks and saying, "There it is!! Do you smell it?? Do you smell fall??"

Did somebody say gelato?? At this scrumptious window I got a scoop of serena, a flavor that combines ricotta, pine nuts, and honey.

Off to the laundromat to wash my bed spread--I think it could be the reason that I have been sneezing up a storm since I've been here!

Ciao ciao,
Grace