I THOUGHT I WOULD BE TIRED OF TRAVELING, AND THEN...
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@paninisforjanplan
I THOUGHT I WOULD BE TIRED OF TRAVELING, AND THEN...
Missing Siena already. What an amazing Janplan!
Best Meals in Italy
Best meals this month: 1. Pasta with artichokes and bacon and chicken cacciatore in Roma 2. Pici and veal saltimbocca at Trattoria Papei with all the ladies 3. Gnocchi with bacon and zucchine, followed by veal and potatoes in Venice 4. Claudiaās bacon-rolled sausage stuffed chicken with the boys 5. Pasta arrabbiata and meat sampler in Pienza 6. Sausage and faggiole beans in San Gimginano 7. Wine and cheese tastings in San Gimgianano and Pienza 8. Penne in a mushroom cream sauce with capers and Brazillian chicken in Rome with Alex Sistoās grandmother 9. Fusilli alla mare in Naples 10. Pasta al forno alla Bolognese Bonus meal: Pizza alla buffala in Naples
Reflections
I am home! There's nothing like traveling to make you appreciate coming home at 1:30am your time to cake and birthday celebrations. So tired. I realized also more on this trip than the last that itās the people that make the place. Traveling is great but I couldnāt have done this without making friends with some awesome Colby people. 1. See as much of Siena and Tuscany as possible. I know I will barely scrape the surface of what Italy has to offer, and that Rome will be waiting for me even after I visit, as she has for thousands of years. I am excited to be home, but a part of my heart will always, always live in Tuscany. I love Italy (well, Tuscan Italy) and canāt wait to come back to this wonderful lively beautiful place.I think I definitely saw a lot of Tuscany. The best part about it, though, was that the program arranged it, so we got to go to places that were too difficult by train travel. I loved the SantāAntimo Abbey, San Gimignano, Montalcino, and the cheese and wine tastings. I donāt think I would have gone to Pisa by myself either, or thought to rent bikes in Lucca. Part of my heart will always be in Tuscany. 2. Learn some semblance of Italian: enough to get around and hopefully get my point across. Enough to move past tourist and towards traveler. With five hours of Italian a day, by the end of the first week I knew more Italian than I would probably in a whole semester at Colby. I feel like my Italian is terrible in terms of conversation (ie, canāt use the past tenseā¦) but I understand a lot of it, I can be polite when I need to and get my point across when I need to, and generally love speaking it. I want to continue to learn Italian at Colby if it fits in my schedule! 3. Soak in as much art as possible! The crazy part about it is that I saw SO much and yet missed things I wanted to see. I know Iāll be back. Personal highlights include: Caravaggios in the Uffizzi (basically everything there), the Fra Angelico frescoes in the Museo di San Marco, Bernini in the Borghese, Caravaggios in two different churches in Rome, and the Ghiberti doors. 4. Focus on balance (this is a general New Yearās Resolution for me). Balance student life, Siena, Tuscany, running, cooking, and living like an Italian and a tourist at the same time. This will be an ongoing goal for me. I ran around a lot trying to fit everything in, but I definitely settled into the slow, wonderful pace of Italian life. I particularly embraced Italian food. I love the way Italians eat (slowly, and with gusto!) and enjoyed every food moment with only a few exceptions (I found out I dislike tiramisu and we got a Panini by the Colosseum that was terrible and stale).
A lovely day in Ischia!
Feelin' 22!
Today, I am 22 years old! In Italy! Hooray :) This morning we headed off to Capri. We bought bus tickets at the nearby tabacchi (basically convenience stores). I watched a man buy a ticket and rub it on some womanāsāhis neighborās, maybe---sleeve for luck before downing his shot of espresso and running outside. We got our tickets and had to cross the road the second time (another hair-raising experience) before waiting about a half hour for a bus (with no nice electronic sign saying how long it would be or exactly where it was going, I might add, thanks for spoiling me Geneva). We took the 151, which this nice woman said would be the same as the 140 we were trying to take, so we followed her to the port. We approached the ticket counter, anxious because we were cutting it close for the 9:30 hydrofoil to Capri, but no! No tickets to Capri today. The waves are much much too big for boats. No one knows when it is going, signora, no one knows if it will run later. So we went to another counter and saw that boats were running to Ischia, a small island I had heard of in the sense that I passed by it in my book, and we decided to do it. It was sunny and we didnāt want to stay in this loud and overwhelming city so we got on the 9:40 ferry for adventure! I fell asleep almost immediately as my bodyās coping mechanism with the decidedly choppy waves. I woke up as we pulled into Ischia, already beautiful and sparkling and colorful. Right off the boat I felt so much more at peace, relaxing and unwinding as the streets wound through tiny colored houses. We wandered, following the flow of people in the relatively silent island, looking at the colored houses and tiles and the gorgeous deep blue ocean that would peek through from the road until reaching the castle at the end of the island, across a long bridge. Taking the elevator up to the top, we stepped out onto craggy castle ruins and absolutely dazzling views of the bay and the island and Naples. Though it was windy and cold, it was breathtaking. It was lovely to be up there under the sun, walking through gardens and stone walls and pretty orange flowers with the smell of lemons wafting through the air. Every place we went to had a beautiful view, and it was so unlike the other places weāve been in Italy that it was refreshing to see the deep deep blue ocean surrounding us. From there we hiked back down to find a restaurantāsome little place without much of a name or sign besides the fact it was open---and I enjoyed a great meal of bruschetta on the house and penne alla mare i marito. The pasta was in a creamy seafood sauce with tomatoes and mushrooms. In other words, I had octopus today! We kept walking then. Most of the shops were closed but we wandered around and took it all in, taking it easy, getting gelato, enjoying the sunshine. We headed back to Naples by 5pm and though it was super overwhelming again full of traffic, by the time we got back to our hotel the last light of the sun was fading and the city lights began to twinkle over the water. In honor of my birthday, we ate gnocchi leftovers and pizza in our beds, sipping prosecco and watching the Lizzie McGuire Movie. What a great birthday, certainly one for the books. I canāt process that this month flew by so fast. I've definitely got the travel bug; Italy, I'm not done with you.
Me, attempting to cross the road in Naples, where there are few crosswalks and no patience Mulan - cricket scene (by IQtroll)
Napoli e PATZO!
Naples is crazy. Itās loud and full of people and cars and overwhelming and there is literally no sense of order at all to this huge chaotic mess of a city. Everywhere people are gesturing, gesturing and speaking loudly and it is POURING buckets of rain and hail on us as we try to move past the sketchy and dirty and loud nature of the city. Stressed, overwhelmed, wet, and cold after going to the Archeological Museum via a long walk in the rain and metro, we made it to Via Tribunali for dinner. Looking like wet sad puppies, we were ushered in by no-smiling waiters into this tiny pizza place. The magic of pizza. This place was owned clearly by a bunch of brothers, and I got a pizza alla bufala (basically margherita pizza but with buffalo mozzarella) and it was full of melty cheesey goodness. The sauce was just right and it was thin crust but not too thin and it was cooked to perfection. I watched them put it into their big brick oven. Let me tell you it was not Bertucciās pizza. This was wonderful and I just felt my anxiety melt away like the cheese. Even though Naples is crazy, the people weāve met and talked to here are already some of the warmest weāve encountered (except for the pizza guys. No smiles there but thatās supposedly their shtick). Our taxi driver certainly cheered a couple of wet and scared girls up. I think of Neopolitan traffic to be like that scene in Mulan when the grandmother closes her eyes and tests the cricketās luck. There are very few crosswalks and the ones that do exist donāt have the lights so you basically just have to hope that you donāt get run over as you dash across bumper to bumper traffic with scooters buzzing by in between. Everywhere horns are honking and people are shouting and gesturing. Naples is interesting, overwhelming, loud, crazy. But the best pizza I've ever had, which is worth a lot to me.
Spending my birthday in Italy watching the Lizzie McGuire movie, eating gnocchi and pizza in bed with prosecco after a loooooong day exploring gorgeous Italian islandsā¦
Welcome to Napoli, the most crowded and outrageous city I've ever been to. But hey that pizza is REAL good
Trevi fountain at night isn't complete without #trevifountainselfie
This is the english version of the Pope's homily in Rome!
Roma at night. Bella notte!
Bella Roma, I Love You
I never want to leave Rome. Cities are generally tough for me to enjoy, but I really love this city---itās one of the few places in the world Iāve said, āI could stay here.ā Thereās just so much to see and the city is so vibrant and full of life. I woke up early and rushed aroundārushed to the metro, rushed to the gallerie. I popped out of the Metro at Spagna to findā¦a sidewalk and a German tour group? So I followed and the sidewalk opened up into this large green beautiful space, full of dogs romping around and ex-pats running. I made my way slowly to the Borghese, taking in the peace of the morning and of the city waking itself up. It was everything I hoped it would be. Berninis in every room! Caravaggios on the walls! Worried about the two hour limit, I ran through the museum in 45 minutes, barely stopping even at Apollo and Daphne or Pluto and Persephone. So then I walked around the first floor again, soaking each statue in at my own leisure. Bernini I love because he makes marble look real. The textural contrasts up close stun me. Bark, rock, clothing, skināall have their own specific look to them. Oh, and the details: veins, fingers, wrinkles, tears, the way skin moves when you grab it, the way leaves turn when pushed, so much life and vitality in a cold and white slab of marble! Thereās a reason why we call him a master. And then thereās Caravaggioās light, popping out of canvases out of nowhere. I saw so much of his work today in various churches, palaces, and in the Borghese, and every time his pieces strike me. I donāt need a plaque, even if Iāve never seen the work before. I just know because it moves me so. BonusāRaphaelās Girl with a Unicorn. So sweet. Raphaelās colors amaze me in real life, between these works and the ones we saw in the Vatican yesterday. So bright and deep but totally unlike the Venetian oils. After the Borghese, I let myself get lost in the gardens, following poorly marked signs for the Etruscan Museum only to never find it. But I did make my way slowly to Piazza del Popolo, which was a wonderful blend of modern and ancient. Full of people, I made my way through the square to enter one church, then another, before checking out the gardens above for a clear view of the giant Egyptian obelisk in the middle. Once mass was over, I saw two of my favorite works of all timeāCaravaggio (of course)ās Crucifixion of St. Peter and The Conversion of St. Paul. Thereās something about seeing his paintings in situ, with all of the colored marble and the organ playing and the intense decoration, that makes his work stand out. Back to the Metro-Barberini. It began to rain then, so instead of stopping and gaping at the casual Bernini fountain I dove into the first cafĆ© I found for a Panini (ham, mozzarella, zucchini on spinach bread) and an Italian cookie (shortbread half covered in chocolate with nutella in the middle) before meeting up with Kelsey back at the hotel. From there we took a nap and rallied to do part of Rick Stevesā āHeart of Rome Walk,ā since there were more churches to see! First we went to SantāIgnazio for more Baroque decoration. Then on to Palazzo Pomphilij, a gorgeous palace filled with art everywhere. I knew that in the Baroque era patrons would commission a bunch of works to fill their rooms, but I didnāt fully grasp that until I walked into a room filled floor-to-ceiling with paintings that all matched. What a different way to display than today, where youāre more likely to find an empty room with one main attraction in the center. More Caravaggios. More whoās who of Mannerist artists and Northern Renaissance artists and probably more but hey, those are the classes Iāve taken⦠To the Pantheon! It was actually free because it was Sunday. Very cool and golden and round. (Can you tell my senses are overwhelmed?) To Piazza Navona! Berniniās fountain stopped me again. Night had just fallen and so the lights began to shine in the piazza, illuminating the fountain against the deep blue of the early night sky. Absolutely gorgeous. We kept walking and wandering, eventually reaching the river for a beautiful view of St. Peterās at night. Worth getting a bit lost for, I think. Piazza Navona is one of my favorite places weāve visited in Rome. We ended up going a few streets down to basically the first restaurant we saw because we were so hungry (something like āRistorante Romanaā or equally touristy) and chose it because the young guy outside was impressed by our Italian. Usually I don't go for getting called into restaurants but it felt right, and it was absolutely the perfect call. It was outside but heated and so it was wonderful to sit down at little checkered tables with free prosecco (kind of like champagne) and enjoy the night. For dinner we both tried fettuchini with artichokes and bacon (a Roman speciality) and then I got the best chicken cacciatore Iāve ever had (sorry Mom)āit was melt-in-your-mouth, fall-off-the-bone delicious. Mmmm. I will miss Italian food. From there, we wandered back to the Trevi Fountain at night so we could make one more wish and see it all lit up, which was beautiful. Rome is even prettier at night. It shines and comes to life as night falls, even as things get quieter. There are less cars and more people. I love how lively this city is! My brain canāt keep up or catalog the memories. Tomorrow itās on to Naples, which is sad because I love Rome so much. Iāll be back for sure.
For another perspective/fun telling of events!
Pope Francis
Vatican and Vespers