The title of this post was inspired by something our Resident Director, Frederica, said when we were getting a cappucino one morning! Its true too, unless you count the mammoth churches. But other than the churches the coffee is smaller, the portions of food are smaller, the glasses you get for water are smaller....everything is smaller, except for the sugar packets, which are about one and a half of the sugar packets that we know in love in the states!
I never got to tell you about our Excursion to Siena, so I am going to do that now before I go on! On Friday, May 23rd, API took us on a bus ride at 9 in the morning to Siena, a little tuscan town out in the middle of the country side. It was a beautiful ride there, gorgeous rolling hills, those little spear like trees ( I have been meaning to learn their name) and the occasional vinyard. Everythign you would expect and more! When we got to Siena, we instantly started a walking tour (ANOTHER walking tour) of the little town. Siena is beautiful, it is the little italian town you always imagine, the narrow winding roads, quaint ally ways with hanging baskets and amazing wooden doors. I have to admit that I found it really hard to concentrate and listen during the tour (after 5 tours in one week I think that is understandable) so I don't really know any cool facts about any of the churches or buildings. However I did pay attention the moment we rounded the corner and I got a veiw of Siena's main attraction: Piazza Del Campo! This piazza is HHUUGGEEE. Its a large brick floored semi-circle that is surrounded by caffe's and continuous wall of apartment buildings. It doesnt sound pretty, but it is! I will put pictures up of it in just a minute. Anyway, on the flat side of the semi circle (or shell, as they put it) is the Palazzo Pubblico (Public Palace) and the Torre del Mangia (Tower of Eating??). The cool part about this piazza is that every year, on July 2nd and again in August, there is a Horse Race: Il Palio. This isnt just any horse race though- the Sienese live for this thing! There are 15 or so neighborhoods in Siena (which is amazing because this town is TINY) and each neighborhood invests all of its extra cash into helping their horse win! They even bring the horse into their church to have it properly blessed the day of the Race. Its a huge ceremony and people actually cry its so emotional. The race itself is very dangerous considering the shell shaped sloped piazza. The horses gain an incredible amount of speed and turn at scary angles. All in all the race lasts about 75 seconds- guarenteed to be the most thrilling 75 seconds of your life. If your not crushed to death by the crowds assembled in the piazza, that is. At any rate, if there's a chance I can make this you can bet I'll be there- I will even find a neighborhood and see if they will adopt me for the day, I'm Italian, they should like me...right? :)
After Siena we took a one hour drive up a VERY windy and narrow road up into the tuscan hill country. We ended at Castello di Volpaia, an Olive Oil producing village.
A Quick Note about Italian Driving Skills: We are talking death defining skills here! Donato (or DoDo for short) was my driver for this trip. On our way to Siena he straddeled the dotted white line for atleast half of the trip, and moved over only seconds before the car on his right (or left) got to close. On our way to Castello Di Volpaia, he reached unheard of speeds and never missed a car by more than 5 inches. Talk about heart attacks, Frederica on the other hand (who was chatting with DoDo the entire time) thought nothing of his driving! Moral of the story: Never play chicken with an Italian...it turns out thats how they learned to drive!
I don't have much to say about Castello di Volpaia except WOW. A lot of the kids going the excursion said they would live in Siena in a heart beat...and ok, I can see that maybe before we went to Castello but after...no way, I am in love. If I dont come back home this August, you can find me in Castello Di Volpaia. Its a gorgeous town- no words can describe it so soon I will post pictures so your jaw can drop too. Cobble stone streets, beautiful rose vines creeping up old walls and over heavy wooden doors. Sweet old ladies sitting on the bench smiling and nodding as we passed by. Oh...so amazing. We had an olive oil tasting in an old church, which was great, I loved their oil (and bought some). Then it began to rain and we went home!
Saturday we spent in Florence walking around town and shopping! I began to feel more and more comfortable in the city, less homesick and more excited to explore. I really enjoyed saturday. On Sunday it was Emma's 19th Birthday (she's a youngin')! She wanted to go to Pisa so at 9 am we hopped on a train to Pisa and arrived there by 10:30! I love the train system here, I have no idea why America doesnt have trains. I could be in Fort Worth College Station in 1.5 hours tops if we had a train station! Pisa itself was unremarkable. The city was dirty and sleepy (keep in mind it was sunday so most of the shops were closed) and we got hit on more in the two hours we were there than in the entire week we had just spent in the country. Pisa men are gross. As gross as the city was, as soon as we turned the last corner we all three stopped, our jaws dropped, and we were sold! The leaning tower was so cool! It was definetly huge, but it was so thin! It was beautiful. We had lunch a cute little caffe and headed home! We just hung out in florence, went to dinner and chilled for the night because the next day was classes!
I will save that for next time because once again this has been an abnormally long post! But I love you all! And I hope you are all having fantastic weeks!!! Email me if you get the chane, I would to hear how y'all are doing!
Love,
Mary K
May 22, 2008
"It's hard to be modest when you are the best!"
Ciao!
This quote is from our tour guide yesturday morning in Florence! She had just finished telling us all of the works that had been written in Florence (like Pinocchio and all of Dante's Devine Comedy) and at the end of her speel she took a deep breath, put her hands on her hips and said, "(Sigh) I hate-ah to brag...but eet ees hard to be modest ween you are tee best!" Sooo cute!
Backing up a little- I am officially moved in to Florence! We arrived Wednesday (May 21st) around noon! They dropped us off at our apartment and then told us to enjoy the city until 6:30!! It was a little over whelming to be thrown into the situation like that, but now that I have had a full day and a half to explore the city I feel very comfortable. In hindsight I am glad they gave us the chance to grasp what a big adventure this is going to be!
I really enjoy my roommates (there are 6 of us in this apartment, I share a room with Hannah). They are all very sweet girls and we will all be here for the next nine weeks so I am sure you will be hearing about them and that we will become good friends! When we walked in to our apartment we died, It is HUGE and GORGEOUS! Upto this point we had been told not to expect very much room, sparce walls...basically a hole in the wall and this place is anything but! It's very long and narrow, but our room is huge! I love it. I am not comfortable sleeping in it yet, but I guess that always takes a day or so. Soon it will be a home away from home.
Before I begin telling you about Siena ( We took a day trip there today) I would like to tell you about our last day in Rome, Tuesday, and what we were able to see!! On Tuesday we got up fairly early, had a cappucino and a croissant and got on a bus to the Vatican City! We were able to tour St. Peters Basillica, which of course was gorgeous (I have some pictures of it in the slide show) and incredibly ornate. I have no idea how they envisioned these things much less built them! It was a very fun tour, and we had a great tour guide (Fabrizio, the same one we had on Monday) which makes all the difference! After St. Peter's we walked down the street to St. Angels Castel. This is a fortress that was built to protect the Vatican and of corse the pope. I believe the 3rd Pope Paul lived there (dont quote me on this, Fabrizio is a fast talker and his accent is thick haha) and there is a corridor running from the Castel, down the street underground and into the vatican incase the Pope needed to make any fast getaways. I loved the castel, it was very very very old and rustic. The bottom floor we entered in was very dungeion like, thin halls, dank lighting and iron chains, but as we climed up in the castel it almost got palace like with its high ceilings and frescos. There were amazing veiws of the city if you walked along the edges. The picture in the slide show of the green vines and little chairs and a stone walk way was taken at the castel. The reason it is called St. Angels is because there is a HUGE Iron Angel (Michael the Archangel) Statue standing at the very top of the castel. The original one was stuck by lightning and is in a little courtyard lower down in the castel. We were able to go up on the roof and look at the amazing veiws. It was incredible! Unfortunately it was raining all day :(.
From the Castel we were free for the night so some friends and I went to find a bar and have some lunch. Keep in mind when I say bar I mean a coffee bar, not a drinking bar haha. This is a highlight for me of this past week because I was able to order in Italian and was actually complemented on my use of the language!! That was one of my goals and it was accomplished so early! Crazy!!! I am by no means a good speaker but atleast I am making progress, I am excited to see how far I have come after nine weeks!
Our last night Emma Lee and I just walked around Rome in the rain and looked at the Trevi Fountain all lit up. It really is my favorite thing in Rome. We had some dinner and The two kind of artsy pictures of the outside caffe and the white collumns were taken during that night!
This has become a really long post so i am going to save Florence and Siena for tomorrow's post ! So check back soon! I miss you all and love you so much! Below is an little caption for the slide show so you know what everything is!
Pictures:
1. Emma and I at Baries having Sangria the first night in Rome
2.St. Agnes Church in Piazza Navona (Rome)
3.The Pantheon (Rome)
4. Emma, Lee, Me and Anna at The Spanish steps
5. The Colosseum-
6. Inside the Colosseum- This is my favorite view of it!
7.Aggies in the Colosseum- All of the aggies on this trip!
8. St. Peters Basillica- inside
9. St. Peters Basillica- inside
10. The Canopy Bernini Designed to mark St. Peters grave
11. The outside view of St. Peter's Basillica
12. The walkway in the top of St. Angels Castel
13. A cool building pic the last night in Rome
14. A Picturesque Street Caffe in Rome
15. My Room in Florence
16. Our living room balcony view
17. our living room
18. our dining room (and anna)
19. the view from our dining room window
20. our cute LITTLE kitchen
21 our entrance hallway
22. my first glance of the Duomo (Cathedral) in Florence! Gorgeous
Ok Ciao everyone! And stay tuned!!! Love you! BYE!
Mary K
This quote is from our tour guide yesturday morning in Florence! She had just finished telling us all of the works that had been written in Florence (like Pinocchio and all of Dante's Devine Comedy) and at the end of her speel she took a deep breath, put her hands on her hips and said, "(Sigh) I hate-ah to brag...but eet ees hard to be modest ween you are tee best!" Sooo cute!
Backing up a little- I am officially moved in to Florence! We arrived Wednesday (May 21st) around noon! They dropped us off at our apartment and then told us to enjoy the city until 6:30!! It was a little over whelming to be thrown into the situation like that, but now that I have had a full day and a half to explore the city I feel very comfortable. In hindsight I am glad they gave us the chance to grasp what a big adventure this is going to be!
I really enjoy my roommates (there are 6 of us in this apartment, I share a room with Hannah). They are all very sweet girls and we will all be here for the next nine weeks so I am sure you will be hearing about them and that we will become good friends! When we walked in to our apartment we died, It is HUGE and GORGEOUS! Upto this point we had been told not to expect very much room, sparce walls...basically a hole in the wall and this place is anything but! It's very long and narrow, but our room is huge! I love it. I am not comfortable sleeping in it yet, but I guess that always takes a day or so. Soon it will be a home away from home.
Before I begin telling you about Siena ( We took a day trip there today) I would like to tell you about our last day in Rome, Tuesday, and what we were able to see!! On Tuesday we got up fairly early, had a cappucino and a croissant and got on a bus to the Vatican City! We were able to tour St. Peters Basillica, which of course was gorgeous (I have some pictures of it in the slide show) and incredibly ornate. I have no idea how they envisioned these things much less built them! It was a very fun tour, and we had a great tour guide (Fabrizio, the same one we had on Monday) which makes all the difference! After St. Peter's we walked down the street to St. Angels Castel. This is a fortress that was built to protect the Vatican and of corse the pope. I believe the 3rd Pope Paul lived there (dont quote me on this, Fabrizio is a fast talker and his accent is thick haha) and there is a corridor running from the Castel, down the street underground and into the vatican incase the Pope needed to make any fast getaways. I loved the castel, it was very very very old and rustic. The bottom floor we entered in was very dungeion like, thin halls, dank lighting and iron chains, but as we climed up in the castel it almost got palace like with its high ceilings and frescos. There were amazing veiws of the city if you walked along the edges. The picture in the slide show of the green vines and little chairs and a stone walk way was taken at the castel. The reason it is called St. Angels is because there is a HUGE Iron Angel (Michael the Archangel) Statue standing at the very top of the castel. The original one was stuck by lightning and is in a little courtyard lower down in the castel. We were able to go up on the roof and look at the amazing veiws. It was incredible! Unfortunately it was raining all day :(.
From the Castel we were free for the night so some friends and I went to find a bar and have some lunch. Keep in mind when I say bar I mean a coffee bar, not a drinking bar haha. This is a highlight for me of this past week because I was able to order in Italian and was actually complemented on my use of the language!! That was one of my goals and it was accomplished so early! Crazy!!! I am by no means a good speaker but atleast I am making progress, I am excited to see how far I have come after nine weeks!
Our last night Emma Lee and I just walked around Rome in the rain and looked at the Trevi Fountain all lit up. It really is my favorite thing in Rome. We had some dinner and The two kind of artsy pictures of the outside caffe and the white collumns were taken during that night!
This has become a really long post so i am going to save Florence and Siena for tomorrow's post ! So check back soon! I miss you all and love you so much! Below is an little caption for the slide show so you know what everything is!
Pictures:
1. Emma and I at Baries having Sangria the first night in Rome
2.St. Agnes Church in Piazza Navona (Rome)
3.The Pantheon (Rome)
4. Emma, Lee, Me and Anna at The Spanish steps
5. The Colosseum-
6. Inside the Colosseum- This is my favorite view of it!
7.Aggies in the Colosseum- All of the aggies on this trip!
8. St. Peters Basillica- inside
9. St. Peters Basillica- inside
10. The Canopy Bernini Designed to mark St. Peters grave
11. The outside view of St. Peter's Basillica
12. The walkway in the top of St. Angels Castel
13. A cool building pic the last night in Rome
14. A Picturesque Street Caffe in Rome
15. My Room in Florence
16. Our living room balcony view
17. our living room
18. our dining room (and anna)
19. the view from our dining room window
20. our cute LITTLE kitchen
21 our entrance hallway
22. my first glance of the Duomo (Cathedral) in Florence! Gorgeous
Ok Ciao everyone! And stay tuned!!! Love you! BYE!
Mary K
May 19, 2008
I'm In Rome!!!!
HellO All!
I am thrilled to say I have been running around Rome the past two days, though with all that we have done it feels like I have been here for Weeks!
The flight here was as fun as a flight can be I suppose! The flight to Newark was very uneventful, I sat by a very cute older couple and slept some. After the flight though I found about 9 or so kids who are in API and going to Florence. They are all so sweet and very fun, I am thrilled I met them so early in the trip. We flew from there to Rome, and lemme tell you, International flights are AWESOME. I watched Mad Money and the King and I and slept for two hours and before I knew it was there!!
We spent an hour and a half trying to get through immigration. No lines in Italy, only mosh pits, thats what took so long! Three times the Italians got tired of waiting and someone started a slow clap and soon everyone was clapping and cheering- I supose they were trying to cheer on the immigration officers to get them to hurry up! Whatever it was for it sure made me smile!
API picked us up and we went to our Hotel, which is VERY nice. We looked it up on line and its about 200 EURO a night...so we are stylin for sure! Its RIGHT behind the Pantheon (which we saw today) and only a few minutes from the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain (both of which we also saw today). Its a lot like G.Rolley for all of you who know that building. There is a lot of back tracking trying to find your room because the numbers bounce around and there is a suprising amount of stairs! I LOVE ITALY!
Here are some of my Inital Thoughts of the country:
1. Everyone here drives a Fiat...or similar sized car
2. Flats were a good call, everyone wears them here!
3. Everyone smokes, but its ok because everything is outdoors so its not so bad
4. I love this country!!!
5. I love Sangria (Emma, Lee, Anna and I found a little tratatorria and had a glass the first night we got here)
6. Everyone also wears this pashmina scarfs, VERY cute!!
7. Roma smells really good, kinda musty sweet, like flowers but something else, Its hard to describe...but its good!
Today we took a walking tour of the city today and when I get the chance I will upload some of the pics on to this slide show up there! Here are some of the highlights:
1. Pantheon- Huge Beautiful- HOW do they build these things!?!?!
2. Piazza Navona- Probably my favorite piazza, it is so gorgeous
3. The Spanish Steps- This is where Audrey Hepburn eats gelato!!
4. the Trevi Fountain- I LOVE THIS FOUNTAIN, favorite of the day!
Then we took a bus tour to:
1. The Colosseum- it IS as cool as it looks, I took video and I will show it to anyone who wants!
2. The Arch of Titus- very cool
3. More of Rome- to much to remember!
I have been able to use some Italian already, and while I am nowhere near fluent yet people respond well to my efforts and help me along. Did I mention I loved this country?
Ok, thats about it for tonight, but thanks for your prayers. I am having a GREAT time. I feel very safe, very at home, and very very happy. So thanks for reading up on me! Keep checkin back and I'll keep you updated on how its goin!! I love you all so much!!!
Arrivederci!
Mary K.
I am thrilled to say I have been running around Rome the past two days, though with all that we have done it feels like I have been here for Weeks!
The flight here was as fun as a flight can be I suppose! The flight to Newark was very uneventful, I sat by a very cute older couple and slept some. After the flight though I found about 9 or so kids who are in API and going to Florence. They are all so sweet and very fun, I am thrilled I met them so early in the trip. We flew from there to Rome, and lemme tell you, International flights are AWESOME. I watched Mad Money and the King and I and slept for two hours and before I knew it was there!!
We spent an hour and a half trying to get through immigration. No lines in Italy, only mosh pits, thats what took so long! Three times the Italians got tired of waiting and someone started a slow clap and soon everyone was clapping and cheering- I supose they were trying to cheer on the immigration officers to get them to hurry up! Whatever it was for it sure made me smile!
API picked us up and we went to our Hotel, which is VERY nice. We looked it up on line and its about 200 EURO a night...so we are stylin for sure! Its RIGHT behind the Pantheon (which we saw today) and only a few minutes from the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain (both of which we also saw today). Its a lot like G.Rolley for all of you who know that building. There is a lot of back tracking trying to find your room because the numbers bounce around and there is a suprising amount of stairs! I LOVE ITALY!
Here are some of my Inital Thoughts of the country:
1. Everyone here drives a Fiat...or similar sized car
2. Flats were a good call, everyone wears them here!
3. Everyone smokes, but its ok because everything is outdoors so its not so bad
4. I love this country!!!
5. I love Sangria (Emma, Lee, Anna and I found a little tratatorria and had a glass the first night we got here)
6. Everyone also wears this pashmina scarfs, VERY cute!!
7. Roma smells really good, kinda musty sweet, like flowers but something else, Its hard to describe...but its good!
Today we took a walking tour of the city today and when I get the chance I will upload some of the pics on to this slide show up there! Here are some of the highlights:
1. Pantheon- Huge Beautiful- HOW do they build these things!?!?!
2. Piazza Navona- Probably my favorite piazza, it is so gorgeous
3. The Spanish Steps- This is where Audrey Hepburn eats gelato!!
4. the Trevi Fountain- I LOVE THIS FOUNTAIN, favorite of the day!
Then we took a bus tour to:
1. The Colosseum- it IS as cool as it looks, I took video and I will show it to anyone who wants!
2. The Arch of Titus- very cool
3. More of Rome- to much to remember!
I have been able to use some Italian already, and while I am nowhere near fluent yet people respond well to my efforts and help me along. Did I mention I loved this country?
Ok, thats about it for tonight, but thanks for your prayers. I am having a GREAT time. I feel very safe, very at home, and very very happy. So thanks for reading up on me! Keep checkin back and I'll keep you updated on how its goin!! I love you all so much!!!
Arrivederci!
Mary K.
May 16, 2008
I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane, Don't know when I'll be back again...
Hi Everybody!!!!
Thanks for checkin’ out my blog! Incase you were wondering, and I am sure you were, the name of my blog is Italian for a Hug and a Kiss. No great story behind it, I just thought it was cute!
So tomorrow is the day I head out!! For those of you who haven't known me for the last 10 years, I have been talking and dreaming of this trip for...well, 10 years! I can barely grasp the fact that it's here; I guess the realization will come to me tomorrow when I am actually boarding the plane!
Planning for this trip has been an experience in and of itself! The last three days have been an insane flurry of running around Austin trying to gather the rest of my papers, money, and travel sized shampoos! But it is all done, I am all packed, and I am ready to go!
One thing I have learned through all of this prep work is how excited complete strangers get when you tell them you are going to Europe. Everyone has advice! The money exchange lady told me to bring my own pillow and blanket on the plane (who knew they charge for those things now?). The guy at the Mac store suggested I permanently glue my computer to my right hand (It tends to "walk away" otherwise). And the Lady at the bank told my dad he should be very proud of me.... still not sure why though, hahaha! Either way it is really encouraging when you have a whole community wishing you well not to mention all of you, friends and familia. I wouldn't be as confident going out on this great adventure with out all of your prayers and good wishes! So thanks!!
I will be flying in to Rome on the first day, and the next few days I will be touring Rome and going to Orientations so I will try to write when I get to Florence and have the chance to breathe!
I am so excited I am so excited! Woo! I have a whole list of things I want to accomplish while I am over there but I think I will save that for the next post! So on that note, I'm out! But check back next week, same bat time, same bat channel!!!
Ciao People!
PS- Don't let the title of this post worry you! I WILL come back...maybe :)
Thanks for checkin’ out my blog! Incase you were wondering, and I am sure you were, the name of my blog is Italian for a Hug and a Kiss. No great story behind it, I just thought it was cute!
So tomorrow is the day I head out!! For those of you who haven't known me for the last 10 years, I have been talking and dreaming of this trip for...well, 10 years! I can barely grasp the fact that it's here; I guess the realization will come to me tomorrow when I am actually boarding the plane!
Planning for this trip has been an experience in and of itself! The last three days have been an insane flurry of running around Austin trying to gather the rest of my papers, money, and travel sized shampoos! But it is all done, I am all packed, and I am ready to go!
One thing I have learned through all of this prep work is how excited complete strangers get when you tell them you are going to Europe. Everyone has advice! The money exchange lady told me to bring my own pillow and blanket on the plane (who knew they charge for those things now?). The guy at the Mac store suggested I permanently glue my computer to my right hand (It tends to "walk away" otherwise). And the Lady at the bank told my dad he should be very proud of me.... still not sure why though, hahaha! Either way it is really encouraging when you have a whole community wishing you well not to mention all of you, friends and familia. I wouldn't be as confident going out on this great adventure with out all of your prayers and good wishes! So thanks!!
I will be flying in to Rome on the first day, and the next few days I will be touring Rome and going to Orientations so I will try to write when I get to Florence and have the chance to breathe!
I am so excited I am so excited! Woo! I have a whole list of things I want to accomplish while I am over there but I think I will save that for the next post! So on that note, I'm out! But check back next week, same bat time, same bat channel!!!
Ciao People!
PS- Don't let the title of this post worry you! I WILL come back...maybe :)
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