Barca!

6 am came early and we got around and made our way to the bus that took us to the airport. We boarded and got into Barcelona at our hostel at about 2pm. We ran into a girl who is studying at the university here that helped us find our hostel. She gave us tips about what to visit, and how to avoid the crazy drivers. She said to pay attention because they don’t. There are even warnings painted on the streets that have a statistic about 1 in 3 automobile accidents happen at crosswalks with pedestrians. Hm… guess we need to be more careful here!

And you thought I was kidding...

After we got settled in we went to a café to have lunch. It was a pretty good deal – an appetizer (I got tuna with tomatoes), an entrée (I got chicken curry with potatoes; the chicken curry was really sweet, not hot like I was expecting), and a dessert – ice cream! All of this with a drink for 9.50! Everything seems so cheap after eating in Paris!

After our tummies were full and happy, we decided to walk it off and made our way to Parc Guell. It is a big park that was designed by a crazy architect – Gaudi. His work is all over Barcelona, so he will be referenced a lot the next few paragraphs. The park was a lot bigger than we expected, but we walked around and got a view over the whole city. The weather was beautiful, which was a welcomed change from rainy Paris, so the walk was really nice. After the park, we made the long walk back to the hostel and got around for dinner.

Entry to the park

We met up with some other friends that are here visiting too, and we went and got Tapas! These are little plates, kinda like appetizers, but everyone orders a different one and you all share so you can try it all. We had a wide range of food. Warm goat cheese with raisins, some cooked peppers, eggplants with honey, potatoes with bacon and hot sauce, sweet and sour chicken wings, boiled shrimp with garlic, and an omelet thing – and sangria. We definitely ate like locals today, and it was delicious! I think I could get used to this place – glad I am spending the next three days here!

Warm Goat Cheese... surprisingly good :)

Tuesday we slept in a little bit, considering we had been getting up early the last few days and we have 3 days in Barcelona. We got up at 10 and headed to the Botanical Gardens. On our way we walked through another small garden and went by the Olympic grounds from when they were held here in 1992. It was pretty cool to see the stadium and everything they had built for the Olympic games. It will be cool to compare it to the grounds they are working on now in London when I go. After our walk through we headed to the Botanical Gardens. It was HUGE! It was such a beautiful, peaceful place, and on top of that, the weather was beautiful as well – sunshine all afternoon! We headed down the hill and came across the Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe. It was just like I remember, except not out in a field like all the pictures I had seen. That’s because the pictures are from when it was first built… and then they tore it down and re-built it in the same spot years later; so a bunch of other stuff got built around it. It was still pretty cool though.

Olympic Grounds

Exit of Botanical Gardens

Barcelona Pavilion!

After these stops, we headed to meet up with our friend. We went over to Piazza Catalunya – which contained the most pigeons I have ever seen in my life! It was pretty disgusting; there was even a little boy sitting on the ground playing with the ones that surrounded him. I was a little disturbed to say the least… So on that note we went to grab lunch. We went to this small place off the street that served this chicken and veggies in a tortilla. It was pretty delicious! We continued our trek down Las Ramblas – which is a road with a pedestrian walk down the middle. It’s pretty neat because there are a ton of people and a bunch of vendors along the walk. There is also a huge market right off the street that we made our way in to. It was incredible! I would venture to say better than Orvieto’s market… There were fruit vendors, meat vendors, wine vendors, seafood vendors, candy vendors… So much stuff! I bought some fruit and this awesome strawberry/mango juice that is 100% fruit juice. It was the best juice I’ve ever had!

Juices!

The next stop of the day was the Chocolate Museum of course! The ticket you buy to get in is a bar of chocolate! It was awesome! The museum had the history of chocolate and a ton of sculptures made of chocolate. It all looked so good! After the museum, I went to go get the tickets because guess what… we were going to a Barcelona soccer game tonight! We got the tickets and went to dinner at a cool burger diner to get our fill of burgers and cheesy fries! We headed out and made our way to the stadium.

Yep- that's a chocolate sculpture

We had our trail mapped out, but it changed abruptly when we saw some people who were going to the game get off at the stop before ours. So that made us nervous and we jumped off after them. They started running, because the game was going to start in like five minutes, so we had to run after them… they probably thought we were crazy. But we followed them through the streets and made it to the stadium just in time for kickoff. We weren’t supposed to be able to sit together, but we found three seats open together and took those instead of splitting up. The game was awesome; the atmosphere was incredible. Soccer here is like football at home, or basketball during March. Everyone was so pumped up! It started to rain, but we didn’t let that bring us down, the game was too fun! Barcelona ended up winning 5-3 against Granada. It was a great game.

The view from our seats

After the game was crazy. We weren’t really sure how to get to the metro since we had run after the girls; so we just followed the masses assuming they were going to the same destination haha. We were right. Everyone was walking down the middle of the street, which was kinda crazy because there were still cars and mopeds trying to drive. Why you would attempt to drive after a game in that area beats me! But we made it to the metro stop – along with the rest of the city. We had to cram our way through the station and onto the trains, but we made it home! It was quite the experience!

Wednesday morning we woke up to rainy weather. We were determined to not let it get us down so we walked to our first destination: Sagrada Familia by Gaudi. We walked by two of his houses, Casa Batllo and Casa Mila, along the way. Of course after Casa Mila while we headed to the church it started raining harder and harder, but we kept on trekking along. We made it to Sagrada Familia, and words can’t describe this place… pictures don’t even do it justice. It was the weirdest, most incredible place I’ve ever been. I don’t know what Gaudi was thinking when he was designing, but he did some pretty crazy things! In the church there was a museum that explained his way of thinking a little bit, but I don’t think there will ever be a good enough explanation for it. Haha.

Area above the altar

After the church, we decided to head to a place I had read about called El Poble. It was a place built for the 1929 exhibition in Barcelona, and it was supposed to be torn down after. But because it was one of the most popular destinations during the exhibition they left it up. They have since turned it into a place full of artisan shops and restaurants. There were ceramic, leather, glass making, jewelry making, textile making shops and so much other stuff. We spent a few hours there just wandering through the stores. It was so cool to see all the local artisans working in their shops and seeing what they were producing. We stopped for lunch while we were there… I consumed a fried calamari sandwich… yep, that’s right – fried squid. It was pretty delicious too if I do say so myself! Never thought I would enjoy such a thing, but it was good! Luckily after lunch the rain slowed down so the day wasn’t so soggy!

A man making a glass rooster

We were craving something sweet after lunch so we went to a chocolate store we passed while we were walking around. They had so much chocolate – and samples! – so we got some. I had a piece that was shaped like a coffee cup and it tasted just like coffee. It was soooo good! I also had a dark chocolate truffle – also delicious. Some of the best chocolate ever!

Coffee flavored chocolate :)

After El Poble we headed back to La Ramblas and the market there. I had some more juice – two more – kiwi mango and pineapple strawberry. It was so good. I feel like everything here is so delicious! We made our way down the road and to our next stop – free dinner with the card we got from the hostel. It was a simple pasta with meat sauce, but it was free so I can’t complain. With dinner I tried the local beer Estrella. It was pretty good; more of a sweet beer. If you’re ever in Barcelona I recommend you try it!

Before we headed back to the hostel we stopped to see Torre Agbar. It is a pretty interesting architectural design to say the least. It’s cool because it lights up at night, but I don’t think I would ever design something like that. But we saw it and headed back to the hostel – with a stop at the grocery store for some sweets. I found double stuff oreos… oh the small things in life :)

Torre Agbar

Thursday morning we rose early to get a jump on our last day. We made our way to our first destination: the Picasso museum. On our way there we stopped at the market, again, for a pastry and juice. This time I had Pineapple Mango… just as good as all the others! We continued our way to the museum, and of course as we were waiting in line it started to rain again. I shielded myself as much as possible, but we got in pretty fast and managed to dodge some of it. The museum was pretty cool; it walked you through his whole life. Surprisingly, Picasso is a really good artist; by that I mean he can draw normal things haha. I still won’t ever understand how he thinks the way he does. We spent a while walking through the museum, and by the time we left the rain had let up and the clouds started to break!

-no pictures - not allowed at the picasso museum :(

We went over to see the cathedral, which was pretty, but there was so much construction going on it was hard to really see it all. Outside the cathedral there was a market set up – it kind of reminded me of a garage sale because it was just a bunch of people selling odds and ends. But there were some cool stands with old records and music. It was pretty interesting. As we started walking towards the beach we came across another market similar to the one on La Ramblas. It was inside with all the separate vendors set up. These little markets are pretty cool; they all have their own character. I wish we had stuff like this at home.

Cathedral

We left the market and headed to the beach. The sun started to poke out just in time! We walked to the port and sat by the water for a while soaking up the sun. It was beautiful outside today! So much better than the rain yesterday! After our beach adventures we wanted to hit up a restaurant to grab some more authentic food. We stopped at a restaurant for Paellas. It’s a rice dish and ours came with chicken, clams, another type of shell fish, shrimp and peppers. It was pretty dang good. I love some good seafood! We continued up the road after lunch to our final destination – the Arch of Triumph. This one was pretty cool, very different from any of the other ones we have seen because it was made of brick. There was a nice little park space right behind it so we decided to sit down and people watch and soak up some more sun while we had the chance.

Triumphal Arch

On the walk back to the hostel we were in the mood for something sweet… so we stopped at an awesome bread shop, and I got a croissant. This wasn’t just any croissant though; it was one filled with chocolate and with chocolate sprinkles on top! It hit the spot! We walked the calories off and headed back to the hostel where we got ready for our overnight train ride to Madrid.

Before loading the train, I headed to buy something from Barcelona because I hadn’t gotten anything from Paris, so I thought I deserved a little gift haha. I got a Barcelona Messi jersey since we had gone to a game, thought it would be a good reminder – especially since he broke the record for the most goals while we were there with 232! And then of course he scored a couple more after that… no big deal.

We headed back to get to the train station; we ended up getting there a couple hours early because we were worried about getting our train tickets. But it ended up being a lot easier than we expected. So then we just sat in the station and people watched… and ate cheap McDonalds for dinner :) We loaded the train – seats were more comfortable than I expected which was good since we were going to be spending the next 9 hours there sleeping. I had a guy come sit by me, he wasn’t supposed to be there but his friend was in the same car so he moved back there. He tried talking to me, and didn’t seem to get the hint when I told him I didn’t understand his Spanish and put my headphones back in haha. I fell asleep and when I woke up he was gone and an older lady was there… hmmm. She tried to talk to me in Spanish too, but I had to inform her too that I in fact didn’t understand… do I look spanish? Haha

Gummy candies at the market - it was so colorful!

Goodbye Italy - Hello Paris!

After our tour we headed back to the hotel, loaded a bus and went to the airport. Our plane ride was only about an hour and a half and we made it to Paris… well… the outskirts of Paris. We had to take another bus to the city center which was another hour+ but I can’t complain – I am in Paris! We made it to the city, figured out the metro stop and headed to our hostel. The hostel was really nice – we’ve really lucked out with them! We got settled in and went out on a search to find food, and we stumbled upon a crepe restaurant. Hey, when in Paris right? We chowed down on our crepes and then made our way up to sacre coure (275 steps later) to see it at night. We were pretty tired from our travels so we headed back to get some sleep and prepare for our long day ahead.

Sacre Couer at night

Morning came and we arose early – well, 8 am. We headed out and began our day full of walking. We wandered the streets and hit a bunch of smaller tourist stops like Mary Magdalene, the Pantheon, the Opera house and a few churches.  Since the day was cloudy and a little rainy, we decided to spend it doing the inside things. So we went to the Louvre… biggest… museum… ever. It was a bit overwhelming; so much to see, and since we had other things on our list, we tried to just hit the main points- ya know like Mona Lisa… no big deal. After the Louvre, the next big stop was Notre Dame. Of course on the walk there we had to stop for another crepe for a snack – my choice: Nutella and Banana. Mmmmmm… Don’t judge.

The Louvre

We made it to Notre Dame, and I know I keep saying how this church was great and that church was great, but wow is all I have to say about this. It was absolutely amazing; words can’t describe what this place is like. There were so many people, which usually ruins an experience, but this was still pretty amazing. There were a ton of prayer candles, so I put in my offering and lit one for my grandma who is on her way to getting better. I spent a lot of time in the cathedral – the stained glass was unbelievable. It was a lot to take in at once.

Prayer Candle flame for Grandma

Notre Dame

After the time in the cathedral we made our way to find some more smaller stops, but then decided we wanted to hit Pompidou. This is the weirdest building, doesn’t fit in with Paris at all, but man is it cool! It’s an architectural wonder. All the structure and ductwork and pipes are exposed and are color coated - basically it's a building turned insidee out. It is an odd site to see, but it’s pretty cool. We made our way in – free of course because we’re students! – and walked through the modern art museum inside. I have to admit that modern art museums are more bearable for me for some reason. But by the end of it, our legs and feet were hurting! We had walked all over Paris and were ready to sit down and take a break. We decided to go grab dinner before heading back to the hostel; we found a place right next to the museum – Chouchou. I got duck for the first time in my life, and I will admit it was pretty darn good! For dessert I had an apple tart, and although it wasn’t like the tart we are used to, it was still pretty good. After we were full and even more sleepy, we headed back home – thank the lord for metros so we didn’t have to walk all the way back home. We got back and caught up on family and life a little bit and fell asleep… hard. What a great first day in Paris.

Pompidou Center

The next morning we awoke bright and early to make it to Versailles. We got on the metro and began our journey to the train to take us there. We made our transfer and got to the station… to find out the train was not running. The sign in French explaining what to do wasn’t very helpful, but after looking at it long enough we figured out what stops we needed to get to next. We got back on the metro and headed to the next station… to find the line we needed to get on shut down for the day. This wasn’t our day! So we asked the information desk what to do next and he guided us to the station we needed to go to. We finally got there and searched high and low for our train. When we thought we finally had it figured out, we went to go buy our tickets… to find out Katie had been pick pocketed… Lost her money, cards, everything. We took this as a sign that we weren’t supposed to go to Versailles this time and went back to the hostel to take care of everything.

After a long afternoon of phone calls and reports, we finally made it out to do some more tourist stuff. The Arc de Triomph and Eiffel Tower were on our list. The Arch was cool, but the tower – of course that was the winner. There was only one lift working so the line was pretty long, but well worth the wait. We made our way through the line and up the lift to the very top level. I knew it was pretty tall, but being that high up was pretty incredible. We took a 360 degree view of the city and made our way back down to the next two floors. Being here was absolutely amazing – only been in my dreams. Now I can check it off the bucket list. :)

Eiffel Tower!

We decided to stick around and eat dinner there so we could see the tower lit up at night. We ate at a restaurant that had some of the best pizza ever; and we weren’t even in Italy! I got the Country pizza. It had bacon, onions, mushroom, and a fried egg on it. Talk about delicious! We finished just as it got dark so we went back to see the tower lit up, and then we made our way back home. We did some souvenir shopping, of course, and got a crepe – with nutella and bananas again! :) I’m telling you, you have to try it. After we got our fill in, we made our way to 10pm mass at Sacre Couer. It was absolutely amazing inside, and the service, although it was in French, was beautiful. By the end of it we were tired from the long day and made our way back to pack and get some sleep for our next big adventure – travelling to Barcelona.

Eiffel Tower shining bright

A little bit of Vicenza... A lot of Venice

We rolled into Vicenza, and came to our hotel… which we found out was 5km outside of the city center. Of course no one wanted to walk that far to see the city, so our bus driver was nice enough to drive us there so we could explore. We didn’t really know what was in Vicenza besides some works by Andrea Palladio. So we just walked around to find these. We saw the duomo and the basilica (which has since been turned into a shopping center… kind of disappointing…) We wandered some more and came across a big open park – with a huge muskrat. We came across a tree with a bunch of roosters in it; so naturally Blake decided to try to hold a conversation with them. He would call to them, and every time they would answer back. It was pretty comical. We made it through the park and decided to try to find dinner… which was more challenging than we thought it would be. But we did come across a restaurant that had…decent food. Not the best I’ve had, but not too bad. We made it back to the hotel, worn out from the long day, ready for bed.

Tower by the Basilica

Morning came and we were given a big ol’ breakfast by the hotel – so many options! We loaded the bus again to head to our first stop of the day Villa Rotunda. We had studied this in history as well as in some studio classes so seeing it first hand was pretty awesome. It is very symmetrical, but it has a certain beauty about it… it’s hard to explain. But I’ll just say all famous architects after Palladio studied this as well as many of his other works.

Villa Rotunda

On the way to Venice we made one more stop at a cemetery designed by Scarpa. I will say that I have no idea what goes through that man’s head when he designs because I can’t explain a single thing he does, but it was a beautiful place. As weird as it may sound because it was a cemetery, I could have spent hours there. It had a certain personality about it that I really enjoyed. But, we were all eager to get to Venice, so back on the bus we went!

About an hour later we rolled into Venice. This has been the one trip I’ve really been looking forward to since we got to Italy. When I think of Italy, I think Venice is what pops into my head: the buildings on the water, the bridges, the canals. I was so excited to spend the next three days here! I love water… so that may have something to do with it too. Marco met us at the hotel and walked us around for a little while to get us acclimated to the city a little bit. There are so many shops that sell masks and glass from the glass blowing factory… yay souvenirs!

The first day with Marco we went to Piazza San Marco. This is the piazza where there are no Venetians because it is packed with tourists! Haha. He took us into Doge’s Palace – it was pretty incredible. I’m not one for museums, but when I can appreciate the building I can handle it. We made it through the palace and then were able to go up to the top of the tower. When we got up there we had a 360 degree view of the city… Venice is gorgeous – love this city. After the tour we took the ferry to Murano – the island with all the glass blowing. We went to the museum and saw some pretty amazing works. I found myself asking if what I was looking at was really glass. We of course did some shopping around after that to get some one-of-a-kind glass souvenirs. It was a pretty cool little place.

View from the bell tower

Murano Island!

We made our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner –Hard Rock Café! Yes, that’s right, we went big. I may have spent 15 euro on BBQ, but it was definitely worth it. Best American meal I’ve had since we got here. Can’t put a price on good ol’ home cookin! After dinner we headed out to celebrate Anne’s birthday and met up with our friends from Castiglion. It was a pretty good night!

BBQ Dinner!

The next day we got up and got all packed for our spring break travels. We left the hotel for our last trip with Marco which consisted of a walk around the city and St. John/St. Paul’s Church. The walk was amazing, of course, because it’s Venice. I can’t get over how beautiful it is. And the church was pretty spectacular too. It doesn’t matter how many we go in, each one has its own thing that makes it so beautiful.

Inside the church

Rialto

Gondolas!

Next stop... Paris!

First Stop... Verona!

Once we made it to Verona and checked in – our hotel was rainbow colored of course – we started our exploration. We wandered the streets and grabbed some food at the supermarket for a picnic in the park outside the arena. My first impression of Verona was that it was a very beautiful city. Definitely worth a stop if you ever travel to Italy. After our lunch we walked down the main pedestrian shopping street. It was pretty cool, a lot of their pathways are made of marble… yes, Italians live the high life.

Our hotel - see? rainbow...

We came across a church, San Anastasia, and were attracted to the outside so we decided to make our way in. We bought a pass to get into the four main churches in Verona so we could see it all. The inside was amazing; it was a very long church, and I couldn’t get over the organ pipes. It was so decorated… absolutely beautiful. After this we made it to the next church – the Duomo of course! This was also a very breathtaking church. The area that contained the altar was incredible. All the ornament inside… words and pictures can’t even begin to describe the atmosphere of these places!

San Anastasia

Duomo

After the churches, we made our way to the Roman Amphitheater. The amphitheater itself was still in pretty good shape, which still gets me – how did they do it?! From the hill it was on, you could oversee the whole city. We saw a huge church while we were up here and decided to leave to go see what it was all about before we had to go back to dinner. We walked to the church and it was free to get in… we should have known it wasn’t going to be as good based on this fact. It was pretty, but nothing compared to what we had already seen. Who would have thought the biggest church wasn’t the most beautiful? We left and were a little upset because we gave up our perfect location to watch the sunset to see a so-so church. :( We walked along the river and made it back to the hotel to have a nice dinner of pasta with ragu, beef and potatoes, and a yummy ice cream for dessert!

Roman Amphitheater

Tuesday we spent another day in Verona – first stop was Castle Vecchio. It used to be a castle, got destroyed and then the interior was redesigned by Carlos Scarpa to be a museum for the castle. Now I’m not a huge fan of museums… but the building was pretty cool! Haha. We made our way through and had a little time to spare; so of course we left and made our way to another church on our checklist, San Zeno. We got to the piazza the church was in and we were surprised by the façade. They were doing construction on it so it was covered by a sheet that had a picture of the façade on it… hmm. Although the exterior was a little surprising, the inside was beautiful. It had two levels you could see when you walk in. From the nave you could see the crypt down the stairs and the altar up the stairs.

Clock Tower at the castle

At San Zeno

We made our way back to the castle to catch up with the group and head to the arena. The arena is basically a small version of the Colleseum that is more intact. We just relaxed in here for a while and soaked up some rays. I walked around the top level of it to overlook the whole city; it was a pretty awesome destination. After the arena, we made our way to the final church on our list – San Fermo. Just like the others, it was beautiful. The ceiling on this one is what set it apart from the rest though. I couldn’t believe what I saw; nor could I imagine how this was constructed. It was amazing.

Arena

San Fermo

Enough of the churches – we were on a mission to find Juliet’s house… you know? Like in the movie Letters to Juliet! It was quite the search, but we finally found it. The walls where the letters used to be put is now just for graffiti where you are supposed to write you and your lovers name. It was so colorful! We saw the balcony, and of course for luck touched to breast of Juliet.

The graffiti leading to Juliet's balcony

After all this we were hungry! We came across this pizza place that sold pizza by the slice, but this wasn’t any ordinary pizza – it was brick oven pizza! It was one of the best pizzas I’ve had since I’ve been here. I had some with tomatoes and mozzarella and some with eggplant. You turn your nose up, but it’s actually pretty darn good! For dessert we grabbed some gelato and then loaded the bus to head to our next destination – Vicenza.

Castiglion del Lago

The weekend before the adventures was spent preparing for the upcoming trip. Unfortunately, I started coming down with something so it was also spent sleeping. I did manage to find time to make it on a day trip to a small town on a lake about 30 minutes outside of Orvieto – Castiglion del Lago. I jumped on the train Saturday afternoon and made my way there. When I got off I realized the part of the town I wanted to see was quite a walk away, and without a map I just followed my gut. 30 minutes later, I had made it to the city center.

Made it to the city!

It was a pretty cool little town. I think it was originally a fortress up on the hill, and they transformed most of the town into shops and then left part of the fortress on the lake. I was able to get into the main church and look around. It was a pretty place. I walked down the corso, by the shops and made my way to the fortress. It was quite amazing;once you made it to the top, you had a 360 degree view of the city and the lake. The wind was blowing pretty hard that day so I was able to see all the wind surfers and sail boats out on the water. It was a pretty peaceful place.

 

The Fortress 

After the fortress, I made my way down the hill to the shore of the lake. I just sat and watched the boats and the ducks – which look pretty funny running on the water – until I had to go catch my train. I made the trek back to the station and back home. I almost missed my stop on the way home :S I dozed off on the train and woke up at one of the stops… I looked out the window and thought “hmmm this looks familiar…” I looked behind me, and low and behold I was home! I had to jump up and run off the train… that was a close one!

Watching the sailboats

Sunday was just a packing and sleeping day, preparing for the long 2 weeks of travelling. Monday morning came and we loaded the buses to head to Verona. Our first stop before we made it to Verona was at a very modern church. It was a cool building, but I don’t know how I felt about it as a church. Let’s just say it was interesting… Thus begins the two week adventures!

Wait... Studio??

Ok... I know it's been a while.. I haven't had much time-studio project has been consuming my time this week... yes, we do have to do work while we're here.. But, here it is. Be prepared to read! Enjoy!

Tuesday night (Feb. 28) Zeppelin’s threw a Mexican fiesta for us! It was some great Mexican food.. not quite as good as Tijuana, but still mighty tasty! It was a shorter dinner than usual, which was okay with me; five hour dinners aren’t always good! We found out that our friends studying in at Santa Chiara were going to be visiting us Wednesday! So we got to studio all excited to see our friends, got our seminar changed from that afternoon to Thursday morning so we could hang out with them and got fancied up for the yearly tradition of the Orvieto v. Castiglione soccer game.

Mexican Dinner :)

We met up first and went to lunch at Sfizio’s – an awesome restaurant with the best pizza I’ve had since I’ve been here! We devoured our lunch and headed to the soccer field. It was mainly girls (Orvieto) vs. boys (Castiglione). Guess who won? Mmmm hmmmm… Orvieto by 1! It was a fun time had by all :) After the game we hung out on the field and soaked up some rays, it was a beautiful day! Then we headed out to show some of the people around town. We walked around the edge of the city and ended up on the west side of town just in time for sunset. It was beautiful. Everyone wanted to get dinner before the group left, so where did everyone want to go? Sfizio’s again! Haha. I got carbonara instead of pizza this time, and it was just as delicious! We finished up and said so long to our friends – it was great to see them again! Now we just need to plan our trip to visit them!

Thursday I finally woke up early, like I had been intending all week, and hit the rupe. I was sore from the soccer game so I was worried about my pace.. however, I beat it by three minutes! Ran it in 32 minutes instead of 35! I was pretty proud of myself. And decided I liked running in the morning – it makes me juiced for the day because I conquered the rupe, so I can do anything! Haha. We went to seminar and then had the rest of the beautiful day off. You know what that means… Gelato! The place that is right next to our house finally opened up for tourist season – dangerous for us -  so we hit it up. I love gelato…

Friday = field trip day to Assisi! We loaded the bus and headed out at 8am…ish. It was a relatively short ride to get there. I don’t quite know what my expectations were of the city, but it was absolutely beautiful. In my opinion, it gives Orvieto a run for its money. They are beautiful for different reasons though so I can like them both! :) Assisi is also Marco’s hometown, so of course he would live in such a beautiful place! We started the tour off with, you guessed it, a church! San Francesco. It was really pretty amazing. There is a crypt underground below the church with the tomb of Saint Francis. It was so awesome; it felt so powerful. I walked around it, and then I just had to sit and look and pray to myself. It was incredible. The church is then made up of two different churches, a lower church and an upper church built right on top. The lower church had a bunch of frescoes on the ceilings and a really incredible altar placed right above the crypt. I wish we could have taken pictures inside because my words can’t describe it in the way it felt. The upper church was more simple and also had a bunch of frescoes lining the walls. The church was all in all pretty amazing; freezing cold, but amazing.

San Francesco

After the church, Marco took us on a hike up the hill on the longest road in Assisi. He said it was like Broadway, but not really… We also learned that he doesn’t like kids... We were walking down the road and there were a group of high school kids coming along and he called them the antipasti of the barbarians and called them little devils. Haha. Marco is quite the character! He took us along up the hill to another church where we were dismissed. Hungry, like usual at the end of the tour, we went off in search of food, shops and a castle. We came across an olive wood store ran by the cutest little old lady; I was able to knock out a couple of souvenirs here. Then with our purchases she gave us a cute little bracelet.

The walk on "Broadway"

We moved on to grab a quick lunch and start our hike up to the castle at the top of the hill. It was such a beautiful day for a hike; we made it up to the top and had to stop to just overlook the valley and hills surrounding us. It was such a beautiful sight to see. We made it up to the castle and got in for only 3.50.. yay for student discounts! The inside was awesome; well we didn’t really get inside to actual rooms, but what we did get to see was incredible. There were some “secret passageways” we took and ended up on 3 different towers and could see all of Assisi. From one of the exits outside we climbed onto the roof… which may or may not have been allowed, but no one was there to tell us otherwise! ;) We are climbers…

Tunnel in the Castle

After the castle we made our way back down the hill to catch the train to our next destination.. Perugia! We were off to a great start. Caught the bus, got to the train station, bought our tickets and had time to spare. We waited… and waited… and waited… our train was a no show. :( But no fear, one came a little while after that! So we did board and get to Perugia. After we got off the train our next task was finding our hotel. Perugia is a big hill… the train station is at the bottom of it… our hotel was at the top. So, being our adventurous selves, we attempted to read the map and walk it. We thought we were on track; we stopped at a supermarket to grab some goodies for the night and just asked to make sure we were on the right track. We weren’t… we were WAAYYY off. But they were helpful enough to point us to a bus stop and told us what bus would take us.

The bus arrived, and we got on.. we were definitely out of the way because the bus ride seemed pretty long. We got off the bus where the supermarket lady told us to and saw a sign with our hotel name on it. So naturally, we followed it. It of course led us down some dark alleys so we started doubting ourselves. We turned back and ran into someone to give us directions.. he pointed us back down the alley. We went the way he said and just saw a bunch of old creepy buildings that couldn’t possibly have been a hotel. We made our way out on the main street, still lost, and I asked someone else again for directions. She pointed me down the street; I tried to understand her Italian. I got the important words and we eventually found it! And guess what… it was definitely one of the creepy buildings we saw in the creepy, dark alley. Haha. But even though the outside looked creepy, the inside was pretty nice! We just decided it gave the hotel character. :)

Our hotel.. not creepy right?

We settled in and went to dinner at the restaurant right next to the hotel, since we got a 10% discount for staying there :) Then went back to freshen up and explore Perugia at night. We wandered around for a while and came across the main piazza. It was really pretty cool because it was packed with people! That’s not something I have seen anywhere… except for Orvieto on market days only. But this was just a regular day, and people actually used the piazza.

Pretty overlook :)

The next day we got around and went to explore the city during the day. I don’t know quite what my expectations were for Perugia, but they were exceeded. It was a pretty beautiful place. We went to the bottom of the hill and had lunch… at McDonalds :) But don’t worry, I ate there in Italian style – with a Baci McFlurry. For those of you who are wondering what Baci is, it is a wonderful little chocolate made in Perugia. Sooooo good! I might have to bring some home to share… if you’re lucky. After lunch we decided to try our luck and hike back up the hill. We managed to actually follow the map correctly this time and made it to the top! There were some great overlooks and even an underground tunnel system that we came across. It was a pretty cool experience.

Came across this little gem..

We went and saw the fountain Marco always talks about, and did a little shopping before heading back to the hotel for a short siesta. We got our lazy selves back up and went to dinner at a cool restaurant the lady at the hotel suggested. It was delicious! I had gnocchetti with a cheesy sauce and chunks of bacon in it and a pear salad. Ashley’s tummy was happy :) After a long day of hiking and a big dinner, we were tired… called it a night. We awoke the next morning and wanted to go see what the university was like since Perugia is a college town. We were only able to find a couple buildings that weren’t so incredible before we gave up and decided to head home. We had more luck getting home than we did getting to Perugia, so that was good!

Fountain

We made it back with plenty of time left in the day to relax, and I got to skype with my parents and my big sis! Studio was on my mind some because our project is due tomorrow… but I decided to procrastinate one more day. Haha. The rest of the week has been spent in studio or at home working on the ol’ project. Pulled a couple late nights, but no all nighters! I can’t remember last time I didn’t have to pull an all nighter before a project was due! But I’m all finished now with plenty of time to spare.. now just ready for the next two weeks! 5 days in the north (Verona, Vicenza and Venice) and then a week of travels to Paris, Barcelona and Madrid. Things are about to get awesome! I think this has gotten long enough… the computer is coming with me on the trips so stay tuned for my 14 days of travelling!

At an overlook - Orvieto.. This way!

Ciao!

Mac and Cheese :)

Alright... it’s been a little while.. time for a new update.

Last week we spent our time trying to get back into the swing of school and not travelling. Tuesday was carnavale and instead of having Italian, we had a dance party. They really get into it here – it’s like Halloween but for more than a day. Haha. We had our first run through of our studio projects due on Wednesday, so Tuesday night was the closest to an all-nighter I’ve pulled this semester. :( But we’ve done it before, and we survived.. just in time for Wine Wednesday. It was a nice relaxing night-people came over, sipped on a little wine, and just hung out for the evening.

Thursday morning was the market – the first one we’ve gone to in about 2 weeks! It was like Christmas! We stocked up on food and enjoyed the beautiful weather that was given to us. In fact, it was so beautiful that our Italian teachers let us have class outside! After class the beautiful weather pulled me out to the rupe. I decided to take my chances running it. The hills will get you, but I pushed through and hit a 35 minute time. It was quite the workout to say the least.

Friday rolled around and that meant the second trip to Firenze. The tour with Marco was focused on the Uffizi museum. I’m not much of a museum person, but this one was pretty cool. A lot of altar pieces from different churches and cathedrals in Italy and a LOT of statues. After the museum we went out to explore on our own again. Piazzale Michelangelo was the first stop since last time it was grey and foggy. Today it was so clear and beautiful; you could see for miles! It was absolutely gorgeous. Worth the trek up the stairs.. Again.

View from the piazza

After this we made our way to the baptistery since we didn’t have time to go in during our last visit. This was the most incredible baptistery I have ever been in. Ceilings and walls of gold. While we were in there the sun was in a perfect position so it was streaming in through one of the windows. It was one of the most glorious sites I’ve seen in a long time. Definitely glad we decided to go inside this time.

Inside the Baptistery

Our last site-seeing stop was to see the statue of David by Michelangelo. We had seen fake David and pictures of the real David, but actually seeing him was amazing. It was the most incredible statues I’ve seen. It was HUGE, and the detail was unbelievable. I couldn’t even begin to fathom how Michelangelo was able to accomplish such a feat. Also in this museum leading up to David was a series of statues Michelangelo worked on, but didn’t quite finish. Being able to see how he transformed the marble into these sculptures was amazing. This guy truly was a Renaissance man!

After our sight-seeing commenced, we made our way to our dinner reservations at Tijuana. Yes, we needed our Mexican food fix! I got a chicken burrito that was filled with cheese, lettuce and pico. It happened to be happy hour while we were there too, so a strawberry margarita it was! This was probably the best Mexican dinner I have ever had (imagine that… in Italy!). We were miserably full at the end, so we knew it was good! We loaded the train and headed back home to spend the beautiful weekend in Orvieto.

Best Mexican food!

Saturday was sunny and 65 – perfect weather for a trip to the market, a stroll up the bell tower to overlook Orvieto, and a climb down St. Patrick’s well. There were parts of Orvieto we hadn’t had the chance to explore; so now that it was so amazing outside, we took the opportunity! After our exploration, I came home and had a great lunch… Mac and Cheese my family had sent me! It was just as good as I remember! :) We left after that to go kick the ball around and play a little soccer. When we got there a group of Italians were playing and asked us to join; we warned them we weren’t very good, but played anyway. They were definitely better than us, but it was a lot of fun playing with them – I did end up scoring a goal!

View from the bell tower

After our sporting adventures we decided to keep exploring and go into some shops with hand made goods. We went into a leather store with handmade bags and wallets; all the leather came from Florence. They were beautiful. Then we went to a hand-made ceramics shop. This was so cool. The lady had a table set up right in the middle of the shop where she made the pottery, fired it and painted it. It was all her original work and design. There were some pretty incredible pieces in the shop.

From the bottom of the well

We decided the weekend had been pretty awesome so far and would be better with a great dinner. We had gotten an eggplant at the market, and although I have always been a little skeptical of eggplants, I decided to go with it. We had eggplant parmesan with bread, salad and a glass of wine. Probably one of the best homemade dinners since we got here.. and it may have topped my mac and cheese for lunch.. haha. The day was great, and we still had another one coming!

Dinner!

Sunday was more of a relax kind of day. I got up to work on my journal, went to church service at the duomo (which never ceases to amaze me), walked the rupe and planned more of spring break. As much as I love travelling and seeing all these new places, having a weekend to relax and catch up on life it pretty awesome too.

So far this week has just been school and continuing the catching up on everything drill. Trying to get ahead and get work done before the week long north trip and week of spring break roll around. Speaking of… I should probably go get back to work now. This weekend we are heading to Assisi and Perugia. Excited for another adventure!

Until then… Ciao!

Mac and Cheese!!!!!