Sunny Weather

The weather has been beautiful here the last couple of days, keeping my spirits up during these last few days of classes. The sunny weather brought me days full of hiking, running around the Arno, and eating Gusta while watching the sun set under the Apuane Mountains in the distance. Wednesday, we were off from classes, because it was Italy's Liberation Day, so that meant a day of exploring all that was left to explore. Kenan and I decided to go on a hike near the hill town of Fiesole and came across incredible views of Tuscany and a wonderful getaway from the city. With most everyone gone this weekend, I think I might head back that way and discover more of the area.

The overlooking view at Mount Ceceri, the place where Leonardo Da Vinci tested his first flying machines! It was the first time in a while where there was no haze on the fields and cityscape below. Incredible!

With every trail we took, and every red and white blaze we saw, there was another smaller trail, causing some confusion. But in the end we made it back to where we started (well, sort of). 

Spring has finally begun to bloom in Florence, and poppies like these popped up everywhere we walked. 

Yesterday, most of my apartment and I headed to the place with the BEST pizza in Florence (and possibly the world--haven't made it to Napoli yet, we'll have to see) Gusta Pizza. I ordered my usual Margherita pizza, and the others tried different ones, and we headed to catch the sun set on... you guessed it... Piazzale Michelangelo. I have been up there probably 5 or 6 times now for the sunset and I do believe this was the best one I have seen so far. With musicians playing the didgeridoo and guitar in front of us-- it made for a perfect night. Of course my favorite part was when the Musician's dog came over to search for leftover pizza. After playing with her for a while, we of course gave her what she wanted... some of the crust and cheese. Lucky girl! 

I don't know what's in store for this weekend, but I do know that the weather is supposed to be just as great! It will be my second to last weekend in Florence, and I hope not to spend it all working on last minute projects.

London

At the beginning of my semester I made a list of all of the places I wanted to go while I was in Europe. There were a lot, I mean a lot... and as my experience abroad (at least for this semester) is coming to a close, my apartment and I took one last hoorah to London.


To be completely honest, London wasn't exactly at the top of my list (it was on there though). But it is now granted as my favorite "Big City" that I have seen this semester. What makes a big city? I don't know... just go with it...

We arrived on Thursday night at London Stansted Airport, about an hour outside of London (thanks Ryan Air) at 12 in the morning. The passport check line, longer than expected, gave us another hour and a half of waiting. Who with though? The woman in front of us lived in Italy and had a son at... Appalachian State. Looking to the right of us we meet a guy from... Charlotte, North Carolina. The world just gets smaller.


The next day, too early for only 4 and a half hours asleep, we all went our separate ways and I was able to see how I could do navigating a large city on my own. In the end, I did pretty well, if you ask me. I arrived at Buckingham palace for the Changing of the Guards ceremony exactly way too early and a half before the ceremony. But people were already lined up and I had a chance to be right behind the gates, so I took it! An hour and a half later, drums were heard and men in red suits started marching to the palace. I was wondering if the wait was worth it; some would say no, I personally thought it was pretty cool and was glad I had a front row seat  stand!


Next on my list was Westminster Abbey and the House of Parliament, but first I had to check out the beautiful park that was sitting next to me. St. James Park, one with a wonderful amount of different bird species ranging from ducks to crazy pelicans! With weeping willows and beautiful flowers, spring had sprung and so had the smile on my face! I loved it there so much, I wen't back on Sunday for the majority of the day (we'll get back to that later-- I promise I'll make it quick.) After Parliament, Westminster Abbey, well... outside of both... I took the river walk to pass the London Eye to Tate Museum where I was too cheap to pay for any of the exhibits and decided to check out the free Damien Hirst "For the Love of God" exhibit that displayed a incredibly orchestrated, diamond skull in a dark room. Too cool!


Soon it was time to meet Kenan and Mary at Sotheby's for afternoon tea. I felt a little out of place when I entered and they called me madam and were dressed in suits. Nevertheless the Earl Grey I had and the scones were the perfect treat after a long day of sightseeing. That night we headed to a pub "Brass Monkey" and I had one of the best veggie burgers with a tall glass of cider.

Next day, I headed off again by myself to see if I could find the London Bridge. Without a map I aimlessly followed what looked like tourists and ended up stumbling upon Borough Market! It was set under the tube station and a had a really cool warehouse feel to it. The food there looked delicious and I picked up a few things for lunch. In the afternoon Mary and I had signed up for a tour of the Olympic Park, which was actually a lot cooler than I had expected since I knew we were only going to get to walk around the construction walls. The tour guide, "Margie" knew just about everything you could possibly know about the Olympics and proceeded to name every sight of ALL of the summer olympics and the facts dealing with each. Later on that day (after risking our lives trying to cross the famous Abbey Road crosswalk in traffic) we all set out to find Chipotle (I know, it's bad, but I had been craving it for say... almost 4 months now.) We were all exhausted from the day and headed back to our B and B (Thanks again Airbnb.com) for some popcorn, peanut m&m's and Titanic. (Yes, we ARE in middle school.) I made myself go to sleep before the ending came around...

Finally, third day I got on the Tube and searched for Tate Modern once again to actually check out their collection this time. Very cool stuff with lots of installations. I also watched some of a documentary on Hirst and found out he got his start by exploring his late neighbors house (who was also a hoarder). Many of his first wacky pieces of art came from the things he found in the house! It was getting to be noon so I headed back over to Buckingham Palace, where the finish line of the London Marathon was. It was cool to see world champion runners from all over the world run the race. Kenyan runner, Wilson Kipsang won the whole thing with a time of 2 minutes and 4 seconds. (Really?) What was most inspirational though, were not the winners but those who were still trekking 8 hours later and who were in their 80's, or on stilts, or those who were sadly injured in the race. It was an incredible experience to watch and I'm sure an even greater one to be in. (Maybe one day...)

After watching the race at different locations and sitting in Saint James Park for hours in the sun, I decided to grab a quick snack and headed to the Globe Theatre where they were holding a free sonnet Sunday! It was a beautiful theatre with open ceilings. Later I explored and found both Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden. Both fantastic and lively places with music and a lot of happy people. I was glad I got to have last-minute discovered both before I left because they turned out to be some of my favorite places in London! 
I don't know if it was the nice people, amazing parks, or beautiful architecture that made me like London so much, but I'll be sure to go back one day and check out all of the things I have yet to see!


Oh yeah... I made another video. This one is more oscar worthy than the last but it's a collection of things I saw while I was there! Apologies for the camera shake, an iPhone isn't exactly top notch filming gear.

Verona, Lake Garda, and the Alps

Well, for those of you dying to read the guest blog post (I know, there's are probably hundreds just biting at the bit ready to read)--- he's a little behind deadline, so you'll have to wait a little while longer.

As for this past weekend... What an incredibly pleasant one it was! UNC students were given two trips to choose from that are included in our tuition bill. My first one was Rome, where I chose it because I felt the need to go---it ended up being better than expected.) My second was "Hiking in the Alps (and Lake Garda and Verona). How many people could say they hung out in the Alps? Choosing the trip as my first choice, I was off to Verona at 6 o' clock in the morning on Saturday. Of course I hadn't already finished packing, so I got up a bit earlier than that...

Needless to day, when we finally arrived in Verona after a 3 hour sleepy bus ride, I was kind of in a daze and the itinerary sort of just passed on by without me even noticing. It wasn't until afterwards, when I finally woke up, that everything came back to me. We stopped off at a beautiful look out of the city (it rivals Piazzale Michelangelo) to take a few pictures and wake up a bit before our walking tour. The walking tour was comprised of mainly Juliet's (feaux?)house and the Arena, the third largest existing roman ruin in Italy. As many have said, the house was pretty underwhelming, and was fit with an even cheesier gift shop. However, its cool that we got to see it, in all of it's graffiti-ed glory. Afterwards we checked out the tombs of the Scala family(?), a very influential and wealthy family of Verona. After a quick lunch and pictures of the Arena, we were on the bus to Lake Garda.

Lake Garda did not disappoint.  At times I would look up and see the Alps, then look down and there was water as clear as the Mediterranean, to the right, I'd find green grass and cyprus trees like Tuscany, look straight the cliffs and stone peeking out of the water resembled the dolomitic rock we saw in Sardegna. Beautiful is an understatement. The lake is incredibly close to the Austrian border, so while we were there, I saw more eastern Europeans than Italians.  We went to a small town on the peninsula that was composed of old city walls and ruins. There was a lot of wildlife too. Swans elegantly cruised across the water (and then fought with each other..... some even came to say hi (or tell us to back off). We followed the latter. There were ducks and interesting birds with mohawk like feathers. I immensely enjoyed our time at Lake Garda and wished we could stay longer. We walked and talked, took pictures, and just stared at the incredible scenery. We even tried to hike up to a cliff overlook, but the "trail" was instead a dirt path leading to a closed gate (that was too high to climb over). Too quickly were we back on the bus to head to where we were staying that night, a little "mountain city" called Trento. Our hotel? It was called Hotel America, of course. However the majority of the signs and words were in German (I think? maybe Austrian...) But the food was pretty good and the breakfast was even better-- filled with everything you can think of! (And enough to steal to make a good, free lunch). That night, all of the north carolinians went out to a bar and chatted for a bit before heading back.

The next day, we were welcomed with cold(ish), rainy weather. But luckily, nothing was rained out. However, the trail we were going to take was apparently too snowy for us to hike (I would have hopped right off that bus, just to be able to walk in the snow... but we kept on moving "down the mountain under the snow line". Nooooo. A minus to being on a school trip, rather than with just friends is that they must cater to the minimum-- so many might not want to trudge around in snow. Pinzolo did not disappoint however. We headed first to a beautiful church on a cliff (of course out hike starts out with a church-- no trip is complete without a church visit!). Then we headed back down and walked by the river for a couple of miles. (The hike ended up being more of a nature walk, but with the incredible green surrounding us, I didn't mind too much). And the incredible waterfall at the end made the whole experience worth it. The fog cascading over the mountain hid the top of the waterfall creating an even more magical view. Little trails that snuck out from the main road left me curious for more. Someday, I'd love to go back to Italy (with a car) and venture more in depth through the different national parks that have left me speechless. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful trip and it was great to just be able to walk in the rain without any care in the world. 

As you may have noticed, we did a lot of driving. But even on the bus, the views were worth every penny. The small mountain towns meandered through the Dolomites and Alps, rivers sliding through. The fog in the distance allowed the peaks to appear slightly above. Apple orchards sprouted up every other turn. (The trentino region is famous for their apples-- its where Florence get's most of the ones they have!) So I created a short (anti-climatic) video of the roads, countrysides, and mountainsides we saw through the rainy windows of our bus, Fleet Foxes is playing in the background so I can make things a little more stereotypical and a little more exciting. Enjoy!

3/10 recipes

Mele Ripiene al Forno

serves 6

4 Big Apples (Golden Delicious)

1 tbsp raisins

3 tbsp apricot jam

5 tbsp rum

8 "amaretti biscuits" (gram crackers could work too...)

butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

50 gr sliced white almonds

3 oranges (make orange juice out of)

Wash the apples, dry with paper towel. Take out the core, leaving the bottom. Soak the raisins in warm water for 10 minutes.

Put 3 tbsp of jam in a bowl, add the rum, the (squeeze water out) raisins and crumbled biscuits.

Place the apples in a buttered baking pan. Stuff the apples with the jam and biscuit mixture. Sprinkle the sugar on top, small pieces of butter, almonds and squeezed fresh orange juice. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes.

During the cooking time, wet the top of the apples with the sauce from the bottom.

Pinzimonio tricolore

Serves 6

3 ripe red tomatoes

3 sun dried tomatoes

1 pinch oregano

400gr ricotta

1 bunch chives

60 gr white almonds

1 bunch basil

Dip the fresh tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute. Peel, take out the seeds, cut in cubes, salt, let drain in a colander for 20 minutes.

Dip the sun dried tomatoes in boiling water as well for one minute. Dry with a paper towel and chop. Add in the fresh tomato cubes, mix and add oregano, salt, pepper, and oil.

Put the tomatoes in the bottom of a small glass.

Toast the almonds and chop. Whisk half of the ricotta, salt, add the almonds and blend (in a blender) until its a crunchy mixture. Place on top of the red tomatoes in the cup.

Blend the basil with the rest of the ricotta, salt and pepper to get a green cream. Place the green cream on top of the white one. Leave in the fridge until serving.

(In my opinion, it is a better antipasto with toast or bread to serve it on top of)

and for my favorite dish of the day....

Pasta Integrale al pesto Mediterraneo

6 servings

400 gr Whole-wheat spaghetti

Bunch of Parsley

Celery Leaves

30 grams Pine Nuts

3 tomatoes

Oregano

Oil

Salt

Pepper

Chop 10 grams of parsley leaves with 10 grams of celery. Places them in a blender with pine nuts, pepper, salt, oregano, and oil. Make a creamy consistency.

Dip the tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute. Peel them and chop. Mix with the pesto sauce. Cook the Pasta in salty boiling water, strain and dress with the sauce.

So easy, so healthy.

Venice in Pictures

For easter weekend, my dad, Katy, and I headed off to Venice. Excited about guest posting my dad jotted down notes each night of the days in Venice and the week before. So have no fear, you'll get to read some of his thoughts. But for now, I thought I would do my own updating of the weekend through the many pictures I took. At the beginning of my study abroad experience, I was disappointed in myself that I never seemed to put the camera down and just live the moment. Now, I think on the other side of things. Through the lens of a camera, I am able to get even more excited about what I see around me and capture the moments I experienced. I'm no photographer, but I do enjoy photographs and catching little hints of the special things in everyday life: light, color, symmetry, repetition, etc. 

So here is Venice... through the lens of a camera.

We stayed near (the above) about 10 minutes away from St. Mark's Square and away from the noisy crowded tourist spots in an apartment found on airbnb.com. The first day we were greeted by the liveliest human beings I had ever met, and the friendliest too.

We headed to the Jewish Ghetto the next day and took a bridge walking tour through the different parts of the oldest Jewish "ghetto" in the world. It was a wonderful break from the busy parts of Venice and the incredible history behind it all made the scene that much grander.

When we arrived in Venice, I spotted a sign advertising Magnum Photographer, Elliott Erwitt's "Personal Best", so naturally the rest of the day was spent navigating on the water buses trying to find where "Tre Oci", the museum displaying his works. It turned out to be one of my favorite things we did in Venice, and I hope my dad and Katy felt the same. Above are five of his famous dog works in obviously my favorite room of the exhibit. However this photograph won my heart as my favorite photo. 

If you have never seen or heard of Mr. Erwitt, I definitely recommend you taking a look at his work. Studying him in senior year of high school, he instantly became my favorite photographer. 

Elliott combines gentle whimsy with ironic observation of everyday life. Often his works involve visual puns that make the viewer look twice; such clever comedy requires that every picture be organized with great elegance and precision, "You can find pictures anywhere"..."It's simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them". 

-From the display wall

Elliott is known well for his works photographing Marilyn Monroe, Jack Kerouac, Nixon, Obama, Che Guevara, and so many others (and of course every sort of dog imaginable). He was born to a russian family and spent his childhood in Italy before moving to America in his teens.

We "accidentally" stepped on to 3 water buses sans water bus passes. In the end, Venice got their money's worth.

We checked out Murano, an island (east?) of Venice and took a look inside many glass blowing shops. As we were there, the clouds grew dark but luckily the rain stayed away until we were safely back at our apartment.

After that was Burano, where we had our very own easter egg hunt (with buildings...). I was thankful that my dad and KT agreed to head out to the island, because it was something I had missed last visit (because of a certain clown mishap). In the end, we decided that the town was lucky it painted their homes because other than that it was somewhat underwhelming. It was for beautiful pictures however!

Thanks to Katy, we stepped off the water bus a few stops before where our apartment was. This little walk from the bus stop to the apartment won my favorite place in Venice. There were beautiful parks all around and wisteria hanging above the canals. Last but not least there were no people (other than those who lived there.) It was also home to a bakery we went to that night for treats and a small dinner. 

More on Venice and the past week to come, when I receive an email from my father. It was a great trip and even better company. Ciao for now!

Crowded

Hey ladies and fellas, apologies for the lack of posts lately, I guess I was a little blogged out after my spring break posts. I'm also holding out for a guest blogger post, writer extraordinaire, David Perlmutt! (Yeah dad... I'm building you up, don't let me down, I've got followers to keep. Count 'em; all five of them!) He and gal pal, KT, have come to visit me in Florence and see Italy for the first time ever! They came last Saturday and will be leaving on Monday to go back to Charlotte. We had a great time this weekend discovering parts of Florence and walking A LOT. I will let my dad write about what we did later, but as they are in Cinque Terre few a couple of days, I am left to blog on my own for a little bit before we all head to Venice for Easter weekend... will we be able to move there? Probably not. Will it still be beautiful? Of course! It won't be 20 degrees and below and the canals won't be frozen, I might add. Just need to get through the rest of my classes this week and I am Venice bound!

As for Florence... 

It's stil absolutely beautiful as always, but I'm a bit claustrophobic.

 When we arrived:

Same piazza, Today:

My goal between today and tomorrow is to gain patience. Sometimes you won't be able to walk, so just stop, look up, and realize the beauty around you. Follow the Italian way and slow down. At least that's what I'm keeping in mind for Venice and the month ahead. Speaking of that, only a month left of the semester then I'm off to Amalfi Coast with my mom for a few days and back to Charlotte after that. Where has the time gone? It's been an incredible ride so far and I still have London, hiking in the Alps, Venice, and Amalfi to look forward to. I miss being home for the springtime (there is nothing like spring in NC), but I'm gonna make these last few weeks count!

Ciao!