Winding Down

It's hard to believe tomorrow is my last day in Florence. This last week has just flown by, I had to get in the last bit of touristy stuff such as climbing the Duomo (amazing), and seeing the David (again, but still incredible). Also had to finish shopping, do a project for class, and study for my final tomorrow. Needless to say, I've been busy.

I'm really going to miss Florence though. It hit me the other day while walking to class. I've become so use to walking around this very old, very beautiful city. I walk by the Santa Croce church, where Galileo and Michelangelo are buried, every day while walking to class. If I walk 50 feet from my apartment I can see the Duomo, one of the largest churches in the world. It's just worlds apart from life in the US. I think going back is going to be a bigger culture shock than coming here.

Not to say I'm not excited to come home, I can't wait, it's just weird to think about.

I don't know if I'll have time/feel like doing a post tomorrow, I'm going to talk about my travel plans now...

We leave Florence at 11:30 Pm (Yes, PM) on a bus for Rome. We're leaving so late/early because we need to get there 2 hours before the first flight of the ISA group, and someone has a flight around 6. Trent has a flight not too much later at 8:50. Eli and I, however, get to hang out until 6:45 PM for our flight to London. It's a 2 hour and 40 minute flight. Our flight from London to Dallas is at 11:40 AM on Sunday. So Eli and I have all night to go see our friend Tommy Obenchain (future CEO of ObenAir), who will be in London at the time. Chances of sleeping are slim. But after that we have a 9 hour or so flight home to sleep.

Heading home soon,

ae

Miss: I Do, I Will, I Won't

It's officially the last week of our trip. It's hard to believe it's been over 6 weeks since I got here. It seems like I've been here forever, but it also seems like the time has flown by. This week will be full of "It's our last Monday, it's our last Piazza Michelangelo sunset, our last view of the Duomo, etc", it's going to be sad. But I'm also getting excited about being home, this is by far the longest I've been out of the country. I've done a lot of thinking about what I miss most, what I'm going to miss the most, and what I'll be ok without, and came up with these lists:

I Miss:

My family, friends, Colleen, etc.

My car

Tex-Mex

Free water

Free refills

Not tiny bathrooms

My bed

American Television

Everyone speaking English

Air conditioning

Being able to use my debit card everywhere

And probably more, but that's all for now.

I Will Miss:

The whole gang

The Duomo

Sunsets at the Piazza Michelangelo

The Arno

La Carraia gelato

Oil Shoppe panini

Friendly Italians

Traveling around Italy

Euros (While the conversion rate is painful, and they kinda looks like Monopoly money, I've grown to like them)

The Flub

All the delicious Italian food

Etc, etc etc...

I Won't Miss:

Mean Italians

Shady street vendors

The ambulances

Our annoying door (it's very frustrating to open)

The exchange rate

That's about it.

All in all, it's been an incredible experience, and I'm sad to see it end, but I'm looking forward to being home.

Ciao

ae

In Fair Verona... And "Lake Como Light"

It was a pretty great weekend.

Saturday morning we took a three hour bus to Verona, home of Romeo and Juliet. Other than that, I didn't really know anything else about the place, but was actually a very pretty city. We took a bus tour around town and up to a hill overlooking the city, the view was amazing. We saw a castle, their Duomo (Not as good as our Duomo), Juliet's house, and the remains of the wall built to defend the city. The rest of our time in Verona was pretty quiet, other than watching Germany crush Argentina.

The next day we went to Lake Garda, specifically Sirmione, a town on a small peninsula that juts into the lake. The lake was beautiful, I really enjoyed our time there, though it made me wish I could have made it to Lake Como (hence the phrase "Lake Como Light"). We took a ferry around the peninsula and our captain pointed out the Roman ruins and hot springs. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the water and celebrating the 4th of July. Not your typical Independence Day, but it was fun.

And now begins our last week... sad.

ae

Il Palio: The Craziest 90 Seconds In Sports

Today a small group of us went to Siena to see the Palio. I've talked a little bit about it here. It's essentially the Kentucky Derby and the Super Bowl rolled into one, then shoved into a neighborhood street. It's a three lap race around the city square, ridden bareback by 10 riders.

We left right after class on the 2:30 bus, it was only an hour long bus ride to Siena. Our first order of business once we were there was to each buy flags for our respective contrade (see above). After that we headed straight for the center square to stake out a spot. We were pleasantly surprised that it wasn't already packed when we got there, so we were able to get a spot right next to the track. After that, we had about 3 hours of waiting until the race actually started. Thankfully the parade of all the contrades started about two hours before the race, so there was always something to watch. Each contrade had two flag bearers (which they waved, spun and tossed all over the place), a dressed up rider on a horse, a knight in armor, and lastly the race horse (which didn't have a rider yet). After all the hoopla, the riders finally came out. I've never seen such a large group of people be so quiet. There was some yelling during the 20 minutes it took to get the horses properly lined up and settled, but tension was high. There wasn't actually a gun, but every rider seemed to know when to go. Wave finished the first lap with a commanding lead. On the second lap, Eagle (my animal) lost control and was vaulted off his horse and into the stands, his horse continued to run the race (Interesting fact, if his horse still finished first, it still counts as a win). Then, after about 90 seconds, it was over, and Forest/Rhino had won.

What followed was chaos. The huge group of Shell girls near us started bawling, the group in front of us jumped the fence, and we followed behind them. We had been told if you don't sprint (possibly illegally) out of the square after the race you're unable to leave for another hour or two, and we had a bus to catch. After sprinting off the track, we followed a large group of Italians away from the square. It was at this time I noticed there was a trail of blood on the street. I'm not sure if it was animal or human, but I didn't want to stick around to find out. The large group we were following ran into another large group and everyone started yelling. We were certain a fight was about to break out, so we all took off our flags and put them in our pockets, not wanting to get drawn in by association. We then ran away, got some gelato, and made the bus home. ... That story ended rather anti-climatically. I'm sorry.

Well that's pretty much it for now. Tomorrow morning we're heading to Verona, then Lake Garda on Sunday.

ae

Eating My Way Through Europe

I love food.

Anyone that's met my family knows that we all love food. So needless to say, I've really enjoyed all the different food I've been able to eat here. So I decided to rank all the countries I've been to based on their food:

1. Italy

This might be unfair, considering we've spent the most time in Italy, and I'm part Italian. But the food has really been incredible. Pizza, pasta, steak Florentine, tiramisu, red wine, panini (fun fact, I just learned the plural of panini is panini), gelato, etc, etc. One would have to put effort into finding a bad meal in Italy. I've been called something of a Italian food snob before, but I've loved it all. Everything is so fresh and delicious it's hard to find anything wrong with it.

Favorite meal: Steak Florentine with blueberry glaze

Runner up: Gnocchi with sausage and truffle sauce

2. Germany

I was in Germany when I came up with the idea for this post. At the time, I was thinking about putting Germany at #1, but upon returning to Italy I realized that was silly. Germany was where I made up for the lack of protein I might have suffered in Italy. Bratwurst and beer were staples of lunch and dinner, how could you go wrong? Our first night in Germany we didn't even eat at a restaurant, we went from street vendor to street vendor. We started with a bratwurst, followed that with a chocolate covered fruit (I had a banana), then a large mug of beer, then (if you're Eli), a second bratwurst. The Hofbrauhaus was one of our favorite spots, and where I had my favorite meal. Even the bratwurst I had at the Olympic Stadium was great.

Favorite Meal: Pork Knuckle and dumplings, with dark German beer

Runner up: Any of the 3 bratwursts I had.

3. Spain

While Spanish food didn't quite sate the Mexican craving I had, it was still quite good. Paella, sangria, tapas. Those were the staples of our Spanish food experience. I actually hadn't heard of tapas, apparently it's just another word for appetizers. They were still good though, my favorites were chicken wings, calamari, and croquettes. I had two different kinds of paella, one with seafood and one with chicken. I preferred it with seafood, it's hard to go wrong with seafood when you're on the coast. I really like sangria too, it was interesting how different it was at each place we had it depending on the amount of fruit or spices they put into it. I still really want some fajitas and guacamole though...

Favorite Meal: Seafood paella, with sangria. And the Romantica, a dessert Eli and I split. I'm not even sure what was in it, but it was delicious.

Runner up: Argentina style ribs

4. Switzerland

While Switzerland might be home to the nicest people and best chocolate on the planet, their actual food leaves something to be desired. I might say that my favorite meal in Switzerland wasn't Swiss at all, but was actually at a place called California Bar where I had the "Texas Burger" with bacon, cheese, fried onion, and other delicious toppings. But the best meal in Switzerland wasn't because of the food, but the location. We stopped to eat on our way up Mt. Pilatus, which was a very cool experience. I had onion soup, Eli had sausage, Trent and George had chicken wings, but Katie chose best with the fish dips. Also, I learned I do not like Swiss beer, it's too sweet. Maybe I should have asked what authentic Swiss food is.

Favorite Meal: Texas Burger

Runner up: Onion Soup

Real Favorite Meal: Swiss Chocolate

That's pretty much it. Hopefully this post has made you hungry.

Life's too short for bad food,

ae

A Productive Tuesday

Tuesday was a pretty busy day.

For our class we took a tour of the History of Soccer museum, which is just outside of Florence. I wasn't sure what to expect out of the museum, but I really enjoyed seeing it. There was all kinds of memorabilia inside, such as jerseys from the Italian national team from 1934 all the way to the 2006 team which won the World Cup. Oh, and they also had two actual World Cup trophies on display in the museum. Also on display was an autographed Pele jersey and a Maradona jersey. The museum had all kinds of old sports equipment such as old-school soccer balls and cleats. Behind the museum was the practice facility that the Italian national team uses before it plays, and stays there for a few weeks before the World Cup. The facility has four very nice practice fields, apartments, even a restaurant. We were allowed to walk around for a bit, which was very cool.

After lunch, Trent and I decided to head to Pisa. I've been there once before, took the cliche picture and everything, but Trent hadn't so I decided to go with him. I'm glad I went though, because the first time I was there we didn't do much other than take pictures of the tower. This time we also went into the baptistry and cathedral. I really enjoyed both of them, particularly the cathedral. Other than that, there isn't much to Pisa. Lots of stores. So we just went back home, it took about 4 hours round trip.

Last night we had a picnic up at the Piazza Michelangelo and watched the sunset. It was a nice night. It's weird to think that there's only a week and a half left of the trip. Looking back, I'm not sure if it's flown by, or if it's been forever. All I know is there's still plenty I need to do before I leave.

Ciao for now,

ae

Pictures from Cinque Terre