New Plan:

NORWAY.
You know how I was talking about doing that WWOOF farming program in Italy? Now I want to go to Norway. The thing is, I have a lot of good, logical reasons why I should want to return to Italy, primarily the whole learning Italian thing. But despite the good reasons, I just found myself to be less excited about the idea that I should have been. I'm not sure exactly why. I'm very happy to be in Italy now, and I like learning Italian a lot, but I think I just want to try something different. Allora, no lo so. But the point is, if I'm not as stoked about it as I want to be, I don't think I should do it.
Now as it happens, when you become a member of WWOOF Italia, you also get access to another list of some random countries that don't have their own WWOOF program. On this list are Norway and the Netherlands (among others, of course), and both of these sounds new and exciting, so I'm going to look for a farm in one of them instead. A bunch of farms in Norway look beautiful, and I would love to go there if I could. Why Norway, I'm not sure I could tell you exactly. Maybe because it really is soooo different from Italy. Well, we'll see. And in the end, if I never find somewhere I really want to go in Europe, I'll come home a couple weeks early. As much as I want to adventure for as long as I can, when it comes down to it, I'm only going to do the things that I want to and am excited about. My funds are to college-student-esque  to afford to do things that aren't worth it. So Norway. We shall see.

Now let's see what I can fill you in on from this week in Italy. It's been slow, which is nice because I'm still making up for sleep lost over spring break. And the weather has been bellisima! Around 60-65 farenheit, which his nice. The best places to sunbath (or "take the sun," as it is in italian) are the Campo, where it's always fun to people watch (especially tourist watch), and by the university, where there'a a grass area overlooking Chianti. It's been nice. And Wednesday I returned to the soup kitchen, and had a really good time. There were more young volenteers, which I hadn't seen before, and I felt much more comfortable with them than the nuns. They were all so nice!
Oh, and there was a lady there from Holland, who didn't speak any Italian but spoke English, and she told me that she's walking (WALKING) the Francigena. This is the old pilgrimage road that leads to Rome, and Siena, back in the day, made a lot of money off of pilgrims enroute, and it had a hospital, which then meant a place for hosting foreigners, not for sick people. Now the old Ospedale is a museum across from the Duomo. The Francigena starts in Canterbury, but she began in Holland. Still. I think she said it was 18,000km. And she wasn't young, either. I would guess somewhere between 55 and 65. Anyways, she ended up at the soup kitchen because the convents host the pilgrims for meals and give them places to sleep.  It was really interesting talking to her, and I think she was glad to have an English speaker around.
Then today we went back to the Uffizi with my art history class. I have to say, I'm glad I'd been to Uffizi on my own before hand because I wasn't super thrilled with the class visit.  The problem is that the teacher, who is very nice and very knowledgeable, doesn't seem to really take us seriously as art history students. Not in a mean way, but he always makes comments like, "bad news, guys, we'll be here for a couple hours," or "good news, only two painting left." As if we don't want to be there. But we do. It also seems like he dumbs down the lesssons, and is afraid to use real art history terms. It bothers me. I see that he is only trying to cater to what he thinks our level is (which is probably based on former students he's had through the SIS program, which only gets LC students one semester every other year), but I think that we should be treated like serious art history students. If someone isn't interested, that's their problem, but I like to be challenged and I want to be expected to have to think and work. It's annoying. Anyways. It was nice to revisit some of the paintings and things, but I really  liked being there on my own better.
OH. In other news, my roommate Julia and I are planning on renting a Vespa on Sunday, just for fun. Wish us luck driving!

Spring Break

Our Sorrento vacation has been off to an interesting beginning. Friday morning we hopped on a bus, and then a train, and then another train, and 6 or so hours later made it to Sorrento. When we first arrived, we were all very happy to be here—the whether was lovely, and the part of town we wandered through to find out hotel was cute and nice. We were all happy and excited when we arrived at the address of our hotel. The sign on the door said to call the number listed, and a man from the hotel came to meet us, and told us that he was taking us to our beachfront apartment, which had a kitchen and internet. It sounded great, but when we got there and he opened the door, it was not what we had been expecting. First of all, while the property was near the beach, the beach could not be seen from the apartment itself. In fact, nothing could be seen from the apartment; there were no windows. It was painted an uneasy light aqua blue, and the beds we nothing more than fold out cots. We were not pleased. We asked if he had a different apartment, and he showed us the one next door, which was almost exactly the same. The guy was clearly trying to make the sale, and didn’t really understand what we didn’t like about it. He was on the phone with his boss, and as the saga progressed we all began to feel more and more uncomfortable. So we left. With no place to go, we wandered back into town—and into the Hilton Sorrento Palace. Like mom always told me, sometimes the best solution is to throw money at the problem. We originally only got the room for the night, since we were all tired and hungry and wanted a place to stay. Now let me say, the Hilton Sorrento Palace is waaaaay nicer than any Hilton I’ve stayed in in the states. When we entered out rooms, we were all just so happy to be somewhere nice and clean, and not to mention the terrycloth robes and slippies! So I decided to do a quick calculation on the Hilton Sorrento Palace notepad, taking into account the shared cost of the room and the cost of the other hotel we had booked for the rest of trip (which, luckily, are guide book recommended, unlike what has come to be know as “the dungeon”) and our transportation costs to and from Siena. And we decided that, given the 600 euro stipend Lewis and Clark had given us for the week, it was reasonably (albeit, barely) within our budget to go ahead and stay in the Hilton for entirety of the four nights we had planned in Sorrento, since we’d planned everything else economically. We were all ecstatic about this decision. And so far, it’s been great! Breakfast in the morning was incredible: a huge buffet spread, featuring both Italian cold cuts and scrambled eggs, which is an unheard of breakfast in this country. And real American style coffee! And they even had HP and Tabasco sauce! Now I know we’re supposed to be enjoying all things authentic and Italian, but these Americanisms are quite the exciting novelty at this point. And not to mention that the brunch room had huge windows and a balcony with a perfect view of Mt. Vesuvius. NO BIG DEAL. 

Our first day in Sorrento, after our wonderful Hilton brunch, we decided to just putz around Sorrento. We wandered down to the water, grabbed some pizza for lunch, and stopped at a little grocery to pick up some olives, artichoke hearts and cocktail supplies for the hotel before dinner. When we were ready we headed out for dinner (prawn risotto, mmmmmm), and hung out for a while before started to head back. But as it happens, on the way back to our hotel happens to be a bowling alley. And, feeling the wine from dinner a bit, we decided to stop in. So far, aside for making the Hilton Sorrento Palace our home, this has been the best decision we have made on this trip. We had a great time; it was really silly and fun.

Positano!

This morning we had another slow start and another nice breakfast before hopping on a bus to Positano, a little town on the Amalfi Coast. Unfortunately it was raining and overcast, but the sea and the views were still nice and it was fun to walk around. It’s still the off-season, though, I’d be interested to see the town busier and sunnier. 

Tomorrow we’re planning to heading to Herculanium and maybe Pompeii. It looks like we probably wont get a chance to get to Napoli, which is too bad because I really wanted to see it, but then, there’s chance I might end up down here again this summer. And there was nothing there in particular that I wanted to do, really, I just would’ve liked to get a sense of the city and grab some pizza. Allora, we’ll see how the next day goes before we head to Ischia. The good news is, no matter what we do we’ll have fun, and ever since the dungeon escapade it has been nice and relaxing, to say the least. 

---LATER---

So we made it home to Siena alive! Let's see, where'd I leave off... 

Herculanium and Pompeii were definitely one of the highlights. We went to Herculanium first, since it's better preserved, even though it's smaller since it hasn't yet all been excavated. It was almost like a scavenger hunt, wandering through the ruins and looking for cool carvings and mosaics in the different rooms and buildings. It worked out well that we went there first. because there was much more art and whatnot to see than in Pompeii. Pompeii was HUGE. What impressed me about that was the size and the feel of the city. It felt like a real, lived in place, yet the whole thing had been buried under volcanic ash. Crazy.

The next day we packed up and, sadly, had to move out of the Hilton. Our next stop was Ischia, and we got to take boats to get there!

We first took a hyrdofoil boat to Napoli, which was fun, and then hopped on another ferry to Ischia. Now, the thing about Ischia is that it's gorgeous and nice, but really more appropriate to go to in the summer. Whether aside (it rained on and off), in march everything is still closed for the off season.

The most disappointing example was a certain restaurant we had wanted to go to. You see, there is a bar in Siena that we frequent, and we have become friends with the owner, Dominico. When he heard we were going to Ischia, he told us his friend had a resturant out there, and we were all excited to go. But alas, closed. So instead, a little low in spirits, we decided to stop at a grocery store and improvise a feast in our rented hotel/apartment thing. It actually ended up to be a really fun night, we stayed in, ate, played yahtzee and watched mean girls while it stormed outside. It turned out to be a rather refreshing break from Italian style everything.

The next day was our last on Ischia, since we were only spending the one night, and we ventured over to the giant Ischia Castle. This was probably my favorite Castle I've been to so far. It was just so big and castle-y. Wandering around we happened upon gardens, wine making stations, and a bunch of cool tower and things. And the view! I didn't really get to learn a whole lot about the castle since the inside was closed (again, the off season), but it was cool just to be there, really.

We kind of hung around Ischia and the hotel for the rest of the day, since we were planning to take the ferry back to Napoli and from there an overnight ferry to Sicily. Unfortunately, it began to rain and the ferry we had planned on taking off the Island was canceled! We were able to get another one, but by that time it was too late to make our overnight boat. Luckily, we found an overnight train. Unluckily, there were no more seat reservations available. We were able to get on the train, but had to spend the night sleeping in the aisles. This is why we do these things when we're still young and spry. We made it Sicily in the morning as planned, but we all exhausted from the less than comfortable journey. We made it to the hotel, but of course it was much to early for our check in time. However, this turned out to be our favorite hotel of the trip. It was pretty and quaint, and the lady immediately let us drop of our stuff and ushered us upstairs to the breakfast room, which was cheery and pleasant and overlooked the water. We spent the rest of the morning sunbathing on the roof until our room was ready, which had balconies facing the sea. Once we'd gotten all settled in and cleaned up, we went out for lunch and wandered around the town in the sunshine. Later in the evening, a few of us ventured into the town part of Taormina (where we were staying on the outskirts) and had a fun time walking around and enjoying the view. On the bus ride back there was an old guy arguing about politics with the bus driver, which was really fun to see and hear. It seemed as though the old guy was a Burlusconi supporter and kept saying how we HAD to be smart because he spoke five languages. Even though they were arguing it seemed to be friendly and all in good fun.

The second day in Sicily, we really wanted to see the ancient Greek temples. However, they were a couple hours away. The hotel offered to set up a guided excursion for us, but that wasn't really what we wanted. So instead, we rented a car and drove across Sicily ourselves! It was a fun road trip and definitely worth it to see the temples, many of them were really well preserved.

Our last day we relaxed and wandered around town, and finally Sunday made out way to Palermo to catch our flight back to Tuscany. 

It was a successful journey, and I liked see the South. It is really different than the north, the look and feel are completely different, which I suppose makes sense since Italy was only unified 150 years ago.

Il Mio Compleanno!

So, one more post before spring break starts tomorrow! I may or may not be able to post during the next ten days, but I'll at least do it when I return to Siena.
Alright, so the only thing I really want to write about this week is my birthday.
It was good, but weird. Might I begin by saying, Monday birthdays are always odd, especially since we had a test on Tuesday. But what was really weird about it was celebrating with a borrowed family. Honestly, I never really thought about family as a big part of my birthday, because they just were around always. And yeah, last year I was off at college by my birthday coincided with parent's weekend, so I was still with mom for that (or the day before, but still). My host family is great and all, but they're not really mine the same way my family at home is. Alessandra made me tiramisu, which was delicious, but too soft for the candles to stand up in for very long, so instead of singing to me they all yelled "VELOCE VELOCE VELOCE" at me to blow out the candles before the fire hit the food. I found this to be rather funny, but still odd. And like I said, we had an Italian test, so I didn't do anything at all that night. We went out the next  night though, for my both my birthday and my friend Rachel's (who's birthday is march 8th), which was a lot of fun.  And the good news is, I got 103% on the Italian test!
Anyways, that's the birthday news. Next adventure, il sud! We're heading to Sorrento tomorrow , and we'll make our way around Napoli, Herculanium, Ischia, Capri, and at the end, Sicilia. We're all just super excited to relax and hopefully it'll be nice and caldo (hot). It's a bit funny to be taking a vaction from what already feels like a vaction, but believe me, we all need it. Although the course work is not in the least bit challenging, living with a random Italian family is. No matter how great and wonderful they are, the fact is, we're still guests. And it's hard to try to take on a whole new life style and set of cultural norms in addition to the whole language thing. So as much as it'll lovely to return to our Italian mommies and daddies, we are quite looking forward to just living with each other for a bit and getting a chance to relax and recharge. I'll do my best to keep you posted!

Piglets and a Festival

Tonight I am so very sleepy, but I will do my best to fill you in on the weekend.
Saturday they took us to a pig farm and then to a cheese farm. The pig farm interesting because apperently the kind of pigs they raise, the cinta sienese is specific to Siena and no longer very common. They're distict because they are black with a white stripe, and there are some painted into the good government side of Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and Bad Government. They told us that these pigs are hard to raise and people do it just because they happen to love these kinds of pigs. The pig farmers who raise them formed a coalition sort of thing that sets up really strict requirements about what they're fed and how much space they need (At least an acre available for every 2 pigs, I think they said), which makes them expensive. In addition, this kind of pig gains weight SUPER fast, and so they can't be sold if they're too fat, and they're hard to sell anyways because they're so expensive.

We got walk around in the pins and pet them, they gave us silly plastic booties to put over our feet for trekking through the mud. They're we some cute little piglets too!
Then they took us inside and fed us pig. The guy explained all the different types of meat (where it came from in the pig, etc) and told us what order to try them in. It was a little weird eating it after just seeing the pigs, but we didn't let it bother us.
Next they took us to a different farm where they make cheese. The farm is run by only 3 people, a sister and two brothers, and they do ALL of the cheese making process. She showed us all the equipment and explained the different processes, including the pasteurization of the milk, the forming and draining of the cheese and the aging of the cheese. Seeing how it worked was cool and all, but I have to say, the overpowering smell of cheese was a bit much for me.
Then came my favorite  part, the cheese tasting. We only tried four different kinds but they were tasty. The first one was my favorite, it was the youngest of the ones we tried, I think only a week or two old. The third one had been aged for several years and was good but intense. Last they gave us ricotta with honey and cinnamon to eat it with, which was very tasty.


And today they took us to a Carnivale festival! The one we went to was small but a lot of fun, in a town called Foliano. Apparently they have 4 contrade there, but I don't think it's nearly as cool since they don't have a Palio or anything. Each one had a big float though,
which were supposedly supposed to be allegories of something or other, but they were all really weird. One had a mad scientist and a tiger, whatever allegory that is is beyond me.

Confetti!

Krissy and Simon and I went on a mission to find some carnivale food and ended up getting these things called Cinnacine, which were large salty disks of fried dough. They were very tasty at first, but we really should have shared one, because by the end I was overloaded on fried-ness and I couldn't finish it.
Oh yeah, and one of the really fun things about carnivale is the confetti. It's everywhere, people buy big bags of it and throw it at each other. Not even people you know, necessarily, just at everyone. The streets were covered in confetti, and by the time we left, so were we. I still have a bunch in my hair! Oh and people dress up like it's halloween. I didn't but Julia was an old lady, which turned out to be hilarious! The kids were the best, though, so cute all dressed up and running around throwing confetti. A couple even randomly got us with confetti!
We ended up spending most of the day dancing in this one area where a band was playing American hits, which is always a good time.

I'm happy to have made it home though, 'cause all I really want is a good night's sleep!