463 steps to the Top!

Saturday was another lazy start for the girls of Giraldi 8, apartment F24. Rolling out of bed around noon, we all made our plans for the day. Shannon and Marla were taking Amanda to go see the Ufizi art museum, and Julia and I had made plans with Ari, Sara Jane, and Allie to go see the Duomo.
A little background- in Italian, duomo means church, so there are many duomos thoughout Italy, but as there is really only one in Florence, it's just called the duomo. The full name is the Santa Maria de Fiore (Duomo/Cathedral). There are many parts to this church: there is the main cathedral section, which is open free to the public everyday; pictured below from my wanderings a few days before:



There is the Campanile, or belltower, seen here from the midlevel of the duomo (which will have to wait for another day;



there is the Baptistry, another site for another day; and finally there is the Cupola del Brunelleschi (Brunelleschi's Dome) which is what my friends and I were off to see.

We met Ari, SJ, and Allie on the front steps and then went to get our tickets. After Allie and I fought with the ticket machine, we were finally ready to go. A sign near the entrance warned us that it is 463 steps to the top of the dome. We started up the first section of stairs and were doing alright. One stop on this level showcased some of the tools that were used to build the duomo.


and in case you were wondering, from right to left are the tops of Julia, Ari, Allie, and SJ's heads. haha. :)

We made it to the first level of the dome where we could take pictures of the frescos on the inside of the dome.



I can't even begin to imagine the time it took Brunelleschi to paint this masterpiece, and I honestly think the only place that could rival it is the Cystine Chapel.

Anyway, the next round of stairs were some tightly wound spiral staircases. After about 5-10 minutes of these, I was starting to get REALLY dizzy. Luckily, there were a few landings in between where we could take pictures as we scaled the duomo.

Finally we made it to the top, and every single one of those 463 steps was worth it!

The view from the top was AMAZING! We could see every part of the city in every direction, which helped us in making a list of future destinations: Piazza de Michaelangelo, Santa Croce, the Boboli Gardens, Palazzo Vecchio, the San Lorenzo Market, the list goes on and on!
We even found our apartment!


And of course we had to get a roomie picture! :)


and last but not least, all of us!

From left to right: Allie, Sara Jane, Julia, Ari, and Me!

After taking WAY too many pictures, we began our descent. Walking down the stairs was obviously better than the way up, but about half way down, our legs started shaking. Upon reaching the bottom, we decided it was time for some food. So, Julia and I took our friends to Giovanni's cafe for lunch. We all got cappuccinos and coffee, but then we also got sandwiches. I got a ciambettone toscana, which was two pieces of flatbread with tomatoes, cheese, spinach and other tasty veggies in the middle. It was AWESOME. Our friends liked Giovanni as much as we all do! :)

The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Julia and I checked out Ari & Co's apartment and then headed back to the apartment to cook dinner. On the way home, we found a really cool bookstore called Giorni, which had a bunch of really old books, maps, posters, etc. We will definitely be going back.

Julia and I (and when I say Julia and I, I mostly mean Julia) made some capellini with prosciutto and some toasted bread with parmesan for supper. Afterwards, we met up with Ari & Co, along with their friends Brent, Brian, and Momo (she's Asian lol) to go to the Lounge.

The Lounge which we never found, because turns out it was one the SECOND floor of a building of the Piazza della Santa Maria Novella, where we wandered forever looking. Oh well, it was still the most fun I've had doing absolutely nothing in a really long time! :)

As previously stated, there are MANY more pictures from the top of the Duomo, which will be on my Picasa page, so check them out!

Ciao! :)

No photo!

We must have had too much fun on our second day in Florence, because I and I didn’t wake up until around noon. Since the rest of our roommates were still sleeping, we decided to go out for a quick walk.

Well, our quick walk turned into a very LONG walk. We wandered through the Piazza della Republica, along the Arno River, through the Ponte Vecchio, and then we just started wandering. The weather was so GORGEOUS outside. I was only wearing a light long sleeved shirt and my spring jacket. When we walked in the sun, I was honestly a little warm. Marla ended up taking her jacket off. Yeah, 55 degree weather in January- be VERY jealous. It was funny to see some of the locals wearing heavier coats, hats, gloves, etc. when we kind of wanted to go back and put skirts and flip-flops on.

Wandering around, we ended up getting VERY lost. Having no idea where we were, we just kept taking turns that we hoped would take us back to the familiar center of the city. With really no basis for our decisions for navigation, we were quite impressed with ourselves when we turned a corner and the Duomo came into sight.
We headed back to our apartment and ate a little brunch (Rice Krispies with raspberries, and a delicious blood orange). Then we all headed to the Bar Vittoria for coffee with the cutest little old man ever, whose is name Giovanni (maybe i already told you that?)- we think it suits him. Haha.) I had a cup of espresso coffee and we split a delicious pastry, panna di pescatore, that Giovanni recommended. The cake-ish part of it was like a light, crumbly biscotti with white raisins inside, topped with honey drizzle and almond slices. It was SOOOOOO good!

Then we headed out to do some sight-seeing. We went to the Museo della Academia, aka the home of Michaelangelo’s David. The first room was filled with paintings dating from the 1400s. Everything about them was amazing: the detail, the colors, the texture, incredible. It was hard to imagine how much time went into each piece, how much each piece had endured over hundreds of years, and how they must have looked when they were new. Most of the paintings were oil paint on wood, which is hard to fathom that they have lasted so long.



The next room was filled with statues by Michaelangelo, the centerpiece being the David. By request of my mom, I set out to get a particular picture. I set my camera on the museum setting (no flash, no sounds) and aimed a shot at the David. In the middle of taking a picture, a museum worker told me that pictures were not allowed. Oops. I mean, click. Lol. After that, I had to be a little shadier with the picture-taking, and therefore, was not able to get Mom’s picture- better luck next time I guess. Haha. But with some skillfully placed sneak-attacks, I was able to get several good pictures of the David as well as many of the other pieces throughout the rest of the museum. After getting yelled at (not literally, she just told me sternly, "No photo.") the rest of the museum was like a game- how many pictures can i take without getting caught. Haha!


(The grumpy lady with short hair at the bottom of this picture is telling me "No foto" as I'm snapping the picture. Haha!)

Now, an ode to the David. O M G. It is AMAZING! First of all the statue is much larger than I thought. Second, the detail is INCREDIBLE. It is so hard to imagine that someone could start off with a big misshapen chunk of marble and end up with a perfect human form, detailed down to the veins in his hands. Again, it is crazy to think of how well this piece is preserved after so many years.


(A shady picture from behind a pillar- SNEAK ATTACK!)

After seeing the rest of the museum, we set off to see the Piazza del San Marco (and church?). Unfortunately, the museum/church was closed, which wasn’t surprising as we had gotten such a late start. We went to a small pizzaria on the piazza and everyone got pizza(nothing confusing about that sentence at all, huh?)

We headed back to the apartment for showers after a long day of walking, stopping to do a bit of shopping on the way. I myself did not buy anything, because I will have to be in a very focused mindset before I allow myself to shop in Florence. Haha.

Later on, we met up with Ari and her friends at a club called Space Discoteca. It was a crazy dance club! We all had a blast dancing and just having fun. We all danced with some really cute Italian guys, but after one told me his name was Luigi, I just couldn't take him seriously anymore. I just kept thinking about Mario Bros.! LOL!

We headed for home after several hours, absolutely exhausted. We had the most random encounter with a group of guys from New Zealand. They flagged us down to ask us for some "local advice on directions". I don't know how they figured we were locals, but needless to say, we were entirely unhelpful with directions. We had a good time talking to them though (that is until one of them bashed on the Patriots....grr..), as we didn't make it home for another 45 minutes or so (we were only a block away from our apartment at this point. lol.

Overall, day 2 in Firenze was pretty awesome!
Ciao!

P.S.-just a heads up, pictures and posts will all be delayed because internet is not the most convenient thing in italy, but stay tuned anyway! :)

First Day in Italy

I woke up from my first night in Florence surprisingly alert and ready to go. Perhaps we did well avoiding the effects of jetlag. We all got ready to go to orientation, and since we hadn’t had a chance to go grocery shopping yet, we stopped into a cute café on our way to the school. The place is called Bar Vittoria, and it is run by the cutest little old man any of us had ever seen in our lives! We all got cappuccino and coffee which were amazing (I will never be able to drink Starbucks again!.....well, maybe not NEVER, but it will never compare to Giovanni’s!). On our way out the door, he told us that we needed to come back for more coffee and sit and relax at his shop! Which is a nice thing, as many cafés and shops charge extra to dine in. And he told us all of this in Italian, which luckily Shannon understands. I can’t wait until I start my Italian class so that I can talk to him too!

Orientation was boring. I think at this point in our lives we know not to wander off with a strange man alone while drunk. The only reason we listened was the handsome Carabinieri (emergency policeman).

Afterwards, my roommate Julia needed to go get a cell phone, so we hit up the PicCell store. While she got signed up, the man behind the counter gave me 90 minutes of internet for free! HALLELUJAH! I hadn’t been on the internet since I left home, and it was driving me CRAZY. Of course, being on one of the store’s computers, I wasn’t able to upload pictures or anything, so the blog had to wait. It was nice to be able to get on Skype and talk to mom, check my e-mail and Facebook, etc. I even figured out how to send my Verizon friends a free text via the internet! I talked to my mom and turned on the webcam so she could see me,

Funny thing about Italy, sometimes I forget to eat. During orientation, I was STARVING, Giovanni’s coffee didn’t last me very long. But once I got on the internet, I forgot about food entirely. I remembered once we hit the street again, but that only lasted until Julia and I caught sight of the Duomo. At once, we wanted to go exploring. At that point, I honestly wasn’t hungry anymore, but Julia insisted that we eat something before we took off. We stopped into a panini shop and got sandwiches which we ate on the steps of the Duomo.

After eating, we started wandering, not really knowing where we were going. But everywhere we turned there was something else to see: a cute shop, a beautiful church, a garden, AMAZINGness.

Shannon and Marla had already gone grocery shopping, but we still needed some more stuff, so Julia and I hit a grocery store before heading back. We got some food, trashbags, dish sponges, and a few other things we needed. We also picked up a couple bottles of wine to keep at the apartment. Little did we know that Shannon and Marla had the same idea; great minds think alike, I guess. 
We decided to stay in for supper. Shannon made us pasta with red sauce, with salad and bread. She even set the table and came and served us all. She was kind of like the apartment mom for the evening.


(From left to right- Shannon's friend Amanda who came to visit us from Granada, then roomies Shannon, Julia, me and Marla!)

A little later, some of Julia’s friends stopped by, and we all decided to go out to a Bar down the street. We found a nice little pub called the Lion’s Fountain. Hannah, Emily, and several ISU girls were already there. It was karaoke night, and of course, we had to join in! Julia and her friend Ari started off with “I’m just a girl”, and later all of us sang “Hey Jude”, and every American in the bar joined in for “Friends in Low Places.” Shannon made friends with an Italian guy named Andrea (On-dray-uh, and yes, he’s a guy). His friend is a chef at a restaurant on the Arno river, and he told us that we should stop by sometime.

After a fun night at the pub, we all went home. Julia and I did some late-night dishes before crashing into bed. Our second day in Florence definitely did not disappoint.

Not too much excitement on the photo front, but there are a few pictures from my wanderings are on Picasa!

Ciao! :)

Come on. Do I look like I speak German?!/ Salve Italia!!

1.28.09
After what actually turned out to be a fairly quick 8-hour flight, we arrived safely in Frankfurt, Germany. Already a little tired from the lack of sleep, we were irritated to enter the terminal near gate A61….because we wanted gate A1. It was a long trek through the airport, but we all made it. (Emily wanted a piggy-back ride, but was, of course, simply out of the question.

We made it through Frankfurt security without any major drama, except for the creepy security flirt, aka Emily’s new bf. I mean, seriously- do I look like I speak German?



After arriving at gate A1 with plenty of time to spare, some of us were in desperate need of an energy boost. Lucky for us, Lufthansa is kind enough to offer its customers complementary coffee in the waiting area. After Emily and I nearly broke the machine, Sam discovered a new coffee additive. Lemon juice, Sam? Interesting choice.

Time came to board our plane to Florence. We checked in with our boarding passes, but instead of walking onto an airplane, we were met by a bus instead. Hmmm… So after about 50 fake outs of passing plane after plane, we finally arrived at our little puddle jumper. I tried to get a picture to show you how small it was, but it didn’t really work out.

Boarding the plane, I was excited to figure out that I had a window seat, as it would be getting light out and we would be flying over the (MOUNTAINS). However, my luck with plane seating worked just as usual. Yup, that WOULD be my window seat on the plane. Haha.



Still, I was able to get some pretty good pictures in the air and on our descent into Florence.

I had begun to get nervous about the weather in Florence, as I had seen snow covering much of the area during our flight, but I was relieved to arrive in Florence and find B-E-A-Utiful weather. Unfortunately, we spent a good part of our morning waiting in line for housing check in. Needless to say, this put quite a damper on our spirits, which had been quite high when we arrived. However, our excitement was reinstated when we arrived at the door to our apartment.



I absolutely love everything about our apartment right down to the skeleton key that opens my door. By no means is it the nicest apartment I’ve ever seen, but it has a certain charm. Personally, I don’t think the pictures I took do it justice, but perhaps I’m biased. My absolute favorite part of the whole place is the window in my bedroom. Honestly, the pictures really don't so it justice. It's certainly not the nicest apartment I've ever seen, but it's just so charming that I absolutely love it!

After unpacking a bit, we decided to venture out to find an internet café. We wandered down the streets stunned by our surroundings. The scenery in Florence is so incredible it’s hard to imagine it as an everyday setting, as it is for some people. The picture below is the view down our street.



Unfortunately, our search for an internet café was unsuccessful, accounting for the delayed appearance of these posts. Later that evening, after a much needed nap, we went out for dinner at a cute restaurant, and I had the best tortellini of my life. haha. and a glass of the house vino, which was a little dry for my taste. :) So, to appease my sweet tooth, we went out for gelato, which was nothing short of SINFULLY good. :)

Stay tuned for more pictures and commentary. For the rest of the pictures from my first day in Florence, see my picasa web album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lrowley88

Ciao for now!

Arrivederci, USA!

1.27.09
Finally the day of departure arrived! My bags were packed, and I was ready to go. Due to an impending threat of snow, my parents elected to leave a little earlier than we planned. Luckily, there were no problems; it was a clear and sunny, but still cold day. “Are you nervous?” If I had a dollar for everytime I heard that phrase, I would be able to stay in Italy indefinitely.  I didn’t really feel nervous, until people kept reminding me that there was plenty to be nervous about. On the morning of my departure, I found myself oddly nervous. So, I cranked the music and went to my happy place.



Let it be said that Facebook is a wonderful thing. When I met my travel companions at the airport, it was like meeting up with old friends, though many of us had only met once, and some not at all. It was funny to watch our parents make the slightly awkward, polite small-talk associated with new acquaintances, while we talked like old pals.

We said farewell to our parents at the gate (luckily with no tears!), and made our way through security. The only small snag through security was Emily’s pillow controversy. We made our way through the airport to concourse C, which is through this really cool underground hallway with pretty lights. Emily and I were so entranced by the display that we didn’t realize that we were so far ahead of the others.



Going into the flight, I had a clear game plan. Dinner, movie, Tylenol PM, SLEEP. The first part of my plan went off without a hitch. I ate my lasagna while watching Eagle Eye, and started to feel sleepy towards the end of the film. Approximately 30 minutes before the end of the film, I took my Tylenol PM so that I could drift off to sleep after the movie ended. Unfortunately, taking Tylenol PM does NOT make an airline seat any bigger or more comfortable. I just couldn’t sleep. After a while, I decided to try taking another Tylenol. STILL, nothing. All I could do was watch the little map on the screen in front of me and will the tiny cartoon airplane to move faster. Eventually, I entertained myself by watching another movie, and the end of the flight came much sooner than I thought.



Unfortunately, I and my travel companions were stuck in the middle section of seats throughout the flight. Of course, there was not much to see traveling over the Atlantic Ocean at night. However, when we finally reached Europe, it was an amazing view. The land below looked like it was lined with a spiderweb of rope lights. You know, the ones on the floor on the movie theater. To be honest, that was about the most exciting part of the flight. haha. :)

Luckily the flight went by fairly quickly and before I knew it we were in Frankfurt!

So the journey begins....

"He who would travel happily must travel light."
- Antoine de Saint Exupery



Haha. RIGHT.

I have come to believe that the true beginning of a journey starts with packing. It didn't seem like a big deal at first: Drag the suitcases down from the attic, fill with clothes and other necessities, zip up. Done. Right?

WRONG. Trying to figure out the most efficient means of preparing myself for the next four(ish) months of my life has turned out to be a rather difficult task. Not only that, but two seasons will pass while I am abroad, meaning that two seasons worth of clothes must be crammed into two suitcases weighing less than 50 pounds each. And since apparently personal hygiene is not high atop the priority list in Europe (a traveling companion informed me that deoderant is certainly not considered a necessity in Europe, therefore, we would all do well to pack extra as it may be difficult/expensive to buy) all my necessary toiletries must also fit into said checked luggage.

Even with this in mind, I still find that the piles continue to grow instead of shrink, but I am fairly confident that no matter what I will make it work! After years of packing suitcases under the supervision of my dad, my packing techniques have prepared me for this journey. (Whoever said to roll your clothes before packing them was a fool, pack them flat!) Don't underestimate my packing abilities, I assure you it WILL all fit! :)