Julia Comes to Italy!

Following the weekend after Morocco, I headed to Venice on Friday (4/15/11) to meet Julia who was flying in later that evening. I met Julia at her water ferry in the main area of San Marco (where our hotel was located) that night before we headed to dinner.

We got up and began our week adventure starting with exploring Venice for the day. After seeing some sites and walking though out the city we were ready to move on. While Venice is beautiful and has a lot to offer it can also be overwhelming and take a lot of energy. We boarded the train and headed back into Florence in the evening.

Sunday morning we got up at 5am to catch a 6am train to Cinque Terre or "Five land" for the day. We got in and took a short walk from the first of the 5 towns to the second. From here we skipped the 3rd town and went straight to the 4th by train (you can hike between all of the 5 towns or take the train). We sat and had lunch and then went out onto the dock to sit in the sun. After some sunbathing we got back on the train to see the last of the 5 towns where we got gelato, walked around and then sat in the sun again. We got on an afternoon train back to Florence. My roommate cooked us dinner with balsamic chicken and eggplant parmesan. Of course after dinner I took Julia to my favorite gelateria, which was conveniently located on my street a block away (this became her favorite spot in the city).

Monday morning I got up and went to class while Julia slept in to catch up on some lost sleep and overwhelming traveling. We met up got gelato (from the same place) and walked around a little bit before Mari arrived. After getting Mari some food we walked / hiked up to Piazza Michelangelo to see the view overlooking all of Florence. Before heading back to meet everyone for dinner we stopped and had apperativo with Belini's. We ended up eating quite a bit for apperativo and weren't super hungry for dinner, but went out and joined some of my roommates anyway.

Tuesday morning we all woke up and got on the train to Milano to meet Ms. Mobley for a viewing of the Last Supper and then an afternoon lunch. Julia and I left in the early evening back to Florence, but had to wait an hour for our delayed train. Being so full from our huge lunch Julia and I decided to get gelato and call it a day.

Wednesday Julia and I got up and walked to school. I had one class and after I took a quiz we headed to the bus station and went to Siena. We met up with Krissy in the main piazza to climb Siena's famous clock tower. Krissy had to leave after, but Julia and I continued to explore Siena walking to the Duomo (which was unfortunately closed due to a ceremony - we did get to see the procession into the Basilica). Before ending our day we went for apperativo at the same place Krissy took me the first time I was in Siena. After arriving back in Florence we went to dinner dinner at "Yellow Bar". We ended up getting two pasta's (a fresh nocchi with a tomato cream sauce and spaghetti with tomatoes and basil) and a side dish of beans, but we decided it was worth it. Florence hosted the MTV TRL awards in Santa Croce so we decided to check it out. We didn't really know too many of the Italian artists so we ended up leaving pretty soon after arriving, but it was still cool to see the piazza all lit up with the stage.

Thursday was Julia's first day to "relax" and stay in the city. I had class all day so I gave her my keys and left in the morning. She had my museum card (which allowed her to skip lines and get tickets for free to the major museums) so she visited the Ufizi and Academia. She also got some shopping in before we met up in the afternoon. We met my friend Libby at my favorite wine bar for tastings along with small corstini before we went to dinner at "Quattro Leoni" (Four Lions). All three of us had a mixed plate of three pastas including my favorite pasta in Florence of Pear Ravioli in a asparagus cream sauce. Of course we ended the night stopping at the gelataria on the way home.

We spent Friday shopping and finding last minute gifts. In the early evening we met up with Libby and her brother for apperativo down the street and had belini's before having dinner at "Aqua al due". We each had a greek salad and shared gorgonzola macaroni and my favorite balsamic steak. Of course after dinner we headed straight for the gelateria to have a final treat before Julia left the next morning.

A Trip of Firsts

I never thought I would be heading to Africa when I left for Florence. We decided (my friends Mady, Libby, John and I) that we would go on a "Snow or Sand" trip to Morocco to lean how to surf in the town of Taghazout. With an afternoon departure from Pisa (04/07/11) we had a relaxed morning. When we got to Morocco it was a different story. We had to take a bus from Marrakech to Adigar, but unfortunately our bus was full and we had to wait two hours before the next one, which meant we got into the Surf house at 1am. It turned out to be a long day of traveling. Also in Morocco when you buy your bus ticket you have assigned seating, which was new to us, but worked out fine.

The next morning we woke up early to have breakfast and then head out to the beach to begin our surfing lessons at 9am. Along with the four of us a group of 6 other American students (who were studying in Padova - a small city 30 min from Venice-) were on our weekend trip. We started off with just getting used to the board and eventually learning more as we were in the water. With the waves crashing against you and continually we got tired pretty fast and at about 12 we got out of the water for lunch. After still tired Libby and I decided to continue our break and take a nap on the beach. Unfortunately we didn't apply enough sunscreen and felt the effects for the rest of the weekend. After a long day learning how to surf we went on camel rides down the beach. 8 year olds (or thats how old they looked to us) ran our camel rides, which was interesting. They are not the easiest animals to ride. Finally at the end of the day we showered and had dinner followed by traditional tea and a water pipe.

The next morning we again got up early for breakfast and headed to a different more advanced beach. The waves were bigger, stronger and faster, which kind of made it easier, but warred us out a lot faster. By 12 again we were eating lunch and no one wanted to really go back in. At this point we headed back into the city of Adigir to shop in the Bazzar. It was crowded and full of stuff. Literally stuff. We got to try on Moroccan outfits and a traditional almond butter with honey and bread. To finish up in Adigar we headed to a traditional Hammam spa. That was also interesting experience. After we headed back to surf house in Taghazout to have dinner.

We all had an even earlier morning when we had a bus come pick us up to take us back to Marrakech to fly home. We all ended up being on the same flight (all 10 of us) back to Bologna, but the people had us leave at 3am when we could have easily left at 5am. Basically we sat in the airport sleeping for 4 hours before our flight. Again it was an experience, but a good one.

Copenhagen Take II

After being at home for a short week (Sunday evening through Thursday) I headed to the Florence airport Thursday afternoon to head back to Copenhagen for Mari's 21st Birthday weekend. Since I had already been through the Copenhagen airport I just met Mari at her apartment. Mari again had classes on Friday so I slept in and went into the city center to meet Katherine for chai tea latte's in the early afternoon. This time the trip to Copenhagen consisted of eating as much food as possible.

We tried all different bakeries cinnamon rolls, chocolate croissants, and lots and lots of bread We also drank lots of Chai latte's and fresh juices, which were everywhere. My favorite place was called Joe's Juice and my favorite juice of theirs was ginger, strawberries and apple. I have decided I want a juicer to make fresh juices anytime I want. Besides eating we went shopping and walked around the city (mostly we just ate though).

A couple things I learned were you eat hamburgers with a fork and knife (it's really hard) and pretty much every restaurant has the exact same menu. Also if your baby is sleeping and your eating its pretty common to leave them in the stroller outside of the restaurant. On a side note it seemed like all the women were either pregnant, had a child or was pregnant and already had a child.

I had to leave Sunday so I didn't actually get to spend her birthday with her, but we celebrated with a piece of traditional cake, a apple cinnamon bread and a tart with fresh orange juice before I left, which was all after a chai tea latte. I was on a sugar high for quite a while afterwards.

Spring Break Continued

I arrived in Copenhagen in the early evening on Sunday. Mari picked me up to the airport and we rode the very convenient tram to her apartment. We went out and got Chai tea latte's (they are really good there - Starbuck's will never compare) and fresh pastries before heading back to make dinner. Monday Mari took me to the oldest tea shop in Europe where we bought a couple of their famous tea mixtures to try. My personal favorite was a white tea mix. Mari still had classes until Wednesday so she gave me a map and a guide book to explore the city while she went to class. I walked around the city and covered most of the "important" sites in the guidebook. 

On Wednesday morning Mari and I headed back to the airport for Dublin. We met up with our other good friend from high school, Brian who was studying in Dublin. Like Mari, Brian had classes that week so Mari and I spent the two days exploring the city. We decided to do the "hop-on hop-off" to tour the city (it's much bigger than Copenhagen). The tour included the Guinness Museum, which at the end both of us decided we still had not developed a taste for the beer yet. 


Friday morning all three of us (Mari, Brian and I) again headed to the airport for another short adventure this time to Edinburg. We spend most of our short time here doing our own "Harry Potter Tour". We began with the Edinburg Castle (which Hogwarts is based on and you can see from where she wrote the first book) then to the Elephant House for lunch, tea and coffee, which is where J.K. Rowling created Harry potter, then to the cemetery right next door for Tom Riddles grave stone. We made it into a game to try and find the tomb stone first. Mari and I tied. Unfortunately HP was more important than the Loch ness Monster so we never made it there.... Also our first day in Edinburg Mari and I were carded about 10 times, 4 of which were at the same place. Apparently we really look under the age of 18.... Also fun story we tried to go to this pub, but I didn't bring my license only my ISC card and a photocopy of my passport. The bouncer told me I photoshopped it all. I told him I didn't even know where to even start that process. So yeah we didn't get in....  

After a week of traveling I parted ways with Mari and Brian and headed back to Firenze for another week of classes.