Rome

Buongiorno!

So amidst all of the traveling I have been doing lately, I am happy to update my last trip for a short while, and what better way to do it with Rome for the Easter weekend! This was an awesome weekend and a very very busy one as well. I knew Rome obviously had a lot of sites to see, being the phenomenal ancient city that it is, but man were there a lot of sites! You really don't realize how much there truly is to see in this city until you get there and spend a weekend walking all day each day going to different sites. My roommates and I started our trip at the beginning of the slightly longer Easter weekend on Thursday. We took a short flight to Rome and took a shuttle into the city where I was first exposed to some of the sites of the city.

The Colosseum

Once we got into the city, our first objective was to locate our hostel. It took awhile but we eventually found it and it was only a short 10 minute walk to the Colosseum! So after we got there, we dropped off our stuff and made our way to the famous Roman Colosseum. It was later in the evening when we got there so we didn't get to go inside of it yet but it was nice to hang out around it while it was lit up. That day was actually Rome's 2,764th birthday so we thought there may be some events going on at night, but for the most part it was pretty quiet. After seeing the Colosseum, which was truly incredible and I couldn't believe I was there, we made our way back to the hostel to get some rest for the long day ahead of us in the morning. For this next day, we had planned to see the Ancient City of Rome as well as a  lot of the other sites in the center of the city. So we got up early and the first thing we went to get was the Roma Pass. This pass is an awesome deal and it allowed us to skip the line for the first two sites we saw and we got to use it for all of the public transportation in Rome for only 25 euros! So once we got the pass we immediately headed to the Colosseum to skip the line and go inside. Once we got inside I really could not believe how large the Colosseum was. It looks pretty large from the outside, but from the inside you can tell just how massive it really is, especially for the time it was used, it was truly an architectural feat. We spent a lot of time in the Colosseum and got plenty of pictures before heading off to the Roman Forum.

A view of the Forum and the Colosseum.

For those who do not know what the Roman Forum is, it is basically a very condensed area of a ton of old Roman ruins lined up along the oldest street in Rome, via Sacra. So we skipped the line for this as well and headed into the area. It was really neat to see so many ancient Roman ruins in one area and the age of the city really stands out here. After walking for a bit through all of these ruins, we made our way up to Palatine Hill, where we were able to get an amazing view of the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and Capitoline Hill. It was really cool to be able to see this whole landscape, and on the other side of the hill we were able to see the very few remains of the massive Circus Maximus arena, where they held many of the chariot races. From Palatine Hill, we went off in search of a pizza place for lunch that we had heard was incredible.It took us a bit of time to locate the pizza place, as it was fairly small, off of a small street in the area of Trastevere. The name of the pizza place is Dar Poeta, and I can say that I had probably the best pizza of my entire life. It was a pizza with pesto, potatoes, and cherry tomatoes and the ingredients were so fresh and it was incredible. Once we finished enjoying our pizza, we went to Piazza Navona, which is a pretty large, really nice piazza, and then we went to the Pantheon. When we got there it was packed and there was a mass going on inside that everyone was trying to see. We decided that we would head there later and we then went to the Trevi Fountain. As soon as I saw the fountain I was very impressed.

The Trevi Fountain

The fountain really is quite large and the sculptures are really neat. It is a very elaborate fountain and I thought it was one of my favorite sites in Rome. We threw some coins in the fountain, and we then went to the Spanish Steps. It was quite crowded when we got there, and we headed up the steps and into the Trinità dei Monti church at the top which was nice. We got a really good view of the city, and just like most other views we had, we were able to see the massive St. Peter's Basilica looming in the distance. From there, we headed down a road to Piazza del Popolo, which is another really neat piazza in the northern part of the city. After hanging out in the piazza for a bit, we took the metro back to the area of the ancient city, where we checked out the massive monument of Vittorio Emanuele II which was extremely impressive and this was also one of my favorite sites to see in Rome. After checking out this massive monument, we started to head back to the hostel when we noticed that they were closing the entire street near the Colosseum and people were gathering all along the street for some kind of event. After asking a couple of people, I was told that there was going to be a special ceremony when the Pope was going to make an appearance down the street in his "Popemobile." Unfortunately, it wasn't for another 2 hours and people were already crowding the area. We were not able to wait that long because we were quite hungry and we had to catch the free pasta the hostel offered that evening. So we got back to the hostel and had some really good dinner. After dinner, we pretty much just hung out with some of the other people at the hostel which was fun. We then went to sleep so we can wake up early to head to the Vatican the next day. Once we got ready the next morning, we made our way to the Vatican and went over to the Vatican Museums, as those usually have the longest line to get in. Even at 9 in the morning the line was already pretty long, and we had to wait for maybe an hour to get in, knowing it was going to be worse later on.

One of the corridors leading to the Sistine Chapel.

We got in and headed to the Sistine Chapel. It took a bit of walking to get to the chapel but the walk to the chapel was pretty neat. We went through a number of corridors that were very elaborately decorated and were lined with numerous sculptures and paintings. When we finally got to the Sistine Chapel I was pretty impressed. The artwork was very nice and we hung out in the chapel for a bit and started going to a couple other parts of the museums. There were a couple of little parks we went through that had some pretty cool works of art and then we went to a sculpture museum with a ton of really neat, elaborate sculptures of a ton of different stuff. I really enjoyed this part of the museum and I thought it was really cool to see all the different types of sculptures that were contained here. After checking that out, we exited the museum and headed to St. Peter's square in hopes of entering the Basilica. When we got to the square, I was totally blown away at how large the church was and it was a really amazing setup. However, I had never seen a line so long going into the Basilica. The line literally went around the entire square (which is huge) and it was probably at least three hours long. I think this was mostly due to the holiday weekend, and, because they were closing the Basilica in three hours to prepare for an evening vigil, we decided that it would be best to not get in the extremely long line. It was still really neat to just hang out in the square and relax in the Vatican City, I couldn't complain haha. After hanging out for a bit in the Vatican, we headed down the main street there and walked a bit along the Tiber River which was quite scenic. We got some food, and then headed back to the Pantheon to see if we could get inside. When we got to the Pantheon, there was no mass taking place so we were able to go inside. It was HUGE on the inside and I thought it was incredible. The architecture inside the Pantheon is remarkable, and we were also able to see the tomb of Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of Italy, which I thought was awesome to see. After spending some time in the Pantheon, we ended up going back to the Vatican because I wanted to go to the post office there and get some

St. Peter's Basilica

Vatican stamps to send a postcard, it was pretty cool to see the little post office there and just outside of that was a pair of Swiss guards dressed in some pretty elaborate uniforms. We watched the changing of the guard which was cool and then we ended up seeing if there was any way to go into the rest of the city, Since St. Peter's is really near the front entrance to the city. However, after asking one of the Swiss guards, we found out that the rest of the city is private, and it is not open to the public. It was still cool to walk around a bit of the city, and when we got done with that, we headed back towards the ancient part of Rome to check out the Bocca della Verità. Legend has it that if you stick your hand in the mouth of this sculpture, it would be bitten off if you were a liar. This is a popular tourist attraction and when we got there, it was unfortunately closed. We then headed back to the hostel after that and got some dinner. After dinner, Mike and I wanted to check out some of the nightlife in the city. We didn't end up leaving the hostel until a little late that night, but we found a pub in a part of the city that we hung out at for a bit. After that, there wasn't much else to do and we basically made our way back to the hostel to get ready for our last half-day in Rome. When we got up the next day, Felix and our buddy Nick went to mass, and Mike and I went to the Trevi Fountain one more time so that he could throw a coin in the fountain. After going to the fountain again, we decided to go to the Vatican again, since it was Easter day. When we got there, there were a TON of people on the way there and when we actually got to the main square, I was able to hear an older man's voice on the loudspeakers. The entire square was packed with people and I don't know if I've ever seen that many people in one area before. After the man was finished talking, everybody was clapping and then people began to exit the square. After I heard that, I was pretty sure that it was the Pope, although I wasn't certain, since it was difficult to see him from where we were.

The Swiss Guards

Once people began to leave, me and Mike were able to get into the square and we realized that the Easter mass had just ended. I don't think we would have been able to make it to the actual mass if we had gotten there earlier though because I think we needed a special ticket to get into the city for the mass, which is free, but you need to book a year in advance! But it was still cool to see a bunch of people from different countries waving their flags and the overall atmosphere of the city on Easter was really nice. We hung out again for a bit in the square and then headed back to the hostel to get ready to head back to Torino. Before we made our way out of the city, we checked out one last church, one of the four main churches in Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore. This was a very impressive church and it is probably one of the nicest churches I have been to so far. After checking out the church, we headed back to the shuttle, and two shuttles and a flight later, we were back in Torino. This was an extremely busy trip, as we saw a lot of sites in this incredible city. Although it was quite exhausting, I was really happy with the city and I was just amazed at how much there was to see. Although I wish we could have gone into St. Peter's Basilica, which I have heard is amazing, I guess you simply cannot do everything in Rome in 3 days. This was a really awesome trip, but I gotta say that I am pretty traveled out at the moment, since I have been doing so much of it lately. I only spent one full day in Torino this week! So I am definitely excited to stay in Torino for probably the next two weeks before my program is over! That's about it for Rome.

 Ciao!

Cinque Terre/Brussels

Ciao a Tutti!

So this past weekend has been an extremely busy one. I took a trip to Cinque Terre over the weekend and the day after I got back I left for Brussels to visit the European Union Parliament with my economics class! It was really excited but VERY busy and definitely exhausting, but I can say these two trips were well worth it. Starting on Friday, I was getting ready for my trip to Cinque Terre.

Manarola

For those who do not know, Cinque Terre is an absolutely beautiful and incredible place along the Ligurian coast, just South of Torino. In English, Cinque Terre translates to "5 towns," and these are five towns literally built along a series of cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. You could either hike along a coastal trail between them, or you can hike up along the higher cliffs looking down on the towns through all 5 areas. You can also take a train, which is the fastest way to get between the towns. The total hike is about 5 hours, and it's well worth it. There was a large group of us that decided to go this weekend, so we decided to catch a really early train on Saturday morning at 5:20am so that we could get in to the first town Monterosso at around 9:30am. Then we would stay the night in a nearby city on Saturday night and leave Sunday evening at around 6pm back to Torino. The beginning of this trip started off a little slow after me and my roommate, Mike, missed the 5:20am train and got on the wrong train headed towards the coast, but near France! haha. So as soon as we found out, we were able to turn in the other direction, and about 5 trains and hours later we finally made it to the second city of Cinque Terre (Vernazza) and we met up with the others. It was quite an adventure at the beginning, but we made it there and after meeting up with everyone else, we walked around the town for a bit and then took a train to the city of La Spezia, where our hostel was nearby. We got into La Spezia, went around the city, and then took a bus a little ways into the hills and barely found our hostel. The hostel was really nice and was more like a bed and breakfast. I really liked it and it was in a nice small town in the hills of the Ligurian coast. We got some sleep and the next day, we headed back to Cinque Terre and began our hike. We took a train to the 5th town, Riomaggiore, and took a coastal path from there to the fourth town, Manarola. This was an amazing path and we had some beautiful views of the coast from here. It was awesome, and after spending some time in Manarola, we went along the coastal path again, getting some awesome pictures of the town on the way.

Vineyards cut into the hills.

We then discovered that the coastal path from Manarola to the 3rd town, Corniglia, was closed, either from construction or a possible landslide. So after turning around from that, we decided to take the more intense path, up into the cliffs above, to get to Corniglia. This turned out to be quite exhausting, as there appeared to be endless steps, and after over 1000ft. of elevation gain, we made it to the top of the cliffs and had a stunning view of the towns beneath us. Walking along this path was truly incredible, as we were able to see Corniglia below us, and we made our way towards the town. Another amazing thing we saw were the surrounding hills above the towns. The workers from these towns would literally cut into the hills and create rows of vineyards up and down the hills. It created an astonishing view and I had never really seen anything like it before. What's even more amazing was the workers had built a track made from a single steel bar, that would go to the top of the hills, and was used to help them transport the grapes to the bottom of the hills from the vineyards at the top, using a makeshift motor device, with a chair the workers would sit in. Let me tell you, if you are afraid of heights, I would not recommend doing this as I could not believe how the workers used this machine because at some points the track would get extremely steep! Once we got down into Corniglia, we got some amazing mint chocolate gelato, and made our way down a few hundred steps to the base of the cliff where the train station was located. We then took a train from Corniglia to the first town, Monterosso where we basically stayed on the beach until our train came. We then hopped on our train and finally made it back to Torino. This trip was absolutely incredible and I had an awesome time in Cinque Terre, despite the long adventure getting there haha. After we had got back from Cinque Terre, I immediately had to start packing again for my trip to Brussels, Belgium! My economics class had planned an optional trip to Brussels to visit the European Union Parliament. If you aren't familiar with the European Union, I could probably spend a very large amount of time talking about it, although for the sake of the length of this blog I will leave it up to you to look it up haha. Anyways, the next day I was headed off to Brussels in the afternoon and finally arrived there that evening.

When we got there we checked into our hotel and we basically had the rest of the evening free, as we would visit the Parliament the next day and then leave that evening. So myself and the two friends that I booked the hotel with decided to see as much as we could during the short amount of time we had in Brussels. We unpacked and headed to the Grand Place, which is basically the center of Brussels. On our way walking there I was amazed at some of the architecture that Brussels had to offer. There were many palaces and cathedrals in the city and I was blown away when I saw them. When we got to Grand Place it was amazing. There was a huge palace with a bunch of shops all around the area and there were a lot of people out on this Monday night. Once we got some pictures, we set out to get an authentic Belgian waffle and IT WAS AMAZING. I had one topped off with some Belgian chocolate which tasted incredible. After that we then set out to have some Belgian fries which were also incredible. We also had sampled some Belgian chocolate before and it was delicious. After eating the amazing local food, we decided to check out a bar called Delirium, this bar contains over 2500 different types of beer so we had to check it out. It was really cool and I cold not believe how packed it was for a Monday night! It is pretty well known and, like I said, there is a lot of beer there. My buddy Nate had a traditional Belgian cherry beer which tasted absolutely delicious and I had myself a honey flavored beer. They tasted pretty incredible and all three floors of this place had really good music and vibes and we just had a really fun time hanging out there. After seeing Delirium, we made our way back to the hotel and got some sleep. We woke up the next day and made our way to meet the rest of the class at the Parliament. When we got there, I was pretty impressed with the overall size and structure of the building. It was very modern and it looked very impressive.

A waffle truck hahaha.

We met up with the assistant of one of the former Vice Presidents of the European Union and she took us through the building up to a conference room and explained to us some of the basics of how the European Union works. It is a very impressive and somewhat complex institution, but it was really interesting to learn about how it works and how many people are involved in it. After this, we had the opportunity to possibly attend a conference involving the Minister of Finance from Italy as well as the former Vice President of the Parliament. Unfortunately, the conference was full and we were not able to meet the former Vice President, but his assistant did give us a quick tour of the inside of the Parliament and I thought it was very impressive. I was really happy with being able to go inside of the Parliament and seeing what it was really like, since we had learned a lot about it in my class. After that we also got the chance to see the European Commission, which is one of the world's most important and controversial political institutions (you might also want to look this up). That was really neat to see and after that we were able to see the Council of Ministers of the European Union which was also really neat. After seeing these sites, we then made our way back to the airport and made it back to Torino at around midnight. This was yet another really good trip and I wish I could have spent more time in Brussels to see more of the city. I would love to go back and check it out if I ever get the chance again. After these two trips, this week has proven to be probably the busiest so far. As I am only spending one full day in Torino before heading off to Rome this Thursday for Easter weekend! There is a lot of traveling this week but I think I'm going to relax and stay in town the following weekend to give myself a break. But anyways, I should be getting ready for Rome and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Ciao!

My Two Weeks In Torino/Paris

Ciao and Bonjour!

So it has definitely been awhile since I have had a post on my blog. This is mostly due to the fact that I have spent two consecutive weeks in Torino and just got back from Paris this previous weekend! I didn't have much planned for the two weekends of this three weekend span so I pretty much laid low during these first two weekends and stayed in Torino, relaxing and enjoying my time living here. I think it is very important to spend some time in the actual city that you are studying. It is also very important to just live a regular life in the city and not have to worry about traveling everywhere all the time. It was a really relaxing couple of weeks and I had an absolutely awesome time staying in Torino.

The chocolate Italy!

The highlight of my first weekend in this span staying in Torino was definitely the chocolate festival. We went as a group over to the festival downtown and it was really cool. Definitely the most chocolate I have ever seen. They had a huge map of Italy made of chocolate! With miniature famous sites to see around Italy in their corresponding geographical city, completely made of chocolate! We checked out a few of the chocolate booths set up, selling a bunch of different types of chocolate and then I was off to relax back at the apartment. I spent this weekend as well as the next experiencing a lot of the nightlife that Torino has to offer and I gotta say it was extremely fun. We went to a number of clubs and bars in the city and I had an awesome time. I had so much fun at the clubs, blasting electronic music, dancing on stages, and partying until about 6am haha. It was really cool and I was able to sleep in for as long as I needed to which was nice. The following weekend I stayed in Torino and once again, had an amazing time. The highlight of this weekend would have to be visiting the automobile museum as well as having a barbecue at one of the parks in town (or so we thought). So in between the more clubbing we did during this weekend we first checked out the newly renovated automobile museum in Torino, which was probably one of my favorite museums so far. It was really nice and they had a very impressive collection of cars here. They had a lot of older cars, as they went over the general history of the automobile, with influences in European countries.

An old FIAT. Straight outta Torino.

They had a lot of cool racing cars (Ferraris, etc.) and then they had a pretty cool collection of more modern cars and some concept cars (probably my favorite part of the museum). There was another section going over the designers of the cars which was really cool. It was a very impressive museum with very unique and creative exhibits that really demonstrated the reason why Torino is the automobile capital of Italy. The next day, a large group of us that were still in town had a barbecue in a park. It was really cool, although it took us about 2 and a half to 3 hours to get there! We had no idea it was going to be that far, and we had to hop on a bus for about 45 min. then walk pretty much forever until we reached a spot. It was funny though and we all joked about it when we got there. It was really fun though, we hung out with some Italian friends as well as friends within the program, and we cooked some pretty good food from our makeshift fire that we made from a tree stump haha. We had a really fun time there and it was worth the walk. This was another successful weekend in Torino and I was really glad that I stayed and relaxed in the city with some friends. The next weekend (this past weekend) I had the opportunity to visit Paris, France and it was incredible. I went with a few people from the program and one of them, Miles, had a friend who was studying abroad in nearby Beauvais, France. This worked out perfectly because the airport we flew into from Torino was actually in Beauvais and I got the flight for really cheap. It was awesome because as soon as we got there, Miles' friend Josh (the one studying there) had us picked up by some of his French friends who have cars, and we got a free ride straight to the school. We arrived in the evening, and Josh was organizing a big party at the school that night, so as soon as we got to the school we immediately started partying haha. The school was really neat and it was basically exactly the same as a traditional American college campus. This is not common in Europe, but I thought it was really cool and it reminded me a little bit of back home.

Once we started partying over there, we went to the main area in the school where the party was, which was an area with two big rooms, with a dance floor, bar, etc. They also had some live music playing and even a little catwalk set up for a fun fashion show that we all did haha. It was super fun and I met so many nice French students there. I could not have asked for more and French people really are some of the nicest people I have ever met. The student life here was awesome, and I wish my school in Torino was similar to this. We all had a blast the first night, dancing with French girls and partying late in the night haha. The next day, we took a train to Paris, which was about an hour to an hour and a half train ride. When we got there, we took a metro into the main part of the city and began our tour. We had a French guy with us for any translation we needed and the first thing we did was head into a creperie, which is basically a restaurant dedicated to a bunch of different crepes. I had a crepe covered in homemade chocolate and it was INCREDIBLE. It was a great way to start off our time in the city of Paris. From there we made our way over to the Notre Dame which was quite a site to see. That was really cool and from there, we walked over to the Louvre, which was quite huge. We didn't have time to go inside of it, however, because the Louvre is basically a day trip just for the museum! From the Louvre, we walked all the way to the Arc de Triumphe, stopping for some Starbucks on the way, of course. This thing was massive and another really neat site to see in the city. As we saw the sites around the city, we could always see the Eiffel Tower looming in the sky, so after seeing the Arc we walked over to the one and only Eiffel Tower.

Me chillin at the base of the tower rockin a blazer.

When we got there and stood at the base of it, I could not believe how massive the tower really was. It was truly incredible to see and I never thought I would be standing at the base of it. It was definitely one of the coolest sites I have seen, and we got plenty of pictures of it. At this point, our group separated a bit, as some people needed to head back to Beauvais for the night, giving us the option of heading back with them, or staying in the city for the night and staying at one of Josh's French friends' apartment in a suburb of Paris. After seeing the tower, my decision was easy to make, and I decided to stay in the city. Night time approached and we were able to see the tower light up under the night sky, which was an amazing site to say the least. Then, for about ten minutes on the hour, every hour from about 9pm to 1am, the entire tower would literally sparkle. There were thousands of little flashing lights installed on the tower and for ten minutes they would flash and it was unbelievable. It was so neat and I knew that we had to make our way to the top. So a group of us took the stairs to the second floor, then an elevator to the very top, and we made it up for about 9 euros total. It was a breathtaking site of the city, especially at night, seeing all of the lights of the city. On the inside of the top of the tower, it was really cool because they would have flags of large cities around the world, with the distance of how far that city was from where we were, in the corresponding direction. I thought that was pretty interesting and it was neat to see. After seeing the tower, we took a metro outside of the city and got a ride to the apartment of one of our French friends to stay there for the night. We basically spent the rest of the night talking with them about French life and the differences and similarities between their way of life and our way of life. It was so neat to talk to these guys about life in France and I found it to be very interesting. We talked for hours and at about 6am I ended up going to sleep haha. Like I said, the French people are extremely nice and I was very grateful to have a free place to stay in Paris (saving thousands of euros haha). I learned a lot about the culture there and I talked to them a lot about American culture which was cool. The next day was probably one of the most exhausting traveling days I've had so far.

The sparkling tower.

We woke up at around 10:30am and traveled the entire day, finally getting back around 8:30pm. To make a long story short, from the apartment we stayed at, we had to take a suburban train to one of the main train stations in Paris, then we had to run to the metro, then we had to take the metro to a second train station, missed the first train, the second train was later than expected making it more stressful to catch the flight, then we finally took the next train to Beauvais, got a ride from French friends to the airport, flew to Torino, took the shuttle from the airport to the city, then hopped on the second metro to my part of the city, and I finally arrived at my apartment. 8 total modes of transportation with about 6 different modes of transportation in a row. It was crazy but we somehow made it back on about 4 hours of sleep so that was interesting haha. In the end, I still think it was all worth it. I definitely wished I could have stayed in Paris longer because we seriously were only there for like half a day. We did a lot with the time we had but it definitely would have been nice to see more. I can't complain though because we did have a free place to stay and the flights were cheap. All in all I loved the Eiffel Tower, but it's hard to say which was better between that and just interacting with the French people. Having fun with the French students on Friday night and Saturday was awesome, and I think most of the time it's the people you meet that really make your trip worth it, no matter how many sites you see or all of the places you go. The connection you get by meeting people all over the world and learning about their culture often makes trips even more memorable, and I think I learned that a lot from this trip. Josh is a really cool guy, and his French friends are what made this trip really great for me. That's about it for this trip. Don't forget to check out Facebook for more pictures!

Au Revoir!

Spring Break

Salve!

So this year's spring break definitely turned out to be an awesome one. In the beginning I had no idea where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do for spring break so I had a lot of trouble deciding. I kind of had a plan later on in the semester on what I wanted to do but I hadn't booked any flights until it was too late, so they ended up being a little too expensive.

A really neat row of houses along a canal.

I was a little worried that I wasn't going to have a very good break since I hadn't booked anything but in the end it turned out to be a lot of fun. Me and my roommate ended up finding some decent flights to Amsterdam so we decided that we were going to spend a few days there and then head back to Torino for the 150th anniversary of Italy. So, on our first day of spring break we flew out to Amsterdam which was actually my first time in a plane since I got here haha. When we got to Amsterdam we were pretty blown away. It was wayyy different from Torino and holy crap there were a lot of bikes! I've never seen so many bikes in my entire life and I could not believe it. Once we got there, we headed to the hostel and checked out the city. Ansterdam is definitely a unique place to say the least haha and I definitely saw some things that I can't really describe on the blog (most of these things being in the red light district of course). But it was nice to relax in one place for a few days instead of constantly be traveling around everywhere for spring break. One of the funnest things we did was rent bikes and ride around the city. It was a lot of fun, and it was pretty easy since they have bike paths everywhere. I heard that bike paths are all over the country so you can get just about anywhere on a bike. The city had some awesome architecture that was a lot different from a lot of the places I had been to so it was really nice to see that. Just about everything is made out of brick and a lot of the houses were connected to each other like town houses. There was also a number of canals that go throughout the city so it even reminded me a little of Venice, and that provided for some really good scenery.

The main shopping center!

We ended up riding our bikes to the Van Gogh Museum to check out some artwork and that was really neat. From there, we headed to the Ann Frank House. There was a bit of a line going into the Ann Frank House so we didn't end up going inside but being on the outside was still really cool. After that, we turned in the bikes and got some dinner. I would say the thing that I ate the most while we were there was the fries. They had some pretty amazing fries you can get and then choose from about 30 different kinds of sauce. All of the sauces I had were, of course, awesome. Each night we would meet up with another group of people we knew from the program who were also staying there and we would go out to check out some of the pubs, bars, etc. They all turned out to be pretty cool and I had a really good time while I was there. After we got back from Amsterdam we spent the rest of our spring break in Torino for the 150th anniversary of Italy. It was really cool to celebrate this in Torino because it was actually the first capital of Italy back in 1861 which also made the event pretty special. The night before the big day, we headed out to the biggest piazza in the city and they had a huge stage set up playing live music and it was PACKED. There were thousands of people crowding around for the firework show that was about to take place. I got a really good spot and when the fireworks started I was blown away. It was a really cool show and it went on for awhile. It reminded me of back home when we celebrate 4th of July. It was just really cool to see so many people out and celebrating the unification of their country, definitely a cool cultural experience for sure.

A unified Italy.

The next day, we went downtown again and checked out all of the stuff going on for the celebration. Every piazza was filled with people and there were a bunch of street performers putting on shows, live music, booths, etc. It was nice to see everyone out having a good time on this national holiday and I really enjoyed it. This took place on the same day as St. Patrick's day in Ireland so we did a little celebrating for that as well. That last weekend I finally got my first taste of an Italian "disco." Some friends and I went and we had a really good time. They played a lot of good music, including a bunch of music from the States! (It's really popular over here). We were there until 5:30am and people were still dancing when we left! It was crazy but I had a really good time. Other than that, we just relaxed most of the time in Torino and overall I had an awesome spring break. Until my next trip,

Arrivederci!

The Ivrea Carnival

Hello Everyone!

So yesterday, on Tuesday March 8th, 2011 I had one of the funnest experiences of my entire life. I had the opportunity to visit the Ivrea carnival. This trip was organized by my study abroad program and it was just a day trip since the town of Ivrea was only about an hour train ride away. I had seen videos of what the carnival was like, but I still wasn't exactly sure what to expect so I was kind of anxious. There is a lot of history behind this small town's carnival and it basically started in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But the main event of this carnival is an absolutely MASSIVE orange battle the takes place over the course of five days! This dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century when beans were originally used because "twice a year the feudal lord gave a pot of beans to the poor families who, out of disrespect, threw them into the streets. The same pulses were also used at carnival as fun ammunition to be thrown at the backs of unsuspecting adversaries. Around the thirties and sixties of last century, girls started to throw some oranges from their balconies onto the parade carriages together with confetti, lupins and flowers. The targets of these were the boys by whom the girls wanted to be noticed. From the carriages the boys started to answer in kind and little by little, the gesture of homage became first a duel and then a real fight between the throwers on the balconies and those in the streets. Only after the Second World War did the battle become the present contest following fixed rules." (There's a nice history lesson for you).

So, we took a train and got to Ivrea at around noon. We talked towards the city center and had time to eat because the battles started at around 2pm. After walking around the heart of the town you can definitely get an idea of how serious this battle was going to be. Tuesday was the last day of the 5 day-long battles and I was told that there was over 100 people hospitalized on Sunday! (the craziest day). So needless to say I was a little nervous. The way it's organized is there are basically 9 teams, each team is located in one of the several piazzas in the town, with most of the time multiple teams in one piazza. Now, to be on an official team you need to pay 100 euros and you get a uniform and you get to take from the large orange pile on the side of the piazza. You also get free food and drinks during the carnival events which is nice, and this is for all five days. But we did not have to pay this because you can still participate without being on a team, but you obviously don't get a uniform and you can only use the oranges from the ground and of course no free food or drinks. So, the teams are spread out throughout the piazza and when the carnival starts, there are carriages  of the other teams being pulled by horse that go through the piazza. On these carriages are members of the other teams who are covered in armor and wearing helmets. The point is to basically hit these guys as much as you can and as hard as you can as they are being pulled around on their carriage throughout the piazza. Now these guys also have oranges, a lot of oranges, and there's about 8 of them per carriage. So they are constantly throwing oranges at everyone else in the piazza, while everyone else is throwing oranges at them. Also, if you are wearing red, they cannot hit you, and there are also nets on the side of the piazza where people can stand behind if they do not want to participate. So I bought a small red bandana to whip out just in case it got too intense haha. And if you are a person in the piazza, and you start hitting people that are not in the carriage, then everyone else starts hitting you, even if you're on another team, so DONT DO IT haha. And if you want to be one of the guys on the carriage, then you have to pay 500 euros! 

So 2pm was approaching and we were in one of the piazzas with multiple teams. There were two teams in this one and at the beginning there was a cool parade-like presentation and then the carriage carrying the "Vezzosa Mugnaia," or the heroine of the carnival, was brought throughout the piazza, throwing flowers in the crowd as everyone cheered for her. There's a reason why people cheer for her too, she pays around 80,000 euros! So she basically pays for the whole carnival to take place! That was really neat, and as the parade ended, the carriages came out and the battle began. And OH MY GOD this was crazy. The first two carriages came out and oranges started flying everywhere. I could not believe it and I immediately grabbed the first orange I saw and started throwing, trying not to get hit and trying to hit the guys on the carriage. This was absolutely insane and after the first two carriages went through, there was a 3-5 minute break before the next ones came so we decided to go to one of the more intense piazzas to meet up with one of our program coordinators, Daniele, who comes here every year and says this is the funnest place to go during the battles. This was a much smaller piazza with a bridge leading up to it so you can tell you were a lot more vulnerable here. Once we got there, the carriages were on our way and we stood on the bridge. Once they came we started to throw as many oranges as we could. I was relatively clean for about the first hour (by the way, the battles didn't end until about 5:30 so they went on for over 3 hours!) but after that people decided to squeeze some oraanges over my head and get me covered haha. We also got "baptized" which is when we got down on our knees as people threw 9 oranges straight at us point blank and I gotta say, those things hurt! After that I got a little more confident and worked my way up to the walls of the carriage and unleashed. It was so much fun and I did this for the rest of the battles. There a couple headshots I received and one of them got me in the eye which definitely hurt but I guess it's all part of the experience haha. Anyways, like I said, it was definitely one of the funnest times of my entire life and I swear, I had never seen, and will never see, so many oranges in one place.  

I could not believe it. By the end of the battles I was nearly up to my shins in orange peels, and I was absolutely covered haha. At the very end, there was a point where everyone got down on the goround and they were pretty much swimming in orange peels haha. It was awesome, and after the battles there was a larger parade which was really neat. And again, the Magnaia would pass through and everyone would cheer her name. But I think the best part of the parade was something Daniele pointed out. Not one orange was thrown during the parade because people respected the rules, and they respected the tradition behind this event, and that is something that I loved the most about the carnival. It's so rich in tradition, and everyone who participates has so much respect for it. Honestly, this carnival made Venice look like nothing, and again, I am so thankful to have had this experience of authentic Italian culture and tradition and this is one event that I would be willing to visit each year, bringing as many friends as I can because this is something that NEEDS TO BE EXPERIENCED. After all, Daniele even has friends from America that come all the way here each year just to participate. It was truly an incredible experience that I will never forget and I'm so glad I went. Check the pics on Facebook!

Ciao!

Pisa and Florence

Hello!

They were lucky I was there to hold it up.

Time for another eventful weekend update! So this weekend I got the opportunity to go to Pisa and Florence! And I gotta say I probably saw more amazing sights in these two places than just about anywhere else so far. This was a really awesome trip and I cannot believe that I got the chance to see some of the amazing sights in these two cities. It all started on Friday morning when me and my roommate Felix hopped on a train at 8 in the morning and we were off to Pisa. We got to Pisa at around 1 in the afternoon and made our way to the most famous location in the town, the Leaning Tower of Pisa! It was across the town from the train station so it was a decent walk but on the way we stopped by a really small but cool church called the Santa Maria della Spina. This was a really small church but it had a ton of really cool little sculptures around it that made it really attractive on the outside. It was right on the River Arno too so it was a pretty scenic location which was nice. After checking out the little church we finally ended up at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And I'll be honest the first time I saw it the tower was a little smaller than I thought but still nothing short of amazing. I could not believe that I was actually looking at the tower. The tower is also situated near this really amazing cathedral and baptistry which provided for an incredible setting. Once we got there, we ate some lunch then got our tickets to go to the top of the tower! It was nice because there really wasn't much of a line and the weather was pretty clear and not too chilly. As soon as I approached the entrance I was so blown away I was about to enter the tower. The entrance was even leaning to the side and when you walk in you can even feel the lean as you're going up the stairs! The stairs led to a middle floor where you can go out on a surrounding balcony of the tower and walk all the way around and it was definitely a little scary! The lean made for a hesitant feeling when I stood on the outside of the tower but it was still really cool. We then proceeded up to the top balcony of the tower and the view was really nice. There were a number of really neat bells situated at the top and I was able to see the entire cathedral and baptistry which was awesome. From there, we were able to go to the very top of the tower where you had the best view of the town. You can pretty much see all of Pisa from up there since it's a relatively small town and you can also see the surrounding hillsides of Tuscany. This was a truly amazing point of the trip and I even made an attempt to call my parents when I was at the top just because I was so excited haha.

A view from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

After getting some really neat pictures at the top (check Facebook!) we headed back down and went inside the cathedral which was also pretty incredible (like just about every cathedral in Italy). After the cathedral, we walked back to the train station and hopped on one of the many trains to Florence. When we first got to Florence we headed to the hostel to check in and it turned out to be a pretty nice place. There was cool writing and artwork all over the walls from people that have stayed there before and it was just a really nice, modern facility. They offer free dinner and breakfast so I couldn't complain and there was free internet as well. We got there in the evening so we basically just hung out at the hostel for a bit and we ended up meeting some pretty cool guys from Nice, France. There were two of them and they were just staying for the night so we all went out and headed to a couple of discos. When we arrived at one of the discos it was still a little early so we walked around a little more, ended up getting some Kebab (best food item in the world) and then headed to another disco. Unfortunately, for some reason this disco was closed and by this time it was getting a little late, everyone wanted to head back to the hotel. I, however, wanted to check out the first disco we left before, so I went back out and checked it out for myself. When I got there it was a really cool venue.

The Duomo!

The club was called "Space" and it had two floors, the first floor had a neat bar and the second floor was the dance floor. Unfortunately it wasn't very crowded at the time so the club was a little slow but it was the first one I had been to in Europe so it was pretty cool. After checking that out I headed back to the hostel and got some sleep. The next day we woke up for some free breakfast where I had an awesome omelet and we got ready just in time for a free 2 hour tour of the main part of the city from the hostel. It was really cool and I learned some new things about the history of the city and we got to see a lot of the really cool sites. There were a lot of really nice little churches including the main attraction of Florence, the Duomo (main cathedral). This was by far the largest cathedral I have ever seen and one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. This thing absolutely blew me away and I could not believe what I was seeing. It was absolutely massive and it was really neat to see. After that, the group continued on to what was known as Dante's cathedral (named after Dante Alighieri, the major Italian poet). That was really neat to see and from there we went to a few more sites before stopping in a really cool area in front of the world famous Uffizi museum filled with replicas and some originals of some really cool statues. After the tour we ended up going nearby to check out the most famous bridge in Florence, the Ponte Vecchio, which was really neat. From there we headed back to the hostel, took a short break, then made our way to the Duomo. Once we got there we went inside and it was HUGE. I could not believe the size of it when I went inside, absolutely gigantic. After walking around inside we then took the challenge of ascending to the top of the Duomo. It was a total of about 460-something steps, definitely a bit of a hike but well worth it. On the way up there was a point where we actually got to walk around the inside of the Duomo, suspended on a protected walkway probably nearly 200ft. above the inside of the Duomo! It was nuts and I think the pictures speak for themselves. That was definitely the scariest part of the climb. After that, a few more stairways and we got to the top. The top of the Florence Duomo was quite possibly one of the coolest views I have ever seen. You can see the entire city from the top and it was truly incredible. Again, check the pics because it really is quite indescribable, you can basically see everything. We spent a good amount of time at the top of the Duomo, soaking in the view and then we headed back down. We were even higher up on the inside of the Duomo on the way down. At just about where the paintings on the inside of the Dome start! (check the pics it's crazy). After we got all the way down, looking back up at the Duomo, it really hit me, and I was just in shock for a good hour after that, I simply could not believe it. Right after that we headed over to the Galleria dell'Accademia where the original statue of David, carved by Michelangelo, is held. I'll be honest I'm not extremely into the whole art thing, and after seeing a replica of this statue at the end of the tour that day, I didn't think the original would be much different. But, when we got to where the original statue was, I was absolutely blown away.

A view from the top of the Duomo

This was truly a work of art and I think I really started to appreciate art a little more after I saw this. This thing was MUCH bigger than the replica and stood about 17 feet tall! It was huge, and the thought of me looking at an original work by Michelangelo made it that much cooler. Again, words can barely describe, and unfortunately they don't allow any pictures in the museum so you'll have to go see for yourselves! After seeing David we walked around a little more and basically just hung out for the rest of the evening, We were pretty beat so we didn't really go out that night. We were able to wake up relatively early the next morning on Sunday and the first place we went to was the Galileo Museum. This place was pretty cool but unfortunately we could not take pictures in here either. But they had a lot of old scientific tools here including the telescopes and tools that Galileo himself used. The coolest exhibits in this museum were the actual authentic telescopes that Galileo used as well as three of his preserved fingers! That was pretty crazy to see. And after that we went to the Santa Croce Church, which contains the tombs of Galileo and Michelangelo! I was pretty stoked to go in here and when I did, right inside on the left and right hand sides of the church were the tombs of Galileo and Michelangelo. Galileo on the left wall and Michelangelo on the right. I could not believe I was standing a few feet from the resting places of these two amazingly influential people. (Check Facebook for the pictures!). This was an awesome sight and after this, we walked around a little bit more, and made our way to the train station. From this point on an adventure in itself was created. To make a long story short, (since this post is already long enough) we basically missed our train in one of the transfer stations on the way back and instead of coming back to Torino at 9:47pm we got back at 12:40am haha. And we originally left Florence at 2:28pm! (we might as well have taken a flight back to San Francisco!) Oh well, I guess that's what long layovers will do after missing the train. But it's all part of the experience haha. All in all though this trip (like all the others) has proven to be quite an unforgettable experience that I will surely cherish for the rest of my life. I would have never thought that I would be standing at the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Duomo of Florence, but there I was, and I am forever grateful to have experienced it. Well, that about wraps it up for Pisa and Florence haha. I guess that there is enough to say and plenty to see about these two places so until my next trip,

PEACE

Venice Trip!

Salve!

So this past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Venice for the Carnival! And I must say it was a pretty incredible experience. This trip was put on by my study abroad program so all I had to do was pay a nice cheap price and they reserved the hotel and the bus to get there. It was really nice not to have to worry about where to stay or how to get there and since Venice can be an expensive city we were able to get a really good deal through the program. So on Saturday morning we all met up at the school and hopped on the bus to Venice. This was an optional trip that you can take with the program so most of the students in the program went. It was really cool to spend time with some of the people in the program that I didn't get a chance to hang out with normally so that was really cool. It was probably about a six hour total trip to Venice with a pit stop for food in the middle so it was a decent drive but well worth it. Once we got into Venice I was really excited. The bus dropped us off in Piazzale Roma and from there we had to cross a bridge to get into the city. In the actual city there are absolutely no roads or cars so we had to walk from the bus to the hotel which wasn't too far. As we were walking to the hotel I could not believe that I was actually here. We crossed the Grand Canal and I was pretty blown away at what I saw. We crossed a couple more canals taking multiple bridges everywhere and we got to the hotel. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and met back up to head into the main square, Piazza San Marco.
Since it was carnival the city was absolutely PACKED and it took us awhile to get to the Piazza but the views of the city kept me preoccupied. This place is definitely like a giant maze so it was very important that we stuck together as a group on our way to the Piazza. When we got to the Piazza there was an insane amount of people. The entire Piazza was packed and in the distance there was live music and a bunch of stuff going on. We met up with some tour guides and they gave us a nice 2 hour tour of some parts of the city. They also told us some interesting facts about the city and how Venice actually consists of 118 islands all connected by bridges and separated by canals. I could not believe that fact until I walked more around the city and saw all of the bridges I had to get across to get around haha. During the tour we would see a bunch of dressed up carnival characters and it was really neat. They would wear really elaborate costumes with really neat masks and I was able to get pictures of a few of them (check Facebook!). Once the tour was over the guides let us go and we were basically free to do whatever we wanted that evening. So me and a group of other students went to find a place to eat. We got through the crowds and ended up eating at a small place called Pizza 2000 haha and we got some pizza. Once we got some food we went back to the hotel for a quick stop and went back out to a bar in the city. The bar was a lot of fun and we were there for a little while until people ended up somehow getting split up. I ended up getting separated from our group and was left roaming the walkways of Venice trying to find my way back to the hotel. I didn't have a map so needless to say I was lost for quite awhile haha. But I couldn't complain because it was really neat walking around all of the canals. I knew our hotel was near the train station so I got there but had a lot of trouble finding it from there. I was finally able to find someone after a couple hours who actually located the hotel for me and then walked me there! That was really nice and I finally made it back to the hotel at around 4:30am after a few hours of being lost haha.The next day I woke up and went with a group to the islands of Burano and Murano (world famous for glass blowing).

We first made it to Burano and as our "tour guide/roommate" Felix said, "If Venice was black and white, Burano would be considered a rainbow." This place was extremely colorful with all of the buildings lined up and painted a different variety of really bright and attractive colors. It was really cool to see and of course they didn't have any roads or cars here either. There was also a really cool Duomo that appeared to be leaning and kind of resembled the leaning tower of Pisa haha. From Burano we went to another nearby island and saw a pretty neat church. After that we checked out the island of Murano which is world famous for their glass blowing. This island was really neat because there were a lot of really neat glass sculptures and objects you can buy. It really is an artwork here. We got some lunch where I had Spaghetti with Mussels which was delicious and then we had the opportunity to see a glass blowing demonstration. I'm not gonna lie this was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. they would heat up this rod with a ball of extremely hot glass at the end and then they would spin the rod, using numerous tools to shape the hot glass into the object they were making. This guy made a really cool vase looking object and then he made a glass horse! It was nuts and I'm really glad I saw that. And since the glass is so hot, they only have a minute or two to make they object they want before the glass cools down.

There were a lot of other glass stores that we checked out before heading back into Venice. When we got back to Venice I got myself a carnival mask and we stopped at the hotel for a quick break and then got some dinner and headed out. We had some Kebab for dinner and then I got some Gelato and we went back to the hotel, put on our masks, and got ready for our last night in Venice and went out to another bar. We were at the bar for a bit and unfortunately, since it was Sunday night there wasn't a ton of stuff to do after that. So the group of us went back to the hotel and everyone pretty much passed out. However, I was not ready to pass out at 2:30am in my last night in Venice and I proceeded to go back out into the city haha. As I was leaving the hotel I was talking outside with the guy that works at the front desk for a bit and then we heard some water hit the floor. That's when he told me that we had to stop talking because in Venice, if someone pours water out of their window, you need to shut up haha. I thought that was really interesting so after that I saw 2 other students that were also not done with the night yet and we ended up walking all the way to Piazza San Marco. At this time of the night it was nice because the Piazza was completely empty. It was really cool just to hang out there while it was completely empty and reflect on everything. We then took a boat (main mode of transportation) from Piazza San Marco to the train station on the Grand Canal. We then walked from the train station back to the hotel and got back at around 5:30am haha. I don't think my mask came off once that night. The next day I woke up, had breakfast, then we walked around for one last hour and headed back onto the bus. After about an hour and a half on the bus we stopped by a city called Verona where they have the third largest Roman "Arena" or Colosseum in the world so that was really cool. We then saw Juliets balcony which I think is where the famous "Where art thou Romeo" lines were said when Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet. That was neat to see, and after that we had some lunch, and apparently Verona is famous for their horse meat so I had the opportunity to try some horse which was quite interesting. We only spent about an hour and half in Verona bfore we had to head back to Torino. We got into Torino at around 7:30pm on Monday and that was the end of our trip. This trip was a truly incredible experience and I will never forget my time in Venice during carnival. This trip was definitely worthy of a nice long blog post haha so until next time.

Ciao!