1 train, 2 bus trips, 3 plane rides, 4 cities: Fall Break Numero Due October 29th - November 7th

The rest of the week before our second 10 day break concluded well. We enjoyed the violin concert on Monday and then continued with our musical education on Wednesday when Kelly and I had our first piano lessons in three years. As we did not have much prepared as we were

busy with planning trips and studying for midterms and creating presentations, Daniele our teacher gave us a refresher of the styles of piano compositions starting with Baroque to present day. That night was Halloween in Casa Artom: Paul Newman, a hippie, Sophia Loren, a pirate, marcello mastrioini, a gondolier, pippie longstockings, a cowgirl, our house director Laura, (where's) Waldo, and a nerd all enjoyed pumpkin pancakes for dinner.

First day of break:
Budapest bound. Our flight operated by Hungarian airlines, Carpatair was the nicest hour and a half flight we have been on, and the smallest plane as well. We were served a full meal with chocolate for dessert and were given the first seat with ample leg-room which topped any of the discount airlines I have traveled in Europe on this trip so far. It was our first taste of the Hungarian hospitality which would continue throughout the day. Once arriving in the airport I switched some US dollars into Hungarian florints which was an interesting experience not only because it has been over 2 months since I had even seen American money but also because the exchange rate is 175 florints to the dollar and 245 to the euro, which is now the only currency I think in. We took a bus service from the airport straight to our Astoria hostel where we were amazed to hear such the influx of American music both in the bus and hostel. It was also interesting to notice the quality of infrastructure throughout the city. 

(super steep Soviet-era metro entrance)

Though Budapest boasts a well developed system of tram, metro, bus, and taxi services; all services seemed to be rather outdated. Taxis, we were told, can be a fast pass to a scam. But don't get me wrong Hungary is an extremely safe country to visit and the people are incredibly kind to visitors. We started with lunch at a new-age cafeteria before heading across the Danube to the Citadella and Cave Church. Here we were able to see panoramic views of all of Pest which is the flat sector of the city separated from Buda by the river. 

We crossed back over the Danube and walked to the famous fashion street before stopping at a hummus bar to have a 5 euro or 1500 florint meal of falafel, delicious hummus, lafa or flatbread similar to naan, and an assortment of salad and roasted carrots, a Hungarian favorite. Not only did we become fast friends with our waiter whose aunt actually lived in North Carolina but the woman sitting next to us in the restaurant heard us speaking English and gave us her magazine highlighting the must-sees of Budapest.

Day 2 Budapest:

Our second day in Budapest was a whirlwind of touring. We began by taking the metro to the bus station to get our tickets to Prague and then came back to the Central part of Pest to hit up the Great Market Hall, the main market in the city. 

We had lunch of a marinated chicken sandwiches on a pretzel roll with Hungarian cabbage. After lunch, we walked across to the hilly Buda side where we toured the castle and Royal Palace. We continued our tour up to the Fishermen's Wharf before crossing back over the chain Bridge to see the magnificent Neo-gothical Parliament building. 

On our way back to our hostel to rest up before we were to go out again before dinner, we stopped in to see St. Stephen's Basilica, the main church in Budapest near where we had coffee the day before. We went back to the Vaci Utca area for dinner where we stumbled into an authentic Hungarian restaurant. I had veal goulash with dumplings while watching the Hungarian version of American Idol called the X Faktor. Following dinner we walked around until we no longer wanted to deal with the cold and stopped into out favorite cafe near St. Stephen's basilica for a cappuccino and dessert. A nice day in Budapest and one more until Praha!

Day 3:

Last day in Budapest:

Today we began the day by saying farewell to Janine who was catching a train to Vienna in the morning. The three of us; Kelly,  Mandi and I then went out towards the Budapest castle where we toured Heroe's Square and the famous Roman baths. 

Just like Rick Steve's had described, the Budapest castle was very Disney-esque as it was a replica of a famous castle in Translyvania, Romania. We saw the famous Art Nouveau inspired zoo and then took the metro (the line that is the oldest running metro in all of Europe) to the House of Terror museum. This museum was the headquarters of the Nazis and then the Soviets who used it as a prison and torture center for political dissidents. It was utterly draw-dropping.

Following this experience and to escape this depressing scene, we opted for an American throwback by stopping into the local TGI Fridays of all things for lunch. Surprisingly, all the waiters were dressed in Halloween attire and the restaurant was more decorated than any restaurant you would see in the states. The first thing they asked was if we had ever celebrated the holiday before, and the service and unlimited refills were a nice reminder of home. 
As our overnight bus to Prague didn't leave until 10:30 Halloween night, we had time to kill before going back to our hostel and getting our bags to head to the station. So we walked back to Vaci Utca, the main stroll along the Danube on the Pest side where we found a bakery and had our first authentic Hungarian pastry, Kurtoskalacs. 

It was declicious rolled dough dipped in your choice of walnuts, almonds, cocoa powder, chocolate shavings, cinnamon sugar, or coconut then baked and served. While dining, we met an American expat living in Poland. We also chatted with the waiter who mentioned that the Japanese place down the street had just hosted Robert de Niro and he could get us a table in the restaurant if we mentioned his name to his friend that worked there. The consensus of the trip: Hungarians are unbelievably nice and speak fabulous English.

We went back to hostel to pick up our things and then headed towards the metro stop to the station where we stopped in at a pub and got a light dinner. Goulash soup perfection. 

Next stop, Prague!
The bus made the night a very long one and the next day even longer. Along the way we entered Austria, Slovakia and finally the Czech Republic. We arrived at the Florenc station in Prague earlier than scheduled, bright and early at 5:30 am. Getting off the bus we exchanged money and hopped on the subway to then catch a tram to Stephanie's apartment who is studying with NYU in Prague. After the hour long transit, we finally stumbled upon Stephanie's street, delirious and freezing. We were lucky enough to be let in by the guard who took us right up to Stephanie's apartment where her RA led us to the NYU lounge where we collapsed on the couches and slept for a good 3 hours before meeting up with Stephanie. We settled in and then went with Stephanie to Old Town where we had lunch at Paneria, or Czech's version of Panera before Stephanie left for class. 

We walked around the Old Town square seeing the Clock Tower, Town Hall and the Jewish quarter before metroing back and taking yet another nap. Stephanie joined us for dinner in her neighborhood where we had a great Czech meal. Following dinner we stopped into the local corner market and got a cake mix which we made that night! Successful first day in Prague.

Day 2 in Prague:
This morning we woke up significantly more refreshed than the previous day. We started the day by tramming and then metroing to the Little Quarter Square. 

Here we hiked up to the Prague castle where we first stopped for lunch at a cafe Rick Steves had recommended overlooking the bronze dome of Saint Nicholas' cathedral. After lunch we walked up to the Royal Palace and saw the cathedral and walked back down through the terraced gardens. We journeyed back to the square where we then ventured to Lenon's grafitti wall and then over the Charles Bridge to take in the breathtaking views of the castle. 

Back in the Old Town we stopped for coffee before heading back to Stephanie's apartment. That night we met up with Janine who met back up with us after touring Vienna at the Pavlova metro stop and randomly chose a 'restaurace'. 

(beef goulash, sauerkraut, potato dumplings)

We had the most authentic and cheapest meal we have had the whole trip. A real 'local joint', as my dad would say. Of course we couldn't end our final group dinner without dessert so we stopped in to the vegetarian restaurant Stephanie had recommended and shared an assortment of desserts.

Prague to Amsterdam:
Our final day in Prague we toured New Town after saying goodbye to Mandi and then Stephanie. We checked out the big Tesco and department store attached and had a great lunch nearby. On our way back to the metro we found Frank Gehry's Fred and Ginger building which is the only landmark of Prague I remember from my visit 7+ years ago. 

We took the metro and bus to the airport and arrived in Amsterdam by 6. The Amsterdam airport was incredibly modern and we easily found the bus which took us two blocks from our hotel. Of course, the bus driver was incredibly perplexed when we explained that we weren't in Amsterdam to smoke pot but instead to tour.  After check-in we found a cute little Turkish restaurant for dinner where we had an incredible dinner in what looked like our waiter/chef's own personal kitchen. Sleep deprived, we walked back to our hotel (over-joyed to have treated ourselves by not staying in a hostel) and found one of three English programs on tv, Shallow Hal.

First Full Day in Amsterdam:

Although the weather was pretty dreary it did not stop us from exploring some of the main highlights of the city. We began the day by walking in the direction towards the Centraal Station and on the way we toured the Anne Frank house. 

(Entrance to the secret annex)

It was absolutely incredible to walk through the secret annex where Anne, her family, and four more had hid for so long. Following this we found the train station where we inquired about tickets for Brussels the following day. We then walked back to our hotel and stopped for lunch at this super cute place where I had veal meatballs, couscous, and grilled veggies. Delish! 

And ever since Kelly and I went to the Jelly Belly factory in Cali we have loved the over-commercialized factory tours, so we thought it was only appropriate to do the Heineken Experience while in Amsterdam. 

The 'Experience' consisted of a series of interactive videos detailing the history of the company, a barley/hops/yeast symposium if you will, a tour through the various cooking stages, tasting of the wort (which is the barley boiled without the hops), a virtual ride simulating the brewing process and finally a taste test. Quite the 'experience'.

Final Day in Amsterdam:

We began the day with a tour of the Van Gogh Museum. After spending a good 4+ hours there, we were astounded at the breadth of work that Van Gogh had created during the ten years he was an artist. 

The museum showcased the “Potatoe Eaters” as well as one of my personal favorites, “Sunflowers”. We ended our tour in the museum’s temporary exhibit that was based on Naturalism. We further supported the museum by having a late lunch in the Van Gogh café before we headed out back into the dreary weather in the direction of our hotel where we picked up our bags and caught the bus to the Centraal Train Station. 

(more bikes than people in Amsterdam)

Our train was over a 3 hour journey which is typically under 3 as a result of some delay which we couldn’t figure out was the result of an engine failure or a fight amongst passengers. (The intercom came through in Dutch and broken English so it was hard to make out the true reason.) We arrived in Brussels close to 8 pm and found our way to our hotel which was near the Grand Place, pronounced 'gran plaaz'. We walked through Old Town which was the center of the old city and was sprinkled with an assortment of high quality Belgian chocolate boutiques, of course.

After checking into our hotel which was surprisingly very nice, we walked further up the street away from the more touristy area and had a great dinner of exotic salads at an (of all places) Italian restaurant. Before heading up to bed we booked our city tour for the next day and went up to our room to find an assortium of multi-lingual multi-national channels on tv. We would soon find out that Brussels is an extremely international city with a wealth of inhabitants from all over the globe.

Last Full Day of Break:

We began our city tour from the train station that we had entered the city the night before. We got on the bus around 11 and rode the hop-on/hop-off line in a full circuit until returning to the station. We hit up the major sights of the city including their main cathedral (similar in architectural style to Notre Dame), the royal palace for the Belgium royal family, the World’s Fair exhibition of a 1000 ft high atomic molecule, the famous “Mannekin Pis” or the legendary statue of a young boy peeing which has become the symbol of the city, and many of King Leopold II’s architectural constructions. 

We then spent the next two hours between the two main Brussels train stations in search of bus tickets for our early Sunday morning departure to catch our Ryanair flight back ‘home’ to Venezia. We decided to spend the night out on the town, or more specifically the Grand Place chocolate boutiques, buying Belgium chocolate Christmas gifts and enjoying free samples along the way as we passed from boutique to boutique. Midway through our chocolate homage we sat down for an authentic Beglium waffle (which sufficed as our dinner for the evening) topped with chocolate (of course!) and raspberry sauce. 

And might I just mention that you have not truly had a waffle until you have had a real Belgium waffle. And even without the decadent sauces, the pastry itself was a supreme delicacy.

Sunday, last day of our last break in our last month of study abroad L

Our Ryanair flight was a sort of baptismal experience as we felt like we weren't true European budget travelers until experiencing the infamous airline. We began the morning promptly at 3:45 am with our alarm to prepare us to get downstairs for our taxi that was to take us to the South train station. (We had opted to take a taxi for the mile trip to station as it was located in ‘not the maximum’ part of town.) Our taxi deposited us right in front of the Ryanair shuttles where we boarded for the hour long drive to the airport. Once arriving, we were directed towards the Ryanair check-in counter where all non-EU citizens were first checked and then sent to the pre-security checkpoint. This checkpoint consisted of another passport and ticket verification but this was not done until our one permitted carry-on item fit within the dimension requirements. And for Kelly and I who had packed for a week and a half in our North Face backpacks and bought quite a few chocolate boxes had quite the time cramming everything into the one bag. Oh, the joys of seriously cheap airlines. Remarkably the flight was quite a nice ride, but it was the pre-boarding process that was rather demoralizing. We arrived on home soil by 10 am and spent the rest of the day recouping and preparing for our last month of our ventures in Venezia...

Back to Life on the Grand Canal

This past week has flown by after we returned from Paris last Sunday and resumed classes and our life in Venice. After having a fabulous long weekend in Paris, we returned to begin the second part of our class entitled the "Modern Venetian Experience" where we met up with local Venetian college students attending Ca'Foscari last Monday night. As most of them are language students, we were able to blend our Italian skills with their English (with a little Spanish interspersed as well!) to get to know our groups who we will be meeting up with four or more times throughout the rest of the semester. The book we were to read this past week for Professor Lubin's class was Survival in Aushwitz by Primo Levi and therefore the week's theme was the Holocaust which also meant that our films mirrored the same theme. As I have studied this subject multiple times throughout middle and high school and even college, I was beyond thrilled to find out that our movie for Tuesday was one of  my absolute favorites, Life is Beautiful. After seeing this movie for the first time my freshman year in high school, it ranks among my top three favorites.
We found out early last week that our friend Aubrey that toured us around in Paris was coming to visit us for the weekend as she was able to secure a moderately cheap flight and hotel. So, we got started planning a weekend that would hopefully be as incredible as the one Aubrey had hosted for us. Wednesday we continued with our Modern Venetian experience with a guest speaker to Casa Artom. She gave a presentation about the life of the Russian poet Josef Brodsky who had spent a considerable amount of time in Venice and his art reflected his time spent in the city. We started Thursday with our art visit to the Frari, a famous church in Venice completed in 1338 showcasing famous works of Donatello, Titian, and Bellini.
After we finished classes for the day we awaited Aubrey's flight to arrive and organized the ingredients that we needed for our Friday night family dinner. We had decided to make my mom's go-to party dish of chicken marbella along with fruity nut rice and sautéed veggies which we decided we would get on Friday at the Rialto market. The chicken recipe called for 4 quartered chickens to be marinaded over night. Once the marinade was assembled and Kelly and I had to leave for the airport, so Rob painstakingly quartered the chickens (which I will have you know are nothing like the oven stuffers at home but far more 'natural', with feathers and all...) and Kim made sure they were marinaded and refrigerated. As this was our first family dinner sans Mrs. Lubin's help, we realized the hours of labor that go into cooking for such a large group of people.
Yet due to the strikes still going on in Paris, Aubrey's flight Thursday night was delayed a couple hours. However, Kelly and I decided that Aubrey needed the proper arrival into Venice and instead of waiting for the next bus to take us from the airport to Venice, the three of us splurged and got a water taxi that took us straight to our dock at Casa Artom. Although both Kelly and I had taken water taxis into Venice when we first arrived in August, we had yet to experience the posh mode of travel at night or since getting to know our city.
That night after we introduced Aubrey to the remaining housemates she had not already met, Kelly and I took her to her hotel to check in and then we met everyone out on the Zattere and showed Aubrey where the cruise ships and ritzy yachts dock everyday. The following morning we journeyed to the Rialto market where we got all the fresh ingredients needed for the dinner. As an appetizer we found some fragolina grapes. These are literally called strawberry grapes, and they are the most delicious bright blue grapes I have ever had.
We returned to Casa Artom and met up with Kelly and John to go have a pizza over the Accademia. It was my goal to make sure Aubrey had either pizza or gelato everyday, as I had done with crepes in France. After lunch we walked to San Marco to show Aubrey the piazza and walked to the bridge of sighs which is unfortunately heavily masked by scaffolding. We returned back to begin cooking dinner by way of a traghetto, the gondolas that for 50 cents take you across the Grand Canal which gives a sense of riding a gondola but without the 100 euro price tag.
Family dinner was a jovial affair, and we again celebrated Kelly's 21st with the brownies that the 3 M's (Mandy, Mary Beth and Meaghan) had made decorated with the '2-1' candles Aubrey had go the weekend before. All the hard work certainly paid off. Following our lengthy meal, we had all decided to try out Venice's only discoteca and surprisingly had a great time dancing the night away, of course to mostly American tunes.
The following day, Aubrey and I toured the Guggenheim early so as to miss the crowds that swarm the small palazzo come noon. On our 30 second walk back from the museum to our house, we stopped at an artist's stand outside Casa Artom that painted scenes of Venice and he talked to us about art and his city in  broken albeit extremely passionate English, hand gestures abound. I would say that this was perhaps Aubrey's most authentic encounter with an Italian.
We then joined Kelly and Kim and walked to the other side of Venice to hop on a vaporetto to the island of Murano to see some glass blowing. We had lunch on the island and Aubrey found the perfect souvenir, a Murano glass vase. On our way back on the vaporetto we stopped of at the island of San Michele,  the cemetery of Venice. Ezra Pound and Josef Brodsky are among many famous people buried here. We walked back from Fondamenta Nuova and passed the beautiful architecture of the Venetian hospital and the Chiesa di SS Giovanni e Paolo (the church houses art which we have studied in art history). We of course stopped for gelato along the way.
Saturday night we had all decided that we wanted to try a restaurant on the way from our house to Santa Margherita. We enjoyed a meal of a variety of pastas and then returned back to Casa Artom and made dessert (homemade chocolate banana bread) and popcorn. That night we were exhausted after a long weekend of touring so we enjoyed a night in watching Rain Man, which was one of VHS tapes in the Casa Artom collection.  Sunday we went to mass at San Marco and when we left the basilica, we experienced Aqua Alta for the first time as we were forced to walk along the "pasarella" or raised planks that directed the masses from the sides of the square to the Grand Canal. Sunday was the day of the Venice marathon, in which one of our own Rob was a competitor. As we walked along the Grand canal around noon at San Marco we were able to see the very fastest runners come up to the finish line. What was so impressive was that they had fashioned a pontoon bridge connecting the end of the Zattere by Santa Maria della Salute (a mere 3 min walk from our house) to San Marco and we saw the runners cross the bridge as we took the traghetto back to our house. We then decided to go up along the Zattere and try to catch a glimpse of Rob before having to take Aubrey to the bus back to the airport. After seeing many a runner, we were able to spot Rob and cheer him along before grabbing lunch along the way to Piazzale Roma. It was a fabulous weekend in Venice, and bittersweet to realize it is one of very few remaining.
Today we met up with our Venetian partners again this time in Campo Santa Margherita where we had lunch together. They had recommended we try an Emilia-Romagna sandwich called a piadina, which is what I would describe as a flatbread panini. Perfetto.
Tonight is our second Casa Artom concert, featuring a violinist studying at the Venice conservatory to compliment our 'Modern Venice Experience'.

Paris, je t'aime

Kelly's 21st birthday weekend. Epic. We toured Paris with Aubrey and the boys for the three days we were in the city. Upon arriving we jumped in a taxi and Cory busted out some rather proficient French to get us to our hostel, aptly name the "Young and Happy" hostel. As this was my first hostel experience, Kell and I had come equipped with a duvet cover and towel which took up a good 2/3 of our backpack. We weren't able to get a room for just the four of us so we shared it with two other roommates, so to speak. When we got there around 11 on Thursday night, we walked into our room to find one of these roommates already asleep so it became a balancing act of depositing our stuff on our bunks while holding open the door so as to not turn the lights on and disrupt. The room was in no way worth its 33 euro a night charge, however.
Aubrey met us at the hostel as we were checking in and we decided to walk around the Latin quarter where we were staying to find a spot for dinner. We ended up having typically authentic Parisian cuisine, sushi. Because there is only one sushi chef in all of Venice, we all had a craving for sushi and the Parisian location did not disappoint. After we finished dinner right at midnight we walked to the Pantheon to get a great nighttime view of the sparkly Eiffel Tower. We walked over to "Le crocodile", a hot spot hangout in the Latin quarter before we decided it was time to return to the "Young and Happy".

The next morning following our croissant and tea breakfast, Aubrey met us at our hostel and we left for our Paris metro initiation. Our first metro stop took us to Notre Dame where we crossed the Seine and entered the cathedral where Aubs gave us a detailed description of the building's origin and history of the city. We ventured across the street to the famous "Shakespeare and Co." bookstore which was a favorite of Hemingway.

Next stop, Louvre. We did a highly abbreviated tour due to the fact we had barely eaten anything all day long and we were admitted for free as there is no admission fee for students studying in the European Union. We simply flashed our visas and received a free pass to see the Mona Lisa, among others. As Aubrey tours the museum frequently for her classes she gave us an abbreviated yet detailed tour.

We then metroed to the Champs Ellyses where we found a creperie for lunch. I had a delicious crepe with ham and egg where they literally cracked the egg atop of the crepe while cooking it. Delicious.
Following our crepe of a lunch, we strolled down the famous street passing by the Louis V mecca and arrived at Laduree. A bakery open for more than 100 years, Laduree bosts the best macarons in all of Paris. Although we had to wait in line for a good 20 minutes, we left the Victorian-esque cafe with an assortment of macarons, mine being chocolate and hazelnut which was a divine combination.
Due to the strikes rampant throughout the city, the Arc was closed preventing us from climbing to the top. So, we opted to metro to the area of Montmartre to see Sacre Coure. After walking through the church we walked further into the village of Montmartre where we stumbled upon artists peddling their work in the cute village. Kelly picked out her 21st birthday present which was an oil on canvas collage of Paris. Quite the souvenir.

We continued to walk around Montmartre until we stumbled upon (with aid of course from Aub's handy-dandy pocket guide) Le Refuge du Fondue. The restaurant happened to be a stop on the Wake Forest summer Euro-tour and so the grafiti-ed walls of this hole-in-the-wall showcased multiple "WFU" groups. It was quite a unique establishment; we were greeted by the owner who assisted us in stepping over the table to reach the bench where we would enjoy our 3+ hour long meal of fondue. We were started with an aperitif and appetizers plate and then were asked simply if we wanted cheese or meat fondue, red or white wine. Our wine was then served, and get this, in baby bottles with the restaurants name on the bottle! We cooked the meat piece by piece, hence the length of the dinner, and concluded the feast with a fruit cocktail for dessert.  Following the epic dinner, we journeyed back to the Latin Quarter before returning 'young and happy' to our hostel.

Day 2.5 in Paris. We began the day at the Musee D'Orsay which is the Paris museum originally a train station now devoted to showcasing 19th century French impressionist paintings. (For those of you Gossip Girl fans, the museum was a major venue in the first two episodes of this season!) We saw many a Monet, Manet, Van Gogh to name a few although a large number of Monets were temporarily removed for another exhibit in Paris. The D'Orsay was incredible and is certainly up there with my favorite museums that I have visited since beginning my study abroad experience. 

(Thanks to Kelly's mad photography skills, albeit prohibited in the museum)

Following the D'Orsay we walked towards the Champs through the gardens where we stopped on our way to get a bite to eat for lunch. Walking over the Seine Aubrey told us about the master locks that were adorned throughout the railings of the bridges throughout the city. Custom is to write the names of two "star-crossed lovers" who then lock the lock on the bridge and through the keys into the Seine. Aubs said that her little brother and her had made one the week before.

(These 'locks of love' so to speak are again courtesy of Kelly.)

We continued down the Champs to see that the Arc was still closed so we decided to hit up the Galeries Lafayette, which is the grand department store boasting a 50% off sale at Longchamp. We had met some American tourists with huge Longchamp bags the day before and they had told us about the event and we decided that we had to check it out for ourselves. However, we were not the only people in Paris with the same idea. 

After waiting in line for nearly an hour just to be allowed into the Longchamp store, we were determined to get in as so Kelly and I could coach Cory in finding the perfect bag for his girlfriend who is visiting him while abroad. We documented the experience with pictures and finally decided on the perfect bag, which we know she will love! After fighting the crowds and exhausting ourselves from such the rigorous cardio workout of shopping, we opted to return to our hostel and rest for a while before we went out for dinner. Aubrey met us later and we chose a Greek/French restaurant for a dinner crepe which we brought back to our hostel and enjoyed. That night we metroed to the area of the Bastille monument where we enjoyed our final night in Paris.

And to adhere to our quote of a crepe a day, the next morning before we had to return to the airport we met up with Aubrey one final time ending the trip where we had started Kelly's birthday celebration in front of the Pantheon for a final picture. We had breakfast crepes at a place Aubs had been to before when her family had come to visit her. It was a fabulous end to a fabulous weekend.

in the midst of midterms...

Since I have been studying for midterms and catching up from our ten day break I have not been able to blog about my fabulous trip to Spain with Kelly and my parents. I promise that will be my next entry will be an in depth look complete with pictures into our week in Spain, however, for now I will catch up on the past two weeks following our "Spanish Wonder" trip as Trafalgar titled it. 

We returned 'home' to Venice Sunday afternoon after lugging on heavy suitcases that my parents had packed with the necessities that we are unable to find in Venice: peanut butter, Special K Red Berries, and an assortment of other American goodies. Classes resumed that Monday but it took a good couple of days for all of us in the house to fully recover from the past week of traveling. Last Thursday we visited the Accademia Galleries in our art history class, a 3 minute walk away from our house right next to the Accademia Bridge, which houses works of Jacopo Bellini, Giovanni Bellini, and Carpaccio to name a few. That night we had a family dinner featuring the risotto that the Lubins had brought back from their 10 day trip around the Piedmont region. The menu consisted of pumpkin risotto, mushroom risotto, seasoned peppers, sausages, salad and fruit for dessert. After dinner we went out to Santa Margherita, as we all planned to stay local that weekend. A few of our friends from Wake studying around Europe visited us for the weekend and Kelly and I met Hannah Kay, MK, Kelly, and Carolyn for lunch on Friday after giving them a tour of Casa Artom. We took them to a cute pizzeria on the Zattere which was actually the first time Kelly and I had been out to eat in Venice, as it is so very expensive. That night John's parents were staying in Venice and had invited the whole house including the four visiting to dinner at the Hard Rock in Venice as we had all seriously been craving American food, specifically hamburgers. And, to prove the astronomical prices that living in Venice entails, our hamburgers that night were upwards of 16 euros. But were they delicious. 

Saturday Kelly, Cory, Nancy and I all decided to take a day trip to Padua (Padova). It was a 45 minute 3 euro train ride outside of Venice and is known to house the famous Giotto frescoes as well as an assortment of beautiful architecture and sculptures. In fact, Padova is home to the oldest botanical garden in Europe and the only September 11th monument. The monument is centered around a beam from one of the towers that was donated to the Veneto region. It is truly a beautiful city, and much unlike Venice is bustling with college students and locals, but with very few tourists.  We walked around for a couple hours and had lunch in a square which boasted a market of fresh produce and local handmade crafts. That night when we got back to Casa Artom John's parents had cooked a wonderful meal for the whole house of pasta with a fabulous meat sauce, chicken, salad, homemade sangria, and an array of incredible pastries from a local bakery. We had invited other American students studying in Venice from Boston College and Duke to come visit Casa Artom after dinner. 

This week our midterms have continued in our Italian literature class, Italian, and Art History on Thursday. Monday night we enjoyed a piano concert performed by two young local artists who came and played an hour of Chopin concluding with a four-hand duet "Themes from the Carnevale of Venice". We all dressed up and the Lubins had invited their friends that live in Venice to join us in the parlor at Casa Artom. It was a magical experience sitting on the Grand Canal and hearing such beautiful music. Kelly and I plan to take lessons from them during our stay in Venice. Ramona is from Romania and Daniele from Costa Rica and both have recently completed their studies in conservatory in Venice but had studied in the States prior to their move to Venice. In fact, Ramona attended the same summer music festival, Brevard, where I studied piano performance four years ago.  

Today, we made another art history visit to the Scuola di San Giovanni degli Schiavoni brimming with many a Carpaccio and la Chiesa di San Zaccaria (The Church of San Zaccaria) which contains an important Bellini painting that had been for some time at the Louvre. But speaking of the Louvre, I will continue my art history pilgrimage this coming weekend in PARIS for Kelly's 21st birthday! We plan to go to the D'orsay as the Louvre is a hot spot for terrorist threats, and we are also keeping our fingers crossed that the French strike won't enter its third day tomorrow and prevent us from taking our flight to Paris, or from getting to our hostel once arriving at Orly. Nonetheless, we are beyond excited to visit the city which I have not seen since I was 8 years old and are going with two of the guys in our house, John and Cory, and plan to meet up with my good friend upon arriving. Aubrey is studying in Paris through NYU and luckily is a highly proficient French speaker and will serve as our tour guide for the weekend!

Arts Alive!

This past week has been a week dedicated to the art scene of Italy. We began the week with two of Fellini's most famous films, "La Dolce Vita" and "8 1/2", which would inspire the musical and later the movie "Nine". On Wednesday we had the cultural experience of a lifetime: American Artist Fred Wilson came to Casa Artom to talk with our class about his life of art. His presentation was arguably the shortest two hours I have ever sat for as he dived into telling us about his work in the 2003 Venice Biennale and then an exhibit he created for the Contemporary and Maryland Historical Society entitled "Mining the Museum" highlighting the history of African Americans in Maryland.
Friday half of us were scheduled to go to the Police Station in mainland Venice, outside of Mestre, where we would apply for our residency permit. The bureaucracy was comparable to the friendly atmosphere of a DMV, except far worse. After 4 hours of waiting we finally made it in and got our full hand prints taken and successfully acquired our residency permit. That night we had our third family dinner of Rob's family recipe of chicken picata with pasta,  Mrs. Lubin's fresh garlic spinach bought at the market that morning, and my great aunt's recipe of peach cobbler. Since I had to double the cobbler recipe to accommodate the gorgeous selection of huge peaches Kim and Mrs. Lubin had procured at the Rialto market, needless to say the cobbler took more than twice as long to cook and an hour after dinner we decided to take it out of the oven nonetheless and enjoy a rather soupy but still flavorful cobbler.
Since we had all decided to stay in Venice we ended up meeting with some Americans hailing from both Duke and BC later that night at a pub near the Rialto Bridge. The following morning Kelly and I took full advantage of Casa Artom's two gratuitous passes to the Peggy Guggenheim Museumr. We spent the morning and early afternoon at the museum completely stunned by the collection and the palace that was Peggy's final resting place. Peggy's ashes lie in the courtyard of the museum alongside her most beloved, her dogs. When we returned to the house, our whole group and the Lubins decided to watch Nine which dovetailed our film lesson of the week as it was a rather gloomy day and no one really wanted to leave the confines of our palazzo. To continue with our arts collection of the weekend, we hit up the Stanley Kubrick photography exhibition right across the Accademia bridge at the Instituto Veneto di Scienze. The palace adorned with incredible Murano glass chandeliers which were equally as impressive as the exhibit itself.
One more week before our 10 day break touring Spain where I can actually speak the language!

Island Hopping and Beyond

This past Thursday after we finished our conversation Italian class at 10 we had all decided to island hop. We caught a vap from a side of Venice we had yet to see which was across the canal from the famous Venetian cemetario where it apparently costs $30,000 or so to be buried although your body would later be moved to the mainland at Mestre. We arrived in Murano and met up with Livio Seguso who is a prominent murano glass artist. As he is a friend of a friend of the Lubins, he graciously gave us an in-depth tour of his workshop and gallery. We were able to the progression of his many decades of work, as he seemed to change mediums to compliment his glass over the years. Although he had initially worked with colored glass like many of the glass blowers of Murano, he explained to us that the simplistic style of his clear glass work conflicted with the gaudy colors typical of Murano glass. He has worked with stainless, carrera marble, and now most recently wood with is sculpted to perfectly unite with his glass. He left us all with booklets and a signed book to bring home to Casa Artom. Before leaving Murano we walked around taking many a picture of the artwork that was interspersed along the many canals. We got a quick sandwich before heading to Torcello which is the actual location of the very beginnings of Venice. The church on Torcello hosts some of the most magnificent artwork in all of Venice dating back to the Dark Ages. In fact we have studied the mosaic detailing the last judgment in our Venetian art history class but because of professor was accompanying a collection of Titian paintings to Turin, Mrs. Lubin assumed the role of her understudy and we enjoyed a detailed description of the architecture and fascinating mosaics that adorned the jewel of Torcello.

Following our art history lesson of the day we caught a vap to Burano, which is famous for its handmade lace and brightly colored homes of the Burano fishermen. Unfortunately the former has become a lost art in the past century and most of what is sold is manufactured in China, however some nice shops feature old women performing the intricate work and we played the tourist card and got a quick pick.

We made our 2 hour journey back to Casa Artom to begin preparation for our second family dinner. Mrs. Lubin had stopped at the Rialto market that morning to pick up the beans and bacon used to make pasta fagiole, and the beans pods were so colorful we used them as a centerpiece after they were shucked! Dinner included the fabulous pasta fagiole courtesy of Mrs. Lubin, fresh arugula salad and pears and a unique array of cheeses for dessert.
Day Trip a Milano!
Friday morning we got up to catch a train from Santa Lucia to reach Milan where we were to spend the day before catching a regional train to Genoa. Before arriving in Milan we had decided we wanted to climb the 165 steps of the Duomo which is the 4th largest cathedral in all of Europe. We realized that all four of us were in shorts and were therefore prohibited from entering the cathedral in such attire. Luckily we were equipped with a weekends worth of clothes in our backpacks and scoured through to find shirts and sweaters that would sufficiently cover our legs and after many failed attempts to stroll in the carabinieri guards eventually allowed us access. The church boasted over 3200 statues and was decorated with some of the most elaborate and vibrant stained glass I have ever seen. Much unlike St. Marks, the Duomo was a Gothic cathedral that took 5 centuries to build and the architect Visconti who began the structure in the mid 14th century built it to house a congregation of 40,000 which was Milan's population at the time. We splurged on the 5 euros to climb it to the top which was quite a feat combating fellow tourists going the opposite direction on the stairs and hoisting our backpacks in front of us. The view was certainly worth the hike as we were able to see the Alps and what we were told was the border of Switzerland!

We toured the Galleria of Victor Emanuel which housed the home bases of haute coutoure Prada, Gucci, and many others. We also stopped in the Renascente which was the most beautiful department store. Before jumping on the metro to go back to the Mussolini-esque Stazione Principe, we walked by the Teatro alla Scala. The Scala was the main venue where the Venetian Giuseppe Verdi premiered many of his operas and the museum adjacent the theater houses musical relics including a strand of Mozarts hair!
Genoa, Camogli and the Italian Riviera!
We arrived late to Genoa that night and after finally finding our hotel around 10 we walked down the street and grabbed pizzas, yes, the cook made us all an individual pizza after the restaurant had already closed. The next morning we got up early and after eating an Italian breakfast at our hotel we ventured to the bus stop where we took a bus to the train station, though not the same one we had been the night previous, and took another bus from that stop to Rocco. Rocco was on the water and about a 30 min walk up the mountain to Camogli, a fishing brightly-colored village on the Mediterranean that Frommer's had claimed to be the favorite spot on the Italian Riviera. And it was by far the most beautiful place I have ever seen. 

After enjoying lunch in Camogli and taking many a picturesque shot, we took a ferry across the water to the next stop on our itinerary, San Fruttuoso. This was a 14th century abbey built along a beautiful lagoon only accessible by foot or by boat. The Saturday we were there it was quite a popular destination for local bathers. And yes, did I mention that I don't believe we saw any Americans this whole trip, besides for Milan. Camogli and then Portofino were both like undiscovered treasures that only the Italians frequented.

Once we walked around the perimeter of San Fruttuoso we decided we would brave the 2 hour hike from the abbey to Portofino. The hike, and literally it was quite a rigorous hike, went straight up the mountain from the valley to display some of the most gorgeous views. We arrived in Portofino around 6 and thankfully before nightfall albeit we were alittle discouraged throughout the duration of the long hike but were aided by the map of a nice German couple that were fellow hikers. Portofino exuded the ritzy quality of the Italian Riviera that we had gladly bypassed in Camogli. But of course by the time we finally made it to Camogli we only had enough strength to people watch the gorgeously clad Italian families strutting from yacht to fancy restaurant. We caught a bus and then train back to Genoa and had dinner at a restaurant along the main street where outside a festival entitled "La notte bianca" was going on. 

The next morning we explored Genova starting with the aquarium along the "Porto Antico", or old port. The museum is said to be the second largest in the world, behind one in Osaka, Japan. The aquarium demanded 2 solid hours of exploration of incredible species. The location of the aquarium was next to a few of architect's Renzo Piano's structures that were built, like the aquarium, in the early 90's to re-gentrify the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. We caught the regional train back to Milan which we barely made after getting lost in a rather industrial part of Genoa. Although we made the train by the skin of our teeth, we were stuck in the very back of train (as no seats were left) sitting on the floor alongside bikes and were joined by four other girls who were Italian and with whom we all tried to converse. Their English of course was far superior to us four and they ended up doing homework as we were reading our book for class this week. Once in Milan we successfully caught the high speed train back to Venice, where we were luckily guaranteed seats.