Exiled to Elba

 

                On the strong recommendation of the staff at our school, my 3 roommates and our friend Stacie headed off to Elba Island for a relaxing beach weekend. This was at the end of the 2^nd week and we felt fairly exhausted from traveling to Europe and the initial shock of the how amazing Florence is. We had also started all of our classes and were just trying to get into the swing of things with time change and grocery shopping and what to do and not to do in a country where we are completely foreign. Aside from Stacie none of us speak Italian which is fine when we are in the tourist bubble around the Duomo. Everyone in those shops speaks English willingly because they are catering to tourists, but in the edge of town where we live that is not necessarily true which makes for an interesting experience at the grocery store.

                Anyway, we felt the need to relax from our giant Euro Adventure. Elba is a small island off the coast of Italy. It is where Napolean Bonaparte was exiled (hence my clever blog title.) It is not very far from Pisa but the town that you actually leave the mainland on the ferry to get there is Piombino. From there the ferry goes to Portoferaio, which means ferry port in Italian. We then headed from there to Scaglieri which is a small town and stayed at a campsite like place that had little cottages on the beach. In order to get to Elba we took a taxi from our house to the train station at 4:30 am. Then we took a train to Piombino traveling through Pisa and Livorno. After that we took Toremar Ferry to Portoferaio and a cab to the cottage.

                It is off season for Elba because soon it will be fall and people will stop going to the beaches so the place we stayed was fairly dead. The staff, which consisted of a lot of Italian men from Naples, were very “attentive.” They pretended to need to clean outside of our cabin in order to try to see the “Spice Girls,” as they called us, simply because we were 5 young English speaking girls. It got to be a bit awkward but we none of them were ever inappropriate. Naples is known here as the corrupt south of Italy and is thought of by Northern Italians as being run by the Mafia so when I say that they were men from Naples I mean for you to conjure up your most stereotypical Italian Mafiosi that you can, and then you will have a fairly accurate view of the staff.

                We had a good time in Elba. The island is absolutely gorgeous with beaches and luscious green areas and mountains it is the perfect semi-tropical place to go. The weather proved to be great and we got to swim in the Mediterranean Sea which is fun to say we did, minus my roommate Mitali who is opposed to being wet unless it is to shower. She is fairly glamorous though.  Charlotte and Amalia led the way into the water and Stacie and I ran in after we saw that they weren’t swallowed by a whale. The water was so crystal clear that even when I was up to my shoulders in it I could perfectly see my feet and all the little fish that swam around them. One night we went walking on the beach at midnight, all five of us and we saw a gorgeous wedding that seemed to span two of the hotels on the beach and had innumerable guests. At one point everyone at the party came to the window and began chanting Pietro, which is simply Peter in Italian. We then saw a guy who I would guess was in his twenties come running from the party in a speedo and dove into the sea to the enjoyment of the bride who we could see. It seemed like a pretty awesome party. We would have loved to crash it but not speaking the language makes blending in seem impossible.

At the end of the trip I had the greatest Skype call in the history of Skype where I believe I talked to almost every single member of my dad’s side and of the family and all but one of my own siblings, who I got to talk to later that same day.

Then it was back to normal classes in Tuscany – oh what a drag.

Side note for the carbonnara  experts in the family, in Elba they have a carbonnara of the sea which replaces the ham with octopus. I had it – and it was amazing!

Under the Tuscan Sun

This has been my first full weekend in Florence where my roommates and I are finally starting to feel like we know our way around so we took some little trips to the outer edge of the city. On Friday in the afternoon we went up to the Piazza Michelangelo. This is a large terrace just on the south side of the town. It is on a pretty good size hill and it overlooks Florence. It gives and absolutely gorgeous view of the city center of Florence. From our apartment it was a nice walk across the Arno River and up the hillside. The stairs/path, up to the Plaza, wind back and forth up the hill with fountains and great views along the way. Once you reach the Plaza you can see the Bronze copy of the David by Michelangelo. The panoramic view of Florence surrounded by the rolling hills of Tuscany is absolutely amazing. This relatively small city is completely surrounded by these hills and their green lawns and grape vines. These hills by the way would be called mountains in Indiana but with the Alps not too far to the north these certainly seem like mere hills here. After taking in the view for a while we continued further up the hill to the Chiesa San Miniato. This is an extremely old church where monks do Gregorian chants. From this church you have an even higher view down at Florence and you can see the Arno River snaking through the hills and into the city. You can see the Duomo, Bell Tower, and Baptistry reaching high above any other building in the city; and they immediately catch your eye because, unlike the browns and tans and pale yellows of the other buildings, they are green and white marble (at least the restored parts). You can see that Santa Croce is only marble on the very front side of the building and that the rest is simply brown stone because of the short period of time when Florence was the capitol of Italy and the Romans changed how some of the churches looked. It is a must for anyone spending time in Firenze.

On Saturday we took another trip out of the city center to a small town called Fiesole on the north side of Florence. It is a 25 minute bus ride out of town. After living in the always crowded and very noisy city of Florence for a week, we certainly wanted to escape to the serenity of the hills again. Fiesole offers the same panoramic views of the Florence city center. It is a little more removed than Piazza Michelangelo and offers some walking paths through the countryside. We packed our lunch for this trip, salads, cheese, bread, and wine and set out on a walking trail to find a picnic spot. The path we took was called Via San Francesco and immediately it was headed at a steep incline. We were not just walking at this point but rather hiking up this hill. All five of us were struggling a little to climb it but were soon embarrassed when a little old lady, who could not have been a day younger than 85, comes walking easily up the hill past us. We stopped complaining and picked up the pace from that point. All along the way up the hill we saw terraces where we could stop and take in the scenery around us. (We stayed and caught our breath really.) After walking up to the top of the hill and part of the way back down the other side we found a perfect picnic spot looking out away from the city and further into rural Tuscany. It was quiet and had an amazing view. After lunch we walked back into the center of Fiesole and had amazing gelato. The place was called il Tucano, which means The Toucan. It was most certainly the best I have had since I have been here and to what I will compare all future gelato. After a beautiful day in the hills we sat in the sun and waited for the bus back into town.

I came home and made a dinner of eggplant, yellow peppers, and carrots steamed with table wine and chicken. (The only meat I buy at the grocery store is chicken because it is the only one that I recognize and feel comfortable preparing.)

It was a beautiful Tuscan weekend I had!

The Meal of a Lifetime -- Tutti Bene!

Last evening, we had dinner as a whole school at a ristorante near the palazzo Santa Croce. It was the festival of the birth of Mary and many Florentines were out in celebration at the palazzos surrounding chiese (churches).
Our dinner began with a vino blanco (white wine) with antipasti (appetizers). We had 6 appetizers that came out in different rounds. The first appetizer was Brucceta which is common in America and was fairly similar to how it is there. The next was a large but thin slice of cantaloupe with thinly sliced ham covering it. I know this one sounds really weird and I was really concerned to try it because I hate cantaloupe and it usually makes me get hives and itch, but I tried it anyway because the chef personally delivered the food and stayed to see how we liked it. He kept asking "Tutto bene?" which means is everything good. Well the cantaloupe and ham was delicious, seriously try it! The next appetizer was a pesto sauce covering some kind of bean or nut and it was also amazing. The fourth dish was a tomato hollowed and filled with a bread crumb and sauce, I did not know any of the details of the dish but it was very good. Dish number five was a past salad dish that had chicken, kalamata olives, shaved almonds and potatos in it, it was just okay. The last antipasto was a dry and crunchy bread with a sausage and cheese sauce on it which was delicious.

At this time our attention was directed outside of the restaurant where a festival for the birth of Mary was happening in the piazzo Santa Croce. Many small children were carrying lamps called, rificocolone, that were any sort of shape made out of paper and decorated that had candles lit in the middle of them and they lined up towards the church in the square. The rest of the children were carrying large straws which you shoot spitball like pieces of play-doh out at the lamps that the other children are holding attempting to hit the lamp and knock it down or blow the light out. The children with the lamps represent good children and the children with the straws are the bad children. It was quite the site and live music was played in the square while this went on.

When we returned to the restaurant that was the end of the antipasto and it was time for the primo dishes or the true first course. This is served with a rossa vino, a pink wine, and is usually all pasta dishes. Out first pasta which was our 7th course of the meal was a meat ravioli with a simple olive oil and spices sauce. The next pasta, Course 8, was a carbonara with spiral noodles, I am sad to say I forget what the Italian name for the type of noodle is. Carbonara is a ham and peas with a white sauce, so delicious. The last dish, course 9!, was a spicy red pasta sauce over penne noodles.

The third part of the meal which was the last course would normally have been a meat and a rosso vino, or a heavy red wine, but everyone was so sickly full that we skipped to the dessert portion of the meal. So course 10 was a pie cut piece of fudge drizzled with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce.

I was so full by the end of the meal I was sick but it was all amazing food. And then we walked 2 miles home to our apartment and slept like babies, full of good wine and amazing food.

Tutti Bene - Everything is good!

CRAZY DRIVERS!!

 So after I arrived in Roma, a man named Guido (yes, that is a first name here not just the description of people off Jersey Shore) greeted the CAPA students and took us to our bus to go to Florence. Luka was the bus driver and though he did not speak much English he was extremely nice. We got to meet a lot of the people from the program on the bus ride which was a little over three hours.

The first thing Luka tells us is that we should not travel to Roma because it is not a nice place to be. When we asked why he told us that it is a dirty city because it is full of Romans and Luka was a Florentine. In Italy people from different cities do not like each other. Guido is a native of Geneva but he sounds British when he speaks English because his English teacher in school was from London. The bus that we rode in was a miniature version of a greyhound bus in the States. The highway that we rode of between Roma and Firenze was a very narrow two lane highway. I was gripping the seat in front of me hoping not to die most of the ride though. Luke felt it necessary to drive exactly in the middle of the two lanes. Other cars did not even seem phased by this driving and we were often three wide with the other two cars half in their own lane and half on the shoulder or almost scratching the wall of the highway.

Guido was making fun of us Americans because we were all fairly concerned about Luka's driving. He explained that in Italy the rules of the road such as lanes and speeds and turn signals, are more like suggestions and that no one pulls a car over on the highway. And as we watched we quickly learned that he was right. All of the other cars drove wherever they wanted on the road and swerved in and out of other cars and Vespas without ever thinking about using a turn signal.

Little did I know though that this was the smooth and safe part of the bus ride. When we got off the highway and had arrived in Firenze Luka only got worse. Most of the streets that are two lanes would only fit one lane in the US and the ones that are only one way are really only meant for Vespa scooters and really tiny cars. However, Luka took are giant bus down these little streets with no worries. We seriously almost hit 100 pedestrians and probably turned on only two wheels more than once. I was so happy when we got to get off the bus and into a Taxi but I learned that you have to be careful what you wish for because our cab driver was way worse than Luka and drove extremely fast the wrong way down one ways and in order to pass oncoming cars he drove on the sidewalk. IT WAS INSANE!!!

I survived though, but beware of cars in Italy - they are dangerous!

Pictures!

I had dinner at a restaurant with my roommates my first night here and this was my veiw from the table.

This is the Duomo. I walk past it everyday. Life here is so surreal.

Another picture of the Duomo where they are restoring it.

This is a famous statue in the Palazzo Vecchio. I dont know who it is but I am pretty sure Michaelangelo made it.

Address

Hey there have been some confusions about my mailing address

I have to recieve stuff here at the school
so it is

Jordan Berty
c/o CAPA
Via Pandolfini 20
50122 Firenze Italia

be careful sending packages because i can be charged customs fees

Grazie!

Made it!

So for an update on the airport situation- I did have to rearrange everything at the luggage counter in the international gate of the airport but surprisingly it was not because my checked bag was to heavy it was because my carry on bag was overweight. (Don't worry though my underwear was securely packed in a zipper shut compartment) The lady at the counter, who was extremely nice, took one look at my overstuffed carry on bag and said no. She did however allow my checked bag to end up being 7 lbs. overweight with out charging me at all, but she warned me that the luggage attendants in Italy would not be as understanding and if it is this heavy on the way back I will most certainly be charged a lot of Euros.

After the baggage issue was settled I headed off to wait in the security line and say goodbye to Mom, Dad, and Ben, which sucked. I only had like ten minutes to say goodbye before I need to wait in line where they could not go. Then the line for security was terribly long but I made it through fine and got on my plane easily. The flight was fine, although I did not have a screen in the seat in front of me. I sat next to a really nice couple from Chicago and talked to them some and tried to sleep but that did not go great. After getting off the plane I met the other people that were on the flight from my program and we all got our luggage, except one girl. I went with her to the lost luggage and declared it while the rest of the group went through customs and met our guide that was taking us to Florence. In customs I did not get a stamp in my passport which I did not like.

The bus ride to Florence was not bad, actually it was really pretty through Tuscany. Then when we got to Florence we rode in a taxi to our apartment. The apartment is amazing. It is so European and so beautiful and really not that small.

Had dinner in the apartment and went out to a Tapas Bar on the river at night. So beautiful!!!
Buongiorno

Ciao Bella!

So I am under 13 hours and freaking out. The bags are packed, double checked, unpacked, repacked, rechecked and weighed probably 40 times. I made 100 different check lists and checked them all off and double checked that I actually had them packed. Poor Ben had to deal with my intense anxiety and my complaining. He also helped with all the shopping and checklists and is even making the drive to Chicago. I had to make a trip to Costco and three trips to WalMart and I still need to get glue sticks, NyQuil, and Dramamine at a store in the morning. The final weight of the bag is 50.9 ... so I am hoping that by some miracle the person that takes my bag is in a really good mood or that the bag magically weighs one pound less when I put it on the scale at Chicago O'Hare.

My flight is with Delta but it is operated by New alitalia. So I could pick my seat and say I had a bag on Delta.com but I could not actually check in, seemed a little weird. Anyway it just adds to my stress because now I do not know if I should check in at Delta at the airport or find the weird airline that is operating the flight, just what I need right now - more stress!

On another note, I am writing this post at almost 2 in the morning. I am so pumped/scared about going that I literally cannot sleep. I have not really tried very hard. I am watching TV and have all my lights on and I am being attacked by a cat constantly. She seems to be nocturnal.

Well I will keep you updated on whether the attendant at the check in smiles and takes my bag or embarrassingly  makes me open my giant suitcase and show O'Hare my underwear while I try to rearrange to make it 0.9 lbs lighter... I am thinking I will take out a towel and move it to my carry on (they are kind of heavy).

Ciao Bella! (Hopefully I learn something that doesn't sound so lame while I am there and can use it as my new sign off, until then Ciao Bella!)