14 posts tagged “italy”
Today I had my interview for my internship. It was quite stressful since I didn't know what was going on for half the time. Basically we're going to see how I go with the language skills I have now, but if they're not good enough I'll do some more intensive language classes in the mornings and work in the afternoons.
I sometimes wonder if I was insane to choose to do this. However stressful any internship would have been, this is only about 500 times worse - I hate not being able to communicate., to have people talk about me when I'm sitting right there and be unable to explain what I'm thinking or feeling. I want so much to be able to talk! and of course to be able to listen as well. For someone as talkative as me it is one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had.
Okay! now the good news. On Sunday night we went out for dinner in trastevere. I love the area, it's so pretty down by the Tiber, but it's got to be one of the most frustrating places to get home from. Every time we try to do it something goes wrong. This time we got the metro, but we accidentally missed our stop and had to walk about 5 kms in the dark before we could get the night bus home.
It was a lovely restaurant though, with beautiful fairy lights strung up outside, and the most delicious tiramisu. It was called Trattoria Da Lucia.
Before dinner, we saw an older woman offering fortunes in one of the squares and so I got one! Basically she had two budgies - Antonio and Roberto. You held one and talked to it, and then it hopped onto a little perch and picked out a slip of paper with your fortune on it. Mine said:
You're a highly respected lady by those who surround you. You hold a secret that only you know. you're very honest, and you like to live your life to the fullest. You'll receive a large sum of money from a distant relative. you'll live 97 years.
Bring on the distant relative I say!!
it seems to me that sunday rolls around so incredibly quickly! on thursday the girls from school and I went to see the Proposal - in Italian ricetta d'amore (blackmail of love). It was funny, but I think it's more amusing in English.
Then friday was my last day at school. Afterwards Fanni stayed at our house so that we could go to Florence together on Saturday morning. We had dinner at the Roadhouse grill, it was really funny because Marisol was excited about the Tortillas - in Mexico she eats them every day, and here there are not many places that sell them.
On Saturday we went to Florence! it was a really really long journey, but we slept most of the way so that was ok. When we arrived, we joined the line for the Galleria dell'Accademia which is the museum where Michelangelo's David is on display. On the wall outside there was so much graffiti from people who had been waiting, and right near the door many people had written how long they had waited in line.
Inside, the David was huge, and so amazingly detailed. You can walk the whole way around the statue, and behind him is a semicircle of seats, where about 15 women were sitting and gazing at his ass. Very funny. It was an interesting gallery, although we didn't stay long - there was also an exhibition of work by Mapplethorpe, (which we didn't have time to see) I included him in my paper on 'shocking' exhibitions last semester - an interesting guy, although totally at odds with all the classical stuff they had in there.
After that we walked down to the Duomo and climbed the cupola, all 463 stairs! it took sooo long to get to the top but the view was absolutely incredible. First you go around the edge of the dome, and you get to see the ceiling with huge fresco of hell, with the devil eating children and all these crazy things, as well as heaven, with light and cherubs and such!
Then at the top, the stairs get more and more twisty and dark and small, before you pop out at the top, which is just beautiful, both the actual building, the view, everything. When we got to the bottom our legs were shaking like crazy from all the stairs and we felt dizzy from all the circular turns we had to do!
We bought gelato and headed toward the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi. It took us one whole hour to get to the front of the Uffizi line - we did so much waiting in Florence, I hated how everywhere had massive queues.
The Uffizi was, as you can imagine, just incredible. Can you imagine walking past a Da Vinci, or a Bronzino... or a Correggio without stopping to look?! of course we did, but it's just criminal! the place was so huge that you just pass these incredible paintings and thing, oh yeah, there's another one.
My favourites were Da Vinci's annunciation (I bought a poster of it) and a beautiful Portrait of Lucrezia Panciatichi byBronzino - it was so romantic, she's reading a page from the book of solomon about 'she who is loved' and her necklace says 'love lasting forever' - it was a gift from her husband.
The other thing I liked was one of the ceilings - it was painted to look like a kind of arbour, with grape vines intertwined on the trusses, and through it you could see the summer sky, with little birds hopping about the vines. It was really beautiful but I couldn't find a postcard in the shop of it.
After the Uffizi, we walked to the Ponte Vecchio and window shopped in all the jewellery stores. At the opposite end of the bridge is a glove shop called Mandova, and I bought a pair of the most gorgeous, soft, cashmere lined black leather gloves there for 50 euros.
After shopping we went for dinner in a cute little restaurant, and then headed back to the station for the looooong trip home.
Today I skyped with the family and slept and slept, I was so tired. It's been so grey outside all day and now there is thunder, so we're hoping it won't rain - we're supposed to be having dinner in Trastevere with Alessandra tonight!
Ciao a presto,
R
as per usual, pretty busy weekend...
on friday we had a kind of farewell dinner for some of the girls in the class who were leaving, with dinner at a nice restaurant. We got home around 1am from that, and saturday I basically slept or read all day, I was soooo tired, although we did step outside in the evening to have dinner and to get some more credit for my internet usb stick.
Sunday we got up incredibly early to catch our 6:30am train to Siena!
it was very beautiful there, but quite a small town, so it didn't take too long to see the more famous sites, including
the Duomo (massive marble church)
Teatro del'Opera del Duomo
you could climb that thing that looks kind of like an aquaduct... it was very high and windy at the top, and a lot of stairs!
Torre del Mangia (super, super high, with the most amazing views of Siena from the top)
..and Piazza del Campo, where they hold horse races every august.
We had lunch in a really nice pizzeria, and the weather was beautiful.
When we got back to the station however, they said that the trains were on strike and they couldn't say whether or not our train would actually leave. We debated what we should do and agreed that we'd get travel insurance to cover the cost of a night's accomodation and go to Florence the next day, but as it happened, the train left on schedule, at 8pm. We had a 2 hour wait in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere that seemed to be having some kind of sports festival or drinks night with big marquees and strange music, and then back on the train to Roma Termini. We got back to our house around 2 am and so today I didn't even bother setting my alarm - I only went to my morning class.
Siena was absolutely stunning, but I don't think I'd go there again without a guided tour, if at all...somehow it didn't take my breath away like Capri and Sorrento did.. but here are some more nice pics
Busy. Handed in an assignment for uni today, ended up missing my morning class to get it done... the afternoon class was really good though, since I finally felt like I was/am getting a handle on the language a little! I can conduct conversations with others in Italian! sure they might be limited in terms of expression but yay! it's possible!
what else? we tried to get tickets for the soccer game this weekend between Roma and Juventus but the place closed before we got to the front of the line, so we're going again tomorrow to try to buy them . It's exciting because my half-finished gryffindor scarf is actually in the Roma colours! I decided I'd buy a tshirt if Roma win, but I wont bother if they lose! Haha!
We tried the gelateria that was mentioned in the 'eat pray love' book today! Gelato di San Crispino, near the trevi fountain! it was really cool, I had honey flavour and some random other thing that I can't remember now, some kind of sweet white wine flavour? the honey was lovely and subtle, just enough flavour, the kind of thing I'd want served at a wedding or a big important birthday party.
I also bought shoes! at a place across from the Trevi fountain, for a terrific bargain, only 20 euros! check these babies out:
I wanted some low heels that would be suitable for work but also easy to walk around in, and these were a bargain IMO! it would have been a crime to pass them up, right?!
anyway, Im soooo tired so that's it from me!
ciao a presto,
baci abbracci!
xox
R
Hmm what did I do this week? it was nice actually, monday after class was gelato in piazza di spagna, followed by a walk to the coloseum, followed by dinner at a restaurant called 'thank god it's friday' - it took me about 10 mins staring at the name (it was in italian) before I got it, and then I giggled to myself.
What else? another dinner on friday, since heaps of my class were leaving, boo! we had dinner in piazza navona and it was really fun, since one of the girls only speaks portuguese or italian, we had to speak in italian all night, which was fun, we had sangria and pizza (god I'm sick of pizza. It's all absolultely amazing but I'm soooo tired of it. I could murder a huge hurricanes cheese burger with avocado or a hogsbreath steak with avo on the side...)
then today my flatmate and I (Marisol, the new one from mexico - she's so cute, she brought beautiful frosted shotglasses from her home town for us, they have the famous aquaduct or her town in a clear glass design on the side!) went to capri!
woohoo! I went
with jas but we missed out on buying handmade shoes there and were
really disappointed, so this time I went back and got some! its so
much fun, you tell them the type of base you want (high heel or flat)
and then you pick the design of the straps you like from out the front
of the store, and then you pick the leather colours you prefer, and
they fit them for you - right there while you wait! they fit your foot
perfectly, because they measure your foot to fit the straps! here's some pics of the ones I chose:
I ended up getting two pairs, and then we went up on the funicular (a kind of train that goes up the side of the hill to the main part of Capri) and wandered around and shopped a little. Then we got a teeny tiny little bus to Anacapri, which is the top part of the island. The bus driver was such a lunatic on the way up, swerving around all these hairpin turns and blaring his horn and almost scraping the mountain on one side and a 2 km drop down to the sea on the other!
At a little cafe place in Anacapri had the most amazing Caprese sandwiches (tomato, basil and mozzarella) - of course CAPRI makes awesome CAPRESE sandwiches! but damn if it wasn't one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten anywhere!
ha ha, I abosolutely loved this sign - because of course I came all the way to Capri for Real English Tea and Butter Toast!
The holiday house that used to belong to Aristotle Onassis (of Jackie O fame) is also up there, but I couldn't remember which one it was.
After that we went back down and had our last fitting for the shoes and then got the ferry home. It's a really long trek from Rome to Capri (1.5 hours on the train to Naples, then a 40 minute ferry to Capri) but it's totally worth it, I absolutely love that place! Especially the shoes!
well that's it from me!
Baccio Abbraccio! (kisses and hugs)
R
just a quick one today.
The last few days have been fun, but I seem to have caught a mild cold. I haven't done anything that exciting, just a few beers here, a cocktail there, met heaps of new people and saying goodbye to others..
Tomorrow we're going out to dinner at a restaurant on an island in the middle of the tiber! how's that for romance?!
this afternoon I had gelato from a place up the street from my house, and you wouldn't believe the flavours, I had one scoop of peach and sparkling wine flavour, and one scoop of banana and lime, which were delicious, but they had a whole section of chocolates, including chocolate orange and get this (ew) chocolate and tobacco! they also had cheesecake and goodness knows what else, it was insane!
they tasted really good, although ew, can you imagine tobacco flavoured icecream?!
Anyway, I'm skyping tomorrow morning with Anna, so that's it from me for now!
xox
R
This afternoon and evening was probably one of the best since I've been here. Today I woke up with an awful sore throat, so I didn't go to my morning classes, but I felt pretty okay by this afternoon and went to my afternoon class, which was a fun one.
It is absoultely gorgeous in that area, and we had such a good time. We got to try Porchetta in Nemes, which is basically a type of cured/slow baked pork covered in spices and garlic and herbs. It was delicious! we also got to try fragolini, which is the name for tiny wild strawberries. I'd had them in Switzerland when I was little, and they are much nicer fresh than they are bought like we had them today, but still, they're gorgeous, very sweet.
After taking hundreds of pictures of the beautiful view, we went for dinner at an awesome restaurant. We had a huge U-shaped table and wine and water included in the meal.Two of the students who came are on their honeymoon, so they were seated at the head of the table and we toasted them in Italian. It's also traditional to yell 'baccio baccio baccio' to get the couple to kiss, and of course we did this as well!
We had the most amazing food, there were fried artichokes, crumbed, fried riceballs with tomato and mozarella inside, fried zucchini flowers stuffed with cheese, and a few other unidentifiable but totally delicious things, not to mention the pizza!
at the end we had a chocolate, ricotta and banana pizza. Delicious! and, there was a bird sitting on one of the chairs in the restaurant!
Anyway, as per usual we got back really late. I never seem to have any time to sleep! and tomorrow my sore throat will be back and I'll feel awful, haha!
Oh well, you know what they say - you can sleep when you're dead!
I'll leave you with these gorgeous pictures of the sunset. Ciao voxies!
Today was another huuuuge day. I expected to just kind of sit around, but because most of the people from the school are here for such a short time, they're desperately trying to cram in as much as possible.
This morning I got a call from Lisa, my classmate, who asked if I wanted to go out, so I met up with her and Elke, her flatmate, and we went to Museo Nazionale Romano, which was just the coolest place, it was full of light, and such a beautiful building, and inside there were so many gorgeous statues, the detail was so intricate, like the bronze boxer who had swollen ears and inlaid sections to look like blood, or the marble statue of Aphrodite bathing, the super famous Discus thrower, or oh my god, the frescoes from an entire room of an ancient house, painted to look like a garden, or the intricacy of some of the mausoleum/sarcofigi! the whole place was just amazing!
After we finished there we went via bus to Area Sacre di Largo Argentina (yes, I do have to look all these names up!) - which we affectionately called 'the cat ruins' because people are not allowed in, and there is instead a proliferation of cats, and a sanctuary for them attached. Since the site is somewhat below street level, we enjoyed peering down and counting cats, which were incredibly difficult to spot in the deep shade! we counted something like 23 cats by walking all 4 sides of the site, and then headed towards the Pantheon..
We had lunch at a really nice pub there called Miscellanea, where they served iced tea in half litre steins. The ice and the lemon was so refreshing, it was honestly a godsend in the 30+ degree heat!
After that Lisa and Elke went into the pantheon while I sat outside near the fountain, since I went with Jasmine lastweek and it was super crowded inside. We then got a metro to Piazza Barberini and went to the Palazzo Barberini which was seriously stunning. It was once the home of the Barberini family. I love that the barberini family crest is 3 bees, and they have bees EVERYWHERE at their palazzo, every architectural feature you can think of has a bee on it, from inlaid floors, window frames, everything! they had all these beautiful baroque oil paintings in there, you know, caravaggio, tintoretto, raphael, and my favourite, a huge ceiling fresco called the triumph of providence by pietro da cortona. We were exhausted by this point and they have these long couches, so we lay down and read about the imagery in the fresco on the couches! The artwork was just stunning, seriously, one of the most beautiful and skillfully created ceiling frescoes I have ever seen, including the Sistine chapel!
After that we were tired from all the walking and headed back home. I made myself pizza and am now relaxing with a red Erik beer imported from denmark.
It sounds lovely but god my feet are sooo sore, just the soles from the constant walking everywhere. I took my gps watch out with Jasmine one day on the first week, and we calculated that we were walking at least 10 km a day, so it's no wonder I'm so tired!
Now to watch movies on my laptop while I knit a few rows of my Gryffindor scarf!
xox
R
I had a really lovely day today.
This morning I skyped with mum, dad, anna and willum, followed by fajitas for lunch at Roadhouse Grill, in station termini, with my flatmate. After lunch we took the metro to the beach and lay in the sun and swam for a while.
The beaches are not like australian beaches. The sand is really dark,and the waves are a lot more gentle. You pay to use a sun lounger which is awesome, it has a kind of flip lid thing to shade your face Haha, and the beach/sun lounger rental place was called Hakuna Matata!
After we came back, we had showers, got ready and went back out to meet my classmate Lisa, and her flatmates for dinner in Piazza Navona.
I had tortellini with cream, mushrooms, peas and ham, and we shared a bottle of prosecco and some tiramisu.
Afterwards we stood for a while and watched these incredible breakdancers, I got a quick vid of one, but they were all unbelievable
After that we walked up to the Trevi fountain which was just heaving with people, including a bride and groom!
we got icecream and now I'm back at home. I find that here, I forget the time really easily because it takes so long to get dark, and also people are awake, eating gelato, walking dogs, playing ballgames with kids... it seems more like 8pm than 11:30!
Ciao voxies!
xox R
Just got back from the Opera! We went to see Carmen. It was an open air amphitheater, in the grounds of a ruined Roman bathhouse. The weather was perfect, the singing was incredible, and the costumes were beautiful. I’ve never been to an Opera before, only Operettas and musicals, and they were nothing like this. For a start, there were 4 quarters, and 3 intermissions, and we were listening to them sing in French rather than Italian!
I was really glad I’d googled the story line before we went because honestly, I had no idea what on earth was going on!
It started at 9 and didn’t finish until 1am. EEK!
And...more random Rome pictures for you! This is a pic of some graffiti near my flat – do you recognize Sen/Chihiro from Spirited away?
These pics are all around my neighborhood, but all different movie characters – a lot of them are unfamiliar to me, but I recognized this one straight away! It’s funny, because the cinema a few doors down the road from us has a big poster for another Studio Ghibli film in their window – my neighbor totoro comes out in September! I’m so excited, I haven’t ever seen a single Ghibli film on the big screen, I think I will go to see it, even if I have to go by myself!
Anyway, that’s it from me!
Xox
R
