So after getting back from Rome on Sunday I was back at Malpensa Airport to pick up Aaron on Monday afternoon. It was great to see him after being gone for twelve weeks. We're used to not seeing each other for long amounts of time, but never as long as it had been this time.
After getting him settled in and making sure he didn't sleep (I beat the jet-lag out of him) we went to the Duomo area. The Christmas tree was being put up and they had it lit up for ten minutes while we were there. I showed Aaron the outside of the Duomo, the Vittorio Emmanuele Galleria (he spun on the bull's testicles for good luck), the outside of La Scala, and the castle. We got dinner near my apartment and I took Aaron to our 100 Flavor (centogusti) shop in order to get him his very first gelato.
Tuesday morning I had to perform for my music class so Aaron actually came along to hear me. He picked a good day to come since it was probably our most interesting class all semester. Then he and I went back to the Duomo, saw the inside, had some panzerotti at Luini's (if you're ever in Milan you have to go there, it's cheap and delicious. Perfect for lunch), and then we climbed to the top of the Duomo. It was so clear outside that you could see the mountains to the north. It was really beautiful.
After that I had to have a horn lessons so Aaron occupied himself by going to La Scala's museum and walking around the castle area. He met me at the IES center and we headed to my apartment to relax a bit before we went and got some traditional Sicilian pizza at Spontini (another place to hit up if you're in Milan).
Wednesday Aaron explored the city some more while I went to Italian class and then we went to see a few churches and wandered around a bit, got lunch, and then I headed to my second class of the day. After that we were going to go to the Science and Technology Museum but the entrance is really confusing to find and by the time we had an idea of where it was the museum was only going to be open for another hour.
However, in the evening he and I both had our first experience at an Italian soccer (or calcio as they say) game. We went to see Inter Milan play FC Twente with Allie as well. Our seats were with all of the Inter Milan fans which was crazy. They are the most organized sports fans ever. They all knew every cheer and some of them were really complicated. Allie and I managed to understand a few but we were even lost. Aaron knows no Italian so I told him what I did understand which still wasn't a lot. Especially when it was a really long and complicated "song" instead of a shorter chant. When Inter scored the one goal of the game everybody went crazy. It was so much fun. And it was really exciting that Inter won!
I don't have classes on Thursdays so Aaron and I decided to take a day trip. I knew Torino was close and I'd heard it was a nice city. It's the third largest in Italy and was the host of the 2006 Winter Olympics (in English it's often referred to as Turin). We took about a two hour train to get there, walked around a lot. We saw the two main piazzas, a student protest in one of them (we steered away from it and watched from a distance. They definitely egged a government building. From what I figured out they were protesting monetary cuts from the public university), a palace or two, Torino's Duomo (which has this shroud that many believe was the shroud on Jesus's face in the tomb and it has an imprint of his face on it), and a few parks. We had a really good lunch and continued to walk around more.
We ended up going to the Cinema Museum but not to see the museum, but to go up in the tower. They have this spire on the building that you can ride and elevator up the museum and up onto the top of it. You can see the mountains all around you and the city of Torino is laid out in front of you. It's really beautiful so we spent a lot of time up there. After that we headed to Torino's Egyptian Museum. Torino actually has the third largest Egyptian collection in the world after Cairo and London. It's also in a museum completely dedicated to Egypt, not among other things as in London apparently. There was a nice student discount so we went and walked around. It was really interesting to see all of this Egypt stuff, even if we were in Italy.
After the Egyptian museum we headed back to the train station (after stopping for gelato of course) and back to Milan. Now, as Thursday was Thanksgiving we decided to go have a really big Italian dinner. We went to another restaurant in my neighborhood and had the primi piatti (pasta) and the secondi piatti (meat usually) as well as dessert. The whole dinner took over two hours to eat and we were stuffed after it. We had originally thought to get two desserts to share and ended up only having one. After that we went and Skyped with my family which was really great. Everybody who was at my house just kept filing past the computer and talking to me. All my cousins from my mom's family got on at the same time (including Sammy the dog) and I talked to my Grandpa and everybody else. I wish everybody could have been there but it was fantastic to talk to those who were. As much as I'm going to miss Milan I'm really looking forward to going home for Christmas Eve and Christmas and getting to see everybody.
So Friday I had three hour Italian. I had booked Aaron a ticket to see Da Vinci's The Last Supper so he went to that first and loved it, as does everybody who sees it. Then he walked around and managed to find himself a leather jacket which was his one purchase for himself. He met me at IES and we grabbed some lunch to go for our train we had to catch to Venezia (or Venice for those of you who don't know Italian names of towns).
When we got to Venice it was pouring rain and freezing. We had to find where we were staying and then we decided to venture back out since it was only 5:30 and we had a lot of time. We took the vaporetto to San Marco to see the outside and ended up wandering around. We popped into a lot of Murano glass shops (definitely one of my favorite things in Venice) and ended up walking all the way to the Rialto Bridge. We found some dinner near the Rialto before heading back for the night.
Luckily we woke up Saturday to blue skies and sun. We went back to San Marco again and went inside. We also went upstairs to go on the terrace that overlooks Piazza San Marco and then to the museum up there which was really interesting. I didn't even know there was that much of a museum up there and I enjoyed it a lot.
We then tried to go see the church were Vivaldi was baptized (which I had stumbled across the last time I was in Venice) but they were just closing up. So we got some lunch and headed to Isola San Giorgio with the intention of going up the bell tower to view Venice from above. However, there's this thing where most churches close for a few hours in the afternoon and we were right in that time. But we got some good views of Venice from the island before heading back to the main island. We then tried to go the Santa Maria Della Salute which was also closed. So...we wandered. And wandering in Venice is pretty fun. Eventually you end up back at the Grand Canal. We ended up back there at the Accademia bridge and then went back up towards the Rialto. We spent the rest of our day just wandering, seeing the picturesque-ness of Venice, and looking in the windows of every Murano glass shop we saw (if you've never seen Murano glass you should Google it. It's gorgeous).
We had a very early dinner at a pizzeria and then we were on the last train back from Venice to Milan. When we got back we had to pack everything up. I bought a suitcase here for Aaron to take back with him so we had to fit everything in it. Then this morning we got up early and I took Aaron back to the airport and he headed off to Atlanta and then he'll head to Detroit.
It was fantastic to Aaron here in general and really nice to have somebody to spend Thanksgiving with. Next visitors: my parents! Just two and a half weeks!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Roma!
So we had another long weekend and my friend Allie and I jetted off to Rome (yes, we took a plane...it is cheaper and faster than a train actually).
We got in Thursday evening, had some dinner at a cute restaurant near the Colosseum (we were about 10 minutes from there in our hostel) and got to see the Colosseum all lit up at night. It's beautiful at night and I loved getting to see that.
We got up on Friday and we hit practically everything. We saw the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine during the day. Then we spent forever trying to find the entrance to the Roman Forum and walked around three quarters of it (it's huge) before figuring out that the Roman Forum is no longer free, it's a combined ticket for the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. We were saving our pennies for the Vatican but we got some nice views of the Forum as we walked around. We saw a bunch more ruins, Capitoline Hill, and the Vittorio Emanuelle Monument and then headed to the Pantheon which is beautiful and a must see in Rome.
After the Pantheon we decided to have a quick pick-me-up and we headed to Giolitti...best gelato in Italy. I went there last time I was in Rome nine years ago and my dad and cousin Anna insisted I go back. It was still as good as I remembered.
Next we hit the Piazza Navona for some people watching before getting lunch. After lunch we walked over to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We climbed the steps and watched the sun set over Rome from the top. We then met up with two other friends from our program that happened to be also be in Rome (one was Allie's roommate). We went for a cappuccino at the oldest cafe in Rome and then Allie and I headed back to the hostel...exhausted from the large amounts of walking we did (Milan's public transportation is way better than Rome's).
Saturday morning we woke up super early, had breakfast, and took the metro out to the Vatican. We met up again with our friends and went through the Vatican museum. We only had to wait an hour in line but it was pouring rain so that wasn't fun. We were very happy to find that there's a really good student discount for the Vatican museums. Last time I was there I only remember seeing the Sistine Chapel but we saw pretty much the whole museum. Besides the Sistine Chapel I enjoyed seeing the Raphel rooms and his famous frescos including my friend Allie's favorite "School of Athens."
We ate lunch when we finally finished with the museum and then head to St. Peter's. The sun came out and we had a great time seeing the church, Michelangelo's Pieta, and a lot of people in interesting hats (not all clergy...although we saw a cardinal in the Vatican museum and three Bishops in St. Peter's Square.
We walked over to Castel Sant'Angelo and saw the outside, plus a nearby palace before taking our friends to...you guessed it...Giolitti! We had some wonderful gelato before heading back to our hostel. We wandered a bit and ended up finding the Roman Theatre ruins which were cool to see, especially since it was night and they were all lit up.
Sunday we slept in and relaxed after our two really big days. We hit up the Campo dei Fiori to see some markets and look around. We also headed back to the Piazza Navona for people watching before getting our final gelato at Giolitti. We headed back to the hostel, made it through the thunderstorm that had hit Rome, and headed back to the airport (luckily the storm didn't last long and our plane was only delayed slightly).
It was a wonderful trip to see the Eternal City and I took a lot of pictures that will be up soon, but first I have to head to pick up Aaron at the Milan airport! He'll be here for a week and we'll see Milan, Torino, and Venice! I can't wait.
We got in Thursday evening, had some dinner at a cute restaurant near the Colosseum (we were about 10 minutes from there in our hostel) and got to see the Colosseum all lit up at night. It's beautiful at night and I loved getting to see that.
We got up on Friday and we hit practically everything. We saw the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine during the day. Then we spent forever trying to find the entrance to the Roman Forum and walked around three quarters of it (it's huge) before figuring out that the Roman Forum is no longer free, it's a combined ticket for the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. We were saving our pennies for the Vatican but we got some nice views of the Forum as we walked around. We saw a bunch more ruins, Capitoline Hill, and the Vittorio Emanuelle Monument and then headed to the Pantheon which is beautiful and a must see in Rome.
After the Pantheon we decided to have a quick pick-me-up and we headed to Giolitti...best gelato in Italy. I went there last time I was in Rome nine years ago and my dad and cousin Anna insisted I go back. It was still as good as I remembered.
Next we hit the Piazza Navona for some people watching before getting lunch. After lunch we walked over to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We climbed the steps and watched the sun set over Rome from the top. We then met up with two other friends from our program that happened to be also be in Rome (one was Allie's roommate). We went for a cappuccino at the oldest cafe in Rome and then Allie and I headed back to the hostel...exhausted from the large amounts of walking we did (Milan's public transportation is way better than Rome's).
Saturday morning we woke up super early, had breakfast, and took the metro out to the Vatican. We met up again with our friends and went through the Vatican museum. We only had to wait an hour in line but it was pouring rain so that wasn't fun. We were very happy to find that there's a really good student discount for the Vatican museums. Last time I was there I only remember seeing the Sistine Chapel but we saw pretty much the whole museum. Besides the Sistine Chapel I enjoyed seeing the Raphel rooms and his famous frescos including my friend Allie's favorite "School of Athens."
We ate lunch when we finally finished with the museum and then head to St. Peter's. The sun came out and we had a great time seeing the church, Michelangelo's Pieta, and a lot of people in interesting hats (not all clergy...although we saw a cardinal in the Vatican museum and three Bishops in St. Peter's Square.
We walked over to Castel Sant'Angelo and saw the outside, plus a nearby palace before taking our friends to...you guessed it...Giolitti! We had some wonderful gelato before heading back to our hostel. We wandered a bit and ended up finding the Roman Theatre ruins which were cool to see, especially since it was night and they were all lit up.
Sunday we slept in and relaxed after our two really big days. We hit up the Campo dei Fiori to see some markets and look around. We also headed back to the Piazza Navona for people watching before getting our final gelato at Giolitti. We headed back to the hostel, made it through the thunderstorm that had hit Rome, and headed back to the airport (luckily the storm didn't last long and our plane was only delayed slightly).
It was a wonderful trip to see the Eternal City and I took a lot of pictures that will be up soon, but first I have to head to pick up Aaron at the Milan airport! He'll be here for a week and we'll see Milan, Torino, and Venice! I can't wait.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Swiss Visitors
Michelle, Me, and Janine at the Parco SempioneSo this past weekend I had some visitors from Switzerland. When I was in Europe in 2007 with Blue Lake International Southern Winds I had stayed with a family for four days in Switzerland and had since kept it pretty decent contact with my host sister Janine. So, she came down to Milan for the weekend with her sister Michelle. They'd never been to Milan before so we had a good time.
They got here Saturday and we went to the Duomo area where you can see the Duomo (of course), the Vittorio Emmanuel, and La Scala. We did some shopping (another popular activity around the Duomo) and had lunch. For dinner we went out with two of my friends of Sicilian style pizza al tracio (pizzia by the slice) at this place called Spontini which is so good. If you're ever in Milan go find it, it's fantastic.
Sunday we went back to the Duomo and actually went inside because there had been a really long line the day before. We walked around and saw some of the very fancy shopping, and then, because of the rain (molto pioggia) we went to the museums in the castle. We had lunch at Bar Magenta which is a rather historic bar that my language partner had taken me to previously and saw the inside of San Ambrogio. I'd never been inside and it's a very beautiful church. It's the oldest church in Milan and definitely worth a visit.
I had a great time with my host sisters but this weekend it's off to Rome. And then I have another visitor coming Monday...Aaron's coming to visit me! Yay!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Bella Toscana
So I stole the title from the sequel to Under the Tuscan Sun except I used correct Italian grammar (the title of the sequel is Bella Tuscany and is definitely worth a read).
This trip was an IES sponsored trip which was awesome because all I bought all weekend was lunch. Yay! Also, it was led by one of my most favorite people at IES, Walter! Yay! We had classes off on Thursday as an end of midterms treat so we left Thursday morning and came back Saturday night.
THURSDAY
We started with a four hour bus ride. Joy. However, we arrived in Siena and had a guided tour. This time our guide spoke pretty good English so it didn't take as long to have the translations. He was also a lot less long winded than the guide we had in Aosta. We were given breaks a few times as well which was nice. We saw the Piazza del Campo, the political center of Siena where the hold the big horse race Siena has every year for which province is more adored by the Virgin Mary. We took a break here and ate some very good gelato while sitting in the square.
We also saw the church with St. Catherine's head (yes, you can really see the head. I believe my cousin Anna was really intrigued by this when she went there) which is San Domenico and the outside of the Duomo. We then climbed up this wall that was supposed to be the facade for a new church when Siena decided to try and expand their Duomo into the largest cathedral in the world (beating St. Peter's in Rome). However, the plague hit and nothing was finished. However, now you can climb it (for a price which IES covered for us, yay!) and see some beautiful views of Siena and the Tuscan countryside that surrounds it.
Siena is a small town so we then headed and checked into the hotel and relaxed until dinner.
FRIDAY
We woke up, had some breakfast, and headed to Montalcino where there's a castle/fortress we went to. We went up on the walls of the fortress and then tasted wine in the enoteca (wine club) in the castle. This wasn't covered by IES but there was a deal that we got to try a brunello that Montalcino is known for and it was only one euro. We then had time to explore the town of Montalcino and get some lunch. We basically saw some churches (the Duomo was closed for lunch when we got there but we hung out in the little park in front of it and took pictures of the beautiful fall colors).
After Montalcino we headed to a monastery nearby and got to hear the monks there doing their Gregorian chant. We actually then heard from a monk there who is originally from LA but just moved out to the monastery.
We left Montalcino and went to Pienza which is a small Renaissance town that was designed by Piccolomini! (a reference to a Blue Lake song for those that don't know). Turns out Piccolomini became Pope Pius II. We got to see a beautiful Tuscan sunset (so many Under the Tuscan Sun references...) and wander the town before going back to our hotel in Siena and having dinner.
SATURDAY
We packed the bus up (we jokingly said "upload" because Walter had misspoke and said "download" the bus instead of unload earlier on the trip) and went to Arezzo for the day. We went into San Francesco and saw these very famous frescos that I enjoyed. Other than that we just wandered the town. Saw the Duomo which had also just closed for lunch, had lunch with the RAs and Walter because we ran into them, and then got on a bus back to Milan.
It was a wonderful trip and Tuscany was so beautiful. I've come back to gray, cloudy Milan (we're supposed to have rain for four days in a row this week) and back to classes. I will be spending next weekend in Milan but am very excited because my host sister from St. Gallen, Switzerland during my 2007 European tour with the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp International Southern Winds is coming with her other sister to visit me. Yay!
This trip was an IES sponsored trip which was awesome because all I bought all weekend was lunch. Yay! Also, it was led by one of my most favorite people at IES, Walter! Yay! We had classes off on Thursday as an end of midterms treat so we left Thursday morning and came back Saturday night.
THURSDAY
We started with a four hour bus ride. Joy. However, we arrived in Siena and had a guided tour. This time our guide spoke pretty good English so it didn't take as long to have the translations. He was also a lot less long winded than the guide we had in Aosta. We were given breaks a few times as well which was nice. We saw the Piazza del Campo, the political center of Siena where the hold the big horse race Siena has every year for which province is more adored by the Virgin Mary. We took a break here and ate some very good gelato while sitting in the square.
We also saw the church with St. Catherine's head (yes, you can really see the head. I believe my cousin Anna was really intrigued by this when she went there) which is San Domenico and the outside of the Duomo. We then climbed up this wall that was supposed to be the facade for a new church when Siena decided to try and expand their Duomo into the largest cathedral in the world (beating St. Peter's in Rome). However, the plague hit and nothing was finished. However, now you can climb it (for a price which IES covered for us, yay!) and see some beautiful views of Siena and the Tuscan countryside that surrounds it.
Siena is a small town so we then headed and checked into the hotel and relaxed until dinner.
FRIDAY
We woke up, had some breakfast, and headed to Montalcino where there's a castle/fortress we went to. We went up on the walls of the fortress and then tasted wine in the enoteca (wine club) in the castle. This wasn't covered by IES but there was a deal that we got to try a brunello that Montalcino is known for and it was only one euro. We then had time to explore the town of Montalcino and get some lunch. We basically saw some churches (the Duomo was closed for lunch when we got there but we hung out in the little park in front of it and took pictures of the beautiful fall colors).
After Montalcino we headed to a monastery nearby and got to hear the monks there doing their Gregorian chant. We actually then heard from a monk there who is originally from LA but just moved out to the monastery.
We left Montalcino and went to Pienza which is a small Renaissance town that was designed by Piccolomini! (a reference to a Blue Lake song for those that don't know). Turns out Piccolomini became Pope Pius II. We got to see a beautiful Tuscan sunset (so many Under the Tuscan Sun references...) and wander the town before going back to our hotel in Siena and having dinner.
SATURDAY
We packed the bus up (we jokingly said "upload" because Walter had misspoke and said "download" the bus instead of unload earlier on the trip) and went to Arezzo for the day. We went into San Francesco and saw these very famous frescos that I enjoyed. Other than that we just wandered the town. Saw the Duomo which had also just closed for lunch, had lunch with the RAs and Walter because we ran into them, and then got on a bus back to Milan.
It was a wonderful trip and Tuscany was so beautiful. I've come back to gray, cloudy Milan (we're supposed to have rain for four days in a row this week) and back to classes. I will be spending next weekend in Milan but am very excited because my host sister from St. Gallen, Switzerland during my 2007 European tour with the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp International Southern Winds is coming with her other sister to visit me. Yay!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Da Vinci's The Last Supper
Just a quick blog post to update that I got to go see Da Vinci's Last Supper at Santa Maria Delle Grazie today. It was a wonderful experience that I highly recommend to anybody coming to Milan. To see something that you've seen prints of and pictures of in textbooks up close is just amazing and I loved it. You can see the textures and where things are still fading away despite the many restorations.
I had an English guide with the ticket I got (I couldn't find any left directly through the ticket office so I had to find a third party that blocks out a few times a week to take people through) and that made the experience very informative and interesting.
So, definitely go see The Last Supper sometime in your lifetime. It's worth the trip.
I had an English guide with the ticket I got (I couldn't find any left directly through the ticket office so I had to find a third party that blocks out a few times a week to take people through) and that made the experience very informative and interesting.
So, definitely go see The Last Supper sometime in your lifetime. It's worth the trip.
Orvieto, Perugia, Assisi...oh my!: The Umbria Region
This past weekend was a long one thanks to Monday being All Saint's Day which is a big deal in Europe and a national holiday in Italy. We left Friday afternoon for Orvieto which is in the Umbria region. It takes a little over five hours on the mid-speed train. When we got to Orvieto is was one of those get dinner and head to bed nights.
We woke up in the morning and spent it exploring Orvieto. We went to the Duomo which is beautiful and built over many centuries so it's kinda a piecework building. After that we mainly just wandered. We found a few more churches and beautiful views. Orvieto is on top of a hill and you can see all the other hills of Umbria and other small villages from the top. It's really beautiful and I took tons of pictures. I definitely recommend the trip but you don't need more than a day (we did it in a half day) to see the city. It's very small and quaint.
Then we headed to Perugia. We ran into some transportation issues getting to our hostel. It's actually a farmhouse on the outskirts of Perugia but beautiful. We had to take a bus and unlike Milan all the stops were not listed on the sign. We got confused and got off too early. However, we had a crazy bus drive and she barely let me out the door and my two friends ended up a stop away and walked back to me. We waiting half an hour for the next bus with a much more sane bus driver and a girl who was staying the same place we were. She helped us find the place. It was wonderful. We were literally in a farmhouse in a four person dorm (our fourth roommate ended up being the girl who helped us on the bus). There was a little kitchen and two common areas. We bought some food and cooked at the hostel since the bus to Perugia stopped pretty early in the evening (about eight or nine). We met some really nice people including the girl who helped us, an Australian girl backpacking through Europe, and an Australian/New Zealander couple who was on a three week vacation and more or less backpacking through Italy.
Sunday morning we got up and went to Assisi. That's right, I spent Halloween in what is considered by many to be a very holy place. We saw the St. Francis cathedral which is beautiful but was very crowded. We ended up being in the lower church (there is a lower church and an upper church) for part of a mass while waiting to see St. Francis's tomb. The upper church has beautiful frescos of St. Francis's life. After the church we wandered a bit, got some lunch, and just followed random signs we found. We stumbled across a few more churches including Santa Chiara (St. Claire) and went in to see her tomb as well. She's actually preserved so you can see her lying there in all her glory. It was a bit creepy when we realized it but the church and tomb were beautiful. By the time we made it back to Perugia it was later and so we went back to the hostel to chill and eat some dinner.
Monday we got up and went into the Perugia city center. From the train station you have to take a mini metro up the hill and then a bunch of escalators. Basically, all of these towns are considered "hill towns" and are like this in various ways. We took a bus or a funicolare in Orvieto, we took a bus up and walked down in Assisi, and Perugia has this nice mini-metro thing.
We basically wandered Perugia. A lot of things were closed but there was a festival and lots of booths. We bought chocolate which Perugia is famous for and saw some nice churches. The main church in Perugia looks like nothing on the outside. It's downright ugly. Then you walk in and I think it took my breath away because I was expecting nothing and it's just beautiful. We also so the Etruscan Arch in the town which has a lot of Etruscan ruins. It's a very medieval town.
However, the most interesting part of our entire trip might have been getting back to Milan.
Originally we had planned to stay in Orvieto all the nights but ran into issues finding a room, hence how we ended up in Perugia for two nights. But our tickets to Milan departed from Orvieto. So we took two trains from Perugia to Orvieto and were two hours early for our train. Due to the extreme rain we stayed in the train station and chilled. Read books, got some pizza, and relaxed.
Then we see that our train is five minutes late. Then ten...twenty...twenty-five...thirty...one hour and fifty minutes delayed. We're already getting back to Milan rather late so this is going to be a disaster because we want to make the metros back home (metros stop running around 12:40 or 12:45). So we notice there's a 6:15 train going to Milano Centrale as well (our train was supposed to be at 5:44) and it's only 10 minutes delayed. We try to get our tickets changed and the guy at the booth says the trains will be running pretty much at the same time so it doesn't matter. However, since it's the same type of train we knew we wouldn't get kicked off if we took another train of the same value as our ticket (some of our friends found this out once). The 6:15 ended up being only half an hour late so we got on. Problem was...no seats. We had reserved seats on the other train. So we stood. And then we sat on the ground. And then in Florence (about two hours later) we got seats. Then we lost them in one stop (about ten minutes). And then we stood until Bologna (another hour). Right next to the door between the cars that kept opening of it's own accord. Finally at Florence one of my friends got a seat and I found a nice spot on the floor by some luggage. I stayed there for about twenty minutes before another stop left enough open seats that I was able to finally sit down in a real seat for the rest of the ride. And luckily I made the second to last metro of the night.
It was an adventure but all three towns were beautiful and definitely worth the trip.
We woke up in the morning and spent it exploring Orvieto. We went to the Duomo which is beautiful and built over many centuries so it's kinda a piecework building. After that we mainly just wandered. We found a few more churches and beautiful views. Orvieto is on top of a hill and you can see all the other hills of Umbria and other small villages from the top. It's really beautiful and I took tons of pictures. I definitely recommend the trip but you don't need more than a day (we did it in a half day) to see the city. It's very small and quaint.
Then we headed to Perugia. We ran into some transportation issues getting to our hostel. It's actually a farmhouse on the outskirts of Perugia but beautiful. We had to take a bus and unlike Milan all the stops were not listed on the sign. We got confused and got off too early. However, we had a crazy bus drive and she barely let me out the door and my two friends ended up a stop away and walked back to me. We waiting half an hour for the next bus with a much more sane bus driver and a girl who was staying the same place we were. She helped us find the place. It was wonderful. We were literally in a farmhouse in a four person dorm (our fourth roommate ended up being the girl who helped us on the bus). There was a little kitchen and two common areas. We bought some food and cooked at the hostel since the bus to Perugia stopped pretty early in the evening (about eight or nine). We met some really nice people including the girl who helped us, an Australian girl backpacking through Europe, and an Australian/New Zealander couple who was on a three week vacation and more or less backpacking through Italy.
Sunday morning we got up and went to Assisi. That's right, I spent Halloween in what is considered by many to be a very holy place. We saw the St. Francis cathedral which is beautiful but was very crowded. We ended up being in the lower church (there is a lower church and an upper church) for part of a mass while waiting to see St. Francis's tomb. The upper church has beautiful frescos of St. Francis's life. After the church we wandered a bit, got some lunch, and just followed random signs we found. We stumbled across a few more churches including Santa Chiara (St. Claire) and went in to see her tomb as well. She's actually preserved so you can see her lying there in all her glory. It was a bit creepy when we realized it but the church and tomb were beautiful. By the time we made it back to Perugia it was later and so we went back to the hostel to chill and eat some dinner.
Monday we got up and went into the Perugia city center. From the train station you have to take a mini metro up the hill and then a bunch of escalators. Basically, all of these towns are considered "hill towns" and are like this in various ways. We took a bus or a funicolare in Orvieto, we took a bus up and walked down in Assisi, and Perugia has this nice mini-metro thing.
We basically wandered Perugia. A lot of things were closed but there was a festival and lots of booths. We bought chocolate which Perugia is famous for and saw some nice churches. The main church in Perugia looks like nothing on the outside. It's downright ugly. Then you walk in and I think it took my breath away because I was expecting nothing and it's just beautiful. We also so the Etruscan Arch in the town which has a lot of Etruscan ruins. It's a very medieval town.
However, the most interesting part of our entire trip might have been getting back to Milan.
Originally we had planned to stay in Orvieto all the nights but ran into issues finding a room, hence how we ended up in Perugia for two nights. But our tickets to Milan departed from Orvieto. So we took two trains from Perugia to Orvieto and were two hours early for our train. Due to the extreme rain we stayed in the train station and chilled. Read books, got some pizza, and relaxed.
Then we see that our train is five minutes late. Then ten...twenty...twenty-five...thirty...one hour and fifty minutes delayed. We're already getting back to Milan rather late so this is going to be a disaster because we want to make the metros back home (metros stop running around 12:40 or 12:45). So we notice there's a 6:15 train going to Milano Centrale as well (our train was supposed to be at 5:44) and it's only 10 minutes delayed. We try to get our tickets changed and the guy at the booth says the trains will be running pretty much at the same time so it doesn't matter. However, since it's the same type of train we knew we wouldn't get kicked off if we took another train of the same value as our ticket (some of our friends found this out once). The 6:15 ended up being only half an hour late so we got on. Problem was...no seats. We had reserved seats on the other train. So we stood. And then we sat on the ground. And then in Florence (about two hours later) we got seats. Then we lost them in one stop (about ten minutes). And then we stood until Bologna (another hour). Right next to the door between the cars that kept opening of it's own accord. Finally at Florence one of my friends got a seat and I found a nice spot on the floor by some luggage. I stayed there for about twenty minutes before another stop left enough open seats that I was able to finally sit down in a real seat for the rest of the ride. And luckily I made the second to last metro of the night.
It was an adventure but all three towns were beautiful and definitely worth the trip.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)