Wednesday I met for the first time with my Italian Language Partner. The language partner is an optional IES program where you're paired with an Italian student and speak in both English and Italian to have practice for both students. I finally decided a few weeks ago that I felt prepared enough to speak in Italian so I signed up. My partner is Francesco and he's a fifth year (last year for Italian universities; you do 3 years of general studies and 2 years of specialized studies) law student. We met up at the IES center for the first one as most do and also got some lunch when we were done. Luckily he speaks fantastic English (I'm his third language partner and he also studied in Washington state). He's very nice and I'm excited to meet again.
On Thursday I finally had another "Thursday Adventure" after almost a month. I started by heading to the Arena in Parco Sempione (near the castle) which I couldn't get into but I saw the outside. Then I headed to the Aquarium next door which is tiny. However, it was free and pleasant to walk around. They have a nice terrace with pretty views. It is definitely becoming fall here. Milan isn't very green. There's not many trees until you find a full-blown park so it's hard to tell the seasons sometimes. Parco Sempione was on fire though. Lots of yellows and reds and oranges on the leaves. After leaving the aquarium I walked around the front of the castle just because I never had and there's a pretty fountain there. I also walked to the Triennial Design Museum but didn't feel like paying to see an exhibit.
I got lunch at a place near IES and was going to see Sant'Ambrogio church. Saint Ambrose (Sant'Ambrogio) is the patron saint of Milan and a big deal. The church is the oldest in Milan I believe and is supposed to be gorgeous. However, it was closed for two hours and I was right at the beginning of when it's closed. Guess I'll have to make it back there now that I know the times it's open.
I went over by the Duomo to La Scala and went into the museum. It was really nice. Lots of old instruments and paintings and busts of famous composers and singers. You can also walk out into the nice boxes and see the lobby area. Sadly I could not take pictures inside but I enjoyed wandering around. I also went to see Peck a very famous grocery store near the Duomo. It was really nice but I was slightly overwhelmed. I will have to make a trip back with my parents when they're here since they are the ones who told me to see it.
I took the metro back towards my apartment but stopped to see the first park in Milan the Giardini Publici. Again, fall was in full bloom and it was very pretty to walk around. Also, while looking for the park I finally stumbled across my parent's favorite gelato place in Milan: Bianco Latte. And they were right. It might be the best gelato I've had so far this trip (I don't know if it beats Vivoli's in Florence or Giolitti's in Rome from my last trip to Italy). The dark chocolate had chunks of super dark chocolate in it and there was also an orange chocolate. So good! I balanced out the chocolate with some biancolatte (since that was the name of the store).
I have just found out that Friday is a strike day in Milan for public transport. Luckily it seems that our train to go to the Umbria region will be running and we'll just have to take a cab to Centrale to get there.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Jetting off to España: Barcelona and Ibiza
I just have to say that I love three day weekends. So much travel time! So, in honor of our first three day weekend that there wasn't an IES trip I was going on my friend Allie and head jetted off to Spain.
We left Thursday evening for Barcelona. Our plane was delayed so it was pretty late when we got in. Luckily, the Spanish (or in Barcelona it's mostly the Catalans) stay up super late (even later than most Europeans). We checked into a hostel, got some dinner, drank some Sangria, and headed to bed after that.
We got up on Friday morning and went on a bike tour of Barcelona! We went with Fat Tire Bike Tours which I would highly recommend to anybody who likes to bike (and can bike obviously; it's a pretty easy bike though) and wants to get an idea of what to see. My roommates had told us about it so we decided to go and it was definitely worth the twenty euros we paid for it (which was a pretty good deal in my opinion for a four hour, guided bike tour in English). We saw the outsides of things but that was fine because we just went back to the places we wanted to see more of.
We started the bike tour at the Plaza Sant Jaume which is the political center of Barcelona to today and includes the city hall. We also saw Plaza del Rei which is where the palace Ferdinand and Isabella lived in. We saw where they tied people to the wall and poured boiling oil on them during the Spanish Inquisition (which was all Isabella's idea...although Ferdinand really didn't stop it. Isabella hated the Catalans and since Ferdinand never stood up for his own people no Catalans today will name their children Ferdinand or Isabella). We also saw the steps that Christopher Columbus scaled many times to ask Queen Isabella for the boats to find "Asia" and instead he found the new world. We saw the Music Palace which looks like Gaudi (the famous architect of Barcelona, if you don't know anything about him look it up) but was done by a contemporary. It's gorgeous to see even from the outside. My Aunt Kathy told me that it's nice to see inside as well (she gave me a bunch of ideas before I went to Barcelona and I was so glad that this one was on our bike tour) but we didn't get around to that. We kind of saw the Barcelona Cathedral but there was a festival in the way so it was hard to see. However, I learned that in order to be a cathedral the church must have the remains of some saint. Well, Barcelona took this to heart and collected over 700 body parts of saints. Crazy!
We saw the Arc de Triomf, and yes, Barcelona has one too. Theirs is red brick and very pretty. I think I liked it more than the Paris Arc de Triomph because it was in a much more serene area. You could walk the area around it and you weren't fearing for your life. We got to bike right underneath it which was fun. We then went to the Parc de la Ciutadella right next to the arc where the Gaudi Cascades are (which Gaudi was only an apprentice on but when it was being finished he'd become famous so he gets a lot of credit now). It's a beautiful park and was fun to bike through. We got to see the outside of the only bull fighting arena in Barcelona that still hosts bullfighting. Bullfighting was never a Catalan thing and was imported. They hated it so the government decided to be nice and ban it, however, the Catalans don't like following the laws so the next Sunday they held a bullfight. Apparently you can go any Sunday from April to September and see a bullfight there but they are going to try and ban bullfighting again in 2012. Other laws we learned about in Barcelona that are never followed:
-It is illegal to bike without a helmet on (nobody on the tour had a helmet on...)
-It is illegal to smoke in any bar or restaurant (there was smoking in every bar and restaurant)
-It is illegal to walk around with shorts and no shirt on. However, take off those shorts and you're not in violation of any law.
After that we went up to Sagrada Familia which is Gaudi's cathedral that has been under construction forever. It's pretty crazy looking but really cool at the same time. I loved it, it was just so unique. Interesting fact about Gaudi, he was killed from injuries he sustained after being hit by a tram. He designed the Barcelona tram system. Talk about irony. He also sold all his assets to keep working on Sagrada Familia and moved in there for the last few years of his life (before the tram accident). I also learned that when Franco was in power he hated anything Catalan and would burn down all Catalan buildings (he also allowed Barcelona to be used to bombing practice). However, Sagrada Familia is all stone and couldn't be burned down so instead Gaudi's workshop and all the blueprints were burned. The current plan for Sagrada Familia has been created from still existing pictures of Gaudi's plans but are probably rather inaccurate because Gaudi always designed as he went.
After Sagrada Familia we went to Port Olympic which was built up for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. They added a ton of beach with sand they imported from the Sahara desert so that Barcelona has the most beach front of any city in the world (and they kinda cheated for it). Then we biked to the beach, had a wonderful lunch on the beach, and biked back to the Fat Tire store (after everybody on the tour had consumed sangria...). It was a great way to start the day.
After the tour we wandered a bit and ended up at La Rambla which is one of the main streets through down. We saw a theater, a lot of street performers, and went into this indoor market my Aunt Kathy told me about that had so much beautiful food. We wandered around taking pictures before heading to the Barcelona Cathedral again. We were able to get a few better pictures and then I got to go in. I saw all the chapels with various saint remains buried in them including Saint Cecilia (patron saint of music), Saint Ambrose (patron saint of Milan), Saint George (patron saint of Spain...they refer to him as Sant Jordi they love him so much), and Saint Eulalia who was tortured to death for three days in the streets of Barcelona back when Christianity was illegal because she refused to renounce her beliefs. She was only thirteen when all of this happened and seven years after Constantine came to Barcelona and declared Christianity legal.
We then went to another indoor market, a less touristy one, chilled by the Arc de Triomf, and went to dinner. We had gotten recommendations from our guide from the bike tour and ironically ended up at the Mexican restaurant she recommended. We figured if we were missing Mexican food that Spain would be the best, and most ironic, place to get it. After that we were so tired from biking (it was about seven miles according to the Fat Tire website) that we went back to our hostel and slept like rocks.
We got up on Saturday and headed back to Sagrada Familia. We waited in line for about an hour to get in but it's so beautiful on the inside. My friend Allie wasn't a fan of the outside but she even agreed that the inside was beautiful. Gaudi loved his columns and his stained glass. We also went under the church into the crypt where there's a museum about the progress of Sagrada Familia that was interesting. We then took the metro up to the Park Guell which is the park that Gaudi designed. It's really nice and has some cool architecture including a long, serpentine bench. There are also fantastic views of the city up there. I really want to go back and see even more of it.
We met up with three friends who were also in Barcelona for lunch before heading and getting our backpacks from the hostel. Our plan was to see the magic fountain they have but we failed to realize that it's only on at night and that it's under construction. However, it turns out we were by the National Palace and the Olympic Park so we wandered those for a bit. We actually got up the hills by escalator which was cool and nice since we had our heavy backpacks on. Finally we had to catch the aerobus and our plane to the island of Ibiza off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean.
Ibiza was gorgeous the minute we saw the water. We ended up in a pretty nice hotel because the place we originally booked got shut down early due to lack of occupancy (it was the very end of high season) and they moved us at no cost. It was pretty awesome and we had water views. We went to dinner, chilled a bit, and then went to sleep.
Sunday we slept in which was much needed. Then we spent the whole day relaxing on the beach. We walked a bit, wandered through a small bit of the town right on the water, but mostly just had a nice time relaxing before getting and early dinner and heading to the Ibiza airport for our flight back to Milan. After all our beautiful sun in Spain we were sadly met with fog, rain, and cold in Milan. However, it's good to be "home" after a long trip. But I can't wait for the next one!
We left Thursday evening for Barcelona. Our plane was delayed so it was pretty late when we got in. Luckily, the Spanish (or in Barcelona it's mostly the Catalans) stay up super late (even later than most Europeans). We checked into a hostel, got some dinner, drank some Sangria, and headed to bed after that.
We got up on Friday morning and went on a bike tour of Barcelona! We went with Fat Tire Bike Tours which I would highly recommend to anybody who likes to bike (and can bike obviously; it's a pretty easy bike though) and wants to get an idea of what to see. My roommates had told us about it so we decided to go and it was definitely worth the twenty euros we paid for it (which was a pretty good deal in my opinion for a four hour, guided bike tour in English). We saw the outsides of things but that was fine because we just went back to the places we wanted to see more of.
We started the bike tour at the Plaza Sant Jaume which is the political center of Barcelona to today and includes the city hall. We also saw Plaza del Rei which is where the palace Ferdinand and Isabella lived in. We saw where they tied people to the wall and poured boiling oil on them during the Spanish Inquisition (which was all Isabella's idea...although Ferdinand really didn't stop it. Isabella hated the Catalans and since Ferdinand never stood up for his own people no Catalans today will name their children Ferdinand or Isabella). We also saw the steps that Christopher Columbus scaled many times to ask Queen Isabella for the boats to find "Asia" and instead he found the new world. We saw the Music Palace which looks like Gaudi (the famous architect of Barcelona, if you don't know anything about him look it up) but was done by a contemporary. It's gorgeous to see even from the outside. My Aunt Kathy told me that it's nice to see inside as well (she gave me a bunch of ideas before I went to Barcelona and I was so glad that this one was on our bike tour) but we didn't get around to that. We kind of saw the Barcelona Cathedral but there was a festival in the way so it was hard to see. However, I learned that in order to be a cathedral the church must have the remains of some saint. Well, Barcelona took this to heart and collected over 700 body parts of saints. Crazy!
We saw the Arc de Triomf, and yes, Barcelona has one too. Theirs is red brick and very pretty. I think I liked it more than the Paris Arc de Triomph because it was in a much more serene area. You could walk the area around it and you weren't fearing for your life. We got to bike right underneath it which was fun. We then went to the Parc de la Ciutadella right next to the arc where the Gaudi Cascades are (which Gaudi was only an apprentice on but when it was being finished he'd become famous so he gets a lot of credit now). It's a beautiful park and was fun to bike through. We got to see the outside of the only bull fighting arena in Barcelona that still hosts bullfighting. Bullfighting was never a Catalan thing and was imported. They hated it so the government decided to be nice and ban it, however, the Catalans don't like following the laws so the next Sunday they held a bullfight. Apparently you can go any Sunday from April to September and see a bullfight there but they are going to try and ban bullfighting again in 2012. Other laws we learned about in Barcelona that are never followed:
-It is illegal to bike without a helmet on (nobody on the tour had a helmet on...)
-It is illegal to smoke in any bar or restaurant (there was smoking in every bar and restaurant)
-It is illegal to walk around with shorts and no shirt on. However, take off those shorts and you're not in violation of any law.
After that we went up to Sagrada Familia which is Gaudi's cathedral that has been under construction forever. It's pretty crazy looking but really cool at the same time. I loved it, it was just so unique. Interesting fact about Gaudi, he was killed from injuries he sustained after being hit by a tram. He designed the Barcelona tram system. Talk about irony. He also sold all his assets to keep working on Sagrada Familia and moved in there for the last few years of his life (before the tram accident). I also learned that when Franco was in power he hated anything Catalan and would burn down all Catalan buildings (he also allowed Barcelona to be used to bombing practice). However, Sagrada Familia is all stone and couldn't be burned down so instead Gaudi's workshop and all the blueprints were burned. The current plan for Sagrada Familia has been created from still existing pictures of Gaudi's plans but are probably rather inaccurate because Gaudi always designed as he went.
After Sagrada Familia we went to Port Olympic which was built up for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. They added a ton of beach with sand they imported from the Sahara desert so that Barcelona has the most beach front of any city in the world (and they kinda cheated for it). Then we biked to the beach, had a wonderful lunch on the beach, and biked back to the Fat Tire store (after everybody on the tour had consumed sangria...). It was a great way to start the day.
After the tour we wandered a bit and ended up at La Rambla which is one of the main streets through down. We saw a theater, a lot of street performers, and went into this indoor market my Aunt Kathy told me about that had so much beautiful food. We wandered around taking pictures before heading to the Barcelona Cathedral again. We were able to get a few better pictures and then I got to go in. I saw all the chapels with various saint remains buried in them including Saint Cecilia (patron saint of music), Saint Ambrose (patron saint of Milan), Saint George (patron saint of Spain...they refer to him as Sant Jordi they love him so much), and Saint Eulalia who was tortured to death for three days in the streets of Barcelona back when Christianity was illegal because she refused to renounce her beliefs. She was only thirteen when all of this happened and seven years after Constantine came to Barcelona and declared Christianity legal.
We then went to another indoor market, a less touristy one, chilled by the Arc de Triomf, and went to dinner. We had gotten recommendations from our guide from the bike tour and ironically ended up at the Mexican restaurant she recommended. We figured if we were missing Mexican food that Spain would be the best, and most ironic, place to get it. After that we were so tired from biking (it was about seven miles according to the Fat Tire website) that we went back to our hostel and slept like rocks.
We got up on Saturday and headed back to Sagrada Familia. We waited in line for about an hour to get in but it's so beautiful on the inside. My friend Allie wasn't a fan of the outside but she even agreed that the inside was beautiful. Gaudi loved his columns and his stained glass. We also went under the church into the crypt where there's a museum about the progress of Sagrada Familia that was interesting. We then took the metro up to the Park Guell which is the park that Gaudi designed. It's really nice and has some cool architecture including a long, serpentine bench. There are also fantastic views of the city up there. I really want to go back and see even more of it.
We met up with three friends who were also in Barcelona for lunch before heading and getting our backpacks from the hostel. Our plan was to see the magic fountain they have but we failed to realize that it's only on at night and that it's under construction. However, it turns out we were by the National Palace and the Olympic Park so we wandered those for a bit. We actually got up the hills by escalator which was cool and nice since we had our heavy backpacks on. Finally we had to catch the aerobus and our plane to the island of Ibiza off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean.
Ibiza was gorgeous the minute we saw the water. We ended up in a pretty nice hotel because the place we originally booked got shut down early due to lack of occupancy (it was the very end of high season) and they moved us at no cost. It was pretty awesome and we had water views. We went to dinner, chilled a bit, and then went to sleep.
Sunday we slept in which was much needed. Then we spent the whole day relaxing on the beach. We walked a bit, wandered through a small bit of the town right on the water, but mostly just had a nice time relaxing before getting and early dinner and heading to the Ibiza airport for our flight back to Milan. After all our beautiful sun in Spain we were sadly met with fog, rain, and cold in Milan. However, it's good to be "home" after a long trip. But I can't wait for the next one!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Bologna...yum!
So this weekend I was supposed to go on a trip to the Umbria region. However, there were no train tickets left and no way to get there (except the ridiculously expensive option of taking the train to Rome first and then backtrack to Umbria on the super fast trains). So, I stayed in Milan Friday night and then made a Saturday day trip to Bologna!
Bologna is in the Emilia-Romanga region which is (as a region) known for it's food. Parma created proscuitto, another town created Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Bologna (also know as Bologna "Il Grasso" or "the Fat") claims bolognese sauce (duh) and tortellini.
We got in Bologna right at lunch time (perfect!). We walked from the train station to the main street in town, ended up in the public gardens for a time, and then headed for lunch. It was probably the best thing I've had in Italy yet. I had tortellini in brodo which is tortellini in a broth and a traditional Bolognese food. It was delicious, as was the tortellini alle bolognese which I tried (my friends both had it). We also had some very good bruschetta to start our meal.
After eating we headed to the main squares. We saw the Neptune statue in Bologna which was very controversial at the time it was erected (and probably still is judging by it). It's rather sensual which people considered disrespectful to Neptune. However, it's still beautiful. After that we saw the main Basillica San Petronius (which I believe is the 5th largest Catholic church in the world...). I couldn't take pictures inside but it was beautiful and there is a very famous fresco in there. There also happened to be a small exhibit on Mother Theresa which we walked through (it had English to read) and was very interesting. I never knew that she had spent her early years of being a nun in Ireland.
We went and saw the Two Towers of Bologna (il due torre...yes, it made me think of Lord of the Rings). One of them is actually leaning and inspired Dante to write about a similar tower. Turns out that it was a competition between two families to see who could build a taller tower (Freud anybody?). It's very clear which one won.
After that we walked to Santo Stefano's which is a church that is actually seven churches. It was crazy and a bit confusing. They're all just attached to each other. And there's "Pilate's Courtyard" with this basin where Pilate supposedly washed his hands after condemning Jesus to death. There are few problems with this. One being that I don't remember that Jesus was crucified anywhere near Bologna, Italy and the second that the courtyard and basin were built in the 4th century.
Finally we went to San Domenico which is very pretty and also rather large. We saw a lot of churches apparently. We had planned to stay longer but then it started to rain. Since we were all umbrella-less, I was wearing my new leather jacket, and there was a train in 40 minutes we headed to the train station and headed back to Milan.
In other Milan life it has been freezing here and our heat doesn't work yet. I'm pretty bundled up for mid-October.
Bologna is in the Emilia-Romanga region which is (as a region) known for it's food. Parma created proscuitto, another town created Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Bologna (also know as Bologna "Il Grasso" or "the Fat") claims bolognese sauce (duh) and tortellini.
We got in Bologna right at lunch time (perfect!). We walked from the train station to the main street in town, ended up in the public gardens for a time, and then headed for lunch. It was probably the best thing I've had in Italy yet. I had tortellini in brodo which is tortellini in a broth and a traditional Bolognese food. It was delicious, as was the tortellini alle bolognese which I tried (my friends both had it). We also had some very good bruschetta to start our meal.
After eating we headed to the main squares. We saw the Neptune statue in Bologna which was very controversial at the time it was erected (and probably still is judging by it). It's rather sensual which people considered disrespectful to Neptune. However, it's still beautiful. After that we saw the main Basillica San Petronius (which I believe is the 5th largest Catholic church in the world...). I couldn't take pictures inside but it was beautiful and there is a very famous fresco in there. There also happened to be a small exhibit on Mother Theresa which we walked through (it had English to read) and was very interesting. I never knew that she had spent her early years of being a nun in Ireland.
We went and saw the Two Towers of Bologna (il due torre...yes, it made me think of Lord of the Rings). One of them is actually leaning and inspired Dante to write about a similar tower. Turns out that it was a competition between two families to see who could build a taller tower (Freud anybody?). It's very clear which one won.
After that we walked to Santo Stefano's which is a church that is actually seven churches. It was crazy and a bit confusing. They're all just attached to each other. And there's "Pilate's Courtyard" with this basin where Pilate supposedly washed his hands after condemning Jesus to death. There are few problems with this. One being that I don't remember that Jesus was crucified anywhere near Bologna, Italy and the second that the courtyard and basin were built in the 4th century.
Finally we went to San Domenico which is very pretty and also rather large. We saw a lot of churches apparently. We had planned to stay longer but then it started to rain. Since we were all umbrella-less, I was wearing my new leather jacket, and there was a train in 40 minutes we headed to the train station and headed back to Milan.
In other Milan life it has been freezing here and our heat doesn't work yet. I'm pretty bundled up for mid-October.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Lago Maggiore & Lugano, Switzerland
This weekend was the first weekend in IES Milan history that we had no class on Friday. However, IES did offer a trip to Lago Maggiore which I took advantage of.
We met up as a group in the train station, most people decided to travel on their own so only six of us plus Luca (one of the academic advisors) who went. We took a train to Stresa, Italy which is on Lago Maggiore. In Stresa we took a boat to the Borromeo islands. There are three of these islands which were owned by the Borromeos, the ruling family of the area. The first island we went to was Isola Madre (the mother island) which is where the summer place of the Borromeos is. There is a beautiful botanical garden in villa that we got to go through on IES's bill which was really nice. There are peacocks and other pretty birds wandering around the gardens freely (one of the girls with us is scared of birds so that was interesting) and a very old cyprus tree which was sadly depleted in a "tornado" four years ago. However they did rescue it and is held up by supports.
After Isola Madre we went to the Isola dei Pescatori which is named for the fisherman (pescatori) that live there still to this day. We had lunch and I ate a very good whitefish that came from the lake we were on. We wandered the island a little bit, got some gelato, and then headed to the final island: Isola Bella.
Isola Bella is where the main Borromeo estate is and it is huge. We went through the palace on the island as well as some of their gardens. It was really pretty. We had a great time and took a train from Stesa back to Milan.
On Saturday I got up and headed with two of my friends to Lugano, Switzerland which is only one hour away. Lugano is really pretty and a nice distance from Milan. It resides in the Italian part of Switzerland so there was not much of a language barrier (well, no more than we're used to in Italy).
We saw a pretty church first and then headed towards the lake. We took some pictures and then decided to take a "train" tour of the city on this little, cheesy, train. It was pretty fun and took us around all of Lugano which was really nice. After the tour we had lunch and I got a merlot risotto which was huge and delicious.
After lunch we spent some more time wandering around. We almost took a funicolare up one of the hills around but it was more expensive than the cash we had and they did not take cards. We walked along the lake back to the center and then just headed home again. I spent the evening relaxing as I have had a headache the past few days. Overall the two day trips this weekend were successful!
We met up as a group in the train station, most people decided to travel on their own so only six of us plus Luca (one of the academic advisors) who went. We took a train to Stresa, Italy which is on Lago Maggiore. In Stresa we took a boat to the Borromeo islands. There are three of these islands which were owned by the Borromeos, the ruling family of the area. The first island we went to was Isola Madre (the mother island) which is where the summer place of the Borromeos is. There is a beautiful botanical garden in villa that we got to go through on IES's bill which was really nice. There are peacocks and other pretty birds wandering around the gardens freely (one of the girls with us is scared of birds so that was interesting) and a very old cyprus tree which was sadly depleted in a "tornado" four years ago. However they did rescue it and is held up by supports.
After Isola Madre we went to the Isola dei Pescatori which is named for the fisherman (pescatori) that live there still to this day. We had lunch and I ate a very good whitefish that came from the lake we were on. We wandered the island a little bit, got some gelato, and then headed to the final island: Isola Bella.
Isola Bella is where the main Borromeo estate is and it is huge. We went through the palace on the island as well as some of their gardens. It was really pretty. We had a great time and took a train from Stesa back to Milan.
On Saturday I got up and headed with two of my friends to Lugano, Switzerland which is only one hour away. Lugano is really pretty and a nice distance from Milan. It resides in the Italian part of Switzerland so there was not much of a language barrier (well, no more than we're used to in Italy).
We saw a pretty church first and then headed towards the lake. We took some pictures and then decided to take a "train" tour of the city on this little, cheesy, train. It was pretty fun and took us around all of Lugano which was really nice. After the tour we had lunch and I got a merlot risotto which was huge and delicious.
After lunch we spent some more time wandering around. We almost took a funicolare up one of the hills around but it was more expensive than the cash we had and they did not take cards. We walked along the lake back to the center and then just headed home again. I spent the evening relaxing as I have had a headache the past few days. Overall the two day trips this weekend were successful!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
La Scala Opera!
So IES is super fantastic and got a bunch of free tickets to the Teatre alla Scala which is the super famous opera house in Milan. Music students got first dibs and I got to go on Wednesday night to see L'Elisir D'Amore (The Elixir of Love) which is a comedic opera by Gaetano Donizetti.
I have never really seen an opera unless you count James Niblock operas at Blue Lake (I never saw the Menotti opera that was put on this year) and I am now in love. It was so much fun, even when the subtitles weren't working well. The music was beautiful, it was wonderfully staged, and I just had a fabulous time.
The best part was the tenor aria in the second act which was absolutely gorgeous.
I'm now making it a plan in life to try and see opera more often, before I never realized how enjoyable it can be but now I'm converted.
In other news, Thursday Adventure this week is failing and not occurring. I have a lesson and I haven't been feeling that well. I'm doing a lot better (so don't worry) but I didn't want to over-exert myself with my day trips coming up this weekend.
I have never really seen an opera unless you count James Niblock operas at Blue Lake (I never saw the Menotti opera that was put on this year) and I am now in love. It was so much fun, even when the subtitles weren't working well. The music was beautiful, it was wonderfully staged, and I just had a fabulous time.
The best part was the tenor aria in the second act which was absolutely gorgeous.
I'm now making it a plan in life to try and see opera more often, before I never realized how enjoyable it can be but now I'm converted.
In other news, Thursday Adventure this week is failing and not occurring. I have a lesson and I haven't been feeling that well. I'm doing a lot better (so don't worry) but I didn't want to over-exert myself with my day trips coming up this weekend.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Thursday Adventure #1, Wine Tasting, and Lago di Como
Whew, I've had a busy past few days.
THURSDAY:
So, if you've read my earlier post you know that I am extremely fortunate not to have classes on Thursdays. Therefore I have entitled it my "Thursday Adventures" and I get to go around the city to various sights.
I started off my Thursday this past week with the Orto Botanico di Brera...the Botanical Gardens at the Brera. These are free and very pretty. It's small but intimate feeling and I had a great time wandering around and taking pictures of pretty flowers and plants. However, it was an adventure just to find the gardens as they are not located next to the Brera is it appears, but behind it. I also discovered that the Astrological Museum at the Brera is free and may have to visit that sometime.
After the garden I headed to Maria della Grazie. I was trying to get my Last Supper tickets there and not deal with the online hassle. I got some nice pictures of the outside and found out they only sell tickets a week in advance at the box office and that they were all booked up. I got the website address and headed off. Later I checked it out and they said it was totally booked until the end of December (which is how far they're selling tickets in advance). I ended up finding a third party vendor and paid a little more for my visit but I do have a knowledgeable English speaking guide which I guess is nice. I will be visiting The Last Supper on November 2nd.
I met a friend at IES quick who needed something before heading to the Archeological Museum at the Castello Sforzesco. I found out that there are about six museums in the castle and that it's only 1,50 euro to see them all if you're a student. I thought this was fantastic and went through the Archeological Museum (which is gorgeous, there's a room painted by Leonardo Da Vinci and a Michelangelo sculpture...luckily I was able to take pictures so everybody can see them), a bit of the furnishing museums (I skipped modern times kinda on accident), some of the art museum, quickly made my way through the ceramics and such, and spent some time in the musical instrument museum. Apparently I missed the Egyptian museum which I would very much like to see. But for 1,50 I'll totally go back another time.
I went back to my apartment for a bit before I headed to the Verdi Orchestra concert. IES has three tickets for every concert that we get for free, we just have to sign up. There's one ticket a student then but if nobody signs up students that have gone before can go again. This was the second one of the season and I saw Schumann no. 4 and Mahler no. 4 both of which were beautifully done. The conductor was actually a woman which I thought was amazing and she did the entire Schumann without a score. Wow!
FRIDAY
The deal with our Friday classes is that every once and awhile we have them off (it's actually about every other week). As a result the weeks we do have Friday class (we only have Italian) the class is three hours long from 9-12. However, this week Italian class was pretty fantastic. Instead of meeting at IES and having class we met and went to a wine club (an enoteco I believe they're called). We learned about wine (half in Italian, half in English), had to answer some questions, and got to taste two different wines. A prosecco and a Chianti. It was odd drinking wine at about 10am but both were good. I enjoyed them and it was interesting to learn about wine from somebody who has been in the wine business his whole life (it's a family owned club).
SATURDAY
So, in lieu of spending lots of money on a weekend trip this week I decided a day trip would be nicer. I headed up to Lake Como (Lago di Como) in the morning. I was supposed to make the trip with a friend but he never showed and his cellphone fails so I ended up going alone (don't worry, I was safe and on a train back by dark).
I started off in the actual town of Como. I wandered for a bit, not sure where I was going before I found a stand that sold a map which helped a lot. I went to the Duomo which is quite beautiful and then headed up the side of the hill (Lake Como is surrounded by hills) on a funicolare. A funicolare is like a train that goes up the hill but it's actually built on the angle of the hill. It was pretty interesting. I got some nice views of Como and the lake from above, although it was a bit overcast and not as pretty as I bet it would be on a clear day.
After heading down I made for lunch. I tried to go to this osteria my parents recommended but it was packed. Apparently it is good. I ended up at a smaller cafe instead and had gnocci al pesto which was quite good. I've never really dined by myself in public but it was nice. I sat outside and people watched. Plus I got all of the bread to myself. After lunch I got on a boat and headed to Bellagio.
Bellagio I discovered was much hillier than Como which was rather flat. I tried to go to a villa that my map recommended (it had little tourist hints on it) but the map failed and it's apparently a private residence. Oh well, I wandered the town for a bit, got some gelato, before I got on another boat (this one smaller and open aired which as great) and headed to Varenna which is also on the lake.
I think I liked Varenna the best. From the ferry stop I walked this cute little path along the coast to the main part of town which I liked a lot. I ended up visiting the Villa Monestero which has really pretty gardens and a museum with the rooms displayed as they would have been when the villa was built. It was very interesting.
I went to a very early dinner, again attempting to go somewhere my parents had recommended but it was out of my price range and not really open yet so I went to a bar right on the water and had an asparagus pizza (which was good and rather interesting) while I watched the water and the cute little dog dressed in a shirt to advertise the bar. Not wanting to stay out alone after dark I headed to the Varenna train station which has trains into Milano Centrale. However, I got a little mixed up a boarded the wrong train. Luckily it was going the right direction but after we sat at one stop for awhile it backtracked. Whoops! I had to get off and wait for about forty minutes for the next train to arrive at that train station (in Lecco) to take me back to Milan.
I had a good time and now know that I can travel by myself (although I wouldn't want to do more than a day trip that way).
I'm now dedicating my Sunday to doing some work for class, some laundry, and practicing. Oh, and uploading my pictures. Look for those soon!
THURSDAY:
So, if you've read my earlier post you know that I am extremely fortunate not to have classes on Thursdays. Therefore I have entitled it my "Thursday Adventures" and I get to go around the city to various sights.
I started off my Thursday this past week with the Orto Botanico di Brera...the Botanical Gardens at the Brera. These are free and very pretty. It's small but intimate feeling and I had a great time wandering around and taking pictures of pretty flowers and plants. However, it was an adventure just to find the gardens as they are not located next to the Brera is it appears, but behind it. I also discovered that the Astrological Museum at the Brera is free and may have to visit that sometime.
After the garden I headed to Maria della Grazie. I was trying to get my Last Supper tickets there and not deal with the online hassle. I got some nice pictures of the outside and found out they only sell tickets a week in advance at the box office and that they were all booked up. I got the website address and headed off. Later I checked it out and they said it was totally booked until the end of December (which is how far they're selling tickets in advance). I ended up finding a third party vendor and paid a little more for my visit but I do have a knowledgeable English speaking guide which I guess is nice. I will be visiting The Last Supper on November 2nd.
I met a friend at IES quick who needed something before heading to the Archeological Museum at the Castello Sforzesco. I found out that there are about six museums in the castle and that it's only 1,50 euro to see them all if you're a student. I thought this was fantastic and went through the Archeological Museum (which is gorgeous, there's a room painted by Leonardo Da Vinci and a Michelangelo sculpture...luckily I was able to take pictures so everybody can see them), a bit of the furnishing museums (I skipped modern times kinda on accident), some of the art museum, quickly made my way through the ceramics and such, and spent some time in the musical instrument museum. Apparently I missed the Egyptian museum which I would very much like to see. But for 1,50 I'll totally go back another time.
I went back to my apartment for a bit before I headed to the Verdi Orchestra concert. IES has three tickets for every concert that we get for free, we just have to sign up. There's one ticket a student then but if nobody signs up students that have gone before can go again. This was the second one of the season and I saw Schumann no. 4 and Mahler no. 4 both of which were beautifully done. The conductor was actually a woman which I thought was amazing and she did the entire Schumann without a score. Wow!
FRIDAY
The deal with our Friday classes is that every once and awhile we have them off (it's actually about every other week). As a result the weeks we do have Friday class (we only have Italian) the class is three hours long from 9-12. However, this week Italian class was pretty fantastic. Instead of meeting at IES and having class we met and went to a wine club (an enoteco I believe they're called). We learned about wine (half in Italian, half in English), had to answer some questions, and got to taste two different wines. A prosecco and a Chianti. It was odd drinking wine at about 10am but both were good. I enjoyed them and it was interesting to learn about wine from somebody who has been in the wine business his whole life (it's a family owned club).
SATURDAY
So, in lieu of spending lots of money on a weekend trip this week I decided a day trip would be nicer. I headed up to Lake Como (Lago di Como) in the morning. I was supposed to make the trip with a friend but he never showed and his cellphone fails so I ended up going alone (don't worry, I was safe and on a train back by dark).
I started off in the actual town of Como. I wandered for a bit, not sure where I was going before I found a stand that sold a map which helped a lot. I went to the Duomo which is quite beautiful and then headed up the side of the hill (Lake Como is surrounded by hills) on a funicolare. A funicolare is like a train that goes up the hill but it's actually built on the angle of the hill. It was pretty interesting. I got some nice views of Como and the lake from above, although it was a bit overcast and not as pretty as I bet it would be on a clear day.
After heading down I made for lunch. I tried to go to this osteria my parents recommended but it was packed. Apparently it is good. I ended up at a smaller cafe instead and had gnocci al pesto which was quite good. I've never really dined by myself in public but it was nice. I sat outside and people watched. Plus I got all of the bread to myself. After lunch I got on a boat and headed to Bellagio.
Bellagio I discovered was much hillier than Como which was rather flat. I tried to go to a villa that my map recommended (it had little tourist hints on it) but the map failed and it's apparently a private residence. Oh well, I wandered the town for a bit, got some gelato, before I got on another boat (this one smaller and open aired which as great) and headed to Varenna which is also on the lake.
I think I liked Varenna the best. From the ferry stop I walked this cute little path along the coast to the main part of town which I liked a lot. I ended up visiting the Villa Monestero which has really pretty gardens and a museum with the rooms displayed as they would have been when the villa was built. It was very interesting.
I went to a very early dinner, again attempting to go somewhere my parents had recommended but it was out of my price range and not really open yet so I went to a bar right on the water and had an asparagus pizza (which was good and rather interesting) while I watched the water and the cute little dog dressed in a shirt to advertise the bar. Not wanting to stay out alone after dark I headed to the Varenna train station which has trains into Milano Centrale. However, I got a little mixed up a boarded the wrong train. Luckily it was going the right direction but after we sat at one stop for awhile it backtracked. Whoops! I had to get off and wait for about forty minutes for the next train to arrive at that train station (in Lecco) to take me back to Milan.
I had a good time and now know that I can travel by myself (although I wouldn't want to do more than a day trip that way).
I'm now dedicating my Sunday to doing some work for class, some laundry, and practicing. Oh, and uploading my pictures. Look for those soon!
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