Bologna Pictures

The Neptune and Attendants fountain in the Piazza del Nettuno

The Basiclica San Petronio in Piazza Maggiore

The crazy stairs in the torre Asinelli

We climbed the one on the right!

View from the top of the tower. You can see Piazza Maggiore and the Basilica

Pics from Mom and Dad's Visit

outside the Pitti Palace

Birthday dinner at La Giostra on mom and dad's last night

Outside the San Miniato al Monte church

Dad inside one of the vendor's carts in the San Lorenzo Market

View of Florence from Piazza Michelangelo

Pictures from Ireland

Sheet ghosts on Halloween

A castle we saw on the tour from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher. I loved the reflection on the water.

The Cliffs of Moher

Kerry and I in front of the portal tomb

By Galway Bay

30 days and counting...

Ciao everyone! Last Saturday November 15th I went to a really small town in Tuscany called Lucca with my friend Katrina. We did a ton of walking throughout the town and saw a lot because it's so small. We climbed the torre guinigi (not as big as the one in Bologna) and at the top there were 7 trees which was kind of cool. We also went into the duomo di san martino but they were doing a lot of restoration so some of the art was covered. I thought the most interesting thing was a crucifix that was supposedly carved by Nicodemus to portray the true image of Jesus. At the end of the day we walked along the Baluardi which are the medieval walls that enclose the town. It's crazy to think that they've been standing for hundreds of years and they're still perfectly intact.
Tomorrow I leave for Barcelona with my friend Tracy. I'm so excited! I've heard so many great things about Barcelona but I also heard that the pickpocketing and theft there is really bad. Hopefully everything goes well! Miss you and love you all!

Ciao! Eliza xoxo

ps: only 30 days til HOME!! =)

what i've been doing the past month...

Sorry to be MIA for almost a month! I’ll recap everything that’s happened so far…

On Thursday October 16th, mom and dad came to Florence to spend a few days with me before heading back to the US. On Thursday we went to Pisa to see the leaning tower (of course they took some funny pics). That night for dinner we went to a place called Acqua Al 2 which is known for its blueberry steak and balsamic steak. There’s also a location in san diego which is kind of cool. The next day we did some shopping in the san Lorenzo market for gifts and souvenirs. Then we went to lunch at the oil shoppe which is one of the best places to get a panino. It’s a popular spot for students because its only 4 euro but the quality is soo good. After lunch we went inside the santa croce church which has the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo. A famous leather making school/factory is attached to the church and we wandered into the store to see how they make some leather goods. After that, we crossed the Arno river to the other side of Florence and climbed A LOT of stairs to get to the Piazzele Michelangelo which offers a great view of Florence. We continued up a little further to see the San Miniato al Monte church which was really peaceful inside. We took a lot of pictures from the top before finally heading back down towards the river. Next, we went to the Pitti Palace to walk through the Boboli gardens. I didn’t know that the gardens were all uphill so we didn’t stay too long because mom and dad were tired. The gardens were beautiful though, even without flowers. After the gardens, we walked through a costume gallery which had a bunch of dresses, even some original pieces of garments that the Medici family wore. Mom and I thought it was interesting but dad was ready to move on pretty fast. After the Pitti Palace we crossed the Arno again, this time on the Ponte vecchio which is famous for its jewelry. Before we knew it, it had already gotten dark and it was almost time for dinner. We went to a place called La Giostra which was AMAZING! All of the tables are kinda close together because the place is really small and has an intimate feel. They give complimentary champagne when you first arrive and also a plate of appetizers with delicious bruschettas and other stuff. They make their own pasta on site and one of their best dishes is the pear and pecorino cheese ravioli. We ordered it as an appetizer to share and it was the best ravioli I have ever had in my life! For our meals, I got a veal shank (one of the best things I have ever eaten, EVER!), dad got goat chops (yes, chops from a goat, which he liked) and mom got the sea bass with vegetables which she also enjoyed. It was a great early birthday celebration but I was sad that it was their last night.

On Saturday October 18th (LINDCY’S BIRTHDAY!!) I went to a chocolate festival in Perugia in her honor. The festival is called Eurochocolate and it’s held in Perugia for 10 days in the month of October every year. The school sponsored a trip and a bunch of students went. The streets were taken over by stands and cases of chocolate, cookies, hot chocolate, etc. some stands were giving free samples which was nice. There was a HUGE piece of chocolate shaped into a key which was like 20-30 feet long! It was insane! I split some churros and chocolate with my friend Christine and then had a chocolate covered banana to myself (SO GOOD!) After the chocolate festival, the school scheduled a wine tasting in a nearby town which was very informative.

The week of October 20-24 was midterms at school. None of them were too hard and I did pretty well overall. It just sucked that my BIRTHDAY was in the middle of it.

It was so great to hear everyone’s voices when they called to greet me on my birthday. Thank you for taking the time to think of me, it meant more than you’ll know. At midnight, my roommates Karen and Kelly surprised me with some baked goodies from a cute bakery and my friend tracy gave me a bottle of wine (which I waited to drink til AFTER my midterm!). That night I went to a Mexican restaurant called Tijuana with tracy, my roommates, and three guy friends Patrick, matt, and Anthony. They had GREAT margaritas and sangria. after dinner we went to a couple different bars/pubs. All in all, it was a pretty good day. I just wish that I could’ve celebrated with people from home/school. The next morning I had to take my Italian midterm and I was still soo hungover but I ended up getting a 93! Hahah not too bad for having to run out of the room cause I thought I was going to be sick. I stayed in bed the rest of the day and recovered. Luckily, after midterms, we had a week off of school for fall break so I didn’t have any work to do.

On Saturday October 25 I FINALLY went inside the duomo! On Saturdays at 5pm they have a mass in English. I’ve never been able to go before because I’m usually traveling. As I was walking into the church, I saw my friend Anthony so it was nice to have someone at mass with me. That night, I went out to dinner at this great restaurant across the river called golden view with my friend tracy’s parents and brother who were visiting. Everything was delicious and her family was soo nice. After dinner, her parents went back to their hotel and Anthony joined the 3 of us to go to a few bars.
On Sunday October 26, I went back to the Boboli gardens in the pitti palace to go for a walk/run. There were soo many trails throughout the garden and i felt like a little kid playing in the woods again. The gardens are huge but I managed to see a lot of it in about 2-3 hours. The next two days I just bummed around Florence.

For my fall break, I went to Ireland to visit my roommate from freshman year named Kerry. She’s studying in Galway for the semester. On Tuesday (10/28) I traveled by train from Florence to Bergamo (near Milan) with my two roommates in Florence, Karen and Kelly. From the train station in Bergamo, we had to take a bus to our hotel near the Bergamo airport. We got on the wrong bus at first but realized soon enough and we were able to get off to transfer to the right one. We checked into the hotel, went and had some dinner, watched a movie in the room and went to bed. We woke up pretty early the next day (Wednesday 10/29) to catch our flight. We flew through Ryanair, which is a pretty cheap Irish airline. There are no assigned seats so it’s kind of crazy when people fight to try and be near who they’re traveling with. (mom, you would NOT like this airline haha!) We landed in Shannon and had to take a bus from the airport to galway. Finally, we arrived in galway and Kerry came to get me at the bus stop. Karen and Kelly also have 2 friends who are studying in galway who they came to visit, so they were at the bus stop also. We went and had lunch at this place called “the living room” which is a café during the day (with panera-like food) and a bar/club at night. The town of galway is so cute! It was so nice to hear English being spoken and to be able to communicate with people without the language barrier. It was such a change from Florence but in a good way. There’s wayyy less traffic flow (both cars and people) and there aren’t a lot of tall buildings. It was a lot colder than in Florence but the air quality was so much better. It was raining when we first arrived but we had sunny weather the rest of the trip (which is really rare in Ireland). In the Galway program through Fairfield there are only 11 students and they all live in the same apartment complex on the same floor which is convenient. The apartments are relatively new and are so different from mine in Florence. Everything seemed brighter and cleaner and more modern. They had a microwave, toaster, tv with American shows AND a dishwasher! And a lot of the food in their grocery stores is more amercican or American products are more readily available than they are in italy. Some of the bars/pubs/clubs that we went to during my stay in galway were 903, the living room, the front door, hole in the wall, and the skeff. On Thursday (10/30) Kerry took me on a mini tour of Galway and her campus (NUIG). Her school is huge (15,000 students) and most of her classes are big lectures (which is totally different from Fairfield). We went to lunch at a place called Elle’s Café which reminded me of panera too. The downtown area of Galway is called Eyre Square and it has all of the shopping and cute places to eat. While Kerry went to class, I stayed in her apartment and just relaxed/used her laptop to plan my schedule for next semester (I’ve decided to add communication as a minor because I have extra room in my schedule to fit in all of the requirements and it partners well with my marketing minor). We went out again that night and had a great time hanging out in all the bars/pubs. The irish accents were AWESOME!! i honestly considered transferring to galway just for this reason haha! (just kidding mom and dad…kind of…) The next morning (Friday 10/31) I hung around the apartment while kerry had class. It was nice to just relax after midterms and enjoy time to myself. I went to lunch with one of Kerry’s roommates Eileen, who I knew vaguely from Fairfield. We walked around town for a little, picked up some candy for Halloween and bought the materials for our costumes: white bedsheets. Yup, we were bedsheet ghosts for Halloween. All 11 of the Galways kids plus me and 3 other visitors were all classic, holes cut for eyes, bedsheet ghosts. It was absolutely hilarious…to us at least haha! We got some people who thought we were the KKK and started calling us racists. Whatever, we liked our costumes and wore them proudly because we knew we weren’t trying to be the KKK. Everything you do looks funny in a ghost costume. Seriously, try to picture a bedsheet ghost dancing in a club. Funny, right? Well we thought so. Eventually they got annoying though to keep the eyeholes in place and people took them off. It was a really fun Halloween overall and everyone had a good time. The next day (Saturday, 11/1…I can’t believe it’s already NOVEMBER! Scary!) Kerry and I went to take a tour of the Cliffs of Moher. It was a full day tour that started at 10 and we didn’t get back to galway til 5pm-ish. The drive on the tour bus was soo pretty! It was nice to get out into the country of Ireland and to see sheep/cows and horses just roaming around and grazing on hills of grass. We stopped at a few places along the way before arriving at the Cliffs, including a tomb which was pretty cool to see. The cliffs were amazing! Everything was so green and lush. It was kind of scary because there really isn’t any barrier, people could just fall off if they’re not careful. After the cliffs, we stopped at a beautiful castle to take more pictures. I was sad to leave the next day but kind of ready to get back to Florence. Everything was going fine traveling until we got to the Milan train station only to find that we missed the last direct train from Milan to Florence by 5 minutes! So we ended up taking a midnight train from Milan to Verona then transferring to another train from Verona to Florence. We ended up getting back to Florence at 6am. I slept a few hours then went to class at 12.

On Saturday November 8th, I went to Bologna with my friend Katrina from Alaska for a day trip. The train ride was only about an hour and it was definitely worth it. There was a really cool jewelry/crafts/arts market with all handmade stuff that was all unique and interesting. We climbed a tower that had 498 steps and the view was amazing! Some parts of the stairs were basically straight up like a ladder, it was kind of scary! We also went to a medieval museum which had some cool artifacts and tombs. There was a huge basilica that we went into too. We found a really hidden trattoria for a late lunch/early dinner that turned out to be amazing! Of course we had to have Bolognese sauce in bologna! So I had the lasagna and Katrina had the tortellini with Bolognese sauce and we split. Both of them were sooo good! It was a great day and I might even try to go back to get some Christmas gifts at that cool market!

On Sunday November 9th, Fairfield got a bunch of students tickets to a Fiorentine soccer match which was really awesome and so fun! We played Atalanta, a team from northern italy, near Milan. Florence won 2-1. It was great to experience such a huge part of the Italian culture. There was a huge section of the stands where the superfans sit and they were going crazy throughout the whole game with cheers and songs, it was really cool. They were waving huge flags and scarfs. It was a sea of purple and red (Florence’s colors)

Sorry again for the month long hiatus and I know this was a really really long post so if you read the whole thing, THANK YOU! You made it! I’ll keep the next posts shorter next time I promise! Miss you all so much! 38 days til HOME!!!!

Love, Eliza

rome pictures

one last picture from Borromeo Palace
St. Peter's Square at night
the Trevi Fountain
inside the coliseum
mom and i outside of st. peter's

more pics from the lakes

Sylvester Stallone's Villa
Mussolini was killed right outside of this Villa
George Clooney's villa is one of those!!
The villa used in the filming of Ocean's Eleven
Beautiful view from the garden in Borromeo Palace

Pics from the Lakes trip

team pakistan for beer olympics (wed. oct. 1)
the duomo in milan
with vanessa and tim in our boat on lake maggiore...Borromeo Palace is in the background
me and karen inside the "grottos" of the Borromeo Palace
me and kelly inside the room where Princess Diana once ate

The Lakes and Rome

Last weekend (10/3), I went on a trip organized through the school to Milan, Lake Maggiore, and Lake Como. We left at 7:45 on Friday morning by bus to go to Milan. Our main adult leader was a professor named Francesco who chain smokes a disgusting amount. (we had to stop the bus almost every hour so he could have a cigarette!). Once in Milan, we saw the Duomo there which was HUGE and beautiful with its gothic design. The stained glass windows were amazing. Downstairs, we saw the remains of San Carlo Borromeo, a very rich cardinal in Milan who died in 1584. From the church, we walked to through the galleria of shops under a huge archway. We saw the MTV studios from the outside and the Jonas Brothers were the guest of the day. A bunch of young girls were making huge posters outside of the building. Then, Francesco took us for a walk down one of the streets with stores of famous designers such as Gucci, Prada, Michael Kors, etc. I left my contacts back in the apartment by accident for the weekend so I was stuck wearing my glasses the whole time but I was able to take a picture outside of Dolce and Gabana wearing my glasses from there. We got to our hotel in Stresa, a town on Lago di Maggiore around 5pm. We settled into our rooms and decided to explore the town a little. We had some wine at a small bar before heading to dinner at the hotel. After dinner, we went to another bar but not much was happening because we were there early (before midnight). We returned to the hotel to get some sleep because we had to get up early the next morning.
On Saturday (10/4) we took a private boat tour of Lago di Maggiore and luckily we had perfect weather. (I learned from my experience in Munich and wore boots instead of flip flops!). Our first stop was the Borromeo Palace. The Borromeo family was and still is a very rich Italian family. The palace is on its separate island in the middle of the lake. Each room was stunningly gorgeous and meticulously decorated. There was one room where Princess Diana had visited and had lunch. Even the “grottos” (there wasn’t any water in them) in the basement of the palace were beautifully architected. Each stone was intricately placed to create an interesting pattern on the floors and walls. We could only visit certain rooms in a certain section of the palace because the family still lives in and uses some of the rooms when they come to visit in the summer. After the tour of inside the palace, we were allowed to explore the huge outdoor garden on our own. The garden had several levels and tiers and the highest one offered a beautiful view of the lakes and the surrounding mountains. There was so much to take in and enjoy, it was a wonderful way to start the day. From the Borromeo Palace, we took our boat to another island called “Fisherman’s Island” where all of the fishermen lived in the past. The town was small but quaint. We had lunch at a nice restaurant which specialized in seafood. From Fishermen’s Island, we returned to our hotel to relax before dinner. We stayed at a very nice five star hotel which had indoor and outdoor pools, Jacuzzis, saunas and steam rooms. A bunch of us took advantage of these amenities and relaxed for a few hours. We all met for dinner later that night and went out to another bar. We were a small group (about 15) so we all got to know each other and it was fun hanging out. The people who owned the bar loved us and towards the end of the night they were giving us all free drinks.
On Sunday (10/5) we left the hotel by bus for lago di como. We took a boat tour of the lake and saw many villas owned by famous people (Steve Jobs, the owner of Heinz Ketchup, Sylvester Stallone, to name a few). We also saw the villas where Mussolini was murdered, where they filmed a scene of Ocean’s 11, and also GEORGE CLOONEY’S!! (from a distance though, not up close..bummer!). After the boat tour, we had some lunch and then got back on the bus to head back to Florence. Overall, it was another amazing weekend that I am so grateful for.
Last Monday (10/6) my parents arrived in Italy! I met them at the airport and I was so happy to see them! Unfortunately I only saw them for a few minutes because they had to take a bus to their hotel in another city with their tour group. This past Friday (10/10) I went to Assisi to meet up with my parents and their tour group. My priest from home said mass in one of the chapel areas in St. Francis. From Assisi, I rode with the tour group on their bus to Rome. Rome was AMAZING! There was so much to see and I’m so happy that I got to see and experience it all with my parents. My favorite site was the Coliseum because it was interesting to imagine what it was like when it was actually in use. I also loved the Vatican, St. Peter’s Square, and the Sistine Chapel (which wasn't what i expected but still so interesting). On Sunday (10/12) we caught the end of Mass at the Vatican and got to see/take pictures of the pope! There were 1000s of people all packed into the square because they were beatifying 4 saints that day from different countries. On Sunday we also visited the Trevi Fountain which was swarming with people but was still beautiful. I read that there’s a myth that if you throw 1 coin in you’ll return to Rome, 2 coins means you’ll fall in love there, and 3 coins means that you’ll get married there (however, our tour guide said that 2 means marriage and 3 means divorce…I like the version I read about better!) Some other sites we saw over the weekend were the Spanish steps (kind of overrated but still cool to say I was on them), the pantheon (really pretty on the inside), the piazza navona (there were some funny mimes, jugglers, musicians and puppet people…a good place to people watch for a while) and the piazza del popolo (which means the people’s square…it has 2 twin churches right next to each other facing into the piazza and also a huge obelisk in a pretty fountain..another great people watching spot). Overall, I really enjoyed my trip to Rome…hopefully the one coin I threw into the Trevi Fountain works and I’ll come back at some point in my life. Miss you all! Hope all is going well back home =)
Ciao! Eliza xoxo

Pictures from Pompeii

at the top of the theater
with ashley, karen and kelly
beautiful day
mt. vesuvius in the background
the preserved pillars

Pics from my weekend in southern Italy

on our way to the ferry in sorrento
on our private boat tour of capri

the water was sooo blue and clear!
the sailboat called "The Lucky Beggar" where we had lunch, that's gigi the chef!

Southern Italy

Ciao everyone! Thank you for keeping up with me through the blog. I love reading the comments!

My roommates (Kelly and Karen), 5 other girls in our building (Melissa, Ashley, Meg, Kelly, and Darian) and I signed up to go to Capri, Sorrento, Amalfi Coast, Positano and Pompeii with a student travel company called Bus2Alps. They provide transportation and accommodation. On Thursday (9/25) we met the group at the train station at 7pm and we traveled by bus to Sorrento. On the way we had to pick up 10 people from Rome. There was a lot of traffic and we didn't end up getting to Rome until around midnight. We finally arrived at the hostel in Sorrento at 2:30am and were in bed by 3am. The hostel was actually really nice and was recently built in June I think. Everything was very clean and it was very safe. It felt like a hotel with dorm rooms. There were 10 girls in our room. We had to leave the hostel at 8am the next morning to catch the ferry which was a 35 minute walk away. The views were AMAZING and soo beautiful! The ferry ride wasn't bad and we arrived at Capri in about 10-15 minutes. Darian has been to Capri at least 10 times during her summers growing up with her family so she knew how to get around. Instead of taking the tour boat around Capri first thing with the Bus2Alps group, we took convertible taxis all the way to the top of Capri and walked around the shops. There were soo many cute stores. Capri is known for its handmade leather sandals and the bell of Capri charm on bracelets, necklaces etc. Some of my friends got sandals but I didn't think that they were that comfortable or worth the money so i passed on them. We got lunch at a place called Villa Verde and there were TONS of pictures of celebrities who had eaten there. Mariah carey had at least 20 pictures up on the walls, Jay-z and Beyonce had a few pics and also chris martin from coldplay. The food and wine were awesome! unfortunately we didn't see anyone famous while we were there. After we had lunch, we took taxis back down to the Marina Grande. We had a lot of time left before we had to meet back up with the group so we decided to take a boat ride around capri. The blue grotto was closed due to rocky seas so unfortunately we didn;t get to see that. We all pitched in to rent a private boat for 2 hours and our captain was named Marcello. We put our swimsuits on while touring the different grottos. There was a white grotto and a love grotto and one with orange coral all along the water line. They were all soo pretty! We took a ton of pictures from the boat. Finally Marcello took us to a spot where we could go swimming off the boat. the weather was perfect and the water was so warm! we all jumped off the edge of the boat and had so much fun swimming around. The sun was just starting to set as we headed back to the marina and it was such a relaxing and beautiful time of day. When we got back to the marina, we were all freezing because the sun was going down so it wasn't as warm out anymore. I had to buy a Capri sweatshirt because my coverup got soaked on the boat. We met back up with the group and took the ferry back to Sorrento.
Darian's father has a lot of family friends in Italy because they spend a lot of time here and he conveniently had a friend based in Sorrento. He called him up (his name was Rafaelo but his nickname was Lelo) and Lelo just so happened to own a hotel in Sorrento. So he was waiting for us when we got back to the dock in Sorrento. He drove us to our hostel (so we didn't have to walk the 35 minutes in the rain and in the dark!) and we quickly gathered all our stuff and he took us to his hotel! All of this happened soo fast and it didn't even seem real! All of a sudden we go from staying at a hostel in the outskirts of Sorrento to being treated to a 4 star hotel in the center of town! We all showered and got ready quickly and Lelo told us to get dinner at the restaurant (all taken care of!). So we have dinner and then meet him and his father for a drink at the bar (his name was Mariano and he actually owns the hotel and is the one who is good friends with Darian's dad). their generosity was too much, we couldnt believe it. Later that night, all the girls went into town for some Sorrento nightlife. We found an Irish pub that was really fun so we stayed there for most of the night. The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel and Lelo arranged for someone to take us out on their speedboat! So our captain named Miguel took us from Sorrento all the way to Positano, where we anchored and swam/relaxed for a few hours. The boat was soo nice, there were 3 huge cushions along the back of it to lounge on. When lunch time came around, Miguel asked if we were hungry and we all said yes. He took us to meet up with their other sailboat called the Lucky Beggar where a chef named Gigi had cooked us the best lunch EVER! We tied the boats together and crossed over onto the sailboat. First Gigi started us off with these pizza/quiche things that were amazing. Then Gigi made penne with homemade tomato sauce and basil (absolutely delicious but so simple!) and then he brought out a huge bowl of tomatoes and basil and 2 of the biggest balls of fresh mozzarella that i've ever seen. He had made the mozzarella himself earlier that morning and it was the freshest and best cheese i've ever had in my life! and if that wasn't enough, he brought out a ton of fresh fruit, some cookies and cappuccino. We had to practically roll ourselves back onto the speedboat, we were all soo full! We took the boat back to the dock in Sorrento and took a taxi back to the hotel. Later that night we met back up with Lelo and Mariano to thank them for an awesome day on the boat. We went back to the Irish pub that night. The next morning we had to go back to the hostel to meet up with the bus2alps group so we could take the bus back to Florence.
We stopped in Pompeii on our way back to Florence. We lucked out because it was some culturaly weekend and the admission was free! (usually 11 euro without the tour). we grabbed some maps and some guidebooks for free from the info desk and did the tour ourselves to save some money. The ruins were amazing! I couldnt believe how well preserved some of the arches and pillars were. The theater was beautiful! It was a little scary because they say that mt. vesuvius can erupt at any time. I took some great pics while walking around the ruins. I didn't see everything but I saw enough.
Overall it was an AMAZING weekend with very unexpected surprises! I will honestly remember this trip for the rest of my life, it was so awesome!

On a boring note, I had my first quiz on monday in world religions and it wasn't too bad. Classes are all going pretty well still. I have my first quiz in italian on thursday which is going to be kinda hard because there's so much to remember!

This coming weekend I'm going to Lake Como and Lake Maggiori with Karen and Kelly through one of the school's planned trips. I heard it's gorgeous there as well, and George Clooney even has a villa there! Cross your fingers that i'll see him! Miss you all and love you!!

Ciao! Eliza xoxo

OKTOBERFEST!

On Wednesday (9/17) Kelly, Karen, Adam, Matt and I decided last mintue to go to oktoberfest that weekend. So we ran to the train station to get tickets at 8pm cause the ticket center closed at 9pm. We spent a full hour there trying to figure out a way to get there because all the direct trains from Florence to Munich were all booked. We finally got everything figured out and we were so excited to go.

On Thursday (9/18) we left at 6pm and got into Venice around 9:30pm. Our next train wasn't until 5am! Of course we knew this going into it and we thought it would be fun to just wander around Venice at night and kill time. IT WAS NOT FUN! The train station was a 20 minute bus ride from any sort of civilization. We finally found our way to a place recommended in my Let's Go Italy book after wandering deserted streets. It was really creepy not having anyone around. The canals were really pretty even at night. I wish I could've seen them during the day when the city was in action with people. I tried to take some pics but they all came out pretty dark. We had dinner then went to a bar to kill some time. Around 1am we decided to see if we could find anything else to do in another area of venice. It was absolutely freezing out. We didn't find anything and everything in Venice (bars, restaurants, etc) closes by 2am so we had nowhere to go. We found a well lit area right near the bus station and sat for awhile because we were so tired from walking so much. We played a few rounds of catch phrase to keep us occupied. Some police officers approached us and said that we couldnt stay there because we were under a roofed area and it was considered "camping" which is illegal. So we grabbed our stuff and started wandering again. I had a tank top, tshirt, 2 long sleeves, and a scarf and i was still freezing. We were going to take a taxi back to the train station but none of them were around the bus station even though a sign said that they run 24 hours. Around 3am a bus pulled up and we asked if he would take us to the train station and he said sure. We were just happy to get inside the bus to warm up. We arrived at the train station which is near NOTHING, only to find that the station doesn't open until 5am. We saw a hotel across the street and decided to ask if they would let us just sit in the lobby until 5am. Luckily the guy was very nice and said yes we could stay but only til 5. There was an upstairs lobby area with couches and we all staked out our spots, set our alarms and actually got a solid hour of sleep. Our train tickets that we got from the ticket counter in Florence didn't have a time printed on it for our train form venice to Verona but we remembered it said 5 something. We get to the train station only to see that the train to verona doesn't leave until 5:50. We waited around until 5:30 when the cafe opened up to get some breakfast then we got on our train to Verona. I didn't sleep very well on the train because I kept waking up to make sure we didn't miss our stop. Half way into the ride we realized that we wouldn't get there in time to catch our train to Munich from Verona. We don't know why the ticket guy in Florence gave us this itinerary if the trains overlapped! We figured we'd sort it out when we got to verona. All of a sudden, Karen realizes that she can't find her train ticket from verona to munich. Again, something we'd figure out when we got there. We finally got to Verona and THANK GOD we had a ticket lady who spoke english and we explained the situation and Karen was able to get a new ticket because she still had her receipt to prove that she had bought one before and we all got seats on the next train to munich. Honestly, the woman was an angel. We get on the train to munich and the cars have little rooms with 6 seats each. We find our room and get comfy. Time goes by and we realize that we're not moving. A conductor comes by and tells us to go find another car because ours is broken. Obviously. So we start walking through the train and we find one with just one business guy and pile in. After the business guy gets off at his stop, we reclined all of our seats to make a bed so we could stretch out. We're all comfy and ready to get some sleep only to have our car door slammed open by some very angry germans who wanted to sit in their assigned seats. We get our stuff together and decide to go back to our car to see if they fixed it. We start walking and get from car 158 to 160 (we were 159). our car is completely gone! We find a conductor who says that we should sit in 160 but there were people already in our car. We separated because we coulnd;'t find 5 seats all together. Karen and I found a car with a couple from England also going to oktoberfest and a guy from austria. I decided to go check on the others who stayed in our assigned car. The conductor was checking tickets and she actually kicked out 3 people who were in our car but shouldnt have been so karen and I came back to join the others. We finally arrived in munich at 3pm.

We got to the hotel and finally relaxed, showered, etc. We fit 3 girls on the queen bed and the 3 guys slept on the floor. We walked around munich for awhile and got something to eat around 7 or 8ish. All of the shopping stores close at 8pm in munich so I didn't have time to find boots or a jacket (i stupidly wore flip flops...dad, i don;t want to hear what you're gonna say lol). so needless to say i was freezing! we decided to check out the hofbrauhouse which is a famous bar in munich. There was about a 10 minute wait outside but when we got in, i felt like i walked onto the movie set of beerfest. There were tables and tables of people with HUGE mugs of beer, singing songs and laughing and just having a good time. It was basically Oktoberfest on a smaller scale. We walked around the building for about 30 minutes without finding a table for a group as big as ours. We finally split up and half of us found a table, kicked the other people on it off and we got our huge mugs of beer. It was awesome! we had so much fun meeting other people from all over the world and just hanging out with each other. It was just a taste of what the next day (oktoberfest) was going to be like. we didn't stay out too late though because we knew we had to get up early to get in line outside of a tent to try and get a table there.

We woke up around 7ish and left around 8ish. There was already a huge crowd when we got there. I felt like a little kid seeing disneyworld for the first time, there were rides and food stands everywhere. We decided to go for the most popular tent so we could see the mayor of munich tap the first keg of oktoberfest. they didn't let people in until 10am and We didn;t get in the front door but they said we could get in through the back so everyone sprinted to the back and fought to get in there. We finally squeezed our way through the security guards who were HUGE scary guys. Again, we couldnt find a table so we walked around for a while. Beer wasn't being served until 12pm and luckily right before 12 we squeezed onto a table with some people. You have to be sitting at a table in order to get beer. We were sitting with a bunch of people from Australia and a few from other places as well. It was just a huge, fun, crazy party. Everyone was having a good time. However, the table we were on was reserved at 3pm so they kicked everyone off and we all left the hofbrau tent to find another one. I ate my first bratwurst and it was DELICIOUS! We found an outdoor part of a tent and sat there for a while. When we decided we had fully seen and experienced oktoberfest, we left to see some of munich. We got dinner and went back to the hotel. We were showering and getting ready for bed when Adam and Matt came back into the room (we all had separated at oktoberfest) and they were completely wasted! it was really funny until Adam realized he lost his northface jacket with his camera and blackberry in the pockets. Luckily, whoever found it called the last person dialed which was matt (who was passed out by this time) and so we answered and arranged a meeting place. Adam was too drunk to go by himself and Karen and kelly weren't offering to go at all, so i said i'd go. We took a cab there, met up with the guys who had all his stuff and took the subway back.

The next day we woke up and had breakfast which was amazing (and free!) and then went to catch our train back to florence. Luckily, on the way back we only had to stop and connect in verona for 30 minutes. We got back to Florence around 9pm. It was a craaaazy weekend but it was all worth it. Munich was a beautiful city and i wish that i had more time there to explore and see all the sites. Oktoberfest was a BLAST and i would go back again anytime if i could.

I'm leaving tonight for Capri, sorrento, amalfi coast, and pompeii. We're going through a student travel group called bus2alps. A few friends went on last weekend's trip and said it was amazing so i'm excited to go! I promise not to wait a week to write about that trip! I love you all and miss you everyday!

Ciao! Eliza xoxo

The marina in Lerici
The Castle in Lerici
HAHAH this one's for abby, ann, lorraine and lindcy..thought you guys would find him funny!

Carved right into the rocky coast in Monterosso

Monterosso

A picture i took of the leaning tower in pisa

View from my living room...the Duomo!

Toga, Fiesole, Cinque Terre

On Wednesday night (9/10), we had a toga party throughout our apartment building. We started at our apartment on the 4th floor with mimosas. then we progressed down to the 3rd floor to another apartment for sangria. We ended on the 1st floor with wine/beer. It was so fun hanging out with everyone in the building and some others from the program living in other buildings. Everyone had a good time. Maybe another theme party will happen in the future? any suggestions?

On Thursday (9/11) Fairfield held a dinner in Fiesole at a restaurant called Le Lance. It's basically built on the edge of the mountain and most of the tables are outside along little paths. It was really pretty even though we were there at night. I can imagine it being gorgeous during the day with all the flowers around. Fiesole is up in the mountains and overlooks Florence. It was cool to be able to see the city from above at night. It was a pretty short bus ride up the mountain. Maybe I'll take some visitors there (aka Mom and Dad...and Francis if he can make it!)

On Friday (9/12), Karen Kelly and I got up early to catch a train to La Spezia, a town right outside of Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a group of 5 beach towns (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso) that are right on the coast and are beautiful! We had no problems getting from Florence to our hotel in La Spezia. We took a train into Monterosso in the late afternoon and walked around/took pictures/did a little (very little) hiking. Cinque Terre is known for its 5-6 hour hike through the 5 towns. The views are supposed to be gorgeous. Monterosso is the biggest and most popular of the 5. We got dinner at a place right next to the water which was awesome! We were going to catch a 10 something train back to La Spezia but when we went to check the monitor, it said that all trains were cancelled for the night due to a strike, which are apparently pretty common in Italy. There are only 4 taxis (or some other ridiculously low number) that run through all of Cinque Terre and the roads are really bad through the mountain. No taxis would go to La Spezia because of the roads and there were also a lot of other people fighting for taxis. The drivers were charging over 100 euro just to get to the next town over, totally taking advantage of the situation. A lot of other people were stranded as well. All of the hotels in Monterosso were booked and even in the next town over. Over the phone we managed to save a room with one bed in Corniglia as a back up plan. Luckily, a woman in one of the shops called the train station and said that there would be a train arriving around 1am. Thankfully, it actually came and everyone was cheering. Thank God we didn't have to pay for a cab/another hotel room/didn't have to sleep on the beach (which wouldnt have been that bad..). So long story short, I survived my first train strike!

On Saturday (9/13), the train strike was still going on in the morning/early afternoon. The lady at the front desk of the hotel told us how to get to a town called Lerici by bus. We decided to check it out and it ended up being really pretty! There was a castle and a marina with tons of boats and awesome views. By the time we returned to La Spezia, the trains were running again and we took one into Riomaggiore to have dinner with Kelly's friend from home who is studying in Rome for the semester. We had no problem getting home this time!

On Sunday (9/14), we were planning on doing some hiking through the towns but we were strapped for time because we needed to catch a 2:12 train from La Spezia back to Florence. It takes 2 hours from Montorosso to the next town over, Vernazza. We were carrying all of our bags and decided that we wouldn't enjoy it if we were stressing out over the time/the heavy bags. Instead, we rented some beach chairs and relaxed under the Cinque Terre sun. The trains were running fine the rest of the day and we got home around 5:30ish tonight.

I should go do some reading before class tomorrow (yes mom and dad, i do go to class!)

ps--Ann, there was a free continental buffet breakfast at our hotel and all i could think of was "It says all you can eat, not all you can eat HERE!"

Love you all!
Eliza

Ciao!

On sunday (9/7...HAPPY BIRTHDAY KUY!) we had a field trip to Pisa and Viareggio. Pisa was really small and we weren't there for very long. Of course we couldnt leave without taking the "i'm holding up the leaning tower" picture, so those were pretty funny to take. It was kind of cloudy out so we were worried that we wouldn't go to the beach anymore. It cleared up a little and we moved on to the beach at Viareggio. We rented private umbrellas and spent the day relaxing in the sand. There was a strong undertow so it was kind of hard to enjoy swimming in the ocean but the water was really warm! We got back to Florence around 5:30ish. My roommates and I cooked our first dinner in the apartment! We made grilled eggplant with some pasta and salad. It was actually pretty good! Thanks for sending me your stuffed chicken recipe ann...i think i'll try it tomorrow night!

Today (9/8) was the first day of class. I had world religions from 12-2:30 and then international marketing from 3-5:30. The religion class has a lot of reading but doesnt seem too hard. My marketing class seems like its going to be pretty hard, the professor is kind of intense but she has a sense of humor at least. Her accent is hard to understand because she's iranian, but she lived in England for a while and now she lives in italy. so it's a weird combination. I have class again tomorrow at 12 so I should go and get some sleep. I miss you all like crazy! I'm having a good time but I know it would be 10000x better if I had some of you here with me.

love you!
Eliza

Field trips

Ciao everyone!

I just got back from the orientation field trips to Assisi, Perugia, Siena, and San Gimignano and I am exhausted!

On Thursday (9/4) afternoon, I went to the Mercanto Centrale for some fresh groceries. The ground floor is all deli products like meats and cheeses and some pasta places and the upper level is all the fresh produce. Everything is pretty cheap. I made my first italian lunch when I got back to the apartment: a salad! haha i know it's nothing fancy but it was delicious! We went out to an Irish pub that night which had karaoke (ann, i thought of you and that place in france that we went to with karaoke cause we sang grease! lol!).

On Friday (9/5), I had to get up really early (6:45!) to get ready for the field trip. I slept on the bus (of course!). It was nice to get out of Florence for a while and see the countryside of Tuscany. Our first stop on the field trip was Assissi. Our tourguide's name was Eugene. He brought us all through Assisi and gave some interesting information about the churches, St. Francis and other structures. He talked a LOT though and people started losing interest so I felt kind of bad. My favorite part of Assissi was the seeing where they keep St. Clare's body. There were some people posed on the street working for money. One was dressed as Jesus which was really weird to see and the other was a Franciscan. We grabbed a quick lunch in Assisi and got back on the bus to head to Perugia.

Perugia was really pretty! It has some great views which i know unfortunately won't look as great in pictures. We walked along a street that has the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria on it and it lead to a huge fountain in a piazza. The fountain has carvings to represent each month. Overally, I think I enjoyed Perugia better than Assisi. From Perugia, we rode the bus to the Park Hotel which was outside of Perugia's center. We were all exhausted after so much walking in the sun and hot weather that we all went to bed after dinner.

Today (9/6), our first stop was the medieval town of Siena and our tourguide was Annalisa. Siena was the birthplace of St. Catherine of Siena, who convinced the Pope to return to Italy after he relocated to France. Her head and her thumb are preserved in the Basilica of San Domenico. Siena has separate sections within the town all represented by a specific animal. Each section competes in a biannual horse race in the city's largest piazza. There's also a fountain with flowing drinking water right in the piazza.

From Siena, we drove a short way to San Gimignano, also a medieval town known for its preserved towers. San Gimignano is also known for being the only place to make Vernaccia wine, so of course i had to buy some! Again, the views of the vineyards from the high hills were amazing! After leaving San Gimignano, we drove to the Fattoria Castello Il Palagio for dinner and a wine tasting. Tuscany is well known for its Chianti Classico and we tried some at the tasting. We were able to walk into the cellar and see some of the barrels. Unfortunately, we weren't able to walk through the actual vineyards. Dinner was HUGE! We started with an antipasto plate with so many things on it. Then we had ravioli for the first plate, some other pasta with ragu for the second plate, some pork, greens and potatoes for the third plate, and finally a blueberry pastry square thing for dessert. Everything was delicious and the setting in the vineyard castle was gorgeous.

We're going to Pisa tomorrow in the morning and then we finally get a chance to relax on the beach in Viareggio. It's almost 2am now and I need to be up by 8 tomorrow so I'll post again tomorrow night!

Ciao!
Eliza

GREETINGS FROM ITALIA!!

Hey Everyone!

I have arrived here safely and I'm still getting settled but i'm already in love with florence. My apartment is really cute but the climb up there is exhausting (no elevator...sorry mom!). I'm still trying to figure out wireless internet for my apartment so this is the first time i've been on a computer since i arrived on monday. we have orientation all this week. this weekend we're going on some day field trips to assisi, siena and the beach. I'm in the computer lab at the university in between some presentations about classes, etc.
The flights here weren't too bad. I had a small meltdown at jfk when i thought my cell phone was stolen at lunch. i was already at the gate when i realized that i didn't have my cell phone on me and i panicked. turns out that the thief was my uncle! he didn't realize that he grabbed it from the table at lunch and had it in his pocket the whole time! So thankfully, it wasn't stolen for real.
When we arrived at the apartment we had to lug our 50+ pound bags all the way to the 4th floor (it's technically the 5th or 6th) and i'm still sore from climbing up and down! I'm starting to get used to it which is good. Our views from our apartment are amazing! I'll have to post some pictures when i have my own internet. Classes start next monday the 8th. I'll try to post again before then.

If you need to mail anything to me, please use this address:

Eliza Carandang
c/o Florence University of the Arts
Via Magliabechi, 1
Florence, Italy 50122

Ciao!
Eliza