Arrivederci Italia! Ci vediamo presto!!

So I'm heading back home to states tomorrow after 5 wonderful months in Italy.  I have a lot of mixed emotions and continue to go back and forth between being really excited to go home and see my family and friends and then being sad that I'm leaving so many wonderful new friends.  This trip definitely wasn't what I was expecting.  There were things I came here wanting to do and didn't and vice versa.  What I do know is that I met some really wonderful people that I am going to be friends with long after after I leave and had experiences of a lifetime.  

The original 3

Kate, Jess and me in the Lion's Fountain...literally 

Giada and Mel, my Northern Italian friends :o)

I came to Italy for the sole purpose of trying to "find" myself, whatever that means.  I felt like life was moving too fast and I wasn't going the direction I wanted to and I was scared that I was going to turn around and time would have passed me by.  While I'm not leaving with having a true "a-ha" moment, I do feel like I learned a lot about myself and what I want out of life through my experience here.  I also proved to myself that I can do whatever I want to do if I put my mind to it: this trip was a case in point.  I'm nervous about coming home and jumping into the real world again, but I'm also excited to start off fresh with a new life and a clearer idea of what I want!  

I wouldn't take back this experience for anything and am so happy I came.  I made such wonderful friends and am even planning on meeting Giada and Mel in Dublin in September!  

It's going to be a long trip back tomorrow, but seeing my family is going to be the best thing I could ask for when I get home.  Grazie mille for following my blog and hopefully sometime in the future I can take another trip like this...I'm thinking Australia??  We'll see what the family thinks about that one :)

Oh and my first meal when I get back?  THAI!!  So excited! :D

Ciao amori xoxo

Volterra, San Gimignano, and Wine Tasting with the Barbatos!

Volterra

Me and the roomies

One of my favorite days in Florence was spent with Kate and Jess and their parents for an outing to the hill towns of Volterra and San Gimignano, and then a wine tasting at my favorite place in Tuscany.  We had to first go to the town of Poggibonsi - if you remember from one of my first posts this is the town Courtney and I think Tigger is from :).  From there we were picked up by our guide in a snazzy Mercedes van for our first stop in Volterra!

If you have ever seen the Tuscan landscape you know that it is very hilly and gorgeous.  There are tons of beautiful views of the countryside and periodically you will see a hill town perched at the top of one of the many mountains.

View from Volterra

The one bad thing about all of these hills though is that winding up and over them in a car can make you realllllly nauseous.  No one was immune to it and by the time we wound our way up to Volterra (about an hour ride) we were all gasping for air when we burst out of the van.

Ok so here is some history on Volterra - other than it being known as the home of the Volturi from Twilight (what, what Twihards?), it is an ancient Etruscan hill town that has most of it's original walls in tact.  It houses one of the best collections of Etruscan artifacts in all of Italy.  The city is also famous for it's alabaster.  There are tons of stores with beautiful alabaster pieces and they even used alabaster instead of stained glass in their Duomo!  While we were in Volterra we didn't have a chance to go to many museums, but we were able to see the Duomo, the Baptistry, and the Roman Amphitheater.  The Duomo and the Baptistry were very stark on the outside, but the Roman Amphitheater was beautiful and is one of the best preserved in Italy.

Roman Amphitheater

This is a sign for a store made out of alabaster - so pretty!

Another thing Volterra is known for is their Porta dell'Arco, which is the original Etruscan archway leading into the city.  It dates back from the 3rd-2nd century BC and there were 3 heads of deities carved on it, but after all the erosion they now just look like 3 stone balls.

Porta dell'Arco

Going back to the Volturi, once Jess and her mom told me that this was where they were from we went on a hunt to find the piazza where Bella runs through to save Edward.  If you've seen it, there is a big fountain in the middle, but we could not find it.  We were disappointed and when I got home that day I tried looking up the piazza and apparently they filmed the movie in another town, Montepulciano.  But funnily enough the main piazza there didn't have a fountain either, they created one.  Now why they didn't film in a fountainless Volterra I'll never know, but at least we didn't miss it!

One last cute thing we saw in Volterra were these little gifts on the doors:

Little bags of gifts with Santas in them

Since it was the day before the feast of the epiphany we assumed that these were little gifts from La Befana.  It was really cute and it made the town seem very quaint and still relatively untouched by tourists (it is unbelievably tough to get to Volterra with strange bus times and no trains).

Wine Tasting

After a few hours in Volterra we went to Tenuta Torciano Winery in San Gimignano.  I have been to this winery a couple times before, once in 2007 and once with Courtney in the fall.  I absolutely adore this winery - the owner, the food, and the wine are all delicious!  I recommended it for Jess and Kate and I was so happy that I could come along for this trip and go back myself!

We walked into the winery and we were the only people there since it is winter and this is the sight that greeted us:

Well, this is actually after the tasting, but these glasses were just for 3 of us, the rest of the table was just covered in glasses!

Our host, Pier Luigi, gave us a lively introduction to the food and wine we were going to drink and showed us the proper way to taste the wine.  We were meant to have a taste of each food on our antipasti plate and sip each wine to see what we like paired together.  It was almost hard to keep up with all of the wine and food - Jess was having no issue with it, but for some reason I couldn't keep up!  We were then brought out a bowl of Mama's ribolita, a traditional tuscan vegetable soup.

all of my food and glasses

We were having so much fun listening to Pier Luigi, eating, and drinking and I think this was my favorite experience at the winery.  Anytime you are with a big group who are excited and happy it's just infectious so we were laughing the whole time.  Pier Luigi loved us and even uncorked his World Champion bottle of wine that costs a whopping 131 euros.  It was amaaazzzzzing!  I don't think I've ever tasted wine that expensive and from being here before I know he doesn't pop that for just anyone!

We were all so full after our antipasti and ribolita, but we had one more dish coming our way: the famous lasagna!!  Now, this lasagna is amazing and both Kate and Jess have heard me declare that it is the best lasagna I have ever had.  They were very skeptical until they tried it and couldn't believe how good it was.  Apparently it's a combination of veal (I felt bad when I heard that), not using ricotta, and the big kicker, TRUFFLE oil sprinkled on top that makes it the best.  

Mama's Lasagna

After all of the food and while I was trying to finish all of my wine, we were served his grappa, which is also not a normal thing.  I think because both Jess and Kate's dads were really bonding with Pier Luigi that he wanted to share it with us.  I absolutely despise grappa so with very little convincing I was able to pawn it off on Jess's dad :)

It was an absolutely amazing tasting and I would recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who is looking for an authentic Tuscan wine tasting experience!

I'm an honorary Barbato :)

San Gimignano

Ok, so one thing we learned from this trip is that you should never go to a winery before going sightseeing.  To give us credit, we didn't plan on that happening, but our driver convinced us that we needed more time than we allotted in each town so because our appointment at the winery was at 2 we had to push San Gimignano until after.  I'm just happy I have been to this town once before since my second trip definitely went by in a blur!  

We arrived in San Gimignano a little less than sober (ha) and I think we were all a little obvious with that fact - oh well, at least we had fun!  I immediately went to a wine store to purchase a couple wines for later and the dads pulled out their Italian cigars.  Kate was in charge of touring us, thank goodness, so she was able to get us to the main sights.

San Gimignano is another small hilltown in Tuscany.  It is known for it's towers that you can see from miles outside of the town:

View of the towers from our drive

San Gimignano was actually a stop on the pilgrim route from Northern Europe to Rome so, because of this, it became a very prosperous town.  The 14 towers left out of the original 76 were built in the 13th century and were built as both private fortresses and symbols of the owner's wealth.  It's very impressive that they were able to keep 14 towers standing because most towers in the other towns of Tuscany were taken down, whether it be from wars, urban development or natural causes.  

Our tour of San Gimignano took us to the Duomo, the main piazzas, and of course we did some shopping along the way.  We actually spent most of our time watching the gorgeous sunset over the Tuscan countryside.

Duomo

Streets of San Gimignano

It was a fantastic day that I won't forget anytime soon!  I'm so thankful that the Barbatos included me! :o)

The girls!

Tuscan cooking class!

So the last few days my parents were in Florence we didn't do a whole lot except just enjoying all being together.  My parents went to the Uffizzi and afterwards we headed to the Christmas market to do some more shopping (and eat another cinnamon twirl!).  We then went shopping for one of my Christmas gifts: a purse!  It was a cute little store with a man that had to be close to 100 and after I picked out the one I wanted he asked us to type in the cost in the credit card machine because he couldn't see the numbers.  It was crazy and I hope that no one has ever taken advantage of this!  He was so cute though and my mom had a pretty decent conversation with him only in Italian so we both felt like we accomplished something!

After the shopping we went to an enoteca for a champagne tasting in the cellar and then to meet Kate, Jess and Giada for dinner at a restaurant called Fagioli.  I found out later that the family name was Fagioli and the restaurant didn't specialize in bean dishes - that disappointed me more than it probably should have.  The dinner though was delicious - I had a beef stew with roasted potatoes, and we also had lots and lots of wine!  It was a great night and I'm glad my parents had the chance to meet the girls.

The sunset my mom and I caught on our way back to their hotel

The next day was gorgeous and we were pretty beat so we decided to just walk around, grab some breakfast from The Diner, and do some more shopping.  My mom was able to find an awesome leather purse that matches her equally awesome leather jacket so she was all set on the souvenir front.  That night we went to a Tuscan cooking class!  Yes, very touristy and my dad had to be convinced that it would be fun, but my mom and I were very excited.  We had to meet the group in a semi crowded piazza and then the woman in charge of taking us to the class took out her dreaded giant paddle basically signifying "HI WE ARE TOURISTS" and herded us like cattle for 15 minutes to our destination.  I wanted to die mainly because I feel like now I'm basically a resident and I knew exactly where we were and where we were going so I would have just rather met at the place instead of being paraded around.  My (least) favorite part of that walk is when we were going over a bridge overlooking the Ponte Vecchio and the woman says "Now this is the Ponte Vecchio, it's very famous" and gives a little description and I actually hear the two women in front of me  say "Oh what is that bridge again?" as if they've never heard of it.  I mean it's the Ponte Vecchio, probably just behind the Duomo on "Things to see in Florence".  Oh well, the walk was finally over and we were ready to start our class!

In the class there were 12 people and you needed to split up into 3 groups of 4.  Thank goodness a girl from Japan had come on her own and could be in our group, otherwise we would have had to split up.  There were 2 teachers and we had a young guy who was taking care of 2 groups, which made it very hard to follow his instructions sometimes.  Basically he would tell us what to do with a small demonstration, but it was all very fast paced and all of my cooking knowledge went out of the window under the pressure!  My dad actually thrived especially in his onion chopping skills - he only had one mishap when we were folding egg whites for the tiramisu and he posed for a picture and started stirring the mixture.  You can't do that with egg whites, but obviously he didn't know and he was just trying to do an action shot for the camera so we got a good laugh out of that.  Our meal consisted of a broccoli souffle (which I absolutely LOVED and couldn't believe it since I didn't think I liked broccoli), homemade gnocchi with a fresh tomato and basil sauce, fresh chicken glazed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, red peppers and red onions, and then the tiramisu.  The food was fantastic and we cannot wait to recreate those dishes at home.  I don't have pictures because they are on my mom's camera, but I will post them once I get them!

The next day was my parents last full day in Italy.  We woke up and headed down to Rome where we would spend the night.  My dad was feeling really under the weather so it was going to be another relaxing day.  We went to lunch at a place we had gone a couples times before that has the absolute best bufala mozzarella pizza I have ever had.  Afterwards we just went shopping for boots (for me) and then went to St. Peter's Basilica because my dad hadn't been in there since he was 17.  We then watched a bit of the sunset over St. Peter's and headed back near our hotel for dinner.  It was a fabulous dinner and I had zuppa fagioli, carbonara, and chocolate cake.  We headed to bed early because we were going to go to the airport early for their flight.  It was a sad goodbye, but it's easier writing this so much later than when they came because I know I'm going to see everyone in a week!

outside of St. Peter's

Firenze done the right way...

When you have the pleasure of traveling with your parents, you get to enjoy a lot of things you wouldn't normally be able to as a poor twenty-something.  My parents were excited to have unique experiences while they were here with me and I was happy to be apart of them - though obviously I was just happy they were here at all!

My parents and the Ponte Vecchio!

The next full day we were in Florence we had plans to go visit some museums, but were bummed to find out that all of the state run museums were closed because of a strike.  Only in Italy, right?  Oh well, we were ready to go shopping and our first stop was getting my mom an Italian leather coat!  After trying on a ton of coats with a very helpful saleslady she finally found a gorgeous one that both dad and I approved of.  In fact, my dad couldn't stop commenting on how good she looked in it the whole trip...gack.  They also did some shopping for leather gloves for gifts and almost bought out this little stand outside of San Lorenzo.  We then headed to check out the Basilica of San Lorenzo, which claims to be the oldest church in Florence.  It was also the parish church of the Medici family and is the burial place for the principal members of the Medici family - my dad was very excited!  It was freezing in the church though so we grabbed some kebabs from my favorite place and then went to check out the Duomo.

Pretty Christmas tree outside of the Duomo

It had been a pretty full day so we went back to get ready for our aperitivo at Cuculia and opera performance at St. Mark's church.  My parents were as enamored with Cuculia as I have been since the first time we went and they loved all of the fun dishes we were served (sadly, I can't remember them).  We had to rush though to the church to see the performance of La Traviata.  They had 4 performers and their voices were absolutely amazing and we loved being able to sit so close.  Seriously an experience of a lifetime!!  This is the same place I saw La Boheme on Christmas night.

This is how close we were to the performers

The next day we decided to try the whole museum thing again and finally got into the Medici Chapels, which are actually attached to San Lorenzo but have a separate entrance.  These chapels were added onto the church to further celebrate the greatness and power of the Medici family.  Located within the chapels are the crypt, the New Sacristy (completely designed by Michelangelo), and the Chapel of the Princes.  The New Sacristy contains gorgeous sculptures by Michelangelo for the tombs of two lesser known Medici men; however, he abruptly left for Rome before the chapel was finished and he wasn't able to create just as beautiful tombs for two Medici of great importance: Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano.  After the chapels we did some more shopping and had lunch before heading to Santa Brigida for a wine tasting at a castle!!

We opted to try a new wine tasting venue and hopped on a bus to a castle for our tasting.  It was raining and a large group of American girls hopped on the bus so I wasn't so thrilled to start off with, but we were excited to get out into the countryside.  We first stopped at a town called Pontassieve where we could see the church of Santa Brigida.  It is supposedly built on the cave used by the Saint in the 10th century for meditation.  We slopped through the rain to see the cave and I guess it was pretty interesting...kind of odd.

the cave...

After our stop we went to the castle.  I really looooved the history behind this castle and was so excited when I heard where we were.  This castle used to belong to the Pazzi family.  For those of you who haven't heard of them, they are of the infamous Pazzi conspiracy that conspired to murder Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano.  The Pazzi family were wealthy bankers in Tuscany, but were less powerful and rivals to the Medici.  They, and Pope Sixtus IV who was also an enemy to Lorenzo, conspired against the brothers.  They had their meeting inside one of the rooms of this castle, aptly named "The Conspiracy Room".  At high mass in April 1478, in front of 10,000 people, the brothers were accosted with Giuliano losing his life and a wounded Lorenzo being able to escape.  After this happened apparently no Pazzi was left unscathed and they were all hunted down by the many supporters of the Medici.  The Medici also confiscated this castle and took down anything showing the Pazzi lived there except for one Pazzi coat of arms that was created by Donatello.  Oh and a side note: Pazzi is Italian for "crazy people".

Our tour started with all these interesting details about the family and continued down in the wine and olive oil cellars.  We learned some scary stuff about olive oil that has convinced me to never get anything other than Extra Virgin Olive Oil, or EVOO as Rachel Ray likes to say.  Just a little taste of what we learned: for olive oil to add the word "Extra" to their title it must have less than .08% of acidity, and actually good Extra is supposed to be between .01-.03%, so .08% is still a little high.  When olive oil has higher acidity it means that the olives weren't pressed right away and were set out for a longer period of time, thus developing higher acidity and bacteria...not good!  The word "Virgin" denotes that the oil comes just from olives, nothing else.  So you are getting pure oil from the olives and no mixture, which is good.  The words our guide used were a little more disconcerting, but this is mainly the gist of it in a less scary way. :o)

After the fabulous tour the actual tasting was a little less than fabulous.  I was expecting something big and elaborate, but what we got was less than elaborate.  We were served only 3 wines (in the same glass no less) and just a small paper plate with a couple hors d'oeuvres.  The wine was pretty good, but compared to the other tastings I have been to in Tuscany it was just ok.  It was still a fabulous tour and the history of the castle itself made up for the lackluster wine tasting, and of course I got to spend all this time with my wonderful parents so I was golden!

Ok off to spend a night out with my fantastic roommates and I'll finish off this entry tomorrow!  Have a fantastic weekend!!

My parents came to visit!!!

12/3/10-12/12/10

Albeit it was a month ago, but it was still very exciting!!!!

My parents arrived in Rome early on that Friday (12/3) and we were only able to get some breakfast and do their traditional walk to Trajan's column before they were ready for their nap.  This allowed for Caroline and me to go explore Villa Borghese until my parents were up for dinner.  We went to another spot they like to go every time they visit Rome for dinner, and while the food was ok the walk home was way more interesting.   When we left the restaurant my parents suggested we take a walk to the Roman forum and check out the Colosseum.  As soon as we got down there it started pouring.  Only Caroline had an umbrella and my dad had a hood, so my mom and I were SOL.  The walk was a good 20-25 minutes so we were absolutely soaked when we got back to our hotel, but nothing could have brought me down from my high of being with my parents!

before it started raining...

The next day Caroline set off early to catch her flight to Portugal.  I found out later that those pesky strikes by the Spanish air traffic controllers caused her flight to be canceled and she wouldn't actually get out of Rome until the next day, but that is a whole story in itself!  My mom and I shuttled my dad to the Vatican for his tour of the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel.  We left him there and were ready to do some shopping of our own at the Christmas market in Piazza Navona.

Christmas Market

My mom was on a search for gifts for the little ones, including Lombardo's (my brother's best friend) infant son.  He is Italian American (emphasis on American ha) so he wanted some things authentically from Italy and my mom would take any excuse to shop!  We were looking for non-scary La Befanas since you can't really get more Italian than that during the holidays, but most of them had very scary snarls on their face.  We were able to find a couple that looked between a grimace and a smile and thought that would be the best we could find.

La befana toys

After the market we headed to Campo d Fiori to check out the outdoor market and get some food.  We ended up stopping at a pizzeria when it started raining and were duped by the waiter.  He tricked me into getting pineapple for dessert because I thought it was going to be free, but it wasn't.  And I don't really like pineapple, but I would eat anything if it's free (hm, that doesn't sound good...).

at least it was pretty!

We ended up waiting out the rain there and then headed to the Vatican to pick up my dad.  The temperature had dropped significantly so we were freezing and had to wait for quite a bit for my dad's tour to be done, but we found him and headed back to the hotel for a nap.  I have very mixed feelings about dinner that night....we went next door to our hotel to a nicer restaurant and the food was really good, but the service was bad.  The waiter convinced my dad that coperto (service) wasn't included even though it clearly was and no amount of explaining from me was going to convince my dad that he didn't need to leave tip.  It wasn't until after we got back to the hotel that my dad realized he had been duped and then dwelled on it for the next day.  Both him and my mom decided that they were going to listen to Jennie from now on!

The next day we headed to the Protestant's cemetery I had visited before with Courtney.  I was so excited to show my mom this gorgeous cemetery and I was also excited to have a little bit more time to explore since when Court and I went it was just closing.  It really is such a beautiful and moving place and my parents really enjoyed going there.  After the cemetery we took a train (equipped with extremely loud girls) up to Florence.  We took a walk downtown and then headed to dinner at a cute little place near my apartment called Napo Leone.  It's such a cute place and they serve you warm butternut squash soup as a free apertif - my parents were in love.  

I was expecting a lot of early mornings while my parents were here, but I soon realized that they were exhausted and didn't care to rush around seeing anything and everything in Florence, which was ok with me!  Every morning was the same - I'd set my alarm for 8:30 then email my mom saying I'd be there soon and she'd respond back "don't worry, we are just rolling out of bed."  Now coming from someone who tends to wake up at 4am everyday, I was shocked and happy that my mom was getting her rest in!  

On our first full day in Florence I wanted to take my parents to the Bronzino exhibit.  I talked about him earlier in my blog, but he was a very famous Medici artist whose first patron was Cosimo I and his wife Eleanor de Toledo.  This is the largest Bronzino exhibit ever and took 4 years to get together.  His works have been loaned to the exhibit from all over the world and it is so popular that the exhibition dates were extended.  My parents really enjoyed the exhibit, even though it must have been a field trip day because there were a ton of kids there, which was not very fun.  But they still got to see his works and appreciate his realistic style of painting.  In the same Palace there was another exhibit entitled "Portraits of Power."  According to the exhibit's description (and because I'm too lazy to summarize) "The exhibition explores portraiture and the representation of political, economical and social power in the contemporary world through the works of contemporary artists."  It was actually very interesting to go through and I especially enjoyed the exhibit on when Annie Leibovitz went to Buckingham Palace to photograph the Queen.  They had a video of the whole process and it was funny to see how cranky the Queen was during the shoot and how taken aback she was when Annie asked her to take off her crown.  Very funny!

The rest of that day we spent at the German Christmas Market at Santa Croce.  I made my parents try the infamous cinnamon roll from Hungary (amazing!) and mulled wine (not so great) and they were also able to check out the church.  That night we just hung out and had dinner at my place.  I was so happy they were here and couldn't wait for all the fun things we had planned for that week!

Wine tasting at a castle, Tuscan cooking class, shopping, opera....so much to write about and so little time!  Until next time :)

Appian Way, Circus Maxentius, and Catacombs - Roma round 2!

12/1/10

Before my parents arrived in Rome, Courtney was leaving to go back home to the States for good.  Caroline and I headed down to Rome to drop her off and stay a couple days before my parents got there and she boarded a plane to Portugal for a week.  I was actually pretty sick when we got down there so the first couple days weren't too exciting, though we did go a a nativity exhibit in Piazza del Popolo.  It was definitely better than I expected and having Mariah Carey's Christmas album running in the background helped me get into that jolly mood.  I'm not going to bore you with repeating the things I have already seen and written about in Rome, but we actually did do something new and exciting!

Caroline wanted to go to Via Appia Antica (Appian Way) to check out the Catacombs of San Callisto.  I was willing to go again, though I was on the fence about going into them since the whole experience kinda freaked me out last time I went.  So we hopped on the metro and bus to take us the few miles out of the city center and literally arrived at the catacombs at 12:03.  We then found out that they are closed from noon-2.  Awesome.  So since we had 2 hours to kill a lady at the sight said we should walk up Via Appia Antica and check out the Circus Maxentius up the way.

Appian Way

A little history on the Appian Way: built in the mid-4th century BC, it is one of the oldest and most important strategic roads built in Rome.  The Roman republic was in desperate need of roads because they needed something to connect the city of Rome to it's many military bases on the peninsula.  The Roman army depended on it's bases because they allowed for quick retreats and resupplying of the forces (the supplies come from Rome).  The Appian Way was the first long road built just for troops being transported to the smaller regions just outside of Rome.  It went from Rome to Brindisi - located in southeast Italy.  It proved of major importance during many of the battles after it's construction.  After the Appian Way was constructed, Romans went on to build many roads in their Empire.  All of these roads started in Rome and would have a list of destinations on them to show which route you should take, which is where the expression "All roads lead to Rome" comes from.

On the Appian Way you can still see some of the original stones used during it's construction and you can also see the old wheel-cart marks.  We made our way up to the Circus Maxentius, which I had never heard of before and I didn't have high hopes of based on the Circus Maximus located near the Colosseum.  Circus Maximus has always been kind of a disappointment for me because it is so run down I can't even imagine what it used to look like.  Circus Maxentius, however, is the only Roman Circus in existence in which all of the architectural components are still well preserved.  When you walk into the complex, you can almost imagine the events that occurred here.

Walking towards the circus

In the center

The circus was built to celebrate the emperor Maxentius, who was defeated by Constantine at the battle of Milvian Bridge.  This may not ring a bell for you, but since living in Italy it feels like everyone should know about that battle for a couple of reasons.  First, according to legend, the night before the battle began Constantine had a vision that he would be victorious if he fought under the protection of the Christian God.  He then went into the battle with a latin cross on his shield and was successful.  Secondly, this was the first of a few battles between Constantine and his fellow emperors (there were 4 emperors in all that ruled separate areas of the realm) in which Constantine was victorious.  After beating Maxentius he moved on to beat the other rulers, thus becoming the sole emperor of the realm.  After he became emperor he also established Christianity.

We headed back to the catacombs and I decided that I'd rather not go in again, I would just wait for Caroline.  There a a few different catacombs along the Appian Way and they served as large tombs for Christians, as well as some for Jews and Pagans.  They were used because of overcrowding of tombs within the city, but also because persecuted Christians needed a place to bury their dead in secret.  While a lot of the bodies have been removed it is still, for lack a better word, creepy to go down into these underground chambers.  You walk through very high ceilinged passages and from the floor to the ceiling are holes where bodies once laid.  It is a little disconcerting and while I can appreciate the history there, I didn't want to go back in!

Once we were ready to go we headed back to the city center.  We went inside St. Peter's Basilica then went to the Christmas market in Piazza Navona where I grabbed a couple gifts for my nephews.  After, we had dinner at Old Bear, one of the best places I've been to for pasta in Rome.  My mentor teacher when I taught in Rome took us there and I have been back a few times since.  The amatriciana is AMAZING!

The next day I was excited because my parents were coming in!!  More on that trip to come...

Right now I'm heading off to have aperitivo, drinks, and go to a bar to listen to a live cover band of the Beatles!  Exactly 2 weeks until I am home, yikes!

baci xo

Last days in Malta - 11/18/10

After our long day in Gozo, Caroline and I were exhausted and wanted to have a lazy day.   We woke up and went to grab drinks at Rainforest Cafe - a really cute outdoor cafe with fountains and palm trees everywhere.  After that we headed to the little beach right next to our apartment.  It was too cold for us to sit there without our jackets and scarves on, but we saw one man actually go in for a swim!

After we spent some time at the beach, we had a pretty lazy afternoon watching soccer on tv and going to see The Social Network at the local movie theater.  

We were well rested and decided to venture back to Valletta our last day to finally see St. John's Co-Cathedral and the Grand Palace.  Now, the Cathedral has a very plain exterior and we were not expecting the breathtaking beauty we would see when we walked in, but before I post some pictures it's time for...another history lesson!  :)  

Ok so these Knights of St. John (or also known as the Knights of Malta) were a major Western Christian Order formed during the Middle Ages.  Basically they were charged with keeping the Holy Land (Jerusalem) safe and unharmed, thus protecting Catholicism itself.  Well, Islamic forces took over Jerusalem so these knights had to find other places to be their base; first it was Rhodes and then they moved to Malta.  The Ottomans were upset that the Knights were able to resettle themselves and regroup in Malta, so of course they wanted to stir things up and attack.  In 1565 Suliemon sent his troops to Malta and waged a huge attack against the country, known as the Great Siege of Malta - specifically in the city of Valletta.  After a long back and forth battle, Malta was able to pull through, but just barely.  After that, the Knights decided to refortify and reestablish themselves on the island in case there were going to be other attacks in the future.  

This is where the cathedral comes in.  It was built shortly after the Great Siege and while the exterior is very plain, the interior shows how influential these knights were in the city.

So ornate inside

The church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of the Order.  The exterior is very plain and has the mood of a fortress, which apparently reflects the mood of the knights after the Great Siege.  The inside of the cathedral was kept pretty plain as well until the 17th century when the Grand Master decided to embrace the new Baroque style, which was much more flashy.  The dichotomy between the exterior and the interior of this church really makes it a fascinating monument.

The church also boasts 2 paintings by Caravaggio.  If you don't know much about Caravaggio, just know that he was an extremely brilliant artist with an extremely violent temper.  Because of his talent, a lot of his outbursts of violence were pardoned; however, one outburst left another man dead and he found that there was no way he was going to be pardoned.  He fled Rome to Naples and then from Naples headed to Malta to try and gain the patronage of the Grand Master of the Order, thus hopefully gaining a pardon for his crime.  While in Malta he created many works of art for the Order, including one of the most famous of his works the Beheading of St. John the Baptist.  This is the largest painting he has ever done and the only one he signed - in the blood of St. John's head no less.

It's a very moving painting with a ton of emotion - my favorite of the works I have seen by him

The Grand Master was so impressed with Caravaggio's work that he made him a Knight of the Order; however, it wasn't long until Caravaggio got in another scuffle with another Knight and he was imprisoned and kicked out of the order.  He managed to escape and flee to Sicily, ending his stay in Malta.  The Cathedral was absolutely beautiful and both Caroline and I were so taken aback by it's ornateness.

After the Cathedral we headed to the Grandmaster's Palace.  It was one of the first buildings erected in Valletta and it was built in 1571.  It is still in use for the House of Representatives and the President of Malta so we weren't allowed to gain entry in much of the palace, which was a shame.  In fact we really didn't get to see much at all except for a few rooms and a long hallway with a couple statues.  We were pretty unimpressed until we got to the Armory museum housed within the palace.  The Armory holds a ton of pieces dating back to the Great Siege and we both felt like the museum was set up in a great way to appreciate all of the different types of armor and weaponry.  I'm usually not that interested in those types of museums, but the audio guide was great.  We especially liked seeing the different helmets they would wear and really liked these:

alien helmets

After a good day we headed back to our apartment and got ready for a nice dinner at a restaurant overlooking a harbor near our apartment.  I was adamant that we order an Italian wine instead of Maltese so we knew we wouldn't be disappointed, and we weren't!  I ordered a cheeseburger with fried onions and it was delicious!  We then were in food coma mode and went back to our place to pack up and get ready for our flight in the morning.

Our wonderful glasses of Chianti and our view of the harbor

All in all, Malta was a great trip and offered so much more history than I was expecting!  I can now understand why my grandfather and father really want to go there.

Ok so one more trip on the blog down and a few more to go!  I head home in just over 2 weeks and am filled with excitement at seeing my loved ones and trepidation for what is to come.  

Next post: Parent's trip to Italy!!

Gozo, Malta

The main harbor in Gozo

We woke up extra early to try and catch a bus to the ferry that would take us to Gozo.  After a lot of search for a bus terminus (turned out it was just a bus stop, not a terminal like we were expecting) we finally found that bus.  It was a pretty tight bus so we had to stand, and if you saw in my last post the drivers are crazy and the buses are super old, so it wasn't so easy.  The ride was also about 45 minutes so Caroline and my arms felt like they were going to fall off by the time we got to the pier, but we made it!

Gozo is the second biggest island in Malta and it has been inhabited since 5000 BC, hence why it's claim to fame are the Ggantija temples which are the oldest free-standing and oldest religious structures in the world - even before the pyramids and Stonehenge.  Another interesting factoid I learned about Gozo is that it's nickname is the Isle of Calypso, based on the location of the island Ogygia in Homer's Odyssey.  The island in the myth is controlled by the nymph Calypso who holds Odysseus as her love prisoner for 7 years.  Apparently Gozo is considered the modern day Ogygia...how bout that?

Anywho, facts aside, we were very excited to go to Gozo and explore.  We took a bus to the main city of Victoria, known by locals as Rabat.  The main sight in Victoria is the citadel, which is thought to have been first fortified in 1500 BC during the Bronze Age.  Some of the high walls of this citadel were built up by the Knights of St. John, who I will talk about in another post, to apparently keep out barbarian pirates trying to forage for slaves in the village.  These high walls did allow for some great views of the island and the sea.

Sitting on a wall of the Citadel

View of the cathedral within the fortress 

The other sight to see in Victoria was the Cathedral of the Assumption.  It wasn't very exciting, especially compared to all of the cathedrals we have seen, but it was worth a look.

After Victoria we found another bus to take us to Xagrah, the sight of the temples of Ggantija.  It was 8 euros to get into the UNESCO World Heritage sight and usually I would scoff at it being so expensive, but this time it was actually Caroline who scoffed and I promptly said "Caroline, these are the OLDEST ruins ever, we have to go in," but once we actually saw the ruins it seemed like 8 euros was a bit too much.  Now if you go see the pyramids (which I haven't) or Stonehenge (which I have) I feel like you would feel a little more...fulfilled when you leave, whereas I left these ruins not feeling so fulfilled.  BUT I will give you some history on them anyways and some pictures just so you can see what I'm talking bout :)

According to my guide, "the awe-inspiring megalithic complex" was created from 3600 to 3000 BC by the community of Gozo.  There are actually two temples connected and there are thought to have been life and fertility rituals performed in them.  It looks as if the temples were used for about 1000 years and for some reason the Temple Culture disappeared abruptly.  The temples were then used as a cremation cemetary during the Early Bronze Age (2500-1500 BC).  The temples got their name because prior to their excavation, the ruins looked like just a large mound of stones surrounded by an even larger wall.  They were thought to be the remains of a defensive tower that was built by a "race of giants".  'Ggant" is Maltese for giant, so hence the name Ggantija.  I think I was a little disappointed because you only got to walk in a few meters into one temple and you barely saw much of anything in there.  I thought we would be able to see more, but you mainly got to see the outside of the walls.  Here are some pictures:

Yep, this is mainly what we got to see

So after seeing the temple there was really no way to see when/where we could catch a bus back to the main harbor.  They didn't really have schedules up anywhere, we also didn't have a map so we had to walk back to the ruins and ask a person working there.  He was actually very helpful and told us we needed to walk for about a mile until we hit "the main traffic light" and we could catch a bus there.  It was a beautiful day so we were up for the walk...unfortunately it was on main roads that didn't have sidewalks just like when Court and I decided to walk to the winery from the train station back in September.  Fun.

That's me trying to stay as far to the right as I could - oh and also since Malta was ruled by the British at one point, they drive on the opposite side of the street.

Once we finally found the one stoplight and were waiting for a bus, we decided that the main harbor couldn't be too far and maybe we could try to walk it.  I blame Caroline for this since she said that once before this trip and the walk ended up taking almost an hour and half.  As much as that girl hates to work out, she LOVES to walk.  So of course as soon as we started our walk, a bus went by that we couldn't catch, so our fate was sealed...walking to the port it is!  We had to basically guess the direction based on the buses and my internal compass (it's actually pretty good if I will say so myself!).  

After a good 45 minutes to an hour and a lot of goofiness on our part from hunger and tiredness we finally saw we were getting close to the port.  But this is the actual image we saw:

The ferry we wanted to catch was leaving

Since we saw the ferry leaving, we knew we had another hour to wait so we ran into a grocery store get some snacks.  It was so odd at this store - they made you lock up your bags in these little lockers before you went in, so weird.  I ended up just getting some M&M's, crunchy and peanut.  I was way too excited about the crunchy M&Ms, but you can't get them in the States anymore and I LOVE them!  Anyways, we made it on the ferry and had a gorgeous sunset view of Gozo on our way back to the main island of Malta.  I'll try to only post a couple pics...

Once we got back to Malta we had another harrowing experience on the bus.  Caroline actually described it as a death roller coaster and I think we spent a couple minutes each praying that this wouldn't be our last bus trip...honestly it was BAD.  But we survived and were exhausted!

On another note, today marks 3 weeks until I am back home in the States!  I am very excited, but at the same time sad to leave here.  I am working though to get this blog up to date before I leave since I don't think there will be a chance when I get home, so get used to a lot of updates from me!

A dopo xo

Vacation from our Vacation: Malta

One of the many ports in Malta

As I've said before, writing a blog is more work than I thought it would be!  Here I am, more than a month after going to Malta and I'm finally getting around to writing about it.  Ah well, time flies when you are having fun!

Ok so Caroline and I headed off to Malta on our own while Courtney stayed back in Firenze to hold down the fort.  We basically had just gotten back from Barcelona and then we were off on another trip and we thought Malta was just going to be a nice beach-y vacation.  Truthfully, we made the decision to go to Malta only because Ryanair flew there from Pisa (there weren't a ton of options) and the flights were CHEAP - 10 euros each total for roundtrip.  Since both of us hadn't even really heard of Malta, we had no idea the amount of history we were going to find there and it's strategic importance in some of Europe's, and the world's, many conflicts.

Before going into all of it's history, here is some background on Malta.  Malta is a group of islands just south of Sicily, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya.  The three largest islands are the only ones inhabited.  It's actually one of the world's smallest and most densely populated countries.  As I said above, Malta was located in a prime position in the Mediterranean so many powers have ruled over it in it's long history.  The last power to have control was Great Britain, which is why the 2 languages spoken there are English and Maltese.  Thank goodness they spoke English because Maltese made no sense to us.  Aesthetically the island looks like a mix between a British beach town and a North African city.  When we got on the bus to get to Valletta from the airport, I couldn't help but notice the many buildings that were just crumbling.  It may have just been that area, but it was not very beautiful.  I learned later that a lot of those ruins were from the Siege of Malta in World War II.

So on to our trip!  The buses were our main mode of transportation, which was great since they were CHEAP!  One way was 47 cents - an interesting amount, but still cheap.  However, at times it did feel like these buses were deathtraps.  They looked like they were from the 60's and the doors didn't close so if you sat at the front it felt like you could fall out at any moment.  Lastly, the bus drivers were not unlike bus drivers you would find anywhere else...aggressive.  One time the bus we were in was tailing and trying to pass a student driver whose car said "Student Driver - Stay Back", obviously directions the driver didn't heed at all.

The Ohio State colored bus on the island of Gozo!

The apartment Caroline had found for us was located right in the night club district of Paceville.  We figured this would be ok since we wanted to go out and the price was amazing; 11 euros a night each for an apartment with a full kitchen.  You can't beat that at all!  Our apartment was actually over a club, but thankfully that club was being renovated otherwise I think we would have had a hard time getting any sleep.  Once we got to our place we noticed that they weren't kidding at all.  It was just a full street of clubs and bars, including gentlemen's clubs, yikes.  Here is a (blurry) picture of what the street looked like at night:

Since we were being a little more frugal because of the money we spent in Barcelona, we immediately headed to the store to stock up on food to make in our kitchen.  We also picked up some Maltese wine and asked for a recommendation of a liquor.  The clerk pointed us to a Maltese pomegranate liquor, which sounds good right?  Well, I'll get to that later.  After making some lunch we wanted to explore our neighborhood.  We walked to the mall right down the street, to the little beach near us, and we saw a casino way in the distance that we decided to go to.  Caroline really wanted to go in, but apparently you needed to become a member to do so.  So of course we did since it was free and we just walked around inside realizing after we couldn't find penny or nickel slots that it was waaay out of our price range :)  Back to the apartment to get ready for our Saturday night out!

We made some dinner and opened that Maltese wine and liquor I mentioned earlier.  The clerk said that a lot of people like to mix them together so we were up to try it.  Ugh, worst decision ever!  Well I should have also mentioned that we went a little cheap on the wine since we were used to buying 2 euro wine in Italy and it still being fabulous, but I guess that is not the case in Malta.  I should also mention that we bought wine that said "buy 2 for 4 euro and get one free" - yep, another red flag.  When I tried opening our wine, the cork wouldn't budge.  It seemed like these bottles had been sitting in that store for years.  It took me 10 minutes of probing and pulling and I finally got it out.  Then we tried it with and without the liquor and it was absolutely dreadful both ways.  Literally undrinkable for me, though Caroline was a little bit more forgiving.  This caused us to head out a little earlier and just buy cocktails and what we saw when we opened the front door was a huge surprise.  There were a million people walking around and music blaring from all sides.  Though these "people" were not average adults going out, they were 16-18 year olds.  Caroline and I were so taken aback by the young kids running around in 5 inch heels that we immediately ran into the lounge beneath our apartment (club was closed, but the restaurant/lounge was still open).  We decided to get some drinks there and just watch the madness outside.  We were so shocked by the amount of what seemed to be children out there that Caroline asked the waitress if this was normal, which apparently it is.  We had a little more liquid courage before braving the droves and decided to give this area a chance.  I was pretty disappointed with the whole thing - crowds, adolescent guys grabbing you and thinking they are awesome, extremely loud music, etc.  I was kind of over it even before we started.  Finally we found a bar that looked more adult so we ducked into there.  I think we both kind of felt defeated so we only hung out there for a little - enough for Caroline to have her first small taste of Absinthe! - and grabbed a slice of pizza on our way back to the apartment.  First night out, kind of a fail though the pizza was delicious!

The next day we were determined to have a good day of exploring.  We headed to Valletta, which is the de facto capital of Malta and is a small walled city.  It is located on one side of the Grand Harbor and after the Ottoman Siege of Malta in 1565, the Knights of St. John decided they needed to fortify this city so it could defend itself better from further attacks.  The city boasts a couple palaces, gardens, churches, and a fort so it is definitely the most impressive city on Malta, in my opinion.

Upper Barakka Gardens

View of the Grand Harbor

View of the Harbor from one of the small streets

Since it was a Sunday, many of the places we really wanted to see in Valletta were closed, but the National War Museum was open.  I wasn't so big on going in there, but we did because it seemed like the only thing open and thank goodness we did.  I learned more about both World Wars than I really ever knew before and it was very interesting seeing how much Malta was involved in these wars.  Since they were in such a strategic position in the Mediterranean, Malta had to endure many hardships especially during the second World War.  Walking through that museum was very eye opening and I thought about my Grandpa Legge pretty much the whole time (he worked for the Royal Airforce during WWII and I found out later that many of his friends had been stationed on Malta).

view of Valletta from the other side of a harbor

We would have to return to Valletta on a later day to see the Grand Palace and St. John's Cathedral, so I will recount those in a later post!  The next day we headed to the island of Gozo to see the world's oldest free standing and religious structures.  Be excited! :o)