13-Maggio-2006
Mommie Mommie Mommie!! She’s finally here and I’m so excited! But I do hope today doesn’t lay the foundation for the rest of our travels…
My mom was supposed to get in at 2:10pm so I checked the little schedule that we had from the time that we went and picked Al up at the airport. So we headed to the train station to catch the train and were told that the only train from the airport left from a different station. We realized that our schedule had been strictly a schedule for the Olympics where the trains serviced more parts of town.
Being as smart as I am, I didn’t leave excess time because I figured we’d done this before and it wouldn’t be a problem.. smart huh? So, we hopped the next train to the correct station, which went surprisingly easy and then made it to the correct station that the airport train departed from. The next train, however, left the station three minutes after my mom’s plane was supposed to touch down. Since we didn’t have much of a choice, we waited. After sitting on the train for what felt like forever, we got to the station “Caselle.” This is surprising similar to the Caselle Airport and I figured that we were there. I jumped off the train, ignoring Casey’s doubts, because it sure didn’t look like where we had unloaded before and low and behold, we were in the town of Caselle with little to no idea as to where the airport was.
We went upstairs and spoke to the information desk and now that we were really late, I was getting pretty edgy. The lady was really nice and told us it was the next stop that we wanted and the next train didn’t come for half an hour. Being in the good mood that I was, I asked for the number to call a taxi and then yelled at the taxi people because I didn’t know my phone number when they asked for it. They told me I could tell them what it was in English, but I just decided to tell them that I still didn’t know what it was, even in English.
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity for a taxi, one arrived – with the meter already running – and we made it to the airport 40 minutes after my mom’s plane was scheduled to arrive. I did a quick once over the sitting area and the arrival board said the plane landed 30 minutes after it’s scheduled time. *phew*
The plane was unloading as we stood there so we just waited… and waited… and waited.. I got nervous and went to look around the airport again without any luck. Eventually a man came over and realizing our distress, asked if we were waiting for the Paris flight, we said we were, then he said his friend had called him from inside the terminal and there were some missing bags. Gaarreat, I thought. This was the second person to come to visit me and the second time they had lost their luggage. So I did exactly what I did last time, walked into the “no entry” door and went to find my mom.
Unfortunately the guard caught me this time, he didn’t last time, and tried to inquire as to what I thought I was doing. I told him I was just going back and that I had already come that way. He asked for my ticket and I said it was with my mom, whom I saw standing by the baggage counter. Then he let me go.. ha.. I love Italian security.
It was great to see my mom. It was not so great to have to deal with baggage people again. Last time they said they could call before they dropped off the bag. They didn’t and then expected us to be there.. right.. So this time I tried to verify that they would call and the woman said that wasn’t her area, it was the courier’s. thanks a lot …… oh well.
This evening we went to apertivo with some of my friends – for the last time. I will end up missing everyone by the time I get back, as some are leaving for home and some are headed out to do their own Europe adventures. It was sad.
Tomorrow my mom and I take off at 7am for Venice. It’ll be a crazy wild whirlwind, and I can’t wait. Well, that’s it. I’m bed bound – long time between updates now – I’ll try to keep good notes. ;)
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Thursday, May 11, 2006
time sure is flying...
11-Maggio-2006
Holy non updates! I believe this might be some type of record. Well, I assure you all that nothing extraordinary has happened since my last post, I have just been incredibly busy.
With nothing but my good looks and charm I managed to convince my Italian teacher to let me take exam early, thus allowing me to have almost two more whole days to spend vacationing with my mom. I didn’t even have to bribe her even though I was more than prepared to do so. To reward her for this rarely allowed occurrence, I tried my best to make her chocolate chip cookies. Since the ingredients are different the cookies are a bit different too, but I don’t believe that they are too far off base.
Since I learned of this amazing news, I have been busy re-organizing the schedule for my vacation with my mom. I amazingly enough got the whole figured out, with only a minor amount of headaches. Ya know how before vacations you usually look at them with dread because there is so much to do before you can actually go? Well, I’m at that point right now. Yesterday I finished planning the week vacation for my mom and I and then I was off and running to figure some stuff out for the two-week vacation with Adam. Both of these I will enjoy more than words can say, but right now I’m in a tizzy with things to do.
My mom and I will be enjoying an Italian vacation that consists of a night in Venice, a night in Florence, a night in Lucca, a night in San Giminagno at a farm house with a horseback riding tour and wine tasting, a day in Siena and two nights in Rome. I think we’ve got our work cut out for us. Rose will laugh. If anyone ever wants an Italian vacation, I’ll be glad to help you out, and even accompany you – for a price ;). Maybe I should start offering my services online, I feel like I could make a go at a very personalized vacation planning service. There isn’t any way I could have done it without the internet though.
Planning Adam’s stint in Europe has proven to be a bit more chaotic. Since we will be visiting six countries, with 5 different languages, I’m taking a bit longer to plan this one. Unfortunately, I can’t just call these places like I can in Italy because of some language difficulties but also for the arm and a leg telephone costs. But I think I’ve done ok so far. Luckily, I haven’t noticed where I have made any costly mistakes yet.. not to say that I won’t, knock on wood.
I can’t believe my mom will be here the day after tomorrow.. it’s amazing. So much to do still – packing, cleaning and preparing to move out, in addition to packing for our trip, write my article for next week and finishing two tests. Oi vey. And the worse part, I woke up with a very sore throat this morning, which will be great for my two oral exams over the next two days… I have been gargling salt water like it’s my job and would appreciate any other suggested remedies. Well, I’m off to take Italy by storm.
Ciao!
Holy non updates! I believe this might be some type of record. Well, I assure you all that nothing extraordinary has happened since my last post, I have just been incredibly busy.
With nothing but my good looks and charm I managed to convince my Italian teacher to let me take exam early, thus allowing me to have almost two more whole days to spend vacationing with my mom. I didn’t even have to bribe her even though I was more than prepared to do so. To reward her for this rarely allowed occurrence, I tried my best to make her chocolate chip cookies. Since the ingredients are different the cookies are a bit different too, but I don’t believe that they are too far off base.
Since I learned of this amazing news, I have been busy re-organizing the schedule for my vacation with my mom. I amazingly enough got the whole figured out, with only a minor amount of headaches. Ya know how before vacations you usually look at them with dread because there is so much to do before you can actually go? Well, I’m at that point right now. Yesterday I finished planning the week vacation for my mom and I and then I was off and running to figure some stuff out for the two-week vacation with Adam. Both of these I will enjoy more than words can say, but right now I’m in a tizzy with things to do.
My mom and I will be enjoying an Italian vacation that consists of a night in Venice, a night in Florence, a night in Lucca, a night in San Giminagno at a farm house with a horseback riding tour and wine tasting, a day in Siena and two nights in Rome. I think we’ve got our work cut out for us. Rose will laugh. If anyone ever wants an Italian vacation, I’ll be glad to help you out, and even accompany you – for a price ;). Maybe I should start offering my services online, I feel like I could make a go at a very personalized vacation planning service. There isn’t any way I could have done it without the internet though.
Planning Adam’s stint in Europe has proven to be a bit more chaotic. Since we will be visiting six countries, with 5 different languages, I’m taking a bit longer to plan this one. Unfortunately, I can’t just call these places like I can in Italy because of some language difficulties but also for the arm and a leg telephone costs. But I think I’ve done ok so far. Luckily, I haven’t noticed where I have made any costly mistakes yet.. not to say that I won’t, knock on wood.
I can’t believe my mom will be here the day after tomorrow.. it’s amazing. So much to do still – packing, cleaning and preparing to move out, in addition to packing for our trip, write my article for next week and finishing two tests. Oi vey. And the worse part, I woke up with a very sore throat this morning, which will be great for my two oral exams over the next two days… I have been gargling salt water like it’s my job and would appreciate any other suggested remedies. Well, I’m off to take Italy by storm.
Ciao!
Sunday, May 07, 2006
it's a dog eat dog world....
so for my culture assignment I chose to do a paper on dogs in italy vs dogs in america. I found it hard to get information because i couldn't talk to people so i focused more on making the assignment look pretty.. good job huh?
if you want to view it, it's here.
PS, you need adobe acrobat 4.1 or higher to view it..
if you want to view it, it's here.
PS, you need adobe acrobat 4.1 or higher to view it..
wahoo for mango salsa!
07-Maggio-2006
Well, the weather is not improving and it’s downright cold for May in Italy. I used this to my advantage and got a good portion of my schoolwork done for the weekend. With one more semi-productive day, I will be much closer to finishing this semester.
This morning I made my way to the market because I want to make mango salsa, yummy. On my way home I ducked off the main street and into a side street. In this particular side street there was a family with a stroller. As I got closer I realized that the father was helping his young son pee on the wall of a building. Wow. They teach em young here.
Casey, Jeff and I made a trip to the mall since Casey has ripped all of her pants. It was probably the last chance to hit up the Italian mall, so I figured it would be a good trip. We even visited the big sports store that I’d heard so much about.. but it wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped. The place was huge and generalized.
After the mall I had planned to go to Apertivo with some friends, considering this would probably be the last time we all went together. We tried out a new place, 192, and it was pretty good. I’m going to miss hanging out with everyone and randomly throwing Italian phrases into the conversation and still have everyone understand. Maybe we can have a reunion like high schools do in 5, 10, and 25 years. That would be exciting.
Well, the weather is not improving and it’s downright cold for May in Italy. I used this to my advantage and got a good portion of my schoolwork done for the weekend. With one more semi-productive day, I will be much closer to finishing this semester.
This morning I made my way to the market because I want to make mango salsa, yummy. On my way home I ducked off the main street and into a side street. In this particular side street there was a family with a stroller. As I got closer I realized that the father was helping his young son pee on the wall of a building. Wow. They teach em young here.
Casey, Jeff and I made a trip to the mall since Casey has ripped all of her pants. It was probably the last chance to hit up the Italian mall, so I figured it would be a good trip. We even visited the big sports store that I’d heard so much about.. but it wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped. The place was huge and generalized.
After the mall I had planned to go to Apertivo with some friends, considering this would probably be the last time we all went together. We tried out a new place, 192, and it was pretty good. I’m going to miss hanging out with everyone and randomly throwing Italian phrases into the conversation and still have everyone understand. Maybe we can have a reunion like high schools do in 5, 10, and 25 years. That would be exciting.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
yup, we hit a bridge...
06-Maggio-2006 [[RIP Jessica]]
Well, the day began badly. We woke up at 6:15am in order to be ready to make our hour long trek to school and catch the bus by 8:15am. However, the program directors tell everyone to be there super early because they are Italian and expect everyone to be late. So, the bus didn’t end up leaving til 9:15am, an additional hour of sleep could definitely have been had.
The weather was not optimal for our sight seeing. It was unusually cold and very foggy. The Rivoli castle that we first went to housed a contemporary art museum that was inside. But the directors thought for some reason that this visit would take us 5 hours. Maybe if we had stood in front of each piece and searched our souls for meaning, then it might have taken 3 hours. So we ran around, ate a long lunch, spent a good hour in the gift shop and finally boarded the bus around 2:30pm.
yup, that's contemporary if i've ever seen it...
The temperature continued to drop as we made the half hour jaunt to the abbey of San Michele. The abbey was on top of a very high hill and on smogless and fogless days you can see the other side of Torino. Today was not one of those days. Again we had two hours for this journey and needed only one hour, and that included a trip to the café. If I had planned the trip it could have been a half way jaunt instead of an entirely too long one.
Luckily we talked the bus drivers into taking a large group of students, who lived closer to downtown than school, to drop us off significantly closer to our homes. This would save us an hour bus ride and brighten our moods. We weren’t 10 minutes into our 45-minute drive when our bus driver decided to go under a bridge that our bus was too tall for. Yup, that’s right, we got stuck. I’m pretty sure this didn’t have to do with our change of destination; I think it was just not a well-calculated move. Thankfully no one was hurt, but it did cause quite a big disturbance. The bridge we were going under was an underpass and since it was rush hour, the cars were honking and everyone was trying to get around. Eventually the police got there and got traffic figured out so we could slam on the gas and back up to a place where we could turn around. We know the whole top of the bus didn’t hit, only the part in the back where the air conditioner lived. This led us to consider the fact that we were breathing in toxic air conditioner fumes. Delightful. That predicament definitely took awhile. Then we moved towards another direction and the train bridge was down. A train came to a stop over the tracks and stayed there for half an hour. We were undeniably crabby from the trip before this whole ordeal and now inhaling carbon monoxide; it was a happy trip home.
The drama finally ended and we were dropped off closer to our apartments. Hopefully the bus driver didn’t get into too much trouble, but I don’t know what kinds of reprimands are common in Italy… poor guy. I’m never going on another field trip again.
Well, the day began badly. We woke up at 6:15am in order to be ready to make our hour long trek to school and catch the bus by 8:15am. However, the program directors tell everyone to be there super early because they are Italian and expect everyone to be late. So, the bus didn’t end up leaving til 9:15am, an additional hour of sleep could definitely have been had.
The weather was not optimal for our sight seeing. It was unusually cold and very foggy. The Rivoli castle that we first went to housed a contemporary art museum that was inside. But the directors thought for some reason that this visit would take us 5 hours. Maybe if we had stood in front of each piece and searched our souls for meaning, then it might have taken 3 hours. So we ran around, ate a long lunch, spent a good hour in the gift shop and finally boarded the bus around 2:30pm.
yup, that's contemporary if i've ever seen it...
The temperature continued to drop as we made the half hour jaunt to the abbey of San Michele. The abbey was on top of a very high hill and on smogless and fogless days you can see the other side of Torino. Today was not one of those days. Again we had two hours for this journey and needed only one hour, and that included a trip to the café. If I had planned the trip it could have been a half way jaunt instead of an entirely too long one.
Luckily we talked the bus drivers into taking a large group of students, who lived closer to downtown than school, to drop us off significantly closer to our homes. This would save us an hour bus ride and brighten our moods. We weren’t 10 minutes into our 45-minute drive when our bus driver decided to go under a bridge that our bus was too tall for. Yup, that’s right, we got stuck. I’m pretty sure this didn’t have to do with our change of destination; I think it was just not a well-calculated move. Thankfully no one was hurt, but it did cause quite a big disturbance. The bridge we were going under was an underpass and since it was rush hour, the cars were honking and everyone was trying to get around. Eventually the police got there and got traffic figured out so we could slam on the gas and back up to a place where we could turn around. We know the whole top of the bus didn’t hit, only the part in the back where the air conditioner lived. This led us to consider the fact that we were breathing in toxic air conditioner fumes. Delightful. That predicament definitely took awhile. Then we moved towards another direction and the train bridge was down. A train came to a stop over the tracks and stayed there for half an hour. We were undeniably crabby from the trip before this whole ordeal and now inhaling carbon monoxide; it was a happy trip home.
The drama finally ended and we were dropped off closer to our apartments. Hopefully the bus driver didn’t get into too much trouble, but I don’t know what kinds of reprimands are common in Italy… poor guy. I’m never going on another field trip again.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Caspita!
05-Maggio-2006
Today our Italian class was pretty comical. We came up to a word, Caspita, that our teacher didn’t know how to translate exactly. She said it was kind of like “damn” but in a positive way. We figured that it could be, “well I’ll be damned” and then another student came up with “no shit,” in a positive context of course. Our teacher, a 50 something year old Italian, decided to try this phrase on for size, and it sent us into a fit of laughter. It was a pretty funny class.
I also approached my teacher with the thought of taking the final exam early. I want to do this since my mom will be arriving on Saturday and my exam on Monday is the only reason I would need to stick around Torino. We could add almost two full days to our trip if I could move the test. So we’ll see. She is very reasonable; so I’m hoping it will all work out. Currently she is “thinking about it” and if she hesitates when I ask for an answer on Monday, I’ll move to bribery.
On a sad note, our landlord has a Pekinese dog that turned up missing last week. Casey stopped by today to see if they had found it yet and she found that he hadn’t been returned but also that our landlord’s uncle died. We figured that was a pretty horrible occurrence of events, and hopefully Paco the Pekinese will show up soon. On a strange note, when we were at the bus stop today we saw another lost dog sign that was also for a Pekinese. Since we were bored we cooked up a conspiracy and we’re now searching for the perp… CSI here I come.
Tomorrow is our all day field trip. I’m looking forward to it, other than the early departure time. After I’m trying to get a bunch of people to come out and try a new apertivo that I’ve heard “is the best in Torino.” I figure I have to make sure everything “is the best in Torino” before my mom gets here. Or at least that’s my justification.
Today our Italian class was pretty comical. We came up to a word, Caspita, that our teacher didn’t know how to translate exactly. She said it was kind of like “damn” but in a positive way. We figured that it could be, “well I’ll be damned” and then another student came up with “no shit,” in a positive context of course. Our teacher, a 50 something year old Italian, decided to try this phrase on for size, and it sent us into a fit of laughter. It was a pretty funny class.
I also approached my teacher with the thought of taking the final exam early. I want to do this since my mom will be arriving on Saturday and my exam on Monday is the only reason I would need to stick around Torino. We could add almost two full days to our trip if I could move the test. So we’ll see. She is very reasonable; so I’m hoping it will all work out. Currently she is “thinking about it” and if she hesitates when I ask for an answer on Monday, I’ll move to bribery.
On a sad note, our landlord has a Pekinese dog that turned up missing last week. Casey stopped by today to see if they had found it yet and she found that he hadn’t been returned but also that our landlord’s uncle died. We figured that was a pretty horrible occurrence of events, and hopefully Paco the Pekinese will show up soon. On a strange note, when we were at the bus stop today we saw another lost dog sign that was also for a Pekinese. Since we were bored we cooked up a conspiracy and we’re now searching for the perp… CSI here I come.
Tomorrow is our all day field trip. I’m looking forward to it, other than the early departure time. After I’m trying to get a bunch of people to come out and try a new apertivo that I’ve heard “is the best in Torino.” I figure I have to make sure everything “is the best in Torino” before my mom gets here. Or at least that’s my justification.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
i looove art...
04-Maggio-2006
The days are going by with increasing speed. All of the papers and travel plans are coming to a big messy gathering. Hopefully everything will work out all right. This weekend I’m going to stay around so I can get all of my work done, but the school has scheduled a field trip to a castle a little bit outside of Torino and an art museum. Maybe we’ll go do some wine tasting to break up the day a little bit. We’ll see how motivated I am.
Today we toured yet another art museum in the Lingotto. The Lingotto is a mall/old fiat factory/art museum/movie theatre/Olympic center.. It’s pretty much a big deal. The art gallery proved to be a little bit educating. I got to see a real Picasso painting, as well as a Monet and Matisse sculptures. Interesting if nothing else.
I also had dinner with Kim and Andrea tonight. I made a stuffed onion recipe out of my cookbook from Scotland. It was absolutely amazing, both Kim and Andrea want the recipe. I was proud, yay for kitchen success. We also had risotto and Caprese, the Italian favorites. Yummy…
Well I guess that brings me up to speed. Other than that, I’m busy with travel plans and thinking about my friends that I’m coming close to going away from.. awww…
The days are going by with increasing speed. All of the papers and travel plans are coming to a big messy gathering. Hopefully everything will work out all right. This weekend I’m going to stay around so I can get all of my work done, but the school has scheduled a field trip to a castle a little bit outside of Torino and an art museum. Maybe we’ll go do some wine tasting to break up the day a little bit. We’ll see how motivated I am.
Today we toured yet another art museum in the Lingotto. The Lingotto is a mall/old fiat factory/art museum/movie theatre/Olympic center.. It’s pretty much a big deal. The art gallery proved to be a little bit educating. I got to see a real Picasso painting, as well as a Monet and Matisse sculptures. Interesting if nothing else.
I also had dinner with Kim and Andrea tonight. I made a stuffed onion recipe out of my cookbook from Scotland. It was absolutely amazing, both Kim and Andrea want the recipe. I was proud, yay for kitchen success. We also had risotto and Caprese, the Italian favorites. Yummy…
Well I guess that brings me up to speed. Other than that, I’m busy with travel plans and thinking about my friends that I’m coming close to going away from.. awww…
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
winding down...
03-Maggio-2006
The days are going by with increasing speed. All of the papers and travel plans are coming to a big messy gathering. Hopefully everything will work out all right. This weekend I’m going to stay around so I can get all of my work done, but the school has scheduled a field trip to a castle a little bit outside of Torino and an art museum. Maybe we’ll go do some wine tasting to break up the day a little bit. We’ll see how motivated I am.
Today we toured yet another art museum in the Lingotto. The Lingotto is a mall/old fiat factory/art museum/movie theatre/Olympic center.. It’s pretty much a big deal. However, the art gallery was a little bit interesting. I got to see a real Picasso painting, as well as a Monet and Matisse sculptures. Interesting if nothing else.
I also had dinner with Kim and Andrea tonight. I made a stuffed onion recipe out of my cookbook from Scotland. It was absolutely amazing, both Kim and Andrea want the recipe. I was proud, yay for kitchen success. We also had risotto and Caprese, the Italian favorites. Yummy…
Well I guess that brings me up to speed. Other than that, I’m busy with travel plans and thinking about my friends that I’m coming close to going away from.. awww…
The days are going by with increasing speed. All of the papers and travel plans are coming to a big messy gathering. Hopefully everything will work out all right. This weekend I’m going to stay around so I can get all of my work done, but the school has scheduled a field trip to a castle a little bit outside of Torino and an art museum. Maybe we’ll go do some wine tasting to break up the day a little bit. We’ll see how motivated I am.
Today we toured yet another art museum in the Lingotto. The Lingotto is a mall/old fiat factory/art museum/movie theatre/Olympic center.. It’s pretty much a big deal. However, the art gallery was a little bit interesting. I got to see a real Picasso painting, as well as a Monet and Matisse sculptures. Interesting if nothing else.
I also had dinner with Kim and Andrea tonight. I made a stuffed onion recipe out of my cookbook from Scotland. It was absolutely amazing, both Kim and Andrea want the recipe. I was proud, yay for kitchen success. We also had risotto and Caprese, the Italian favorites. Yummy…
Well I guess that brings me up to speed. Other than that, I’m busy with travel plans and thinking about my friends that I’m coming close to going away from.. awww…
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
my ketchup.. with an emphasis on MY
02-Maggio-2006
Returning to Torino is always a welcome feeling at first. Knowing how to get from the train station to home, where all that stuff that makes up ones life, is somewhat comforting. After a few short hours, the glamour seems to wear off. Today I woke up and decided to make myself some eggs. I was excited, I hadn’t had eggs in days. Since I’ve been here I’ve been cooking eggs quite a bit, and for lack of better food to use ketchup on, eggs became the target. I know that sounds gross and disgusting and yadda yadda yadda, but it’s really not that bad… The trick is, finding the right ketchup. It’s easy to find knock offs of tomato slop and grossness like that, but Heinz ketchup cannot be substituted. A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to stumble on a SQUEEZE Heinz ketchup bottle at the local superstore, Carrefour. This was pretty much like winning the lottery. No more messing with the glass bottles that I can never seem to control. It’s always boat loads of ketchup, or a half an hour tapping on the darn neck of the bottle. As I searched for MY squeeze ketchup bottle, distinguishable because I’m the only one that has one, I realized, “huh – my ketchup bottle is nearly empty…” Now, I’m pretty good about sharing things.. I even share my favorite chocolate mini eggs, but when I want ketchup on my eggs and my entire ketchup is nearly gone, that’s it. In anger I made a rather harsh sign along the lines of “don’t use my ketchup.” In retrospect, I think it was still one heck of a good idea. And now I have to go buy ketchup.
Returning to Torino is always a welcome feeling at first. Knowing how to get from the train station to home, where all that stuff that makes up ones life, is somewhat comforting. After a few short hours, the glamour seems to wear off. Today I woke up and decided to make myself some eggs. I was excited, I hadn’t had eggs in days. Since I’ve been here I’ve been cooking eggs quite a bit, and for lack of better food to use ketchup on, eggs became the target. I know that sounds gross and disgusting and yadda yadda yadda, but it’s really not that bad… The trick is, finding the right ketchup. It’s easy to find knock offs of tomato slop and grossness like that, but Heinz ketchup cannot be substituted. A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to stumble on a SQUEEZE Heinz ketchup bottle at the local superstore, Carrefour. This was pretty much like winning the lottery. No more messing with the glass bottles that I can never seem to control. It’s always boat loads of ketchup, or a half an hour tapping on the darn neck of the bottle. As I searched for MY squeeze ketchup bottle, distinguishable because I’m the only one that has one, I realized, “huh – my ketchup bottle is nearly empty…” Now, I’m pretty good about sharing things.. I even share my favorite chocolate mini eggs, but when I want ketchup on my eggs and my entire ketchup is nearly gone, that’s it. In anger I made a rather harsh sign along the lines of “don’t use my ketchup.” In retrospect, I think it was still one heck of a good idea. And now I have to go buy ketchup.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Cinque Terre article + extra
01-Maggio-2006
It was a rough time convincing someone to go with me, yes I'm that unpopular, but I've become okay with it... lol.. luckily, jeff came along
Cinque Terre is a stretch of breathtaking seaside along the Mediterranean Ocean. Five towns are connected by an 18km (a little over 11 mile) hiking trail that people travel from all over the world to walk and relive the lives of the people who first created the trails along with their special villages. Luckily, this euphoria is a hop, skip, and a jump from Torino; well, three hours of hopping, skipping and jumping, but close just the same.
My roommate Jeff from Nevada and I took off for Cinque Terre on Sunday. We were hoping to avoid some of the expected tourists since Monday was yet another Italian holiday. We didn’t leave quite as early as we had hoped but we arrived by 4pm and still wanted to do some of the hiking that evening. This, in retrospect, was a really good move. People can get on the hiking trail at any of the five villages but most tend to start from Monterosso or Riomaggiore. We checked into our apartment-like room and hit the trail. The first stretch is fondly referred to as “the street of love” or Via Dell’ Amore. This, I assume, is because some of the most picturesque sites can be seen here. Also, this part of the trail is an extremely easy hike. There is a cement sidewalk and in some sports the entire thing is covered. Inside, on the walls, bears the names of many lovers who have once passed through the tunnel next to the seaside.
Jeff and I took out the first three towns with little problem. The hike between the third and the fourth town is estimated to be two hours long and the longest of all the trails. This trail wound back into the hillside a little bit more and we were anxious to see the ocean again. There are many signs along the trail that point to beaches for public use. Some of these are notorious for being nude beaches; luckily, we didn’t have any run-ins with anybody unclothed. However, we did happen to run into four other people in our program that were just coming up from a nude beach. They didn’t get nude themselves, but they confirmed that the beach did exist in its entirety.
It just so happened that our friends were going in the same direction we were so we hooked up and hiked the rest of the jaunt together. When we started to descent into the fourth town, Vernazza, we realized that it was probably to late to go any further. The logical thing to do was find a place to eat and take in the village life. Our choice wasn’t easy, all of the towns are very accustomed to tourists. The restaurant we did choose had outdoor seating and an older Italian waiter who kept us laughing all night. Dinner was spectacular. Any area along the seaside in Italy is known for it’s seafood and Cinque Terre is no exception. After dinner we said our goodbyes and headed back to our respective towns for the evening.
In the morning, Jeff and I decided to hike the last trail so we hopped the train to Vernazza. It is very easy to go Cinque Terre and participate in no hiking whatsoever because of the train, but that doesn’t sound nearly as much fun. Our hike began around 1pm and I was suddenly aware of how lucky we were to hike later in the day the evening before. There were all sorts of people on the same trail that we were and the last trail, between Vernazza and Monterosso, is said to be the most difficult. It didn’t help at all that the trial was rather narrow and Jeff and I both had our backpacks on. At various times we would be clinging to anything we could to allow the passage of other hikers. In my opinion, there were too many. I’m pretty accustomed to hiking in the Porcupine Mountains and Pictured Rocks in the UP, I’ve never seen as many people as I did on these trails. The one cool thing about it was that you got to try and decipher just what type of nationality you were coming up to. We met Germans, French, other Americans and obviously Italians. It was really a unique experience.
That sums up this weekend’s adventure! Hopefully I’ve got a few more good adventures left before I return to the States in June. I’m off to do the school thing!
It was a rough time convincing someone to go with me, yes I'm that unpopular, but I've become okay with it... lol.. luckily, jeff came along
Cinque Terre is a stretch of breathtaking seaside along the Mediterranean Ocean. Five towns are connected by an 18km (a little over 11 mile) hiking trail that people travel from all over the world to walk and relive the lives of the people who first created the trails along with their special villages. Luckily, this euphoria is a hop, skip, and a jump from Torino; well, three hours of hopping, skipping and jumping, but close just the same.
My roommate Jeff from Nevada and I took off for Cinque Terre on Sunday. We were hoping to avoid some of the expected tourists since Monday was yet another Italian holiday. We didn’t leave quite as early as we had hoped but we arrived by 4pm and still wanted to do some of the hiking that evening. This, in retrospect, was a really good move. People can get on the hiking trail at any of the five villages but most tend to start from Monterosso or Riomaggiore. We checked into our apartment-like room and hit the trail. The first stretch is fondly referred to as “the street of love” or Via Dell’ Amore. This, I assume, is because some of the most picturesque sites can be seen here. Also, this part of the trail is an extremely easy hike. There is a cement sidewalk and in some sports the entire thing is covered. Inside, on the walls, bears the names of many lovers who have once passed through the tunnel next to the seaside.
Jeff and I took out the first three towns with little problem. The hike between the third and the fourth town is estimated to be two hours long and the longest of all the trails. This trail wound back into the hillside a little bit more and we were anxious to see the ocean again. There are many signs along the trail that point to beaches for public use. Some of these are notorious for being nude beaches; luckily, we didn’t have any run-ins with anybody unclothed. However, we did happen to run into four other people in our program that were just coming up from a nude beach. They didn’t get nude themselves, but they confirmed that the beach did exist in its entirety.
It just so happened that our friends were going in the same direction we were so we hooked up and hiked the rest of the jaunt together. When we started to descent into the fourth town, Vernazza, we realized that it was probably to late to go any further. The logical thing to do was find a place to eat and take in the village life. Our choice wasn’t easy, all of the towns are very accustomed to tourists. The restaurant we did choose had outdoor seating and an older Italian waiter who kept us laughing all night. Dinner was spectacular. Any area along the seaside in Italy is known for it’s seafood and Cinque Terre is no exception. After dinner we said our goodbyes and headed back to our respective towns for the evening.
In the morning, Jeff and I decided to hike the last trail so we hopped the train to Vernazza. It is very easy to go Cinque Terre and participate in no hiking whatsoever because of the train, but that doesn’t sound nearly as much fun. Our hike began around 1pm and I was suddenly aware of how lucky we were to hike later in the day the evening before. There were all sorts of people on the same trail that we were and the last trail, between Vernazza and Monterosso, is said to be the most difficult. It didn’t help at all that the trial was rather narrow and Jeff and I both had our backpacks on. At various times we would be clinging to anything we could to allow the passage of other hikers. In my opinion, there were too many. I’m pretty accustomed to hiking in the Porcupine Mountains and Pictured Rocks in the UP, I’ve never seen as many people as I did on these trails. The one cool thing about it was that you got to try and decipher just what type of nationality you were coming up to. We met Germans, French, other Americans and obviously Italians. It was really a unique experience.
That sums up this weekend’s adventure! Hopefully I’ve got a few more good adventures left before I return to the States in June. I’m off to do the school thing!
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