Lucca

Yesterday we went on a day trip to Lucca. I usually don’t post blogs about our day trips, but Lucca was just so great I wanted to tell everyone about it. It was by far my favorite place in Italy. It is located between Pisa and Florence, so it is between Liguria (the region Genoa is in) and Tuscany. It was a medieval town with a wall built around it, and the whole town is surrounded by mountains. Now the wall has been converted into a pedestrian promenade so there are lots of bikers, joggers, and tourists walking around on top of the wall (which is really wide). The wall has grassy fields all along it, so it’s really pretty when you're walking on the wall and can see the medieval houses on one side and the greenery and mountains on the other. Within the wall, all of the buildings are historic and colorful. Lucca had lots of the winding alleys and little piazzas. We spent the morning at the Villa Reale gardens which are a little outside of Lucca. Even though it was supposed to rain, the sun came out, and the day was gorgeous. The gardens had lots of fountains, a waterfall, an artificial lake and big open meadows. I could have stayed and laid out there all day. In Lucca, we mostly just toured the different piazzas in the city. We also went up in Torre Guinigi, where you could look out on the entire city. It was cool, since you could see all of Lucca’s towers and the mountains. If you are ever in Florence, make sure to take a day trip to Lucca!

Nice

Our weekend in Nice was a perfect, relaxing weekend. Going into the weekend, we were worried it was going to rain on us the whole time, but luckily, the rain held off and it was just overcast all weekend, which we were more than okay with. To get to Nice, we had to take a train to Ventimiglia on the Italian border and switch trains there. Our train to Ventimiglia was a regional train, which means it was a dirty, crowded train. When we got to Ventimiglia, our train to Nice had been cancelled, so we had to wait an extra hour for the next train to Nice. When we got to Nice, we just walked around a little bit and got a really late dinner. We had cheese & mushroom crepes for dinner and we all split a nutella & banana crepe for dessert. Both were amazing.

Saturday was one of the best days I've had over here. We woke up and got free breakfast at our hotel, complete with chocolate croissants. (And yes, we actually stayed in a hotel, instead of a hostel!) After breakfast,we hiked up to the chateau on the hill, where there are really awesome panoramic views of the beach and the rest of the city. There's also a gorgeous waterfall up there and a cemetery that looks down onto the entire city. After wandering around, we went to the produce and flower market that Nice is famous for. We all bought paintings there. We also bought some produce and cheese for lunch. We ate our stuff from the market sitting on the beach. It was so relaxing and peaceful. After lunch, we got gelato at this place in old town that we had read about. It had 80 flavors and a bunch of random kinds like tomato basil, avocado, lavender, beer, and cactus. They also had some normal kinds too, so I got chocolate and mint chocolate gelato. We walked along the water for a while and went to the port and looked at all the yachts. For dinner, we ate at an awesome three course meal. I had some appetizer that was ham stuffed with endives in melted cheese. For my main course, I had chicken with mushrooms and steamed potatoes, and then really rich chocolate mousse for dessert. It was delicious, and the place was really cute. After dinner, we bought a bottle of local wine from a wine shop, went back to our hotel, changed into our pajamas and watched TV (a real luxury since we don't have TV at the villa).

The next morning, we took a bus to Vence, which is a small town about an hour from Nice. It was really quaint and cute, and the people there were incredibly friendly. We didn't do much there - just looked and shopped around. Catherine and I split a giant chocolate chip and pistachio cookie from a little bakery. After we took the bus back to Nice, we hopped on a train back home to Genoa. I've got a busy week ahead of me. Some people who donate money to this study abroad program are here for the week. The one bonus of having visitors is that the cooks are making extra special meals for lunch! (Today we had gnocchi with pesto, white fish, potatoes, salad with corn and tomatoes, and strawberries and chocolate for dessert.) Tomorrow is our last day trip, and we're going to Lucca. On Saturday, we leave for our next 10-day trip. This time we are going to Basel (in Switzerland), Verona, and Venice.

I just realized it’s been almost 2 weeks since I returned from spring break, and I haven’t posted anything recently. I have not traveled anywhere major since spring break. Last Tuesday, our class took a day trip to Torino (Turin). It snowed on us all afternoon and was freezing cold! In contrast, this Tuesday, we took a day trip to Como, and it was sunny and beautiful outside. The weather has been really nice this week. It’s finally started to warm up and feel a little like spring. In Como, we looked at boring Rationalist architecture all day, but the highlight of the day was our one-hour lunch break, which we spent reading and relaxing and eating gelato by Lake Como. It was so gorgeous. Apparently, George Clooney has a house in Como too.

Last weekend, we stayed in Italy because we had our villa party on Friday night. Professors and the rest of the villa staff, friends of the villa staff, and architects from the area were invited. One of the staff members son’s band played, and they made lots of food and had an open bar. It was nice to see everyone all dressed up. All of us living in the villa are so comfortable with each other now that we rarely look good around each other anymore. On Saturday, Catherine and I went to Milan for the day to visit buildings we needed to research for one of our classes. This week has mostly just revolved around schoolwork, but tomorrow, Judith, Catherine, and I are headed to Nice, France!

For my field studies class, we have to keep a sketchbook with us on our day trips and independent travel. I thought you might like to see a few sketches from my recent trip. The first one is of Frank Gehry's Dancing House in Prague, the second is also from Prague, and the last is of the train station in Cologne.

Independent Travel - Vienna

Vienna was pretty as well but probably my least favorite city so far. Everything in Vienna is very white and imperial looking, which is pretty but, to me, lacks personality. I also didn’t like Vienna as much because it was miserably cold while we were there. During the day, the temperature was in the thirties with a windchill in the teens, and the overnight lows were around 23. The first day in Vienna we visited Schonbrunn Palace, which was the summer palace of the Habsburgs. It was interesting to me because in world history in high school, I was assigned a project on Maria Theresa, since my teacher said I was like her. After Schonbrunn Palace we ate at a restaurant called, funnily enough, the Chattanooga Bar & Grill. (Judith is from Chattanooga.) We visited St. Stephen’s cathedral and did some shopping, where Judith convinced me to buy a great red dress. Because it was so cold outside, we decided to see the city by riding around the tram. First, we got on the wrong tram. Right when we realized that we were going the wrong way and needed to get off, the tram came to a halt, and the driver made an announcement in German and everyone piled off the bus. Judith and I had no idea what was going on. We looked down the street, and there were police cars forming a barricade. Finally, we found out there was some sort of housing protest going on in the streets. When trams could get through the streets again, we hopped on the right tram, toured the city by tram, and then called it a day.

The next morning we were hoping to see the Spanish Riding School practice in Vienna, but it turns out they don’t practice on weekends. Instead, we went and toured the Hofburg, where we saw the Sisi Museum and the Imperial Apartments (the Hofburgs’ winter residence). The Sisi Museum was really interesting; Sisi was the nickname for Empress Elisabeth, who was a fascinating woman, who lead a very private life and was assassinated. After eating kasespaetzl for lunch, we walked around Vienna to see important buildings like the Rathaus, the National Library, the Opera, and the museums in Maria Theresa Platz. It snowed on us the whole afternoon while we were walking around (not exactly my idea of spring break). We had to catch a shuttle to Bratislava that evening. (Since Bratislava is only about an hour from Vienna, we booked a really cheap flight from Bratislava to Pisa.) Unfortunately, the shuttle stop was not clearly marked and not where they said it would be, so we, along with a few other lost people, wandered around in the freezing snow for about 45 minutes, hoping the shuttle company hadn’t scammed us. Luckily, the shuttle showed up just down the street and everything after that went smoothly. We flew to Pisa on Sunday morning, then took a train to Genoa from there. Like I said, I’m glad to be back! It’s weird that the villa and Genoa almost feels like home now, when just two months ago, it was totally foreign to me.

Independent Travel - Salzburg

Hello again! I am now back in Italy and glad to be back. Being able to see so many places over spring break was an experience of a lifetime but also completely draining. Salzburg was great; it was my favorite place that we visited, mostly because everyone was so friendly, and the city was smaller and more relaxed than most of the places we’ve gone. I hadn’t realized until Salzburg how much I missed being in a smaller town. In Genoa and while I’m traveling, I am always in big cities.

When we got to Salzburg, we ate kasekrainers (sausages filled with cheese) for lunch and then visited the Salzburg Cathedral. After that, we strolled and shopped around Getreidegasse, which is an alley known for its shops and for being the birthplace of Mozart. (Mozart was born in a cute, yellow house.) We went to a local restaurant for dinner, where I had clear soup with a cheese dumpling in it. We made sure to be back at our hostel by 8pm because our hostel was showing the Sound of Music! We got to watch the movie before our tour the next day, which was really exciting.

We had to wake up early the next morning for our tour, but I didn’t mind at all since I was so excited. (I know some of you are laughing at me, but Erin and I grew up on this movie.) The tour ended up being just 4 people - Judith and I and an older couple from Oklahoma. Our tour guide drove us around in a van, while we listened to the Sound of Music soundtrack and sung along (no lie!) It was so cheerful and relaxing. She took us to a bunch of the different points where the movie was filmed. We saw the actual Von Trapp house, the outside of the house used for the movie, the patio and lake of the Von Trapp house in the movie, the gazebo, the abbey, the tree lined street and fountains where Julie Andrews sings, the mountains, and the wedding church. I was expecting to be able to go into the house of the Von Trapps, but unfortunately, that wasn’t possible on the tour. The inside of the house in the movie was just a set built in Hollywood, and the actual Von Trapp house is now a bed and breakfast that doesn’t allow tours. It all worked out ok though, because there were other things we got to see that I wasn’t expecting. Our tour took us through some nearby towns like St. Gilgen, Fuschl, and Montsee, where a lot of the scenery from the movie was shot, and they were some of the most gorgeous places I have ever seen. Had we not done the tour, I wouldn’t have even known those places existed. The wedding church was in Montsee, and we were able to stop there for about an hour for a strudel break! Judith got apple strudel and I got cheese strudel – both were delicious.

After the tour, we wandered around the shops for a little while. We found a cute shop that had thousands of hand-painted easter egg ornaments made with real eggs. There were egg cartons of these things piled 3 feet high everywhere! We also found a grocery store that sold peanut butter! I bought a jar because that is not an opportunity to be missed. I have yet to find a jar of peanut butter in Italy. We went back to our hostel to check out and catch our train to Vienna, but first, we got a complimentary Edelweiss cocktail from our hostel for booking our tour through them!

Independent Travel - Cologne & Prague

I am writing this post while I am traveling on a train to Salzburg. So far, my independent travel has gone pretty well. We left on Friday evening. Judith and I flew into Frankfurt Hahn Airport on Friday night, and Catherine, Ashley, and Jamie flew there the following morning, since we couldn’t get tickets all together. Judith and I stayed at a hotel by the Frankfurt Hahn airport for the night, and then met up with the others and took a 2-hour shuttle to Cologne the next day.

The first thing we did was visit the Cologne Cathedral, which had really amazing stained glass. In Cologne, a lot of the things to do were grouped closely together, around the area of the cathedral. After the cathedral, we went to the chocolate museum (of course). We got a few samples, saw how chocolate is made, and learned about the history of chocolate. We walked across the bridge and saw a theatre that our teacher told us to check out for its architecture. For dinner, we went to a fun German restaurant for authentic German food. I had white sausages, a pretzel, and Kolsch – the Cologne beer. Cologne is really beautiful at night. The cathedral and all the surrounding buildings are lit up, and from the bridge, the view of the water and the buildings is really pretty.

Unfortunately, a stomach bug had been going around the villa, and Jamie got sick with it on Saturday night. Plus the hostel that we stayed at was absolutely terrible. The smell was nauseating and nothing was clean. All of us were up all night – Jamie because she was sick and the rest of us because we were freezing cold and worried about Jamie. All of us were too disgusted to even use the showers, so the lack of showers in addition lack of sleep and fear that we would get sick made Sunday a little rough. On Sunday, we wandered around the old town of Cologne for most of the morning, and then went and visited the museum designed by Peter Zumthor that our architecture professor recommended we see.

Sunday afternoon, we had to catch the shuttle back to Frankfurt Hahn (Judith and I’s third time to visit that airport in 3 days). While we were on the shuttle, a bad storm hit. Trees were down in the road, so the bus had to take an alternate route. When we got to the airport, the winds were really strong, and the airport was making announcements not to go outside. Luckily, our flight to Prague was only delayed by half an hour and everything went ok, aside from the virus hitting Catherine during the flight. Overall, Sunday was a pretty difficult day,but since then, things have gotten much better.

When we got to our hostel in Prague (the Czech Inn), we felt like we were in heaven. Everything in the Czech Republic is pretty cheap, but we decided to spend the same amount that we normally would on a hostel and stay in a better place while in Prague. For about 21 euros a night per person, we got a 2-story apartment that had a huge bathroom, 2 bedrooms, and a kitchen, an eating area, and a rooftop terrace. It was pure luxury after our horrible hostel experience in Cologne.

I thought Prague was the most beautiful big city that I’ve visited. The area down by the river is gorgeous. On Monday, we visited Prague Castle. We ate a 3-course Czech lunch at a pretty nice restaurant for only 180 CZK (less than 8 euros, and yes, I think in euros now). I had vegetable soup, beef goulash, and chocolate cake. I was surprised how much I liked the beef goulash. After we walked across Charles Bridge, and I got a drawing from one of the artists selling their stuff on the bridge. We walked through the old part of town, shopped around in some of the crystal and glass shops that Prague is known for, and saw the astronomical clock at the Old Town Hall. We went to trivia night at our hostel, but it wasn’t much fun. We went out that night and met some British people our age. It was really funny to talk to them. They made us speak in our best British accent, which they said was “rubbish.” They also had all kinds of interesting stereotypes and perceptions about the U.S. They asked us where they should go on spring break if they went to America, and we said Florida, to which they replied that they didn’t want to go to the place full of retired people and oranges. They also thought that South Carolina was in Texas. On Tuesday, like good architecture students, we visited Frank Gehry’s Dancing House, then walked back across the Charles Bridge to see the John Lennon wall, which is a famous grafitti wall. We walked back over the bridge and through the older part of town to visit Tyn Church and St. Stephen’s.

This morning, we caught a train at 7:16. We just switched trains, but at this point, we have been traveling on trains for the past 6 hours. Judith and I are almost to Salzburg now though. Tomorrow we are doing a Sound of Music tour to see all the places where the movie was filmed. I’m really excited about it! Catherine, Ashley, and Jamie are on their way to Newcastle and Edinburgh for the rest of the break.