Oh no you MADRIDidn't!

Spring break 2k15: Madrid, Spain!!

I was incredibly lucky to be able to go to Madrid and spend some time with my cousin, Emily! It was so nice to be around family- and to see her because it has been a while. She moved and has been working as an english teacher in Madrid since the summer, so she knows the area very well. (Another reason why I was very lucky, a free tour guide:) ha!) 

Unfortunately, I brought the bad weather from Florence, so it was rainy my first day there and then pretty chilly the rest of the trip. It was okay though because I was in Madrid!

Monday, I flew out of the Pisa airport to Madrid and met up with Emily. We went back to her apartment to drop my stuff off, relax, and catch up! Our first stop was to get some food. We had tortilla (spanish omelet) and churros with the hot chocolate/chocolate sauce that you dip the churro in. It was so good! These are not like the churros you get at Cedar Point, these were freshly made and brought right out to you with a cup of pudding like hot chocolate to dip them in.. YUM!

After this, we started some sight seeing. We stopped in the Peurta del Sol where we saw the most famous symbol of Madrid, the bear eating from a strawberry tree. It is called El Oso y El Madrono, and it is 20 tons.

Next, the Santa Maria La Real de la Almudena Cathedral. Before coming to Europe, I had one set idea of what a Cathedral looks like and I kinda thought  that they would all be similar. Like the same tipes of paintings on the walls, nothing very bright or very dark. Having visited Venice and now Madrid, I know I was very wrong. Where the Cathedral in Venice was darker and had the mosaic art, this cathedral was so beautiful and full of bright colors. Not just colors as part of specific paintings, but the actual decoration of the ceiling were patterns with these great bright colors. I really liked this one for that reason, I wouldn't have picture these colors and patterns as any that would be in a cathedral, well on the ceiling- stained glass is different:)

We also went to Palacio Real de Madrid. It is the "Real Palace" apparently, but the King does not actually live there. We walked through the armoury,the area that had all the portraits of the royal family, and a bunch of different rooms that were really elaborately decorated, the patterns on the rugs matched the patterns on the walls and the furniture. My favorite room to see, though, was the dining room. This HUGE table was set up like they were having a dinner party that night! Like it was straight out of a movie! We were not allowed to take pictures, so I don't have any of the inside, but here is the outside and the flag that was in the entrance.(The only place we could take picture)

The next day we walked through some gardens which were really beautiful!

 These were everywhere! You could buy one of these legs at a grocery store, but these were at the central market.

 We had tapas one night, its pretty much appetizers they keep bringing you when you get something to drink! It was delicious!

 It was a great trip and I can't wait to go back to Spain some day and see more of this beautiful city!

Wonderfully Lost In Venice

" It is always assumed that Venice is the ideal place for a honeymoon. This is a grave error. To live in Venice or even to visit it , means that you fall in love with the city itself. There is nothing left over in your heart for anyone else."

   This quote is from Peggy Guggenheim the art collector, and I think it is a perfect way to start this blog. One- because the Guggenheim Museum was the first stop on my trip last weekend, and two- because I think it is incredible true. Venice was absolutely beautiful. I went once before for Carnival, but that was a whole different experience. I did not really see the beauty of the city, I saw more of the beauty of the costumes and the culture. Both great, but I liked this trip much better. It is a different kind of beautiful in Venice- different than the beautiful scenery I saw when I went on the wine tasting. So it is hard for me to say that this is the most beautiful place I have been because they are so different, but defiantly one of my favorites! We had the perfect weekend to be on the water. There was not one cloud in the sky- my pale skin was just soaking up all the sun! I got a little sun burn on my face but I did not even mind because it was so nice to just sit next to the water and just soak up the sun!

Anyway- I went on this trip with my school so there was a big group of us which was really fun. Our first stop (like I said) was at the Guggenheim Museum. Its really interesting because it was Peggy Guggenheim's home and her personal collection of art. It is also where she and her many dogs are buried. I learned that before she passed away she made rules for her home and the collection and that the collection must always stay there in Venice and always together- it must never be separated. And the only time it can be taken out of Venice is when it sinks (because Venice is sinking, they call it the next Atlantis). When this happens, it will move to Rome.

This kind of art was a lot different than the art I have been seeing around Italy, the abstract/more modern art I would say? Where it is more about the artists feelings and what you interpret that piece to be than an actual known subject of the piece. It was hard for me to see/ understand most of the art there haha but it was still a very interesting thought that other people do see deeper into squiggles, circles, and squares all together and different colors… Maybe one day I will understand!
Here are a few pieces that I liked the most.

This one was interesting to me because it is one that I understood. It is a person in a bike race and it is transparent to represent how fast he is moving.

This is one that I had the most trouble with. Apparently… this is a picture of a dancer? With her leg kicked up? I don't see it but I think the colors are really pretty and it is really cool how it almost jumps out at you because they painted on the frame as well.

This was probably my favorite out of all of them, it is an impossible picture because it is night and day at the same time.. and the house does not have any doors so it makes you feel like it would be impossible to actually enter the house. I also really like it because this kinda reminded me of the my cottage in PA:) It might just remind me of there because I can not wait to get there this summer!!

Anyway… back to Venice:)

After that, we had a free evening and we had dinner along the water and went for a long walk. This takes me to why the title of this post is "Wonderfully Lost In Venice"- you can get lost there very easily- I mean the streets are pretty much alleyways with stores and apartments and they open up to big Piazzas and then lead to bridges that go over water, which is the main way the people that live and work there get around besides walking. It is beautiful but you do get lost very easily. Wonderfully Lost:)

Saturday we started our day with a visit of Palazzo Ducale. Very interesting and big! It was where Venice political offices were. There were huge murals on the walls and decorations on the ceilings, I would have loved to see it when it was actually being used because the rooms are all just empty now.

This mailbox was funny to me:) People use to write letters tattletaling on others when they've done something wrong and then the worker would read them and then send for the people that the letter is written for and they would be punished and put in the jail cell  that is this next picture.

Next we went on a tour of  the Basilica of San Marco. This Basilica was very different from the others that I have seen, it was very dark and had mosaic art work instead of the normal murals. Mosaic art is made by tiny pieces of colored glass that is about the size of teeth and they place them one by one to make the art work. This is one!

We got to go up to the top and take pictures from the balcony:)

After this, we had the rest of the day free, we went and sat next to the water for a few hours talking and just enjoying the sun and the view before we had dinner and headed back to the hotel. Oh yeah! and a Gondola ride:)

Sunday we went to the Church of I Frari and Scuola di San Rosso, we weren't allowed to take pictures unfortunately because the paintings here were really amazing!

Then we went to the Accademia and that was really amazing too, these paintings were the ones I have gotten use to seeing here in Italy!

We got some gelato and then headed back to Florence.

Until next time Venice :)

Aside from my trip to Venice, some other things happened this past week!

- There was a 4.2 magnitude earthquake that woke me up around 1am! I had no idea what happened, it sounded like a big crash and my entire apartment shook! Found out the next morning that it was an earthquake! I was actually excited I got to feel one haha

-I took a tour through the Gucci Museum. Seeing the dresses that celebrities wore was probably my favorite part.. I was kind of annoyed that there was a clothing trunk that costs more than the Gucci  Cadillac car that was in there… CRAZY!

-I went to a piano concert last week that was apart of the lecture series that is going on through this semester for my school. It was really interesting, they linked extreme sports and piano music- like how you need timing for both and breathing/concentration is an important part of both. Then they would play a few pieces of music, it was very nice.

-A few friends have been going to a trivia night just about every Tuesday, a travel company puts them on and if you win you can win a trip and a few other prizes. Our team name is Trivia Newton- John:)  But last night we WON! Finally!! We have been sooo close the past few times so its about time we won! I am not sure where we are going yet, but it is very exciting :)

Spring break is coming up next weekend and I am headed to Madrid, Spain! I will be able to get the Sal de Ibiza for you, Aunt Laura!! 

Well, that is all for now:)

Ciao Ragazzi!

Eiffel In Love With Paris

How bad is it that I actually did not want to come back to Italy after this weekend? Ha!

Paris was amazing!! I had so much fun in that huge city with my friends, I wish I could have stayed longer. We got to do everything that was on our list, but it was not everything Paris had to offer, thats for sure. We were all still in Italian mode- I don't even know how many times I accidentally said "graze" or "ciao" to someone.. it probably would have been better for me just to say "thank you" or "hello" rather than anything in Italian… But it was a very different experience!

Our trip started at 3:40am on Friday when we had to jump on a bus to the Pisa airport that took about an hour and then boarded our flight at 6:45am to Paris. When we landed, we had to take another hour long bus ride to get to the city from the airport we landed it. We were exhausted, but way excited to even try to sleep.  The bus dropped us off near a metro entrance and we were able to navigate ourselves to our hostel.. we were not very confident about where we were going or how any of it worked but we made it just fine! I was really proud of all of us, we did not get lost at all during this trip , and the route we decided to take to places was the one that got us to our destination! We did very well for not having any clue what to do!

Our hostel was pretty nice, luckily we did not have to share a room with anyone else, it was just us 4 in the room. They also had free breakfast! I am all about free these days :)

After checking in there, we found ourselves at Chipotle… I know, I know- I was in Paris, France and ate Chipotle… but I've really been craving it and it sounded SO good after all that traveling! It was different than the ones at home, but still delicious. This held me over till the next morning, I did not even need to eat dinner!

After we were done we walked around and decided to find The Louvre. We just walked and walked straight and luckily stumbled upon it!! It was so cool:) I took the typical touristy picture and we went inside. It was free for students to tour it which was nice. There were so many paths to take, like if you wanted to see Roman things you went to the left or Greek things you went to the right and there was SO much, it was huge! We took the path that lead you to the Mona Lisa, there were signs pointing which way to go to get to her, so it was almost like a maze! Along the way there was a lot of beautiful art, the style of these pieces were a lot different from what I have been seeing around Italy.

We had such good luck while we were there, it was not crowded at all and we were able to get right up to the Mona Lisa to take pictures! I've heard that that is not very normal and that it is usually really packed in that room. Its crazy to think that something I have seen in movies and books all my life was right in front of me!

We were there for a good hour or so and did not even see half of all the stuff that was in there, but we decided to leave and go see a movie! (We needed something relaxing to do so we found an American theater). The movie ended and we walked around for a while and stopped in some shops and then called it a night. As soon as my head hit my pillow I was out!

On Saturday morning, we had breakfast and then started our day with a trip to the Eiffel Tower! It was awesome! We paid to walk up to the first 2 levels and it was really high up, it made me a little nervous but it was so worth it when we got up there! The view was great, you saw the huge city and far in to the distance. We didn't go all the way to the top, though, because 1- it cost more, and 2- we had all we needed to see from those levels:)

Next we stopped for lunch, I had some hot chocolate and a crepe! After that, we made our way to Notre Dame.We went in and it was beautiful, there were huge chandeliers and stained glass windows, really beautiful. I am so happy that we waited in the line to go in there.

We continued walking and found ourselves at the love lock bridge! I was so surprised to see that it was uncovered, I heard that they covered it so no more locks would be put on because it was getting too heavy and that they are going to be cut off soon.

After that we went to the Palace of Versailles, and made it all the way there to find out it was not open and we were not allowed to go in, but it was still cool to see from the outside.. I really wish we were able to go in.

We headed back to the Eiffel Tower so we could see it all lit up, and it was well worth it! It was a totally different sight to see at night than when we saw it during the day!

Next we went to dinner at a pretty nice place, and I made up for eating Chipotle and I decided to try Escargot…. I didn't know how to eat it, so the waitress had to help me get it out of the shell and stuff haha! and then I ate it and the best way to describe it was slimy and salty… but it did not taste bad, it was covered in this garlic sauce and so I tasted that, but it was just weird that I ate snail.. It was good, but I am content never to have it again in my life:) We also got macaroons! They were gelato macaroons.. SO good!

Sunday morning we had breakfast and then left the hostel to start our travels back to Florence. I was not ready to leave! Paris is somewhere I do plan to travel back to, such an amazing and big city- I want more!!

Roaming around Rome:)

Being honest: history was not my favorite subject through school.. I was never one to think of Roman Achievement as interesting let alone have to get tested on it.. But being in a place where so much of that history took place/ existed might have been one of the things I thought about most during this weekend in Rome. That I was standing where history was made and I saw these things that I've only seen pictures or read about, and they are right in front of me. I have really gained a new appreciation for history and art and a want to know more.

To say the least, my weekend was amazing! I did not know what to expect, but it was very interesting and a lot of fun:)

On day 1, we took a train early in the morning and arrived in Rome and went straight to our hotel. After we checked in and everything we started on a walking tour, the Roman Achievement teacher here at Kent was our tour guide so it was like a class.. but better because everything we were learning about was right in front of us! Our first stop was the Pantheon.

This was originally a temple, which means people would pray to it and not go in it, it was a house for the Gods. Which is crazy, they build this huge building to just stay outside of it.. Now you are allowed inside, of course, and there are a few tombs  and sculptures but I think the most amazing thing is the open Dome. They explained the architecture to us and how to this day they have no idea how they figured out how to make this open dome without it giving in to gravity.. I don't remember all the specifics though, but what is amazing about it is that it is open to all the elements, it will rain in there and everything!

Next our walking tour took us to the Colosseum.. It was really amazing! In the arena area, the floor was taken out of half of it so you could see underneath. There were rooms and things and that is where they would keep the animals and the gladiators got ready.

Next we went to the Roman Forum.. I walked where Julius Cesar once walked.. If I remember correctly, this was a just like a central area back then, so there were temples and trading areas all around. It doesn't look like much now, but a lot happened in this area.

Day 2- We started at the Vatican Museums, its really cool to think that they are their own country- they have their own postal service and police ! I would have liked to walk around the area more but we were just allowed in the museums. There was so much to see here, a lot of great art and sculptures. One of my favorite things to see were the maps that they painted, they looked like an arial view picture and they were just painted! 

Vatican Entrance

Courtyard in the Vatican

The pinecone!

This sculpture is depicting the ruler of Troy trying to warn his city that it was going to be destroyed but can not get there to tell them.

From here we walked in to the Sistine Chapel, we were not allowed to take pictures unfortunately, and we were not allowed to talk when we were in there. There were guards that walked around watching for pictures and yelling at people who were talking.. yes yelling.. totally defeating the purpose of being silent in respect.. but anyways! It was really amazing, it took Michelangelo 4 years to finish paining the ceiling. You could tell how tired he got because on the side he started on, there are a lot of people and they are very detailed and there is a lot going on. He started complaining of his back hurting and that he was going blind from leaning back and painting for such a long time. By the last sections, you can tell he was just wanting to get it done because the figures were bigger and there were big brush strokes. We were told that when they were cleaning it, they found paint bristles stuck in the paint from him brushing so hard and fast. You could stare at this for hours and still not see every detail!

Then, my favorite part, St. Peters Basilica!

This place was HUGE! I did not expect it to be as big as it was on the inside.. there were separate areas facing an altar that could be the size of their own church.. it was so cool!

Just to put in to perspective of how big this place was.. The sculpture in the lower right is 10ft tall.. and the lettering you see in the gold that is lining the ceiling is 7ft tall.. I say it again.. HUGE!

We had the afternoon to ourselves so what else is there to do when in Rome than to find the Steelers bar!

Day 3- We did what was called a Baroque walking tour with one of our professors, it was just like sight seeing, we walked around and ended up at the Trevi Fountian, unfortunately for us it was being cleaned so it was empty and there was scaffolding all around it. But it was still fun to see, and they made a little pool with a picture of the middle sculpture so you could still make your wishes:) 

Then we walked to the Central Park of Rome, a huge park! That led to the Galleria Borghese, it was a great museum. Filled with so many sculptures and paintings, really really beautiful. This building with all the art (back then) was a place for entertainment. I think it was the Pope that owned this and he would invite you there to admire all of the art and the sculptures. Now it is a museum! 

I had to keep in mind the whole time that the sculptures that we were seeing are rock. They were a piece of marble or something and transformed in to these AMAZING sculptures. The detail in these and how the are so life like is incredible to me.. like it is a chunk of ROCK?!?

Look at his hand grabbing her thigh and her side, it looks like you could touch it and it would feel like flesh and be able to push in to it but you can't.. It is rock.. You can't see in this picture but her hand is on his face as if she were pushing him and it shows the skin around his eye wrinkled like it was actually skin and could be pushed..

 Every room with a sculpture had a story to go along with it painted on the ceiling, so these two go together. Again, you don't see it in the picture I took but the cloth around him looks as though he is running and it is flowing behind him.. rock...

David in action sculpture.

This painting was so interesting to me because only 3 colors were used to paint this, red, black and white. But there seem to be so many more like his skin color, the brown for the table, his hair, beard and the yellowish for the skull. So amazing!

After this we took the train back to Florence, I was pretty exhausted and ended up falling asleep around 9pm and did not wake up again until 9am! 

This weekend I am going to Paris!! So I will post again soon:)

Un Abbraccio!