Excursion 1: Florence

~CLICK ANY OF THE PICTURES TO SEE THE FULL SIZE VERSION~

Before I talk about Florence, here's a little about my week leading up to the trip (and food). On Thursday night almost everybody in the program went out together to eat a four course Bolognese meal at an osteria.


Antipasti: Affettato Misto (a variety of cured meat slices) and pane (bread)
Primo Piatto: Lasagna Verdi (green lasagna or spinach Lasagna, pictured below)
Secondo Piatto: Maiale Arrosto (Roasted Pig)
Dolce: Tiramisu


Needless to say, it was absolutely delicious. As I was looking at the word Tiramisu on the menu, I realized for the first time that the word has a literal meaning in a Italian. Tirare (pull), mi (me), su (up), literally pull me up or pick me up. I was a little confused as to what this was referring to until I took my first bit of authentic Italian Tiramisu. It was like an espresso in dessert form. Aunt Beth - to answer your question as to whether it's better here or in the United States: definitely here.

On Saturday morning I checked out of Hotel Holiday and ate my last breakfast there. Before I came to Italy, I was really curious to what Italians ate for breakfast. This is a picture of the breakfast that they offered at the hotel. I really miss pancakes, eggs, and cold milk for my cereal, but I really enjoy the blood orange juice, the fresh bread, the variety of good cheeses, and nutella.


So...Florence. Over the weekend, me and 3 other BCSP students - Josh, Brandon, and Lorena - decided to go to Florence. We wanted to see the city before it was flooded with tourists in the spring and summer. Friday night we booked a hostel for only 13 euro a person. On Saturday morning we headed to the train station and took the high speed train (24 euro) which ended up being a 37 minute ride. In retrospect, taking the high speed train was completely unnecessary, but we were really excited to get there as early as possible, so we spent the extra money.

When we got off the train, the city seemed almost exactly like Bologna; however, as we walked toward the centro storico, I started noticing the differences. The most obvious thing was the weather. It was much warmer in Florence than in Bologna and there was sunshine (The sun doesn't show it's face very often in Bologna). The second thing I noticed was that the sidewalks were very narrow. In Bologna there are porticoes, which make the sidewalks 10 to 12 feet wide and protected from the rain/snow. Apparently, this is a very unique feature to Bologna, and I missed it very much as we walked around the city. The first picture below (taken during our walking tour around Bologna) shows how houses were built in Bologna, that is, with the top floors over hanging the lower ones and being supported by wooden beams. The second picture is of me and my classmates walking to school on the first day of classes - but it also happens to show some porticoes (pillars) on the left hand side, which resulted from the top floors becoming too large to be supported by wooden beams.

The last big difference that I noticed was that there were almost no Italians in the centro storico (more on this later). By the time we left we had probably seen more Americans than Italians. The bars and restaurants were filled with American students and tourists. It almost felt like an American city inside of Italy.

Anyway, as we walked down the narrow sidewalks toward the city center, the famous Duomo di Firenze came into sight - and I have to admit, it was very disappointing. This is my first view of il Duomo.

But as we walked toward it, I realized how far away we were. It just kept getting taller and taller, and as I rounded the corner and the entire Duomo was revealed I got goosebumps. It was absolutely breathtaking. I looked around at my friends and noticed that there mouths were open and their eyes were wide, and then I realized that my jaw had also dropped. I closed my mouth and snapped the photo below.

Afterwords, we saw most of the tourist attractions around the city, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures of most of my favorites. You'll just have to take my word for it Il David (Michelangelo's David), Santa Croce (The final resting place of Dante, Michelangelo, Raffaello, Galileo, Marconi, and Fermi among others), and the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) were all stunning. The first picture below is Santa Croce and the second is the view from Ponte Vecchio. Lorena has family in Firenze, has been there before, and knew a lot about art history, so we had our own personal tour guide through the city.

Next we climbed the Duomo's tower. Here are a couple of pictures I took of the view of Florence from it's tallest building.


The last thing we wanted to see was Piazzella Michelangelo. So, we bought some Tuscan wine (sorry mom) and took a bus to the original resting place of il David to sit, drink some good wine, eat some Lion Bars (Twix bars on steroids), and watch the sunset. It was bellissima (very, very beautiful) and my favorite part of the trip. Here are some pictures I took.


Then we walked back to town and ate a full meal at a nice trattoria (restaurants that generally serve high quality and high priced food), and then hung out in the bars until late. We stayed at a hostel (13 euro / person). On Sunday we walked around the outdoor market, saw a few of the smaller attractions that we missed on the first day, and caught the long train back to Bologna (only 5.40 euro!). Overall it had been an exhilarating and expensive trip. Below is me in front of the Duomo right before we left Florence - it almost seems like I'm standing in front of a green screen.


On the long train ride home, I came to realize that I like being in Bologna much better than Firenze (Florence). I can't argue that Firenze is incredibly gorgeous and the weather is much better than Bologna, but these things already seem superficial after being in the city for just two days. What I didn't like about the city was the atmosphere. Most everybody is a tourist, and almost all the Italians are there to cater to tourists. Prices are sky high, and nothing feels authentic. Everybody speaks almost perfect English! I'm really glad that I visited Firenze because of the breathtaking beauty, but all things considered, two days in Firenze was enough for me.

I'll also post some of my other favorite pics from the trip:

The outdoor market where they sell the good Firenze is famous for: seta (silk ties, scarfs, etc) and pelle (leather belts, wallets, purses, jackets, etc.).

Lorena and Josh at a Gelateria.

Brandon in the cloister of Chiesa della Santa Maria Novella.

And finally, a shoe being sold in the centro storico for 120 euro (almost 200 dollars), full adult size, with a storm tropper on it. They also come with Darth Vadar, Luke Skywalker, or Princess Leah.

Hope you enjoyed the post. A dopo!!

Appartment Hunting: Part 2

Before Saturday, I had visited maybe 8 apartments around Bologna, and I couldn't see myself living in any of them. With some of them there were glaring problems. The first one I visited had five chain smokers living there, another had one bathroom for 6 people, and another had a kitchen that was literally 6 ft. by 3 ft (just enough room for one person to slide between appliances). For others, there were other, smaller problems like the price, the camparra (deposit - usually two months rent), timing (could only rent for 12 months, etc.), or the roommates didn't seem friendly to people who couldn't speak Italian well. So before I made my visits on Saturday I made a list of conditions that the apartment had to meet before I would accept.

(In case you can't read it)
1. Friendly Italian roommates
2. < 320 Euros/Month
3. Live with Students
4. No smokers
5. Close to campus
6. Don't have to find my own replacement to get my camparra back

On Saturday, my first meeting was canceled, my second had mostly Spanish roommates, and my third meeting was close to what I wanted, but I needed to find a replacement before I left. So by the time I was on my way to the last meeting, I was feeling very discouraged. Luckily the last apartment I saw was awesome. I was met at the door by five Italians and they made us (my roommates at the hotel and I) feel right at home. They gave me a quick tour and gave us all drinks. I knew right away that this was the right place for me and I took the posto letto (literally bed spot, a place in a double room) on the spot. The only one of my conditions that my apartment didn't meet was that it was close to campus - but my roommates were so friendly that it was worth the concession. Below is the flyer where I found the contact info for the apartment.

Afterwords, I went to Osteria d'Orsa to celebrate finding an apartment. An Osteria is a traditional Italian Restaurant where you can find authentic Italian food (I don't think there's a good translation into english). I tried four different kinds of bruschetta (none were as good as my mom's), and spinace and ricotta cheese stuffed ravioli with sugo di parmigiano. Below is a picture of my hotel roommates Jesse (left) and Brandon (Right) from University of Minnesota. The second picture is me finishing the last bite of pasta.


On Sunday I payed the camparra (deposit). I only meant to stay for five minutes or so, but I ended up eating cake, tea, and watching the second half of Rambo in Italian. As I left, I took some pictures of the outside of my new apartment and the street that it is on. The first picture is my apartment's facade, the second is some typical buildings on my street Via Delle Lame, and last is the old church one passo (block) away.


There is almost no green in the centro storico, so having a park close to my apartment is a real bonus. I walked through it on Sunday and discovered that it is actually a memorial to September 11th.

For some reason this was very surprising and strangely flattering. Here are some more pictures of the park, which I have been told is bellissimo (very beautiful) in the spring and summer, but a bit downtrodden during the winter. There's a somewhat creepy merry-go-round as well.


One more random thing about Bologna is that there is graffiti everywhere -surprising because they never show graffiti in pictures of Bologna. When I think of European (especially Italian) cities, graffiti doesn't come to mind at all, yet it covers almost every wall in the centro storico. Here are two of my favorites.

That's all I have for now! I think my next post will be about my apartment (the inside) and my roommates.

Ci vediamo dopo!

Apartment Hunting: Part 1

Ciao!

An important part of the Bologna Consortial Studies Program (BCSP) is that each student must find his or her own apartment in Bologna upon arrival. The only requirement is that the apartment be with at least two Italian roommates. Since this is kind of a unique feature of my program, I thought I would write a Blog post centered around the beginnings of my apartment search.

At our housing search orientation, our program coordinators suggested two methods for finding an apartment. The first is by using the internet. There are multiple online search sites for apartments in Bologna, like kijiji, the Italian version of eBay, or EasyStanza (Easy Room). There is also a housing webite run by the University of Bologna called Bussola (compass) that has a couple housing ads. I have had some success on these websites, but without being a membro avanzato (paying member) it can be very difficult to obtain contact information.

The second method, which is much more entertaining, is to walk around the streets of Bologna's centro storico (historical center) and find annunci (flyers that advertize appartments) that are posted around the city. One of the best places to find annunci is on the bright blue and green garbage and recycling dumpsters on Via Zamboni, the Green Street of l'Universita' di Bologna. When I find a flyer that seems interesting, I take a picture of it with a close up of the contact information. Below are some examples of pictures I have taken around the city so far.




The coolest part about walking around the city with no particular destination in mind, is that I have stumbled across some really awesome parts of Bologna. Once, while I was walking around near the University's Street Via Zamboni, I found a vicoli (short, narrow street - too narrow for cars) with some awesome fresh food shops. Here, hundreds of people were doing their daily grocery shopping for fresh produce, meat, cheese, bread, and fish. Most people buy only the food they are going to cook that same day, so grocery shopping becomes a daily social routine. The day I was walking around it was raining and, as the bellhop at the hotel told me, about as cold as it ever gets in Bologna. Here are some of the pictures I took while walking down the vicoli.




Anyway, back to apartment hunting. After finding the contact information for the Italians that own an apartment that I'm interested in, the next step is to actually call. My first call was easily the most nerve wracking call I have ever made. It was easily 10 times harder than calling a girl to ask her to a dance. The "conversation," consisted of me stumbling over some familiar Italian phrases, listening to Cosimo speak Italian at the speed of light, and me saying va bene (sounds good/works for me/it's going well) many times even though I had no clue what he was saying. By the time the longest 3 minutes of my life was over, I was shaking and I think I tasted adrenaline in my mouth for the first time. Since then (for the most part), my phone calls have been significantly better than that thanks to phrases such as "Lei puo' parlare piu lentamente per favore?" (Will you please speak much slower?). I wish I had a picture of my face after my first phone call.

SIDE BAR
At our health and safety orientation, a Bolognese police officer told us that possessing small amounts of drugs like l'erba (literally grass), cocaine (cocaine), etc. is fine as long as when you're using it, you don't disturb anybody else. Only selling drugs is illegal in Bologna. Now look at my mom's face and that's probably pretty similar to my face after my first phone call (Don't worry, mom, I always say no to drugs)

Though I haven't talked to a huge number of Italian people, I have found that a majority are amazingly patient with people that don't speak Italian very well, which has made me considerably less nervous over the past couple days. In fact, their general attitude toward Americans is great! On Tuesday night, we needed directions to a bar across town at 2:30 in the morning. Aurelio, the complete stranger that we asked, spent half an hour finding out where the bar was, drawing us a map, and taking us a few blocks in the right direction. As we left he shook our hands and kissed both our cheeks! I can't help but think that people are rarely this kind in the U.S. Here is the map Aurelio drew for us.


When the call is over (if I have been successful), I have an appuntamento (appointment) with the owner of the apartment. These appuntamenti are great for helping me learn my way around the city, as well as gaining the confidence needed to speak to Italians. It may be hard to believe, but the apartment visits are much less nerve wracking then the telephone calls. The host usually invites me in to the apartment and gives me a quick tour of the home. Then they tell me about each of the people that lives there as we make our way to the kitchen, where they unfailingly ask if I am hungry or thirsty (which of course I always am).

SIDE BAR (no pun intended)
I had never had coffee in my entire life before coming to Italy. My first experience with coffee, though, was at an apartment visit, where I tried an espresso. I thought that it would be easy to drink because it was so small, but for such a small drink, an espresso really packs a powerful punch, especially for someone who isn't used to caffeine. Pictured is the drink that doubled my heart rate for at least an hour.



And.... back to apartment hunting. Over a coffee or hot chocolate I can ask all the questions I have, and answer their questions as well. It almost has the feel of a job interview because not only do I have to choose their apartment, they have to choose me as their future roommate as well. So far I haven't had any luck in finding a good apartment, but I have 4 appuntamenti today, so wish me luck!

If anyone has anything Italian that they are interested in hearing about, or would like me to write about, either comment on the blog or shoot me an email. Let me know what interests you!

Ci Vediamo dopo! (See ya later!)

Benvenuto in Italia!

On Saturday I had finished saying goodbye to all my friends, and I was almost ready to go. The last thing I needed to do was finish packing. Despite my goal of packing lightly, everything I wanted to take still filled up my entire dining room table.


By Sunday (through some minor miracle), I had everything I would take for the next five months in just a suitcase, a duffel bag, and a backpack. I was finally ready to go.



Theoretical Travel Itinerary:
Sunday
12:40pm - arrive at O'Hare Airport
3:40pm - depart Chicago, sleep on the plane
Monday
7:15am (12:15am CT) - arrive in Frankfurt, Germany
8:40am - depart Frankfurt
10:00am - arrive in Bologna, taxi to Hotel Holiday
10:30am - Check-In to Hotel Holiday

Experimental Travel Itinerary:
Sunday
12:40pm - arrive at O'Hare Airport
3:25pm - discover 47H is the seat directly in front of the shrieking baby
3:40pm - depart Chicago
3:50pm - discover that my in-flight entertainment system "cannot load necessary fonts," so I can't watch any movies, tv shows, or listen to the radio. I can however get live plane altitude, ground speed, outside temperature, and ETA.
7:00pm - baby stops crying, I start a slow clap, no-one joins
8:00pm - baby resumes crying
Monday
8:25am (1:25am Central Time) - arrive in Frankfurt.
8:26 to 8:38am - mad sprint through Frankfurt's Airport and Customs
8:40 - seated on plane to Bologna (barely)
8:40-9:40 - de-ice plane
10:40 - arrive in Bologna!
"Quasi le undici" - ask an Italian dude what time it is in Italian, celebrate first successful use of Italian
11:40 - everyone left in the baggage claim realizes the airport lost our luggage
11:45 - finish 20th in the race to the lost luggage line
2:45 - after 3 hours (!!!!) of waiting, I struggle through filing a claim for a lost bag in Italian.
3:00 - get in a taxi to Hotel Holiday. Attempt to start a conversation in Italian, no response.
3:00-3:15 - almost killed in a car accident at least three times during taxi ride
3:15 - Check-In Hotel Holiday

I was hungry, tired, and in a terrible mood as I walked up to the table where my study abroad program coordinator sat. "Benvenuto in Italia!" (Welcome to Italy), she said when I sat down. I had been waiting to hear those words for a long time, and when I finally did, I remembered that I had nothing to complain about. I had made it to Bologna more or less on time, and I was about to have the the time of my life. I wasn't so tired anymore, so I spent the rest of the day eating pizza, meeting the other American Students, and exploring Bologna with them. When I finally went to bed at 8 (after being awake for 29 hours) my mind was at ease. This first picture is the view from my hotel room, and the second is my first glimpse of Chiesa di San Petrino (Saint Peter's Church) in the Piazza Maggiore, the main square in Bologna.