going retro: thursday top ten refigured.

I don't actually know if it's entirely possible to "go retro" on a blog that is less than three months old, but we're going to pretend that it is. In the spirit of going retro, I'm bringing back Thursday Top Ten in a whole new way...

Ten European Cities Have I Loved

We're going to look back at all the traveling I have done thus far in the semester, and then look ahead at what is still to come....ooooooh.

[These are in no particular order. Except maybe the order that they are stored in my Pictures folder.]

1. Verona. My roommates and I set off on a slightly impetuous overnight journey to the home of Shakespeare's starcrossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. We had an excellent dinner at a kitschy restaurant called Al Bracere before spending most of the next day walking around, eating crepes and gelato, before deciding we'd seen enough and heading home.

Verdict: The city itself is cute enough, and way more...developed than I had been expecting. I really enjoyed the sights of the city, including the above-pictured Roman amphitheater, Juliet's house, and the Piazza delle Erbe, where we of course stopped to sample some fruit from the local market, but I felt like the city itself was too small to warrant any long amount of time being spent there.

2. Roma! API took us to Rome the last weekend in February, where we spent 3 days touring ancient Roman ruins, drinking espresso, sampling the local cuisine, and 1 memorable night drinking at a bar appropriately named...Sloppy Sam's. How perfect.

Verdict: I liked Rome more than I thought I would. It was way more urban than I expected, but somehow still less dirty and toursity than I'd been led to believe. It did, however, solidify my certainty that studying in Florence was the right choice for me.

3. Amsterdam. I actually just blogged about this a few days ago, so I don't think you need much of a recap here. I mostly spent my days wandering the city and eating Vlamese french fries (no mayo, thanks), while trying to avoid being hit by bicycles. Oh, and I also ran into my childhood friend who I hadn't seen for probably 7 years here.

Verdict: I would love to go back to Amsterdam with some of my closer friends to hit all the sights that I missed the first time around. While the city is gorgeous, I don't think I met more than five legitimate Dutch people the whole time I was there. That's how touristy it is.


4. Bologna. Another recent adventure to the city historically known as Italy as la grassa, which literally means "The Fat." I think you can draw your own conclusions about the typical cuisine of Bologna from that nickname. I spent one day in one of Italy's gastronomic capitals, hopping from restaurant to restaurant, waiting to be wowed.



Verdict: I was a bit underwhelmed by Bologna, to be quite honest. I expected...more somehow, in all areas. More history. More cool buildings. More good food. I think that if we had asked API for some restaurant recommendations we might have done a little better. And a tour guide. That would have been nice.



5. Belfast. [Hey, these are kind of almost alphabetic!] The second stop in my spring break was Northern Ireland's teensy little capital city, where I enjoyed a homemade Irish breakfast and pints at what seemed like every pub in the city with my dear friend, Jenny (pictured above).



Verdict: The smaller-town feel of Belfast was exactly what I needed after a hectic three days in Dublin, but I definitely think that 2 days is all that you need for this city. If I'd stayed any longer, I might have gotten bored.



6. London! I spent three days with one of my best friends from high school, Jessica, while she showed me all of the things I missed on my first touristy whirlwind visit to the city last spring. We drank a ton of coffee, ate lots of cookies, met an army of swans, and then suffered the consequences of one pint too many in Kingston.



Verdict: This was the best part of my spring break. I think I could travel to London a million times and never be bored, and not just because the company is fantastic. There is just something about that cold, drizzly city that gets me every time. And after discovering both Ben's Cookies and Borough Market this past visit, it's a sure bet that I'll return eventually. Or at least have Jess ship me some cookies.


7. Innsbruck. Mary and I took an overnight train to this quaint Austrian town in early March, where we experienced some um...Austrian hospitality along with a lot of museum tours, thanks to the snow, which kept us mostly indoors.



Verdict: I loved this little town! The views of the Alps were absolutely stunning, and I found most of the museums to be incredibly interesting. Of course, being Floridian, I was impressed by the snow at first, but later regretted ever celebrating its presence.

8. Dublin. My spring break started with 3 crazy days in the Irish capital and let me tell you, they do not share the Italian stance on drinking. It is accepted, promoted, and expected that people will get drunk. At 5 PM. Every day of the week.

Verdict: I definitely didn't get to see as much of the cultural aspect of the city that I liked. This was probably due to the people who I was traveling with who had...shall we say...different interests and expectations of our trip. Nevertheless, I drank enough Guiness to make an Irishman proud, and enough Irish car bombs to make the politically correct blush.

9. Venice. Another API sponsored excursion. We were all thrilled for this trip, which took place during the famous Carnevale. However, upon arrival, it immediately became clear that partying in Venice for Carnevale is much better in theory than in actual practice. All of that quiet melancholy, the beautiful canals, the fantastic culture...it all disappeared in one giant, glittery and insanity-inducing weekend.

Verdict: The food was underwhelming (and horribly overpriced). To say that the streets were crowded would be a criminal understatement. We didn't get enough time in either Murano or Burano. Honestly, this weekend was kind of a disaster, saved only by the quiet Sunday afternoon I spent searching out espresso and gelato with my roommates, when we finally managed to escape the mad crowd.

10. San Gimignano. This quaint Tuscan town is situated south of Florence, in the hills associated with some of Italy's finest and most popular wines. We went for an afternoon of fun and to enjoy the medeival scenery, but mostly because we had heard that the world championship gelateria was located there...and we couldn't resist.

Verdict: The fact that the gelateria we specifically went for definitely put a dent in my assessment of this city. However, it was redeemed by some delicious and cheap wine, handpainted goods, and fabulous scenery. San Gimignano, we will be back for that gelato. Just you wait.

It's kind of nuts that we have only been to 10 cities so far (well, plus Pisa, but that hardly counts). Of course, it seems like this next month and a half is more travel-heavy than the previous two have been. Before May 25, I will be travelling to:

Lucca

Cinque Terre

Perugia

Siena

Livorno

Barcelona

Viareggio

Rome (again)

Pompei

The Amalfi Coast

And, as of today, Alicante (Spain)

Holy crap. This means that by the time I have left Europe, I will have been to at least 23 different cities in 6 different countries. I'd say my life is pretty freakin' awesome.

The Lucca trip is actually scheduled to take place this Saturday! The city iself is located only about an hour from Florence. We will travel there with API for an olive oil tasting (yummy) before being set free to explore the city ourselves for awhile. When we return, we will actually be heading almost straight to the Fiorentina soccer game. The next morning, two of my roommates and I will be going to Cinque Terre for the day with a local student travel agency called Florence for Fun. Cinque Terre is largely recognized as one of the most beautiful places in Italy (if not on Earth). It is a series of 5 towns, situated on what I believe are a few separate islands, and we will be hiking through all of time. Wish us luck.

mario and sergio: the men in my life.

I'm too tired (and my internet is moving too slowly) to upload all of the pics necessary to portray my London adventures to you, but I will tell you a bit about my day today and my weekend plans....

I got up early for class this morning, but I didn't have history this afternoon, so I got to come home early. When Gillian and Sam woke up, we all headed out together to run a few errands.

First on the list...

Looking at adorable bunnies of course! With Easter coming up on Sunday, it certainly seemed appropriate. We actually checked out the bunnies while we were waiting for an available spot at...

Trattoria Mario.

API had recommended this spot to us in the handbook they gave us at orientation, but we never got around to trying it until today. BIG MISTAKE. It is such a great little typical Italian joint. It was totally packed. We had to wait around 30-40 minutes for 3 of us to be seated. We were given a 4-person table, then, in true Italian style, they seated a random stranger at our table with us after we'd begun eating. Fortunately, he was a pretty cool guy.

The restaurant itself is really tiny, and there are two longer tables, cafeteria style, then several smaller 4-person tables in the back, all crammed together. The menu is handwritten up at the front, along with a bunch of other signs such as one that said Vietato chiedere ketch up!!! (It is forbidden to order ketchup) and others commenting on the fact that they do not use a freezer (everything is totally fresh!) and that their stock is not made with bouillon cubes, but actually chicken and vegetables.

Sam and I ordered minestra di riso e fagioli (rice and bean soup) while Gillian had the ribollita (typical Tuscan cabbage soup with bread). Everything was delicious and we walked out paying only around 6 euro each. Quite cheap for a true Italian experience. We plan to become regulars
there, and I think that Gillian and I have officially become Sergio's regulars as well. That is our usual Wednesday lunch spot, where they gave us extra bread for free this week. That sort of favor is how you know that you are in with the restaurant. Go us!

After lunch, I had wanted to go to a park or something to enjoy the weather...which had rapidly disintegrated during lunch into an all-out storm. Boo! So we came home and played with KinderEgg toys.

The boats that you get in the eggs do not float, FYI.

(P.S. Orange and blue!!)

Later in the evening, I got really adventurous and decided to recreate something we made in my cooking class last night, since I wasn't in the actual group that made it. It is a pasta dish called spaghetti alla'amantricia. I used whole wheat spaghetti and made the sauce from a base of olive oil and pancetta, which is a streaky and flavorful Italian bacon, along with garlic and tomatoes that had been chopped and peeled. At the end, of course, I doused it with a good handful of freshly grated Parmaggiano-Reggiano cheese. I was quite impressed with myself, and there was even enough for Sam and Gillian to try it and declare me a master chef (okay, maybe they didn't go that far, but it was definitely good!).

In the midst of preparation. I forgot take a shot of the final product because it smelled so good and I was starving!

This weekend is going to be simultaneously relaxing and busy. Tomorrow, I'm hoping I'll get to do what I had planned for the day: go to the Cascine Park to read my book. However, it looks like the weather may not cooperate, so my backup plan is to head to the Uffizi museum, which I still have not visited...whoops.

Saturday, Gillian and I have a full day trip to Bologna planned. Because the trains are so odd with their timing and cost, it is cheapest for us to catch an early 8:30 AM train and then stay until around 8 PM at night, so we will be eating two meals there and likely spending some time in coffee shops around the city. Luckily, Bologna is known as being a culinary Mecca, and also has a lot of historical sites to see. Hopefully it will be enough to keep us busy for a full day!

Sunday is Easter, which is a big deal here in Italy (obviously, with the Catholics and all that). There are a lot of events going on around the city, most notably the "Exploding Cart" on Sunday morning after Mass at the Duomo. I'll explain more about that later.

Then Monday, no one has class, so there are no solid plans yet, but I am sure that we will find some sort of trouble to get into...

Tomorrow morning before I head wherever the wind takes me, I should have time to update on my British vacation. Ciao!

thursday top ten.

I'm aware that I skipped my last Thursday top ten [whoops]....my only excuse is that I was busy thinking about packing for Rome. And today, I COULD use the excuse that I'm busy thinking about AUSTRIA, but I'll suck it up, and be a good little blogger :]

Top Ten Things I Miss About America

1. Certain brands of certain foods. Like Fiber One granola bars, Kashi cereal, Quaker oatmeal, Laughing cow cheese....now don't get me wrong: Italy has it's own share of brands that I'm going to miss when I get back to American (Nice Morning by Kellogg, anyone?), but I definitely have had a Fiber-One-bar-shaped hole in my heart ever since I arrived.

2. Driving. STRANGE. I never thought I'd miss having to gas up the old Honda, but I DO! It gave me the freedom to come and go as I please, and though I can walk *most* places in Florence, it gets a little iffy when I have to go all the way across the city. Though I must say, the US should institute a better train system. I'd take a train over my car any day.

3. Measuring cups/kitchen utensils in general. We've had to get a little creative when cooking here, since we literally have no way of measuring any ingredients ("Oh yeah, I used an empty Nutella jar full the last time I made that. It worked great!"). That also means no baking if the batter doesn't come pre-prepped in a bag. Sad day.

4. Everyone is going to absolutely crucify me for this but...the weather! WHAT IS UP WITH THIS ALL-DAY RAIN? I adore Florida thunderstorms because they come, and go, and that is the end of it. Here, you wake up, and it drizzles from dawn until dusk. Talk about a bummer! It makes me want to sleep all. day. long. (which I kind of did yesterday. Whoops!)

5. Campus. I'm not surprised at this one; there are few things I love in Gainesville more than the feeling of being on campus at school, sitting in the Hub with Starbucks and a gooooood book.

6. Free water at restaurants. For real, I literally pay about 2 euro at every restaurant to get a drink. Half the time I order wine, just because it is the same price as water.

7. Long showers. Dear Lord, I will never, ever take a shower (or a BATH for that matter!) for granted again, if you could only just allow me a shower more than 3 minutes long here. Thank you. Amen.

8. Television. We literally have not turned ours on once since we got here, and though I've been using the internet to keep up with my shows, I have had to find other ways to occupy myself when I need veg time. This is not always a bad thing, but more often than not, it leads to bad things like naptime instead of good things like exploring-Florence time. I'm working on it. Also include in this section, all of my TV-on-DVD. I've resorted to watching clips of FRIENDS on youtube to assuage the cravings.

9. My friends. DUH. Who didn't see that coming? I love my roommates and I've met some cool people here, but they all think my football obsession is weird :[ And before we met, they all thought I was some sort of sorority biddy just because I heart Florida. Only you guys truly understand me and the cult that is the Gator Nation.

10. The fam. Oh, I know you're getting teary-eyed! I literally have not spent more than a week at home since Christmas break of my freshman year of college. I take so much for granted being able to zip home for a weekend when I want to living in Gainesville. Being here just makes me appreciate all that my family does for me (even when my siblings are too busy to acknowledge that I'm there).

That's all, ladies and gents....It is almost 6 PM here, and my train for Innsbruck leaves at 9:38 PM. We will arrive in Austria SUPERMADCRAZY early (4:31 AM, what what?), drop our stuff off at the hostel, and then wait for a breakfast place to open, I guess? Haha. Then we will spend Friday and Saturday there before catching another overnight train back at 11:05 PM, arriving in Firenze at 6:18 AM. What a whirlwind!

Me, Laura, and KJ also just booked our spring break hostels! We are going to be in Dublin for three nights, March 19 - 21, then we're splitting off for a night. They are headed to Galway, while I'll be going to visit the lovely Jenny in Belfast, Northern Ireland on March 22. We'll meet back at the airport to head to London for two nights from the 23 - 24, then take an overnight boat to Amsterdam on March 25, where I will be until Monday, March 29. Again, wow.

Expect an awesome update sometime Sunday afternoon, after I've spent all day paying back my sleep deficit. I'm totally stoked for Austria...it's supposed to snow on Saturday, so I've got my excited face on!

alaina's [postponed] thursday top ten.

I'm feeling a little grumpy today, after last night went SO badly, and the weather this weekend is screwing with all of our plans, so today's top 10 is going to be:

Top 10 Things I Hate About Italy

[Warning: There may be some profanity below.]

1. MEN. MEN MEN MEN MEN MEN. Just as an anecdote, I was innocently walking down the street last night with a cup of beer in my hand, when some drunken Italian decides that it would be HILARIOUS to just knock it out of my hand for no apparent reason. Fortunately, he got his comeuppane when Sam's friend Elaine, who has lightning quick reflexes and a taste for vengeance, tossed her beer into his laughing face, drenching him. Things like this happen with surprising frequency. Men think it's hilarious to touch you, harass you, and generally annoy you, and then they want to take you home with them. Then there are the street vendors, whose sad attempts at sexual harassment are nearly as pathetic as annoying. I could probably write an entire entry about how fed up I am with the male gender here, but I'll spare you. I don't know what kind of American idiots have conditioned them to think that this is okay, but the next Italian that messes with me is likely to get a boot up his ass.

2. Weather. It was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS outside yesterday, when I had class from 9 AM until 2:30 PM. Today, when I have nothing but plans to explore the city, it is pouring rain. Tomrorow, when we wanted to take the train to San Gimignano, it will be pouring rain. Sunday, when we were planning to stay inside and study all day, it will be lovely, sunny, and warm. This is Italy.

3. Sidewalks. I cannot tell you how many times I have had my life recklessly endangered by some lazy Italian who does not want to share the sidewalk, forcing me off of it into the road to be hit by some wayward Vespa being driven as if it had been stolen. They are narrow, slanted, paved with uneven and wobbly cobblestones, and generally covered with dog poop. This does not make for an enjoyable walking experience.

4. Doing laundry. The lack of dryers here is way more of a pain than I could have ever imagined. It feels like every time one load of laundry has dried on the rack, it's time to do another one. It is an endless cycle that I'm trying my hardest to appreciate for its cultural value, but failing miserably.

5. Tiny kitchen. Unless you and three of your closest buddies have ever been hungry all at the same time and trying to prepare a meal in a room the size of a broom closet, you cannot understand.

6. This is probably a nitpicky complaint, but the size of the milk containers. I am CONSTANTLY buying milk because they refuse to sell it in gallon sizes (yes, I am aware that they do not use our system of measurement, but it is my personal opinion that someone should add something larger than a liter to the metric system, if only so that they can sell milk in that size).

7. Showers. Honestly, I took showers for granted in the US. I have never been a huge fan of sitting under a stream of water for an endless period of time (unlike some people I know) but here, I have yet to take a shower that lasts longer than 5 minutes. It is incredibly difficult to shave AND wash your hair in that span of time. Kudos to the Italians; I don't know how they groom themselves in these medeival conditions.

8. The euro. Or honestly, the dollar. Why did Italy have to change from the lira system? If they hadn't, I'd pratically be swimming in all of the leather jackets and boots that I could afford [hyperbole].

9. Train strikes. Apparently the public transportation system workers are striking at odd hours this week, for God only knows what purpose. I don't know about you, but it seems to me that specifying the hours of your strike is an ineffective way to fight the man. But it does make my life a little bit more difficult, since I'm unfamiliar with the train schedule.

10. The weird store hours. It's mostly irritating on Sundays, when nearly everything is closed. The afternoon "siesta" time can be bothersome as well, if you only have a small window in whih to complete your errand....and the store is closed.

Well, now that I've shared that joy with you, I'm off to wait until the rain stops so that I can go to the Academia Galleria to see the David. If it ever stops pouring.

alaina's thursday top ten: the first edition.

I've decided to institute a weekly blog that I have entitled Alaina's Thursday Top Ten. I plan to use it in different ways, both to compliment the Italy that I have grown to love, as well as to complain about it's less-than-charming qualities. This week, since I'm probably still in the "honeymoon" phase of my trip abroad, I will give you the top ten things I love about Florence (so far).

[Disclaimer: these are not in any particular order.]

1. Piazzle Michaelangelo. This is a Piazza situated in the southeast corner of the city, across the Arno River. From it, you have the absolute best view of the entire city of Florence. It is quite a walk from my apartment (probably several kilometers), and requires climbing several deceptively steep stairs, but as you can see, the view on a beautiful day is quite worth it.

2. The food. Obviously. I think I have made all of you drool enough with my apparently torturous photos of the food here; you get the point. Everything from the pasta to the gelato to the chocolate to the fresh vegetables is DELICIOUS. Even when I've been disappointed at a restaurant, everything is still a far cry from the chemically infused substances that Americans call food. I think that this will be the biggest problem I have in coming back.

3. The coffee. Though technically this probably goes in the food category, I think that I'm drinking enough of it to give it its own number. I have had it in many forms here, cooked in my own apartment with the moka, in latte and capuccino form, and once, as pure espresso. I've yet to have a bad coffee experience (though the espresso was a bit much for me) and I'm proud to admit that I don't even miss Starbucks....yet.

4. Walking everywhere. Strangely, I love not having a car. I can get anywhere on foot, in a reasonable amount of time. Though I've gotten lost MANY times, with my trusty map in my bag, I can always get back to my apartment, or at least to il Duomo, from which point I can find most anything. It's a completely different experience to learn a city by foot, and plus, my pants are already fitting looser because I'm walking miles a day, just to do basic things. Score.

5. il Duomo. I go past it every day that I have class (or when I need to go anywhere, really) and it's always an awe-inspiring sight. It's crazy that I walk past this famous landmark and it is the only thing that makes the fact that I live in Florence real for me.

6. Going out to bars. Drinking here is more of a social activity than in America. They really don't drink to get drunk, which is more my style, I have realized. I love getting dressed up, going out with people, and having a drink or two. Even if the people I'm with drink a lot and I don't, I still have a good time just being out.

7. il Mercato Centrale. I love buying my groceries fresh every couple of days from a huge open-air market. Again, the freshness factor is the main reason, but it is always interesting and fun to go in there and see what crazy thing I'm going to see that day. Though it often grosses me out (cows heads and stomachs just laying around), it is always fascinating. Plus, where else can you get fresh pasta made in the south of Italy? Bread made that very day? Fresh mozzarella? Any kind of dried fruit avaliable? Oh, and it's mad cheap, too.

8. My roommates. We are all quite different, but we all get along (unlike a lot of people in the program that I've been hearing about). I feel like we have a good dynamic, and similar senses of humor. Not to mention that we're all English majors, so the chats about books and movies get pretty intense. Also, Sam just gave me a KinderEgg. Brownie points.

9. My classes. As you saw in my last couple of entries, my classes here are either a) teaching me how to make delicious treats or b) reinspiring passions I had thought to be long lost.

10. SNOW. It snowed here for about 10 or 20 minutes today, and though it didn't stick, anyone who was in my apartment will tell you that I went nuts. Here's hoping to seeing more snow in Venice this weekend!

Snow, not dandruff.

My "IT IS SNOWING!" face.