Cortina D'Ampezzo

Last weekend I went with Nicolò for a weekend in Cortina D'Ampezzo to visit the family. It was beautiful weather all weekend and great skiing!

We took the train to Venice and then took a car up to Cortina, which was about a 6 hour trip total (we stopped to visit my older aunt in Bassano on the way...). There we stayed in Zenone's apartment with Paola, and had dinner with Nicolò's cousin Stefano and his daughter Yiara.

Saturday we got up early to go skiing at Tufana, one of the two big mountains you can ski there, (I of course snowboarded) but the skiing was great, the snow is really dry and fluffy, much different from the snow on the west coast. We skiied with Nicolò's friends Filippo and Zuppi, who were all great skiiers. It was a long day of skiing and we ended at 3 with broken legs, it was exhausting!

Saturday night we went into the center of town and walked around for a bit. The winter polo cup of Cortina was starting the next day, so there were a lot of polo players hanging around, (also their sponsor was Audi so there were tons of Audi's everywhere).

We went to dinner at the ski club that Nicolò and Paola belonged to and had a yummy dinner, and discovered the delicious drink of the Veneto region called "Spritz," it consists of prosecco, aperol, and sparkling water and they put in a orange as a garnish, try it sometime because it is refreshing not to mention delicious!

The next day we were definitely feeling every sore muscle in our body, so it was a lighter day of skiing as my legs were killing me and Nicolò's ginocchio (knee) was pretty much destroyed. So we did a half day of skiing and then came back to the apartment to have lunch with Paola and attempt to take the earlier train back from Venezia.


While we made it in time to the station for the 4:56 train to Roma, it was also the first weekend of Carnevale in Venice, so the train was completely packed! Nicolò and I sat in the restaurant car, hoping that people would get off in Bologna so we could take a seat, but we were not the only ones who had the same idea, as there were other people sitting in the restaurant car and also on the floor in between cars! So the lady who checked our ticket suggested taking the train coming from Milano (the high speed train) which was stopping at Bologna, so we got off at Bologna, only to find that the train was actually 20 minutes late. SO we had a nice stop at the train station in Bologna, very clean and nice if you ever want to make a visit there! The train arrived, and we were able to get a seat and make it back safely to Rome, great weekend!

Firenze

My newfound obsession for Cloisters.Duomo

View of Firenze from Uffizi
Palazzo Vecchio: city hall, how could you ever pay attention?

Ciao! This week we were in Florence, and of course, it rained everyday. But we got so see some great sites like the Uffizi, Bargello Museum, Secret passages of the Palazzo Vecchio, which is still today the city hall of Florence, and of course lots of churches like Santa Croce, Orsan Michele, and the Duomo in the center. The gelato was great, and so were the massive amounts of leather everywhere!

Barça

La Sagrada Famiglia

Cool Spanish Building
Beach
La Boqueria, a huge fantastic indoor market

Last weekend we took a little trip to Barcelona. The rain followed us (of course), but we were able to use our Seattlelite skills and push through the rain and have a great time. Stacie's family friends took great care of us the whole weekend, and even though we shared a hostel with 5 British drunks who were in Barcelona for a Bachelor party, we fended for ourselves and left with no encounters!

Assisi

On Friday we went to Assisi, we had been reading about St. Francis for the week in preparation, and so we were full of knowledge upon arriving at his church! We went to the churches of San Damiano and San Francesco, where St. Francis's body is buried in a tomb. The church inside was incredible, but we could not take any photos so I only was able to take photos from outside.

Orvieto

Last Friday we went to Orvieto, which is a small hillside town about one hour by train outside of Rome. It was a beautiful little town that you took a funiculare with up to the top. The first thing that you see is a huge duomo, which is one of the most intricate churches that I have ever seen. The views from this town are spectacular, especially when you climb the clock tower (which was like 10000 stairs to get up to the top!) but definitely worth it. Cinghiale, which is wild boar, is in season right now along with Tartufo (truffle) both of which I got to eat and they were both DELICIOUS!


View from the clock tower with Carly

Umbria region below

The Duomo at night

1st Week

I have so far survived my first week in Rome! Darting across busy streets, walking probably more than I have in 2008 in just a week, eating pasta and bread like nobodys business, its been a great week. In the mornings we usually go as a class to see a site, then one person makes a presentation on it, then in the afternoons we have a history lecture. Having Nicolò (my cousin) has been a godsend, he has been so helpful. the other day he brought me an extra mattress they had lying around, because since I was the last person to arrive at our 7 person apartment, I of course got the cot instead of the real bed!
Some nice photos of the past week:


Quattro Coronati: Cloister



Pantheon: there is a hole in the middle for the gods, a perfect sphere in the middle of the ceiling!



Spanish Steps with Carly and Stacie



Cugina (cousin) Olivia



Ostia Antica




Colosseo

In Rome!

Ciao ciao, I made it safely to Rome, and after I get over being extremely jet-lagged, I will start to explore, we start going to sites for class tomorrow, exciting!