“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”

My friends and I in Pisa.

The quote by Miriam Beard speaks my exact emotions. I wish there were words to describe my happiness, but sadly I don’t think anything can accurately describe it. I’ll do my best though!

First of all, there are new pictures up on Picasa. These are the pictures from two weekends ago in Tuscany. Enjoy! https://picasaweb.google.com/100853123413362137278/LaDolceVita?authkey=Gv1sRgCI6NoeLsqoHy_QE#

I’ll start off with the basics and try to keep it brief. Two weekends ago I went on a trip put together by my school that was three days in Tuscany. We spent one day in Pisa, one in Florence, and one in Trequanda. The final stop was a small Tuscan town that’s name translates to mean “Three Cups,” giving away its winemaking background. Pisa was a cute little area with fantastic tourist sights. The Leaning Tower of Pisa really does lean and we got to learn all about the history of it. We also learned that Pisa University, being one of the oldest and largest in Italy, has one major that it absolutely does not offer: architecture. How ironic. After our guided tour we wandered around the main part of Pisa, got McDonald’s for lunch (I am ashamed to say this as I don’t even eat it at home, but my friends thought it would be the easiest thing to get and kind of fun to eat it in Italy so I went along with it and felt very American- though I must say I enjoyed having French fries and barbeque sauce). After lunch we strolled around the rest of the city and found some cute stores, amazing gelato, and a beautiful river. I loved Pisa but I was glad that we only spent about 5 hours there, it was plenty to see it all. We boarded the bus and drove to the hotel, where we were pleasantly surprised at the large size of our room and the absolutely gorgeous bathroom, complete with aqua tiles, archways, and a Jacuzzi. The hotel served us an absolutely enormous and very tasty meal before we grabbed a fruity cocktail from the bar, trudged back to our room, put on a movie, and passed out from exhaustion (having woken up at 5:00 a.m. and spending the entire day walking around Pisa).

Doing the touristy thing.

A beautiful statue and church in Pisa.

The next day was an incredibly early morning to get up and head to Florence. We arrived in the city to sunshine and decent warmth and I was immediately in love. While Florence is a city, it has a much different atmosphere than Rome. According to my cultural studies on Italy, Florence is the cultural capital of Italy and I can easily see why. While our tour guide used too many long stories and lost our interest, it was easy to get captured in the glory of Florence that needed no explanation. The Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, the markets (both food and leather). All were amazing! I’m going back to Florence over Spring Break so I didn’t visit any museums, but it’s on my list for things to do next week. One thing that’s on my list of something to repeat is the best sandwich I’ve ever had in my entire life. A leather vendor recommended that we try an oil and wine shop down the street and we entered, stunned at the low prices for paninis. I asked the woman if she had anything with truffles, this is Florence after all so I knew they’d be everywhere. She showed me salsa di tartuffo, which is essentially oil and ground up truffles. My eyes lit up. She asked what else I wanted on the sandwich, I asked what she thought would go well, and then I just said “Make me whatever you think would be good, surprise me!” Her next two questions: “Do you like sundried tomatoes? Do you like cheese?” I could not answer “yes” fast enough. I watched as she slathered on heaping spoonfuls of salsa di tartufo, added a layer of whole sundried tomatoes, and then covered the top with fresh, thick slices of smoked provolone cheese. “Warmed up?” She asked. Is there any other way? The bread was mild and soft and soaked up the delicious oil that had been infused with truffles, leaving the chunky truffle spread on top. I truly had a personal moment with this sandwich. It was love at first bite. A little bit of salsa d tartuffo fell on the ground and I nearly cried. I virtually licked the paper that she had wrapped the sandwich in. Even now, writing this late at night when I won’t be eating any more food, I’m still craving that sandwich. I will forever say that the best sandwich I’ve ever eaten was in a small oil and wine shop in Italy- how cool is that?

The. Best. Sandwich. Ever.

On the Ponte Vecchio.

Our next day involved an early check-out from the hotel and a bus ride to Trequanda, the small vineyard town. We visited a vineyard called Osteria Di Donatella and were able to sample 4 wines (one was an award-winning wine that I bought a bottle of- delicious), learn about the process of winemaking, learn how to make fresh pasta, enjoy a magnificent 4-course meal, and walk around the vineyard. Strolling through the sun-soaked vineyard with the breeze swirling around the space between my body and my opened jacket, laughing with friends and holding a glass of delicious wine. I have truly never felt such serenity, peace, happiness, or joy. It was one of the greatest days of my life. 

One of the vineyard dogs, Felix, just enjoying life.

The view we had at lunch. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been to.

Breathtaking views of the Tuscan countryside.

Strolling through the vineyard with a glass of wine and my friends.

The vineyard.

While ending a trip is always sad, it’s made a lot easier when you come home and the next day your sister flies into Rome! My sister, Steph, surprised me over a month ago when she announced that she was planning a trip to Rome! You can imagine how excited I was to get to see her. I literally tackled her when I met her on the stairs of the Vittorio Emanuel monument. She didn’t see me coming and was apparently on the phone trying to call home and unbeknownst to her, the call had gone through. According to my dad, he heard our entire reunion and was very moved by my cries of “I can’t believe you’re here!” And when I say cries, I literally mean it. I got pretty choked up when I saw my sister. While I have Skyped, iChatted, GChatted, emailed, and called people from home, to actually have someone here was a joyous feeling that I’ll never forget. We spent much of the week together in the morning and then meeting again for dinner, as I had classes in between. This week happens to be my midterm week so there was a lot of stress this past week and up through now (tomorrow is my last midterm- wish me luck!). It was hard to balance work and time with Steph but we managed to do a lot together. I was also incredibly proud of her when she explored on her own and was able to find her way. Coming to a foreign country alone is a real test of strength and she had such wonderful successes.

On Friday (remember that I have no classes on Fridays), we took an early train to Naples for the day. I’ll admit, I had one thing and one thing only on my mind: pizza. I had heard all about the best place to go and I knew that it would be worth the 2 hour train ride just to get it. If my dad and I would drive an hour and a half from Syracuse (when I visited the school) to Rochester just to get a Don and Bob’s burger, I sure as heck was willing to go two hours to the birthplace of pizza to get the best in the world. Before lunch (I almost wanted to get lunch when we arrived at 10:30), we went to a church that features a statue of Jesus covered in a veil. While the veil is carved out of the same piece of marble that Jesus is, it looks so realistic that you could almost reach out and delicately lift the veil off of him. It was quite haunting and extremely beautiful. After the church it was finally time for pizza. Impressively finding our way in a unknown city, we made it back to Da Michele’s Pizzeria and waited in line for about 15 minutes. For those of you who have seen or read “Eat, Pray, Love,” this is where Elizabeth Gilbert and Julia Roberts go for pizza. They have many pictures and an autograph from Julia Roberts as proof of her visit. While the pizzeria is gaining popularity and attention from tourists, it is also where the locals go for the best pizza. Open since 1870, they know what they’re doing here. There are only 6 things on the menu: Pizza Margherita with normal cheese, medium cheese, or double cheese and Pizza Marinara with the same cheese options (the normal doesn’t actually come with cheese). That’s it. No toppings, no fancy ingredients. Just dough, sauce, cheese, and a basil leaf (originally created to show the colors of Italy- red sauce, white cheese, and green basil). When the pizza came out, I was struck by the simplicity yet beauty of it. I come from the land of fancy-shmancy pizzas with every option you can imagine: cheeseburger pizza, garlic-topped crusts, and fancy cheeses. But this pizza is so fabulous, it doesn’t need any of that. The pizza has a soft, thin crust that leaves a faint memory of salt and oil on your tongue as you take a bite of the pizza and the bottom of the crust grazes the top of your tongue. The sauce is incredibly simple and light, and the medium cheese that I ordered was the perfect amount- not too much but enough that I got to enjoy the rich, fresh bufala mozzarella. I carefully examined the pizza as I went along, deciding where my next bite should come from. This strategy led me to a very intelligent plan of attack and means of eating. I saved the most basil for last and the softest crust. Each piece I cut started with eating the tip with a fork and knife, the crust was too thin and moist from the sauce to allow for me to pick it up. By the time the tip was gone, the rest of the piece was sturdy enough to be picked up and rapidly devoured. I ate every last bit of that pizza. It would be a sin not to, and if you look around there are essentially no plates that aren’t empty. Little Italian grandmothers that are half my size finished there’s without trouble. And while I was full from the pizza, it is so thin that an entire pizza from them is probably the equivalent of three slices of typical American pizza, enough for a meal but not so much that you had to roll me out the door. 

After pizza we went to an incredible museum that featured ruins from Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as a rather risqué wing devoted to the ruins of brothels from the area. We then strolled the streets of Naples before winding up at Da Michele’s main pizza competition (no restaurants are open until 7 or 7:30 and we had a 7:57 train back so we had to eat early and pizza was the only thing open). This pizza was good, but they offered many more options, making it seem less authentic than Da Michele’s, but good in its own right. A late train ride back involving a private cabin on the train and some loud High School Musical playing from Steph’s iPod capped off the night perfectly! Not to mention the cute Italian man we saw several times on our journey home from the train station! Steph and I spent the rest of the weekend exploring Rome (while I balanced studying for midterms). I had an amazing week with her and I’m so glad she got to come to Rome!

Margherita Pizza at Da Michele's.

This week has just been about studying for midterms, writing papers, and preparing for the next big adventure: Spring Break when my friend and roommate from home, Julie, is coming to Rome for over a week of exploring Rome, Venice, Bologna, Florence, and Pisa. I cannot wait to get to see her and travel around Italy together!

While this is all of the chronological order of things happening in my life, there’s more that I want to reflect on. Yesterday I was walking down the street and the song “Dreams” by the Cranberries came on my iPod. It was 67 degrees, sunny, and perfect as I walked down the street with a tank-top and light cardigan, garnering strange looks from the people around me who dress for the season, not the temperature and were therefore sporting their parkas. For those of you have seen “You’ve Got Mail” with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, you’ll remember the scene from the beginning of the movie when Meg Ryan, walking to this song as well, says “I hear nothing, not the sound on the city streets just the beat of my own heart.” Well, I hear the beat of my own heart, but I also hear the sound on the city streets. The laughter of children just getting out of school, the barks of an eager dog waiting for his owner, the flapping wings of the pigeons that race away from the sidewalk when you get too close. They are the sounds of Rome, it’s practically music to me now. It was in that moment that I realized why I listen to music when I walk or take the bus. It’s to give my life a soundtrack, to make it more like the incredible movie that it feels like. When I watch a movie and the music plays in the background, it sets a mood. This is no different. The song “Dreams” is all about life being wonderful (or at least that’s how I feel when I hear the song). It was truly the perfect soundtrack for my life.

This week is also a huge celebration in Italy, as it is the 150^th anniversary of the unification of Italy. While the regions have been around for much longer, the country was finally unified under the name “Italy” 150 years ago. Therefore, the entire country is currently celebrating, and as I feel like an Italian now, I am celebrating too. Yesterday, while sitting outside my favorite local pasticceria with a friend, we realized that we had been in Italy for exactly 8 weeks, prompting my friend to say “We should get champagne!” and me to jump out of my seat, run inside Romangani, and say “Due prosecco per favore!” For three euros each, we were brought a glass of prosecco, a bowl of chips, a bowl of peanuts, a bowl of pretzels, and 4 little tramezzini to share (4 cute triangle sandwiches, two with lox, one with speck and arugula, and the other with tuna and hardboiled egg). Not only was this absolutely adorable and an incredibly good deal, it made me smile at just how charmed my life is. It was warm, sunny, breezy, and perfect as I sat outside, sipping prosecco, nibbling on finger sandwiches, watching the world go by, and chatting about how life doesn’t get any better.

Happy Birthday Italy!

Now that my midterms are done and my papers are finished, I’m gearing up for an amazing next two and a half weeks! Tomorrow morning Julie arrives and the following Saturday my parents come to Italy. Julie flies out the morning they fly in. I can’t wait to get to greet Julie and my parents at the airport when they arrive! While I promised to try and write a blog post every week, I know I broke that promise this week/last week (blame it on midterms and lots of traveling). With all of the travel over Spring Break and then with my parents after, I make no guarantees about when my next post will be. At the very least I’ll do my best to post pictures and at least write something brief in the two days when my parents are in Florence and life goes back to “normal” with classes resuming, that is until my parents and I head South to Pompeii, Sorento, and Positano! As always, thank you for reading my blog and please feel free to email me, comment on the blog, send me a Facebook message, or anything else to keep in touch. I love you all!