Day 4
(6-3-2013)
Florence
Hello again family!
While we expected that this email would start with our accounts
of our first day in Florence, the eventfulness of our day actually began much
much earlier.
When preparing to leave Rome, everything was going to
plan. I, being paranoid as usual, had left us more than enough time to get
ready. We were only running 10 minutes behind schedule when we finally closed
the door to Max and Daniella's. We went to leave the building and realized that
the door to exit was locked and could only be opened with they key that we had
just locked in the room. After a moment of panic, we remembered that yesterday
we had seen a door propped open that we had believed led to a courtyard. So we
went out the door, me first and Will following. As soon as I turned the corner,
I realized that this "courtyard" was actually an outdoor parking lot
for the tenants' cars, was surrounded by fences ten feet high, and had
absolutely no exit. I turned back to tell Will not to close the door, but it
had just closed and we were completely stuck. I rapped on the door and had a
minor panic attack while Will scoured the perimeter looking for a way out.
Will, the innate climber that he is, found a segment of the fence that we could
climb. He was confident that we could get over it while I was terrified that
someone would see us scaling this fence on private property and freak out.
After finally admitting to myself that this was the only way out, we began the
climb. After waiting for a group of old ladies to pass, Will took both of our
20 lb bags and scaled the fence. I tossed over our day bags and then scaled the
fence myself, getting black streaks all over my legs and white shirt. We picked
ourselves up, looked around to make sure no one was calling the cops, and
headed off for the train station.
I wish I could say that the train ride was uneventful, but just
as Grammy said about her trips in Italy, when we got to our seats they were
already taken. The woman in our seat was Eastern European (we believe), and
incredibly rude. We didn't have any language in common, but after much strained
arguing she finally got up and went to the seat she had been assigned (which
had been empty the whole time).
When we finally arrived in Florence, we set off to find our
host, Mirela, who was picking us up at the station. To our relief, we had no
problem at all finding her. When I say she is the most incredible host we could
have dreamed of having, I mean it. She greeted us with hugs and kisses and
helped us buy bus tickets, then we began the short journey to her home. She's a
French teacher at a school for troubled kids, which is awesome for me because I
got an opportunity to start practicing my French! She talked to us about
Florence, about her life, and bunches of other things. When we got to her home,
she said she was going to make some pasta and asked if we'd like to have some
with her. Of course we said yes. She then told us that there's a local market
and that we should check it out while she made the pasta, so off we went! The
market was huge! We got her some flowers to thank her for being so awesome. I
attached a picture. (The river in the background is the Arno, Sara B.). Lunch
with Mirela was great and we got to keep chatting with her, which we loved. We
then headed off to the city center to start exploring!
We decided to start off by seeing David because we knew we'd
have to wait in line and we still had some planning to do for what else we
wanted to see. We had to wait quite a while, but the wait was worth it. David
is breathtaking. We sat on benches for a bit and just talked about him. I think
one of the most impressive things for me is how Michelangelo knew how to keep
David standing! I can't even imagine how heavy he is and he's only supported by
his feet and a little tree stump thing!
We then went to get some cappuccinos (of course) and wandered
around beautiful Florence. We went into an olive oil shop and talked with the
owner about olive oils and balsamic vinegars while we tasted some of his best
varieties. We then went into a used book shop so Will could look for a cool
copy of Dante's Divine Comedy in Italian (Dante was from Florence). The owner
had organized the books into completely disorganized piles (you can see in the
pic). We finally made our way to the Ponte Veccio, where we had an amazing
dinner on the Arno and took some beautiful pictures of the sunset.
After dinner we did some more wandering around Florence. We
spent some time sitting in a piazza listening to an older man play soothing
music on his guitar, which was one of the most peaceful experiences we've had
so far on this trip. We then came across a huge crowd circled around a
magician/actor giving a show. We finally made our way home and had a great
conversation with Mirela about our day.
It's getting pretty late and we have a big day planned for
tomorrow, but so far I can say we LOVE LOVE LOVE Florence.
Until tomorrow!
Xoxoxo,
Elizabeth and Will
Hi family!
Sorry we haven't written in some time. We had to get up super early yesterday morning to take a train to Cinque Terre and we've had some difficulty getting wireless here. We had a wonderful day going to the Pitti Palace, the Boboli gardens, Dante's house, and wandering around Florence.
The night before (the first night in Florence), we had asked Mirela about doing laundry because she had advertised that she had a washing machine. She told us to fill the washer with our clothes and put our detergent in the machine and that she would run it in the morning (so running the machine wouldn't wake up anyone in the building). When we woke up in the morning, Mirela had not only run the washing machine, but she had hung up all our clothes on the line!!
She made us coffee in a cool little device that apparently every Italian family has. It's a little metal thing that you put water in the bottom of, then fill a little thing above it with coffee grinds, and then on top of that you put a litle kettle looking thing. Then you put this whole contraption on the stove and wait for it to start steaming, and then you have coffee! It was really cool but the coffee tasted the same as regular coffee (nowhere near as good as those cappuccinos we've been having), so I'd rather be super American and use the coffee maker.
We then sat down with Mirela for a while and had an incredible conversation about religion, different cultures, parenting, and so many other things. Her English is amazing, so we had no trouble communicating (except for some very specific words). Sitting and talking with her made us a bit late in getting out of the house, but it was totally worth it.
After stopping at a local market to grab some fruit for our snacks throughout the day, we headed off to the Pitti Palace. We spent a bunch of time wandering around the palace and seeing the exhibits. It's astounding how much art the Medici family had had made for them. Every room has all the walls and the ceiling beautifully painted and every room had crazy lavish touches like gold molding or massive gold frames. Will and I talked about how if we'd been commoners during the time of the Medici's, we would have been pretty pissed about how extravagantly the Medici's lived. Then the gardens were incredible. There were a bunch of gigantic bathtubs in the courtyards; we couldn't quite figure out why anyone would ever need bathtubs that big. The grottos were probably the best part. In one of the grottos, there were four partially completed sculptures (imprisoned people or something) and we were like, "those look like the sculptures Michelangelo made that are in the Academia!" And lo and behold, they were!! They had commissioned Michelangelo to make them for the grotto and now the originals are in the Academia with his David. So cool!
We next went to Dante's house because Will is in love with Dante. It was ok, but it was sort of a letdown after the Pitti Palace.
We were obviously hungry by this point (we're always hungry) so we walked around for a while trying to find a place near the Arno with cheap wine (our goal was €3 per glass). We finally found a place and had a wonderful meal.
For all you Batman fans out there, you may remember that in the Dark Knight Rises, there's a scene where Alfred is trying to convince Bruce not to sacrifice himself for the people of Gotham. He talks about this dream he has that he'd be sitting at a cafe on the banks of the Arno drinking a Fernet Brenca and he'd see Bruce from afar and he would know that Bruce is happy. SO Will and I of course had to find a cafe on the banks of the Arno and have a Fernet Brenca. SO WE DID. And get this, we went to a restaurant called "Alfredo Sull Arno." Fate? Coincidence? No one knows...
We wandered around Florence a bit more and saw all the crazy jewelry shops on the Ponte Vecchio (Grammy, this must have been where Granddad got you that ring you mentioned!!) We then went to bed in order to prepare for our travel to Cinque Terre!!
I'm not sure how the internet will be when we get to Cinque Terre. We're staying with a woman whose house is right in the middle of a farm where they grow organic vegetables and olive trees! They're just a 20 min walk to the beach and it's a five min walk to the train station, from which you can take local trains to all the towns in Cinque Terre. They also have all kinds of animals, like cats, dogs chickens, and sheep, so we think we're going to have a great time :)
Until next time!
Xoxo, Elizabeth and Will
Hello Again Family!
So once again, our travel from Florence to Cinque Terre was not quite as easy as we would have liked. We were taking three separate trains, so we had two connections we had to make. When we got to the station in Florence, we saw that our train was 25 min delayed, which was a huge problem because our first layover was only 19 min! When we arrived at our first connection, we ran through the train station trying to find our connecting train in the hopes that it had also been delayed. And what do you know, it was!!
When we finally made it to Levanto (the town we're staying in that has trains that connect it to all the towns of Cinque Terre), our host Grazia picked us up and brought us back to her home. Let me tell you, we are in heaven. She lives on a beautiful farm and we have a window that overlooks it all. She has two horses and they graze right outside our window! The views from here are amazing, with the farm right in front of us and the green mountains in the background. We spent some time talking to Grazia when we first arrived and she told usball about the different things we can do here. She was emphatic that we should go on a hike from here (Levanto) to Monterosso (the northernmost of the Cinque Terre towns). So we did!
The hike was beautiful, but it was way more difficult than we were expecting. It was about three and a half hours of hiking up a mountain with just our normal sneakers on, but every time the trees cleared and we saw the coast, it was breathtaking. Towards the end of it all, we climbed up to a rock from which we could see all five of the Cinque Terre towns. It was more beautiful than I could have imagined and it was well worth all the effort to get us there. Unfortunately, our phones had died so we took pictures on our cameras, so we can't show you now :(
When we finally got to the bottom of the mountain, we rewarded ourselves with lots and lots of gelato. Then we decided that we were far too gross to be in normal civilization so we went back to change for dinner! We then went to Vernazza for dinner, where we ate at a BEAUTIFUL restaraunt perched on the side of a mountain over the water. It mostly served seafood and the wine was cheaper than the water. Will got a plate of a bunch of different fried seafood. He really liked it, but for the most part he didn't actually know what he was eating. After dinner, we got on a train back home and went to sleep!!
Until tomorrow!
Elizabeth and Will
Elizabeth and Will
Day 5
(6-4-2013)
Florence
Hi family!
Sorry we haven't written in some time. We had to get up super early yesterday morning to take a train to Cinque Terre and we've had some difficulty getting wireless here. We had a wonderful day going to the Pitti Palace, the Boboli gardens, Dante's house, and wandering around Florence.
The night before (the first night in Florence), we had asked Mirela about doing laundry because she had advertised that she had a washing machine. She told us to fill the washer with our clothes and put our detergent in the machine and that she would run it in the morning (so running the machine wouldn't wake up anyone in the building). When we woke up in the morning, Mirela had not only run the washing machine, but she had hung up all our clothes on the line!!
She made us coffee in a cool little device that apparently every Italian family has. It's a little metal thing that you put water in the bottom of, then fill a little thing above it with coffee grinds, and then on top of that you put a litle kettle looking thing. Then you put this whole contraption on the stove and wait for it to start steaming, and then you have coffee! It was really cool but the coffee tasted the same as regular coffee (nowhere near as good as those cappuccinos we've been having), so I'd rather be super American and use the coffee maker.
We then sat down with Mirela for a while and had an incredible conversation about religion, different cultures, parenting, and so many other things. Her English is amazing, so we had no trouble communicating (except for some very specific words). Sitting and talking with her made us a bit late in getting out of the house, but it was totally worth it.
After stopping at a local market to grab some fruit for our snacks throughout the day, we headed off to the Pitti Palace. We spent a bunch of time wandering around the palace and seeing the exhibits. It's astounding how much art the Medici family had had made for them. Every room has all the walls and the ceiling beautifully painted and every room had crazy lavish touches like gold molding or massive gold frames. Will and I talked about how if we'd been commoners during the time of the Medici's, we would have been pretty pissed about how extravagantly the Medici's lived. Then the gardens were incredible. There were a bunch of gigantic bathtubs in the courtyards; we couldn't quite figure out why anyone would ever need bathtubs that big. The grottos were probably the best part. In one of the grottos, there were four partially completed sculptures (imprisoned people or something) and we were like, "those look like the sculptures Michelangelo made that are in the Academia!" And lo and behold, they were!! They had commissioned Michelangelo to make them for the grotto and now the originals are in the Academia with his David. So cool!
We next went to Dante's house because Will is in love with Dante. It was ok, but it was sort of a letdown after the Pitti Palace.
We were obviously hungry by this point (we're always hungry) so we walked around for a while trying to find a place near the Arno with cheap wine (our goal was €3 per glass). We finally found a place and had a wonderful meal.
For all you Batman fans out there, you may remember that in the Dark Knight Rises, there's a scene where Alfred is trying to convince Bruce not to sacrifice himself for the people of Gotham. He talks about this dream he has that he'd be sitting at a cafe on the banks of the Arno drinking a Fernet Brenca and he'd see Bruce from afar and he would know that Bruce is happy. SO Will and I of course had to find a cafe on the banks of the Arno and have a Fernet Brenca. SO WE DID. And get this, we went to a restaurant called "Alfredo Sull Arno." Fate? Coincidence? No one knows...
We wandered around Florence a bit more and saw all the crazy jewelry shops on the Ponte Vecchio (Grammy, this must have been where Granddad got you that ring you mentioned!!) We then went to bed in order to prepare for our travel to Cinque Terre!!
I'm not sure how the internet will be when we get to Cinque Terre. We're staying with a woman whose house is right in the middle of a farm where they grow organic vegetables and olive trees! They're just a 20 min walk to the beach and it's a five min walk to the train station, from which you can take local trains to all the towns in Cinque Terre. They also have all kinds of animals, like cats, dogs chickens, and sheep, so we think we're going to have a great time :)
Until next time!
Xoxo, Elizabeth and Will
Day 6
(6-5-2013)
Cinque Terre
Hello Again Family!
So once again, our travel from Florence to Cinque Terre was not quite as easy as we would have liked. We were taking three separate trains, so we had two connections we had to make. When we got to the station in Florence, we saw that our train was 25 min delayed, which was a huge problem because our first layover was only 19 min! When we arrived at our first connection, we ran through the train station trying to find our connecting train in the hopes that it had also been delayed. And what do you know, it was!!
When we finally made it to Levanto (the town we're staying in that has trains that connect it to all the towns of Cinque Terre), our host Grazia picked us up and brought us back to her home. Let me tell you, we are in heaven. She lives on a beautiful farm and we have a window that overlooks it all. She has two horses and they graze right outside our window! The views from here are amazing, with the farm right in front of us and the green mountains in the background. We spent some time talking to Grazia when we first arrived and she told usball about the different things we can do here. She was emphatic that we should go on a hike from here (Levanto) to Monterosso (the northernmost of the Cinque Terre towns). So we did!
When we finally got to the bottom of the mountain, we rewarded ourselves with lots and lots of gelato. Then we decided that we were far too gross to be in normal civilization so we went back to change for dinner! We then went to Vernazza for dinner, where we ate at a BEAUTIFUL restaraunt perched on the side of a mountain over the water. It mostly served seafood and the wine was cheaper than the water. Will got a plate of a bunch of different fried seafood. He really liked it, but for the most part he didn't actually know what he was eating. After dinner, we got on a train back home and went to sleep!!
Until tomorrow!
Elizabeth and Will