sicilia part due: the temples and the theaters

Wednesday 

Wednesday was an absolutely fantastic day wandering through the ruins of Segesta and Selinunte. In this case I would say that a picture is worth far more than a thousand words. My personal favorite was, by far, the almost fully complete temple amidst the field of neon yellow flowers…. Pretty stunning….

Mamma Giovanna made us sing in one of the Greek theaters which was pretty adorable….

After seeing all the 2,000 year old beauty, we decided to try and find the beach, something made quite possible with the aid of our little stray tour dog who lead us there quite happily. We wandered the beach and collected stones and shells and then skipped back up the hill to the DiscoBus at which point we headed for Agrigento – an area of Sicily I would absolutely live in. Right on the beach, not a single tourist in sight in January, gorgeous, adorable, sweet, calm, perfect. And our hotel was incredible! A four start hotel up on a hill overlooking the ocean. And a delicious dinner with the group at said hotel – equally incredible!

Thursday

Thursday we headed to the Valley of Temples with an adorably sweet tour guide named Michele. As usual, the sun was shining in our favor despite the rainy forecast. Every temple was even more gorgeous than the previous. We walked from on to the other, basking in the sun and the amazing silent feeling that surrounded each temple. We then stopped for lunch, on Zia Sophia’s (aka Smith College’s) bill since our lunch the day before (which we had paid for ourselves) was a) overpriced and b) pretty bad….. That’s what to you get for stopping at an Italian truck stop complete with “Sicilian art museum” (if you could call it that) and outdoor wax museum complete with Elvis, characters from American cop television shows and Frankenstein…. Thursday’s lunch was great – a little buffet at an adorable little trattoria with outdoor seating in the sun. After lunch we spent a few hours wandering on the beach and collecting more photos, pebbles, rocks and shells while relaxing in the sun. 


We then drove to Siracusa, naturally having another discopartyyyy!! This hotel was by far the most gorgeous and again four stars (perhaps they were avoiding the possibility of bedbugs….) We had dinner on our own so I wandered off with Breana, Alayna, Christine and many others to find a fantastic little trattoria where we ate yummy pizza, salad and beer. Afterwards, we wandered Ortigia (the old part of the city of Siracusa which is a little island) and found some delicious famous cannoli (which I do like after all!), and took some beautiful photos of the Duomo at night. Breana and I then found a Baby Yogurt (amazing frozen yogurt with fresh fruit sauces,etc.) and then headed home for a bubble bath (Breana and I had the only hotel room including those of Monica and Giovanna, which not only had a bathtub, but a bathtub with Jacuzzi jets).

Friday 
Friday we visited the temples outside of Siracusa with a very, veryyy quirky guide. No one really liked her because she talked very slowly which at first seemed as though she thought we couldn’t understand Italian, but really she was just dramatic and theatrical and loved the temples and telling stories about them so she spoke in a very particular way. Breana and I thought she was sweet and very dedicated to her work. We got to see the stone quarries where slaves cut stone 2,500 years ago as well as this amazing little grotto with a really neat echo called the ear of Dionysus. We stopped by another huge Greek amphitheater where they still have Greek theater during the summer and then headed back into Siracusa to wander and find lunch. We stopped by the Duomo which is also called the Temple of Athena because it in fact has been both a Greek temple and a church many times in the last 2,500 years. Not too too long ago when there was a huge earthquake in this area of Sicily (including many cities and towns, not just Siracusa), literally the only thing left standing were the columns of this old Greek temple. Today, the columns have been filled in with walls and the entire Duomo in a combination of old Greek tradition and newer architecture – in other words, it’s beautiful and amazing and powerful.

After lunch we hopped on the bus to visit a teeny tiny Baroque city called Noto where we visited the cathedral and ate the best mandarin gelato ever! After returning back to Siracusa, we had our last dinner all together at this great little pizzeria at which point we headed back to the hotel and Breana and I had a second, extremely bubbly, bubble bath and watched Italian MTV until we fell asleep.

Saturday 
Saturday morning we woke up early, ate some breakfast and headed to Taormina, a beautiful little city on top of a hill overlooking, you guessed it, the ocean. Naturally we visited another Greek theater that just so happens to look over both Mount Etna, a very active volcano currently covered in snow (yes, you can go skiing on it) and the beautiful turquoise ocean – something pretty incredible if you ask me!! And, of course, an adorable older man stood in the theater and played his harmonica for us.... Pardon the noise!


Again, pictures explain this experience much better than I ever could! After finding some lunch, we headed back to Catania with one last little disco party, sang I Just Called to Say I Love You with Gianni, said goodbye, and sadly hopped on the plane back to chilly Florence.

More photos! 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=382268&id=500755531&l=d5ebd56bc9

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=382277&id=500755531&l=dab0419666

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=382279&id=500755531&l=618a84bd2b

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=382286&id=500755531&l=f4ba3f490f

I am now all settled back in Florence, doing laundry and preparing for the beginning of this semester. Just need to choose a class at the University of Florence (which won't start for a few weeks, thus giving me 4 day weekends for a little bit...) and then I am good to go! Looks like this semester is going to be FANTASTIC! And on top of that, Alessandra is coming to visit in less than 2 weeks and Gabriel will be here a month from Wednesday! And Carnivale is happening as we speak and I am most likely heading to Venice next weekend! Possibly Viareggio as well! 

Baci galore!!!

PART TWO or the seemingly worse yet still amazing weekend

Saturday
Saturday morning I woke up at 6.30am to head off on a day of adventures. We first hit up Pienza (in this case we = all the Smith girls, Monica and Giovanna along with her husband, Alessio and his sister and our Italian friend Alex – what a crew!) where we wandered around for a good 3 hours. I went to lunch with Ali, Breana and Alayna at this really delicious ristorante where we ate incredible gnocchi. After Pienza, we bussed over to San Gimginano, the city of towers! We wandered for a few hours, ate some really delish gelato and bought supposedly famous wine (which turns out, I thought was disgusting….. too bad…)

When we got back from our little trip, I ran home, changed, freshened up and headed back out to meet the usual nightlife posse, this time to gather for aperitivi in honor of Alessio’s birthday. We ate at this cute place called Oibo (http://www.oibo.net/), although it wasn’t the best aperitivo I have eaten here (first place goes to Negroni, across the arno http://www.negronibar.it/). Something you should know about how we roll in Firenze is this: Every time we go out, we have no choice but to make a reservation, even if we are going on a Monday night to aperitivi at a strange time. This is because, on the weekends especially, we never travel in a pack less than 10. Initially this was frustrating because no one would ever make up their mind, but now by te middle of every week there has been at least one mass Facebook message to everyone stating what we are doing, when we are doing it and where we should meet. It has become a bit of a joke. Take Saturday night for example – I had to call and make a reservation for 20 people two days in advance. It’s great.

Anywho. After aperitivi, we headed to this American/English pub called the Lion’s Fountain (http://www.thelionsfountain.com/) where we spent the rest of the night. Until we left. At which point I realized someone had stolen my wallet. Oops….  I am sure that I didn’t loose it for it was in my hand all night until I put it in my purse which was on a bench right next to us with everyone else’s purses. Unfortunately there was a semi-sketch group of non-Italian men who persistently wanted to take our photo for us…. Or something…. We decided it was them. Needless to say, my cards are all cancelled, I borrowed money from Smith, and my parents will be here in a week. Perfetto.

Sunday
Sunday five of us headed to Alessio’s house for his birthday lunch with all of his friends from university as well as his family and Giovanna. It very well may have been one of the cutest things I have done so far in Florence. His mother and Giovanna greeted us all at the door, and his mom was so welcoming and excited that we were there. We were all extremely awkward, as every good Smithie should be, and we stood around waiting for people to start eating. We ate about 17 different courses and then finished up with a HUGE (I’m talking about 2 feet in diameter huge) chocolate torte which Alessio could not for the life of him figure out how to cut. His house is beautiful (and by house I mean apartment because no one in Florence lives in a house) and pretty much a museum. His dad used to be a carabinieri (police officer essentially) and he has a passion for Garibaldi. Therefore, not only has he collected rare Italian comics featuring Garibaldi, but he has two of Garibaldi’s ACTUAL uniforms in glass cases, just chilling in the hallway outside their bedrooms. Italians really are great.

After this delightful lunch, we headed over to the stadium to meet Monica and the rest of the Smithies, along with our History of Fashion professor to watch a soccer game between la Fiorentina and I Napoli. Fiorentina lost…. Bummer. It was an extremely exciting game though! And Giovanna and Monica bought us all Fiorentina scarves which was good because it was freeeeezing!! Alè alè alè alè!!!! (Did I mention that on my way to Alessio’s my sweater fell out of my bag? What a weekend!)

Monday
Monday was quiet. Nothing too exciting happened really. We found out that our super sweet art history professor has swine flu so class was cancelled for the week (aka my one class on Thursday was cancelled and therefore my weekend would begind Wednesday at approximately 5.30pm).

As I was walking home from Stilistics Monday night, I realized that due to setting the clocks back, it was already almost completely dark outside. As I approached the Duomo, I was overwhelmed by how gorgeous it looked just past dusk. There were a few tourists scattered around, taking photos with flash that lit up the gold leaf details on the façade and as I looked around, I also realized there was a crescent moon just to the right of the dome. Of course. It’s Italy. Things really are picture perfect rather often. At this point, I noticed I was standing in the middle of the street (although as of this past weekend all the streets around the Duomo are closed to traffic- woohoo!) and I decided I should move. I got out my camera and spent the next 20 minutes playing tourist and snapping gorgeous photos of this palatial piece of marble that I walk by at least twice a day.

Upon completing this touristy task, I began my walk home thinking about how I finally felt settled. I had a family, my little bros were becoming less shy, I did things every weekend with my group of friends, I had classes to go to, work to do, I finally felt okay. Reflecting on the past week I decided that even though I had just recovered from bedbugs, I didn’t sleep much, my wallet was stolen, and I was then getting a lovely sore throat and cough, I had maybe just completed one of the best weeks of my life.

Not too shabby, Florence – thanks!

Tuesday
Tuesday… let’s see. Class in the morning. Art history was cancelled so instead I attended my first course at the University of Florence (we have to audit something this semester to practice the wacky system of Italian education). I am planning on going to one class on Tuesdays (Analysis of the Preferences of the Consumer – in the department of viniculture, a lot about product development, etc.) and then one of Thursdays (Economics of Viniculture). Hey, when in Italy… study wine! The class on Tuesday was really interesting and I would say that I actually understood about 85-90% of what the professor said! I even took a few pages of notes! 

First night out on the town....

Ciao a tutti!

Last night we ALL went out. It was a bit chaotic!! We couldn't decide where to go, what to do, what to drink, etc., etc.! We finally decided to get a glass of vino at a little restaurant by the Duomo... it's hard to escape the tourist traps at this point because we have no knowledge of the city and the best places to go out without other American students.... Had to take a taxi home since it was after midnight and some Italian men were following us and telling us they wanted us..... So taxi it was!

Before we went out, Ali and Julie and I were again faced with the endless task of dinner! Penne with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, veal or pork (still undecided...) with fresh lemon, eggplant with parmesan and then an AMAZING fruit salad! This was all after Ali and I explored our neighborhood, found the train station (where it is evident how it could not be so safe at night.... un po' sketchy!!), found a cheap yet beautiful shoe store, a perfect supermercato and some sweet little bars and restaurants! Perfetto!

Overall, yesterday was un giorno bellisimo!

In a few minutes, I am going to head to il centro and meet Breana and Alayna and others and go to the Boboli Gardens which are supposed to be incredibile!! Pictures later!!!

Ciao! Baci e abbracci!!