My Fall Break Part 2: "The Hills are Alive With the Sound of Music"

Ciao!

After a long day in Venice Erin and I left on another night train bound for Salzburg, Austria.  We didn't get a sleeper car on this night train but we did get a compartment made for 6 people.  Luckily, there were only 2 other people in with us and we got a pretty good nights' sleep.  The train ride was about 7 1/2 hours and we arrived in Salzburg at 4:30 in the morning.  While on the train we met 2 girls from Texas A + M who were studying in Italy but on their Fall Break at the same time.  We found out they were staying at the same hostel as us which made us feel better since it was so early in the morning.  We were all really tired but we managed to get ourselves to our hostel which was about a 5 minute walk from the train station.

We slept at the hostel until about 10 am and we decided we would explore downtown Salzburg that day since we had 2 full days to see the city.  We took a map and made our way down to the city center which was about a 5-10 minute walk from our hostel.

Our first stop was the Mirabell Gardens.  The gardens are next to a palace which currently serves as the town hall.  It's also a free entry and we were told it's a nice place to sit and enjoy yourself.  And we had another beautiful day so we stopped at the gardens and it was amazing!  The gardens were so beautiful and the Fall foliage was in full bloom.

Once we got to the city center I immediately fell in love with Salzburg.  It was small and there weren't many tourists which was a nice change from Venice the previous day.  Salzburg is also a smaller city with only about 150,000 people, it's almost the same size as Perugia which made us feel so at home there.

 

Before coming to Salzburg we read in a book that Salzburg has some famous desserts.  The most famous is known as the Mozart torte, which isn't surprising considering Mozart was born in Salzburg.  So we stopped by a local pastry shop and had a slice of Mozart torte and it was pretty good.  It is a chocolate sponge layer cake made with rum and a little secret green ingredient.  I just googled Mozart torte and found out the green layer is actually pistachios.  I am not a huge fan of pistachios but this cake was pretty yummy.

After stuffing ourselves with chocolate we took an elevator to the top of a hill for some panoramic views of Salzburg.  Once we got to the top of the hill I realized why the song says the hills are alive, it's because they are!  The view atop this hill was so beautiful and it finally hit me that I made it to Austria.  Austria was one of my goals before I left in September and it felt so good to have achieved my goal!  

Salzburg is also home to a big fortress.  The fortress sits atop a hill and it was a short walk from where we were so we decided to take a little trek over to check out the fortress.  It was a pretty steep walk up to the fortress but since we live in Perugia we were prepared for the steepness!  Once we got inside the fortress we saw it was almost closing time and because of that we got to go in for free!  We couldn't see many of the rooms in the fortress but we got some more amazing views of the city.  While we were enjoying the views we noticed a group of teenagers assembling just below where we were standing.  We realized they were getting ready to sing so I got my camera ready not knowing what they were about to do.  When they started to sing I got so excited because they were singing "Edelweiss".  And because we were in the home of the "Sound of Music" it was an amazing experience that I will never forget.  Here is the video..enjoy!

Since the fortress was closing down we had to make our way back over to the elevator we took to the top of the hill.  While walking back over we got an awesome view of the Alps.  This was my first time seeing the Alps and we came at a great time to see them.  The sun was slowly setting behind them so we waited around and it was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life.  I have to note that these next photos are not edited at all!  This is what it really looked like!

 

It's hard to believe but that was only day 1 in Salzburg!  The next day was all devoted to the Sound of Music, the whole reason we came to Salzburg in the first place.  Our hostel offered the famous Sound of Music tour and even gave a 10% discount so we had to do it.  It is the only tour offered in English and it was 4 hours long.  I was so excited to go because the Sound of Music is possibly my favorite movie of all time.  We started the tour at 2 pm after watching the movie at our hostel in the morning.  We hopped aboard the tour bus and realized we were the youngest people on the tour besides the little kids that came with their parents.  Despite that it was still a lot of fun!  

We started out by visiting the lake that was used as the backdrop of the Von Trapp villa.  The back of the building was also used for several scenes in the film including the scenes of the party at the Von Trapp villa.  It was cold and kind of rainy but it was still fun to be where they filmed my favorite movie.  Our next stop was the gazebo used in the song "16 going on 17".  The gazebo was built specifically for the film and was later donated to the city of Salzburg.  It was moved to a nearby park where people could enjoy it.  Unfortunately, you cannot go in the gazebo because about 2 years ago a woman thought she was Liesl and jumped from bench to bench as she does in the film.  The woman broke her hip and the gazebo was closed after that.  But we still got to see it!

 

Our next stop on the tour was about a 45 minute drive.  On the way there we got to see the beautiful countryside just outside Salzburg while listening to the Sound of Music soundtrack.  It was so much fun and our tour guide was a really funny guy.  He told us lots of facts about the movie and about Salzburg itself.  The most interesting fact I learned was that Salzburg is the home of Red Bull, the energy drink.  It was invented and still made there today.  We also learned that if you ask the locals of Salzburg about the movie they won't know what you're talking about.  That's because the Sound of Music is unable to be translated into German because of the rhyming English words.  The locals know of a documentary about the Von Trapps made before the movie but that's it.    

Once we reached the next stop we found out it was the church used to film the wedding of Maria and Captain Von Trapp.  The church is in a little town called Mondsee and it was really beautiful.  We even went inside the church and got to take as many pictures as we wanted.  We walked down the aisle just like Julie Andrews and just soaked it all in.  I really enjoyed myself in this church!  Sorry for the blurriness in the second picture.

 

The final stop on our tour was the Mirabell Gardens.  We didn't know it when we visited the gardens the day before but a lot of scenes in the movie were filmed there.  When the children and Maris sing Do Re Mi and run through the gardens, that's where they were!  So Erin and I sang Do Re Mi down the famous steps just like children and it was so much fun!  We felt like idiots at times but we weren't the only ones doing it so it was alright.  Here I am on the steps channeling Julie Andrews and jumping down the steps!

The Sound of Music tour was so much fun and probably my favorite moment of my entire break!  I highly recommend everyone to do the tour if you are in Salzburg.  I hope to go back to Salzburg one day and it might just be my new favorite city.  

We left Salzburg on Monday October 25th and headed for our next stop: Prague!  As we were leaving it started snowing!  I don't like snow, especially in October so I was so glad to be leaving.  But I did snap some shots of the snow as we were on the train to Prague.

  

Salzburg was my favorite city I visited on Fall break and I had the best time acting like a Sound of Music nerd the entire time!  It was the best 2 days of the entire trip :)  My next blog entry will be all about my 3 days in Prague!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and also a great Halloween!  I am missing Halloween festivities right now because there are no signs of pumpkins here in Perugia.  It's a sad thing and I cannot believe that tomorrow is November 1st!  Time is flying by so quickly and I just want it to slow down a little.  

It's also getting colder here which isn't making me and my roommates very happy.  In Italy, there is a law that you cannot have your heat on for more than 7 hours a day and it cannot be on at night.  So the heat is on in our apartment from 5 pm until midnight then it shuts off and we freeze at night.  Some of my roommates even go to bed with hats and gloves on.  So far I am sleeping in sweatpants, 2 sweatshirts, and socks.  I cannot wait for the heat to go on everyday and we go to school just to warm up a little.  It's rough but then we remember we are in Italy and everything is alright.

Here is the link to my Facebook page with all of my Salzburg pictures so check it out!  

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=243576&id=604955888&l=07190ee24b

I will update again soon!

Italian word of the post:

    zucca - pumpkin

Morgan :)

My Fall Break Part 1: Venezia!

Ciao!

As promised, here is my first blog entry about my Fall break.  I started my break last Thursday October 21st.  My roommate Erin and I started our journey on a night train bound for Venice.  We left Perugia around 9 pm and went to Cortona, a smaller train station, and waited for our night train to arrive.  The night train finally left at 12:30 am and we were so grateful we had beds on the train.

This was my first night train experience and I was excited to see what the train would look like.  When we got on the train one of the conductors showed us to our teeny tiny compartment.  We had a triple bunk bed in this very tiny space on the train.  I had the very top bunk and it was an experience getting into it.  I literally couldn't sit up in my bunk because it was so close to the ceiling but we went to sleep pretty soon anyway.  It was also interesting to sleep on a train because of all the rocking and rolling.  Luckily our bunk beds had straps on them so we wouldn't fall out.  We got about 4 hours of sleep because the train arrived in Venice at 5:30 in the morning.

When we got off the train we realized that the train station wasn't even open yet.  There were only about 30 people in the whole station waiting for the ticket counter to open.  We had to wait for it to open with the other people because we had to buy our train tickets to Salzburg for that same night.  After the station opened and we got our tickets we headed out of the station and saw the most amazing sight, the water!  Even the train station sits on the water and even at 6 am this was pretty cool to me. 

As soon as we stepped out of the station we realized how cold it was!  As it was only 6:30 am and we were surrounded by water it was so cold.  We had to get warm so we went right over to the water taxi station to catch a water taxi to the main island of Venice.  It was still freezing on the water taxi but it took us to the main island.  Once there, we found that none of the stores were open and the main piazza was practically a ghost town.  So we decided to take some pictures as we knew the piazza would be full of tourists as the day went on.  We also got to see the sunrise in Venice which was a beautiful sight.  Here are some pictures of the piazza and sunrise over Venice.  What a great way to start our Fall break!

 

After getting some cappuccino and warming up a little bit we decided to just explore Venice.  We knew we would only be there for half a day so we wanted to see as much as possible.  We went in a lot of little gift shops and saw the beautiful Murano glass.  For those of you who don't know, Venice is famous for its glass.  Murano glass is made right in Venice and is sold all over the world.  But you can also buy it at almost any store in Venice.  Before going to Venice I knew that I wanted a Murano glass ring and while there I found 2 of them!  They are so beautiful and I can't stop wearing them.  I am anxious to show them off when I get back to the States.  

Since it was such a beautiful clear day we decided to take an elevator to the top of the bell tower in the picture above.  It is called St. Mark's bell tower and the only way to get up there is by elevator, luckily no stairs to climb.  We had to pay 8 euro but it was well worth it!  We got incredible panoramic views of the entire city.  Here are some of the many pictures I took atop St. Mark's bell tower.

At the top of the tower I also tried a new setting I recently discovered on my camera.  It's a setting that allows you to take 3 consecutive pictures then stitch them into 1 picture.  So here is my very first attempt at a panoramic picture, I think it came out pretty well.

After we did the tower we were getting pretty tired as we were running on only 4 hours of sleep.  So we decided to get a panino (it's not panini in Italian!) for dinner and head back to the train station.  Our night train bound for Salzburg, Austria left at 9 pm from Venice.  Tomorrow I will blog about my 2 days in Salzburg!  

Here is the link to my Facebook page where you can see all of my pictures of Venice!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=243569&id=604955888

Italian word of the post: 

    Venezia - Venice

Morgan :)

Back in Perugia!

Ciao!

I am safe and sound back at school in Perugia.  I got back this afternoon around 4 pm after taking 1 plane, 2 buses, and 2 trains.  I am a little tired but happy to be back in the town I love!  Starting tomorrow I am going to do some blog posts about my entire Fall break.  Tomorrow will be part 1: Venice, so stay tuned for that!  Now I am off to my apartment to make some pasta for dinner!

Italian word of the post:
    benvenuti a casa - welcome home

Morgan :)

Apparently I am a Healthy Eater Now

Ciao!

So today was my first full day here in Prague and I had a great day!  Besides the fact that the temperature was only in the 40s and it was quite windy we still had fun.  We started our morning by sleeping in a little bit since we are on vacation for the moment :) 

After we got up and moving we decided to go for a walk around the city.  We walked across Charles Bridge and entered the old town square.  The square was packed with people mostly because this is the spot all of the local tours have a meeting point.  When we made our way through the crowds we found there is a local food and spice festival here in Prague this week.  There were a lot of local food vendors and everything smelled amazing!  Since it was around lunch time Erin and I decided to have lunch at one of the vendors.  We ended up choosing the same vendor and got ourselves kielbasa.  The kielbasa was so good, it was huge and I ended up not being able to eat the whole thing. 

But now I give you the reason for this blog post title.  After eating said kielbasa I felt so sick.  And it wasn't just me, Erin felt the same way.  We realized the reason for our sick stomachs right away, we have not eaten that much meat since arriving in Europe almost 2 months ago.  Apparently Italy has made me into a healthy eater after all.  It'll be interesting to return to the US and see how I react then if I am reacting like this right now.

Needless to say, I had a chicken caesar salad for dinner.  I decided to be nice to my stomach this evening.  But I also wanted to try some more local cuisine so I ordered a side of mashed potatoes with sauerkraut along with my salad.  This was the best sauerkraut I have ever eaten!  I thought the stuff I eat at home is good but this kraut was heaven!  I want to pack it in my suitcase and take it home to PA with me.

After a long day of walking and eating Erin and I are both very tired.  It might be from traveling so much or from the cold weather but either way we are both wiped out!  Looks like it'll be an early night for the both of us :) 

I will update again soon!

Czech word of the post:
    Nashledanou - goodbye

Morgan :)

Hello from Prague, Czech Republic!!

Ciao!

After a very very long day of travelng I have arrived safely in Prague!  The journey from Salzburg was exhausting.  We had to take 4 trains, 1 bus, and 2 rides on the Prague metro system just to get to our hostel. 

We arrived here this evening around 7:30 pm then went around the city a little bit looking for a place to eat.  What did we find?!  SUBWAY!  It may not seem like a big deal but it is to us right now considering I have not seen a Subway since I left the US in September.  We also discovered a Starbucks Coffee cafe on our walk around the city as well.  Again, doesn't seem big but Italy and the rest of Europe do not know what a large cup of coffee is!  Needless to say I was pretty excited to see those 2 places here in Prague.  We are here for 3 nights so we plan to get the most out of this city as possible considering our short stay.  Tomorrow we are going to explore the city and maybe do a walking tour.  I am just so happy to be here right now after our crazy journey!  I will give the story of our journey here in another post once I get back to Perugia later this week.

Oh, and it seems we left Salzburg in the knick of time because when we were leaving this morning it was snowing!  There was a good bit of snow on the ground when we got on our first train out of Salzburg.  As I am not a fan of snow I was happy to be leaving when we did.  But this is the earliest I have ever seen snow and also my first time seeing it in a foreign country so it was kind of exciting.

I will update again soon!  I hope everyone has a wonderful start to their week!

I have switched languages once again so here is the Czech word of the post:
    Dobry den - Hello 

Morgan :)

Hello from Salzburg, Austria!!

Ciao!

Hello to everyone from beautiful Salzburg!  I arrived here this morning at 430 am after a 7 hour train ride from Venice, Italy.  It was a long ride but well worth it!  My roommate Erin and I are having a great time so far.

On Friday we spent the day in Venice.  We arrived at 530 am after a long train ride.  We were well rested because we had a sleeper car on the train there which was well worth it.  Venice was beautiful, it was packed with tourists but I have heard that is something you just have to get over.  We had a great day which is a rarity in Venice as it rains (and floods) a lot there.  But we had a whole day just to soak in the beauty of it all then that night we got on a night train to Salzburg.

Today, we went to a castle on top of a mountain here in Salzburg and the views were incredible.  It was like I just stepped into a painting.  We saw the sunset with the Alps as the backdrop and it was an amazing moment, I cant wait to put my pictures up once I get back to Perugia on Friday.  Tomorrow, we are doing the "Sound of Music" tour in the afternoon and I am so excited!  It is something I have always wanted to do and I cannot believe tomorrow is the day, ahh!  I am sure I will have way too many pictures from the tour so my camera is charging up as I write this.  And, before the tour we are watching the movie!  The hostel we are staying at shows the movie everyday at 1030 am.  It going to be a fun filled day of do re mi!

On Monday morning, we are off to Prague in the Czech Republic and spending 3 nights there.  Then on Thursday we are headed to Munich, Germany for one day and flying back to Italy on Friday morning.  Its going to be a crazy schedule but well worth it in the end I am sure!

I will update again soon!

Since I am not in Italy right now I introduce the German word of the post!
    Guten Morgen - Good Morning

Morgan :)

Fall Break Already?!

Ciao!

So midterms are over!!  I had my last midterm yesterday afternoon and this morning I had my last Italian class before Fall break.  I can't believe that I am on Fall break right now, it's crazy!  I don't have any classes until Tuesday November 2nd because November 1st is a national holiday in Italy.  And tonight, my grand adventure begins for my roommate Erin and I! 

I have an overnight train leaving tonight at midnight to Venice.  Friday I will be spending the day in Venice and leaving that night on an overnight train to Salzburg, Austria.  I have 2 days in Austria then I'll be heading to Prague in the Czech Republic.  After spending 3 nights in Prague I am going to Munich, Germany for 1 day then taking a flight from Munich to Pisa, Italy.  I will be back in Perugia on Friday October 29th!  This will definitely be an adventure and I am starting to get a little nervous.  I have never planned a vacation for myself and it's all a bit overwhelming to me.  Hopefully, everything will go off without a hitch!

As I will be gone for 7 days I will not be able to blog very much.  I am hoping to go to an internet cafe if possible to give a quick update of my location so stay tuned for that.  And of course when I return I hope to give a blog update of my entire Fall break! 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far and have a great weekend everybody!

Italian word of the post:
    vacanza - vacation

Morgan :)

P.S. Go Phillies!!  I realize they are down 3-1 at the moment but anything can happen!  As long as the Yankees don't make it I will be a happy camper!  And since I can't watch the rest of the games due to my break I will have to be updated a few days later than all of you.

    

"I See the Colosseum!!!!"

Ciao!

This past weekend may have been one of the best weekends so far!  I went to Rome for three days and I had some great experiences.  Since we have no classes on Fridays here in Perugia we were able to enjoy lots of time in Italy's capital.  So when in Rome....

On Friday morning my roommate Erin and friend Kym started our journey to Rome!  We got up at 5:30 in the morning in order to catch our train at 7 am.  Rome is about 3 hours from Perugia by train and we got there in about 2 hours thanks to the fast train system in Italy.  We got to ride on the Eurostar which is a fast train that can hit speeds up to 250 km/hour, believe me it was fast!  We got to Rome in no time at all :)

Once we got to Rome we checked in at our hostel which was a 2 minute walk from the train station.  I had never stayed in a hostel so I was a little nervous but it all worked out.  We stayed in a 10 bed mixed dorm, we had roommates from New York City, Finland, France, and Australia.  Everyone was really nice and very accommodating so my first hostel experience was an A+.  After checking in we decided to see the sights in Rome.  We first walked to the Pantheon which is one of the oldest churches in all of Italy.  A lot of famous artists and past Italian leaders are buried inside.  There is also a huge hole in the top of the dome called the oculus.  I am not sure what the point of it was but it was still interesting that the hole is still there.  And when it rains you will get wet!

After taking many pictures of the Pantheon we ventured over to the Trevi Fountain.  The Trevi Fountain is famous all over the world and I was blown away when we first saw it.  It is so much larger than I imagined and there were tons of people all around.  One of the biggest reasons people come to the Trevi is to make their wishes.  As the story goes, if you throw 2 coins in you will be ensured a trip back to Rome and find true love.  So we all did it and we even took a video....

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Rome was to see the Colosseum.  I had dreamed about seeing it for a very long time.  When I would be having a bad day at work over the Summer I would say to myself "when you're standing in front of the Colosseum this will all be worth it" and believe me it was!  When I had my first glimpse of the Colosseum on Friday night I couldn't control myself.  My friends laughed at me but I yelled "I see the Colosseum!" when I saw the tiniest piece of it many steps away.  It was such a surreal experience to be standing under such a huge structure.  It's hard to believe but that was only our first day in Rome!

After a very restful nights' sleep we got up Saturday morning and planned to spend almost the entire day in the Vatican City.  We took the metro to a location just outside the Vatican walls and went to the Vatican Museum.  If you ever go to the Vatican Museum please make reservations.  Erin made us reservations before we left and it was well worth it.  The line to get in the museum was almost 3 hours long but with our reservations we went right in.  The museum is huge!  You could spend an entire day in there and still not see everything.  I knew exactly what I wanted to see before going so we headed straight to the Sistine chapel.  It's odd but the Sistine chapel is literally in the museum itself.  There is no photography allowed inside but it was incredible.  When I stepped inside it was an out of body experience.  I am not a big fan of art history but the paintings are unreal.  And just imagining Michelangelo himself painting the ceiling took my breath away.  The chapel is very small but so amazing.  It is also still used today when the cardinals elect a new pope.  I think it seeing the chapel was my favorite part of our weekend.

When we finished with the museum we headed straight to St. Peter's square to see the inside of the basilica.  Walking into St. Peter's square was another unforgettable experience.  The sheer size of it was larger than I had pictured.  We waited in line for about 45 minutes to get into the basilica but it was well worth it because when we got in we saw signs saying we COULD take pictures with flash!  This may not seem like much but considering you can't take pictures inside almost any church in Italy it was incredible we could take as many pictures as we wanted of the biggest basilica in the world!  Needless to say I snapped as many photos as I could.

The greatest part of the basilica is seeing Michelangelo's Pieta.  This is one of his earliest sculptures he did when he was only in his twenties.  It is of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus after he was crucified.  When I first laid eyes on the sculpture I was very moved by it.  It was another one of those moments that just made me speechless.  And best of all we could take pictures of it!  To protect the sculpture it is behind bulletproof glass....

We then walked around the interior of the basilica simple admiring everything we were seeing.  It was so large that I am almost positive I missed some things but it was really amazing to be at the Vatican.

 After viewing the basilica for awhile we headed over to the Colosseum again so that we could see it in the daytime.  Even as I sit here writing this I still can't believe I stood next to the Colosseum.  I have a feeling I won't believe it for awhile.

At this point on Saturday all 3 of us were exhausted.  We had walked so much and seen so many things that our brains couldn't take much more.  To relax we headed for dinner then went to the Trevi fountain at night and ate gelato in front of it.  It was a perfect ending to a wonderful weekend in Rome!

We got back to Perugia around 1:45 this afternoon and I am still pretty exhausted from our Rome adventure.  But I must study for my midterms and it is difficult to do so.  Especially because the Eurochocolate festival is going on right outside our school building.  But midterms will be over on Wednesday afternoon then my fall break begins on Thursday afternoon!  I will post more about my plans for fall break later in the week after my midterms are over :)

I hope everyone had a restful weekend and I want to congratulate the Lebanon Valley football team for winning their homecoming game this past Saturday, way to go dutchmen!!  Also a big congrats to the LVC field hockey team who is 14-0 right now!!  I am so proud to be a dutchmen today :)

Italian word of the post:
    Amico - friend

Have a great week everyone!

Morgan :)

Here is a link to my Facebook so you can see the rest of my photos from Rome!  Enjoy!
    http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=240292&id=604955888&l=f6936a666f

That's Amore!

Ciao!

As I said in my last blog entry last Tuesday night my roommates and I attended a pizza making workshop.  We signed up for this workshop a few weeks ago through Umbra.  There only take 15 students so we were very fortunate to sign up early enough.  We were all looking forward to this class since we signed up so once Tuesday came we couldn't contain our excitement anymore.

At 7 pm on Tuesday we met a few of the Umbra staff members to walk down to "Pizza e Musica", a local pizzeria here in Perugia.  I had never been there before but I heard rave reviews from the Umbra staff and some of my fellow classmates.  Once we arrived at the pizzeria we had a little history lesson on pizza.  We learned that it was supposedly created in Naples, Italy at the pizzeria Brandi (where we ate a few weeks ago!!).  Then we learned how to make a real Italian pizza from the pizzaiolo (pizza maker) at this pizzeria.  The pizzaiolo was from Naples so he knows all of the secrets!  We  learned about the oven that is used to make a pizza and a few students got to make a pizza or two.  I was not one of the students chosen to make a pizza but we all got to watch and learn so it was still a lot of fun.

The oven used to make the pizza..so cool!

 

One of my fellow LVCers Matt learning from our pizzaiolo

Rolling out the dough..by hand!!  

After we learned all about pizza it was time to eat!  We each ordered a pizza of our choice, I had the Perugina pizza which consists of red sauce, mozzarella cheese, and sausage.  It was really really good!  I'm not sure if I could make a pizza like they do here in Italy but I could try when I come home to the states.  I wish I could pack up a pizza or two and ship one to all of you in the US but unfortunately no one has invented the technology yet.  

After we stuffed ourselves with pizza we went back home to study for our Italian midterms which we all took this morning.  I feel as though I did pretty well and we get the results next week.  I also have three more midterms next week so hopefully they all go as well as Italian.  

Tomorrow I am off to Rome, Italy's capitol and a place I have wanted to visit for a very long time!  Myself along with 2 of my friends are going to visit the Colosseum, the Vatican City, and much much more.  I plan to study for my midterms on our 3 hour train ride to and from Rome and do a lot more studying once we return to Perugia on Sunday!  I will update sometime next week but it may not be until later in the week due to my midterm exams.  

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Italian word of the post (for you Dad):

    treno - train

Morgan :)

Umbra Photo of the Month Winner is....

Ciao!

As I previously posted in one of my blog entries, I entered a photo into the Umbra Institute's photo of the month contest.  This afternoon I found out that my photo was selected as the winner!!  This is the photo I entered from my trip to the island of Capri....

 

For my prize I will receive a free pizza from a local pizzeria here in Perugia!  My roommates and I are going to enjoy this very much :)  

You can also see my photo on the Umbra Institute blog and Facebook page..here are the links.

http://umbra-institute.blogspot.com/

 http://www.umbra-institute.com/current.php?id=31

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far!  As for me my roommates and I are going to a pizza making workshop tonight conducted by the Umbra Institute, I can't wait!

Italian word of the post:

    fotografia - photography

Morgan :)

 

Entering a Contrada in old Siena

Ciao!

Yesterday I had a field trip to Siena with my Contemporary Italy: Culture and Society class.  Siena is about an hour and a half from Perugia and it is located in the region of Tuscany.   Siena has a population of about 50,000 and it is a major tourist location.

I really had no idea why we were going to Siena until my class last Wednesday.  My professor explained to us that the Sienese people are still living in the Middle Ages (sort of).  Siena is divided into 17 contrada's.  There is really no English word for contrada but the best way to describe it is a neighborhood of about 3,000 people.  The people of these neighborhoods are very proud of the contrada they come from.  Out tour guide (who is a Native Sienese woman) told us that your contrada comes first, then your family.  You do not get to choose your contrada, it is wherever your parents lived before they had you.  And what is very interesting is parents can be of a different contrada than their children and brothers and sisters may even be different from one another. 

The pride of each contrada can be seen twice a year on July 2nd and August 16th.  These are the days of the "Il Palio".  The Palio is a famous horse race dating back to the year 1260.  There are 10 horses that race around the main piazza in Siena and whatever contrada wins gets bragging rights for a whole year and a nice silk banner.  There is only a first place winner, the second horse to finish is the first loser.  And these races are taken very very seriously by the Sienese people.  About 45,000 people are in the piazza on the day of the race.  Each contrada is represented once a year (twice if you are lucky enough to win a lottery and make it to the August 16th Palio).  I have put a link below to a Youtube clip that our professor showed us in class before we went to Siena.  This clip pretty much says it all....take a look!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM0YqFJrypk

After hearing about the pride each contrada has for itself I was so excited to visit Siena.  When we arrived, we took a tour of the town including the famous Piazza Il Campo (where the Palio horse race is held).  It was such a beautiful day that it made our field trip that much more enjoyable.

 

After a tour of Siena and a wonderful lunch we headed to meet our tour guide, Nicoletta who was going to take us to a contrada.  After our learning in class I just assumed that anyone could go into a contrada but this is definitely not the case.  Only the members of that contrada can go into it.  Our class had special permission to enter this particular contrada because the tour guide was friends with one of the members and she is native to Siena as well.

We entered the contrada and went to their museum.  Here we saw all of the contrada Palio banners they had ever won, one of the banners even dated back to 1736, pretty incredible.  We then watched a video of their last Palio victory and had a tour of their church.  Each contrada has their own church and each member is baptized into their own contrada.  It was so interesting to see an actual contrada because most people do not get the chance to ever do this.  I felt like we had entered a secret society (you know about this dad, haha!). 

Two of the banners from the Palio race (these are floor to ceiling)....

 The church of this contrada (notice the contrada flags hanging around the altar)....

 After our visit and tour we left the contrada and enjoy some free time to explore Siena.  A group of us went to get some almond cookies that are native to Siena.  They were absolutely delicious!  I bought a couple cookies and I am going to eat them sparingly because they are so good!  We also went to get some gelato (of course!) and we saw the most beautiful sight....gelato with real fruit in it!!

 

I had one scoop of pineapple and one scoop of strawberry and it was amazing!  The real fruit was right in the gelato and it was so fresh!  

After walking off our gelato we headed to our bus and came back to Perugia about 7:30 pm.  It was a long day but we all had a really great time!  I am so happy we had the once in a lifetime chance of actually visiting a contrada, it is something I will never forget.

Now I am back in Perugia and preparing for my week of classes.  I have my Italian midterm this Thursday and my three other midterms are the following week.  I cannot believe it is time for midterms already, time is surely flying away from me and I am not sure how I feel about this.  I don't think I will ever be ready to leave this beautiful place!  I am trying to enjoy every moment and every day I am here :) 

Perugia is also preparing for something big....EUROCHOCOLATE!!  This is an annual festival held every October for ten days!  Lots of chocolate companies are represented and there are chocolate festivities held all ten days including chocolate carvings and free samples.  Needless to say I am one happy camper right now because yesterday they starting setting up for it.  There are tents being set up in the piazza and you can tell something big is coming our way.  The festival runs from October 15-24.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!  I miss you all so much!!

Italian words of the post (my gelato flavors):

    fragola - strawberry

    ananas - pineapple

Morgan :)

P.S. GO PHILLIES!!!!  Even though I can't watch the games (I do watch the highights the next day) I am still rooting all the way from Italy!!  Beat those Reds tonight!!!!

Hiking, Eating, and Planning!!

Ciao!

I am so sorry I have not updated since last week but my classes are starting to get hectic.  We have to start thinking about our final papers for many of our classes and it's crazy to think about finals already.  And midterms are just two weeks away(crazy!).  But this past week has been a lot of fun and it was nice to stay around Perugia for a weekend.

As I mentioned in my last post I had to go to the police station (called the Questura in Italian) last Wednesday to finish my permit of stay duties so that I am a legal citizen of Perugia until December.  My appointment at the Questura was scheduled for 8:30 in the morning, since my Italian class doesn't begin until 11:00 am everyday it was hard to get up at 7 am for once.  But I got there early so I could be one of the first people in line so I could make it to Italian on time.  When I got to the first person at the immigration office in the police building I realized that only one man spoke English (and he spoke very little English).  He told me to go to get my fingerprints taken in a separate building and that the building opened at 8:45 am.  Well, that building didn't open until 9:30 am and so I had to wait outside in the cold for awhile. 

It was an interesting experience to have my fingerprints taken.  The man spoke no English and he asked for my parents names and since my parents do not have Italian names it was hard for him to understand the spelling.  So I had to spell the names in Italian, luckily he realized I don't speak much Italian and he let me write it down.  He then put my information into a computer (hair color, eye color, height, etc.).  It's kind of unnerving to know the Italian government now has all of my information.  But I got done at the Questura around 10:30 am and I made it to Italian on time.  Now, I am free to live in Perugia until December, woohoo!

I didn't have plans for the weekend because I wanted to plan some trips for later in the semester so on Friday I decided to go hiking with my roommate Jessica.  Umbra organized a trip to visit Spoleto to hike Mt. Monteluco.  A group of five of us and one Umbra staff member traveled to Spoleto by train (remembering to validate our tickets of course) and met with one of the professors and we hiked to the top of Monteluco!  The hike took a little more than an hour and it was uphill the entire way!  We were all very sweaty and tired by the time we got to the top but the views were incredible!  As these pictures show the views were well worth the hike to the top....

 

 

After taking in the amazing views of Spoleto we headed to lunch.  The restaurant we ate at was at the top of this mountain and it was the best meal ever (I realize I say this on every blog post but I cannot get over the food in Italy, so yummy!).  I had pasta with red sauce and mushrooms and this brownie custard dessert.  And of course we had red wine to drink, the Italians say that wine is their gasoline, and I agree :)  We hiked down the mountain after lunch and enjoyed some free time in Spoleto while we waited for our train back to Perugia. 

On Saturday morning I met up with two of my fellow LVCers, Matt and Kaitlin and their roommates and we all went to the Saturday market in Perugia.  We didn't buy anything but it is just fun to walk around seeing everything the market has to offer.  For lunch we were all craving American food so we went to McDonald's!  I'm not sure if the fries tasted better because of my lack of fries or because they are just better but I had the best french fries ever!  Sometimes, you just need a little McDonald's in your diet I guess :)

Afterwards, we went back to Matt and Kaitlin's apartment to plan a weekend trip we are taking in November.  And yesterday we booked our flight to London for November 18-21!  We are leaving that Thursday night from Rome and heading to London for three nights!  I am so excited (and for those of you who are not aware of what that weekend is I will explain)....

November 19th is the release date for the first part of the final movie of the Harry Potter series!  Being a Harry Potter nerd I cannot wait for this movie!  Before I came to Italy it was my dream to go to London for this movie release and now that I am definitely going I am so anxious for this trip.  We might not be able to see the movie because you cannot book tickets for the movie this early in advance but we will still do Harry Potter nerdy stuff all weekend long.  And hopefully see the movie :)

This coming weekend I have a field trip to Siena on Saturday with my Contemporary Italy: Culture and Society class.  I am not sure what we will be seeing yet but I will update as soon as I can.  This weekend is also a preparation weekend for my upcoming trips.  The weekend of October 15-17 I am going to Rome for three days!  And Fall break is coming up very quickly and I am planning on going to Venice, Vienna, Prague, and Munich!  I cannot wait for all of my excursions and I am so excited to share them all with you when I return to Perugia.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I will update as soon as I can!  

Italian word of the post:

    viaggiare - to travel

Morgan :)