Dear Reader(s),
This weekend I went to 4 different places in Italy; Ferrara, Padova, Vigonza and Venezia.
The trip was arranged by Dani, one of the gang, and there was 10 of us in total. We had to get up extremely early on Saturday morning to catch an extremely early train to Ferrara, our first stop. Ferrara is a pretty and small city which I quite like. There was an outdoor market and despite the freezing cold the place was cute. At lunch time we went on our next train to our next stop: Padova, we ate our packed lunches on the train :) Padova I LOVE. It is beautiful and peaceful and I definitely want to return one day. It was all Christmassy with the outdoor market and Christmas lights. I got myself an icecream which was Ricotta, fig and honey flavoured - absolutely the best flavour of icecream I have ever had in my LIFE.
Next stop was Vigonza, but only for the night, we arrived quite late and Dani had found the best little hostel, it was literally just one small chalet run by the waitress who worked next door in the pizzeria. It had 10 beds, a kitchen and a bathroom and after we'd paid our 12€ each she came back with 2 free pizzas and a bottle of fizzy wine! Again, despite the freezing cold, we were all OK.
Up early again on the Sunday and we got our penultimate train to Venezia. Annoyingly it was an extremely foggy day and, again, freezing, but we made the most of the time there and saw as much as we could. Venezia, as everyone knows, is beautiful. I bought myself an authentic mask for a souvenir and it will forever be on my wall wherever I live, not just as a memory of Venice, but a memory of Erasmus and being a student :)
We got a train home late evening and with extremely cold and tired legs we were back in the residenza by 21.30 ready for a good long sleep!
My next trip is looking like Torino on 9th and 10th December, but we'll see...
A presto!
Monday 21 November 2011
Roma TOMAAA
Dear Reader(s),
Sorry I haven't blogged about the weekend of 11th-13th November, but I'm on it now.
An extremely early start on Friday 11th November saw me up and ready for the bus to Rome with ESN Modena. It was a trip organised by ESN (Erasmus Student Network) and for 175€ we had 3 days in Rome, all travel included, all tours included, hotel and breakfast included, parties included. Not bad?
The weekend was AWESOME. After a 6 hour bus journey we arrived in Rome and left our bags in the hotel. We went on immediately to find the Colosseum, which was stunning. After that we saw some more sights before the light was gone and we found somewhere for our apperitivi. Dinner and preparation for the first disco then ensued; it was pretty good, far more cosmopolitan than the usual (baluardo) and the music was pretty good. The night ended with our disco bus home straight to our door, at 4.30am.
After minimal sleep we were up for our included breakfast (sugary croissants and coffee machine) and ready for the next day seeing Rome. We saw a lot more sights, including my favourites: Trevi Fountain and the Vatican. The Trevi Fountain is so beautiful, I loved it, and combined with the fact that the weather for the whole weekend was literally perfect (nothing but sun, but still crisp, cold and fresh) meant that photos of the weekend are simply beautiful. The Vatican was amazing, and my only regret of the weekend is that we got the timings wrong and the decision to see the Vatican before the Sistine Chapel meant that we missed the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican was stunning, I made sure that I had photos of the Pope's balcony for Dave (who never says 'yes' but 'does the pope have a balcony?') and despite extremely tired feet we made the most of it and saw the whole thing.
After that we made our way to find a pizza and fanta, followed by shower and disco bus to the second disco, which was AMAZING. Literally the best club I've ever been in. The lights and music and atmosphere was so stunning, I loved every second and didn't even realise the time was passing when people started to leave at 5.30am to get the disco bus home!
Again, only a few hours of sleep later, we were up and sugary-croissant-ing early ready for as much of Rome as we could see in the short time before the bus was due to leave. We saw more sights, mostly piazzas and the like, and then exhaustedly we trooped back to the bus, put our ipods in our ears, and slept the whole way til lunch.
Finally, after the lunch stop, the 3 Italian ESN reps made the weekend Erasmus votes on who was the biggest lad and who was the biggest ladette. I won the title of 'Miss Ubriacana' aka Miss Lad! It was basically because I had taught them all the 'Castle Ranger' chant, and then translated it to fit with being Modenese!
All in all the weekend was AWESOME and extremely tiring. I ended the weekend with a solid 12 hours sleep.
A presto...
Sorry I haven't blogged about the weekend of 11th-13th November, but I'm on it now.
An extremely early start on Friday 11th November saw me up and ready for the bus to Rome with ESN Modena. It was a trip organised by ESN (Erasmus Student Network) and for 175€ we had 3 days in Rome, all travel included, all tours included, hotel and breakfast included, parties included. Not bad?
The weekend was AWESOME. After a 6 hour bus journey we arrived in Rome and left our bags in the hotel. We went on immediately to find the Colosseum, which was stunning. After that we saw some more sights before the light was gone and we found somewhere for our apperitivi. Dinner and preparation for the first disco then ensued; it was pretty good, far more cosmopolitan than the usual (baluardo) and the music was pretty good. The night ended with our disco bus home straight to our door, at 4.30am.
After minimal sleep we were up for our included breakfast (sugary croissants and coffee machine) and ready for the next day seeing Rome. We saw a lot more sights, including my favourites: Trevi Fountain and the Vatican. The Trevi Fountain is so beautiful, I loved it, and combined with the fact that the weather for the whole weekend was literally perfect (nothing but sun, but still crisp, cold and fresh) meant that photos of the weekend are simply beautiful. The Vatican was amazing, and my only regret of the weekend is that we got the timings wrong and the decision to see the Vatican before the Sistine Chapel meant that we missed the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican was stunning, I made sure that I had photos of the Pope's balcony for Dave (who never says 'yes' but 'does the pope have a balcony?') and despite extremely tired feet we made the most of it and saw the whole thing.
After that we made our way to find a pizza and fanta, followed by shower and disco bus to the second disco, which was AMAZING. Literally the best club I've ever been in. The lights and music and atmosphere was so stunning, I loved every second and didn't even realise the time was passing when people started to leave at 5.30am to get the disco bus home!
Again, only a few hours of sleep later, we were up and sugary-croissant-ing early ready for as much of Rome as we could see in the short time before the bus was due to leave. We saw more sights, mostly piazzas and the like, and then exhaustedly we trooped back to the bus, put our ipods in our ears, and slept the whole way til lunch.
Finally, after the lunch stop, the 3 Italian ESN reps made the weekend Erasmus votes on who was the biggest lad and who was the biggest ladette. I won the title of 'Miss Ubriacana' aka Miss Lad! It was basically because I had taught them all the 'Castle Ranger' chant, and then translated it to fit with being Modenese!
All in all the weekend was AWESOME and extremely tiring. I ended the weekend with a solid 12 hours sleep.
A presto...
Monday 7 November 2011
Matt's Visit
Dear Reader(s),
The much anticipated visit of Matt Funnell has already been and gone; our 78 days apart followed by our 5 (more like 4 and a bit) days together seem to have gone by in the quickest flash. I can't believe how awesome living in Modena actually is!
Matt arrived a bit earlier than expected - got his times wrong dint he! - and we went from Bologna airport all the way to Florence together. We got on the train at Bologna and sat in the first free seats we found, then were told that some old people had reserved them, so moved to the seats right next to them, only to discover, on closer inspection of our ticket, that we were actually now sitting in the seats and carriage allocated to us! I couldn't get over this strange coincidence, so took the first photo of the holiday "Matt hold the ticket and look surprised at what's just happened!" (see facebook if you have any interest in the photos: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150939261625019.767822.775360018&type=1)
Florence is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to, and I am lucky enough to say I've been twice now, once with my best friend Hannah, once with my boyfriend Matt. We saw all the sights that we could in our 2-ish days there, Galleria dell'Accademia - statue of David, Uffizi Gallery - Birth of Venus, the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria, Santa Croce, soooo many gelateria's, the Ponte Vecchio, the view point of the city and more. We now have VERY tired feet and legs as we were up and out by 9:30am each morning, and didn't get back from our dinner until about 10pm each night!
We then went to Modena, so that I could show Matt where I live, and also show him off to my friends. We went out for dinner with the gang to 'i Picari' (where we went the second night too) and then on for a coffee at another bar afterwards. It was lush and Christina and Matt discussed the current football match (which was both their teams against each other) Sunday, our last full day, Matt and I had a chilled day (still up early) in the centro. Unfortunately it was raining, so we got a bit wet getting into the centro, but apart from that we were taking shelter looking in shops and having coffees/ ice creams/ cokes/ lunch etc.
All in all Matt's visit was LUSH and it was very difficult to say good bye this morning at the station for Matt's Aerbus. Well, only 56 days til we next see each other, 30% less than last time!
A presto...
The much anticipated visit of Matt Funnell has already been and gone; our 78 days apart followed by our 5 (more like 4 and a bit) days together seem to have gone by in the quickest flash. I can't believe how awesome living in Modena actually is!
Matt arrived a bit earlier than expected - got his times wrong dint he! - and we went from Bologna airport all the way to Florence together. We got on the train at Bologna and sat in the first free seats we found, then were told that some old people had reserved them, so moved to the seats right next to them, only to discover, on closer inspection of our ticket, that we were actually now sitting in the seats and carriage allocated to us! I couldn't get over this strange coincidence, so took the first photo of the holiday "Matt hold the ticket and look surprised at what's just happened!" (see facebook if you have any interest in the photos: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150939261625019.767822.775360018&type=1)
Florence is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to, and I am lucky enough to say I've been twice now, once with my best friend Hannah, once with my boyfriend Matt. We saw all the sights that we could in our 2-ish days there, Galleria dell'Accademia - statue of David, Uffizi Gallery - Birth of Venus, the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria, Santa Croce, soooo many gelateria's, the Ponte Vecchio, the view point of the city and more. We now have VERY tired feet and legs as we were up and out by 9:30am each morning, and didn't get back from our dinner until about 10pm each night!
We then went to Modena, so that I could show Matt where I live, and also show him off to my friends. We went out for dinner with the gang to 'i Picari' (where we went the second night too) and then on for a coffee at another bar afterwards. It was lush and Christina and Matt discussed the current football match (which was both their teams against each other) Sunday, our last full day, Matt and I had a chilled day (still up early) in the centro. Unfortunately it was raining, so we got a bit wet getting into the centro, but apart from that we were taking shelter looking in shops and having coffees/ ice creams/ cokes/ lunch etc.
All in all Matt's visit was LUSH and it was very difficult to say good bye this morning at the station for Matt's Aerbus. Well, only 56 days til we next see each other, 30% less than last time!
A presto...
Wednesday 2 November 2011
Updates and Excitement
Dear Reader(s),
Previously in my life...
Sig. Setti has given my number to another Italian mamma who would like to use my 'skills and abilities' as she put it, to help her daughters' education. I now have two more students, Sara and Martina, (ages 12 and 15) who want me for an hour a week to teach English conversation, grammar and pronunciation, along with help with their piano practice. I went to Sig. Richeldi's apartment on Monday to have a meeting and talk logistics, and it is such a beautiful apartment. Like the Setti's, the Richeldi's clearly have a lot of money, their apartment is right in the centre of the centro, literally on Via Emilia, and above the clothing shop 'Stefanel'. It is modern and monochrome, not to my taste, but still beautiful.
The excitement that is pretty much consuming me today is the fact that Matt Funnell will be with me in Italy in exactly 24 hours. Our plan is:
~ Meet in Bologna airport
~ Take a train to Firenze
~ Spend three days in Firenze seeing the sites; I never thought I'd be lucky enough to see the Statue of David twice in my life
~ Take a train to Modena
~ Spend two days in Modena, I will show him Baluardo and the other attractions
~ Say good bye on Monday morning :(
Today is my first lesson with Sara.
A presto...
Previously in my life...
Sig. Setti has given my number to another Italian mamma who would like to use my 'skills and abilities' as she put it, to help her daughters' education. I now have two more students, Sara and Martina, (ages 12 and 15) who want me for an hour a week to teach English conversation, grammar and pronunciation, along with help with their piano practice. I went to Sig. Richeldi's apartment on Monday to have a meeting and talk logistics, and it is such a beautiful apartment. Like the Setti's, the Richeldi's clearly have a lot of money, their apartment is right in the centre of the centro, literally on Via Emilia, and above the clothing shop 'Stefanel'. It is modern and monochrome, not to my taste, but still beautiful.
The excitement that is pretty much consuming me today is the fact that Matt Funnell will be with me in Italy in exactly 24 hours. Our plan is:
~ Meet in Bologna airport
~ Take a train to Firenze
~ Spend three days in Firenze seeing the sites; I never thought I'd be lucky enough to see the Statue of David twice in my life
~ Take a train to Modena
~ Spend two days in Modena, I will show him Baluardo and the other attractions
~ Say good bye on Monday morning :(
Today is my first lesson with Sara.
A presto...
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