fallas -petardos

What, you ask, are petardos?
Firecrackers, but in an entirely unfamiliar culture. Here, it's totally chill for little kids to throw petardos, although there are age limits on buying the largest ones. I saw a precious little girl throwing cherrybombs? from her stroller, so young that she couldnt give them the velocity to pop. I saw kids, no older than 4 years old, lighting petardos with their parents.
As children ourselves, we obviously had some fun. Yours truly did not herself throw petardos, but did experience the explosion of a watermelon and various other fruits.
as someone told us, you can tell the americans because they jump. As hard as we tried not to jump, it was basically impossible.
The most dangerous petardos were the borrachos (literally: drunks), which would go off, spin around and fly around a bit, then go off again, spin around and travel, and go off again, all the while spraying sparks. They were kind of scary, but we're all safe now.

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fallas - the castillo

The castillo was the nightly fireworks display. Initially 15 minutes long, on the last night it was an amazing 30 minute show. It was held in the Rio, an old riverbed turned park - and we were lucky enough to watch from one of the bridges crossing the Rio.
After the castillo, everyone turns out to the streets for a night of debauchery. For ninos, it meant just throwing petardos. For teenagers, it meant drinking and street parties (verbenas- dancing party in the street). (Each Falla also had their own private tent and party going.) For senior citizens, it meant wandering around and looking at the fallas and street lights. And all this at the same time!

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fallas - la mascleta

From march 1 to march 18, a mascleta is held in la plaza de la ayuntamiento (think main square) at 2pm. During Fallas (the last four days before march 18, when the real party happens), many of the fallas will also have their own mascletas.
The mascleta (pronounced mas-kle-TA) is a celebration of fireworks, mostly enjoyed for its sonic boom qualities. Five minutes of ear popping petardos (firecrackers), sparkling mortars and sometimes colorful smoke. Its quite a sight- but during Fallas you'd have to get to the plaza at least 45 minutes early in order to be close enough to see it!

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fallas - las fallas

fallas, the monuments, are pretty spectacular. They're not just large paper-mache statues; they're characterized by a fallas style, and they all carry themes of social and political criticism. The writing on them is, unfortunately for me, all in valenciano, the traditional language de Valencia, which is a sort of bridge between Spanish and French, but it renders the fallas difficult to understand.
Luckily, our friend Gerson showed us around the most important fallas and translated bits and pieces.
One of my favorite fallas was that of the Plaza de Polar. It's main figure was a VirginVlike maternal figure with child, and its themes centered around the family - respect, the role of grandparents, birth control (did you know that speaking french is a form of contraception :P ).
Another of my favorites was about the effects of global warming. It included a figure with huge boobs, saying 'at least all the chemicals are making boobs bigger'.
There was even one about Americans - featuring a giant donut, the Simpsons and an overweight David (the classical structure). (shown above)

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falleras

If I cant be a Nasrid princess when I grow up, I want to be a fallera. These traditional, gorgeous girls are a key element of Fallas. Not only are they beautiful, the falleras offer "la ofrenda" - flowers which grow to cover a huge statue of the Virgin Mary- in a parade so regal and pretty it takes two days to complete. The Fallera Mayor also leads many important ceremonies. Falleras range from babies not yet out of the stroller to their mothers, but the standard age is teenagers.
(P.s. there are some fallerOs too - but the boys are just not as impressive!)

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fallas (part 1)

Even two days before fallas, we still had no idea what we were getting into. We werent sure what we were supposed to see or do, and nobody could really explain to us what fallas *was*.
I still cant quite explain. The closest it gets is "the fourth of july on crack", but that can't explain the artistic elements blended with the cultural, political and general debauchery-ical elements.
Key elements and definitions:
Mascleta: A daily fireworks display emphasizing sound.
Falla: a: the celebration of Fallas; b: the neighborhood organization that funds and organizes their own celebration; c: the monument/statue/structure of artistic merit whose burning characterizes Fallas.
Castillo: The nightly fireworks display emphasizing the visual.
Bunnuelos/churros/chocolate- Fallas treats! Bunyuelos are like donuts with pumpkin added. Churros are like donut sticks, but they come covered sugar, dunked in chocolate and filled with creme (or any combination of the above). Both treats are customary to be dunked in hot chocolate - which is rich and thick like pudding.
Lights- Big lights decorations are part of Fallas as well. Think Christmas lights on crack, albeit on the neighborhood scale.

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Gandia

Gandia was pretty tame. We went to see the ducal palace, where San Francesco de Borja lived. It was pretty.
Afterwards, we had time to wander the town, but it was raining so we found a nice yogurt place to eat lunch in and that was that.

Coming up next: ¡Fallas!

L'Oceanografic

Valencia is (recently) home to the Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias (city of arts and sciences), a museum complex outfitted in beautiful state of the art buildings. We visited one of the museums, the aquarium L'Oceanografic, one Saturday.
It was pretty cool - highlights including a shark tunnel, where you could walk underneath the sharks, and the dolphin show. The animal rights activist in me got really sad at the dolphin show - the whole enslaving animals to amuse us thing. But then I figured that those dolphins were probably too domestic to survive in the wild anyway, so I got over it.

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Sevilla, day 2

My first full day in Sevilla started with a bumbled breakfast in the hostel kitchen. Turns out I still have no idea how to use a coffee maker, but someone else started a pot, so it turned out okay.
I headed to the Alcazar, the royal palace first created by Muslim rulers, and subsequently added to and used by later Christian rulers. The Alcazar is gorgeous - rooms full of plaster decorations, geometric pattern mazes (think inspiration of Escher), and hug expanses of gardens. There were even peacocks in the gardens. Peacocks! It was a surreal dreamworld to the past, that was hard to shake as I left. I stopped in a little art gallery on my way out, where i met the artist - a nice old man who told me about his work and his time in NYC.
Next goal was perusing the streets of the old city and a recharge for the phone.
Then, I headed to the Cathedral, which was once the site of a Mosque. The mosque fell in an earthquake, but its minaret survived to become a gothic cathedral's bell tower. The Cathedral was impressive, but overwhelming in its detail. I also stopped in another church, which was only slightly calmer.
In the evening, I walked a bit more of the city, revisiting the plaza de espanya and heading across the bridge to Trianna for a bit.
On Sunday, I found myself with a rainy drab morning and a massive blister, so I ended up just chillin all morning. But in Madrid, I had an hour to transfer, so I investigated the Caixa Forum, a contemporary art museum wih stunning architecture that Caroline and I hadnt been able to find during our trip. It had an interesting film exhibit open about the blurred lines of reality in documentary films. Then I rushed back to the train station and headed home.

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la Ciudad Fallera

One of our first Fridays in Valencia, we headed out to the Ciudad Fallera to see a museum about how they make the fallas, and also the talleres, where they make the fallas. It was enlightening to think about how much work and money (a lot) goes into these masterpieces before their fire-y end.

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Sevilla

Ahhh...Sevilla. I loved Sevilla. Sunny, warm, oozing with rich art culture history. Every moment was picture perfect.
I took an ealr morning train to Madrid, where I transferred and was on the way to Sevilla, where I arrived about mid-day.
After a short tussle with unnamed/misnamed streets, I checked into my very friendly hostel and then went for a quick walk on my own.
Then, I took a "free wlking tour" - a guide (from the Netherlands) showed us around, explaining the history and interesting tidbits about each site, all for tips. We walked all around the Old City, including (but not limited to) the Cathedral, the Alcazar, the Jewish Quarter, the Plaza de Espanya, the riverside, and the bullfighting rink.
At the end of the day, the hostel enjoyed a great cookout on the rooftop terrace. It was a bit chilly but the burgers and sangria were perfect, as well as hearing the mix of Americans, Indians, Germans, Jews, etc, talk.

san vicente martir!

hola a todos!

san vicente martir is a street near where i live, but it was also the cause for some celebrations and parades the first saturday i was here (two weeks ago). i took some pictures and some videos, although the picture/sound quality isn't that great.
it was pretty cool though. first i stumbled across a traditional-y type band who seemed to be just wandering around, stopping in churches, and playing. then, i headed to the plaza de la reina, where the parade started from the cathedral. the parade consisted of some ordinary people, some priests, some military members, a band, and a large statue type thing being carried around with incense (not all in that order though). it was interesting.

Valenbisi

Valenbisi is our local bicycle renting system! It's super easy and handy and fun to say :)
For a yearly rental fee, one can ride the bikes practically free whenever and from whichever station.
I'm a fan, although I recognize that biking in flat flat Valencia is no preparation for the hills of Charlottesville.

Valencian stores

Just a tidbit of commercial information.
In Valencia, we have three main chain grocery stores: Mercadona, Consum and Diia. There's also a Carrefour, which Caroline and I also saw in France and Italy, but its on the other side of town (and I think there's just one).
We have an interesting Dunkin Donuts ripoff:

Cortes Ingles is the big name spanish deparment store. A full store often has 6-8 stores, and if they cant find the space theyll split it into home, clothes, etc stores. The irony is that "Cortes Ingles" means " English Cut", so I have no idea why its the main department store in every Spanish city.

Also of commercial importance are the "chinos" - little dollar stores that sell a bit of everything, randomly assorted and aged.

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la Alhambra,

We woke up early to see the Alhambra. It was a chilly morning, but worth it because the site was practically empty. Traveling in the off season definitely has its perks. The main attraction of the Alhambra is the Nasrid palaces- full of fountains, reflecting pools, intensely complicated Escher patterns, elaborate scrollwork, Arabic inscriptions, etc. It’s details are awesome, although I had trouble imagining the use of each room (how did people adminstrate back then anyway?). It was also really cool to see the Arabic inscriptions, because they had survived. The palace was inhabited by some very Catholic monarchs, but the religious Islamic inscriptions survived because the monarchs didn’t recognize it as religious writings!

We wandered through the gardens and the Alcazaba and then got really hungry-tired. We ended up on a sidewalk café wondering how to ask for a menu, just sunning ourselves and getting sleepy. Afterwards, we shopped around for a while, but couldn’t find a pelleteria. We had another cup of tea at the hostel and used the Internet, then caught our train to Madrid.

When we got to Madrid, we decided to walk the 1 kilometer to our unconfirmed hostel. It wasn’t the best idea, because it was all uphill, but it was cheap and easy to navigate. The hostel we wanted was difficult to locate/ring, so we went around the corner to the cat’s hostel. It was loud and more people than we wanted, but it had a women’s dorm, was cheap and we were very tired.

granada

13 january 2011

We hadn’t committed to a specific hostel in Granada yet, so after taking the bus into town, we headed to the closes one, Oasis’ Backpacker’s Hostel. It turned out to be a lucky hit – they gave us breakfst and then we went on an awesome walking tour. We walked through the Muslim quarter, the Jewish quarter, the gypsy caves and a good chunk of the Old city, with semi-historical narration by our stoner guide. Afterwards, Caroline took a nap and I went to pick up our tickets for the Alhambra. It was a warm, sunny afternoon – hard to believe it was January.

When I got back, caroline and I went to a flamenco gig. It was a little hard to find, but well worth the search and the 6 euros each (plus drinks and tapas). It was a 3 man band – one singer, one guitarist and one clapper/dancer. The singer was really hard to understand, due to the style. But the dancing was really impressive – like tap on crack. It was very enjoyable.

the night train

The first thing I noticed about taking the train out of Barcelona was that Spanish trains have more security and are less smooth in their running. Previously, we stopped four times for border control between Montpelier and Barcelona, and when we left Barcelona for Granada, they scanned our bags and checked our tickets twice before we boarded.

We shared our compartment with two sweet old ladies. Caroline managed to help them with their luggage, and I scrabbled together some translating.

We ate our bread and cheese in the train cafeteria. We looked super scrappy next to the swanky bar and the people in business attire – sitting on the floor, eating cheese and nutella on bread with a gelato spoon and swigging from a shared two liter of Fanta Limon.

In general, the train was pretty nice and we got to Granada around 8:30am.

more vis!

12 january 2011

In the morning, we headed back to San Juan on the metro. After another number, some writing, and some paperwork, they stapled a stamped piece of paper into my passport. It was sadly exhilarating, but gratifying to finally get something after all that work.

Since we were in the north of the city, we walked up to Park Güell, a parked designed by Gaudi for a failed up-scale housing development. The gates looked like the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel. The famous Gaudi chameleon, a 3D mosaic, is also there. We wandered sleepily through the paths, admiring the views of the city, the trees, and the random gaudi-ness – columns, gates, aqueducfs, etc.

We took the metero down to La Rambla, and wandered along on the port and the beach for a while. It was cold, but nice. When we got back, we grabbed our bags and headed to the train station for our night train to Granada.

gaudi....

11 january 2011

La Sagrada Familia was amazing. Gaudi, the architect, died before it was completed, and they’re constructing it from what remains of his plans (anarchists destroyed his workshop). It’s incredibly complex and very purposefully designed. The outside is heavy, ornately sculped with massive spires and a hint of gingerbread meltiness, but the inside is open, light, like being in a forest and like being an ant looking up at flowers simultaneously. There are twin spiral staircases like the ones in St. Carlo and gorgeous stained glass windows full of symbolism. Gaudi even designed a whole new type of column to support his church. It’s an amazing thing, started in the early 1900’s, and it MIGHT be finished by 2050.

After la Sagrada Familia, we went to the station on c/ Guadalajara to figure out my visa declaration of entry. They sent us to a government office on San Juan, who tried to send us back to Guadalajara, and ultimately told us to come back tomorrow, before noon.

We headed back down Garcia, which had some fab architecture, including Gaudi’s Casa Milo and Casa Batallo and grabbed some food at la Boqueria.

entering spain

Entering spain was a jumble of visa problems, language fears (caroline - i don't speak spanish! me- i don't speak catalan!), but barcelona was a great city. really, really great.

We got to Barcelona with little problem and made our way to Itaca Hostel. At the train station, they told me that I could take care of my visa stamp at a police station, so we asked the woman at the reception and stopped by the local station. They sent us to a station on “Guadalajara”, but we didn’t know where that was and couldn’t find it on the map, so we shopped around and put it off. When the lock-out ended, we returned to the hostel. Caroline napped a bit, while I used the wi-fi to check out the police station/visa situation. After vast amounts of searching, I found the address. We made a plan to stop by after seeing la Sagrada Familia the next day. Caroline decided to nap a little more, so I went and wandered along La Rambla (and got, inevitably, lost). Then we went to dinner at a little café. Caroline got the menu del dia – fish soup and a fried fish. I got the Spanish tortilla – an omelet with potato chunks. It was all VERY salty, but pretty good.

on the papal path

9 january 2011

We slept in a bit in Avignon, then started out to find something to do. We planned to tour Avignon on Sunday the 9^th, and Nîmes on Monday, leaving for Barcelona on Monday night.

The museum Lapidaire wasn’t open when we started out, so we wandered off towards the market, which was full of delicious looking foods (and a used book market). Then we headed to the train station, where the train schedules quickly changed our travel plans. We decided to visit Nîmes that afternoon, so we could leave for Barcelona on Monday morning at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. We raced up to the palais de pape, where we didn’t enter, but did meander through it’s park and admire its view of the countryside. We found a myrtle tree too, with beautiful smelling seeds.

We picked up some bread and cheese at the market on the way back to the train station, and hopped the commuter train to Nîmes. The cheese was very strong, but delicious. In Nîmes, we investigated Maisson Carree, an ancient roman temple that had a modern architectural partner. The buses weren’t running to pont’du gard, the aqueduct Caroline wanted to see, so we wandered around Nîmes until our train left for Avignon.

Being Sunday, the night's sugary search left us crepe-less, and thus I must wait til Paris to fill the crepe-shaped hole in my heart.

home is a blue suitcase - leaving italy

8 january 2011

We spent all day on trains headed from Milan to Ventimiglia, to Nice, and then to Avignon. The area around Ventimiglia is gorgeous – vast overlooks of blue-green sea on one side, with steep terraced mountains on the other, both sides bespeckled with fishing villages.

We safely arrived in Avignon, and splurged a little on a hotel close to the town. The hotel felt like heaven after the Milan hostel – hot water, clean, sweet-smelling rooms, lavendar body wash (the avignon region is famous for lavendar), and fast, reliable wi-fi.

We went out for a lovely dinner, accidentally ordering an entire bottle of wine, but it ended up being a perfect night out.

leaving venice, fracaso in milan

7 january 2011

The morning we left Venice – we packed up early and headed to the Carlo Scarpa museum, designed by a Venetian architect Caroline admires. This set a new tone for my travels: while in Rome, we had stopped by many random churches, but while traveling with just my sister, we spent our spare wanderings researching architectural wonders. I really enjoyed the structure and detail it gave our tourings.

On our way back to the train, we picked up some delicious chocolate panettone (hey mom!) – rich chocolate-y bread with a hard chocolate shell and nutella-y filling.

We took the train to Milan, which quickly became a letdown. We metro-ed out to our hostel, only to find it to be a hook-up joint on the weekends – not quite clean, run-down, loud, cold. We headed back into the city to see the main square and grab a little dinner, then angrily hunkered down for the night. We had depended on the hostel’s wif-fi to find our next hostel, and when it failed us, we really began to worry about what we’d do when we got to avignon the next night.

venice!

6 january 2011

ust to be clear, Venice is beautiful. During our stay, it was misty and cloudy, and it seemed as though Venice might disappear into the mist, like the mystical city of Avalon. It was even more beautiful when it started snowing – light flurries that melted just as they hit the water. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In the morning, we bought a vaporetto pass, allowing us to ride all of venice’s water buses. we toured down the main canal, and stopped at Ponte Rialto, again. There was a celebration for la Befana (6 of January is the epiphany), and the bridge was filled with people. To the side was a small chorus and band, and a small group of old gondolier men dressed up as befana, who were apparently going to race later! We were lucky enough to go underneath the bridge just as they were singing, like something out of a movie.

We wandered around Piazza San Marco for a while, but couldn’t enter the church because of mass. So we hopped on the vaporetto again, and headed to Murano.

Murano is a must-see destination in Venice – its the island of glass making, and its absolutely breathtaking. We watched two men spin and pull globs of molten glass into little gondolas – thick liquid to hard solid glass in minutes. And it was like second nature to them to produce such art, such magic. We wandered through the shops admiring the glass work. At one shop, we watched a man make a glass beetle with a little Bunsen-y flame. He pulled delicate strands of glass and fired them to the perfect hardness, all the while creating perfect balance and symmetry. At another shop, a man was making tiny heart pendants, where I bought a tiny fish in a bowl (more on that later).

We wandered around some more after Murano, and nearly walked off the island we got so lost. Next time, more consultation of maps. But we made it back to the hostel alright and even warmed up in time to go out for gelato.

One thing that was very, very strange about Venice was its hours. So far all of my travels in Europe include very late dinners, in Valencia 9pm is the earliest that locals will eat dinner. But in Venice, shops started closing at 8: there was no nightlife, and no night activities. But perhaps that’s the curse of visiting a tourist town in the off season.

leaving rome, arriving in venice

Mom, Dad, Paul and Bob took a van to the airport at 5am to catch their flight. Caroline and I attempted to sleep in some more, then stopped by the market on our way to the train station. We got there really early, and then almost missed the train anyway. We had to jump on and wait in second class until the first stop, where we ran up to our first class seats. The train ride itself was pretty chill, with one hilarious luggage incident.

Arriving in Venice:

We got lost finding the hostel. Hidden away on a back street, it is supported by a Catholic school, which we presumed used to take residence in our quarters, which were warm, clean and quiet.

That night, we searched for Piazza San Marco – Venice’s only piazza and the home of its major church. We never found it, but we did pass over Ponte Rialto, a major bridge over a major canal. We found an adorable little pizza spot – Antico Forno. It had strange mismatched décor and a lazy, laid back server who sung along with Italian rock music and took smoke breaks as customers waited.

our last full day in rome

4 january 2011

Everyone slept in some, to combat the growing sickness stemming from our long days and intensive touring. Paul, Bob and I woke up to go to the market, which was awesome. Stall after stall of fresh food, meat, cheese, cloth, tiny convenience stores, bread, etc. We even saw a whole swordfish, waiting to be chopped up and sold. Breakfast was a crostata and fresh clementines.

After breakfast, we finished a last few churches. Of note: the Cappuchin crypt – decorated with the bones of the Cappuchin monks. It’s pretty amazing. Also of note for architecture: the church of San Carlo. Designed entirely by Boromini, it’s a tiny little church with no corners – all rounded columns with a crazy cool spiral staircase down to the crypt.

For our last night in Rome, we ate out at a Sardinian restaurant. It was all super delicious, and the dinner ended with after dinner liquer. First impression of alcohol is that it all tastes like nail polish remover, acetone. Word is that it will grow on me.

terribly terribly sorry

hey y'all.
i know.
i'm bad at this.
i've been having trouble uploading/downloading pictures and such, so i'm just going to release the flood of posts, without the pictures. i'll go back and add them later, when i have time and more understanding.
but this time - i PROMISE the posts are queued up, and will be released during my spring break travels!
(i leave today for an epic tour of paris, munich, salzburg, geneva and lyon!)

oops

So. I'm a terrible blogger. I'm going to catch up - really!
Coming up soon will be a bunch of queue-ed posts, and properly backdated posts, so grab your reading glasses!
(Also apologies if you got a bunch of emails about new posts - the only way to transfer the drafts from my phone was to post and then unpost them!)

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Xativa

Taking a break from my previous travels, we're going to jump to the present and talk about today's adventure: Xativa!

we loaded up on a bus near the stadium and started our (short) journey. as we were heading out from the flat plain of valencia towards the mountains crowned by xativa, we passed fields of orange trees - fields of trees the way one sees fields of corn or grain. and orange trees here are vastly superior to what wimpy trees i've seen before- the tree fills with oranges, not just a few tiny specimens.

driving into the mountains was oddly homey, like driving from stafford to charlottesville and watching the mountains pop out. the transition from valencia to xativa is harsh though - mountains literally just seem to appear, unprecedented by foothills.

my lit professor prepped us with a short historical description of xativa, relevant to our study of El Cid. Xativa was once the main stronghold of the area, a castle on top of a mountain which was impossible to attack until all the surrounding fortresses had also fallen.

the modern day town of xativa sits farther down the mountain. we wound through the streets, past this ancient laundromat...

we also looked in at this great little church. one of the things i really like about spanish churches is how different the style is from roman churches. i think its that they've been less re-decorated throughout the years/decades/centuries.

bell tower of the church:



the inside:

the church from above:



the church from wayyy above:


after the church, we stopped in a drab little museum and then ascended up to the ancient castle of xativa. it was a bit of a hike, but we were rewarded with some fabulous views of the surrounding country side, plus we got to hike around some gorgeous old ruins.

ash clouds and pizza

Our second day trip sent us to Naples. We started at the Naples archaelogical museum, which I thought was sort of a disappointment compared to all the amazing museums I’d seen. Then we stopped for pizza – a delicacy born in Naples. It was easily the best pizza I’d ever eaten. We even watched them slide it in and out of the brick oven.

For me, the real highlight of the day trip was Pompeii. A whole little village half fallen apart but still laden with history and interests. I would’ve loved to visit Vesuvius, but we were out of time and headed back to the train station.

One of the weird things about Pompeii was the dogs. At the front, was a sign for adopting dogs - how nice, using a tourist location to publicize a cause, right? Wrong. Turns out, the dogs actually live in pompeii, probably subsisting off tourist love and trash. So there were dogs running around through all these ancient baths and standing on top of all these ancient buildings.

Whenever we traveled in Italian train/metro stations, we’d hear the same commericial for a Nissan car. It had a sort of haunting melody ‘Nice day for a walk in the park…..Nice day for a drive in the ..”, where it cut off into the commericial. There was also a haunting whistle that seemed follow us everywhere.

photos: an arch in pompeii, my family awkwardly standing about (i deemed this picture decent because at least my eyes are open...unlike in most of the pictures)

FLORENCE!

We got up at the crack of dawn to catch our first train. Luckily, first class on a high speed train is nice – big seats, lots of space, juice, breakfast pastry, hand wipes and chocolates. I knew I’d miss it once we hit second class slow trains, but it was lovely to enjoy. in the mean time, caroline and i ended up saving all the little things, which later became our "emergency food" and a rather intense collection of "frecciarosas"- handwipes.

It was so cold when we got there, and we headed straight for the Uffizi – Florence’s famous art museum. Caroline and I picked up some breakfast snackies, and we traded off turns standing in line and wandering around. After 3 hours in line, we got in. Paintings of note: Botticelli’s Spring and the Birth of Venus, a Michelangelo, a da Vinci, and a small collection of titians (although there were no red heads in it!). I especially enjoyed the chiaroscuro paintings – full of soft focus with dark backgrounds and emphasis on the conveying beauty through emotion.

After dinner, we met up with one of my mom’s college friends, who married and Italian and lives in Sienna, nearby to Florence. She introduced us to the leather market and to Italian hot chocolate. The market was fun to browse through. Hot chocolate in Italy is also amazing and unique – its thick and flavorful, almost like pudding.

picture: me and my mom, right in front of a famous bridge in florence (there's a great story about a rich guy, some butchers and some goldsmiths)

a short day

we enjoyed sleeping in for the new year, and then ventured out, sin mama, to the piazza de popolo (not the pope, incidentally, but the people). We got pizza for brunch which included a deliciouis rosemary and potato slice pizza, and also a french fry and hot dog pizza! we spent some time in termini station figuring out our train schedules for our impending day trips, and then headed home.

mom and caroline headed straight home, while bob, paul, dad and i headed out in search of the famous tartufa - a gelato treat in a chocolate shell. after much searching in piazza navona, we found it! on our way back, paul and robert stopped for an epic photo shoot of castell st. angelo, which is commemorated, in the above photo, which i judge to be the best result of their hard work at capturing it perfectly.

ancient ruins galore

We started the day at the Palatine Hill with the Roman forum – lots of statues and history, but you had to use your imagination to picture what once was. We found some orange trees in a garden, and tried very hard to grab one. Caroline climbed up a bench just high enough to grab one. We were ecstatic until we tasted it – and then some persons spat it out immediately. It was the most sour orange I had ever eaten (yet), comparable only to the ultimate sour candy, warheads.

After a few more churches, we headed back to the apartment for a nap before our night out. Of note, is the Church of Gesu (the Jesuits), where a magnificent mural is painted on the ceiling. The painting blends and merges with sculptures on the ceiling, until it’s difficult to tell what is 3D and what is flat. Amazing.

That night, we went out for new years. It was so spectacular that I couldn’t help but post about it that night, so I’ll refer you to the previous post.

pictures: roman ruins, iconic romulus and remus statue near st. peter's in chains, the temple of venus (i think)- look for caroline (she's the little yellow blur), me reaching for an orange, the family at the forum

day 3

We started with a visit to St. Peter’s Cathedral. Massive amounts of marbel and mosaics stretching 20 ft high all over. My favorite was the altar of peace – a gilded bronze statue with a glowing dove. We speculate that the dove was made of super-thin marble that allowed light to shine through – almost like glass. We also ascended the Cathedral up some very winding steps for a dizzing view of the city.

Later, we headed off the to Colosseum. Interesting fact: at one point, they would flood the colosseum and have naval battles in it for amusement. Imagine watching gladiators fight one minute, have lunch and then watch ships battle in the same arena. fantastic. also, the mythical griffin does exist, and it used to steal spectator’s food. apparently real griffins are more like vultures though.

On our way home, we stopped by the Trevi Fountain - famous for being in lots of movies, although I think I'll always remember it from the Richard Scarry book.

pics: trevi fountain, colosseum, vatican guards (don't they look like shakespearean?), st. peter's (find a person for scale), the altar of peace

the vatican!

29 of december 2010

On our first full day in Rome, we slept in late to try to get over some of our jet lag and sleep deprivation.

Today was Vatican day – we headed straight there to wait in line for an hour to get into the Vatican museums. You would not believe how much art the Pope hoards. Apparently, when Rome was conquered once, the conqueror ransacked the Vatican for art, but it’s hard to believe when you see the collections there. We barely scratched the surface and we were there for hours. We watched religious art develop from flat icons to expressive, rounded and shaded people. Many of the ceilings were painted so wonderfully that they looked carved, a feeling similar to that of being in the petrified forest in the southwest u.s.

I loved wandering around in the museum and viewing the masterpieces, but I also enjoyed the diversity of visitors to the Vatican. I reflected to myself as to why I was in Rome , and Europe in general– I’m no architect, no artist, no historian, etc. What was to be the center focus of my extensive trip? The answer began to come to me as I listened to all the visitors and soaked in their languages. The core of my trip is my study abroad, and thats where my heart is - not just with these beautiful old buildings, the masterpieces on the walls, and the history seeping through every alley - but in the language and the cultural diversity of the people I meet. And thats the value of living, not just visiting, abroad - is being truly immersed.

pictures - me and my mom at the vatican, the vatican gardens. i'm not putting any pictures of art up because they're a pale shadow of a ghost of the art itself, and you should just go see it yourself :)

first day in rome!

we finally flew out of philly around 9ish., two and a half hours after our departure time (which was itself, 24 hours late). the plane trip was fairly uneventful, and we arrived safely at the roma airport. we breezed through customs, they didn’t even bother to stamp our passports; changed money, and met our van driver. as we drove to the apartment, it was incredibly strange to believe I was really in Italy. Looking out the window, it all seemed so close and familiar, and not at all like I was on a whole new continent. I know I was tired from the overnight flight, but I was so giddy it was hard to notice.

My dad rented an apartment for the week that we were in Rome, and after a quick cup of tea, we bounced back out for the “tour of Rome in a night”. We started close to the apartment, at the Vatican, where we grabbed pizza. We looked out over St. Peter’s Square then swooped across the river towards Piazza Navona. In a manner that came to define our visit, we stopped in a couple churches – all very old and very beautiful. Piazza Navona was filled with a Christmas market, one of the more curious items being dolls of witches on broomsticks. We couldn’t figure out how that was Christmasy, until we found out about la Befana, the witch who swoops down on the eve of the Epiphany to bring all the good children their gifts.

We tried to pass the forum, but got lost and finally ended up eating in Trastevere, in a cute little restaurant where the waiters basically only spoke Italian. It was super intimidating, because I had no idea what were cultural traditions (antipasto and liquer after dinner) and what was us being ripped off as non-Italian tourists, and it was really hard to understand everything through the italian. It all worked out though, and it was a good dinner.

Walking around the city solidified the strange feeling I’d felt on the van ride – that cities are so similar. Rome is an ancient city, full of century old buildings and millennia old ruins, but sometimes it felt like I was wandering around good ol’ NYC again. Full of walking, good food, art and culture.

images: bridge over the tiber, fountain at piazza navona, the pantheon

valencia!

hola amigos!

at this point, you're probably confused as to why i'm such a terrible blogger. three weeks of awesome travel, and i think you got maybe two posts. the answer is that i've been waiting for a real computer, real internet, and the pictures from everyone else (which i couldn't quite slide to my phone). i arrived in valencia on sunday so over the next week or two, i'll start uploading the day by day version of all my travels. just... be patient.

rome churches

today was our last day in rome. i'm sad to go, because it really is wonderful, and we only grazed the surface. Im holding off on more detailed summaries until i can post pictures, so expect those in late january, but for now i'll ramble about the churches.
they're basically amazing. church after church of marble columns, graceful arches, elaborate bronze gates, towering baldaccinos, mosaics, frescoes, relics, gilded coffered ceilings, statues, patterned floors, etc. Walking into a church with A white wall is strange. One of my favorites was the church of gesu, the first jesuit church. The ceiling has an elaborate painting of heaven, and the painting overflows its golden frame and merges with sculpted angels until 2D and 3D can't be told apart. Some "sculpted" walls are really paintings, but even at 2 feet away, you have to really work to convince yourself.
Moral of the story: when (not if) you go to rome, wander into loads of churches. you'll probably always be amazed.

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