Sicily!

Beautiful, beautiful view of the ocean, coastline, mountain
and winding roads. Totally in love! 

On Sunday, we decided to take a bus tour into the Sicilian countryside, and I am so glad we did. The tour included the four of us, an older Brazilian couple, a driver, and 21-year-old English speaking guide named Antonio (who was adorable). We first drove to an ancient ruins site that reminded me a lot of the structures in Rome. We took a shuttle bus way way up a hill to another site, which included some more smaller ruins and a huge theater that overlooks the countryside, as far as you can see. It was such a beautiful day, although the wind was a bit strong when we were so high up.

ancient ruins

amphitheater on the top of the hill

After this, we hopped back in our van and headed to our next location. We had no idea that when it said “salt lakes” on the tour pamphlet, it literally meant “salt lakes”, where the make salt by evaporating sea water from little pools on the coast, until they’re left with sea salt. It was actually kind of cool to see hundreds of these long pools along the ocean. There was also a “salt museum”, which we all opted out of. Who knows if we will someday regret that, but I’m fairly confident it was a good decision. Our guide, Antonio, was so funny and spoke English very well. He is actually traveling to the United States in 2 weeks for over a month. We got a picture together and the brazilian couple said it was our engagement picture. From there on out, we spent the rest of the day planning our wedding and life together. I told him he could meet my family when he is in the U.S. over christmas. I can about imagine the looks on everyones faces! ha ha. It was all pretty funny. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad marrying someone from Sicily. I will have summers free, you know.  :)

Our tour guide, Antonio 

a couple of the salt lakes

Our third and final stop was a medieval village at the top of a mountain. It was a little eerie when we first arrived as it had just began raining and it was a bit of a ghost town. We walked around the little village, admired the views, and beautiful brick streets. There was also a huge castle up on the hill that we came across. It reminded me of scenery you would maybe find in Scotland or Ireland. With so much green grass and beautiful castles and views. After too short of a time in this medieval town, we headed back down the mountain and through the countryside to Palermo. Sicily was such a beautiful place and I would love to rent a car and spend a couple of weeks here at some point in my life. The people were also really distinct and were everything I had pictured when hearing about Sicilians in the past. When we returned, we decided we were a little sick of pasta and pizza every night and went to a cute Chinese restaurant for dinner. We had such a fun meal and ate WAY too much. It sure was a nice change though!

Castle in the medieval town of Erchie

The next morning, we took a very interesting taxi ride back to the Palermo airport, a plane back to Pisa, and a city bus to the leaning tower. We decided we may as well check out this world famous monument while we were so close. It was pretty funny to see all the different families and groups of people lining themselves up to take  the famous picture, holding up leaning tower. We follow suit and snapped a couple of our own. You can’t go to Pisa and not take the picture! I was also very surprised at how beautiful the tower was. The pictures really don’t do it much justice and it is much taller than I had expected. We decided not to climb the tower (you never know when its actually going to fall!) and just take the pictures for today. I was happy to have finally done this, as Pisa is only about an hour from Florence.

What would they do without me, right? 

We had such a great and relaxing weekend in Sicily. I am so glad Kara and her friends had the opportunity to come visit me. Their visit made my time in Italy move a little quicker, and gave me something to look forward to. It was sad to see them leave, but I am so thankful for our time together. 

Tuscan wine tour with Kara

Just a few hours after my parents left, I met my cousin Kara and her two friends, Shannon and Rachel, at the train station. They had been traveling for almost a week before coming to Florence, stopping first in Paris and Venice. They had an amazing time in Venice and all thought it was a really great place. We hopped on a bus and headed out into the Tuscan countryside for a little wine tasting. It was the first beautiful sunny day I can remember in a few weeks, so we really lucked out. The bus took us to a little Tuscan town, and then to a castle which is where we had our tasting. We took a tour of the estate and inside the castle, where the family who owns the vineyard still lives today. The family also made olive oil and it was very cool to see that whole process as well. After returning to Florence, we got settled at their hotel and then headed out for dinner, which consisted of huge bowls of yummy Gelato. What a beautiful day!

The four of us in Tuscany.
Me, Rachel, Kara, and Shannon

Beautiful countryside and Beautiful sunshine!  :)

A couple of the huge storage vats.
They use oak to give the wine a better taste. 

Kara and I with Lorenzo, an 80-year-old man who has lived
and worked in the castle for 60 years and only took off one
week for his wedding and honeymoon. Pretty
spectacular story. 

On Thursday, I had class all morning so they hung out, checked out the leather markets, and went to see David at the Academia Gallery. They too thought it was a pretty incredible sight and much different than they expected. We took a hike up to Piazzale Michelangelo to enjoy the sunset. I'm so glad the weather was so pleasant! 

Kara and I at Piazzale Michelangelo 

The next morning, we got up early en route to Palermo, Sicily. We took a train to the Pisa airport and then a flight into Palermo. We took a taxi from there to our hotel in the city center of Palermo, which is a huge, urban city located on the North West side of the island. The weather was beautiful and much warmer than the weather in Florence. What a nice change to see this bright sun! The landscape outside the city was amazing. Huge cliffs that jutted almost out of nowhere and long mountain ranges in the distance. This made me very excited, as we really had no idea what Sicily had to offer. We spent most of the afternoon relaxing at the hotel after our long day of traveling, and then went out for a nice dinner in the evening. It was so nice just to hang out with Kara and her friends as I haven’t seen her since my birthday in July.

One of the crazy trees at the English Garden
in Palermo, Sicily

one cannoli, two cannoli, three cannoli, four!

On Saturday, we explored Palermo for most of the day and took our time walking around and seeing all the sights. There were beautiful churches and cathedrals, huge grassy parks, and a beautiful coastline. We had no idea Palermo had such a large city center and so many things to visit. We also stopped for some huge Cannoli’s and were on a bit of a “sugar high” for the rest of the night because of it. We ended the night with a  bottle of wine back at the hotel. What a perfect ending for such a stress free day.

Mom and Dad in Florence!

Friday, November 19th - Tuesday, November 23rd

Mom and Dad at Piazzale Michelangelo 

I had a great time last week when my parents were in Florence. My dad started off the week in Germany, Amsterdam, and Switzerland to look at a couple drill sites and factories for his business. He was accompanied by my god parents, Michael and Jean Ryan. They had a great time and tried some unique German food. They took the train to Florence from Switzerland and had a rather “interesting” train experience. I think my dad realized he would much rather fly from place to place from here on out. My mom flew into the Florence airport  on Friday as well, and they all met at the hotel. My mom met me on the bridge near their hotel, which was so special. I will never forget seeing my mom at the other end of a long bridge, waving as big as she could and trying to get over to her as quick as I could. Such a memorable moment.

My mom and I enjoying the rainy day! 

That night, we went out to eat for Jean’s birthday at a restaurant right on the river near the Ponte Vecchio (famous bridge). Then I took them to my apartment for the “grand tour”. My mom thought it was pretty hilarious that I had no dryer for my clothes and literally had to hang them out to dry. I still don’t think its THAT funny. After this, we went to my favorite gelato shop for their first cone of the most delicious treat in the world. We walked along the river back to their hotel and hung out for the rest of the night. It was so nice to catch up after not seeing them for almost three months.

Mom and Dad with a couple big scoops of Gelato! 

Saturday morning, they had a tour at the Uffizi Gallery (largest museum in Florence) with my favorite tour guide, Bernardo. They loved all the beautiful paintings and the stories behind them. Bernardo does a really great job of almost bringing them alive. Then we headed over to Santa Croce, the large church in which many famous men are buried including: Galileo, Dante (father of language), and Donatello. It was pretty incredible to me that so many influential men were buried in one place. We stepped outside the church when the tour was finished and the sun was out! I was so happy we were finally getting a little good weather. Later in the afternoon, we took a taxi up to Piazza Michelangelo, which overlooks the entire city of Florence. It was very nice to see the sunset from this beautiful location. My mom, dad and I climbed all the way to the church at the top and were able to explore around in the huge cemetery behind the church before it was dark. My mom found a beautiful grave marker of a young bride and groom, dressed in his military suit. She later found out (after asking the monk working at the gift shop) that they were a brother and sister who died in their early twenties. Neither were married and their mother decided to dress them in their wedding outfits since they were never able to experience what could have been the happiest day of their life. It made the grave memorial that much more beautiful. After the sun set, we went back to the hotel and had a couple glasses of wine while relaxing in the beautiful lobby. I must say these were my favorite times of their visit. I loved being able to catch up with them and talk like we do at home.

The whole group after our tour at Santa Croce

Piazzale Michelangelo

The beautiful memorial my mom found
of the bride and groom.

Sunday went by pretty quick. They had another short tour in the morning with Bernardo, this time of Academia museum which houses the famous “David” statue. They were all very impressed with his massive size and beauty. They joked the rest of the weekend that David and my dad looked pretty similar. I would have to disagree, although it was a pretty funny thought. We headed to the huge leather market in Piazza Mercato and loaded up on some great leather goods that are as smooth as butter. I think my dad had a pretty good time bartering with all the sellers.

My dad and I enjoying some Gelato together

We all kind of did our own thing in the afternoon and before we knew it, the sun was setting and another day was done. On Monday, my parents and the Ryan’s headed off on a bus tour of  Sienna, San Giminano, and Pisa to see the famous leaning tower. I had some catching up on homework to do, so it really worked out perfect. They loved every city and were very happy with the tour. Although it rained, it did not put a damper on these beautiful villages in Tuscany. They also had a wine tasting and lunch at a small farm in Tuscany.  I’m so glad they had a good day.

My parents and god parents on their wine tasting
tour in Tuscany. What a beautiful view!

Tuesday was our last day together and was pretty laid back. I took my parents to the “ISA office”, which is where all our program coordinators work. They were happy to meet the women who take care of me so well over here. I think my program directors were excited to meet them too. They are all so sweet! I will really miss them when I am gone. My mom and I got some shopping done in the afternoon, which was so much fun. I love girls days with my mom, especially when it involves a little shopping!  Tuesday night, we went to a restaurant recommended to us by my Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Mark, that specializes in Florentine Bisteck (HUGE steaks). They brought the steaks out on these huge charcoal grills, so the meat stayed hot. My dad’s eyes kind of lit up when they were brought to our table. Such a cool way to be served.

Me with two of my program directors, Lucia and Sabrina. 

On Wednesday morning, I was a little sad to say goodbye to my parents after having such a great week with them, but excited to see my cousin Kara only a few hours after they left. However, it was much easier saying goodbye when I knew I would see them in three weeks instead of three months. I am so glad they were able to come and visit me. I know they are also very glad they had the opportunity to visit and see a little bit of Europe.

Me and my MAMA!

Cooking Class

Our finished Vegetable Millefoglie!

Today, we had a kind of busy day. We had a tour of the Uffizi Gallery with my favorite tour guide Bernardo, and then headed to a cooking class in Florence, both through my study abroad program. The Uffizi gallery was filled with so many beautiful paintings and was much larger than I had ever expected. This is something I walk past every day and was finally able to visit. Bernardo had so many great explanations of the pictures and their creators. His stories always crack me up!

After our tour, we walked across the river to our cooking class at “In Tavola”, a cooking school that offers lessons to all different types of people (there was a class of older women right after us and it sounded like they met every week. They were having a total hoot!). The menu included Vegetable millefoglie (a yummy eggplant and zucchini dish), Ravioli di Ricota e Spinaci (Spinach and ricotta filled Ravioli), fettuccini with tomato pasta sauce, and of course, tiramisu for dessert.

Step 1: knead the dough into a ball
(dough consists of eggs, flour, and a little bit of salt)

Step 2: Roll out balls of dough with a rolling pin so they are
the right width for the pasta machine. Next, feed the long
strips of dough through the machine until it gets thin and long.

Step 3: squirt a little bit of the spinach/ricotta mixture
about every inch, fold dough over, and cut with a
 noodle/pastry tool for the fun edges.

Step 4: Place ravioli squares in boiling water for about
 four minutes, then place into butter and sage sauce.

We made everything from scratch, including the noodles. Who knew it was so easy? Our chef was pretty intense, but we still had a great time. There was only a minimal amount of stress and tears shed, so not too bad! After we made our meal, we were able to go to the basement of the cooking school and enjoy our food. The basement was decorated in true Tuscany style and was the perfect fit for our day. We had way too much food and it tasted so fresh. It was a really great experience that I was so fortunate to have and will always remember. 

We changed the head on the machine to make fettucini.
It is seriously as easy as it looks! However, I think
all those years of making lefse really paid off! 

Our chef hard at work! He was so funny, but
could have used an anxiety pill or two. 

Tiramisu! Yum! 

Sorry for my absence!

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to post. I haven’t been doing much traveling since my fall break trip to Morocco and have been trying to focus on my cultural experience in Florence, as well as my school work.  I have also been busy with visitors in the past two weeks. I hope no ones feelings are too badly hurt, but here it is! I can’t wait to see everyone in just three weeks for Christmas. It will be a wonderful homecoming that is for sure!

Ciao for now,

Dana

Fiorentina Soccer Game!

Sunday, November 7th

Me, supporting Fiorentina!

Hello all!


Today we attended a "Fiorentina" soccer game with our program. It was SO MUCH FUN! I have always wanted to go to a European soccer match, and for good reason. The fans were so crazy! Fiorentina played one of the Verona teams named "Chievo". Although it rained for almost the entire first half of the game, it did not dampen anyones spirits! We all bought ponchos, and let it rain!

Action shot! We were so close!

 The people supporting their team were such die hards and used some pretty choice language (or so I was told. They could have been yelling anything and I wouldn't have known the difference!). The fans were made up of mostly men, of every age. We had a row behind us that consisted of a couple grandpa's, middle aged men, and pretty small boys, all yelling in unison. Pretty funny to listen to them! It was so great to be at an actual sporting event, as this is something I miss about home. 

The crazy fans! (This section was similar to the
student section at Wisconsin Badger games.)

After the game, a bunch of us separated from the group to hang around by the stadium and grab a hot dog. I have never been so happy in all my life to eat a hot dog! Unfortunately, right when we finished eating them, down came the rain! We had no idea how to get back (and our maps were now soaked!), but decided to walk instead of calling a cab. We made it back after walking in the down pour for around an hour and 30 minutes. Uff da! Although we were soaked, I had a great day and will definitely be working to make it to a second Fiorentina game!

A few of my friends getting heated about a "bad call". 

My friend Adam attempting to start "the wave" 
after Fiorentina scored the first goal! Who
 knew they only do this in the U.S.? 

A couple friends and I enjoying our hotdogs after the game!

The rest of Morocco.....

Ciao a tutti!

Sorry it has taken me so ABSOLUTELY long to post this next post! I have been so busy catching up after fall break this week. I wish I wasn't so good at procrastinating until the last minute on everything!

Anyway, back to Morocco!  :)

A picture I took from our terrace at sunset. This picture
just doesn't do any justice to how beautiful it was.

The next day, we talked Aziz into giving us a tour of the coastline and a small fishing village near Tangier. We were able to stop quite a few times and take some pretty great shots.  It was so beautiful and the little town was pretty great! This lasted most of the day, and we then returned to our hotel. We hung out until dinner time and then headed over to a local restaurant recommended to us by our hotel. We had soup, amazing "moroccan salads" (much different than the salad you're picturing. It's much closer to salsa than salad.) and yummy chicken on long skewers. The chicken was grilled and basted with some kind of a yummy curry sauce. Oh how I wish I had a big cookbook of all the wonderful foods I've had the opportunity to try here! There was also a live band playing all night. They each had a variation of some kind of a guitar, and one man had huge bongos. The music totally set the atmosphere for a great dinner. 

The band that played at dinner. They were so great!

One of the beautiful coastlines shots I was able to take. 

Inside the mosque we visited. 
We also recieved an e-mail today that said our flight from Madrid to Paris had been canceled, because of the recent strikes (as well as terrorist threats) that have been going on in Paris. We were all very bummed but agreed that we should not risk it, especially if they were trying to keep us out. We thought about alternative plans all evening (Portugal, Brussels, London, Berlin, and Cape Town all made it on the "list" of possibilities) but in the end, decided to stay in Tangier for the remainder of the week and fly back on Sunday. We felt this would be a great opportunity to get a real taste of Morocco and the culture. 

A newspaper in the vehicle we took on our coastline tour.
So cool to see it written in Arabic, even though we will
never know what was happening that day! 

We spent the next few days exploring around Tangier and relaxing at the hotel, which was much needed after our adventures in Spain. We were able to check out all the markets (without Aziz) and even got a little sun up on the terrace. We visited a Muslim Mosque, which was very interesting. I have never learned much about this religion, so it was a great eye opener. The Mosque was huge and had a large garden/terrace area in the middle. We would have never known about this beautiful oasis in the middle of the city! We walked down to the beach one day, and returned to numerous restaurants for yummy dinners in the evening. When all was said and done, we decided that we made a great decision in staying. Morocco is sure is an amazing place!  

One of the women who worked at our hotel.
Her name was Amel and she was so sweet!
She has two children and showed us many pictures of them.
She gave me a bracelet, which was SO NICE!
I loved Amel!  

A long line of slippers they decorated our floor with. 

Our daily breakfast at the hotel. I miss it! 

A few of the buildings downtown in Tangier. 

A bedroom my friends stayed in at the hotel. So cute!